Kingsquared

An Early Halloween

By Jessica, on October 14th, 2007

Since I knew John was leaving for 3 whole weeks and he wouldn’t be here for Halloween, I got him to celebrate a little bit early with me. We didn’t have much time so we couldn’t go to a REAL pumpkin patch and get pumpkins, we had to go to a produce store instead. But, we picked some big ones anyway. Mine weighed in at 28.75lbs. and John’s was a 30 pounder. We took them to the apartment and John decided to draw a freestyle Charlie Chaplin and I went for the same ol’ pirate skull that I always go for and start before I realize that I’ve done it before.

So we cut them up and emptied them out. Then we carved them into amazing jack o’ lanterns. I had a good time, however I do not think John was as impressed as I’d hoped he’d be. It was, after all, his first time. He actually did very well and I am pleased with our happy little punkins!

And for your viewing pleasure, here they are!

t.v. rules our lives.

By Jessica, on October 3rd, 2007

There has not been much going one these days. Saturday John and I went to a very nice dinner. We ate at Salty’s on Alki and it was the best place I’ve ever been to. The food was amazing, and the chocolate cake, to die for. I got my wish of a window seat and it was an amazing view of the Seattle skyline at sundown. I had a great time.

I’ve been feeling sick this week.l I guess it’s that time of year for the cold bug to make it’s way around to everyone. This has resulted in me not wanting to do much. So John and I get to spend time doing what all Americans love to do, watch T.V. On Mondays we watch Chuck, Heros, and Journeyman while recording 2.5 Men, How I met your Mom and Big Bang Theory. Then Tuesdays we watch Beauty and the Geek, House and Eureka. Wednesday I have Gossip Girl, Pushing Daises, Bionic Woman, and ‘Till Death. Then we have Thursdays we have Smallville, CSI and Survivor China. And to finish it off on Friday, we have Friday Night Lights.

So as you can see we devote most of our time to T.V. Thank God for DVR.

Wedding Day

By Jessica, on September 23rd, 2007

After a six years together and a year and a half engagement, Leanne and Jeff are now Mr. and Mrs. Oxborough. Saturday September 22, 2007 at 4:00pm was the wedding and the reception started at about 4:15pm. It was beautiful. It was held at Lake Lawrence Lodge in Yelm, WA. We got the key to the lodge on Friday at noon.It only took about 3 hours to turn it into the perfect wedding hall. It was hard work but between our family and Jeff’s family, we got it done with a quickness. Saturday morning was full of hair and makeup, then we got dresses on at the lodge and pictures to follow.

The ceremony was short but sweet. They had a very close friend of theirs perform the ceremony for them and she did an absolutely amazing job. It was so surreal, but beautiful to see them up there together. It was a long time coming and it was worth it. I am SO happy for them.

The food was from Casa Mia and so delicious. The Cake was amazing too. Gosh, we had so much fun. It was a blast. The only that my sister said she really wanted to have at her wedding was fun. Mission accomplished. Of course It was a sappy day and I cried about 50 different times, like when they said their vows, when my dad walked her down the aisle, the father daughter dance, and the speeches. It was an open mic. for speeches so I tried to make a good one but couldn’t get too many words out. It was an amazing day.

So CONGRATULATIONS to Mr. and Mrs. Jeff and Leanne Oxborough!

Leanne and Jeff

Leanne and Dad

Me and the Bride

The Cake

Bored and broke

By John, on September 17th, 2007

Its so hard to stay conveniently occupied and entertained and keep money in the bank account. As it stands now I’m on the edge of broke; but, I’m not completely broke so I still have a little bit of breathing room. The new job is going to help out a bunch and I may catch an extra couple of shifts much to the chagrin of Jessica. I need this money and I need to get ahead of things. If I work as little as 20 hours a week I’ll net a few hundred extra a month and it gets me out of hot water immediately. I’m not late on anything right now but if I went another month this way I’d be forced to start doing something drastic like selling plasma or becoming a male prostitute. I really don’t want to become a male prostitute for a few reasons (who else has time to think this out? ) – the clientèle I would draw would be much like the women that Rob Schneider attracted in Deuce Biggalo, the STD’s would be a huge drawback, the military would probably imprison me for trying (thus exacerbating the lack of income), and it would drive Jessica away (again, another bad thing). I could start selling my plasma to make a few bucks here and there but it freakin hurts. I had a friend in HS whose sole source of income was from the plasma he harvested from his body. I’m waiting to go to the desert because I can stop paying for a two giant money killers: rent and food. Both are paid for in the desert and I can take that cash and throw it on a bill. Hopefully, I’ll be down one credit card by the time I get back. If I’m good I’ll be able to get one partially gone before I leave.

It sucks being broke but its nobody’s fault but my own. I’m stupid for doing it and I hope to hell I’ll figure out how dumb I’ve been and never repeat my mistake.

Boredom is synonymous with a lack of creativity and lack of cash flow. There are very few things I can do that take absolutely no money. Think about it – if you want to go somewhere you’ve got to drive and use gas – even if you spend nothing while there you’re out the gas. Unfortunately if you’re gone for long enough you’ll need to bring some food. Sure, you’ve got some stuff in your house that you can bring with you but thats the stuff you bought for lunches during the week. The other option is to eat on the road and spend cash that you didn’t want to spend in the first place.

So, if you’ve got some extremely low cost ideas on how to spend your off duty time let me know – you can only watch TV and goof around on the internet so much – both of which cost money – before you’ve run the gamut and need to find something else to do.

Gee – this was quite a long rambling post – it saved me from boredom for a few minutes but its a solo activity and left out somebody thats sitting on the couch begging for my attention

choices are hard

By Jessica, on September 10th, 2007

Well, summer break is over and it’s back to school for me. This brings a bit more stress on me than normal. I have this wonderful internship that is putting my foot in the door of a great company. However, I have much more work at school to do. I wanted to be done with school by the end of May. In Order for me to do this, I will have to give up the internship, go to school full time, and pick up another part time job.

I do not want to let Weyerhaeuser down. I have job responsibility to them and I do not want to just drop out. I do want to finish school as soon as possible though. This kind of sucks but the sooner I get a real job and heath care, the sooner I can move into my own place and start that life of my own. I am just really torn at this point.

Another factor is the part time job. I’m sure I could go back to Target but my pride would be bruised. I am also not going to be paid what the internship was paying me, which means I will have to work a lot harder to get the same amount of money.

Blah, growing up is stressful.

An update of sorts

By John, on September 4th, 2007

I have not posted anything of relative substance for quite some time as I’ve been busy doing this and that… it also doesn’t help that I only have a scant few readers so I’m less inclined to actually write something. Imagine if I was recieving 1,000 visits per day instead of the 10-15 unique visitors that I get. I’m still unsure as to why I feel that I should share almost everything in this forum as opposed to not letting anyone know whats going on. I guess I feel that this forum is relatively anonymous and potentially vouyeristic. I only tell stories about things that have happened to me and about how I react to those events.

My writing style isn’t particularly refined and my stories are only so-so. Once in a while I’ll have a worthy story of note but odds are you’re bound to get the same drudge that you might here from anyone else that you might know.

I’ve been looking on and off for a part time job and I think I’m going to slam one out for the rest of the year. In other words, I’m going to work myself to sheer and utter exhausting for a few months and get ahead on things. Its going to take insane time management and will drain me every day. I know that I can do this and I know that I must do this. I still haven’t had anyone hire me yet but it may not be the job of my dreams… then again, there are few jobs most of us dream of getting save for being professional athletes or high ranking politicians. Is it odd that the only jobs we dream of getting are those that are most likely to have unwanted fans and stalkers?

After getting caught up on some things I plan to move out of my current residence into another that is slightly more spacious and that provides a few extra ammenities (a place to put a grill and a in appt washer and dryer). While those things may seem trivial, I have found that I am more than tired of going up and down the elevator in my building and fighting with the coin operated jobbies. Having a grill would be equally splendid because its one of the few cooking surfaces that I would no longer have to clean up. I’ve become fairly skilled in its operation and I would only become more skilled as opportunity increases.

Jessica (the girlfriend) is doing well save for the stress she puts herself under. She’s got quite a few things on her plate at the moment and I’m sure that I would feel quite overwhelmed. Luckily for her, as of the 23rd of this month most of those things will be done and over with (Bridezilla… err I mean her sisters wedding).

She’s on the ropes as to whether she should end her internship and finish her AA or stay there and only get a technical certificate. I think that the AA degree would only help in the end if she should get out of her career field at some point in time. The degree is in biotechnology and from what she has told me there are quite a few people with that degree and no job in the industry. I’m unsure if the degree program isn’t worth her time or if the other candidates were less than sterling. Needless to say, she’s got about as much on her plate as I have on mine. It creates a significant amount of stress on the both of us and as you can imagine we can take it out on eachother. Luckily, we know that neither partner deserves the extra (and misplaced) animosity so we’re quick to cut it off.

Ok… thats the update of sorts. Hopefully I can provide something that is actually interesting to read at a later time.

Cool Runnings

By John, on August 27th, 2007

On Friday we were to compete in a soap box derby race that was to be held sans hill… it was to be part of sports day. So, we put together a car that we thought would win and put it against the rest of the challengers. We did fairly well until about halfway through the race when the car veered off the track and the rear wheel mount broke. We couldn’t fix it and win (it was only a 400m race) so we decided to finish the race the only way we could. We decided to carry the car to the finish line. It was fun and we had alot of people watching us carry the car in. Its a shame we didn’t remember to yell out “Cool Runnings!” as we approached the finish line. Somebody started a slow clap and the whole thing ended up turning out quite funny in the end. Below is a before and after photo.

White river

By John, on August 15th, 2007

Last weekend we spent a few days camping.

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We weren’t exactly roughing it as we had almost everything a person might need… well, save for the things that we forgot. Luckily, we were only 10 miles down the road from a tourist trap town and 50 miles down the road from a decent sized town. Next time I’m sure that we won’t forget as much as we did this time. We learned a few lessons (don’t buy firewood from the locals) and learned that you can take wood that you find as long as its less than 10in in diameter. So… next time we need to bring an axe… I took a few photos while we were out there along with a few videos. I’ll try to get the vids later.

As you can tell from the photos, we both had fun.

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Kicking it in the Cornfields

By John, on August 1st, 2007

I’ve been back home for the past couple of days hanging out with my family. The girlfriend has been with me and for the most part we’ve been having fun. I had to deal with reality for the first time when I took my dad to his chemo and radiation treatments. I’ve been out of the loop for a while and it makes a convenient way to avoid what is going on. I’ve dealt with it now but its still not a cool thing. I’m glad that he’s only got until Monday and he is done with all of the bad stuff. Hopefully they’ll get it all on the first shot and he won’t have to go back for a second round.

We haven’t really done anything of note but it is Knoxville and there is only so much to do. I haven’t taken any photos because I left my camera behind and its sitting on my desk at home. I’ll be back to my normal routine on Monday so until then I’ll enjoy my time here and I’m going to eat as much food as I can… I love vacation