Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category
Thursday Thirteen #3
December 13th, 2007
Just as the Four Major Food Groups evolved into the Food Pyramid Guidelines, I have expanded my list of Four Major Holiday Food Groups to Thirteen Major Holiday Food Groups.
The Thirteen Major Holiday Food Groups
- Eggnog
- Almond bark
- Spritz cookies
- Rum balls
- Rum (to go into the eggnog)
- Amaretto
- Scotch (my preference is for Johnny Walker Red—or Glenfiddich)
- Chex mix (the homemade kind with maximum Worcestershire sauce)
- Chips
- Chip dip
- Garlic dill oyster crackers
- Chocolate (anything)
- Pecan pie (particularly if eaten for breakfast)
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Thursday Thirteen #2
November 29th, 2007
I was going to wait until after the holidays to get my blogging schedule in order, but realized that’s my own mode of perfectionism raising its head, preventing me from “just doing it.” So, here is my second Thursday Thirteen, only 3 weeks late.
November 8th (which was a Thursday this year), is my dad’s birthday. It’s also the birthday of a friend I’ve lost touch with. That made me think of those special people I really love who, for whatever reason, I’ve lost track of.
Thirteen People I’d like to see again
- Natasha N, the gal whose birthday started me thinking about her. She’s sweet and smart and adorable. And I wasn’t there for her when she really needed someone.
- Megan K. A friend from my Navy days. Really smart and extremely successful. But again, I wasn’t there for her when she needed me.
- Dennis H. Another Navy buddy. Last I knew he was on the fast-track to make Admiral. But that was ever his goal. He’s just very, very good at what he does.
- Celia L. From my grad school days at Michigan State. We were roommates and swimming buddies; but I think our best adventure was getting (really) drunk at a drive-in movie and getting lost after a trip to the concession stand. Or was it the bathroom?
- Nancy N. Another friend & roommate from grad school. We toured London together after my tour in Italy, and the Queen’s guard (I forget what they’re called), called out to her as we walked by.
- Dave J. I worked for him when I was in the Navy, but he also became a great friend. He maintained his delightful demeanor even as he faced some difficult crises.
- Ann K. A friend from my undergrad days. She could be a little difficult, and I once asked my mom why I liked her. Mom replied, “Because she makes you think.”
- Dave W. A fun biking partner. He helped me see into the psyche of the human male. And I ran screaming in the other direction.
- Pete H. Yet another Navy friend. He was a Navy diver and so rough around the edges, I was shocked to learn he was a Naval Academy grad.
- Connie M. My dad’s cousin and one of my very favorite people in the world. And she was actually listed in “Who’s Who” at one time. (But not for being one of my favorite people.)
For the final three, I haven’t lost touch with them, but I don’t reach out as often as I should. It’s a terrible shame because they are the most lovely, delightful people.
- Rich. He visited me a few years ago and we haven’t talked since. I hope he still thinks of me more kindly than his father does.
- Ted. Of these three, he’s the one most like me. And he gives the very bestest hugs.
- Kristen. I keep saying I’ll try to be better about staying in touch, but time gets away from me, and before I know it, too much time has gone by.
Maybe I can make a New Year’s resolution to reach out and try to find these people. Or perhaps I can just make the effort right now.
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The 11th hour… er, month review
November 28th, 2007
Since the year is nearly over, I thought I’d reminisce about how I’ve done in the blogging world so far. I made met a couple of my goals for 2007, but the majority fell short. Yes, I know I still have a month to go, but c’mon, that month is December and the holiday season, and I don’t think blogging is going to be one of priorities. Or at least it shouldn’t be.
- I did complete Lorelle’s WordPress treasure hunt. I even planned to go back and revisit some of the treasures and discuss them. But that never happed.
- I certainly didn’t blog more consistently. Obviously.
- Not only did I not consolidate my blogs, I actually added some. I got involved with LiveJournal and the Supernatural fan community there. It sucked me in and wouldn’t let go. I’ll talk more about LiveJournal in another post. If I remember.
- I did not complete my first WordPress theme. I did work on it and made some good progress, but I have a long way to go. The great thing, though, is that what I’ve done so far has really helped me with my CSS skillz. So, “yay” for that.
- I still haven’t found my niche, or
- incorporated tags, or
- learned anything about social bookmarking. sigh
- I did actually participate in the Blog Marathon in July, commenting on a few blogs. I didn’t do as much as I thought I’d do, but at least I remembered to do it.
- I did make a couple posts about getting my life in order. One was my plan to transfer my MS Money and bill paying from “old” to “new,” and get the laptop off the dining room table. Didn’t happen. I also made a “13 actions to complete for the holidays,” but I haven’t even completed #1 yet.
- Now, I did make timelines for my blogging goals. And I finished at least one on time (Lorelle’s treasure hunt).
There is good news out of all of this, though. I won’t have to think too very hard when it comes time to write my blogging goals for 2008.
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Thursday Thirteen #1
November 1st, 2007
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Thirteen Actions to Complete for a Merry Christmas
Major accomplishment! (Especially since I totally ignored Christmas last year.) Yay! |
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FlyLady has a schedule for getting ahead of the holiday rush. While I don’t follow it to the letter of the law, I think it’s a great idea. So I have created my own Holiday Action List.
Thirteen Actions to Complete for a Merry Christmas
- Send new mother gifts to my niece, who had a baby girl in September. It’s not really a “holiday” action, but I want to get it out of the way before I get caught up in the holiday hubbub.
- Finish knitting projects for great-niece (or is it grand-niece?). I’m this close || to finished two really cute knitting projects. But since I’m a chronic non-finisher, I need to push myself into the home stretch. Again, so that I don’t lose site of it before the holiday rush.
- Make Christmas card list.
- Find Christmas cards. (Buy new cards if I don’t have enough.)
- Create Christmas website with the high tech version of the dreaded Christmas form letter.
- Write Christmas cards, complete with link to Christmas website.
- Make Christmas gift list for my “nibblings” (2 nephews, 1 niece, 1 nephew-in-law, 1 grand-nephew, 1 grand-niece). I stopped trading gifts with my friends last year. I don’t need more useless junk, and neither do they.
- Buy Christmas gifts for nibblings. I’ve already bought 3. Go me! \o/
- Find Christmas decorations.
- Sort through Christmas decorations.
- Put up Christmas decorations.
- Wrap Christmas gifts.
- Mail Christmas gifts—preferable before Christmas.
Major accomplishment! (Especially since I totally ignored Christmas last year.) Yay!
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Ok, this theme is really starting to tick me off!
September 27th, 2007
I’ve been working on my fall theme for a couple of weeks and was getting pretty frustrated with how the HTML lists were behaving. I know I’d mentioned my irritation with the lists of the base theme I’m using previously, and moving to a new theme was getting me all riled up again. Then I had the brilliant idea of deleting all the list code in the CSS file and start fresh. And lo & behold, it worked! For the main page only.
So, I finally looked into the actual source code to see what was going on and discovered I’d styled a class that didn’t appear on the single post page. So I fixed it. I even started a post called “Hallelujah!” but that, too, was premature.
Once I got the single post page fixed, I went to look at the other multi-post pages. And there was nothing denoting the lists. Nothing! So, once again, I went in to look at the source code, and the lists aren’t even coded as lists! They’re coded as paragraphs! What the hell? I can’t believe that’s something that WordPress does in general, but I suppose it could be. I’ll have to check it out using a better another theme.
Oh, and the sidebar crap still exists. (I figured I ought to tackle one problem at a time.)
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Lists redux
September 25th, 2007
I brought this over from my sandbox because it has a couple of lists that aren’t totally nonsensical. This time I need to include nested lists.
So, here is a list of possible goals for me, in no particular order.
- Eat better
- Move more
- Get organized
- Kitchen
- Bedroom
- Be happy
And now for something ordered. Chores I need to do:
- Get my tire fixed
- Clean up the kitchen
- Finish the laundry
- Buy groceries
- Milk
- Cat litter
- Cat treats
- Iron
(The only reason I’m doing this is to see how the lists come out in my various themes, so that I can find one that has all the things I want.)
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Where’s the stream for fall?
September 24th, 2007
I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon trying to change over to my new fall theme. First came the picture for the header. Not a problem, although I did try 4 different cropped sizes. Turns out the smallest looked the best. Yay!
Next came the graphics. I desperately tried to change the colors on the default graphics, but it looked really awful. I suppose I could try the color change with Photoshop rather then Paint Shop Pro, but I’m really unfamiliar with Ps, so didn’t attempt it. I ended up going with graphics that really have no bearing on leaves. But I guess they do have a very loose connection with streams.
And lastly, I tried to fix the unordered list. There is definitely something wrong with the code, because I tried some new styling and forgot to close the “rule” and the damn thing worked. Problem was, when I corrected the css (by closing the bracket “}” ), it reverted to its current state. (This is why there’s that nonsensical post below. I need something to check the ol, ul and nested lists. It’s definitely not pretty.)
I thought about totally deleting all the list styles and starting from scratch. I may do that, but cripes, it’s nearly 7 p.m. and I just got home. Stupid work.
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Thursday Thirteen: 13 meetings this week
August 30th, 2007
Sometimes I feel like all my time is taken up with meetings and I never have a chance to get any work done. So, without further ado, here are 13 meetings I’ve had to attend this week. I am going to use military time, because… well, because I can?
- Monday, 0800-0830: “Stand up” brief in the director’s office. It’s literally stand up—lots of people, very few chairs. And it went over about 10 minutes, which made us late for…
- Monday, 0830-0930: Operations center update. Reiterated most of what was briefed in #1. Loads of fun. (Not.)
- Monday 1030-1115: meeting to prep for briefing the boss, who is being prepped prior to meeting with the General who is being prepped for Big Video Teleconference later this week. (I even had to miss another meeting I have scheduled for the same time.)
- Monday 1130-1335: meeting with boss to prep him for meeting with General who is being prepped for Big Video Teleconference. Cafeteria closed at 1330, so had to grab junk food from snack stand prior to attending…
- Monday 1330-1415: weekly “synch” meeting, which is a fancy name for staff meeting. Fortunately, this meeting was chaired by someone who actually makes sense, hence, getting out in only 45 minutes.
- Tuesday 0800-0900: stand-up in director’s office. This one lasts for about an hour because we don’t have to be elsewhere at 0830.
- Tuesday 1030-1100: meeting to review slides prior to meeting with General to prep him for Big Video Teleconference this week.
- Tuesday 1300-1500: meeting with General to prep him for Big Video Teleconference this week.
- Wednesday 0830-0845: stand up in director’s office. Received demoralizing “pep talk.”
- Wednesday 0845-0945: operations brief, which began late because of “pep talk”
- Wednesday 1100-1200: collaboration session that reiterated some of the things presented at 0800 and 0830 meetings along with review of latest slides for Big Video Teleconference later this week.
- Wednesday 1130-1315: “Operations & Intelligence” conference with General. This is a regularly scheduled meeting and had nothing to do with prep for Big Video Teleconference this week.
- 0800-0900: stand up meeting boss’s office. Didn’t even get through the entire brief due to another “pep talk.” Gah.
- 1300-1415: Big Video Teleconference. Had been in the works for approximately 2 months. Went pretty well, but still cause for banging of head. (More about that some other time.)
Shit! I couldn’t even cut it down to only 13! And this was a short week! (Military has Friday off, so things slow down… a lot.) Oh, and there meetings that I actually missed.
(By the way, the “pep talks” happen when something ticks off the boss, and he lectures us on everything we’re not doing. He’s got a lot of great ideas, and he’s very good about not yelling. But telling people who work 12-16-18 hours a day that they need to do more & be more attentive to his direction is pretty demoralizing.)
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Thursday Thirteen: I need this one
August 23rd, 2007
I sat in a briefing today that really peeved me. It puts the folks I work with in a bad light, and I feel horrible for them. They are terrific people who are working their asses off; and now, if the briefing slides don’t change between now and next Thursday, there is going to be hell to pay. We will have to scrape no less than three senior officers off the ceiling. So, in order to make the evening more enjoyable, here are:
Thirteen things I’m grateful for:
- my paycheck, which is rather nice
- my commute to work, which is pretty easy
- my car, a 2000 Lexus (I bought it used) that runs like a dream
- the people I work with. They’re very smart and hard working and I’m so privileged to know them.
- my home, which provides me immense comfort
- Kristen and Michael’s impending new arrival
- in addition to Kristen, her two brothers, who are the absolute bestest
- my renewed interest in knitting, which allows me to make adorable things for #6
- all the kitties that have graced my life with their unconditional love; Brandy, Cassie, Chelsea, Britta, Gigi, Daisy, Kimmi and Shadow (even though his unconditional love is sometimes a bit too much)
- Michelle Market, whose specialties are a perfect fit for my neuroses
- my iPod, which has allowed me to download songs from Supernatural and make CDs for my “best friend-in-law” and me
- Supernatural Season 1 DVD sets being on sale so that I can buy a whole bunch of them to give out to others
- several friends who have birthdays this month who will be getting Supernatural DVDs and CDs as presents.
Yes, it’s true. It really does all boil down to Supernatural! 
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Thursday thirteen: Yesterday in 13 significant events
August 16th, 2007
- 1:00 am — wake up, realize I’m swallowing something, turn on light, lightly blow nose, blood gushes forth. Pinch nose, lean head back slightly, wait for bleeding to subside.
- 1:15 — bleeding hasn’t subsided, decide to go to emergency room, try to get dressed while holding tissue to nostrils.
- 1:30 — sufficiently dressed, but bleeding has subsided. Decide to go back to bed. Put on new pair of pajamas (since previous pair now have blood on them), arrange pillows so that head is elevated, go back to sleep.
- 6:10 — alarm goes off, turn it off & go back to sleep.
- 7:15 — wake up, decide I’m ok to go to work. Put saline solution in very dry nose, blow nose to clear out, bleeding starts all over again.
- 7:20 — call work to let them know I’m going to emergency room and to pass on important information. Can’t reach anyone so get dressed and go to work to attend morning meetings and pass on important info.
- 8:00 — get to work, attend meetings, pass important info, write e-mails to follow up important info.
- 9:45 —head to emergency room.
- 10:05 — arrive at emergency room, stand in long line to get checked in.
- 11:15— finally see physician’s assistant who gives me bacitracin to ease discomfort.
- 11:50 — given referral to ENT and get checked out of emergency room.
- 12:00 — stop at drug store for more bacitracin, pick up junk food because I’m very hungry.
- 12:15 — get home. Neighbor is parked in my spot (grrrr), but am not in the mood to confront so find another spot. Go inside, eat lunch, take nap to recover from trauma of the night, try hard to resist urge to blow nose. Not completely successful.
So, while the symptoms have been eased, the problem has not been resolved. Which is why I need to see the ENT. Why did my nose start bleeding all on its own? My sinuses have been horrible this summer, ever since I went to Texas. (Yeah, that’s it, I’ll blame everything on Texas!) I used a humidifier in my bedroom this winter and it did wonders. And I didn’t have too much trouble in the spring (not that we had much of one), but this summer has been miserable. I’ve known for awhile I need to see a doctor, but didn’t want to go back to my internist, since I don’t really like him. Perhaps I can ask someone at the ENT office.
On a separate note, I think I’ll actually try to sign up for the real Thursday Thirteen next week.
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