Life has been busy. Work is busier than ever. I've really been enjoying my new computer/hardware setup, but the loss of my assistant has made things more stressful for me than I thought. I have been doing a decent job of keeping my tasks managed so I don't forget anything or anyone, but it still happens from time to time.

To update this blog, I've more or less resorted to just bulk updates or monthly updates on my life. So, here goes. August was a lot of fun. Rachelle and I went to Charlotte, NC on August 1st to meet my friends Rex and Catie. We met at the Cheesecake Factory for some delicious food goodness. I love cheesecake. Just going on the record with that.


After eating a good lunch, we went to the IKEA store there. In Charlotte I mean. There's not a secret IKEA store inside The Cheesecake Factory, in cas you were wondering. IKEA is an interesting store. The place is massive and full of furniture made by, presumably, the Swedes. I am at least assuming they name everything because all of the product names are hard to pronounce and whenever I say them, I sound like I don't know how to read.


We spent a long time walking around the store. It was fun to look at their layouts and envision myself setting up a room in my house to look like that. Everything is pretty cheap there. I'm terrible at decorating things, by the way. I appreciate a well-decorated space, but part of me is afraid to spend money on decorative items that are mainly for other people to look at, when I am worried that those people may not like my decorations.

I obviously need to grow in this area, because my house does not look that great. And, of course, when I say "my house", I really mean "the house that belongs to my grandmother that my twin brother Tim and I rent from my parents". But, just imagine this paragraph and others like it if I used that whole phrase every time. "I was thinking about decorating this part of the house that belongs to my grandmother that my twin brother Tim and I pay a monthly rent check to my parents, who are in fact, my landlords, with wall to wall carpeting and floor to ceiling polka dots." Yeah, I think it works. That's not a bad decorating idea either.

Anyway. My friends Jami and Lauren from community group got married on August 8th. I was a groomsman. I look pretty dang good in a tux, if I do say so myself. I won't point out where I am in these pictures. Just look for the best looking groomsman, and if it's not me, you need to have a discussion with yourself about your perception of "awesome".


The night of the rehearsal dinner for Jami and Lauren's wedding was my first time ever going to an event with a "+1" (you know, with... a date), and I wanted it to be really special. Of course, having Rachelle with me made it special, but we went a step further and came up with matching outfits.


Of course, on the day of the wedding, after it was all over, Rachelle and I went out and took some photos of ourselves looking quite styling! I'm in love with this girl, I tell you. She's great.


The next weekend was Rachelle's birthday weekend, so we traveled to Conway, SC (where she grew up) and visited her family. They all liked me, I think. It was fun to just relax and not have to work on the weekend for a change.

I made the weekend special for Rachelle by giving her a birthday gift every day of the weekend (one on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday). I got excited about her birthday a few months ago and had already purchased one of her gifts in June.

After celebrating a big Sunday birthday lunch with the family (on the 16th), Rachelle and I drove to Charleston, SC, where her dad and step-mom live. We spent the night at their house and then drove back to Greenville on Monday after looking around Charleston for a couple of hours.

The weekend after Rachelle's birthday (the 22nd) was quite a busy Saturday. In the morning, I came over and helped set up Rachelle's portfolio and business presentation for an expo that her apartment complex was hosting. It was a neat opportunity that allowed her to showcase some of her excellent photography work to other local business owners and apartment renters who came in and out of the apartment office during the day. Hopefully, that will yield some more photography work for her, because she is quite talented! And of course, I get to be an assistant photographer on some of her shoots, which is always fun.


Rachelle stayed at the apartment office for a while to show the portfolio to people coming by (there were not a whole lot of people... but, that's how things go sometimes). We left around noon to drive to my parents' house for an "August birthdays" cookout. Apparently, a lot of the people in my family have August birthdays. I guess I never tuned in to that.


I bought my dad a pair of pliers for his birthday. He is always saying "you can never have too many pliers", so I decided to take him up on that. Part of me sensed that once I gave him that pair, he finally had "enough pliers", but hey, I found a deal on a pallet of pliers, so, he'll be getting them for a few years. Don't tell him.

We stayed at my parents' for a while, and, of course, while we were all together, we pulled the whole family together for a big photo. I put my DSLR on a timer, and, after positioning everyone, jumped into the picture myself. The picture came out ok but everyone was in such a hurry to disband that I'm sure it could have been better if we had more time.


We left that party around 2:15 and headed straight for Charlotte, NC. Rachelle's cousin, AJ, and her husband Jason live in Albemarle, and the four of us (and their baby daughter) met at IKEA to peruse the store. That's right, twice in one month. It was fun.


We went through the store a lot quicker this time. I bought a lamp. It's awesome. I have it sitting on my desk at work. That's all I bought for myself. I also bought some shelf pieces for my friends Dan and Rachel, who are getting married soon and are decorating their new house and they asked me to pick up a few pieces for them while we were there.

This past weekend was the first "free" weekend we've had in a while. It was nice to relax. I got up early and tried to do some yard work. My front yard has been in need of a good cutting in a long time, and the back yard was even worse. I got out my lawn mower (again, that possessive "my" really means "the lawn mower that my dad lets me borrow because even though I'm 25 and should own a lawn mower and power tools and a toolbelt and 42 pair of pliers and a fashionable scarf, I do not yet own such things") and tried to start it. I tried for like 30 minutes. Piece of junk mower. It gave my arm a good workout though, and made me look quite foolish in front of all of the neighbors, I'm sure.

I called my parents and let them know that the mower wasn't working, and that they could just come get it at their convenience. I made plans to somehow afford a new lawn mower, and then my dad offered to let me borrow another one of his. Seriously? Who has that many lawn mowers? My dad, apparently. My dad has a lot of stuff. Ask to borrow some pliers from him sometime.

I spent the rest of the morning on Saturday trying to get things done around the house. I made a "to do" list around the house of all the stuff I have to... you know... do. Sometimes I call my lists "to get done" lists, but hey, don't judge. I swept out the carport. Old houses that don't have garages sometimes have these things called "carports" where you park your car. It has no door. It's basically an outdoor open shelter that just collects leaves in the fall and dirt/sand the rest of the year. Sweeping that out was a chore and a half. I also did a lot of laundry. In the midst of washing clothes, I super-cleaned the kitchen. Tim had jello "awhile ago" (I don't really want to say how long) but to make a long story short (yes, even I am sometimes capable of summarizing), the jello had turned to some sort of plastic and was stuck to everything in the sink and all the bowls and dishes in the sink. So, I spent a long time cleaning that, as well cleaning out the microwave, stove, etc. It looks good.

Rachelle and I met Tim and my friend Brian Schlarb for lunch at Moe's around 1pm on Saturday. That was a good time. Brian and I haven't gotten together in a long time and he has been wanting to meet Rachelle for a long time too.

It was good to enjoy some Moe's because I knew it was going to be my last Moe's experience for a while. Rachelle and I officially started our diet yesterday. You can read about it some more on her blog (chubbychelley.blogspot.com) if you want to. I enjoy reading what she writes. Rachelle has a way of writing that I wish I could... I always mention too many boring details that no one reads. You know what I'm saying. Are you even still reading?


Anyway. The diet excites me some because getting healthier is supposedly a good thing. I've always been "the fat kid" so it doesn't really bother me that much. I like to eat. Food is comforting to me. When I've had a crappy day, shoving food in my face (and eating it, not just leaving it there) always makes me feel better. But, I know that's not really good for me. Plus shoving food is messy, let's be honest.

Rachelle and I started going to the gym last week too. That was kind of a first for me. I've enjoyed running on the treadmill. Listening to electronica on my iPod helps pass the time, especially because we've been going to the gym in 30 minute increments, and I can't say that just running in the same place staring at the same wall for 30 minutes is what I would call "fun". Although, I suppose if you saw me on the treadmill, you wouldn't classify what I was doing as "running" anyway. Sometimes I visualize a twinkie right in front of me. Don't judge.

The food control with the diet though has been harder than I thought. We're only on Day 2. Everything we're eating (we planned out healthy meals for the entire week) has tasted really good but it just hasn't left me feeling as full as I am used to, and so I pretty much feel hungry all the time. I know that's dumb, because I'm obviously not starving. I just have that hungry feeling all the time. We also have to drink at least 3 liters of water a day. That's easy for me. I can drink water like it's my job. Actually, I wonder if there is a job that allows me to get paid to drink water...I'm going to look into that.

So, yesterday was harder to diet than I thought it would be, but it was ok. I passed the time by doing work around my house. I got up early and went to my parents' house to get the other lawn mower from them. I spent a couple of hours at their house just sitting around and talking, and then came back to my house to do some yardwork. After I finished cutting both the front yard and the back yard, I worked on Rachelle's iPod for a while (trying to get the iPod fully synced to her laptop) and then went to Walmart and bought some things for the house. Several of the things on my "list" around the house had to do with organizing various areas, like the utensil/silverware drawer, bathroom towels, etc.

Here's what I ended up with.


Good progress, I'd say. Things are definitely neater. I've been on an organizing/cleaning craze for a while... it's like I can't stop! I've completely cleaned and reorganized my office at work, gotten cables tied down, taped down, etc. and it's looking awesome. I got a lot of things done on my house "to do" list too, so that felt good.

So I guess that was pretty much August. I'm looking forward to what September holds! Rachelle and I are traveling back down to Charleston September 18-20 (yep, another Sunday off for me) to spend the weekend with her dad and step-mom, so that should be fun. I'm also traveling some in October. Rachelle and I are going to Montana in the middle of October to visit Tara Barthel and her family, and I'm going to Tampa, Florida at the end of October to shoot a wedding. I don't think I've ever traveled this much in such a short span in my entire life. It's fun though.

What have you been up to?

Later,

Joe