YAY!

The Hostess Brands phone interview went well! I just got off the phone with the VP of Marketing for Snacks. He had some good questions, I re-learned how to interview, and I asked some good questions. The next step is an on-site interview in their Dallas office! He said I should hear from someone in HR soon to set up the trip. YAY! I'll keep you guys posted.

Moving to a T State

As in, either Texas or Tennessee. Both states are further south from Cincinnati and neither one has a state income tax. Okay, that's only two of the reasons we're excited to move.

Let me give you some history. On Labor Day, 2009, I came home and talked to Dave about moving. He's not been a big fan of Cincinnati for a while now. But that day I realized I didn't want to live here for very long, either. Over dinner we talked about wanting to move somewhere we could call home. We listed our top three cities of Nashville, Dallas and Atlanta and decided to move withing three to five years. Neither one of us was pulling for Atlanta, so it quickly fell off the list. By Christmas we decided we wanted to move in the beginning of 2011. I get fully vested in P&G's profit sharing (aka "golden handcuffs") on November 16, 2010 so that date was driving the timeline. By late May 2010 we decided we would start looking for new jobs now. I got news at work that I wouldn't be promoted until around December. I didn't want to stay at P&G another six months later to prove myself at that level before another company would want me/I felt comfortable leaving. So I called Dave from work right after my meeting with my boss and said, "are you ready to start looking?" And he of course said, "YES!" On the way home from work I called the four headhunters I keep in touch with and my two friends at Frito Lay to start the ball rolling. By the Tuesday after Memorial Day we had our resumes out on the internet and in the hands of headhunters and friends. We'll just try and negotiate the profit sharing I'm losing into my new contract if I end up leaving before November 16.

Dave and I are interested in the same kind of work - with consumer products goods companies. I like the brand management side and he is interested in consumer research. We are applying for jobs in both cities. Here is an update on our job progress:

• Mars Petcare. Mars is located in Nashville. Both Dave and I are working with headhunters for these jobs, so we don't have a ton of detail here. I heard back from my headhunter that I should know whether or not the company is interested in my just after July 4th. I don't Dave has heard anything back from his headhunter yet, but he started the process a couple weeks after I did through his headhunter. Dave did drive down to Nashville two weeks ago to meet a Notre Dame alumnus for lunch who works in Marketing at Mars. Unfortunately the guy wasn't very helpful. So it's a waiting game right now with this company.
• Frito Lay. We have both applied for jobs at Frito Lay in Plano (just outside of Dallas). I am applying for a Marketing Manager position (level under a brand manager but above my current position of Assistant Brand Manager). Dave applied for a job in Insights, their consumer research group. Dave has had a ton of success here. He's had two phone interviews and both interviewers recommended to HR that Dave come down to Plano for on site interviews. In fact, Dave has already sent his availability to the HR guy to schedule the visit. I'm a different story. Apparently Frito Lay is just as backed up in promoting people in brand management right now as P&G. So they had to get special permission to interview me because I'm coming in from the outside. The HR guy and my friend Carrie mentioned they had to decide if Frito Lay would take the risk in the fallout of hiring me versus someone who is waiting to get promoted from the inside. I am supposed to have my first phone interview this coming week. Please keep your fingers crossed!
• Hostess Brands. Yes, I applied for a brand manager job of bread. Funny, huh? I noticed the posting on a site called indeed.com. It's a great site, by the way. You just type in what keywords/position you want and the city. It shows a list of all the jobs out there on all sites - so compiles the available jobs in one place. Very convenient. Anyway, I noticed the Hostess Brands job posting, read the description, and thought it was a good fit. I applied that night through the company's website. I got an email the next day asking for my resume again (not sure what happened - but I know the guy could see it because he mentioned he went to Notre Dame, too). The HR guy called me on Thursday and scheduled an interview for Monday at 11am.

At the very earliest we may be gone by Labor Day weekend. We are doing some work on the house to make it presentable (finishing the basement, landscaping), but aren't going overboard.

That's it for now. I'm creating my "Cincinnati Bucket List" which mostly consists of places I want to eat before we go. If anyone is interested in visiting before Labor Day, come on!

I've enjoyed the break...

I haven't missed blogging one bit! Thanks for not harassing me about taking a break. I've been quite busy over the past month:

• An awesome trip to Texas which included meeting Everett (he's so cute!), hanging out with Kevin and Meagan in Austin, eating darn good BBQ from a gas station, eating lunch with a sorority sister and her husband overlooking Lake Austin, a good gluten free meal at Kozy Kitchen in Dallas, a nice 4 mile run with my best friend Megan around White Rock Lake, a cookout with amazing brisket at our friend's house in Fort Worth (and we had five ND MBA's in attendance), making dinner with Megan and Stephen, touring Frito Lay headquarters and eating brisket tacos with Carrie in Plano, and I'm sure I'm leaving a ton of good stuff out.
• The home remodel is now complete! I owe you guys pictures, but take my word for it - the bathroom and the attic/now bedroom look awesome! I really enjoy taking a shower now because it's so pretty in there. The bedroom is great, too. We have moved the dog crates up there and so it's really Parker and Riggins' bedroom right now. We had to move them out of our room because we had a window seat installed and Riggins' crate wouldn't fit anymore. I made the window seat cushion, and it turned out pretty good for someone who hadn't used a sewing machine in over six years.
• Work has been crazy. I've presented to the General Manager/Vice President of NA Fabric Care, Global President of Fabric Care, and NA President of (everything) P&G. I don't see the madness slowing down until mid-August.
• We are beginning to get estimates for landscaping help. Our front steps and plantings are ugly; problem is it's all hardscape that Dave and I just aren't comfortable doing ourselves. We need help coming up with economical solutions to increase our curb appeal. We've also been trying to grow grass in the backyard for the last six weeks to no avail. Apparently it's impossible to grow grass back there because we have huge trees and no sun. Looks like we'll end up with ground cover, mulch and pebbles in the back - with lots of shade happy plants (think hosta, impatiens).
• I went to Chicago for research and had gluten free pizza twice and tons of peanut M&Ms. That was a highlight in the last month!

That's about all! I hope everyone is doing well.

Thursday 3's

I would love to win the lottery. Who wouldn't? To get right to it...

What are the first three things you spend your lottery winnings on?

My answers:

1. Alabama football box seats (and accompanying condo I'll need for staying down there on football weekends).
2. New home in either Nashville or Dallas. One that's big enough to have a doggy playroom and a yard big enough you need to use a riding lawnmower (that's Dave's dream - a riding lawnmower).
3. A week's vacation in Charleston with all the bells and whistles!

I ran a romantic comedy!

Turns out Team Quick as Molasses really was pretty quick! It's all relative, but we did run faster than our "firm" goal, which was 11 minute miles. Our "stretch" goal was to run 10 minute miles... and we came in just over 10 minute miles! Our relay team ran the marathon in 4:25. I think that's pretty impressive given the rain - which lasted almost the entire time. It was storming when the marathon started at 6:30am and the rain tapered off close to 8:15am. I began my run pretty close to 8:30am, and the rain made a big comeback by the time I finished my leg. I didn't even realize it had really picked up until I stopped running and started cooling off. My personal time of 1:17:17 is right on 10 minute miles for my 7.67 mile leg. I figure most romantic comedies don't last much longer than that, hence the title of tonight's entry. :)

My knees hurt pretty bad on Sunday afternoon and through sometime yesterday. The muscle tenderness didn't kick in until Monday morning. When I got up to walk to the bathroom I thought my calves were on fire! My quads were pretty sore as well. As of today I am walking like a normal person. It probably helps that I worked out yesterday and today and got the blood flowing again.

Overall, I love running. I just wish it didn't hurt my knees so bad. I will continue to run. I love running with the dogs (although I prefer Parker to Riggins purely based on behavior - Riggins is like "oh, squirrel!" and Parker is just content to be out and about), being outside, and doing something different than the elliptical or spin class. In order to keep running in my regular routine, I'll just be sure to stick between 3-5 miles.

Thursday 3's

I am pregnant with biscuit babies. It's the truth. I made a biscuits from a mix tonight. The brand is called 1-2-3 Gluten Free. I heard about the mix because there are rumblings from the Cinci Celiac group that Bisquik is coming up with a gluten free mix. Gluten Free is popular... it's cool to be Celiac! :) Anyway, I made the biscuits tonight to go with the chili I made for dinner. I ate 2 1/2 biscuits, which was about 1 1/2 biscuits too many. Now I am sitting here in pain! My stomach is so full there is barely room for the water I'm drinking.

This all got me thinking... there are only certain foods I would eat that would make me feel this miserable. That leads me to this week's Thursday 3: What three foods would you eat in excess, no matter the pain?

My answers:
1) Cheese bread from Sinfully Gluten Free in Miamisburg, Ohio. Meagan - do you remember eating it? On top of the crust is an olive oil with tons of seasoning in it. The cheese bread is amazing. It's better than the pizza. Yummy!
2) Cadbury Mini Eggs. These delectable treats are seriously a downfall of mine. I cannot have just one... or 15. I must eat the entire bag. I love the texture and the melt in your mouth delightfulness these mini eggs bring to my senses. Thanks mom for introducing them to me!
3) (this is from back in the day) Velveeta Shells and Cheese. I'd eat the whole box. It was such a great meal. I remember I had good intentions... at first I only poured half of the meal into my bowl... but undoubtedly I'd go back the for the second half 15 minutes later. I did find a "light" version by the time I moved to Boston, which I'm sure helped a little bit.

Flying Pig Marathon is this weekend!

I am going to accomplish one of my New Year’s Resolutions this weekend… to run a relay in the Flying Pig Marathon. I am excited and scared! I am running leg three of the race which happens to be longest at 7.67 miles. I haven’t run that long since the Country Music Half Marathon in 2006. A few months ago I ran four miles in a row on the treadmill but since then I have just been running 3 miles here and there outside. I was going to run five miles this past weekend when we were in Nashville, but it was raining. So this morning I went to the gym and did 5.6 miles in intervals on the treadmill. It took me 65 minutes. I walked 2 minutes, ran 2 minutes until 30 minutes in. Then I switched to run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes. After doing that I ran for 8 minutes straight with the first 3 minutes at 6.1mph, the next 3 minutes at 7.0mph, and the final two at 6.1mph again. Then I ran 2 minutes, walked 2 minutes until I got to one hour and cooled down the last five minutes.

I wore heels to work today and my knees were pretty uncomfortable. I fortunately left a pair of black flats under my desk for emergencies so I am now wearing those – they are much more comfy! I will have to switch back into heels for my meeting with three marketing directors this afternoon, but I’ll be comfortable until then.

Please send good vibes my way this Sunday morning. Not only will I be running my longest run in four years, but it is expected to rain all morning, too. Fortunately my leg of the relay goes right by my street so I’ll have Dave ready with dry socks for me just in case! You can track my progress (if you are at all interested) by getting text or email updates. Go to flyingpigmarathon.com and go to Track Athletes. Fun! I am tracking Dave Heng, the guy who is leg 2, so I know when he’s getting close to me.

Here’s to a successful run!