Too Tired for Even A Clever Title
Just wanted to send out a quick HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone.

I finally finished the holiday newsletter and if you haven't seen it yet, click away.

Today I accomplished the following:

I exercised. I did the holiday newsletter. It took all freaking day. OOF. I do it to myself because I end up geeking around with the photos and changing my mind what to use and then thinking I'll change the format and geeking with that.

I am now so tired of sitting at the computer and I can hardly see straight. And tomorrow: the paper version. (That sound you hear is me screaming.)

I also made turkey tetrazzini. Can you imagine the expression on a child's face if you told him he was going to have a candy buffet for dinner? This is how my husband looks when I tell him I'm making turkey tetrazzini. It's like eating magical goodness cooked while unicorns dance around the kitchen. (For him.) For me it's just delicious hot food with lots of leftovers.

After I staggered away from the keyboard this afternoon, I wasn't really in the mood for the tetrazzini. The recipe is seriously yummy but also gets every dish in the kitchen dirty and most of the counterspace. But everything was ready to do so I threw it together and made a salad and also a brown betty with the mushy pears we didn't get around to eating. Man, there's a lot of stuff to eat during the holidays.

We've had an excellent holidays and birthday but to be honest, I'm ready for it to be over. We're invited to another doo tomorrow but halfway through tetrazzini dishes I hit my breaking point. I told Bob: I need to stay home. I have things to do, puttering to putt, notes to jot, pictures to cut out, crap to put away, more crap to put in the trash. I'm not up for one more event right now.

Birthday
A couple years ago Bob bought me a Time and Newsweek from the week of my birthday. This morning I flipped through them to see if there was some fun thing I could share here.

I don't know where to start.

The Newsweek cover story has to do with missionaries around the world. The cover price is .25¢.

Time has Painter Andrew Wyeth on the cover. The price is .30¢

Time is a bit nicer with more color ads. Well, more ads period. In Newsweek the big color ads are for alcoholic beverages or cigarettes.

I was born a little over a month after JFK was assassinated so both issues talk about President Johnson and domestic issues. Both include items on the marriage of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Both show a long line of West Berliners waiting to cross the wall to visit with East German relatives.

There's a lot of forward-looking at technology in the realm of travel, planes and space. One ad predicts that by the early 1970's we'll be traveling in airplanes faster than 1500 MPH "probably much faster."

It's a amazing how a person can feel, not THAT old, yet all these things that have changed in my life time.

One favorite tidbit: an article on modern living reports that the bathroom was undergoing a renaissance. Even small homeowners wanted more and bigger bathrooms. Two particular trends: bigger bathtubs which "further threaten[] the national water table," and "female emancipation" leading to a fad in twin installations. You know, two sinks.

My favorite birthday is dinner and a movie. This afternoon we're going to Volver and then trying a new restaurant — well, new to us.

Foraging for Food
This morning I wanted to lay around in bed reading and drinking tea but Bob very persistently convinced me to go on a walk which was a good thing. I had to put on clothes and nothing like bracing cold air to clear your head. I did some yoga when I got home and then dug into the chores.

One of my main adventures for today was getting the food situation under control. There is a fridge full of leftovers and foods purchased with something special in mind that I never got around to. I had to check for funny smelling stuff, consolidate other stuff, chuck stuff past pull date. I bought a bunch of leeks to do something with. Then I bought some more. Some were sacrificed to the compost gods.

I intended to make a breakfast strata while we had the group here over Xmas but we had so much other food it seemed silly to make another thing. I checked the mushrooms and they were still a day or two away from bolting and I had 5 egg whites left from the pots de creme so I threw that together this morning including some leeks. It's in the oven right now.

I still need to pick the turkey clean and get that carcass a-boiling for some soup but I actually made progress on the tardy holiday newsletter and didn't want to step away from the computer while I had that going. This weekend, for sure.

Where is Everybody?
Before I start this post I just want to say that I drove southbound on Front Avenue this morning. YAY! It's been under construction for ever and super inconvenient and it was a treat to make that right turnaround thing off the Morrison bridge and sail down the shiny new smooth blacktop. Another great reason to come downtown today.

Meanwhile: it's hard to reconcile all the chaos and crowds of earlier in the month with the relative calm and unpeopledness that's going on this week. I've driven to work at speed two mornings in a row. The streets have light traffic. We had a small group at yoga last night although that was the case the week before Xmas as well. Bet it's packed next week.

Where are all those people now? Are most of them staying home? Has everyone gone off somewhere? Are there big crowds somewhere else? I'll bet the malls are a nightmare. I hate shopping. Even when I have money I hate it. I get zero thrill from the hunt. If I need a pair of black pants, I will buy the first pair I find that fits me. This is why I do 99% of my shopping at Ann Taylor. The pants fit. I can be in and out of there in 20 minutes. I don't love sales. I'd rather pay more money and not fight the crowds. Plus I'm about as generically sized as a person can be so sales are a waste of time because there's never anything cute in my size.

Last year I took the week between Xmas and New Years off because it seemed like a good time to be off and Bob was off and then I burned through a bunch of vacation days and when summer came I was scrounging for days off.

This year I thought, screw it, save the vacation for later and work now when it's slow and we can all sit around the lunch room and eat cookes.

HA HA HA HA HA

I can't tell you how many things came up yesterday that needed attention right away. I thought I'd clear my desk off. Well, all these people are clearing off their desks too.

Happy Friggin Christmas
I'm at the office today and expected to have time for a nice update HOWEVER, we apparently lost power last night so no alarm-o. You know how it's so dark in the morning and I heard Bob open the bedroom door and then glanced at the clock and saw it blinking and said, "Oh. We lost power."

It was a little after 7am. I usually like to be out of bed by 5:45 at the very latest. I managed to be fast: brush hair, moisturize, go and since there was zero traffic, I was sitting at my desk at 8.

I have lots of work to do and errands to run.

Christmas was wonderful. Lots of fun. Excellent food. Delicious adult beverages. Yummy desserts. Fabulous gifts and prizes.

After gnashing my teeth over the Holiday Newsletter some more, I've got a start. I have a long weekend next weekend but if I don't get it done then, I'm not doing it.

Stay tuned.

Happy Holidaze
Me and Shadow bright and early this morning. Like my morning face?

Family here. Busy but fun. Very little computer time.

Great meals and delicious wine. Saw The Good Shepard. We all enjoyed it.

Tomorrow should be more cooking and hanging out. I have some good stories for then.

How Computers Are Ruining The Reference Librarian
I hesitate to take on this topic given the large number of librarians and librarian fans in my life but, true story, my last several encounters with a reference librarian at a public library have been less than fabulous.

Several years ago I wanted an article from a magazine and went looking for the Readers' Guide to Periodic Literature, a big green book with gold letters that I'd used often when I did research in middle and high school. I like looking things up in reference books.

I wandered around the reference section and finally asked, "Where is the Readers' Guide?"

The librarian said, "What are you looking for?"

"The Readers' Guide."

She wanted me to look the thing up on the computer. I wanted to look it up in paper. I like browsing. I like flipping pages. I knew what I was doing. I wasn't going to hurt anyone. Why steer me away from the books? I like possibly discovering something that I'd never heard of and didn't even know I was looking for.

While I would agree that hyperlinks can take you on the same unexpected journey of discovery, basic database research does not. If you're thinking about making a paper hat for an elf and your search query uses the words, paper, hat and elf, you're not going to get anything without those words (and miss out on the felt hat articles) and probably a whole lot of items about a hat store on Elf Street in Paper, Pennsylvania which doesn't help you with your question.

Yesterday, I had an equally frustrating experience trying to research a federal law thing which so as not to bore you, we'll say it's too old to be on the Internet.

I am guessing that a huge majority of the people who walk up to a reference desk at the public library have no idea what they are doing, however, I had barely explained what I was looking for before I was whisked off to a book which told all the basic information which I already had.

Wouldn't it be worth 30 seconds to take the pulse of the patron? I was holding file folder full of paper covered with notes. I asked a pretty specific question about an 35 year old law so not like it was my first time in the library after my teacher told me to do a report on koala bears.

We went back to the desk and parked at the computer. This story is already getting too long so the readers' guide version is that after trying really hard to answer my question using the computer (which I had already very thoroughly and completely done, believe me, I didn't want to go traipse across downtown in the cold and spend the day in the public library with a pocketful of quarters), and finding the same stuff that I already had, they asked me what I wanted and I told them the same thing I told them when we started this whole rolling circus. Eventually there were 4 reference librarians running around and FINALLY dragging out the old books and we figured out what I need and I had to order it from come storage cave in the mines of Moria and I won't be able to dig into the research until next week.

No one ever tried to explain to me what they were doing, they just let me stand there and assured me they were doing their best.

Come on, show me the reference tools, I could do it myself. Am I mixing up the school librarian with the public librarian? Wouldn't good research skills benefit everyone? I think I've drifted from my original topic sentence and my computer time has expired so I'll just end abruptly here.

At Least It's Not Raining
I don't know what the problem is but I'm completely incapable of getting my act together. Well, I'm getting out the door and to the office and getting work done. But everything else is adrift.

For some reason the city of Portland can't seem to stop ripping up streets and taking forever and a day to repair them. Today's special new treat was that one block, the block by our building that I need to get to the parking garage was blocked off. Large parts of Front Avenue are also blocked off. So I had to take Morrison Bridge to Stark. Stark to Front. Front to First. First to Madison to get back to Front. Front to Jefferson. Jefferson to 2nd. It was like a carnival ride, only not fun.

If I had time I could make a humorous map, but I have papers to file and research to do so this is it for today.

Update: Turns out there was a busted water main not some sort of personal "They're Out To Get Me." Our parking garage had mild flooding on the bottom floor. Also, I think I described the streets wrong but too lazy to correct.

Banner Prize
Yay, one more excuse to procrastinate on my holiday stuff: Jessica sent me the first pass on the banner design for winning NaBloPoMo. I love it.

I asked for goth pumpkin (my exact words) combining my pumpkin love with the cool end credits from Lemony Snicket. Those are my actual pumpkins that I grew.

She did a fantastic job with that. More Jessica designs here and again, Jessica, thanks so much for the fabulous prize.

I can feel the temptation to mess with the template but I'm going to resist the urge for now. Must get to that holiday stuff.

Vandal
A month or so ago Bob asked me to come down to the basement and look at one of the windows. It's a double pane and the outside pane was broken. (I first typed double pain. You can see my frame of mind.) Bob said there were rocks in the window well.

We couldn't figure out if it was a botched break-in or maybe just kids throwing rocks. Both scenarios are a bit of a strain. The window well is in almost plain view of the street so it wouldn't be a great place to break in. And it seems unlikely that some kids randomly ran up to that window to throw a rock.

We didn't worry about it too much and made plans to get it fixed.

Meanwhile, last weekend I walked around the house for the first time since the weather turned bad just for a quick peek. I found a pile of yard debris that I raked against the house and then forgot about. It's amazing you can spend time in a place every day and there are corners that you never look at. I checked that broken window well and I finally saw those rocks.

Those look just like the rocks that I dug out of the flower patch and then tossed into the window well to keep them out of the plants. *oof*

I confessed that I was the most likely vandal and Bob said he was relieved that it wasn't crime.

In other news, I completely and totally do not want to do the holiday newsletter. I have my notes. I've selected a bunch of pictures. I've made my picks. But I'm still mad and every time I sit down I get cranky and obsess on other things and it's not getting done.

I've made huge progress on the shopping part and maybe tomorrow we can get the tree and I can start wrapping and decorating and perhaps then I'll feel more festive.

Storm Damage 06
Last night we had a big storm with lots of wind. In addition to the atomspheric chaos, I was mad about something so I spent most of the night tossing and turning and being pissed off. By morning, in addtion to still being mad, I was tired and cranky and had no desire to drag my butt out of bed except I wanted to get a few shopping type things done as early as possible.

Bob said parts of our fence blew over and our compost bin disintigrated and blew though the fence into our neighbors yard. COOL!

I ran for my camera, but couldn't find it.

I hate not being able to find things so I keep my behavior as predictable as possible. It wasn't in my purse, my work bag or the car. I figured I left it at the bar last night. Great. I stomped around the house because I just got the stupid thing. I haven't even paid for it yet. How could it be lost?

But then I found it in the bathroom. (Whatever) Here are photos of the fence damage.




I used my amazing Illustrator skills to show you how the compost bin looks when it's put together. The bin used to have lots of stuff in it, but I emptied it into the soil when I put the garden to bed in October so all that was in there were a few carrot, celery and fennel scraps plus some icky pumpkin. That's all strewn about now.

Bob said he's go on the store run with me and we were sitting at the stop sign at the end of our street, fully and completely on our side of the road, me standing up on my horn and Bob and I doing a Simpson's type yell, "whoaoaoaoaoaoaoao" when a lady making a left turn onto our street drove into us head on. She was taking her kids to school. The second thing she said when she got out of the car after I'm sorry was I'll be honest with you I missed my last insurance payment. Not even 9am and I already hate this day.

The impact wasn't even enough to set off the airbags and I felt a little bad for the lady because obviously this was a fukup she can't afford, but sweet fancy moses, it was like she was aiming for us. Look at the photo, the damage is on the PASSENGER'S side of the car. She said there was a glare from the sun, which is may be true but doesn't explain how you could completely miss your own side of the street and drive into a car with its horn blaring. The car is drivable but yet another hassle.

We took my car home and Bob drove and we got our errands done without further incident. I'm going to try to do a little yoga and then have some cocoa and see if I can salvage the rest of the day.

Chimichanga From Jax


I won't name names to protect the well-fed and innocent, but that wasn't my lunch. But it looks yummy.

So I was driving home last night and I heard an ad on the radio for a new business that provides lights and other support for people who "want to grow fruits and vegetables in the privacy of their own home."

Now who do you think the *real* target audience is?

Technology is Out To Get Me
I just wrote out this long rant about how trying to buy something from Etsy made me want to brain myself but it seems to be resolved and who wants to read a screen and a half bitchfest of Pam Against the Machine? At least I have gifts for those hard to shop for folks. I hope. Maybe I shouldn't get too excited until I'm holding the items in my grubby paws.

The Best Part Was the Dragon
On Sunday afternoon we took Priscilla and Aunt Betty to Christmas Revels which is traditional olde tyme musical show with singing, dancing and comedy set in 12th century France and is way better than I'm making it sound.

The first time they went, I wouldn't go because it didn't sound interesting. When Bob came home from the show I asked him if very many people went because I'm that clueless like, oh, I don't think it sounds interesting no one else will. Yes, he told me, it was sold out. It sells out every year.

The next time they went, I joined them and loved it. The players are all ages including lots of kids and all kinds of people go with their families. The music is fantastic.

The event is held at the Scottish Rite Center which is a beautiful building that is very old and if you're wondering where Aunt Agatha's ancient orange furniture went after she died, it's in the SRC women's lounge. The building has lots and lots of stairs which is fine except that this is the perfect kind of show to bring your Grandma and Grandpa to and there are lots of elders with a two-handed death grip on the bannisters teetering to and from their seats.

There's a single elevator that fits about 4 and operates by hamster wheel. It gets a good workout during Revels shows. The best part was the dragon. The dragon costume was a guy in front with dragon head, feet and arms and then behind him was about 8 kids each wearing a spiked hoody type costume. During the battle every time the dragon got axed, a few kids would detach and go wheeling off. It was very cute.

We had dinner at Jakes Grill which was awesome. I ate too much and had to be rolled back to the car. We had a dessert which included some sort of chocolate dream in a cup which I enjoyed a great deal and which also made it nearly impossible to fall asleep. A perfect Sunday.

This Is Post Number 1000 and It's Lame
I didn't give myself enough time to do this. We're running out the door right now. If I'm not in the car in 3 minutes, I'm busted.

What's wrong with this picture? I got this camera bag free with my new camera. My new camera is taking the picture. That's the special effects camera which is even bigger than my new camera. I guess Crutchfield must have gotten an extra pallet of camera cases that they're trying to get rid of.

A Crocodile Is Not A Toy
Hey Look. A distant relative got his thumb bit off.

A circus ringmaster performing in Le Mans, France, had to carry on with the show despite having just had his thumb bitten off by a crocodile! Daniel Renz, 39, of Friedberg, Germany, was on tour with his Renz Universal Circus demonstrating to the audience of 4,000 that crocodiles are not man-eaters. As he stroked King, a 5-foot-long crocodile, the animal suddenly snapped its jaws shut, chomping down on his left thumb.

Since today was my first free day since I finished class, as I've been whining about, I had a lot of things I wanted to do. I decided that first I would stay in bed for a few more minutes so I could read and naturally since I was so close to the end I thought I should finish the book. Two and a half hours later, I still had some morning time so I spread the mat out in the yogatorium and put on my yoga clothes and then Bob told me he was going to Omi's to get potato pancakes. I folded up the mat, put on jeans and went with him instead.

I arrived home sleepy with delicious pancake and thought about trying to finish my other book but instead got online and visited blogs from the contest including almost every person who left me a comment. Then I had to leave comments on their blogs. That took the better part of the afternoon.

I had about a half hour left to find the Christmas stuff in the backroom and do the D-minus job on a few chores and then it was time to go to a party.

Now I'm home from the party and I'm thinking it's time for Battlestar Galactica. This wasn't exactly the stuff I wanted to get done today, but it was a good day.

Photos: the first is my Auntie, Mom and Grandpa on the Orleans bridge and the second is the Orleans bridge now.

The Whine and Cheese Edition
This week has gone on forever.

I had insomnia issues. I had hormone issues. The traffic was terminally forked such that I averaged an extra 45 minutes a day in the car. I had my class final this morning so any spare moments I spent reviewing for that. I did a few bits of xmas shopping which are flung all over the floor. There's laundry, dishes, mail, etc.

I haven't even started the holiday newsletter. I haven't finished the photo project. We had electrical work done back at the beginning of October and never heard from them. My dear husband called more than once to try to find out what was going on, did additional work need to be done, what sort of bill were we looking at and not only did they not provide this information but they weren't very nice about it. I ordered him to stop. We don't grovel to pay people in this household.

Meanwhile back in September I called our heating oil place and asked if they could top us off then. No, we're on a special program, they bring it automatically. I told her that it never failed that we got this giant oil bill in the middle of xmas. Filled with a deep ambivalence about making the customer happy, she told me it would cost extra if I wanted oil right then. I told her to forget it, we'd deal.

Guess what arrived yesterday? An electric repair bill AND a fuel bill. $1000 of extra bills right in the middle of xmas. Thanks everyone!

But now I'm finished with my test and feel confident I performed decently. Two months ago, I fortuitously made a massage appointment which I can look forward to in a short hour. I've just had my hot cocoa. I'm going to relax this afternoon and emerge on the other side refreshed and prepared to charge full speed ahead.

Photo: Hey look, I must have won a t-shirt, too. It was64 KFI as visitor Mr. Toast was kind enough to point out in the comment he left here. The photo includes my Grandma and my sister after what was probably a fun day in Orleans, hiking and swimming and a picnic lunch.

Hasn't She Read MISERY?
My co-worker likes, or used to like I should probably say, this writer named Melanie Rawn. I've never read her and know nothing about her but based on a quick peek at her website: looks like magic, princes and dragons.

She apparently started a book series and has yet to complete the third volume.

We go to Looking Glass Books on a regular basis and every time we're in there, he goes to the new books in the fantasy section, ready for book 3, and is denied every time. This has gone on for years.

Earlier this week we stopped in the bookstore at lunch and he said he wasn't even going to look. That it made him mad. But I was up there poking around and he eventually stopped to look at the new books.

I heard a gasp. He pulled a hardcover book from the shelf. I could see her name on it.

Finally!

Except: this was not book 3 of the series. She wrote a whole different book about some other princes and magic. Can you imagine the cruelty of a writer who leaves readers dangling like that and then finally writes a book about something else?

Because of Rawn I can't get him to read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell because he won't start a series that isn't finished. Way to go, Melanie.

Some Day My Prints Will Come
When I first got my first digital camera I spent about 30 seconds flipping through the instructions (memory card, battery, go) and then ran off to take my pictures. One part of the instructions that I did notice was that if I put the camera on a certain setting, I could take 1000 photos on one memory card. 1000!

I never looked back and it wasn't until I took my first Photoshop class shortly thereafter that I understood that my pictures looked pretty crappy. Plus I figured out that even in extreme circumstances like vacation, I did not take even close to 1000 photos.

Meanwhile, since I went digital I have never made prints. We don't have the technology at home or office and my primary purpose was for web so I never did it.

Recently, I decided I want prints. I have a bunch of shots I'd like to share and a huge part of my extended family lives in a rural area which is dial-up city so you can imagine how exited they're going to be to look at a Flickr stream. It's holiday time, why not take the time to figure out how this works and print stuff that can sit on the kitchen counter during the holidays for everyone to enjoy.

There's a camera shop near the office and I took the time and trouble to actually walk in and ask them how to do this: CD? Thumb Drive? File format? I would have had better luck getting information from the sandwich shop next door. What, are these state secrets? And if you're going to have a job in customer service, shouldn't the most basic qualification be that you have some tiny something that resembles a personality?

Armed with what I could pry out of her, I went home and decided to do a test run. I took a dozen photos and dicked with colors and filters and cropped them and saved them in different ways so I could get an idea of how they would look. Went back with my CD and they have two billboards hanging over the counter with prices and instructions and I guess they do 1 hour printing. I don't know. Clear communication doesn't appear to be part of their business plan.

Drone #2 takes my CD and money and asks what time I want to pick them up and since I don't need them in an hour I say I'll come back tomorrow.

I went back yesterday and Drone #2 was back at her post. I asked if they had a flier that explained all the pricing scheme so I could figure it out and she said no, but she could answer any questions. (!) Then she told me that my photos weren't ready yet.

I guess if you don't want them in an hour, you have to give them 24 hours. Maybe that could have been explained to me earlier. Now I'm mad. Fred Meyer photos, here I come.

Stink-O-Rama
Something in the refrigerator stinks and I don't know what it is. On a scale of one to ten, I'm a ten plus when it comes to paying attention to what's in the fridge. Old foods do not linger there.

I've probably thrown away tons of good food because I couldn't remember how long it had been there or because it had a slightly odd sheen that could possibly be the beginnings of mold or something that could make you sick or kill you.

I've gone through every shelf. I've (very carefully) sniffed Rubbermaids® and dairy products. Nothing like taking a big whiff of something that smells low tide on a hot day to ruin the dinner hour. I've even tested the condiments. I'm not finding anything stinky.

But when you open the door. OOF! I hope this isn't the beginning of an XFile or something.

Meanwhile, the new camera arrived, thus the excuse for picture taking. Is it just me or does looking into other people's refrigerators bring up hard to place feelings of pity?

I'm A Wiener
Yesterday I got some good news and some bad news in the same five minute period. The bad news was when I pulled my jeans on and had to coax the zipper up. Someone needs to cut back on dessert. The good news was when I sat down at my computer and found out I'm the NaBloPoMo Grand Prize Winner.

I think this is the part where I say, I've never won anything, except when I was in high school I won a KFI beach bag on the radio. It was a canvas bag with a towel that said "67.1 KFI" in orange letters (I can't remember if those are the exact call letters and number because this was the early 80's and I've lost a lot of brain cells since then and the only details I remember about those days involve wildly humiliating events) and an orange AM transistor radio that played 67.1 KFI. So I win things about every 25 years. I need to mark the calendar for 2030 to keep my eyes open.

For everyone who's here for the first time I'll give you the 15 second intro.

I'm 42, have a fantastic husband and live in Vancouver, Washington. I'm a proud member of the Karuk Tribe of California. I'm a legal assistant and have been working with tribes in the Pacific Northwest for something like 14 years. We have no kids and no pets and enjoy movies, books, anything with melted cheese and a wide variety of delicious adult beverages.

I have had a personal website since April 1996. They wayback machine only takes you to 1999. I wish I'd been more diligent about archiving when I started but it didn't occur to me. I was going to try to recreate the first site for my 10 year anniversary but never got around to it.

Typical posts are about cooking, gardening and how the rest of the world is doing it wrong.

A few classic posts include my emails home from a Europe Trip in 2000 (also the quaint and primitive html is good for a laugh), going to a String Cheese Incident show, the one about the barbie tampon and how amazingly little I understand about current music.

I had a great time in November reading (and bookmarking) zillions of new blogs. Lane's randomizer is responsible for hours of lost productivity but it was a fun way to check in and see what people are doing. Ginormous thanks to everyone who participated and commented.

Finally, super huge thanks to Eden for organizing the event and to and Jessica for offering up the big prize.

The rest of today will be spent studying for my class, working on two huge computer oriented holiday projects and staying away from the randomizer.

NaBloPoMo Wrap Up

After the first day, I decided not to mention NaBloPoMo in my posts. This was a little rule I made up for myself since the point seemed to be to write every day, not write about writing every day.

The other rule that I made for myself was that I would visit at least one new blog every day and I would leave a comment every day. Prior to NaBloPoMo I've never left a comment on a stranger's blog. I've never even thought about it. The first time I did, I thought the sky would open up and people would point and laugh. (BTW: Angelfeet got my comment cherry.) I could go into a long-winded internal examination on this tendency of mine to participate without participating, but it's not that interesting and I don't have the energy right now.

Let's just say, now I've tried it and I like it and I'll do it again.

The daily comment rule fell apart around Thanksgiving when I got backed up with school and holiday stuff and to be honest, ran out of steam. Sometimes I can't bear the sight of my computer. Still, I averaged way more than one blog a day thanks to the hypnotic spell of the randomizer and I think I averaged at least a comment a day.

I've added zillions of new blogs to my bookmarks. It should be easier to keep up when everyone isn't posting every day.

If anyone from the contest is still hanging around, thanks for reading and/or commenting. I've visited everyone who's left a comment and tried to leave a comment so you'd know I'd been by, as if this was all mandated by the fair and decent blogger rule book.

Overall: Good time. Thanks to fussy.org for putting it on. I'm sure it was tons more work than she'd expected.

In other news I finished my Illustrator final project and turned that in today. I have one more class which will be the final exam. I'm starting to feel like a free woman. Time to get that holiday stuff together.