Hiring is the best. I did a phone screen with someone who is sort of overqualified for the position but mostly seems like she actually wants a different job here. She wrote and let me know that (a) she has another offer and (b) was making way more than my range in her last job, but (c) is still really interested in working here. I wasn't even necessarily going to have her in for an interview! But rather than just saying that I told her we are slow and cheap, and I hope she just takes herself out of the running. @@

So, by the best, you actually mean The Worst.

I am waiting to hear something from the job that was posted on June 20 and for which I applied on July 3. They didn't specify a closing date but what my source close to the committee tells me is they want someone ASAP (originally they were saying by August 1). This is academia, so I expect slow, but a closing date would be nice, right? (I am pretty much guaranteed at least a phone screen, given contacts and my history, so I do expect to hear something. But when??)

by the best, you actually mean The Worst.

Hah, I was about to respond that exactly.

Good luck, flea!!

A friend just had a guy in for an interview and told me the dude was literally checking his phone about 20 times. Granted it was apparently while he was on the phone with the higher ups and waiting for things to be translated to/from them, but my friend was still in the room and also..wtf. Seriously. Put the phone away.

That kind of thing I mostly find entertaining. The thing that's the worst is when higher-ups (previously Acting Boss) push you to hire someone who doesn't at all fit what you need to hire.

Strangers I will just laugh at and not hire!!

flea, that sounds especially slow, even for me!

Speaking of, Sue -- what happened with Poland??

Good luck, flea. It is summer, so academia is really, really slow.

I need to apply for a job that has been posted, but overhauling my cv, cover letter and various diversity statements seems damn daunting at the moment.

I had a terrible visit to our vet last night -- it started out great because we met a littermate of Salsa's in the waiting room, but then they kept me waiting for over an hour with no apologies until I said something, and the new doctor that I saw was not impressive. She was a terrible communicator, and said something negative about the high-cost previous estimate that had been prepared by another doctor there, but her estimate for basically the same surgery was at least 50% more. The only explaination she had for me was, "I used a different anesthesia in my figures." No comment about why, etc. Long story short, I called our old vet for a second opinion because I was so uncomfortable with how every member of the staff handled things last night. Which is too bad, because our old vet is on the expensive side, but we loved them, so.

You all know I am a little crazy when it comes to my dog, right?

Speaking of, Sue -- what happened with Poland??

I second this! I will be in Krakow at the beginning of October, and my family won't be coming so Sue should visit me there.

I hope you are able to get some answers fron your old vet, Sparky. ~Ma for Salsa.

Nah, that sounds no good, Sparky. You want to feel good about your vet!

Man, I actually have too many decent candidates for my current open position, after just phone screens. A couple with very specific relevant experience, and a couple more without, but with other attractive qualities. One of those latter is an internal candidate, and I will feel bad if I don't hire her, but she may not be the best candidate!

I have an author who is trying to throw shade ON US in the Acknowledgments section of an article. (The type of article has a limit of 75 references -- which is already too damn high -- and the authors had about 90. We asked them to cut 15 to meet our limit, and they did, but then they asked to insert an Acknowledgement statement that said "Due to limitations imposed by this journal, we are unable to include all the important papers relevant to cardiac stem cell regenerative therapy. We apologize to the investigators who have made significant contributions to this field whose work should not be left out because of space limitations.") Uh, NOPE and fuck you.

These clowns are exceptionally late in returning their article already -- they treated the deadline as a negotiation. Actually, they didn't even negotiate. When we sent the article and gave them a deadline of July 22, they replied and said "We will return it on July 26." When I replied and said no, we have tight deadlines, please return it on July 22, they replied and said the best they could do was return it over this past weekend. And then they just didn't return it or reply to emails or phone calls...until today. Which is the original day they told us they would return it.

I hate people like them. Haaaaaate.

Salsa, we think, will be fine. She has been getting skin tags, that grow really quickly. The current one is her third, and removing them is expensive, and biopsies make it more expensive if we decide to do that. So, yes, I'd really like the vet to take some time with me to decide whether to biopsy or not, and to discuss with me the reoccurances -- the expense we can handle, but it is really traumatic for Salsa to go to the vet now, and have general anesthesia and post-surgical pain, so I'd like to talk about mitigating that for her.

Ugh, Steph. They shouldn't have accepted your journal's offer; it's not like your limits were a surprise.

Deadlines are mere suggestions. I have authors regularly tell me they won't be able to make the deadline. All righty then. Our software has a menu that allows us to select the reason an article was behind schedule, and "Late Author Response" gets used a LOT.

Vet~ma for you and Salsa, Sparky. It's important to trust and have a good relationship with your vet.