Woke up in a weird mood today. Stuff popping through my head, I guess. Fortunately, the content of the day wasn’t overly bizzare, or I’d be fussy.

My Dad’s better, for anybody I talked to about that. He was having trouble with doing physical stuff, and they suspected his heart. He had a stress test Friday, and they could tell there was a blockage.

He was in the hospital Monday, and they put two long stints in his heart. One of the main ateries was completely blocked, so it’s especially good they didn’t go with my dad’s intial plan of “exercising his way through it” via the treadmill, huh? Geez. (more…)

from my LCE blog…

He flashed back that blank look; like when somebody goes geekspeak on ya and you don’t speak that strain. He nodded a little.

“Hey, now! C’mon. I know I’m boring, but it’s your fault! I wasn’t a nerd before you met me.”

He laughs. “You were always a nerd, Honey. Just not a computer nerd…”

“No way! YOU, on the other hand, were quite a nerd whe I met you. I was just a regular girl.”

“Noooooo way. You were a nerd!”

He’s full of baloney, you know. I was afraid of computers before I met him…how could I have been a nerd?! Doesn’t add up, man.

It’s not my fault I took to it. I became a nerd after many hours of listening to him wax philosophical on the beauty of binanry language and what having adequate RAM can do for your life.

When I met the man, he wore plaid shirts that his MIL had bought him and had Velcro tennies. And he always crossed the velcro strips in an X.

I was the nerd my $(%$…he’s got it in his blood. I just caught it from him because I was crazy enough in love to with him try to listen to all that geekizoid stuff…

I’m still here, but busy…however, in the meantime….

Some of you all are already famililar with Elsa the astrolger from ElsaElsa.com. She’s put out a request that doesn’t cost anything but a few minutes and I thought was a good cause…

Anyway, Elsa’s boyfriend has a son in Iraq. The son speaks Arabic is therefore in the very thick of action, and it’s dangerous. He and the folks in his unit could use some cheering up. The son’s name is “Captain Gus” and the troop’s nickname is “Tropic Lightning.”

They’re requesting random pics of everyday people, pets, stuff, whatever, with supportive messages to help encourage these soldiers. No politics - just letting them know there are folks back home who appreciate their service.

Elsa explains it here:
ElsaElsa.com » Blog Archive » A Invitation And Appeal To All… Support The Troops!

Her collection thusfar is here:
GetOnTheBusWithCaptainGus’s Xanga Site - Weblog

And anyone who does have a chance to help out, please let Elsa know goddess sent you… pix go to askelsa [at] gmail.com. And thanks!

I have been working, very hard, for a very long time, it seems. It feels like forever…i plowed through tons of work the last couple of weeks, often with anxious and cranky clients breathing down my neck, and i managed to do what i consider to be a decent job of juggling all those concerns.

last weekend, it hit hard. saturday, it got to the point i was so tired and frustrated i could barely focus. i had people freaking out at me and stressing me out left and right. (more…)

We’re snuggled up, getting ready to go to sleep. He’s not dozing off in his usual 30 seconds after laying still.

“You’re thinking,” I declared. “I can hear it.”

“Yeah? You’re thinking, too,” he responsds. “You need to go to sleep now. I can sleep better when I hear you snoring.”

“I don’t snore! Who says I snore? Well, okay, the kid does, but I don’t snore. Snoring is not ladylike.”

“It’s very soft.”

“Nah. I don’t snore. Gotta be your imagination. I’ve never heard myself snoring.”

I settle in and we both go to sleep. The kid claims that she sometimes hears a snoring serenade from our room. I think she must be exaggerating. Now, my husband’s snoring could rattle the doors! But me? I’m a perfect lady at all times. Even in my sleep.  

i started the day with over 40 items on my to-do list–the running “red flag” stuff i mark in outlook of work that needs to be done; i am currently down to FOUR. Count them–4!

Granted, one is an entire web design, but you know what? I don’t give a damn. The last couple of days, I’ve minimized distractions, focused, and got a lot of stuff done. And I’m happy with myself for it.

It helped a lot de-stressing; I fired a client whose job was hanging over my head (and whose sarcastic email made me cry). I pretty much kicked out a very big project that I’d been dreading and that i will soon get to send out a nice invoice for, and they’re thrilled.

 and all this with some “open window” sneezies.

chip comes home and immediately knows it’s been a productive day for me.

“Get a lot of stuff done today?” he asked.

“How did you know?”

“There’s less stress in the air.”

i’m still here. busy busy baby!

loving this great weather!

yesterday, i found out that my missing debit card (which i assumed was somewhere in between some furniture or something) had been procured and used. somebody was buying internet phone call time at yahoo on it. a trip to the bank and 2 calls to yahoo (including talking to 4 different people-ugh!) meant that the whole deal took about an hour to hour and a half of my time but won’t cost me money.  so whatever local fucker snagged my card and tried to make phone calls on it, i hope they’ll be busted!

did you know if you call yahoo they will ask you your site security questions? i don’t remember answering a favorite sports team one, though. i was like, “whaa? i don’t like sports. that’s not a good question for me.” the people were also difficult to understand. very annoying experience. 

we have a zero liablity on our cards and 99% of the time when i don’t know where it is, it’s in a coat pocket or something so i didn’t freak. and while i didn’t need the time away from work, i also kinda did, you know? i went on errands and shopping with the kidlet yesterday to deal with it, so it wasn’t so bad. it was gorgeous yesterday!

i have had several clients leaning on me to get stuff done, and that’s been pretty high fuckin’ stress. that has been tough…i have trouble sleeping when the client issues kick up. i’ve been using a little kava kava and some bath and bodyworks “sleep” aromotherapy lotion that helps a lot, though. some are the regular high mainentence folks, and some are new.

but i’m in a postiion where i need to take on new work again because since the site switchover, LCE hasn’t been making squat. eek! need to work on optimizing the ads for better clickthroughs and finding alternaitve sources of revenue. diversification is a good idea, especially since that’s almost the only source of income for the site. have been working on the traffic and am building it back up, so that will help some too. i actually like working on the site because it’s mine….but i have to portion my time between LCE and my client stuff since clients are still paying the bills.

my computer is still a little odd after the hardware failure a while back, which means i have trouble installing things, but chip got it back to well enough that it’s very usable. long term, i’ll probably have to reinstall windows and all my programs. so a pain, but not an emergency. my keyboard was acting up, though, and didn’t consistently work when i pressed spacebar, for example. that WAY sucks when you type for a fucking living. chip again came to the rescue with one that works since i didn’t see any i liked when i was shopping.

 i was a sucker about a week or two ago and agreed to do a “water test” for a neighbor. i see this guy all the time and kinda feel sorry for him, as i see his adult kids moving in and out of his place. none of them seem to be especially bright bulbs, if you know what i mean. i heard him talking to his daughter one day, “what do you mean you lost the housekey? i just gave it to you yesterday. have you checked the car?” like that.

anywho, he comes to my place-he’s starting a new job doing water testing (read-sales) for a water softening thing and needs to practice his presentation on friends and family. and i’m thinking, another reason to feel sorry for him. he has to go door to door to find friends and family? i asked him what was required-an HOUR! eek-and agreed, once he was clear i wouldn’t buy shit. so he came over to test my awful water.

on the plus side, i found out some stuff about water. our water is EXTREMELY hard here, which i knew, but the test tube thing had about 3/4 inch of crap in there when he put the chemical in to seperate it. also soft water makes it easier to wash clothes, suds better, and makes your skin really soft, all of which i found out from the tests he did.  i also found out the water thing they sell is wicked expensive, requiring 11 years of monthly payments to fully own. ouch. but it did seem cool. if i’m ever in the positon to buy one, i’ll call him. he seemed a little disappointed i didn’t buy one, although i’d been clear from the outset and i also gathered he doesn’t have one, either. but you know. i gave him good reviews on his paper and was nice. so you know. did my good deed and all.

i am TOTALLY digging the magic bullet and have become a new smoothie addict. i use calorie countdown milk, unsweetened yougurt, some low carb sweetners, frozen fruit and a scoop of protien power, along with some ice. they are freakin’ awesome! i could damn near live off the stuff, but at some point will need to start counting my carbs from it lest i get carried away. but they are a very tasty treat for sure!

oh well, that’s it for now. just thought i’d give my pals the update. work work work goof work work is mostly the pattern. hope all i well for everybody else.

I’ve been feeling some work stress; I couldn’t really address all of it, because basically, it’s about having more to do right this minute for more anxious people who want it right this minute than I can possibly finish right this minute. Not to mention that the house was dirty and we needed groceries…right this minute.

So I did what I do in these situations–answered my email, cleaned up the house mostly, and went shopping. Work stress comes and goes, but my needs and my family’s needs take priority. The clients may be happy if their web work is done, but they aren’t going to figure out what’s for dinner, man.

And since I was feeling kinda stressed, I indulged myself some. One of the indulgences were these lovely roses, pictured above. Great $10 investment, if you as me. Making me smile every time I walk by for a few days is WAY worth ten smackeroos.

Magic Bullet Express 17-Piece Blender

I also got myself a Magic Bullet blender. Yes, they have infomercials, but that’s not why I got it.  I’ve never watched one…The people over on LCE were talking about making protien shakes and smoothies in ‘em, and they sounded good!

Well, I tried it out tonight, and man–it was good! I made a chocolate/banana protien shake for Chip and a Raspberry Banana smoothie for me…other than the frozen raspberries having some seeds in it, it was great. And it was still good enough to drink. Not bad for a first try. And with a little protien powder in it, it was very filling, too. It will make a good quick breakfast or lunch. The kid was happy to have an “as seen on TV” product, the husband was happy with his tasty shake, and I was happy with a new appliance to help me make good, low carb fare.

So my indulgences were WAY more successful than my work today.

over on my LCE blog here -

http://lowcarbeating.com/low-carb-diet-support/blog_callback.php?b=67