Year: 2004

Done this weekend:
– The wedding cake is ordered from The Cake Lady.
– Kymberlie’s royple colored bridesmaid dress is ordered. Yes, royple – it’s royal blue and purple, or a very dark periwinkle which rocks. (It is this color, only it is a satin A-line skirt, not the sheer chiffon fabric shown.)
– I’ve picked out my shoes but am waiting to see if one dress shop will honor the other store’s price. ($70 with 20% off at one store, $50 with 15% off at the other store.)
– We picked out and wrote up all the text for the wedding invitations and response cards, but we are waiting on the same price issue. The local dress store only offers 20% off; the store where my dress came from will give me 40% off. If the local store wants the sale, they will have to match the discount.

Left to do:
– Find an officiant (obviously pretty important, that’s why it’s on the top of the list).
– Finalize arrangements with the DJ.
– Find a florist and order bouquets and other flowers.
– Finalize the block of rooms needed for the hotel.
– Pick out tuxedos and get them ordered.
– Make arrangements with Rannie to get him to Houston.
– Buy bubbles and decorate the bottles.
– Decide where we are going for our honeymoon and make reservations.

The best news of all? Thanks to the South Beach Diet – I’ve lost 6 pounds. Last time I tried on my wedding gown a month ago, I had to breathe in to get it zipped up, and then I walked around barely able to breathe. The 6 pound loss is enough that I could be zipped comfortably and breathe easily. Whew!

I just had to ban another IP from commenting on my site. That makes a grand total of 5 IPs banned for one weird random reason or another. This particular jackmonkey, “shagnastysolo”, decided to be a completely ignorant troll on a post from last December about my move from Sprint to Cingular. You know, it’s one thing to say that you think it’s wrong of me to expect cell phone service at work – which is actually a requirement of Mike’s due to his job – but it’s another thing to call me a “fat-faced bitch” and then tell me that you can say that because of the first amendment and freedom of speech.

No people, you’re missing the point. That is not how freedom of speech works. You can say what you want – in your own space. Then you still need to watch out for the fine line of slander. However, if you post it as a comment on my site – I can, and will, delete it.

I just love it when the odd random troll who has nothing worthwhile to say shows up on some ancient post on my site.

Meanwhile, if my IP blocking is preventing you from commenting, please send me an e-mail and let me know. One time I accidentally blocked an AOL address and some people could comment sometimes, but not all the time. Oops! I know, I know, my troll said that I am “not any type of all-mighty person who has the authority to control anyones expressions or freedom of speech,.you obviously created this site anyways to show the world what a bitch you are,.and so here I am typing this note letting everyone know who checks in on this site,.what a total bitch you are,.get a life and lose some weight, you fat faced bitch, and stop taking out your own personal problems and frustrations on innocent companies.” (Yeah, and that was just half of comment #3! I almost want to post all three comments in my extended entry, just for amusement!)

I think my troll needs to learn how to spell and how to punctuate his sentences a little bit better. What’s up with the comma followed by a period?

For the record – I never took out any problems or frustrations on Sprint. I simply changed to a company that has service at my house and in downtown Houston. Cingular has been good to us for the most part. Sure, there are some glitches where we don’t get signal or the system is too busy – but I expect that to some extent. Cingular rocks!

I love my blog.

I have been thinking about that for the past 24 hours, and I just had to say it. I met Mike because of my blog – along with a lot of other fantastic H-Town bloggers. I’ve made close friends that I adore through my blog. And the latest? I got to work today doing something I could absolutely love – and I’m there because of my blog. Leslie, the owner of the company, is a long-time reader of my blog.

So, what am I doing? I have a feeling it will be a matter of “you name it!” – and I love working like that. Today I wrote copy for an advertisement postcard for a pigeon hunting trip in Paraguay. Who knew that there are something like 8 million pigeons there and that people hunt them? Then I worked on gathering content for newsletters for two different companies. I started working on gathering information for a client that is working on applying for grants and needs a comprehensive list of companies, requirements and deadlines. After that, Leslie & I discussed a client that needs a website created in 4 weeks. We’re writing all the content for it. My task? To determine what pages we will need and come up with the content (they have an existing site and brochures which is done by a brochure design in NYC) to fill it up while keeping it nice and clean.

The office is in a small house just inside of the loop, near Memorial Park. I could take my bike down there and go ride it in the park. There are four of us set up in the living room, and while I would have assumed it would be loud or annoying, it really wasn’t. I have yet to meet the graphic designer, but my other two co-workers were great. I was quite instantly at ease.

There is even an office dog, Ramona. Just like Ramona from the Beverly Cleary books. She is adorable, and I’m normally a cat person. An office dog – how cool is that? An office dog. That just rocks!

Seriously, I don’t think it could get any better. I get to work with nice, hard-working people. It is already obvious that Leslie truly believes in keeping everyone informed as to what is going on within the company. I get to do work that not only requires thinking, but creativity. I’ve learned that the combination is key to my happiness, and I left there today quite happy.