I'm sorry this has taken so long to arrive, I'm really struggling with wrist/arm problems lately. And yes, there may not be a lot of plot movement in the next few strips - the necessary exposition sequences to explain bits of what's going on have to happen at some point, and I think I need some of them now before the plot can get much further.
Regarding the phrasing - yeah, as Glaur said it's possible because of the different uses of once, but I guess I could change it to "after I'd been sold on once" if that'd make it easier for non-native speakers to parse?