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40 is the new 30


Nancy and Paula

I’m back from my fabulous 40th birthday celebratory cruise to the Caribbean. There was much snorkeling (that’s my sis and me in the pic, in Grand Cayman) and swimming and walking and kayaking and shopping and sweating (lordy was it hot and humid!) and drinking and singing (karaoke and piano bar FTW!) and eating and relaxing and reading and laughing and not nearly enough dancing (my knee and ankle just didn’t cooperate) and celebrating in general. And perhaps best of all, I only gained two-tenths of a pound-?!! Woot!

For those so inclined, pics can be found here (that’s the edited-for-quantity set).

I need more kayaking in my life. Good exercise combined with zero strain on my weakened lower extremeties = general awesomeness. More snorkeling would be awesome too, but to be honest, the Pacific scares me a bit. (Sharks!)

ION, I need something new to look forward to. Too soon to start planning for next year’s Disney trip? Hmm…..

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News Shopping

cruising to drupal camp on the feathery wind of the hill (how's that for nonsense?)

I suck, I know. Moving on….

19 days away from my birthday cruise, and I can hardly wait. I’m spending way too much on accessorizing my trip (two new cameras, six new tops, three new bathing suits, two pairs of sandals…), and I’m not finished yet, if my list is any indication. Good thing I have one freelance project in progress and another waiting in the wings. I’ll be travelling with nine others, and yes, in case you were wondering, we’re going to have a BLAST.

I’m going to Drupal Camp L.A. this weekend. I hope. I’m planning on it, but new situations sometimes trigger panic attacks. We’ll see. My two projects are both in Drupal, so it would be very helpful to learn some of the basics, and network with the experts so I’ll have someone to beg for help when I break something.

ION, my department moved from one building to another last month, so that’s been an adjustment. Like any change, there are pros and cons, and one of the pros is getting so many opportunities to wander the campus when there are no museum visitors–in the morning before the museum opens, in the evening when the visitors all leave, all day Monday when we’re closed to the public. This place is so quiet, peaceful, serene, and a dozen other words that all mean the same thing. Walking across the plaza after work and not seeing another soul, hearing only birds and maybe the soft whisper of the wind? It’s a special moment that I cherish every night it happens.

And speaking of, I should get going. It’s supposed to be a gym night, but I’m sooo not in the mood. I’ll go Thursday, and make up for tonight by walking down the hill to the parking garage (another perk, although it’s hell on my bad knee and hip).

 

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Miscellaneous News Programming

Less knitting, more variety

I’m thinking of changing the name/focus of this blog. Sadly I’m not longer as obsessed with needlework as I was when I first started Polgara Knits. I still knit and crochet, but not nearly as often, and yarn purchasing is no longer an irresistable force for me.

Right now my focus is more on two other things–JuNoWriMo and learning PHP/MySQL.

The JuNoWriMo is my mid-life crisis, I think. I’m turning 40 in three months, and want to have something tangible to show that I’ve accomplished something. I don’t have a family (and have never really wanted one), I don’t own anything (except debt) and while I have wonderful friends and a wonderful job and two wonderful cats, I feel I’ve lived a life of stasis. A 50,000 word novel, crappy though I promise it’ll be, is at least something I can hold forth and say, I made this. It’ll probably take me longer than the month of June, unfortunately (see next paragraph), but I should be able to do it in three months.

The PHP (and the sudden division of my focus from must JuNoWriMo) is due to two opportunities that look to be headed my way (one more likely than the other) for freelance web development this summer. Both projects will pay well, and both will require back-end database management, so I’m studying up on the PHP so I’ll be ready to hit the ground running when things are more definite.

So yes, knitting and crocheting is no longer all I think about or all I do with my spare time. I’m a little sad about it, but new things are good (and are the opposite of static!), so I’m choosing to think positively. And I haven’t turned my back on the needles and hooks, they’re just no longer the center of my life. It’s all good.

Now if only I had time for a site redesign…

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Blogs Links News

Missed it by *that* much


Polgara and Gracie, on the occasion
of celebrating Miss Gracie’s 2nd birthday

I just realized I missed my blog’s two year anniversary last month. Oops? That’s what I get for neglecting it so.

Also celebrating her two year anniversary is Miss Gracie (as well as her brother Noah). Unlike my stale and boring blog, Grace grows more adorable and engaging every day. Unfortunately I’ve been neglecting her too, which is even more shameful than ignoring this blog. This is my note to myself to go visit her next weekend.

In related news (related to the blog, that is), I’ve been working on updating JaneEspenson.com this weekend. It’s been languishing in the very outdated Greymatter that it first started in, so yesterday I just up and ported it over to WordPress. (Yes, it was that easy!) Now comes the hard part–the design. Man, I suck at design. I’ve gone through bazillions of free theme templates and downloaded a bunch that I like, but I don’t want a cookie-cutter design for Jane’s site, which means actually doing some work on my part. Yay? I found one template I thought I loved, but really I just love the colors (not the layout or the font), so now I’m looking for the right layout that I can then edit with the pretty colors. Someday I will learn the ins and outs of CSS enough to build one from scratch, but that day is not today.

But because of this quest for improving Jane’s site, I now look at this site and think, Booooor-ing, and yawn in its face, so it’s very likely that this site will be getting a facelift soon. I have to finish JaneEspenson.com first, though, as it’s been stagnant for far longer than this site has.

No excuse to be bored

For future reference, this is a list of all the things I always put off that I want to get done “someday”. Hopefully when I’m bored, I’ll remember this list and maybe actually accomplish something on it so I can finally cross it off!

+ The desktop computer needs all the data backed off it so I can either turn it into a server, or get rid of it. I haven’t even turned it on in months.

+ The desk needs to go. Clean everything off, toss most of it, find new homes for the rest, and get rid of the desk.

+ The many half-burned candles on the many flat surfaces are not “knickknacks”, they are clutter. Box them up and put them away when they’re not being used.

+ Get some large binders with pockets for discs, and de-box all the dvds (starting with television, I think). The packaging is pretty but takes up unnecessary space. Put the packaging in storage boxes under the bed for the someday when I have a bigger place with more space.

+ Be brutal and declutter. The lamp I never use ’cause it doesn’t have a shade; the hideous dog statues that my elderly neighbor gave me “just because”; the beanies from my Disney collecting stage; cabinets and drawers I haven’t opened  in years and couldn’t even tell you what’s in them (obviously I don’t need whatever’s in there).

+ Put half my displayed pictures away in a box, and put it on the calendar to switch them out every four-six months.

+ Clean out the yarn. There’s no way in the world I’m ever going to use all that I have. Some of it, I lost interest in it as soon as I brought it home. DESTASH already!

+ Go through the closet again. I got rid of a lot of stuff last time, but there’s still a lot that I classify as “winter wear” that I never touched this winter. It needs to go.

+ Finish painting the bookshelves.

+ Watch the dvds on the “to be watched” shelf.

+ Learn new skills from the gazillion videos on lynda.com. PHP, Drupal and advanced Javascript top the list, but it wouldn’t hurt to learn more advanced Photoshop skills too.

+ Redesign JaneEspenson.com, it desperately needs it.

+ Redesign my own site, it also desperately needs it.

+ Clean out the storage closet.

+ Clean out the fridge. Say goodbye to the lovely orange container my sister gave me, ’cause there’s no way I’ll ever use it again anyway now that it has what amounts to a science experiment living in it.

+ Scan old photographs.

+ Hang pictures in the bedroom. The walls are depressingly bare.

+ Flip the mattress pad.

+ Finish Haley’s blanket already.

+ Start Chloe’s blanket.

+ Color my hair (waaaay overdue).

+ Wash the bathroom ceiling and walls.

If you think a list this long should insure I’d never get bored, then you underestimate how lazy I really am.