Happy Birthday to Me!

Shannon gave me an excellent birthday present today:



This bag really says it all, doesn't it? Shannon and I have discussed how, now that we are blogging, everything we see, say, or do is colored by The Blog. Will I blog it or not? Blogging has become an automatic part of my thought process. Seemingly mundane things are now blog fodder.

I am so excited about my new blog bag that I was already thinking of what to put in it and how to use it while I was thanking Shannon for giving it to me. I told her it's my new purse and I'm not sure I was only joking. I LOVE this bag.

I'm Very Annoyed

I just wrote a nice little blog about how tomorrow is my birthday and Tuesday is my son's birthday. I wrote about how his party is tomorrow and how excited I am for him and how proud I am of him. I wrote about what I think about every year when his birthday comes around. Then I hit some errant key and lost it all. The moment is lost for now and I am annoyed. Grrrr.

Are we working for the unattainable?

As some of you know, I'm counting points and trying to lose weight. So far I've lost six pounds. I found a site today that has me thinking about why I want to lose weight. So here's why I want to lose weight: It's all about me. I want to lose weight because I want to lose weight. Not because my husband wants me to, not because I want to wear a bikini this summer (it'll never happen, folks), not because I want to be the mirror image of some model. I just got tired of looking at the lumps around my midsection--the ones you could see even though I was fully dressed. I got tired of getting winded just going up the stairs in my house.

I have been through the whole "I need to be a size 8 or I won't be pretty" thing. I actually felt that way once. Being a mom has really helped me see that my personality is who I am, not my jeans size. Being a mom has also shown me how important it is for me to be healthy so I can keep up with my kids. As I work at becoming healthier and losing weight, I am not as tired and I just plain feel better.

For those of you who are interested, here's the site I told you about. It shows how a picture of a bikini model was retouched. Make sure you put your mouse over the photo too see what it looked like before it was retouched. I found it fascinating. You know what? I think there are many of us who could be bikini models if we had Photoshop. ;)

Watch out for that...spatula?

I know I shouldn't, but I have caught myself living and dying by my Blog Top Sites number. I started at 99 and made it all the way up to the thirties. Now I'm back to 50! Aaaahrgh! I blame it all on my addiction to changing my template and the resulting boring entries. So, in an effort to get my numbers down again, I offer you this humorous story. It is completely true.

The Background: About 10 years ago (before kids), we lived in a cottage with a steep driveway. We lived across the street from the cutest little family ever (they had a 2yo). We had two cars; of those, my husband's was a Mitsubishi Mighty Max truck. The name was clearly wishful thinking because it was nothing more than a wind-up car. I was out of town visiting my mom.

The Story:
My husband was preparing to go somewhere (probably to play golf) and forgot something in the house. He went back in and when he came out his truck was rolling down the driveway, across the street, across the cute family's lawn, and into their chimney. Yes you read that right. INTO THEIR CHIMNEY--he forgot to set the truck's emergency break on that big hill of a driveway. That was bad enough, but the family was actually out in their driveway watching the truck roll toward their house and wondering why my husband was trying to run them over. When my husband came running out the house his first thought was for the cute family's cute little daughter. Thankfully, she was fine and no where near the truck. As it turns out the truck did not do any damage to their home. Woo hoo! You would think this is where the story ends. If I weren't such a busy body it probably would have ended there, but read on.

As my husband is relaying this story to me I am mortified. How on earth were we going to make this up to them? Well, duh! I'll make them rice crispy snacks! Nothing says I'm sorry I hit your house and almost ran over your family like a batch of rice crispy snacks. Right? So you see my logic. Anyway, at that time I was not known for my prowess in the kitchen. Seriously, though, how hard could rice crispy treats be? So I gather my ingredients, my pot, and my spatula. I'm stirring and I'm stirring. Then I take out my spatuala. Hmmmm. Something looks different...My spatula is now a stick without the flat spatula part. Huh? Where'd it go? I dig a little though the mix and can't find it. Maybe it melted? Ah well. It's still good. Yes, again, you read that right: IT'S STILL GOOD. I proceeded to spread the mix into the pan and take it over to the neighbor's house. Yes. I. Did. I also saved a little sumpin' sumpin' for myself.

I presented my masterpiece to the neighbors and they gave me tour of their house. I apologized profusely and hoped they would take the rice crispy treats as a token of my embarrassment. When I returned to the house I dove into my little stash. Two bites in I can't chew the treats. I take that piece out of my mouth and...it's the spatula.

In answer to your obvious question: Yes. I'm available to cater your next event.

Tutorials to Change Your Look

Here are some of the tutorials and free sites I found that can help you change the look of your blog. It's a lot of work and it's taking me a little longer than I thought it would, but it's fun.

Free Blogger Templates: You can download free templates from this site.

Blog Tutorials by Jennifer: This site explains how to put a border around your photos, make a favicon (those little, tiny icons--like the B from Blogger --next to your URL), how to make a banner, how to pick a color scheme, and much more.

Blog Software Template Tutorial: Explains HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Improve Your Blog with blog templates, add-ons, plugins and more: Lots of different information regarding blogging and templates. I signed up for a free 5-day online course. They sent me one e-mail each day with a link to a page that walked me through CSS.

Eye For Beauty: Lots of templates to choose from. Some cheap.

BabyJane Blog Design: You can purchase a design here and not do a lick of work! She was some neat things she's done. I particularl like Suburban Turmoil

Coming Down Off the High

Well, now that I've achieved my first major victory (see post below), I've been working on tweaking the colors of my template. You can see the new colors at my test site. I'd be interested to know what you think. What I'd really like is something like Suburban Turmoil, but since that's taken I guess I'll muddle my way through.

The problem I'm having is that my site is becoming a little "pretty" if you know what I mean. Those of you who know me in real life may understand a little better. I like pretty and I appreciate beauty. However, my personality is a bit more...how should I put this? Oh, right. I'm a smart aleck (is that how it's spelled?). I've been called "surly but in a good way". When my friend and I were both about 8 or 9 months pregnant we went to the mall. Everyone we met had to touch her belly and comment on how huge she was, was she having twins (she wasn't), and other ridiculous things. NO ONE EVER EVEN TRIED TO TOUCH ME. I chalk that up to my "look" (which, apparently, is just my face in repose). So there is my dilemma. I feel like my site is getting a little too Precious Moments for my real personality. I like my quote and I like my picture, I'm just not sure I want to use them as my banner. Comments? Help? Anyone? Bueller?

Can I Get a Woop! Woop!

For those of you not familiar with that obscure movie line reference, I'll just give it to ya: The Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2 as she arrives at the ball for Fiona and her new "prince charming". And don't tell me you haven't seen it because I know you have.

Anyway...all that to say I've been working on my template and I think I have it almost figured out! So, seriously, let me hear that woop woop! I still need to do a little more tweaking as evidenced by the occasional blue-colored link and the comment footers. And I'm not so crazy about all the blue-green coloring. On the other hand, it feels so good to figure this out and see changes.

Woop! Woop!

Edit: What's that? What's that you say? You say you don't see those nasty blue links and the dark blue comment footers? That's because I fixed them! Woop! Woop!