A quick list for you. I love lists.

1. We really enjoy the family time that comes with our Lego Rock Band and Band Hero. Perfect Christmas gifts that didn’t end up under the bed two days later.
2. I shouldn’t challenge my Highlander when the fuel light comes on like I used to challenge my tiny Protege. One day, the SUV gods will pull me over on the side of the road and tell me they installed that warning light for a reason.
3. I should go ahead and make myself at home in my cubiffice. I’m thinking pillows and a down comforter.
4. Four-hour drive with a baby in the back seat notwithstanding, I am excited about my trip tomorrow.
5. I have got to stop spending money as though this new job pays $200 K a year. It doesn’t.
6. This new Gorillaz album had better be as good as my Twitter stream says it is. I downloaded it without a single preview yesterday. Stay tuned…
7. Teething babies aren’t as cute and cuddly as you may have heard. Think piranha.
8. I miss the puppy. 10 more days until she comes home.
9. $1100 navigation systems should not ever get you lost. Ever. Mine never has any idea where it’s going.
10. Things you know to be true in comments…

I hurt all over from being on the move 12 hours non-stop yesterday.

Even my hair hurts. I had to provide a urine and hair sample to the drug screening company. I really thought they were gonna pull out a single strand of hair (do they not watch Forensic Files?), but they cut an inch and a half from the top-back of my head! I was still in shock while returning my recruiter’s phone call about the details.

Then my recruiter told me I’d have to take the tests again because of a communication error—the lab is no longer under contract with the recruiting agency. I flat-out refused. Let a lab tech give another haircut? Not a chance. A few hours later, my recruiter told me they’d been working through this issue of my specimen sitting in a now-competitor to their new lab, but it looked like I won’t have to retest. Yay and pass the cocaine.

I’ll be one of three writers in the marketing communication department of an oil company. I’d told myself I was never going back to Big Oil after nearly 10 years of the world’s most boring writing projects and working with engineers, the world’s most boring people. Two things changed my mind: outliving my severance pay and the opportunity to work on the creative side of a company. I may never see another Excel spreadsheet again.

It’s a six months contract which I’m sure will be extended. The project the company is working on is a mammoth one. All I have to do now is prove my awesomeness.

My hours will be a perfectly reasonable 9am to 4pm, central standard time. This means I can get JA to the bus stop, drop off the baby at daycare, then get on the road for the 45-minute commute with no real complaint or worries. I start on next Tuesday.

I think the plan is to spend my severance package before I even start looking for a new job.

I bought a bedroom TV yesterday. Basic, generic, but HD and nicer than what I have now. My technophile honeybear was on the phone with me during the decision-making process at Best Buy. I don’t think he ever says no to new technology purchases. New shoes for the kids? No. New TV? Hell, yeah. Haha…kidding, sweetie, but you know it’s true.

Firing Suspending my housecleaning crew and keeping Ehren home from daycare is stretching my severance pay even further. It’s like this: I’m still getting my paycheck for the next four months, but without the expenses of day care, auto maintenance and fuel, and housekeeping. It’s like getting paid to take care of my own family for free. I’ll be sad when it’s time to go back to work, but good things can’t last forever.

I’m really liking this all communication devices in the public arena idea. Did I think of that myself? Probably not, so I extend all credit to MM. She thinks I’m so smart, but I am simply following her lead. By the way, my laptop is now stationed in the den as well. It gets me out of bed and upright for most of the day. I’m out of my room by 7:30 and don’t return until 11. That’s AM then PM, people. That’s progress.

I will begin looking for a new job after the kids return to school in September.

Did I tell you that already? That sentence sounds familiar.

Anyway, taking a vacation and making a few household corrections is the plan. Have you heard about the thing that teens are doing with their camera phones and their, uh, genitalia? Neither had I until last week which for me turned into a flurry of explanations (“this is not your fault, you did nothing to make him send that to you”) cell phone number changing, number blocking and police involvement. Waiting now to hear if the boy’s parents have been notified. Nice, eh?

Bike camp is in less than two weeks. My Mac book  has been replaced by a navigation system for my car. I get lost walking with Jordan around the apartment complex, so it’s best I not hit the road with two kids and a baby without a British lady telling me where to turn for eight hours. Plus, it has a plug-in for my iPod, so the British lady can also change my tracks upon command. I’m more excited about that than I ever was about the Mac book.

I might start writing again, but will superstitiously not talk about that too much in this space.

Also: Q. That’s all I am saying about that, too, except for a little mood music…

My cousin’s girlfriend took 100 pictures at my birthday party.

Of everything. People. The cake. The view from the upstairs room at the restaurant. We got to the race track and she even took pictures of the monitor displaying the jockey and horse stats. Q and I suspect she has a blog, but we didn’t want to ask her.

On the flip, Q and I probably took seven pics, none of us together. And we forgot the camera in the car before riding to the race park with my brother in his behemoth SUV. So we gots nothin’ to show you from the birthday weekend. Damn: I just remembered I could have at least taken a quick shot of the shoes (of course) that Q gave me as part of my birthday loot. I wore them all weekend. They are my very first pair of running shoes (cross-trainers?) that you might see in a current fashion magazine. I’ll add a picture of them to this post when I get home.

Q is driving back to North Texas as I write this. I miss him already. My plan was to win $300,000 or so at the track, giving each of us a year to find a new job while bankrolling his move to Houston. We won $200. Crazy kids that we are, we’re both making bank deposits this afternoon and going back to work.

The switch to daylight savings time kicked our butts, and we are barely conscious after a weekend filled with activity. Luckily, the main software that I use for all my projects needs to be reinstalled and I get a nap break while waiting on desktop support to bring the program disks. I need a sign that says: not blogging, waiting on desktop support. And napping.

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