house of blair

So, I was laid off last week.

Well, maybe it wasn’t so much as a “laying off” as a “wandering off”. That is, my job wandered off to Arizona and I (and about 20 others) found ourselves loosely coupled to our former jobs. Good bye, sweet paycheck. The (very) good news is that we’re all still employed until mid-July, which should be plenty of time to locate a new job.

Of course, everything has now changed. We pulled our offer on the house (no penalty because the bank had yet to accept the offer). We canceled the (badly needed) vacation that we would have had started late next week. We’re more than a little irritated with the thought of being stuck in Las Casitas a little longer.

Sigh. I was really looking forward to visiting Zion National Park and visiting my brother-in-law’s Chili farm in New Mexico.

I’m more than a little bummed about the whole thing. I was excited about working for Pearson Education. Though the education sector is a bit odd (based on my vast experience of 1 year), it was an industry that I enjoyed working in and for. I haven’t worked for any company longer than a few years and I thought that I would be with Pearson much longer than a few years. The irony is that this was one of the shortest gigs ever.

So please pray for us during this unexpected time of transition and change.

You wouldn’t be able to tell based on the neighbourhood we live in, but Thousand Oaks ranked as the eleventh safest city in the U.S. But OUR neighbourhood is a little different. A few examples from recent memory:

Last week Heidi witnessed one of our “neighbours” returning my mountain bike back to our garage after he had, presumably, taken the thing to work. Granted, he did return the bike, so no permanent harm done. Nevertheless, he had no right to take it in the first place.

And then there was that gang-related shooting/murder four or five months back just caddy-corner to our place.

And then there was that brutal stabbing murder in the apartment complex right next to us a number of months back.

And then there are all the minor things like the fist-fights or the public drunkenness.

But tonight is certainly the most interesting by far. Why, only three doors down the tenant was found dead in his home for some length of time. The circumstances, according to sources, surrounding the death appear “suspicious.” Uh-huh. It’s a little unclear as to how long he’s been dead in there — semi-reliable sources seem to indicate that he’s been in there awhile (more than a week). The street is crawling with detectives, police, coroners and news people right now.

Since very few people speak any English in this neigbourhood, and I have since stopped trying to speak Spanish, I didn’t bother to ask what happened. So here’s a little something from Santa Barbara’s local station. (Hey, that’s OUR house in the background!)

When, oh, when will those housing prices hit bottom? I think it’s time to go now.

Update Acorn’s short take on homicide next door

Aidan had his first week of preschool last week. A little less than a month ago we didn’t think our little guy would or could pass their “entrance exam.” In fact, it was all looking rather hopeless. Nevertheless, the little guy pulled himself together a few weeks before the big day and made the grade. We are very, very proud of Mr. Aidan Blair. Their entrance requirements were none other than being potty trained in time for preschool to begin… for this particular preschool does not admit the untrained. Rigorous standards indeed. If he makes no other developmental milestones this year I’ll be fine with that: he’s potty-trained and our diaper duty has been halved.

Inspired by a recent find at the library Mr. Cookie Baker drove us to make sprinkle covered frosted sugar cookies tonight. This was a tremendous hit not only our preschooler, but for Mama and Dada as well.

One unforeseen consequence of the sugar cookie feast has been, unfortunately, an irritable Aidan - I think he got a sour stomach from those two huge cookies he ate just minutes before bedtime. (Note to self: feeding giant sugar cookies to three year olds is not advised late in the evening.)

All photos of the week and weekend here

First day of preschool!

Ahhh… who can forget “Brown bear, brown bear what do you see?” A classic.

New toys, new friends, new drama

Inspired by Mr. Cookie Baker himself - cookies!

Let the frosting begin. Aidan seen here with the “‘A’ is for Aidan” cookie.

And lest we forget Ibbers - not camera shy.