accidental

Once again, Wordpress kicked me out for upgrading my install while still logged in. So weird. And now it’s acting all wonky, which means I probably broke something else while fixing the first thing, and… you get the idea.

Christmas was lovely and fabulous and all the things it should be. Jason’s parents and sister flew in from their respective homes on opposite coasts to spend the week with us, and we cooked for them and took them to our favorite restaurants and enjoyed spending as much time indoors with them as we could muster since it was frigid out most of the time and Jason’s parents, being from California, aren’t quite as used to temperatures in the teens and twenties as the rest of us. For those of you waiting on the edges of your seats with baited breath - my “big” gift from Jason was our season tickets to Denver Center Attractions. We had thought about not renewing, but I really wanted to renew and so he made the decision on my behalf. Our first show is The Color Purple in a couple weeks. And wonderful man that he is - he snagged us aisle seats. I also got some slippers and earmuffs and a bag (this one, although it’s not nearly as bright in person) from Composition (thanks, Dad!) and a coin purse (thanks, Mom!) and a new iPhone case - the Clarifi, which has a little macro lens that slides over the regular iPhone camera to take close-up shots. I’ve used it to snap my collection of business cards into Evernote so I can carry them with me at all times. Very cool.

And with that, 2008 comes to an end. It’s been a good year for us - Jason got a new job, I started working from home full time, we focused on business development in our personal endeavors, and we’ve settled in nicely to our new urban lifestyle (and we LOVE it). My goals for 2009:

• launch our online store
• lose 5 pounds per month the entire year
• redesign my blog
• launch sites for at least two other personal projects I’ve been sitting on
• feel good enough in spandex to enroll in an adult ballet class by August
• run at least two 5Ks
• learn Copperplate calligraphy
• find a vinegar-based salad dressing that I can tolerate
• stop running out of business cards before I reprint
• bring in enough business - through our agency or through the store - to rent or share office space
• introduce myself to one stranger per week, professionally or otherwise
• learn enough Russian to hold a basic conversation
• take a woodworking class
• and because I told Brian Warren I would - birth twins, cure cancer and solve world hunger

We’re in that strange time between Thanksgiving and Christmas - when you’ve already had the dress rehearsal and the main event is simultaneously far away and just around the corner. We finally put our tree up last weekend, and this weekend we’ll probably string some lights around the tree-like shrubs in front of our unit. All our windows are surrounded by brick, and honestly - we’re just too lazy to mess with drilling holes and stringing things up properly.

Thanksgiving with the Gibbs family (Jason’s mom’s family and all the assorted members of that family tree) was wonderful, and I somehow managed to escape the long weekend without gaining any weight. My trainer and I have set a goal for the first of the year - my first real attempt at a “mini goal” - and Jason has been impressed with my resolve when it comes to food. I’ve managed to avoid junk for two weeks now; this is the point at which my resolve falters a bit and I start compromising and allowing bad habits to creep back in, so we’ll see how the rest of the year goes. But I really want to hit that goal.

Jason’s family will be here in a little over a week, and I’ve been thinking of things for us to do while they’re here. We’ll probably make our annual trip to Zoo Lights, and I have a list of restaurants as long as my arm to take them to (as if they won’t ever visit again). And there will be presents - we haven’t finished our shopping, but inspiration has struck and we came up with some gifts for Jason’s parents and sister. I’m done shopping for Jason; I doubt he’s even started any shopping for me. He’s not much of a planner in that way, but he manages. I already let him open his “big” gift, a leather jacket from Eddie Bauer. He knew it was coming because we went to the store to try it on to make sure I ordered the right size (their sizing runs large), and when it arrived we agreed he could open it since the weather warranted it. And then the first day he wore it to work it started raining big, wet flakes and I went to pick him up so he wouldn’t have to walk home and soak his new coat. So now it falls on him to find a “big” gift for me; we were going to get an AppleTV and make that my gift, but now we’re thinking of waiting until the next version. I suggested a little blue box might be nice, but jewelry is always tricky with me - I don’t wear very much and have very specific tastes. And he keeps ruling out another kitten - two is the limit. There’s not really any thing I need, just lots of expensive stuff I want. I’m sure he’ll come up with something wonderful.

I went to my usual salon to get a haircut a couple weeks ago and a refreshing of my color, and while I was there I mentioned to my hairstylist that I’d always wanted to get a facial. I’d never had one before, not even before my wedding, and was curious if all the horror stories I’d heard about were true. You know the ones - a bride goes the day before her wedding and wakes up the next morning with what looks like third-degree burns and flaky skin. My stylist recommended her facialist, who just so happened to rent space in the salon, and on my way out that day I made an appointment for the following Tuesday.

With very little effort, I think I might become a facial addict. It was one of the most relaxing experiences I’ve ever had, a perfect companion to long Swedish massage. Which isn’t too far off, because as part of the facial my aesthetician massaged my face, my scalp, my shoulders and even my arms and hands. She had soft music playng and dim lighting in the room, and as she put each layer of mask or cleanser on my skin she’d tell me what was in it and what it was doing to my face. Everything smelled amazing, and even the extractions (as gross as you might imagine) were, dare I say, pleasurable. Especially after seeing how my skin looked afterward - I glowed for days and am counting the days until I can book my next session, the first step in a gentle chemical peel (I have some sun damage and acne scars I’d like to work on). I might also schedule an appointment with a dermatologist; Dayna (the aesthetician) said I might have the beginnings of rosacea, although being Irish I’m prone to reddish skin anyway.

Jason and I have had the opportunity of late to work on a personal project together. I’m opening an online store, and there are some extremely custom features that I need his help implementing. We spent a couple hours on Saturday making lists and sketches so he could start working on the programming piece while I finish up the design. And throughout the weekend, we’d have conversations about how certain features should function. It’s fun working with Jason because he’s very smart and analytical but also very creative - the sides of his brain are very balanced. I have a tendency to be stubborn and want things done a certain way, but he’s good at helping me see all the different sides of a problem to find the best solution (even if it wasn’t my first choice). Our dream is to work together full-time someday, and all indications point to a successful working relationship. He says he hasn’t felt the urge to throttle me yet, so that’s positive.

Today is our last day of work before the long weekend - Melissa is flying in from New York late this evening and tomorrow the three of us are loading up the car and driving to New Mexico to spend Thanksgiving with Jason’s mom’s side of the family, per recent tradition. This year will be more special than usual because some of the cousins we rarely get to see (and one I’ve never actually met, in Nathan’s case) will be coming into town. Thanksgiving dinner will probably be about 30 people - more reason for me to watch my diet and eat small portions!

I’ve been frantically cleaning and organizing the past few days, not only to make sure the place is presentable for Melissa, but also to get ready for our one-year home warranty inspection next Monday. We actually passed our anniversary in this house about a month ago, but the warranty company changed and we were late in contacting them. I’m hoping they’ll still fix the problems we’re having (all relatively minor); there are still stickers in random places around the house from things that we marked for fixing before we closed, so things move a little slow (and we’re not good at harassing them). The biggest issue for me is the tile in our master shower. It’s a beautiful rust-colored glass tile and… it’s cracking. Badly. So we want them to either replace it and fix the cracking problem or put in a new tile that won’t crack. Other than that, the fixes are small and things we could do ourselves if we didn’t pay for the warranty people to fix them when we bought the house.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday - safe travels!

Well, I got my hard drive back. We haven’t had a chance to do any data recovery (and by “do” I mean “find someone who specializes in this sort of thing and let them do”), but the old drive is sitting in a static-resistant envelope on my desk, waiting for some attention. I’ve been surprised at my lack of desperation in getting the drive back; while there are certainly things on there I’d like to have sooner rather than later, it’s mostly inconvenient rather than painful and damaging. So that’s a plus. And the new hard drive has given me an opportunity to start fresh and work in some best practices into my workflow. For example. I save everything to the desktop, which can slow my machine down. Now I’m doing the right thing and saving and filing things in their appropriate locations. Another problem area - font management. I have thousands of them, and instead of using Suitcase Fusion like I should be (and like I do on my desktop machine, interestingly enough), I just activate them all and call it a day. And the machine slowness compounds. Starting fresh has let me manage my fonts responsibly and keep track of where things are and what’s active.

Thanks to my relationship with The Creative Group, I have the opportunity on occasion to take on some extra work with other agencies and companies in town. They pay a decent hourly rate, as far as temp agencies go, so it’s a nice fill-in when things are a little slow at home. Also, since they usually want me to work in their office, it gives me a chance to truly appreciate working from home. Sometimes I get a little lonely being at home all by myself, but that’s far outweighed by the feeling of independence I have as well as the flexibility in both my work and my schedule. Because I go in as a temp, a lot of the people who work in the office (most of whom have less experience and are in a position lower on the chain than I would want to be hired at) can have a patronizing or condescending air about them - overexplaining things for the “new girl,” etc. - because they’re unfamiliar with my background or experience. That’s definitely not a plus for me. But it’s nice to work for a couple days, finish a project completely, and go home knowing I can make an extra student loan or car payment or two for the month. And I can afford to be picky about which temp jobs I take on - everything is either downtown or something that allows me to work from home - so in that way I feel “in charge.” It’s a net positive for me.

Between projects for my own business and temp work for others, I’ve been fairly busy of late. And Jason hasn’t exactly been slouching on the job either, so we’re both worn out. Rather than crash on the couch and veg in front of the TV, we’re trying something new. Each weeknight, the TV is turned off by 9 p.m. (and usually, so are our computers). We usually head upstairs to get ready for bed by 10 or 10:30 each night, so we’re gaining at least an hour of time we’d otherwise “waste” flipping channels or clearing off the DVR. We’ve been using that time to crawl into bed and read - actual books! - or just go to bed early. I can get by with seven hours of sleep, but Jason needs nine most nights or he’s lethargic and cranky. Now we feel like we have time to truly unwind. Some nights I feel like I have so much to do that shutting down early feels like a setback, but I’ve discovered that stepping back, relaxing and having some planned downtime has made me more productive.

One thing that hasn’t given us any downtime lately is politics. Living in a state that could, in many scenarios, decide the outcome of the presidential election is exciting, but we’re tired of the mail.* And the phone calls. And the people going door to door. I admire their efforts and ground game, but - we’re in the tank. At this point, we’re just ready for it to be over. No big party plans (that we know of) for Tuesday night. There will probably be lots of switching around the cable channels for a punditry fix while watching stats and returns online in real-time. There will also probably be wine, regardless of the outcome.

And with that, I have to ask - where’s the crack?

*The mail can be divided into two piles - one pile attacks the candidate’s opponent, the other encourages us to vote. And the piles are divided completely down party lines! Guess which is which.

Temperatures are dropping ever so slightly week by week here in Denver, which means that the lazy days of summer are officially over. Couple that with the fact that we’re hosting Christmas for Jason’s family this year, and we’ve broken out of our slump and spent the last couple of weeks focusing on getting the house in tip-top shape. Jason has once again tackled the garage. He had it trucking along a few months ago, moving junk around, getting rid of trash, shelving things… and then we took a break and it accumulated more stuff. But by golly we WILL park the car in there this winter, even if we never drive it. We bought hooks for our bikes and inline skates yesterday, so those will finally be up on the wall and not taking up floor space. We need to get a piece of plywood for the overhead storage brackets we bought months ago, and then a ton more boxes of Christmas ornaments and camping equipment will have a place to go. Our huge recycling bin has a corner to fit in, and there’s a giant pile of trash to have hauled away and an equally giant pile of Hefty bags filled with clothes and other things to donate.

The only thing left in the garage to sort through is stuff that will eventually end up in my office. We had a couch and TV in there to make it more of a den, but that dream is long gone - I need the storage for inventory (and the stuff left in the garage). At the moment, I have one entire wall filled with 6-foot shelving. If I could figure out a way to rig pulleys to the 13-foot ceilings so I could store more I would (and I just might consider it eventually). I’m maxed out in there. We sold the TV stand in that room and the TV in our bedroom (that was just taking up space, really), along with a set of leaning shelves and the elliptical machine that we never use. The couch from my office moved into the space where the elliptical was in our bedroom; now we just need some taller shelving for the wall opposite our bed. We have a friend who’s a carpenter, and we’re thinking of talking to him about creating some custom built-ins for us to work with our high ceilings and awkward windows. The tallest shelves I’ve seen are at Room & Board and are $1200 a piece (we’d need two), so a custom solution that could actually get us more storage might be a better approach.

It’s a good thing we made a little extra money this weekend selling our stuff, because I might need to invest in some more external storage. Yesterday, while working on my laptop as normal, my hard drive started making clicking noises. I ignored it, thinking it would go away, and then I got a spinning beach ball as I was browsing the web and decided that I’d just restart and clear out whatever badness had infected my system. Except that the computer never restarted - it would power on and fail when it tried to boot. EPIC FAIL. I restarted a few dozen times, I ran the Disk Utility to diagnose the problem (lots of “invalid node structure” errors on my hard drive), I tried to repair the disk and failed, I tried to boot in target mode to my desktop so I could copy my files over and couldn’t get the laptop to mount… I tried everything. I even caved and called AppleCare, and they couldn’t fix it. So, after he got off work, Jason and I took my precious 6-month-old baby to the Apple Store in Cherry Creek. And the kind, Australian-accented Genius behind the Bar told me my drive was FUBAR. I managed to only water at the eyes, not full-out cry (I had done that for most of the day), as we set up the repair to replace my hard drive. He talked a manager into to approving letting me have the old drive back (normally they keep it) so we can try to recover some data, but at the moment… 185 GB is gone. Photos, digital records, email archives, stock photos and illustrations, iTunes downloads, not to mention all my client work. A large chunk of client stuff is on my FTP site because I move things back and forth to the desktop that way, so it’s not a crippling loss. But every few minutes I think of something else that can’t be duplicated. And it’s completely my fault - I didn’t back up. I have a terrabyte worth of disk space sitting on my desk and my desktop is backed up every hour with Time Machine, but I was too lazy to tether the laptop every night and back it up. Rest assured, that won’t be happening again. The laptop is at the Apple Store now, waiting for its new hard drive to be delivered and installed, and when it comes home the first thing I’m doing is automating a WiFi backup.

Yesterday wasn’t all bad news, though. I applied a couple weeks ago to be an Envelopments designer and dealer as part of one of side businesses, and last week my sales rep called to clarify a few details on my application and let me know I’d been accepted. My Design Studio arrived yesterday, and I had some fun going through the whole thing and explaining to Jason how everything worked. I received my login to their website as well, and they have tons of artwork I can use in my own designs. I’m excited to get started and launch my website!