Things are mellow at work, so I’m working on my WordPress skills by adding a searchable database of all my dvds to my site. Once all the info is in, I’ll create a template for viewing them, and add them to the nav.
It’s a small thing, and it’s mostly for my own use, but I’m looking forward to being able to search my disks by actor, director, writer, and/or year of release!
Let’s see…
In July, I took out my bike a few times, hung out with friends, bbq’ed on my new grill, got busy at work, and generally settled in to my awesome apartment that I still love.
In August, I got super busy at work (thanks to Pacific Standard Time!), celebrated a birthday (the towel one), started my own little poker group, and spent a few days in Dallas VISITING MY BRAND NEW NEPHEW who is awesome and wonderful and will rule the world.
In September, I BOUGHT ALL THE THINGS for my nephew (and not-yet-born niece), launched most of my work projects, got my hair cut, had a bunch o’doctor appointments (kidney stones are still there *sigh*), started on ADD meds, joined a pool league (Wednesday nights!), spent a small fortune on a new pool cue, and took an auto repair class for women at Santa Monica College with Michelle (awesome class, I highly recommend it!).
This month, I shall be going home for a week to spend even more time with my totally awesome nephew, and, as all the gods are my witness, I shall lose some weight off my enormous posterior. No really, I saw a full-body reflection today, and it was NOT PRETTY.
I’ve also been reading a lot of The Bloggess, and if you haven’t discovered her yet, you should hie thyself over there ’cause she’s hysterically awesome. Start with this post if you don’t believe me.
One of the things I’ve been trying to part with in my quest to declutter my apartment is my impressive stash of stuffed animals, dating back to my wee baby days. I washed the ones I decided I could live without, and brought some to Out of the Closet to donate.
Guess what? You can’t really donate stuffed animals anymore due to the federal lead laws that went into effect in 2009. No one wants to risk the ridic fine for selling any objects that don’t comply, so they just don’t take accept those items anymore.
Well that makes things harder.
Thanks to Toy Story (damn you, Pixar!), I can’t bring myself to throw my toys away, so they spent a couple of weeks riding around in the back of my car. But one day, in the company parking garage, I came up with a solution when I saw my boss’s top-down convertible parked nearby.
Yes, I did. I doll-bombed his car.
Everything is unpacked, and has been since Memorial Day. Got rid of stuff thanks to Craigslist and my friends who didn’t mind taking in some of my old books and childhood Barbies. My new couch arrived, and the kitties and I have been breaking it in. Kristen helped me assemble the beautiful Ikea standing closets pictured above. I’ve been spending my evenings knitting and crocheting instead of wondering what else needs to be done. It’s pretty awesome.
Today my new bistro set arrived and is now packed in my car, ready to be taken home, assembled and placed lovingly on my balcony. My new gas grill has been ordered and will arrive on Tuesday. By this time next week, my balcony will be pimped out for summertime.
It’s all good.
*knock on wood*
Last week I was in Houston for a conference, where I taught a workshop/tutorial on how to create a WordPress blog, and presented at another workshop on how to attract an audience to your blog.
The first one was a piece of cake–I could create a dozen WordPress blogs in an hour, and be watching TV while I’m doing it. Part of me felt like a big fake for the second one, though–I have few if any followers on any of my blogs. I’m ok with that, since it’s not my job to get readers (I just like to ‘talk’), but if I needed to, I know how it’s done. I’ve been swimming in the social media pool since before it was ever called social media. I know what attracts readers, and what keeps them, because I’ve been sucked into blogs, websites and posting boards….and I’ve left them. I’ve been anonymous, and I’ve had followers–I’ve even given an autograph or two in my lifetime.
I didn’t say any of that at the workshop, I just let them all assume I knew what I was talking about, because in actuality, I do. I’ve just never put it to the test.
Also in Houston, I saw bats. A quarter million of them. It was pretty awesome.