Fear of freezing pipes, I called the gas company.

Apparently I owed a balance.

I told them I had forwarded my mail, but never received anything.

“We tracked you down to Bloomington, Illinois”.

I have never lived in Illinois, and isn’t that Indiana?

I Googled my name, and no cross reference to Illinois.

I tried to help the woman later and asked, how did you track me down there?

“We paid a company, and that is what they gave us.”

Could have taken her all of 3 seconds to search me on Google.

I shared that nicely, including the fact we got married and it was on the news.

(Most publicized non-celebrity wedding – but I held back that info…).

She snapped at me:

“That would be your married name. “

I explained that both of our names were listed.

In the end, it turns out she didnt care for my advice, and didnt care her company was paying another company to do shitty work.

Hope she is able to make a better day for herself.

So stalkers unite! Open up a business – I’m sure you can do better than whatever company TW Philips is paying.

Unfortunately it has taken me longer than it should have to remember that life is just better when balanced.

I had become too focused on work the last 6 months, and although I “tried” I did not take time to exercise. That is the sad part, the forgetting part.

Now for the joyous, excited, currently powered-by-endorphins part…

TODAY I HIT THE POOL.

So, it is with great EXCITEMENT that I announce the future fatality and obliteration of the added weight since I had broken my ankle, and the extra European calories that have been hiding out. Prepare to be annihilated.

The TSA agent was the first one to say it officially, I remarked on this, how most people assume Miss, and he replied he has to observe these things and he saw my wedding ring.

I just took a snack break. Im finishing a huge project I have been working on for months related to Project Management.
Whoo-Hooo!

I had sardines and crackers in honor of dear old dad. And a stipend for another client in which I need receipts, so I splurged and went to Whole Paycheck.

I wish he were still alive, Id fill my suitcase with these lush sardines packed in lemon infused oil. He would probably scoff at the Pecan Crisps that pass for crackers.
Goodness, I miss him and is cantankerous ways.

I have been working my ass off this year. And now I can say that literally.

Before I start my 18+ hour days, I have been playing Wii Fit, drinking protein smoothies, and trying to get sleep when I can.

I am super excited about the work, but am looking forward to vacation – Burning Man in THREE WEEKS!!!

I cannot dye my hair purple this year – because I am leaving to come back early to teach in NYC.  Yes, cutting my vacation short.

Then it will be off to London. And probably not taking much extended time as we did last year for our pre-honeymoon. I still woudl like to take in sites in Scotland and Ireland.

October is filling up now.

I finally feel relatively comfortable with security of Karmoxie. Too bad self health insurance is so expensive. I have been flirting with the idea of going full-time somewhere else, but at this rte, I think I can afford medical costs to have a baby next year? and any other shenanigans my husband and I get into. We are accident prone, as you may know.

This was to be the year of catching up with friends and although it is only happened a couple of times, I cherish it, and look forward to more.

ELEVEN ELEVEN ELEVEN is right around the corner!

HUGE PARTY AT OUR PLACE

Peeps are coming in from around the country. Now just to get the canucks and euros to show up…

Much love to all, be good to all we meet, they may be having a shitty day and you can be that ray of sunshine

I have been absorbed by getting Karmoxie and Grape Thoughts moving forward, and the last 3 years have flown by.

There have been highs, there have been lows.

Two of the lowest things are:

1. my good friend passed away two weeks ago in an accident. It was very sad, and I have been trying to spend 2011 catching up with friends, but Laura and I had not gotten to see each other in a good many months.  I was just thinking of trying to get together. From now on, no delays.

2. I gained 40 pounds. WTF? It almost seems overnight, but it really had taken some time. Breaking my ankle didnt help. I am on Day 7 in a row of workign out, and today I started the Smoothie Shakedown.  I have a wine tasting event Tuesday but will go light on it. I really like using Ann Louise Gittleman’s advice.  I think my liver is not healthy, so Im not only eating right, but detoxing, and trying to give it a break.

Anyway, as the 89 year old custodian of the Rachel Casron Homestead told me – you get one body and one mind, take care of them.

photo credit: Peregrino Will Reign

Well, glad those sleepless nights helping clients weren't being put towards the worst open source CMS solution!

Ive been starting to write plugins and get into some more of the advanced features, and its been an adventure. Teaching classes on Design Patterns (in Java) I have to say I wasn't thrilled by some of the common approaches and recommended solutions being proposed to me.  Most solutions I was suggested involved NOT using my customized database tables, but overriding the use of Pages and Posts, and shove everything into Options tables.

But, Im starting to get a better handle on things, and see how to design clean solutions.  WordPress does offer a lot, and i really has helped me to get my clients sites up and running quickly. Plus the availability of plugins is quite nice.

Even still, it's amazing to think that for certain categories, there are only 2-3 plugins.  Maybe when I have *free* time I will package up some of my custom solutions and spread some good karma around.

Ah, free time – wish I had some. If so I would create a custom theme for this site.

The life of a developer, you spend more time on clients stuff than your own.

Reminds me of a logic problem:

You arrive at a secluded small town with only two barbers (they are the only ones who know how to cut hair )^* and you need a haircut.

They charge the same amount.

One has a very messy shop with hair everywhere, and his hair looks terrible. The other has a great haircut and his shop is immaculate.
Which one should you use?

* Added this to clarify problem for my boyfriend and others who might argue their wives might cut their hair

So, the answer is basically related to the fact that – even though my current theme is messy, its not too much of a negative, I'm just so busy helping others.
 

In case you didnt get it – they cut each others hair…So choosing the messy barber would mean you get the best cut – he is too busy to clean up!.

I have been working from my bed and the couch – but missed being in the office. I’m excited to have found some things – such as a business card for a great gal I met during the PPRAC ride and my shiny blue pajamas.

As I said in my last post, it’s the little things.

I decided to make a post to test something out. Right now this is a blog in WordPress, and it has an RSS feed that is picked up by Facebook. I know a majority of readers are in Facebook, but wanted to test using a summary of the RSS feed to draw people to the site itself, and comment there.

I have not found any way to work with RSS and see who the actual subscribers are, so Im hoping this post can be a sort of roll call. You can just send me an email if you do not wish to post a comment. That would be to my winegoddess at gmail account.

Now, just to extend this post a little further, in hopes of it being truncated…a trivia question.

What has 35 eyes and they all blue? Their eyes can’t see shapes, but can detect light and motion
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A scallop