Big time win at the Casino!

Not really, but I got your attention. The area where my mom lives has two Indian reservations. Both have large casinos that they built with money they made from what they called high stakes bingo. I had not been to the Mohegan Sun casino in about 10 years or more, and decided to go check it out last night. Now, I've never been to any other casinos other than Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, so I can't compare them with anything in Vegas, but these places are pretty cool. They proudly display their Native American-ness in a huge way through the design.

Anywho, I decided I was going to play some slots. I made a promise to myself that I would not spend more than $10. Well, after 3 different slot machines later, I walked out of the casino with $20 more than I had walked in with. I'm quite happy with my restraint to play more, and the fact that I've beat The Man.

First round complete!

Alrighty then. Both interviews are now a thing of the past. I feel confident that both went very well. The HR manager at the Savoy in London is going on Holiday and the Banquet director is currently on  holiday, so I won't hear anything from them until the 20th of January at the earliest.  The HR manager at the Shelbourne has more applications to review and will go over my application with a couple of other F&B managers and should have some news within a week or so. Fingers are crossed.

Today is my interviews

It's currently 6:52 and my first interview is at 8am. I'm pretty nervous. I always disliked having to interview in the first place, but these two are Skype and on the phone, which you would think would be less intimidating, but it isn't to me.  I've done a fair amount of prep for both interviews, researching both hotels. I just hope I do a good job. I'll report back later.

A possible conundrum

Yesterday I received an email from the recruitment office at the Savoy in London asking when I can do a Skype interview for an Events Floor Manager position I had applied for. I have to admit, I kinda forgot I had applied for it (I applied about 3 weeks ago). It's very exciting, but now I don't know if I'll end up in Dublin or London, if either. But, my interview is at 8am on Tuesday, just before my interview with the Shelbourne.

Baby it's cold outside

Just a quick random post: it's currently 14° right now in CT and it's supposed to get down to 0° tonight. Brrrr.

House repairs

I've lived in my current house for almost 5 years. In that time, I've spent most of my time working on the landscaping. I love gardening and planting plants and making spaces look purdy.  I've spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours working outside in my very small yard making it just the way I like. I've also done a bit of work on the inside, but I've sorely neglected the exterior of the house since we moved in, and it's beginning to show some wear and tear. I had some rot on the door frame to my back door, there is siding that is rotting and needs replaced, as well as trim. My front patio needs a good painting, and there are woodpecker holes that need filled in trim.

I've begun a bucket list of repairs and have started to make some headway. If I do move to Ireland, I will need to sell my little house. In order to get the best price, I need to fix some things. Just before my trip up to CT, I completed the replacement of the rotted wood by my back door. While working on this project I also fixed some baseboard that I had pryed away from the wall to install wiring a few years ago and never got around to repairing. I must say, I'm quite proud of my results.  The back door trim now has a fresh coat of paint and it looks brand new. At the same time, I added a bit of insulation to the area I was working on and caulked it up really well, so it's even more efficient than it was before I started.

My next project will be to replace some rotted trim boards along my roof line in the back of the house, and once that is done, I will tackle the bits of siding that need fixed. I took a bit of the rotted siding to Home Depot last week and they were able to perfectly match the paint, so I'm happy I don't have to paint the whole house.

Once the siding is done, I'll do a bit of work on the inside. About three years ago, I removed a portion of a wall and a door between my bathroom sink and my shower/toilet. It was a really odd setup and made no sense. The walls and ceiling were all repaired and painted (at the same time, I removed the popcorn ceiling from the bathroom...I absolutely hate that stuff), but I never did finish the floor. The long term plan was to replace the vanity and add a tile floor, but I never got to that.  So, in order to make the house sellable, I'm just going to install peel n stick vinyl flooring. They make this flooring now so that grout can be added between the tiles, making it look more like real tile. I think that's cool and that's what I'm going to do. I just need to lay down some thin plywood to give a good surface for the vinyl to stick to. This project should take about 3 days and shouldn't cost more than about $150 for everything.

Once this is done, I think the house will be fairly sellable. There are other small areas that need attention, but they are minor and won't really cost anything to take care of.

It needs to be done anyways, so no better time to do it.

Oh...we are supposed to get 6" - 10" of snow here in CT over the next day. I'm excited about that because a rarely get snow in NC.