My dad came up for an unexpected visit yesterday. He called from my sister's house and wanted to know if i wanted to go out to dinner. Of course!

He came over in the afternoon and we hung out and chit-chatted for quite a while, then my sister joined us and we headed to my dad's favorite Connecticut restaurant, the German place.

I wasn't in the mood for schnitzel so I got the only chicken dish on the menu, something with a red pepper sauce, along with some red cabbage and spaetzel. We also split an appetizer of German pancakes. Dessert was some sort of cake/pudding thing with almonds and whipped cream.

So it was a nice way to break up my week. He spent a 2nd night at my sister's last night and headed back home today.

Also yesterday i got an email that got me very excited. A recruiter from a creative agency emailed me about a contract job, rewriting website copy for a non-profit group that would be worth 40 to 60 hours worth of work. Although I'd never dealt with this particular person before, she was quite friendly in the email, addressed me by name and even apologetic that the rate was just $20/hr (because it was a non-profit). She said if I was interested, to send my current resume and writing samples, and that the job could start as early as this Monday with a phone interview that day.

So I immediately began crafting a great reply, hand-picked some wrting samples, etc and sent it back about an hour and a half after she sent it. I sent a 2nd email with a few more writing samples I'd dug up. Then I called.

I called again this a.m., asking her to call me back and let me know the status of this job.

No responses to my emails or phone calls. Which really, really, ticks me off. If she sends me an email to me and me alone, it would just be common courtesy to let me know if i didn't get the job, since she approached me.

But i thought it was weird from the start that a recruiter would go to the trouble of emailing someone when they could more quickly and easily pick up the phone. That's why I suspect she mass-distributed this email to a bunch of people. And I have to assume someone else got to it before I did. Even though no one else's name appeared on the email, there are programs that let you mass mail something and it appears as if it's gone to just you.

I am desperate for work, would be thrilled to do this for $20 an hour and responded almost immediately. For a stupid recruiter to dangle a job in front of you and then just ignore you is just cruel.

I noticed the receptionist at the place always asks for your name before transferring you, so when I called this afternoon, I gave a fake name to see if she'd then take my call. It didn't work; I got dropped into her voice mail again. I am so tempted to tell her off on either the phone or email, but of course that would ensure this agency would blacklist me but good, and they are one of the few agencies in my state that specializes in finding jobs for creative types.

Hey, I know they get their paycheck from the employers, but they also need the cooperation of job candidates to get their job done. I don't care how many job candidates are out there now, the surplus doesn't mean they should feel free to just treat them like disposable goods. What a jerk!!