August 30, 2011 9:25 pm

Recent Tidbits

I’ll admit that I was shocked to discover it’s been a month since I updated my site. I actually can’t remember the last time I went so long without an update, and I don’t even know what I’ve been doing instead of writing.

Yesterday, I went to the library by myself (amazing, since I don’t get a ton of alone-time these days!) and got six books. I read four of them yesterday and one today. The last one was kind of an impulse grab, something about small businesses that I thought Daniel might be interested in and that I thought I’d skim through too, but I probably won’t actually look at it. The other five were The Discipline Book by Dr. Sears (because I like his philosophy and was interested in seeing what he had to say about toddlers), Free Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy (saw it on the shelf and remembered I’d heard of it and wanted to read it), Escape by Carolyn Jessop (lady from a fundamentalist religious cult escapes with eight kids in tow), The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (girl and siblings grow up with flighty mother and alcoholic father, live off the land, etc), and The Baby Thief by Barbara Bisantz Raymond (described as “the Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption”). All great choices, for sure. (And yes, I do read that fast!) (But I did stay up until 3:30am last night to finish Escape.)

I had kind of forgotten how much I love reading, and it made me sad that I don’t get to do it very often anymore. I used to read at least 20 minutes a day (split between my to-and-from work commute) which worked out to about an Agatha Christie novel per week, and now I’m lucky if I read a book every two months. The last book I read before that was The Help, which I liked very much.

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I made myself a portfolio site. I redid our local Farmer’s Market website. I made a site to locate city sidewalks, because they are few and far between. I’m kind of trying to get back into the swing of things with regard to development, since I think I might want to take on some freelance stuff.

It’s hard though, because I know I’m not as strong of a designer as I am a developer, and while I am able to come up with nice things, I really honestly do not think I can do it under pressure (e.g., a paying client). My plan is to stick to simple sites that I can develop with WordPress and take advantage of customize-able themes, or do site “fixes” or facelifts to fix issues rather than total redesigns. Unless one of my lovely designery-type friends wants to team up with me? I can work random hours on a part-time basis, haha.

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Last week, we went to the county fair twice in one day. I used to love the fair growing up – if you got a blue ribbon on something you entered, you could get $3 for it, and I often made my “summer money” this way. I got free coloring books about Smokey the Bear, admired the needlework exhibits and vowed to enter something next year, and ran away from the Tea Party booth (!) and registered to vote at the Idaho Democrats booth. Pigs oinked at Wesley and he burst into tears. (He loves piggies but I think he loves the idea of piggies more than real-life ones.) I ate an oversized corn dog and had bites of an elephant ear.

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Daniel made this cola recipe and I can’t say enough good things about it. It’s the perfect summer drink. Light, refreshing, and delicious.

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