Wednesday, April 23, 2008

this pretty much sums it all up...

"For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin-- real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one. Happiness is a journey, not a destination..." -Souza

Friday, April 18, 2008

EaRtHqUaKe! !! ! !!

Whew! I woke up at about 4:30 this morning (which isn't that unusual for me...) shaking... I couldn't figure out if it was just an adrenaline-charged awakening from a dream, but things were rattling, Bailey woke up, and several of the dogs outside were barking. I stayed in bed for a bit, convinced that it was a dream, and then finally got up for some validation. Low and behold, we felt the shocks from an earthquake near the I*llinois/Indi*ana border! So far, everything here is fine-- not even a picture off a wall! Hope it was fairly minor for everyone else! :)

Thursday, April 17, 2008

How fast are you?

During a stressful week, this makes for some fun... try it and see how you do! And, BTW, I didn't cheat-- that was my first try. :)

54 words

Speedtest

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Things I adore...

Okay, Mo, I'm giving you a shout out right back ... :)

I've become an avid blog reader. Something about reading about others lives is really interesting to me. And, after some of the worlds longest days at work talking and answering questions, all I want to do is relax and NOT talk. :) A good sit on the couch, watching the news, and reading my blogs is sometimes exactly what I need.

My addiction began by clicking the little "Next Blog >>" link at the top of the page. (See, it's up there... try it out sometime) What I found is another story for another day, but needless to say, the web of links from one blog to another has left me with a nice little "blogroll" that I check each week. When I would finally find the time to sit down and check them all, I would click on each link, wait for the page to load, and see if there was an update. Sometimes that took forever because people have these massive templates or a million slideshows, etc. and wait for 5 minutes while it loaded, only to find no new post.

I was talking about this with my friend Maureen, who introduced me to this lovely tool:

Google Reader

Anyone with a G*mail account/G*ogle ID/whatever they call it can create one-- if you look at the top of your G*mail page, you'll see a normal blue link to it. All you have to do is go in, load your links, and with one little click each day, it pulls the RSS feeds for you and you can view the updates in the viewing pane on the right. How freakin cool is that? It makes my blog reading much more enjoyable and keeps my old as heck computer from freezing up. LOVE IT.

The only thing I'm still trying to figure out is that for some of the blogs I follow, it only pulls up a piece of the text, and there's no way (that I can figure out) to see it all without having to open the blog in a new window... If anyone has that figured out, let me know. :) Still, very very worthwhile.


Function: A- (when I learn how to see the whole post, it gets an A+)
Form: whatever... it's simple like all Google stuff, and I like that. Too many of these things are way too flashy... A
Price: uh, it's free, which totally gives it an A+

Thursday, April 10, 2008

You say it's your birthday... it's my birthday too, yeah!


Happy happy birthday (within the last week) to J's dad, K, and M! We got to celebrate with the first two (kind of) last weekend, and will celebrate with my not-so-little-anymore sis this weekend. (M is 20 and K is 18!!! Who can believe it??!?!?!!)

Also, my birthday falls in the middle of the amazing family birthday week, so I got to celebrate with them! I had a great birthday weekend, sandwiched in between very very busy weeks at work, but the weekend was a relaxing break with WONDERFUL weather! And, I am sad to report that I'm officially in my late 20s now. Wow. My amazing husband made it a lot more fun with a cake, flowers, and gifts, including a new treadmill. :) Thanks to everyone for the gifts, cards, emails, and facebook messages! :)