Today I am feeling more confident and cheerful than yesterday.  I met with a prominent Canadian businessman earlier; he was friendly and positive, and made me some very nice promises for no reason other than that he is a good guy.  The sun is shining, I applied for a job I might really like.  I just had a yogurt, and it was the first one I've eaten in this country that tasted delicious - it reminded me of my beloved Stonyfield Farm.

Tonight we are even going to look at a house.  We are only a little bit in the market for a house right now, considering I cannot be part of the mortgage until I build some Canadian credit (dammit! my credit in the US is excellent, but it doesn't count), and I can't really build credit until I am employed.  But this one seems too perfect not to look at - location, price, everything.

And it is the 24th.  We've been married eight months.  I'll have been living in Canada eight months as of Saturday.  As a legal resident, three months as of tomorrow (hello, OHIP!).

Keen.

I'm quite busy today with Top 10 Sources (and driving over to Joey's office this morning because he forgot his wallet, hehehehe), so only time for a quick entry.  But the work itself is really taking me back in time, so I thought I'd give it a mention.

I'm doing some QA - quality assurance - work on some new pieces of the site.  It reminds me a ton of the old days working on Berkman Online Lectures and Discussions, and even of iLaw pre-work in a way; both involved making documents be other than what they were - making Word docs out of HTML or vice versa.  It's not quite so easy as "Save as Web Page," as tempting as that command may be.  Anyone not using IE will hate you, possibly forever.

It is achingly detailed work, and it makes my head go nuts, but I'm very good at it.  Looooots of practice.

Back to it.

We bailed on last night's plans.

I got a call in the afternoon from Joey and he sounded like a wee mouse, "I'm tired, can we take it easy tonight?" Of course we can, I'm about to pass out myself.

So there was some Food Network watching.  We love Jamie Oliver, among others.

Why this is relevant is that we'd planned to go support a karaoke buddy at a show he was doing.  Sorry, Peter.

This past Sunday's Kickass Karaoke was attended by a group of geeks.  It was just like running a conference - running around introducing myself to people, trying to get everyone to have a little fun, flying on adrenaline.  Only this time the adrenaline didn't come from the stress of wrangling 300 people - it came from singing.

I never used to sing in public.

Yes, I did play after play after play from the age of about six, studied theatre in college, worked in theatre thereafter (though as a stage manager, not a performer).  But even when in musicals I never sang solos.  I was terrified at auditions and sang badly.  Same happened at NTI, when I met with the (vile, not working there anymore) singing teacher, I could barely squeak out my song.

However, I got old.  And no longer cared.  And it turns out I can sing.

I'm not great.  I'm not going to be discovered at 31 and have a fabulous career as a cabaret singer doing whatever songs I like best (how fun would that be! and next, I'll do my own sultry version of Learn to Fly by Foo Fighters).  But I hit most of the notes and they sound kind of pretty.

It's shocking to me, frankly.  But - keen.  I enjoy it.  And it's a holiday weekend, so we can stay all night this coming Sunday.

Maybe I will finally do Buffalo Stance.  Or not.

Last night, more geeks and beer.

I am wiped.  Seriously, I have no idea how I used to do this.  We've gone out four nights in a row (one separately) and we're going out again tonight - this one, I think, will need to be alcohol-free.  The rain does not help with my level of wakefulness. 

I suppose, though, it's good to get out while I still don't have to wake up early in the morning. 

I had an entirely bizarre dream which cannot be shared, which ended up forcing me awake.  Luckily, no one I know was in it.

People ask me how the jobsearch is going.  I generally say "not bad" because really, not that bad.  I've been looking for a reasonable length of time, I don't feel desperate, there are interesting positions out there, and I've met a load of people in the last couple of weeks.  But really it's not going that well, either.  The only inquiries I've had have been through Monster or Workopolis and they're the sort of things that they send to everyone with a pulse.

I have far more to offer than a pulse.

• My cilantro plant has already grown so big (no Miracle Gro!) it needs to be repotted
• The slogan-based business cards are a hit and I need to make more this afternoon because there is another geek party tonight
• The people right above us are renovating, and I want to scream from the noise
• Book club last night was pretty good - but I think some of the women in the club are afraid of any wine that is not merlot, cabernet, or shiraz
  
• If I had my druthers, I would wear a comfy skirt, t-shirt and Chuck Taylors every single day
• Yesterday, I saw Maria, and then told her to say hi to my husband because she would see him before I did next, which struck me funny
• Gap pants still fit me better than anyone else's, damn it
• The dryer just finished its cycle (BZZZZZZZ!)
  
• Reunion looms...