Saturday Morning

I woke up at 6 AM with a migraine. I really need to get more sleep. I'm going to sit up a few minutes to let my sinuses drain, and then try to go back to sleep. But my daughter has a gig in San Luis Obispo in the morning and if I want a ride to town with her I'll have to get up in an hour anyway. I need a good neck and shoulder massage. I'm going home on Monday so I want to make the most of my weekend here.

Kitchen and Bathroom Remodeling

Today I grabbed a quick shower because the contractors were coming at 8 AM to work on my daughter's kitchen. She had a burst pipe that pretty much wiped out her kitchen so the insurance helped to buy a complete kitchen makeover. So right now they are doing mud over the drywall they installed a few days ago. Meantime they were already remodeling their bathroom with tiles, so my daughter is working on the bathroom at the same time. As you can imagine it's noisy in here with the hammering, sanding and power tools.

And Then There Was Blogging

I never knew how important all those creative writing classes I took in high school and college would turn out to be. Back in the '70's the idea of blogging wasn't even a twinkle in a computer tech's eyes.

And now it seems I do some creative writing every day, whether in a blog, a long hand journal, an ad brochure, or on Twitter.com. The written word can also be incorporated into collage and mixed media art.

Lettering in itself is an artform, and now there are a plethora of fonts to choose from as well as calligraphing your own letters. I think we take letters and words for granted in a ubiquitous sort of a way. But yet many in the world are illiterate and we take our own skills for granted.

So many find that while they can start a blog, they run out of juice after a few posts. It helps to have a topic for your blog. I have over 60 blogs. Feel free to surf some of them via my profile for topic ideas. Life changes moment by moment, so there is always something new to blog about.

Aquarium Humor

Today I got some frozen bloodworms for my new fish. I was looking forward to seeing their reaction. It comes in a cube about 1/2" around. So I plonk it in there and the smaller fish on top (zebras, cherry barbs, neons) hit on it right away, but after the first burst they lose interest. It floats over by the heater where it blends in and they ignore it. So I watch for a bit. Then one of the African frogs on the bottom spots it, and ever so slowing makes his way towards it. Suddenly, he grabs the whole cube and starts barrel rolling down. The cube is flying apart, and he swallowed from 1/3 to 1/2 of it all by himself. He's going to have one heck of a belly ache. Then when he sat on the bottom, the other frogs start gulping down what he missed. So I think it's safe to say that African frogs like blood worms. The fat frog went up to the surface to get some air, then dove towards the red lava. He lost his balance with his full tummy and made a crazy landing.

An Off Kind of Day

I'm feeling kind of spazzed out today. First off I was on line until 4 AM last night trying to get an Etsy treasury, which can lead to Etsy sales, but usually doesn't. But by 8:15 I was wide awake again. So I started out the day with 4 hours of sleep. It started out okay. I started making some amigurumi mice, but then I got distracted. By mid afternoon I was coughing and my nose was running so I went back to bed. After two hours of sleep I felt human again but now half the day was gone. So I worked on Internet marketing, blogging, the usual. I just don't feel like I'm really getting ahead. If I don't stay on top of it every minute it goes away. I was reading about long tailed tags so I figure I'll start using some to see how that goes. Also blogger has a new button called 'Monetize' so you can put your Google Adsense ads underneath your post and/or in the sidebar, instead of with the original widget. Check it out under your 'customize' tab. You have to delete your exist ads first and then click on the new option. Takes a few seconds.

I'm also trying to get familiar with Entrecard, which means logging into their site to see if I have any new card drops. Each new technology has it's own complexities and they are eating more and more of my time. I could see it if I was getting an hourly wage to do all this research. And maybe it will pay off sometime but it's getting old quick.

Yesterday I felt really productive but today I just really didn't have it in me.

A Little Visitor

I just found out my daughters and my grandson are coming to visit in March. That is great news. Babies grow up so fast and I'm missing so much of his first year.

My apt. however is not baby safe at all, so they'll have to stay in a motel. But I can always go over there and hang out with them. At least there are tons of nearby motels here. This will be the first time the baby has come down here. They visited other relatives during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Being pagan, I try to stay out of the 'you must visit me for the holidays or else' syndrome. As long as I get to see them sometime, it doesn't have to be on a holiday.

I wonder how my cats will be around a baby. This will be a first.

Weekend in Quartzsite

I had a great time out in Quartzsite last weekend. I'm so glad I took my camera. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. And we ran into two of our friends there who live in Torrance CA.
I bought a bunch of things for knapping and jewelry making. I aleady used some of the green beads to make earrings. I wish I'd gotten more of the polished stones for wire wrapped pendants, but it just didn't occur to me at the time.

Random Thoughts

It will be a shame if all the toymakers and makers of things for children on Etsy and other art store internet sites were suddenly out of business because of the over zealous laws to test for lead content in toys. As if a knitted teddy bear or a wooden toy soldier were going to have lead in them. That law needs some serious revamping.

It's been 2 months since my faster computer died. A friend put in a new motherboard and it still didn't work. Now he's supposed to be finding and installing a power supply but I haven't heard from him in weeks. So no Second Life for me. This computer can't handle it. I already tried.

I'm in a hypnosis chatroom looking for friends I know but no luck so far. The room is pretty dead and I'm tired of trying to keep the flow of conversation going. I was never much for small talk. I'd rather draw or knit.