Old and busted...

Well, that's not a very nice thing to say about Blogger. But I've moved on to new hotness - check out the up to date blog at gitgan.com/blog. Powered by Wordpress.

Post-mortem?

Wow, even writing here feels a bit odd. It's been so long. I got all kinds of excuses. Part of me wonders if it's just blogger burnout. - Anybody ever feel that way? I've got lots to write about, just no motivation to actually do the writing. I have yet to mention life as a father, update anybody on what the kids are up to, we've had lots of friends do so many nice things for us, I've been busy with Gitgan stuff... The topics go on and on. But for now, all that stuff will have to wait. But until when?

Q&A fun with Mr. Smith

A lot has happened since I last wrote and to fill you all in I thought I'd tell you about it in my favorite blogging format - Q&A style. Sure, I could just send you to her blog, busy little fingers has she - updates, she does frequently. Wow, that is a Yoda sounding sentence. Better jump right into it before I get all Frank Oz on you. Q. So Josh what's been happening? A. You couldn't come up with a better question to start this off than that? Wow, you're slipping bro. Q. Sorry, but its been a while. Just answer the question. A. Right - Well, where should I start. I've got a new job - that's something right? Q. Yes, you're at Coltène/Whaledent now - what are you doing? A. I'm in the graphic design department, working with 2 other really talented designers. It's nice. I've never had the opportunity to work in a creative team like this before and I'm finding it to be quite refreshing. Good to bounce around some ideas, and at bare minimum, I have two other people who empathize with me about having to add "just a little more" copy to an ad or make the logo bigger again. Q. So it sounds like a great opportunity - tell me again, what is it exactly that Coltène/Whaledent does? A. We make Whale dentures. You know, for whales. Some are made of baleen. Q. Really? A. Sure, we have a sister company in New Zealand that specializes in eyewear - Coltène/Whalegoggles. I'm just kidding. We do make dental products, but as far as I know, we only do that for people. A lot of neat stuff too - mostly things that make me want to brush and floss really well so I don't ever have to have them used on me. Q. So what's so great about it? A. Well, for one thing the hours are pretty cool - 8:15 AM to 4:30 PM. The way I look at it - I've got 45 extra minutes than the rest of you working folks. And I'm working on a Mac. I can't tell you how nice it is to have my computer at work, actually function the way it should. All day long. And when I do keyboard shortcuts, they actually work - no goofy window button in my way baby. Look out! I'm about to Command+Option Upside your head. Q. What? A. Sorry - I get a little carried away when it comes to working on a Mac. Did I mention that it's a PowerMac G4 with dual processors? Q. No, you didn't. A. Oh, well it is. Q. Great, well, moving along - what else has been happening in the world of Smith? A. Well, we are pretty deep into the process of adopting three kids. That's a pretty big happening. Q. Yeah, it is. How are things going? A. Better than I could have imagined - well, that's not exactly true. I have a pretty vivid imagination - you know it could be better if, for instance, the kids came with a lifetime supply of Skittles. Yeah, that would be great. Q. Did you know that you can taste a rainbow of fruit flavors when you eat them? The skittles I mean, not the children. A. Actually, yes I did know that, and I understood the question - no need to clarify. The kids have been well-behaved, well-mannered and well-hyphened in other areas too. It will be a lot of work but, we're really looking forward to them coming home. Q. That's great. Remind me, what are the details? A. The oldest is a 4-and-a-half year-old girl, followed by an almost 3 year-old boy and a 15 month-old boy. They're all such good ages, then again we're of the opinion that most ages are pretty good. Q. Wow, could we see a picture? A. Sure, click here. Q. Well, that was nice. A. Yeah, funny too. We're not ready to share what the kids look like with the world wide web. Rest assured that they are indeed very cute, and that this blog will not be overrun with posts only about them and the latest cute thing they said or the frequency, consistency or hue of their bowel movements. Q. Well, sure sounds like you'll have a lot of fun, but it will be work too - have you thought about that? A. Absolutely, we're not totally insane, just mildly. Enough that we probably could be institutionalized, but not enough that we'd need to be in special jackets all day. We've been pretty busy lately, working on the house, getting their rooms ready, building a new closet in our room, lots of stuff to be busy with. That's why I haven't updated the blog. Q. How have people reacted finding out about you adopting? A. For the most part people are really happy and supportive. I do have to say that we've been asked some of the funniest questions when people find out that we're adopting three kids. Q. Really, like what? A. Well if they know a little about our journey through infertility they ask us if we're still going to "keep trying". I always tell them, no. The whole idea of procreation is such a messy business, at this stage of our lives we've pretty much just stopped. Then I laugh at them. Of course we're still "trying" if that mean having intercourse. We're young, and I find my wife to be extremely attractive. If they mean, will Kirsten go on birth-control, that's a big no. We figure if God wants to choose now to have us get pregnant, then not only does He have a great sense of humor but, ultimately a much bigger plan than we've seen so far. Q. Hmm. That's an interesting opinion. Say, I have a cousin whose neighbor's sitster's neice couldn't get pregnant and they adopted a little girl from Uzbeckistan and wouldn't you know it, she got pregnant with triplets?! A. That's great, good for her. I hope that you're not inferring that adoption is some sort of magical infertility treatment. Because that would be plain stupid. If God chooses to give people who had struggled with infertility biological children, after they've adopted others, it was His plan from the beginning - completely independent from adoption. Q. Oh, no I wasn't saying that - I was just telling you a story I had heard... A. I know. After all, I'm you and you're actually just asking the questions I want you to ask. Q. You're right! You're so smart, and extremely good-looking I might add. So, what if you do get pregnant? A. Then obviously we're supposed to have more than 3 kids. His timing is His issue, following the plan that He's revealed to us is ours. Q. Good point, I'm glad I asked the question. A. Me too. Q. Any other things to you'd like to share? A. Actually, no. Q. By the way, you know you're posting this just in time to get it into the month of April - so you won't have any "breaks" in your blog archive? A. Oh, how convenient - an added benefit to interviewing with such a nice gentleman. I've had an absolutely wonderful time. Q. Well, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to talk to me today. I hope we can do it again sometime. A. Me too.

Another trip to Ikea

A few weekends ago Kirsten and I went to Ikea with Ben & Ashley who had a fat stack of wedding cash burning a hole in their collective pocket. Kir and I were on more of a reconnaissance mission - checking out stuff for that time when we'll have a few more people running around the house. We looked at cribs and dressers, curtains and towels, duvet covers and light fixtures. I think we spent about $40 - which just might be the smallest amount we've ever spent there. We got a couple things obviously, my favorite was Bilar - candy cars made out of this marshmallow type stuff. We purchased some bowls, a couple cutting boards and some markers for the kids Kirsten nannies.

We headed out on Saturday morning and made our way to the store by 11:00 and started our way around the store. We found out early that Ashley is indeed small enough to fit inside that goofy children's Mork from Ork chair. Then we made our way up to the cafeteria where I avoided the meatballs and in the process avoided crippling diarrhea. I had potato & cheese perogies - I didn't know that they were Swedish. Then again I didn't know what a RÖNÖ was or that Ikea sold deadly weapons. Jeff and Heidi had a family member get married that same weekend and they were in PA on Friday - so Saturday after the wedding they drove a few hours west and stayed at the lovely Holiday Inn Greentree where we were also staying, just a few short minutes from Ikea. Getting to the store so early in the day had worn us out - that and Ben and Ashley were out late the night before - Ben was playing bass in Andy Dolson's band. So we went back to the hotel and Ben & Ashley fell asleep. Kirsten & I were awake enough to be slightly interested in Curling and tired enough to not change the channel. After naptime we decided to go get dinner - being in a city that we're not usually in we decided to go to one of the local places. We wanted to avoid eating at some place that we could go to any day of the week so we picked a place called Fat Heads. We picked Fat Heads because they had a pretty good looking menu and 39 beers on draft. We drove into the city found the restaurant and drove around for another 10 minutes looking for a parking spot. We found one, 3 blocks away, which wouldn't have been that big of a deal except it was one of those times when winter decided to visit us. It was really cold, and once we made our way to Fat Heads we were pretty glad to be inside. So glad in fact that we decided we would wait the "a little over an hour" that the hostess told us we'd have to wait before we could get a table. Well, about 135 minutes later we sat down at a table and the senior citizen they had assigned to our table as a waitress shuffled by with her walker and took our order. Our food came about 30 minutes after we ordered and we woke up and ate it. Then we ran through the cold back to where we had parked Ferguson, fired up the engine and drove back to the hotel. Where Jeff and Heidi had been hanging out for a few hours partaking of the gourmet room service. The next morning we woke up, got ready to and went down to Jeff & Heidi's room then headed out to get some breakfast. We were going to go to Cracker Barrel and have some home cookin' but apparently everybody else wanted home cookin'. So we decided to have America's other favorite place for breakfast - McDonald. That's where we saw this zooming by to the drive-thru line. We weren't sure that we actually saw what we saw so I headed over to the other side of the restaurant and snapped a couple pictures as this Buick LeSabre rolled by. In case you couldn't see what we saw, through the power of technology I have enhanced the photos to give you some more detail. Yep - that's a dummy. Wearing a red ball cap, blue blockers and sporting a sweet beard made out of what looks like dog hair. I 've heard about this stuff where elderly widows put one of these things in the front seat to look like they aren't alone. Notice that they have him safely strapped into a seat belt. How nice - I wonder if they got him an Egg McMuffin too? Notice again -what looks like three heads. I'd guess that there are two brains and one of them is in the back seat. Crazy part of this is I've seen this guy before. He works security at Don Sitts on Front St. in Cuyahoga Falls. Apparently they gave him the weekend off, hopefully he got a more comfortable chair - something like a TVÅÅKER or my favorite, the classic POÄNG. I know Don Sitts is a great dealership and they seem to have pretty good business, our families have bought over 12 vehicles from them. But, I think they could get the guy a nicer chair to sit in - I mean he does sit there all night keeping an eye on things. Just an idea.

After breakfast we went back to Ikea, Ben and Ashley bought some pretty cool stuff and we ended putting some of it together that night after church. I do have to say that taking a camera is a great idea when you go to Ikea, you never know when you're going to want to capture a special memory. Like some random person trying out a mattress. Ahh, the wonders of Swedish design - looks comfortable huh?

Compulsary Neckwear

I had an interview today. I woke up in a generally bad mood because I knew I needed to wear a tie - something that I hardly ever do. It's not that I don't like ties - I do. I have quite a few that I think are very nice looking too, it's just - when I wear them I'm doing in on my terms. I don't know if it's just me or what but I kind of hope I "look like" a graphic designer. Most of them that I know, well - they don't wear ties.

I've probably checked my email more often since this whole thing has started and just about every time I login, there's nothing new. Then - one time I checked it and a single "(1)" showed up. Excitedly I opened the inbox to find...

Spammed. But hey, who could pass up complimentary glamour shots?

Tags: ikea cuyahoga+falls dummy blue+blockers gitgan mcdonalds humor

• gitgan
• humor
• glamour+shots
• career

Rocking the want ads

Alright kids here's the update. My last post was a bit ambiguous but, here's the reasoning. My portion and my cup God's got a reason for everything that happens in our lives. I've often wondered how many times a day God steps into our happenings and intervenes. Like if you're a couple minutes late to work, maybe it's because if you were on time you would have run over a kid or something. But lately my portion and my cup have undergone some significant shifts. I found out on January 30th that my department at work is being "eliminated" and most marketing functions will be outsourced. My boss was let go immediately. I on the other hand... The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places They're giving me 8 weeks to find something new and giving me outplacement services, as well as giving me referrals and putting in a good word for me with clients. It's wierd but I honestly feel that I have never been more spiritually prepared to deal with something like this, at the same time things have kind of hit a lull on the adoption front. I know that there is something better out there for me, and honestly I'm looking forward to finding it. With the prospect of adding to the Smith clan in the not-so-distant future, now is a great time to find a new job. So if you hear of anything that you think I might be a good fit let me know. View my resume at: geocities.com/jrs930

Tags: career gods will gitgan joy adoption

You have made known to me the path of life

This means a lot to me lately. Thought I'd share it with all of you.