I got a phone call on Mother's Day from Jeanie Baker, a friend from church in Manitowoc. We haven't seen the Bakers in, geez, I don't know how long. But her son, Chad, is a computer programmer and they had heard we were out of work and were thinking about us. It was very nice.

Chad was recently hired by Daugherty in St. Louis and they are still looking for more java developers. I'd be willing to do that except that I would have to be hired as an entry level programmer. All I've got in java is a single beginners' course. I'd feel pretty comfortable with the web page development, between my course in online programming (basically XML and javascripting) and my experience putzing with my own website a few years back. But object oriented programming is still new territory for me. No actual work experience.

Lots of demand for java developers, though. And man, an entry level job is starting to look a whole lot better than no job, know what I mean? I guess while there's a decent hope for a job as an experienced mainframe developer, that's what I'll keep looking for.

And actually, Becky and I were discussing what to do as I go longer without work . . . we actually discussed the possibility of me going to law school. That's something I would really enjoy. The big hold up is the 3 years or so of living in poverty with four kids. Anyway, that's what we're comparing to the prospect of an entry level java developer position.