Valentine's

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY everyone!

Middle of the road

Today is an important day. We're half way there to getting Chris back. He's been gone for 45 days and we have that many to go. I know it's silly but I keep count. It helps me to see actual numbers; evidence of passage of time. Quantifying things helps me a lot. I think many artistic people find it hard to think in numbers but it makes me feel better to see actual hard evidence. :) I plan a lot, but things never, ever turn out the way I plan them. Anyway, those who know me also know that I am an incurable list keeper and numbers cruncher. To balance it out, I put pretty pictures together for a living. Strange mix but it works. Marrying Chris adds a healthy amount of randomness and spontaneity to my life helping me keep a nice balance. Should, I think of this as a test that he has to be away for so long? I suppose so. Doesn't really matter. I am doing all right but I sure could be doing a lot better too.

Now, why I am rambling on today? It's 4:30am and I am waiting for a file to save. Yes, I am doing the night shift (again). Waiting to save a file sounds like something I'd say when trying to save a 5MB file say, 10 years ago... I remember I used to do that and go grab lunch, come back and the thing would still be saving. Anyhow, I have a nice computer seasoned with some extra processing power and memory and such but it still takes 25 minutes to save that file that's over 2GB. I am a very impatient person and it is absolutely killing me. I am working on tradeshow booth graphics and it is my least favorite type of work. Not because of the design itself. But because I am forced to remain calm for days while those files (that design-wise don't look like much) do their thing. I love adding extra layers, and shadows, and visual trinkets which is murder when your image (which is currently trying to get saved on another computer) is 15 feet tall. Needless to say I am starting to question whether I really should add a 20th layer to an already big file. Inevitably I decide yes and the file grows some more. My current record is meager 2.5GB working file. Which, looking over to my other computer, appears to have just finished saving. Better go back to work before the kids wake up...

McDonald's

We've been here for over 4 months and I finally made it to McDonald's. Haven't had any burgers or any french fries for four entire months. I am not a big meat eater but the fully loaded burger sure was tasty. Now the interesting thing is that the meat actually tasted better. It was better quality and it was grilled. Didn't have greasy juices dripping off of it. The facility was cleaner and nicer than any US-based McDonald's that I've been to. Service was great too. That was the good part. Now the bad part was the price. Here are a few interesting facts you should know before visiting a foreign McDonald's.

No free refills. As a matter of fact, Croatian language doesn't even have a word refill. You can say "fill again" but that's not the same, is it? Now here is the kicker, you have to pay for ketchup. I know! I can't believe it either. It's 2 kunas (about 30 cents) per packet. Granted, the packets are larger but still... I am not used to having to pay for the condiments. Same for mayo. If you want extra, you got to pay. Considering the cost, we probably won't go back much. I could have ordered three pizzas for that price (pizza is cheaper here). Still, it tasted good.

Superbowl in Croatia

I never thought that I would see this, but I saw a TV commercial for the Superbowl game on Croatian TV. That may not sound so strange to you, but here, football means soccer, and "American" football is called rugby. I've tried to educate that the two are not the same and rugby rules are quite different. People have no clue about the game because I don't know that anyone here plays it. Yet, Croatian TV will have a live broadcast of the game. So even though I am a whole continent away, I still can't get away from "the game". Amazing!