patio

check out our patio. it's ALMOST finished. :-)

manual labor, oh my!

it's been two weeks at my new job. everything is still going well. this last week i designed a couple of more ads, organized the used website inventory (those four external sites i was talking about in the last post), and updated our website with a few things.

in addition to technological work, mom and i have taken our backyard to a new level ... well, we're trying to anyway. i don't have any before pictures, because when i got the shovel in my hand i just started digging instead of thinking, "i should take a picture first." but, i have an after picture of one section of our project. this is our fountain. this took two weeks to finally get right, and even then it's not perfect. but, it looks pretty good and makes water sound and has a ledge for the future squirting frog. :-)

we're also in the process of digging up an 8' x 20' section of the yard to extend our patio (pretend you were me taking this picture ... that section of yard is to your left). needless to say, my body hurts from head to toe and we still have all the dirt of that section to dig out and do something with. what do you do with dirt you don't want anyway? hmmm....

we're not going to do anything fancy. we're just going to make a rectangle with some cement blocks (16" or 24" each) and then plant some flowers/plants between the new patio and the fountain. and THEN we'll be done with my "brilliant idea."

you know, i'm starting to see a pattern. every time i take on a home-do-it-yourself-project, in the middle of it i discover i never want to do that again. the same is true of this project. it sounded and looked great in my head, but my body is screaming and cursing at me and now my head is saying, "remember this next time you come up with some brilliant idea. please."

oh well, live and learn...

another ad

this was ad number 3 and 4, designed as one image to be on a full-page of our local newspaper.

the last two days have been spent on less-creative endeavors. we advertise our used inventory on four different websites, plus our own. the four external sites were disorganized, to say the least, and i've been working on organizing them to include all our used inventory, with correct information and pictures, on all four sites. it's daunting and tedious, but i'm getting it done.

next week i have to create at least two ads that i know of, maybe more. the first is one just like i did my first day on the job. we run an ad in a classifieds paper every week, so that's always something i have to do on monday (or earlier, if i'm ever given the info ahead of time). the rest of the ads run once a month or occasionally.

the first week has been pretty good. not much talking happening though, so i kind of feel lonely a little, but hopefully with time i'll start "fitting" in.

selling tractors and such...

it's been two days and i've created four ads to sell tractors, hay balers, backhoes, ATVs, and other pertinent things with specials like 0% for 36 months. here's how these days have gone...

monday i arrived to fill out two little forms, see how the timeclock works, and clean off my desk. then i organized what little office supplies i had in my area and acquainted myself with my computer. then i installed a trial version of Adobe CS3 that my boss downloaded over the weekend for me. i altered an ad to include our info and tagline (like they've been doing) and went to lunch. that afternoon i redesigned the ad to be double the size and completely new art. i worked on that until the end of the day. my boss took one look at it, said it was good, and handed it over to another guy. he made a couple little changes, said it looked good, i fixed them, and then was given approval. the entire process took about 10 minutes and was very matter-of-fact.

i worked this morning for about two hours on new logo ideas. then i designed my second ad, with new artwork. that one was approved by one person, which included being looked at for about five seconds and then he said, "ok, good, send it to so-and-so. i like it." a bit later it was time for lunch. this afternoon i worked on two ads that were to be side-by-side on the same page for our Outdoors company. this one was the hardest so far because i was given much less direction and had to search longer for certain images. at ten minutes after 5 the manager of the Outdoors store came over to discuss the ad. so tomorrow morning i'll make those few changes and then send it to the paper.

also this afternoon, while i was waiting for feedback about the Outdoors ads, i got oriented with the inventory system and the website. i made a few minor changes that hadn't been made since July and learned a shortcut in Dreamweaver i didn't know about yet.

i've met about 10 people there. 10 out of 25+. people seem nice, but stick to their areas of work and tend to keep busy with actual work. the phone rings constantly. the receptionist answers the phone, puts that person on hold, then calls over the loudspeaker, "sales, line 5" and things of the like, ALL DAY LONG. it's weird. never been in this kind of environment before. it's just like a car dealership, except we're selling farm equipment. i never would have guessed.

i have my own cubicle with one wall. it's situated in the sales department. i have a window. it's warm in the mornings and cold in the afternoons. i have a good computer with a widescreen LCD monitor. i have as stapler and a pair of scissors and a couple of pens and paper clips. :-)

the owners are married, their kids are the managers (one at the regular store, my boss, who's basically just a kid (20-ish) and the other at the Outdoors store, also just a kid), the Outdoors' manager's wife is the receptionist. a lady in accounting is married to a service tech. and i'm sure there are other relationships i haven't learned about yet.

so anyway... just thought i'd share that overall it's good. :-)