I've been terribly busy. I was in North Carolina last weekend visiting with my in-laws-to-be, and will soon be in New York visiting with Randy, who will be performing the ceremony for Genevra and me on September 9th. I will also hopefully get a chance to meet my publisher-to-be when I'm in New York.

I'm home today. I can't give you images when I'm writing from work so I give you images today. It will give you some context for some of the stuff I've written about.

This is a banner ad that I built today. This is one of the things that's been keeping me busy. Please feel free to put it on your website if you have one, or send it to friends, whatever. Use it for free. I only ask that you save it and upload it to your own site and also please preserve the link.



And this is Genevra and then me and then Genevra again:



And this is Fitchburg:



This is Alexander Pope:

I try like hell not to experience my dayjob with any of the joy I like to infuse my work with when I write or mount shows, but sometimes I just can't help myself. Here is an actual email that I wrote to a staffing agency today. The reason why is apparent in the letter. These people just blow me away. I'll follow-up by posting any replies that they send to me. Those people usually reply to everything...

Dear City Staffing,

Last week, to my abject elation, I opened a package that was sent to me from your company. Inside, I found a pair of Old Navy, size 10, starred and striped flip flops (one starred, the other striped.) In my position, I am constantly courted by staffing agencies for their business. I am sent gift cards with unknown balances to various beverage peddlers about the city. I am sent holiday greetings, business cards with "personalized" notes on them. I am even, perish the thought, sent candy!

Your firm is a firm that I have used before on a number of occasions and am in the habit of ignoring the requests made by hounding swarms of alien staffing agencies, precisely because I am happy with the services you have rendered.

But never have I been happier with what your company has to offer, than when I opened that package and discovered those large and overtly patriotic sandals. The fact that there was no name, no note, no letter in the package, only intensified the joy of the experience for me. It is obvious to me that City Staffing knows when to let the imagery speak for itself (as they say in the business, I'm sure.) And what imagery indeed!

It is true that I'm a size 8 1/2, and am somewhat morally opposed to open-toed footwear (upon my own feet, I should qualify), but had I been born a man of average size, thus possessing what I'm sure you carefully researched is the average-sized American male foot, and were I not so vehemently disinclined to clad my feet so scantily, I would have leapt at the chance to shed my black, leather shoes for a chance to flip and flop my way through the halls of this corporation, not only displaying my proudly naked hoofs, but also showcasing my fashionable patriotism one step at a time.

It is a proud day for City Staffing, indeed, for the country. Though I will not wear your large, alternately starred and stripped, open-toed sandals, I will never forget them, and I will likely display them in a place where others may ask about them, so I can recount with delight how they fell into my life. As trophies, may these podiatric emblems of American Nationalism--and indeed, good corporate know-how--bring others an ounce of the same kind of joy they brought me.

Yours truly,
Andrew J. Bayiates