lisah, yes. It is the speakeasy bar that made me blink. Especially with all these liquor license kerfuffles. And I remember them pulling pranks before.

The stupid courtroom shows are definitely part of my coping mechanism during the moving stress.

Also, do not loan anyone money after you have filed a police report concerning them.

Good to know!

HA - so this is an interesting thing about Astrid. When you share a task list with someone, it doesn't automatically assign them all the tasks, it just sends them an email when you've done them. So instead of sharing my housework tasks with DH, I've just been sending him a bunch of emails saying "Jessica just swept the kitchen!" "Jessica just cleaned the bathroom sinks!" and so forth. I thought I was being all egalitarian and forward-thinking but instead I've just been a passive-aggressive nagging housewife. THANKS, TECHNOLOGY!

Ok, that made me snort. I can picture your husband checking his email and being all WTF? You want a cookie?!@@

that is pretty funny.

You want a cookie?!@@

See, I'm more picturing DH going "You did a horrible job sweeping the kitchen and now your are bragging about it?" Really?

So, the HR woman at the job I interviewed for and I played phone tag today (I was in transit and my phone did not ring.) This means a job offer, right - HR people not being super-funny about April Fool's pranks?

So when I talk to her tomorrow, I have a big issue to bring up. I have made a verbal commitment to teach a seminar in DC for July 11-18 (which runs mid-week to mid-week.) I will be paid for this, although it's so far outside what the duties of this job would constitute that it could not possibly be seen as a conflict of interest. I also was planning to spend July 1-21 except for the week in DC at the beach in Cape Cod; Casper's enrolled in a 3-week summer school. How and when do I bring this up in general, and specifically, do I just ask for the the seminar, or mention the entire three weeks? I'd be happy to take unpaid leave.

Secondarily, I have never negotiated for salary on a job. Can anyone who has done so tell me exactly how you did it, or point to some good resources for doing so?

On the time off, I think you can do it after you've accepted the job, and say it's already committed. Unless it's a "coverage" kind of job, I've never seen anyone have an issue with that kind of thing. If people will need to cover for you, you could offer to not take the whole three weeks, but I'd lead with that being what you're going to do -- and you're willing to cut it down if they absolutely need you to.

But I do live in a world where people take a month off in the summer, so.

As a hiring manager I would not bat an eye at the week, but three weeks out might be trickier. You need to bring it up before or when you accept the job. A, you don't want them to feel sandbagged, and B, you don't want to accidentally get caught up by existing policies around accumulated vacation, other people's schedules who have more seniority, length of time allowed, etc. iME, they will have a lot more flexibility to bend rules as part of the hiring process than on behalf of a brand new employee.