What's new with me?

My new nephew was born today! Guess I better finally sew the seams of the sweater I knit for him.

I bought a refurbished Asus Eee PC from Woot recently and am currently using it to type this entry. I've had the netbook for about a week and the novelty has yet to wear off. The keyboard is a bit small, but I'm not exactly planning on using it to type a novel or anything. I am, however, planning on upgrading the memory and installing some version of Ubuntu in place of the Xandros that came with it.

Work has been really busy lately. I've been playing whack-a-mole with the bug list while we try to get this release finished. I'll be glad when its done, but am a bit nervous about it, because I'm going to be the lead on the next release. Bugs may be tricky, but I'm more familiar with them than with schedule and budget documentation. I know that I should be able to handle it, but change sure is scary.

Once again, gainfully employed

Today was my first day at my new job. I still have no idea what a typical workday will be like until next week, since the whole day was spent filling out forms and reading paperwork. To add to the general confusion, my first "real" workday will be just after DST strikes again.

Freedom! Sweet, terrifying freedom

It's been a week since my last day of work, which wasn't really a work day at all, just signing some forms and handing in my badge.

I talked to a recruiter last month and have my resume out on several sites, so I am looking for a new job, but I have to admit that I'm not looking terribly hard this week.

Through Monday, nothing really felt different, just like a long weekend, but reality started to hit Tuesday and yesterday. I felt like I should be going to my Saturday afternoon knitting group or something. I was at the grocery store yesterday, a bit surprised at how few people were there, and then I remembered it was a weekday.

My dad sent me an email with some good advice and suggested a book, which I promptly ordered from PaperBackSwap. It should be on its way right now.

I'm just not sure what I want to be doing anymore. The past year at work had so much funding uncertainty that it colored my perceptions of the work itself. I'm somewhat curious what it would be like to work with other computer scientists for a change, rather than just being some sort of coding sidekick. I'm in no great rush to go back to work right now, really. My ideal situation would be to find a job soon, but not have it start until next year. I wouldn't mind having holidays without worrying about my vacation balance for a change. Of course, instead I'll have to worry about my bank balance, I suppose. Eh, we're in pretty good shape for now. I don't think I ever fully left the grad student lifestyle, so we saved quite a bit of my paycheck when I was working.

My husband is encouraging me to take this time to do things I've talked about, like the Master Knitter program, sorting through my craft room, offering patterns for sale online, etc. I think I just need to start something and get some momentum going. This week we've started listing some old stuff on eBay, clearing up space. I might try to trim some plants in the yard this afternoon. Being out in the sunlight would probably do me some good.

Time to step away from the computer and see what is out there in the wide, wide world.