titansphere.com

First, I must apologize for my long absence. This summer has been busy, especially the last few months – is it really almost October? – and I have neglected you. Here’s why:

After much procrastination, we finally restained our deck. Starting in July, we sanded and stained everything, and now, just tonight, we’re done. I finished the steps and the touchups after work. We used a solid reddish-brown stain (almost more of a waterproof paint), and it looks wonderful. It matches the hot tub well and if we’re feeling especially productive, we will restain the fence as well to match. This would most likely occur after the winter, as we are running out of time for such things this fall.

I lost and gained a new coworker. At the end of August, Leslie left to go home to Pittsburgh as she was pregnant and her husband has some medical issues and she realized she was quickly becoming overwhelmed. Therefore we went back to our finalists and found Brant. Brant is a wonderful new accomplice – he started after Labor Day Weekend – and I think he’s working out quite well. I really like his interest in learning new stuff – he is a total tech nerd…more so than me – and that he needs little direction on a project to get him going. Most of the time he can determine the best course of action, or where a particularly sneaky link is hidden, etc. without my need to sit down and show him. Training went pretty fast as he was able to come in while Leslie was here so we double-teamed him and got him up to speed fairly quickly. And, here’s the best part: Brant is British. Like a loyal subject with a permanent resident visa for the US. (His teeth are very nice.)

Also at work has been the busiest ohhh, month or so that I’ve ever had. Partly it was training…this takes a lot of time…but there were other factors as well. The biggest trade show of the year is this coming weekend, and in preparation for this trade show we updated our product catalog, released a new gluten-free line of products (with a new label), released a new liquid product in a new display and revamped the liquid labels, and redesigned the label on our new night face cream. Add a bunch of new customer mockups, a few existing customer label redesigns, and a reprint of a particularly difficult label, and that equals LOTS of work. Today was the first day in a long time that I haven’t wondered where the day went and why no one told me.

Of course, we also got a new video game I’ve been cracking out on: Bioshock. Its about a society built underwater that’s completely governed by science. This makes it really creepy, as some of the mad scientists have some messed up human experimentation ideas. Something (I don’t know exactly what yet) goes wrong and people turn on each other and the city goes mad…its got something to do with altered DNA and gene splicing and the instability in the body this causes. But its cool because the story line is solid and its a FPS and RPG rolled into one. You get more genetic alterations and can choose which engineering, combat, and physical tonics you’d like to use. Then there’s also mass bloodshed as the vast majority of characters attack you without hesitation in the game. TJ, Eric, and I have all played the game, and we all play it differently.

Another thing I’ve done this summer is repopulate my fish tank. I now have 2 frogs, 3 snails, an albino catfish, 9 barbs, and 4 tetra. The barbs are really cool because they will huddle around your finger if you put it up to the tank. And they’ll follow it around – I’ve never seen fish do this. I’ve got to get another (smaller) plecostamus as the snails aren’t nearly as efficient as the 10 inch one (Steve) I had before in mass cleaning. They get the crevasses really well, but the walls need some high powered sucking action. Anyway, we added new fake plants and a new light that emits blueish light, and a coral background. It looks awesome and has really renewed my interest in the tank.

Lately I’ve been working on computers…Carlos’ died and I agreed to fix it, and then I stumbled across another accidentally that he could use and fixed that up for him as well. I got a whole pan of homemade enchiladas for it, and I’ve eaten like 5 tonight. *guilty grin* They are so delicious.

Oh, and I forget that I’ve also gotten interested in the stock market, and have learned all about it. G’head, ask me. I’m educated now, and the stocks I’ve picked have done really well so far! I’m pleased, and its really pretty easy to understand once you get all the jargon down. Then just a little research on the companies you’re interested in, and you’re well on your way to potentially increasing your wealth.

There. I dunno if this list of accomplishments/experiences excuses my two month silence, but perhaps at least it sheds some light into my life.