Temp jobs, Aldi's, Celtic Woman, and Check Engine Lights

I was a bit worried after Wednesday's post, where I found myself scrambling around a bit to come up with topics for the blog. Was I running out of ideas? Could i really only come up with a couple of weeks of posts on something as big as the recession? Well, I've got a few ready topics this time around, so hopefully Wednesday was just an 'off' day.

Jenny got a temp job through one of the temp agencies that she has applied at. She will be doing data entry work for a company for the next "1-2 weeks, maybe more". She is not exactly excited about doing data entry 8 hours a day, but I think she realizes that this is a great opportunity for her to prove to the temp agency and the company she will be working at for the next couple of weeks that she is a hard worker with a lot of great skills and ideas. Who knows, maybe this could lead to her next permanent job? If nothing else, the pay will be better than unemployment, and the unemployment well will dry up that much later, so I think this is definitely a positive.

I forgot to mention in Wednesday's post that, based on getting multiple suggestions to the effect, we shopped at Aldi's last Sunday. Jenny was a bit miffed the whole time we were there, being accustomed to shopping at 'ritzy' Schnucks. But the simple truth is that, as she mentioned afterward, every single item that we bought at Aldi's, milk included, came in at under $2.00. The store was also clean, much less crowded than Schnuck's, and we were able to get about 80% of our groceries from them. Overall, a positive experience, so I'm sure we'll be going back.

I am happy to report that my Check Engine light has turned off. I had tried to disconnect the battery, as suggested by quite a few people, but either I'm completely incompetent under the hood of a car (the most likely scenario), or my battery terminal screws are a size somewhere in between both 7/16" and 1/2" and 11mm and 12mm. I swear to you, 7/16" and 11mm were both too small, and 1/2" and 12mm were both too big!

In closing, I wanted to mention a concert that Jenny and I will be attending next weekend- Celtic Woman, at the Fox Theatre. I was searching for Celtic music on Amazon.com one day, happened across this DVD, which had the surprising combination of more than 300 reviews and a 5-star rating. Usually, when you get that many ratings on Amazon.com, even the good stuff tends toward 4 or 4.5. So, i took a chance, got the DVD for Christmas, and immediately fell in love. A few days after Christmas, I bought two orchestra pit seats to their show on April 11. I am REALLY excited about seeing Celtic woman live, having been so blown away by the DVD. If you're interested in checking them out, but you're not ready to commit to buying a DVD, they have plenty of videos available on Youtube.

Well, that's it for now. We have a busy weekend ahead of us, with a "Final Four" party on Saturday at our friends' house, and a dinner on Sunday. See ya! Oh, and I'd love to see some more comments here. Blogspot doesn't track views, so I have no idea how many (or few) readers I have.

Craigslist, St. Patrick's Day, car problems, oh my

I figured this might be a good opportunity to provide links to economic information that I find online that may be able to help others. Or really anything else that I find interesting. So, let's start with that...

First off, here's an interesting article on CNN regarding the unemployed turning to Craigslist for help. I found this one to be particularly interesting, especially the fact that people are finding help.

Next off, Yahoo! Finance has an article for those of you still employed, and looking to keep your jobs.

And finally, in the spirit of St. Patrick's day (I am 1/4 Irish, after all), MSNBC has an article entitled The History of St. Patrick's Day.

Now, on to more personal business. I mentioned the Check Engine light on my car in yesterday's post in somewhat of a joking manner. I just wish that I could laugh about it. I'm not really one of those "God is out to get me!!!" types of people. Well, maybe somewhat, but I'm not too bad about it. But when my wife loses her job, and a couple of days later my car's Check Engine light turns on...well, I've gotta wonder if I spent a previous lifetime killing bunny rabbits or something. In all seriousness, it seems that at least for me, I go through periods in my life where bad news tends to pile up on top of itself until I feel like I'm drowning. This is definitely one of those times. I find myself wondering, rather fearfully, just what other bad things are going to happen right now. For example, how safe is my job?!?

This may sound like the ravings of a mad and/or depressed person, and while madness is never completely off the table, I think I tend to have a fairly reasonable outlook on life. In any event, if I am depressed now, rest assured that this too shall pass. It's just difficult to rise above the turmoil when you're neck-deep in it. I can imagine that most people, when they look back on their lives, wish that they hadn't made such a big deal out of so many little things. I sure wish I could be better about that. And I sure hope that when I look back on my life, this period does in fact turn out to be "no big deal".



I'll leave you with a song verse from one of my favorite bands. Unfortunately, it aptly describes my mood today:
She dances in a photograph
When it was good to joke and have a laugh
But that was yesterday, if only today

The verse is from Flogging Molly's song Factory Girls. If you haven't heard of them, and you don't mind music that can get heavy/fast, check them out. They have quite a few videos on Youtube. Since the sound is very Irish, today's the perfect chance to discover them!