| Quick-ish Update |
[Apr. 19th, 2008|04:45 pm] |
I guess things are pretty much going allright, all things considered.
I'm still unemployed. I am looking for a job, but I really want to find something good, not just "a job". And I'm definitely enjoying my time off....
Jenny's enjoying her library job, and is going to start a second, temporary, part time job next week at Eric's (her best friend Jenni's husband) law firm. It's a temp data entry job, which may last a month, maybe two, basically however long it takes to get the job done. And she can pretty much make her own schedule, which is always nice.
So, with her job(s) we've got some decent income for the time being. And I've got some time to look for a job without the "I Have To Find A Job Now!" shadow hanging over my head.
We of course waited till the last minute (again) to file our taxes. We decided to file online to speed up our refund, and in the hopes of it being "easier". Yeah, right... I think it was about 6 hours, from start to finish, of hair-pulling-out frustration, and then I had to resubmit it the next day when the IRS rejected it due to one of the numbers being off. Hopefully they won't ding us with any late fees or service charges.
Oh, and on top of that, all of the cartridges on our monster of a printer decided to give out at once, right when we were trying to print out the tax forms we needed. Then the printer kept saying that one of the new cartidges was empty! So, had to figure out how to override it and make it accept the cartridge - now it works, but it still thinks the blue ink is dead and all the lights keep flashing....
The Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle is coming up next month and we're planning on going to that, and hopefully taking a few extra days over there to wander around and see people in addition to spending time at the Con. Should be fun.
Oh, and winter refuses to give up the ghost around here. It keeps warming up to throw us off, and then it'll snow (like it did this morning, while the sun was still shining). Looks gorgeous outside right now, but you can't rely on it staying that way.... |
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| Some Miscellaneous Going-Ons.... |
[Jan. 10th, 2008|11:38 pm] |
Jenny has an interview next week with the library! Fingers crossed! She's also got an application out to the museum that's she hoping she'll get called for. Oh, and she's also got a hair cut appointment next week (she wanted me to add that one). :)
Happy Birthday to a whole bunch of our friends this week! My on-line bud Ron's birthday was a couple of days ago, and our friend Tigger's birthday was today. She's getting to celebrate this one with her dad, who came down to visit for the week for her present. My old friend Andy is having his birthday tomorrow and our buddy Jason's is on the 13th. Cake for everybody!
We did finally get all of the Christmas decorations put away, although it involved buying some more plastic storage tubs and some rearranging. Of course, the house is still a relative disaster, since it hasn't been really cleaned since before Christmas. But we have been sick for a while, so I guess I'll stick to that excuse for now.
There's a new comic shop that just opened in Coeur d'Alene called Lightning Comics. We swung by on our way out of CDA on Saturday - they were already closed, but we did peek in the windows and look a round. The place looks really nice - clean, all new fixtures, it really reminded me of Revolution (the shop that my friend Chris and I owned and ran for a couple of years, for those who might not know). It even had a TV up on the wall, just like we did.
We should get back there this weekend to check it out. I wish them the best of luck, and we'll probably feel obliged to buy stuff there to support them. Although I have my doubts that a city that size is big enough to support it's own comic shop, especially with an awesome place like The Comic Shop over here in Spokane and a well stocked trade paperback and manga section at the CdA Borders. Guess we'll see.... |
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| All Good Things.... |
[Nov. 29th, 2007|10:50 pm] |
So, Jenny's super-awesome-uber dream job she just got? Yeah, she lost it today. Nothing she did or could do to fix - she works for a small family run business, and their finances weren't quite what they thought they were. So when their accountant did the math, she got laid off...
We are... disappointed, to say the least. They (her now ex-employers) are really cool people, though: they're going to go ahead and pay her for next week anyway, even though she won't be going in, and they're looking for possible jobs for her and are going to write a glowing letter of recomendation. They were really upset about having to let her go, and there's always the possibility of her being able to come back if their business picks up. They're good people.
Otherwise, both of us are quite sore from our recent tattoos and hobbling around everywhere, but very pleased with the fact that we finally got some ink. :) Jenny's ankle wings are super cool, and I got the last of my Daredevil finished up (hooray!). |
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| Media-riffic.... |
[Oct. 16th, 2007|11:24 pm] |
Meanwhile, In TV land:
Heroes continues to rock. We've been making a ritual of watching it with Shannan and Scott and this week they treated us to barbeque. otherwise we're still enjoying Prisonbreak, Bones, Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer, Numbers and all of the various comedies on NBC Thursday nights. Not a lot of new shows this season that we've warmed up to, but Reaper is hilarious and Beauty & the Geek and Moonlight are a couple of guilty pleasures we've been enjoying. Medium and Jericho are coming back eventually and I think there are a couple of new mid-season shows with potential that I'm forgetting.
We spent most of this weekend relaxing and catching up on the week's TV, as well getting the computer cleaned up a little. We finally got some more RAM for the ol' PC as well as a shiny new video card - Jenny's dad was nice enough to come over and install them for us. We were way overdue to back up everything on the hard drives, so I went ahead and did that as well as uninstalling/deleting a bunch of useless programs that were still on the machine and defragged both drives. Fun, fun, fun... but it needed to be done.
November's fast approaching, and with it National Novel Writing Month. We're going to attempt to participate again, hopefully with more success than last year. Actually Jenny got quite a lot done on her novel, but mine was a bust. This year we've both already got ideas, and this time I'll try not to change my mind at the last minute and come up with something completely different. :) Oh, and we're both going to write super-hero stories this year...
Jenny's had some promising interviews, and we we're really hoping for one job at a local gallery that she's been going for. We've got a new guy at my job (3rd new employee in 3 months...), who I think is going to work out OK, or atleast better than the last two. |
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| I'm So Sick of Being Sick.... |
[Aug. 21st, 2007|08:54 pm] |
Just a cold or something like it, maybe the flu, whatever's been going around, but it was enough to knock me out for the day. Took off from work and slept most of the day away, except when I was in front of the computer or the TV. Yay for productivity... Did watch the recent Zodiac movie on DVD, which was really good - highly recommended. Although there's apparently a special edition with deleted scenes and what-not coming out relatively soon, so folks might want to wait for that.
I started posting up pictures from our Fairbanks trip on My MySpace Page - mostly pics of our friends and family. I attempted to keep them in vaguely chronological order...
Jenny's on the job hunt right now - she's got some prospects, but no real bites yet. There's a job at the museum that she's qualified for and really wants, so we've got our fingers crossed for that one. Otherwise, I'm just plodding away at my job... I decided I was going to wait until she was actually hired somewhere before putting in my notice, so we're not jobless for any stretch of time. |
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| Quick Update |
[Jun. 17th, 2007|06:49 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | dayjob, movies | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight | ] |
Not a whole lot going on, really - mainly just work-work-working with a little bit of wedding stuff on the side. We did go over to Tigger's place yesterday and hung out for a while and helped her with some of her landscaping projects. Also got to meet her new puppy, Geo, who's absolutely adorable. Held off on going into CdA this weekend, as Jenny's folks are out of town, visiting her Aunt's family in Portland. Jenny did finally get her dress in, and had her fitting today, so they can do the needed alterations.
Otherwise, just catching up on DVDs, and we got out to see Shrek 3 on Friday. I think it was actually funnier than the last one, which was kinda surprising. Fantastic Four 2 also came out this week, which we'll get around to seeing soon, even though all the reviewers seem to hate it (judging by the various article headlines I see online - but I haven't read the articles...). There's far too many summer blockbusters coming out this year to keep up with, so I fear we're going to be a couple of week's behind for quite a while.
In work news, the "new girl" has already left - Friday was her last day. And now Brian has 2 weeks remaining before he's gone as well, which will drop the main staff down to just Derek and myself. Originally, the boss had toyed with the idea of not hiring a new 3rd person, but luckily he changed his mind and put an ad in the paper. Hopefully we'll have a better pool of applicants this time around....
Oh yeah, and we finally got our garage. Only took them, what... 8 months? :) |
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| On The Road Again.... |
[Jun. 7th, 2007|08:53 pm] |
So, what's been going on?
The big news, of course, is that we replaced the recently deceased truck with a brand new, shiny blue F-J Cruiser! Jenny's mom had offered to "help us out" with a new car as a wedding present, using money she'd received as part of the inheritance when her father (Jenny's Grandfather) passed away. What we didn't know was that meant she was going to buy it for us outright - completely paying it off! That's right - our wedding (and birthdays and next few Christmas) present was a Brand New Car! You can say that last bit in a game show announcer voice to make it sound right. :)
We'd told her parents that we really didn't need any sort of bells and whistles, that the basic package would be more than enough. However, the local Toyota dealer didn't have any basic Cruisers, so we ended up with a whole bunch of extras that we really don't need (but are all supercool and we really are happy to have). Right now it's still in Jenny's mom's name - we'll be able to switch it over to us in the next couple of months.
Sooo.... we've been deleriously happy with our new car. :D Such simple luxuries as air conditioning and a working radio were previously unknown to us, so this just about blew us away. Now we've just got to keep it upkept so it'll last another 20 years like the truck.
We had hoped to sign our new lease and get on the list for a garage (assuming such a list exists) on Friday, but the trainee was at the office instead of the normal secretary. She told us to come back on Saturday and the regular girl could take care of it no problem, but we showed up on Saturday only to find that we needed to set up an appointment first, which of course the trainee failed to mention.... So we've got an appointment this Saturday at noon to sign our new lease - hopefully we'll make some progress towards a garage as well. We're both even more paranoid at night now that we've got our beautiful new vehicle to protect (might as well just paint a target on it...).
On the wedding front, we finally got our invitations/announcements out in the mail, atleast to the people we have addresses for. There are still a few people we don't have mailing addresses for, for whatever reason, and if you're one of those people and are reading this you know who you are and you know how to get a hold of me. :)
Also picked up my ring this week. Went with a super simple white gold band - since Jenny's is such a unique heirloom, we didn't want to try to find a suitable match at this time, just something I would like to wear that wasn't flashy. Figure that a ways down the road we can always have something custom made to match Jenny's and replace mine.
Work is still work. We hired a new girl, who put in her 2 week notice less than a week after starting. So we can't really expend much energy training her, since she'll be leaving soon, but we still have to find busy work for her to do in the meantime. I'm really surprised they didn't just let her go when she put in her notice. Eh, atleast she can clean and make copies - there's always more copies to make. Brian's leaving at the end of this month, leaving myself and Derek (who is very competent, but has still only been there for 3 or 4 months at this point), and now the boss is thinking of just not hiring a new person for the time being and see how things go. I'm not loving my job in the first place, so this is certainly not going to help the situation....
Oh, and June 1st was my (31st) birthday, so Happy Birthday to me! :) |
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| The Great Reorganization Begins.... |
[May. 20th, 2007|07:56 pm] |
Yesterday we did a whole bunch of running around, shopping and planning (for both apartment stuff and wedding stuff) and have today begun the apartment rearranging process. We found a big shelving unit at Home Depot that Jenny transferred all of her plants on to and I just finished putting up another bookcase in the (for now) office, which is where all of our gaming stuff from the dining room is going.
So for now, and the immediate future, the apartment is a huge disaster with stuff strewn everywhere in various states of movement. Pictures will most assuradly follow, when all is said and done. I liken it to those little puzzles where you have to slide the pieces around to make a picture, but there's only one empty space to work with....
Also, Thursday was supposed to be Jenny's interview with the framing place she applied for (originally back when she was still working for Michaels). However... when she found out it would probably be for the Northtown store (which would mean a major commute) she wasn't sure if it would be worth it. When she then learned that all of the employees are basically "floaters", moving back and forth between the three different locations, she told them she wasn't interested and cancelled the interview.
The whole point of the job was it was supposed to be the full time, reliable job with the dependable schedule, conveniently located at the Valley mall. It turned out to be not even half of those things... But she doesn't need a job right now, especially with all of the wedding work to be done and everything else going on. So, she's still looking for a good job, but not just any job. |
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| Happy Monday! |
[May. 14th, 2007|11:42 pm] |
And another week commences....
Jenny got a call today from the framing shop she'd applied at back before she quit Michaels, and has an interview set up for this Thursday. This was the job she was the most interested in, really, as it was a non-corporate framing position and she wouldn't have to deal with all the other unrelated retail mess that she had to put up with at Michaels.
( Cut for Excessive Wordiness )
Since we're going to be sticking around this apartment for a while longer (probably atleast a year), the plan now is to do some serious rearranging of the furniture to make things more comfortable. The TV, couch, gaming stuff, and all the bookcases are going into what is now the office, to make a sort of den/cozy entertainment room. We'll end up with a much more open atmosphere to the living room (which will turn into our studio space), and we'll be able to expand our kitchen/dining room space a bit. A lot of this process will mean purchasing some more/new furniture, but that's something we've needed to do for a while - like a pantry for the kitchen, and some more shelves for all of our ever growing library.
I've been using a very cool room planner tool I found online that's part of a furniture store's website. It lets you customize the rooms and furniture, save and print your designs, and sure beats constantly redrawing the same room over and over on paper. You can find it here: Jordan's Furniture Room Planner
We did get out to see Spiderman 3 last week - I think the 2nd one was the better over all, but this one was definately a fun movie. I believe (as apparently many others do) that they tried to cram too much into it, and there was easily enough material to make two good movies from what they had. I'd say the bad guys, specifically Harry, were the real stars of this one. It's got a fair share of corny bits, and would probably be easier to watch on DVD (being excessively long), but is still well worth the price of admission just for the special effects and action sequences.
The TV season is winding down over the next week or two, so I suppose that'll free up some of our time when most of our shows go into reruns for a while. I'm thinking I'll do a finale wrap up post - maybe do a little mini-review of all the stuff we're currently watching.... as soon as I find the time. :)
I was planning on burning through all of the Harry Potter novels, so I'd be all caught up when the last one came out, but I kinda got slowed down and stalled out in the middle of the 4th book. I'm trying to get back into it and get finished so I can move on. From what Jenny says, of the series, it's the one to get stuck on - Rowling really tried to put too much in and it goes on forever. But once I get through it, the next two books are supposed to be back to being entertaining. Jenny just finished the 4th book, as well as the 4th book in the David Farland fantasy series ("The Runelords") she's simultaneously reading. |
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| The Clock is Ticking.... |
[Apr. 30th, 2007|10:59 pm] |
Wow, I can't believe it's almost May already - it seems like the year is just flying by. Things have been piling up quicker and quicker, keeping us plenty busy:
Jenny and Jenni have been getting to work on the wedding stuff, invitations are now on their way (to us), and soon will be on their way back out. We've also been weighing our photography options and we're thinking of going the potluck route for the food, although we haven't decided if the main course(s) are going to be catered at all.
I think I'd mentioned that we'd registered at Macy's; well, we were finally able to log on to our account tonight, only to find that they only have 6 items listed - none of them items we actually picked! So now we have to go back and repick everything, talk about a waste of time. We did sign up for Macy's cards in the process, which I guess we can theoretically use to build up our credit a little. Oh, and we're definately going to go up to Fairbanks later this year to visit, even if we're still not sure where we'll be staying....
And speaking of living arrangements, we're now figuring on staying in this apartment for a while longer. We were orginally excited about getting out of apartment living and into a house, but the more we thought about it, the more we realized that with the wedding plans, and everything that entails (both before and after), plus our vacation plans and Jenny not working for a while, we'd be better off not trying to do a big move this year. We don't really have a specific area that we want to move to, and aren't too crazy with the prospect of packing everything up and moving again. However, if we do stay here, we're going to be really getting after the apartment people about fixing stuff and making this place a better place to live. We've already put in a couple more work orders to fix stuff, and are still after them about the garage.
I finally got the apartment completely cleaned this weekend, which always helps my outlook on things (it certainly needed it...). And I've been going back to basics with my drawing, trying to do some basic gesture drawings and sketches in my sketchbook and filling up atleast a page a day - it's a slow process, but I think I'm (very) gradually getting my skills back.
As much as I'd love to quit my job so I could work on getting my art back up to speed again, it's really not an option now that Jenny quit hers. But she really needed to, what with her wonky schedule and the wedding date rapidly approaching. She's got so much done in just the past week - I joked today that she should have quit her job months ago, we would have had this whole thing planned down to every detail already.
And on the job front, I was surprised today to get my paycheck and find I got another raise! I'm thinking it might be because Brian's leaving in a couple of months and I'll be moving up to top man on the totem pole. Or it may be them realizing they better give me an incentive to stick around.... Whatever the reason, I'll take it! |
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| Endings and Beginnings |
[Apr. 22nd, 2007|12:58 pm] |
Well, Thursday was Jenny's last day at Michaels, and she is quite thrilled not to have to go back there again (although we did go by there yesterday to pick up some readymade frames for the prints we picked up at the Con). Unfortunately, that same day she also found out she didn't get the law firm job she'd applied for. They said it was a really hard decision, but one way or another she didn't get picked, so it's back to looking for a new (better) job. There is still the framing job she's waiting to hear about, but that may be a month or two still.
In other news - Some of you already know about this, but to bring anybody else who's interested up to speed: I'll be getting married in 3 months! Jenny (my fabulous fiance and girlfriend of 3+ years)) and I have been sorta-kinda-planning this for a while now, but it looks like it'll be a fairly small affair, based on our equivilantly small bank account and our non-interest in a giant theatrical wedding production.
We went out on Friday with (Jenny's best friend) Jenni and worked on some wedding related stuff: Jenny tried on dresses, and found one possibility (but is still looking); we registered at Macy's, and our list will be available online as soon as we're able to log in and update/confirm everything - we're also planning on registering at Fred Meyers as well, just to cover all our bases as far as selection; Jenni also picked our brains about other wedding stuff - rings, what I'm wearing, invitations, etc. and made suggestions and offered advice (she's married and is very excited for us and really wants to help out). Once Jenni gets back from her trip in a week or so, her and Jenny will get together and take care of invitations/announcements.
So, wish us luck - this looks to be shaping up as an interesting year.... :) |
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| Moving Forward.... |
[Apr. 12th, 2007|09:21 pm] |
Jenny had her interview for the law firm/file clerk job today and apparently it went pretty well. They're having the last interview for the position on Monday so she'll find out whether she get's the job then. If she does get it, it would mean better pay, medical benefits, and a much better schedule: 8:30-5, M-F. We'll get off of work at the same time, see each other more, and even be able to schedule fun stuff outside of work! She'd actually have weekends off and we could start exercising after work again. I'm really hoping she gets this one. |
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| Recovering |
[Apr. 7th, 2007|12:46 am] |
We've been back from our mini-vacation for a few days now, and we're still just now getting back on our feet. Between Jenny being sick, then me being sick, then going away for 4 days and then her being sick again, we've just been kinda wiped out for the past few weeks. The house is in shambles (atleast in my opinion - in reality it still looks pretty nice), since I haven't had the time and/or energy to clean and we've been too tired or busy to do much other than just go to work and watch TV. That should be changing soon, though, as Jenny finally got fed up with Michaels and put in her 2 week notice today. She's through putting up with horrible schedules, incompetent supervisors and a revolving door of coworkers. She's planning on getting a new job, but she's going to enjoy her respite as well. The funny thing is that when she took this job, it was originally supposed to be the "little part time job on the side" that she took to bring in a little extra money while we got back on our feet after moving. She always had planned on quitting as soon as something better came along, but nothing ever did...
I would still like a better/different job, but I'm learning to live with this, atleast for the moment. Brian is going to be leaving soon (end of June), so while I won't be getting any sort of promotion, I am going to finally be learning some new things so I can take over some of his extra tasks when he's gone. Atleast it's something to do instead of answering the phones.
So, our "vacation" was amazingly fun - we got to see our friends Shane and Rita (who we really appreciate letting us stay at their apartment) as well as my brother Dave (who took us out to dinner at the Pyramid Alehouse); we spent both days at the Emerald City Comic Con, where we got to see a bunch of our favorite artists and writers, bought some cool stuff and generally had a whole lot of geeky fun; and we even got to go to the zoo! Shane and Rita's apartment was just a couple of blocks from the Woodland Park Zoo, so we spent the day on Monday walking around there until closing time. This pushed back when we eventually started the drive back, but it was totally worth it.
I'd hazard to say that our overall Con experience this year was much better than last year, although we didn't do much more in the way of planning and we got there late in the afternoon both days.... I'm thinking that we'll attempt to hit the show early in the morning atleast the first day next year, mainly so we can get at the top of artists' sketch lists before they fill up (as they inevitably do). As it is, I ended up only getting one sketch this year, but it was from the one person I wanted to meet more than any other: David Mack! He produces the most beautiful painted and multimedia work for his books; you can see some examples of his art on his website: Davidmack.net. I do have to say that David Mack is perhaps the absolute nicest professional I've ever seen. He's smiling all the time, want's to talk to everyone there, and goes out of his way to make sure everyone who comes by his table walks away with a good experience. I've also seen this sentiment shared by other folks on-line, so it can't just be my blind fan-boy view of things.
It's definately not one of the biggest Cons, but it's a decent size show. It's also mostly still just about comics, as opposed to the big Cons in L.A. or New York which are more multimedia spectacles now. Spokane is even trying to get a convention started here now. It's not going to be much this year, but I'm planning on going to support them, and I figure it'll be a good place to meet other artists and fans from the area. Here's their MySpace page for more info: 1st Annual Spokane Comic Convention.
In other trip news, while we were originally thinking of heading back to Alaska in June to see peoples and go to Jenny's 10 year reunion, she's since decided that she really doesn't care that much about the reunion, and we'd both rather go back to visit later (say, August), which we may still do. Especially if we'll be living on one income for a little bit while Jenny is jobless, we'll definately want to save our money where we can. |
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| Whirlwind |
[Dec. 18th, 2006|10:01 pm] |
This last week just flew by - well, truth be told, it was mostly from both of us being in such a daze from working so much, but the effect was quite similar. :)
We've barely had any time to do, well, anything except work. We both had all of Sunday off, and we spent it doing as little as possible (slept in, watched TV all day that we'd taped earlier in the week, and then went out to eat and wandered around the mall for a couple of hours). We plan to be much more productive after the first of the year when all this craziness is over. It's quite aggravating to be motivated to accomplish things without either the time or energy to act on said motivation. And after working two jobs and going nonstop from 7-11 almost every day, it'll seem like we've got lots of free time with just our one job.
And speaking of jobs, Jenny officially got her promotion instated this last Saturday. She's now Senior Certified Framer! I'm assuming that her raise will kick in on this next paycheck, although there's no sign of her supposed benfits yet. But we've been too busy to really worry about that - something else to deal with after the first of the year.... |
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| 'Tis the Season |
[Nov. 14th, 2006|10:07 pm] |
Well, Sunday was our first day at Borders. I pretty much fell right back into step there, remembering how everything was done. Jenny picked up everything pretty quickly as well, although she hasn't got a chance to run thru register training yet. But we spent an hour on the floor as the only booksellers in the store, and everything went smoothly - it ain't rocket science though. :)
I'm still sick. In fact, I got more sick over the weekend, and I've been burning thru kleenex and Dayquil pretty fast. I called in sick today and yesterday. I'm going to attempt to go into work tomorrow, but they may send me home when I start sniffling and sneezing. We'll see, I suppose....
We did get the Christmas tree up today, along with most of the decorations. We haven't trimmed the tree yet (there's only the angel on top, and a solitary ornament so far), but it'll be soon. We also picked up a couple more Christmas albums and have those on rotation in the CD player. I ordered the Kingston Trio CD on Sunday (it should be in within the week), but apparently there is no Limeliters' Christmas album. I could have sworn I remembered listening to one as a kid, but apparently I was just remembering them performing the song "Go Where I Send Thee" (a Christmas song on one of their albums). Maybe I can find it on iTunes or something.
Oh, and Sunday was also 40% off day, so we picked up a few things: a couple of reference books for Jenny for her novel, a couple of CDs, and some other assorted books, including the Maya 8 Foundations book I've been wanting. It includes a free copy of Sketchbook Pro v. 1.1.1, plus I can download a complete "learning" edition of Maya 8 from the Autodesk website to teach myself how to use it. So many things to learn, and so few hours in the day.... |
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| Movin' On Up, and various other Goings On.... |
[Nov. 10th, 2006|03:44 pm] |
Jenny's been offered (and took) a pseudo-promotion at work, and so she'll be staying with Michaels and actually moving up to (barely) full time. She doesn't want to get over-worked and over-stressed, so she made it clear to her boss that she would take the job, but only work minimal full time hours.
But she will be getting a slight pay raise + benefits, which (apparently) I'll be able to share. This is incredibly good news for the two of us, and the main reason she said yes to the job. That, and the fact that when the person she's replacing leaves, and she moves up to "Head Certified Framer" (something like that), she'll be able to stay in the back of the frame shop doing production most of the time, with new girl up front helping customers. The whole retail/customer service thing is the main part of her job she dislikes, so this is the other main reason she's taking it.
The hope is that with her getting more hours, more pay and benfits for both of us, this will finally give me the option of realistically bailing from my current job - sooner as opposed to later.
( Look behind The Cut for all the other current minutiae )
Gah, that post was long. I'm really going to try to update more frequently so that doesn't happen again. Really. Honest. |
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| Zen and the Art of Novel Writing, etc. |
[Oct. 8th, 2006|05:15 pm] |
Another weekend of alternating crazed cleaning and blissful laziness is upon us. I'm trying to get into a pattern of cleaning the apartment every 2 weeks, so it doesn't get absolutely horrific between cleanings. There's just a kind of zen-like satisfaction with having a completely clean living space. Well, atleast I think it's zen-like. I really don't know anything about zen, so....
I'm seriously contemplating participating in National Novel Writing Month this year. I think it might be just the kick in the ass I need to get creatively motivated, and it'll hopefully teach me a thing or three about adhering to deadlines. I picked up No Plot No Problems (the NaNoWriMo handbook) at Borders Friday night, and had finished reading it by yesterday afternoon, and it's definately psyched me up - plus Jenny thinks it'd be a great idea, and is even considering attempting it herself.
We're both definately going to be working at Borders part time during the Christmas season, so that should be fun. The plan at the moment is to work Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night plus a full shift on Saturday. I'm guessing that this will start after Thanksgiving, but we won't know for sure until Sean works up the schedules.
We're watching entirely too much TV this season, and having to tape shows every night and then playing catch up through the next week. We're looking at possibly cutting out some shows, but it'll be tough letting go. So far, a couple of CSI shows are getting the axe....
No word yet on the garage situation. Check's in the mail to the IRS. Got some hand-me-down furniture from Jenni and Eric, so we could finally dispose of the big box we've been using as a coffee table since we've moved down here. The apartment's really starting to look and feel like a home, so we're not too enthused about the prospect of having to move. But we're keeping our options open. |
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| Broke |
[Feb. 19th, 2006|11:45 am] |
Waiting until the first to get paid has made this the longest February ever recorded. We are so out of money, and I'm really getting sick of rice and beans and ramen (feels like I'm living in the dorms again).
But we can't really complain, since we have all of this stuff, and a place to sleep and put our stuff, and we really only have ourselves to blame for our situation. But I'll be happy in a week and a half when we can finally go indulge ourselves in some Taco Bell and buy some comics....
The only thing that's been really difficult has been scraping together money for gas, so we can actually get to work every day. I'd take the bus every day... if I had the money to spend on bus fare.
Gah, enough bitching.
I just finished The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling. Excellent alternative history/military fiction. It's one of those books that I really hate to finish, since he has this amazing setting and backstory laid out and you get attached to the characters; and there's only the one book written, with no sequels planned. Same thing I felt the first time I read Neverwhere - "So, where's the next one? What do you mean there's not another one?". I want more! |
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| A Little Less Talking, A Little More Shut The Hell Up.... |
[Feb. 17th, 2006|09:18 pm] |
So we apparently entered some drawing a while back, and "won" our choice of either a digital camera or DVD player. However, to claim the prize, we have to endure a 90 minute time-share presentation, courtesy of Trendwest. Well, we survived.... I know this is their job, and I knew what we were walking into, but I just hate hard-sell tactics and the swarthy "car salesmen in sweaters" who were there employing them. How many times do I have to say "No I'm not interested" before you start to take a hint?
You know, the thing is the deal they were offering was actually really good. And if we had an extra couple hundred dollars burning a hole in our pockets that we could throw at something like this, we might have taken them up on the deal. But we're dirt-poor right now, so it was a literal impossibility. The fiasco was in Coeur d'Alene, and we had to borrow gas money from Jenny's mom just to get back to Spokane....
We did get a cute little digital camera out of the deal. Seems to work all right so far; I'm glad we went with the camera over the DVD player - turned out to be a Coby.
Work continues. I've gotten on the phones occasionally, taking orders and setting up appointments. They're trying to ease me into eventually doing everything, so the office can get back to normal. I found out the lady I replaced was actually fired, but I don't know why yet.
Jenny's on to the schedule at Michaels for next week at about 20+ hours. She's working Saturday and Sunday this weekend (not surprisingly). This'll get some relatively quick money coming in (although she's not geting paid till after me...), but I really hope she gets that museum job she applied for. I think she'd be happier there.
I retook that Religion Quiz, changing only one answer (that I was kinda wishy washy on), and ended up with Buddhism. Not sure if that means anything.... |
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| The Hawks Were Robbed! |
[Feb. 5th, 2006|09:56 pm] |
Gah! I'm not much of a football fan, but what was with all the penalties - even I was shouting "the ref is blind!" This was the only full game I watched all season, but I used to be a big 'Hawks fan back when I lived in Seattle, and I figured I might not see them at the Superbowl for another couple of decades....
Started work this last week, and so far it's been... interesting. I'm working at NW Andrology & Cryobank, a fertility clinic and sperm bank. Quite a bit of work, actually - some heavy lifting, a lot of near-frostbite from the liquid nitrogen, and a lot of things to remember (and I've only had 3 days, there's lots more to learn...). But some of the people who want to become parents... if you can't follow simple instructions or fill out your paperwork properly, if you're unable to pay your bill on time, or if you call a sperm bank stoned - then odds are you're not cut out to start a family.
And Jenny has a very good chance of getting a job at Michaels in the framing department, she'll find out for sure tomorrow, but it's basically up to whether they can find the hours to give her. |
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