Sucky thing #1
Got a call today (yeah, on a Sunday, very weird) that he didn’t get the job he was wanting. They were very happy with his interview, and she said not to get discouraged because they probably just hired from their pool of interns instead and that they felt he was very qualified for the job. Ah well.
Sucky thing #2
Apparently our landlord, who was great about the rent being late, it a bit on the fastidious side when it comes to lawn care. Granted, our lawn isn’t in the kind of shape we would prefer because our weed wacker died, but she was really upset when she saw it, more upset than I would have anticipated. *sigh* She wants us to run the sprinkler system every other day and not cut the grass too short because then it would get brown. She is a Master Gardener, so this is sort of one of her things.
I know it was more overgrown than is typical, and I just didn’t realize what a big deal it was to her. Ugh. She is coming back tonight with a good mower and the weed eater. (Our mower only cuts grass, but leaves all the weeds, which is part of why we have gotten behind on it. We just haven’t felt like going out in the heat and pull a weed every 6 inches out in the lawn because our mower missed it after we go across it with the mower). If a new mower weren’t already on the top of our list to buy when we get money in, it sure is now.
Cool thing #1
Ten minutes after the call from the recruiter, he got a call from the Prof that he went to NASA with last summer. The department bought a bunch of little robots and he was hoping Zach would be interested in working with him to help program them. Zach would be able to continue the work he started on NASA and now has access to top notch equipment instead of the old outdated stuff he was getting discouraged by. He is re-energized about his thesis now because it looks like he will actually be able to work on something that excites him.
Cool thing #2
He signed up for classes yesterday when he applied for financial aid (the last bastion of the grad student who doesn’t have a good job yet…take more classes. lol). He has to be enrolled the semester he plans on graduating, and we don’t have the funds for even a single thesis hour right now, so we decided to apply. If something comes up between now and then, we don’t have to accept the Financial Aid, but at least it will be there in case nothing else comes available.
edited to add Cool thing #3
The landlord told us to find a decent lawnmower and weed whacker and let her know where it was, and she would pick it up for us and we could tag on payments to our rent to pay for it. You have to really like somebody who helps solve the root of the problem instead of just criticizing somebody because they can’t accomplish things to your level. She also explained a lot of the lawn care things that I was just totally naive of, including the fact that some of the things I thought were normal landscaping are volunteer bushes and basically really elaborate weeds. I didn’t realize they weren’t supposed to be there…they look like the stuff that is supposed to be there to me. I imagine she was horrified that we were so uneducated when it came to lawn stuff, but she was pretty patient in explaining it to me so I can do a better job in the future. I decided now was not the time to tell her I think dandelions are really pretty. When I own the lawn, I can have a lawn full of them, but since I rent, I should try to keep it up to at least the level I rented it with, and because of who I am, try to leave it in better shape than I found it.
