And Anon...

So, where was I?

Oh, right, Tuesday. The day began with a trip to the Post Office, but all the way there, and as I was leaving, the craving for cigarettes was huge. I made it through Monday with a patch, but I couldn't find the patches on Tuesday.

So I broke down and bought a pack, opened it up, and lit one up.

God, it was incredible. OK, if you were never a smoker, I'm sure you can't imagine how smoking can be appealing. Suffice it to say that if you are addicted, the feeling you get from having one after being deprived for a day is so amazingly good, your day has to be good from there.

At least I made that pack last two days, finishing off the last one tonight before posting this. And I found two patches, so I'm good through Friday (there should be more around here somewhere)... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyway... off to work on Tuesday, and as I said before, I did a bit more work on that automotive tabloid publication idea. Tuesdays are slow lately, so I had plenty of time to do that tweaking. That morning, when I came in, I told my manager about the mock-up, and she said we'd take it to the classified advertising manager later in the day. She was busy the entire day, however, and after 5, I mentioned it to the assistant manager, and we brought it over to the classified advertising manager.

She loved it, and the three of us took it to the advertising manager, who loved it, too. This should definitely happen, although I don't know quite when it will occur. They'd been thinking about doing something like this already, but since they were just talking about it, it sounds like this should jump-start the process.

Today, Wednesday, I found myself with lots of time, too... so I mocked up an eight-page bicycling tabloid, which nobody has seen yet. But again, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

Tuesday we also learned that the advertising services assistant was leaving, and that if we knew anyone who would be good for the job, to get them to apply. Jessi knows a few people who are looking for a different job, and she talked to one of them about it... we'll see if they actually apply.

Let's see... anything else I didn't mention? Well, we did watch an episode of "Cold Case" today... we'd been looking for a new show to add to our watching, and that one sounded interesting (what can I say, we're finding ourselves having watched nearly all the Law and Order episodes, and Monk's only on once a week).

Jon

Another Update Post!

So, let's see... when I left off, I was letting you know about wedding plans and so forth... it's actually not going to be all that expensive a production, to be honest. The reception will be a pot luck, and one of Jessi's friends will be coordinating it.

(Just an aside here... it's become more and more apparent to me that I really don't have many local friends. In fact, aside from Dan, all my friends are people I know through the net!)

Anyway...

Starting on Monday, I've been trying to quit smoking... again. I had a nicotine patch that I used on Monday, but even with that, my brain felt a bit foggy the entire day. Still, I did make it through the day without smoking.

The problem with not smoking is that it makes for even more time to fill at work... and it's been slow enough as it is that it's a struggle to get 40 hours in a week! Either there's just not enough work to do, or I'm way too efficient, or a combination thereof.

One of the ways I've come up with to help extend my time is coming up with special projects. The latest one (that was supposed to keep me busy all week) was designing a new automotive tabloid publication, that would replace one our local auto mall used to have us do (but is being printed elsewhere these days).

You've probably guessed it already... I had most of that done by the end of the day on Monday. True, I did do some additional tweaking on Tuesday (mostly putting some more articles in my mock-up), but it was pretty much complete on Monday. So much for being kept busy the whole week with that, eh?

More later...

Jon

Been a While....

...since I last blogged. Heck, it's almost a week since the previous post!

Let's see if I can get you caught up with the latest goings-on here.

This weekend, Jessi was feeling enough cabin fever that we hopped in the car and drove up to Tacoma to spend some time with my family while they watched the Seahawks/Redskins playoff game (the first football game I've watched since leaving Wisconsin). That was Saturday. (weigh-in at Weight Watchers had us both showing a gain)

Sunday, Jessi started doing some research on wedding ideas... and I swear, at the rate things are going, I just may suffer a psychotic break from it all!

Well, not really. What's really getting to me is the additions to the original plans... additions which will likely cost more than we'd imagined (we haven't actually written up a budget, which we probably should have). She was changing her mind back and forth as she went about what I would wear -- at one point, she wanted me to be wearing a light-colored suit!

Now, I've got nothing against suits per se... although I haven't worn one since my interview for my job at the newspaper (and that suit would obviously no longer fit me anyway). The thing is... I don't care for light-colored suits at all. No matter what color it's a shade of, bright colors are not for me. If I'm going to wear a suit, it'll be a classic Navy Blue, like the too-large one that's hanging in the closet (which I should really get dry cleaned, repaired, and then put up on eBay for someone else to wear). And honestly, I see no point in spending $200-$300 or more on a suit that I might -- might -- wear once a year, tops. After all, even when I could fit in my suit, I pretty much wore it once a year, at the company Christmas party for the place I worked for in Wisconsin (and after that, for interviews only).

If you're a regular reader, you know I stress out a bit over money, and have had way too many times when money was very tight -- so much so, that if I hadn't been enjoying some success on eBay (and there are some new auctions up now, by the by -- search for seller jon8229 for good deals on dog collars and leashes, loose DC Direct figures, trade paperbacks, and so on), we would've been SOL for eating a few times!

Anyway... like I said, I don't see the point in spending money on a suit. I'm much happier with the final (well, final so far) idea, which is that I'd wear khaki pants and a white shirt. I probably wouldn't wear those that much more often, but it's a heckuva lot cheaper!

Jessi's still trying to figure out what she wants for other aspects of the wedding. The ceremony itself, which I'd originally envisioned as being fairly short, is getting a bit more deluxe -- she'd like to have music there, and there'll be a bunch of decorations there, too.

I'm not sure how the music will work -- heck, we're going to need some kind of portable PA system as it is -- because of the acoustics where the ceremony will be. I may have mentioned the park we'll have the wedding at? Looking at it from the side... well, here's a crude rendering for you to check out:



The flat area is where the wedding will take place. Now, I'm no acoustics expert, but given that the water in that crude drawing is the Puget Sound, I'm guessing that any amplified sound will end up going out over the water for the most part, and it'll be difficult for people to hear. There's just not much to bounce the sound from to contain it.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

I'm not even sure what music will be playing for the ceremony. Jessi was hoping one of my nieces or my nephew might be able to play something for us, but none of them really keep up with their musical instruments that much. I don't know if she knows anyone who does play an instrument.

We were reviewing a few of the Friends episodes that had weddings (although not all of them)... and some of them did have some very nice ideas. OK, I am biased -- the ones I liked the most were ones that used Beatles songs, such as "And I Love Her." (and by the by -- has anyone other than me ever noticed that the characters on Friends show a knowledge of pop culture that doesn't accurately reflect their ages? But I digress) In the instance of that song -- and I forget whose wedding it was for -- there was a string quartet playing the song, so far as I remember.

And so we're back to finding someone to play, and also probably paying them. I'll keep you guys posted on that aspect of things.

On the upside, it looks like while I won't be making the wedding invitations (which is bizarre to me -- I mean, I am a graphics designer, I have all the software and fonts to do that, but a friend of hers wants to do them), I will be making the wedding cake... once we decide what we're doing there.

My idea for the wedding cake is to do a multi-tiered one, with each tier on a separate level (not stacked like traditional cakes), where the top tier is an actual small wedding cake, and then the tiers below that would instead be individual servings of a variety of different desserts, such as low-fat brownies, fruit cups, and so forth, so people would have a choice (and we don't have to worry about indivdual diet requirements).

Anyway, there's lots more on my mind, but I've run out of time to post it this morning, so I'll post more tonight!

Jon