Archive for June, 2005

Weather Sucks

// June 30th, 2005 // No Comments » // Neighbourhoods

Here in Toronto the weather’s been putridly hot. We had a day with some rain and big lightning storms but I don’t even think it lasted an hour.

Of course I forgot to close one of the bedroom windows, so I’ll have to go check the computer in there to see if it turns on now that it’s dried out.

Thank God I just had the air conditioning fixed in my car. It’s beautiful to go for a drive.

Gooey Butter Cake

// June 28th, 2005 // 1 Comment » // Just Stuff

I found this recipe at Explore St. Louis dotcom. I’m going to try it on the weekend.

They say, “What’s Gooey Butter Cake? It’s a scrumptious only-in-St.Louis treat served for breakfast, lunch or dinner — ala mode or plain. You can find it in bakeries all over the St. Louis area, but what’s someone from out-of-town to do? Here’s the answer. Enjoy making one of St. Louis’ popular, quirky foods. Bon Appetit!”

Gooey Butter Cake

1/2 cup butter
1 box yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 – 8 oz. package of cream cheese
1/2 t almond extract
4 cups of confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease one 9×13 cake pan. Melt butter. Empty cake mix into a large bowl. Stir melted butter, along with one egg, into the cake mix. Press mixture into pan. In a large bowl, mix cream cheese, almond extract, confectioners sugar and the remaining two eggs. Beat for three minutes with an electric mixer set on medium high speed. Spread over top of the cake mixture in the pan. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes until golden brown on top. Allow cake to cool. Dust the top with confectioners sugar. (Cake will be gooey on the top, so don’t overbake!)

Illegal Job Questions

// June 25th, 2005 // 2 Comments » // Just Stuff

In looking for a job, I’ve applied for a lot of admin. assistant jobs since I can do them with my eyes closed.

One place I applied to was right up the street from me at Leonard Kalishenko & Associates, a small, family-owned business and I had two interviews with them… one with the wife and the second with the husband.

I was totally overqualified for the job, but, WTF, a crappy low-paying job is better than no job at all. Right?

Anyway, while on these interviews they asked me all kinds of things they shouldn’t have asked me. On the first interview, the wife, who I liked and found very personable, ended up asking me if I smoked because I coughed during the interview.

Not only that, she asked me if I had kids at home because they didn’t want to hire someone who might miss time having to stay home looking after sick little kids.

At one point I thought that I’d tell her that she’s not allowed to ask such questions but then, I figured, they’re not going to hire you if you don’t comply with the questions they’re asking and start pointing out that they’re asking illegal questions.

The worst part about this job was that when they asked me what type of money I was looking for, I figured I’d low-ball it and say a minimum of $15.00/hour. I made that amount of money over 15 years ago.

She shocked me by telling me that the amount was unacceptable. They were only paying $12-$13/hour. I told her that I’d be willing to start the job at $12-$13/hour provided that after 3 months, if I had brought more to the job, they’d be willing to up the salary and she seemed agreeable.

Two days later I went back for the interview with the husband. Not only was he glaring at me at the start of the interview but we got even more of the illegal questions.

At one point he asked about my health. He, too, asked me if I had children. The kicker for me was when he asked me my age. Again, I was about to point out that he couldn’t ask that, but instead I made a joke out of it and told him that I was not going to tell him my age. However, I did mention that I was in my 40s.

The end result of this interview was that they didn’t hire me. I don’t think that Mr. Kalishenko was too interested in whether or not I could do more for them than outlined in the job, or more to the point, having to pay more money.

He did say to me in the interview that he had no idea what market value for that type of job was – whereupon I wanted to state that it was pretty obvious he didn’t, since he was paying what I consider minimum wage for an office job. I hired a receptionist for that money just last year and was afraid that she’d say no because of the salary.

Anyway, needless to say I’m still unemployed, but the good thing is that I had already set up another interview for Tuesday. I was a little worried that these guys might hire me and then I wouldn’t get the chance to interview for the other job that pays more.

I guess we’ll see what happens with that one then. Bottom line though is that I don’t think you can possibly tell someone during an interview that what they’re asking is illegal – for sure you won’t get the job then. But I do think that people like that should be reported.