Bye bye, old template. You served me well.
Showing posts with label this here ol' blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label this here ol' blog. Show all posts
Friday, April 03, 2009
Time for a new look!
I chose the photo above because I think it looks like the countryside in New Zealand. I hope the new look of everything is pleasing to everyone. I'm not sure how I feel about the super narrow columns on the right, but it's something different I thought I'd try. Oh, and I fixed my Comments...they weren't working...but now they do!
Bye bye, old template. You served me well.
Bye bye, old template. You served me well.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
New Year's Resolutions
I have not been a very good blogger lately, so I might be setting myself up for failure, but I am going to try and post every single day in 2009. We'll see how long that lasts. To help come up with things to write about, I'm setting up some daily themes. My rule is that I can deviate from the theme if I have something else to write about, but if not, at least I can have some direction for those days when the inspiration just doesn't strike.
Mondays: Animals
Tuesdays: Travel
Wednesdays: Top 5 web finds
Thursdays: Gratitude
Fridays: TV/movies/music
Saturdays: Quote of the Week
Sundays: Exercise Report
That last day's theme gives away one of my other resolutions. I must, must, must work out at least three times a week. Perhaps if I am committed to reporting back here each week, I will be less likely to flake out.
My last resolution is a very simple one, but if I can keep it my closet will thank me. After I change into my pajamas, I have a habit of tossing my clothes either on top of the hamper (is it really so hard to OPEN it??!) or on top of the chest of drawers in the closet. My resolution is to either put the clothes IN the hamper, or to hang them back up. Yes, I wear many things more than once in between washings. Don't you?
Mondays: Animals
Tuesdays: Travel
Wednesdays: Top 5 web finds
Thursdays: Gratitude
Fridays: TV/movies/music
Saturdays: Quote of the Week
Sundays: Exercise Report
That last day's theme gives away one of my other resolutions. I must, must, must work out at least three times a week. Perhaps if I am committed to reporting back here each week, I will be less likely to flake out.
My last resolution is a very simple one, but if I can keep it my closet will thank me. After I change into my pajamas, I have a habit of tossing my clothes either on top of the hamper (is it really so hard to OPEN it??!) or on top of the chest of drawers in the closet. My resolution is to either put the clothes IN the hamper, or to hang them back up. Yes, I wear many things more than once in between washings. Don't you?
Sunday, August 24, 2008
80th post
This will be my 80th post for 2008. Last year I had 116 posts. I need to average 9 posts a month for the rest of this year to reach that number. But in 2006 I had 172 posts!! I guess I had a lot to say!
Today was my friend and co-worker Kim's wedding shower. Or should I say, her first wedding shower. She's having another one in her hometown near Rochester, NY, and a third one in her fiance's hometown of Erie, PA. (Uh, spoiled bride?!) We had lots of fun. Here are some pics I took.
I bought her the pink hand vac she registered for.
Kim's favorite: money.
Susan got the only humor gift: a "panic button" that has sounds of cartoon characters saying, "Stay Calm!" then screaming bloody murder.
Kim and Susan.
A group shot. Bottom row, L-R: Jenni, Lisa (maid of honor), Kim, Gracie (Kim's mom); Top row, L-R: Rebekah (works in communications dept at my office), Amanda, me, Susan (fellow trainer).
The scrumptious cake, shaped like a bridal gown.
Today was my friend and co-worker Kim's wedding shower. Or should I say, her first wedding shower. She's having another one in her hometown near Rochester, NY, and a third one in her fiance's hometown of Erie, PA. (Uh, spoiled bride?!) We had lots of fun. Here are some pics I took.
I bought her the pink hand vac she registered for.
Cool bread basket with a warming stone you place inside.
Kim's favorite: money.
Susan got the only humor gift: a "panic button" that has sounds of cartoon characters saying, "Stay Calm!" then screaming bloody murder.
Kim and Susan.
A group shot. Bottom row, L-R: Jenni, Lisa (maid of honor), Kim, Gracie (Kim's mom); Top row, L-R: Rebekah (works in communications dept at my office), Amanda, me, Susan (fellow trainer).
The scrumptious cake, shaped like a bridal gown.Thursday, July 24, 2008
Colors, Mad Men
As you can see, I changed the template for my blog recently. I found it online, and just tweaked it a little bit. The first version featured the dark brown background, with a light brown foreground that appeared on my laptop screen to be a taupe-like color, kind of like hot chocolate (the powdered kind). Then I looked at it on my home monitor, and wow, it was so different. More like coffee with cream. It was a tad too yellow for my tastes, so I adjusted it. Now when I look at it on my laptop, it appears almost pink! So much for being picky about how it looks. It seems everyone will get a different effect, depending on their screen. Oh well.
While I'm here, I'd love to blab on about what's up, but really, there's not much. Work is slow. It can be boring, and the day can go by soooo slooooowly (and yet somehow it seems unreal that July is almost over!!). Yet it also affords time to just sit and chat with coworkers, and I love everyone I work with. At home, things are the same. Comet is well. The house is fine. I've got grass growing now, but it's crabgrass, which is supposedly the bane of every gardener's existence. I say, at least it's green! The weather here has been super hot and muggy, until the skies decide to give it up and just rain already. Then it cools off a bit. Today isn't too bad though. I plan to start growing some herbs, so maybe I'll post some pictures here of the progress.
I've been watching this great show on AMC called Mad Men. It's been getting a lot of attention because it won Golden Globes and now it's nominated for 16 Emmys. There was a marathon on Sunday of the entire first season (Season 2 starts Sunday). I watched many that day, and have been watching the rest this week. It's fantastic. It takes place in 1960 (although I hear season 2 will open on Valentine's Day 1962) and they've created a universe which, whether or not it's realistic, is quite amusing. Doctors smoking as they examine patients, pregnant women tossing back cocktails, children playing with plastic bags on their heads, the divorcee who moves in down the block causing as much controversy as an interracial gay couple would cause in Alabama today. And oh, the womanizing! No wonder women felt the need to start a movement! The main character of the show is Don Draper, an ad man working on Madison Avenue. His colleagues have no qualms about telling the "girls" from the steno pool to shorten their skirts--and they do it! Don himself is married with two kids, but had two affairs in the first season alone. His wife has anxiety attacks (wouldn't you?) so she sees a psychiatrist, who reports on her issues to her husband as if they're dealing with a child. His boss is openly anti-Semitic, and there is nary a minority to be found in the entire office. His boss also has a heart attack, and says something along the lines of, "I always thought it would be my ulcer. I drank the cream, ate the butter, just like I was told, and now this." It's crazy how much things can change in just under 50 years. It sounds like a long time in terms of one person's life span, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to all of history. The Middle Ages lasted, depending on whom you ask, from 500-700 years, where everything stayed basically the same. The pace in modern times is pretty swift.
While I'm here, I'd love to blab on about what's up, but really, there's not much. Work is slow. It can be boring, and the day can go by soooo slooooowly (and yet somehow it seems unreal that July is almost over!!). Yet it also affords time to just sit and chat with coworkers, and I love everyone I work with. At home, things are the same. Comet is well. The house is fine. I've got grass growing now, but it's crabgrass, which is supposedly the bane of every gardener's existence. I say, at least it's green! The weather here has been super hot and muggy, until the skies decide to give it up and just rain already. Then it cools off a bit. Today isn't too bad though. I plan to start growing some herbs, so maybe I'll post some pictures here of the progress.
I've been watching this great show on AMC called Mad Men. It's been getting a lot of attention because it won Golden Globes and now it's nominated for 16 Emmys. There was a marathon on Sunday of the entire first season (Season 2 starts Sunday). I watched many that day, and have been watching the rest this week. It's fantastic. It takes place in 1960 (although I hear season 2 will open on Valentine's Day 1962) and they've created a universe which, whether or not it's realistic, is quite amusing. Doctors smoking as they examine patients, pregnant women tossing back cocktails, children playing with plastic bags on their heads, the divorcee who moves in down the block causing as much controversy as an interracial gay couple would cause in Alabama today. And oh, the womanizing! No wonder women felt the need to start a movement! The main character of the show is Don Draper, an ad man working on Madison Avenue. His colleagues have no qualms about telling the "girls" from the steno pool to shorten their skirts--and they do it! Don himself is married with two kids, but had two affairs in the first season alone. His wife has anxiety attacks (wouldn't you?) so she sees a psychiatrist, who reports on her issues to her husband as if they're dealing with a child. His boss is openly anti-Semitic, and there is nary a minority to be found in the entire office. His boss also has a heart attack, and says something along the lines of, "I always thought it would be my ulcer. I drank the cream, ate the butter, just like I was told, and now this." It's crazy how much things can change in just under 50 years. It sounds like a long time in terms of one person's life span, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to all of history. The Middle Ages lasted, depending on whom you ask, from 500-700 years, where everything stayed basically the same. The pace in modern times is pretty swift.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Browser incapatibility?
The green just wasn't working for me. So I thought I'd try red. I dunno if I like it or not.
Just for the heck of it, I thought I'd look to see what my blog looks like in Explorer. Apparently the sunflower doesn't display, and the little bullets in the side panel are reduced to a slim line. Very odd. Y'all should be using Firefox anyway. It's so much better. There are so many cool plugins, like Aardvark and PicLens.
Just for the heck of it, I thought I'd look to see what my blog looks like in Explorer. Apparently the sunflower doesn't display, and the little bullets in the side panel are reduced to a slim line. Very odd. Y'all should be using Firefox anyway. It's so much better. There are so many cool plugins, like Aardvark and PicLens.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Monday, January 07, 2008
I rank highly in obscure searches
Who would have ever guessed that when you search for
craigs list $1.coins without GODon Google, my blog is the very first result? Go figure.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Refresh
Bye bye:
I "upgraded" templates so that I could have the label listing to the left, as well as an easier-to-navigate archive. Plus, my credits on istockphoto.com were about to expire (so lame) so I had to use 'em up on some new art. Hope you like.
Now if only summer's heat would go bye bye. Tonight it's supposed to get down to 63--yee haw! Bring on Fall!
I "upgraded" templates so that I could have the label listing to the left, as well as an easier-to-navigate archive. Plus, my credits on istockphoto.com were about to expire (so lame) so I had to use 'em up on some new art. Hope you like.
Now if only summer's heat would go bye bye. Tonight it's supposed to get down to 63--yee haw! Bring on Fall!
Monday, July 09, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Hello, Summer!
Wanted to brighten things up around here now that summer has just about officially arrived.
Farewell, blue orbs.
Farewell, blue orbs.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Hello Elastic Waist Visitors!
I don't check my stat counter much these days, but when I noticed that it was almost at 10k, I thought I'd have a look at who's been visiting recently. Seems a lot of you are coming over from Elastic Waist to check out my pickle post. Kinda funny what gets attention these days. Welcome, everyone. I hope you enjoy my blog!
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Mixed bag
Bunch of random things today.
My counter has disappeared. I spent half an hour trying to get it to reappear. The best answer I can find from the on-line "knowledge base" is that there is some other java script on the page that is basically cancelling out the counter's code. So I removed everything in the sidebar. Still no counter. It's still keeping track of my visits (I'm currently at 5134) but you can't see the number over there. Times like this I have to remember that book, "Don't sweat the small stuff."
I went with my parents to look at some of the houses in the North Carolina Parade of Homes today. We started out at the top: $989,000 in Cary. I think the cheapest one was $312,000. I think our favorite was "Rex's Request," weighing in at $414,000 and 3000 square feet.
A lot of the homes had neat ceilings:
These doors were popular:
One home featured bamboo flooring, which is my favorite, although I prefer a wider reed:
There were a lot of mud rooms and wainscoting:
And of course all the houses had immaculate, though not lush, landscaping:
I had hoped we'd make it to some of the homes in Raleigh that are actually in my price range, but since it only goes from 12-5, we didn't have time. Oh, well, it's not like I'm buying right now anyway.
It's been about three weeks or so since most of the new shows started for the fall season. I started watching many, but only a select few remain on my must-see list.
Jericho - It's still kind a creepy, but it's keeping my interest. There's the realism aspect of how do these people survive, but there's also a bit of mystery as to why one resident of the town seems to have known the bombs were coming.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - You've gotta love how running an SNL-type show gets the same gravitas as running the country got in West Wing.
Brothers and Sisters - Kind of a bizarre mix of problems, some relatively unique (war vet son who's lost his way, tension between liberal mother and conservative daughter, pension fraud at the family company, dead patriarch's decades-long affair revealed) and some tried-and-true (married couple feels strain of mother's workaholic tendencies, career woman forced to choose between dream job and potential husband). The writing and casting are excellent.
Men in Trees - Lighthearted fluff perfect for a Friday night. Anne Heche is always highly watchable and her antics up in Alaska are entertaining. Good supporting characters too. I love the young innocent couple.
The shows I started watching but have dropped:
Heroes - Did not grab me after two episodes. Kind of comic-booky which is not my thing.
Ugly Betty - Too cartoony. The performances are over the top. I like the underlying premise (unattractive girl makes good in the big city) but it is kind of annoying to watch, and ricidulously predictable. But, it's on before Grey's Anatomy so I usually catch the last 15 minutes or so.
Six Degrees - I gave this one a fair shake...three episodes...but it just wasn't intriguing enough. These characters are supposed to be linked somehow but beyond one dropping a coin and another picking it up hours later, the writers didn't give me enough to pique my interest.
As for returners from last year:
Lost - It feels like it's moving very slooooow because we've been through two weeks of the new season and we still don't have an update on what's going on in the hatch. One of the reasons Lost was so good before was because the developments happend fast and furious. I hope things pick up quickly. I have enjoyed the flashbacks, though. I also feel like every little line is like a clue for something, but not in a good way. It's like the writers know people eat this stuff up, and so they throw in random things as if they're doing you a favor by dropping a crumb, but all it does is add to the confusion. But I still maintain that it's a well-crafted show.
Grey's Anatomy - Oh my word, this is a good show. I can't believe I started out not liking it when it started a while ago. It wasn't until the Superbowl episode (with the bomb) that I fell for it. I love all the characters, and I also love reading the writers' blog on Fridays to hear what they have to say about the previous night's episode. It always adds some insight.
Desperate Housewives - I look forward to it because it's entertaining and I like the characters, but it does have me in its grip like Grey's Anatomy does.
I also watch Amazing Race 10, but wish they'd get the heck out of Asia already. Of all the continents on the planet, that's the one I'd least like to visit. I watched What About Brian last year (it was only on for like 5 episodes) and I taped the permiere last week but haven't seen it yet. I wanted to watch The Nine, but it's on against Project Runway. PR will soon be over (I'll be happy if Uli or Laura wins, and furious if Jeffrey wins) so maybe then I'll catch up with The Nine on abc.com, then start watching it. I've heard good things about it.
Dude, I watch too much TV.
My counter has disappeared. I spent half an hour trying to get it to reappear. The best answer I can find from the on-line "knowledge base" is that there is some other java script on the page that is basically cancelling out the counter's code. So I removed everything in the sidebar. Still no counter. It's still keeping track of my visits (I'm currently at 5134) but you can't see the number over there. Times like this I have to remember that book, "Don't sweat the small stuff."
~ ~ ~
I went with my parents to look at some of the houses in the North Carolina Parade of Homes today. We started out at the top: $989,000 in Cary. I think the cheapest one was $312,000. I think our favorite was "Rex's Request," weighing in at $414,000 and 3000 square feet.
A lot of the homes had neat ceilings:
These doors were popular:
One home featured bamboo flooring, which is my favorite, although I prefer a wider reed:
There were a lot of mud rooms and wainscoting:
And of course all the houses had immaculate, though not lush, landscaping:
I had hoped we'd make it to some of the homes in Raleigh that are actually in my price range, but since it only goes from 12-5, we didn't have time. Oh, well, it's not like I'm buying right now anyway.
~ ~ ~
It's been about three weeks or so since most of the new shows started for the fall season. I started watching many, but only a select few remain on my must-see list.
Jericho - It's still kind a creepy, but it's keeping my interest. There's the realism aspect of how do these people survive, but there's also a bit of mystery as to why one resident of the town seems to have known the bombs were coming.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - You've gotta love how running an SNL-type show gets the same gravitas as running the country got in West Wing.
Brothers and Sisters - Kind of a bizarre mix of problems, some relatively unique (war vet son who's lost his way, tension between liberal mother and conservative daughter, pension fraud at the family company, dead patriarch's decades-long affair revealed) and some tried-and-true (married couple feels strain of mother's workaholic tendencies, career woman forced to choose between dream job and potential husband). The writing and casting are excellent.
Men in Trees - Lighthearted fluff perfect for a Friday night. Anne Heche is always highly watchable and her antics up in Alaska are entertaining. Good supporting characters too. I love the young innocent couple.
The shows I started watching but have dropped:
Heroes - Did not grab me after two episodes. Kind of comic-booky which is not my thing.
Ugly Betty - Too cartoony. The performances are over the top. I like the underlying premise (unattractive girl makes good in the big city) but it is kind of annoying to watch, and ricidulously predictable. But, it's on before Grey's Anatomy so I usually catch the last 15 minutes or so.
Six Degrees - I gave this one a fair shake...three episodes...but it just wasn't intriguing enough. These characters are supposed to be linked somehow but beyond one dropping a coin and another picking it up hours later, the writers didn't give me enough to pique my interest.
As for returners from last year:
Lost - It feels like it's moving very slooooow because we've been through two weeks of the new season and we still don't have an update on what's going on in the hatch. One of the reasons Lost was so good before was because the developments happend fast and furious. I hope things pick up quickly. I have enjoyed the flashbacks, though. I also feel like every little line is like a clue for something, but not in a good way. It's like the writers know people eat this stuff up, and so they throw in random things as if they're doing you a favor by dropping a crumb, but all it does is add to the confusion. But I still maintain that it's a well-crafted show.
Grey's Anatomy - Oh my word, this is a good show. I can't believe I started out not liking it when it started a while ago. It wasn't until the Superbowl episode (with the bomb) that I fell for it. I love all the characters, and I also love reading the writers' blog on Fridays to hear what they have to say about the previous night's episode. It always adds some insight.
Desperate Housewives - I look forward to it because it's entertaining and I like the characters, but it does have me in its grip like Grey's Anatomy does.
I also watch Amazing Race 10, but wish they'd get the heck out of Asia already. Of all the continents on the planet, that's the one I'd least like to visit. I watched What About Brian last year (it was only on for like 5 episodes) and I taped the permiere last week but haven't seen it yet. I wanted to watch The Nine, but it's on against Project Runway. PR will soon be over (I'll be happy if Uli or Laura wins, and furious if Jeffrey wins) so maybe then I'll catch up with The Nine on abc.com, then start watching it. I've heard good things about it.
Dude, I watch too much TV.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Welcome to 3.0!
Au revoir to Odyssey version 2.0!
My one-year blogiversary was on 9/5/06, and I've been wanting to update my template for a while now, so welcome to my new look! If you visited last night and commented on the first draft of it, thanks! I hope that this one looks a little more polished. I had some fun playing with Photoshop. I really should learn that program more fully. I'm sure I'm utilizing like 5% of its capabilities.
Anyway, I can't believe I've kept this blog for a year now! I've written about 186 posts, which averages to about one every other day. I have had such fun writing about my experiences, from moving to settling in and now just living my life here. I don't know how long I'll keep it up, but I think as long as I've got readers and I've got things to say (the latter being much easier to guarantee than the former), I'll probably persevere. One day I hope to publish my blog as a keepsake book, through a website such as Lulu.
It was a busy week at work, so I'm exhausted. I didn't do any traveling, but I did about 8 phone trainings and the customer support line has been ringing off the hook! Today was my six-month anniversary at my job and my boss offered to buy me Chinese for lunch, but I had trainings at 11, 12, and 1 and didn't have time to eat but for five minutes in between. Next week I'll be doing on-site trainings in NC, SC, and VA, so I'll be out of town from Tuesday afternoon through Friday night. But I will actually get to sleep at home one night due to the way the schedules and locations worked out.
Oh, a word about the weather before I go. It has been lovely the past few days. I guess September means it cools off here. The humidity hasn't been awful, and the temps have been very comfortable in the low to mid 80's. All I can say is YIPPEE! Assuming it only gets cooler from here on out, we sweltered through two months, but considering the other 10 are fine, I think it's a pretty good deal.
My one-year blogiversary was on 9/5/06, and I've been wanting to update my template for a while now, so welcome to my new look! If you visited last night and commented on the first draft of it, thanks! I hope that this one looks a little more polished. I had some fun playing with Photoshop. I really should learn that program more fully. I'm sure I'm utilizing like 5% of its capabilities.
Anyway, I can't believe I've kept this blog for a year now! I've written about 186 posts, which averages to about one every other day. I have had such fun writing about my experiences, from moving to settling in and now just living my life here. I don't know how long I'll keep it up, but I think as long as I've got readers and I've got things to say (the latter being much easier to guarantee than the former), I'll probably persevere. One day I hope to publish my blog as a keepsake book, through a website such as Lulu.
It was a busy week at work, so I'm exhausted. I didn't do any traveling, but I did about 8 phone trainings and the customer support line has been ringing off the hook! Today was my six-month anniversary at my job and my boss offered to buy me Chinese for lunch, but I had trainings at 11, 12, and 1 and didn't have time to eat but for five minutes in between. Next week I'll be doing on-site trainings in NC, SC, and VA, so I'll be out of town from Tuesday afternoon through Friday night. But I will actually get to sleep at home one night due to the way the schedules and locations worked out.
Oh, a word about the weather before I go. It has been lovely the past few days. I guess September means it cools off here. The humidity hasn't been awful, and the temps have been very comfortable in the low to mid 80's. All I can say is YIPPEE! Assuming it only gets cooler from here on out, we sweltered through two months, but considering the other 10 are fine, I think it's a pretty good deal.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Out with the old, in with the new
Something fresh for Spring. Do you like?
Rest in peace, template of yore. For posterity's sake:
Rest in peace, template of yore. For posterity's sake:
Monday, January 30, 2006
How cool is this?!
So there's this company that will scan your blog and pick out the most commonly used words, and arrange them alphabetically in a "word cloud," wherein the more a word is used, the larger it appears. Then they print the result on a t-shirt. The coolest part is that you can try it before you buy it. This is what mine would look like:
Who knew I used the word objectionable that much?
Who knew I used the word objectionable that much?
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Happy Chinese New Year!
My blog counter is at 888 on the first day of the Lunar New Year. How fortuitous!
Monday, December 19, 2005
Notice anything different about the address bar?
If you're using Firefox you should. For Explorer, it may or may not work. Try bookmarking (or re-bookmarking) the page and then refreshing, or reloading via your Favorites list. Spiffy, huh? Inordinately proud, I am. Frivolous use of time? Perhaps. But life is in the details. 
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