“Nobody is indispensable” is what my mom has always said when the economy has started to look bleak, encouraging me to work harder and diversify my skills.

The downturn affected me (and also sac-eats, as he is married to me, and my layoff also greatly affected him) in early October as I was laid off.  I had the feeling that it was coming — namely, I had been involved in closed-door meetings in the previous two cycles of layoffs, yet I was not included in these meetings this time around — so I had at least mentally prepared myself a bit.

Here is how I got into an even better position in five weeks flat: Continue reading “How to find a job” »

If so, Mercy San Juan Medical Center and law enforcement want to hear from you.

From cbs13.com:

The patient is described as a Caucasian male in his 40s. He’s approximately 5-foot-10 and 275 pounds with dark, shoulder-length hair. He has a pierced left ear and a tattoo of a lion’s head on his left shoulder.

Remember, it’s his left shoulder. So if you run into a 5-foot-10, 275 pound dude with dark, shoulder-length hair with a pierced left ear and a tattoo of a lion’s head on his *right* shoulder…keep looking, that’s not him.

All polls are open from 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 4th.

You can use the County lookup tool to find your local polling location. While you are there enjoy the drop down menu of “city or community” names. The super sized photos of each polling location are kind of fun, too.

Another lookup tool to determine if you are eligible to vote tomorrow. Yahoo! offers up some tips, too (vote mid-morning or early afternoon, for example).

Here’s a Computer page that displays the proposition positions of the left and the right.

And of course, free coffee.

By no means are we telling you to vote. Just some links in case you, you know, need them and stuff.

The national Vote & Vax campaign will be offering up flu vaccinations at two Sacramento locations on Tuesday, November 4th. These are sponsored by the Sacramento County Immunization Program.

Sounds all well and good, right? Sure, unless you want more information or some details…

Update: The Sacramento Bee reports that the second clinic (Capital Christian Center) is being sponsored by the “local NBC affiliate” and that the charge there is $30 (it’s $10 at the Rancho Cordova City Hall location). Still not showing up on the Vote & Vax site.

Continue reading “Vote & Vax comes to Sacramento (maybe)” »

To conserve space on this here weblog, here you go. See you again in March…

P.S. And this time it is ending. Starts in March, ends in November.¹

Here’s an e-mail request you don’t see too often — this went to all volunteers on the Sacramento SPCA mailing list:

A woman called who is putting on a production of Annie. They would like to have two dogs (double casting) that weigh between 50-70 pounds and are a “Sandy” color (as this is the name of the dog!), but breed/mix doesn’t matter.

Continue reading “Leapin’ Lizards!” »

So I am having lunch the other day at Togo’s. I order the sandwich and am asked if it would be “For here, or to go?” (To go, Togo’s…hey, wait a minute!) which I reply, “To go.” The sandwich maker asks for a “ring” and the cashier then tells me the price. It’s the price on the board, $5.49. I then realize my lunch partner ordered his sandwich “for here.” So I tell the sandwichista that it’s for dine in and she then tells the cashier who then charges me sales tax and we get into this whole thing. The cashier tells me that they have to charge sales tax if you eat the food on the premises. This got me thinking. What’s the deal with dine in sales tax? I’ve heard over the years that it was related to hot food, but that is not always the case.

I went home and jumped on the Interweb and discovered that the rules regarding sales tax and food are, shocker, I know, sketchy at best. I thought I would break it down for you just in case you have nothing better to do than learn about sales tax.

(Warning the content after the jump is dry and, er, taxing. Proceed at your own risk.)

Update: see comment below.

Continue reading “The Sac Rag reports” »

Bring your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or neighbors’ children to next Sunday’s presentation of “The Tale Spinner.”

This is a musical theatre production by the Junior League of Sacramento (JLS) — a women’s volunteer organization that performs hands-on work and trains its members to be leaders. The JLS has been staging its Children’s Theatre productions for more than 60 years, and the JLS has served the Sacramento community for just over 65 years.

What: “The Tale Spinner” — a musical theatre production for children, geared to Pre-K through 3rd grade, but even adults have a lot of fun.

When: Sunday 3/16 with the performance at 2pm — it lasts about 40 minutes, and there will be activities for children after the play

Where: Hiram Johnson High School Auditorium — take U.S. 50 to 65th Street, go south on 65th, turn left on 14th Ave

About 16,000 school children will be seeing this year’s play, which has been running for the past month during the week. Back when school districts had funds for extracurricular activities, upwards of 50,000 children would see it annually. The schools incur costs to bus the children to the production. In recent years, the JLS has received grants specifically for bus transportation from corporate sponsors.

Continue reading “FREE fun & educational event for children next Sunday (3/16)” »

Obvious Point #1

It’s been too long since we’ve had a new post, so here goes the obvious assertion that it’s a great idea to have a moratorium on new construction starts in the Natomas basin.

If you don’t believe me, take a trip to New Orleans (as Sac-Eats and I just did) and talk to some of the locals about some building decisions their officials made over the past couple of hundred years.

Continue reading “Stating the obvious” »

I’m always about 6 months to 18 years late to the technology game. As such I am just now getting my cellular phone hooked up with SMS (Short Messaging Service), or “texting” as the kids like to call it. And while I am still fumbling about with my opposable thumbs and my text messaging shorthand (AAMOF, I’m a total NUB…or something), I have come across a free service from Google that is quite handy.

Google SMS allows you to text a search query to 466453(”GOOGLE” on most devices) and your results will be sent back to you in a matter of seconds. It’s really quite nifty. The site offers up a cheat sheet of search terms you can use (Local weather, restaurants, flight updates, movie times, calculator, and even conversions) and the whole thing is free (you know, you have to have the text messaging service from your cellular provider, of course).

So the next time you are out and about and need some quick directions or a movie time close to you, give it a shot. Now, if they just made cell phones that could take pictures I’d be all set!