Random Thoughts

With every “big girl” purchase we’ve made for our house over the years we always debate which one is best, the kegerator, large screen tv, hot tub, etc. but hands down my most favorite right now is the pool.

In the next three weeks, various members of my husband’s family will be visiting. Two of whom refer to me as step-monster. I can’t wait.

It’s refreshing meeting some recently divorced ladies who aren’t fixated on starting another serious relationship.

My child swims every day and in six weeks has become a fish. He doesn’t respond to Nemo. Yet.

We may have bribed “Nemo” to swim the length of the pool for four pieces of candy earlier this week.

This is the first summer in almost 20 years that I don’t have plans to see someone in concert. I’ll miss going topless to a show too.

I’m still amazed at how a person can make selfish decisions that upset someone they love.

There is someone listed in my contacts with a Houston area code that I saved as “Mystery Person.” I really have no idea who it could be.

Wild horses on the beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina

No, I haven’t dialed it or deleted it.

The Pioneer Woman picked one of my iPhone pictures in her latest contest. It’s of two wild horses walking on the beach.

It’s more devastating when the internet and email is down at work over the telephone system.

It’s only been a week but I’m not into Google+ yet. My internet footprint is large enough without adding another thing at this point.

I’ve finally discovered a photography class in the area that I hope to sign up for in August.

If The Bloggess ever stopped blogging, I’d surely miss her writing. Her latest adventure is with a metal chicken but her trip to Belize was one of the funniest posts I’ve read all year.

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You Can't Take the Military Out of the Man

They always say that there's no such thing as an ex-marine. I think the same could be said for green berets.

We've all see the movie of the tough drill sergeant on new recruits til they steal a top secret motorhome and invade Russia with two cute female MP's after a night of mud wrestling with John Candy and save the world.

Maybe that was just me.

My husband is very particular about some things. Last year I shared this picture of him weighing his meat before making hamburger patties.

This is how he folds and rolls his shirts in his drawer. The key is that they have to be rolled so he can read what is on the front of the shirt without pulling it out.

We keep our clothes in different rooms because of space issues but I think it's because he doesn't want me to mess up his system.

The bed in his room is perfectly smooth, his clothes in the closet segregated by season and the nicer t-shirts on hangers.

Speaking of t-shirts, I'm sporting my favorite (and only one) from Suzy of Hollywood: Where Hot Comes To Die in her blog post today. If you're not reading her blog, you're missing out on some great stories, signs from around LA, Everyone Can Bite Me Fridays and tales of her appearance on Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

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My Online World Met My Real Life One

After almost a year of corresponding through blog comments, email, guest posting on each other blogs and sharing embarassing photos on Flashback Friday posts, I finally got to meet Cathy Has Antsy Pants in real life on Monday night.

This was my first encounter of meeting a fellow blogger in real life and it was great. In a way it's a little odd because you know so much about the other person even though you've never met in person. I think this is what people who use online dating services must experience.

Cathy and her husband JT are just as sweet as you would think they would be. She's on the quieter side of things but then again I'm have never been described at quiet, so everyone is compared to me.

I took a bad picture of her and her husband and we failed to get one together so I created one*.

Ta-dah!


*Our heads aren't to scale.

Look for her pictures of her trip to Virginia soon on her blog.

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Seasons Change (Guest Post)

I'm still on my beach vacation and Cathy Has Antsy Pants has agreed to do a guest blog. If you haven't been to her site, please stop by.

When Deb asked if I wanted to guest post I was all over it. But then, of course, I had to figure out what to write about?!?

So, I thought, her title is Web Savvy Mom, maybe I could write about being web savvy; I can perform a Google search with the best of 'em and have figured out enough HTML to design my own blog, but I don't know that I'd really consider myself savvy.  Or, is it savy, Deb?

But then I remembered that we talk (via email, of course) about the weather a lot. She makes fun of me for living in Minnesota and I get jealous of her living on the coast. It's a win-win situation.....for her. So today you get to hear about the weather.

One thing Deb told me was that she doesn't even own an ice scraper! What the hell crap is that all about? I go through one a season. She also doesn't wear snow boots to and from work. I have three pairs. Check it out, I just got these for Christmas this year. That's right, we give boots as Christmas gifts in these parts.



Throw in some down filled mittens and a hand-made scarf and you've got yourself a killer present!

Any good Minnesotan knows that you always keep a pair of extra boots in the trunk, just in case your commute home looks like this:



You never know when you'll go sliding into the ditch.

Let me assure you, it doesn't snow here every month. We have beautiful summers that give us views like this:



In July and August temps can reach into the 100's. Fall usually gives us nice crisp days and spring brings lots of rain and mud. We love our seasons, but we'll complain about them to whoever will listen!

So, if you ever run into a Midwesterner, just bring up the weather and let them talk, you'll be instant best friends.

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What Bloggers Like - 10 Things

There is a website dedicated to Stuff White People Like that I looked at for the first time last summer. I passed a car full of bumper stickers this morning and remembered how it prompted me to write this post.

So I thought it would be a good time to write What Bloggers Like - of course in my non-expert opinion.

1. Comments - We don't care if you say we don't know what we're talking about (you may after this post is finished) or our kid is the smartest, most adorable one in the world. We Love It.
2. Followers - I have recently joined a network of bloggers where we have agreed to follow each other to pump up our numbers. Boom, within the last month or so I went from three to 81 (as of this writing). You know what, I read most of the blogs I follow and some are quite good. Go figure. I felt like I was cheating on my math test and it turns out I knew the answers.
3. Widgets - Blogger keeps adding new ones and it's easy to steal ideas off bloggers you follow (see #2) above. I personally like the link within widget located after each one of my posts that teases, entices and lures visitors to keep reading my posts. It has also worked very succesfully on other blogs where I keep clicking and reading.
4. Free Blog Templates - There are numerous free templates available online for the novice blogger to the more experienced. Personally, this blog is designed by me using a free template that I have heavily modified to suit my needs. In turn, I have created my own buttons like those for Flashback Friday and my WebSavvyMom signature at the bottom of all my posts.
5. Twitter - A newer phenomenon to me is following people and in turn being followed on twitter; a social networking vehicle that prompts you to comment about what you're doing in 140 characters or less. For more of an explanation, read my Twitter for Dummies post.
6. Give-A-Ways - If you are giving away a $5 gift card to Starbucks, free blog redesign or a corporate sponsored product, people will sign up to win in the comments section. Often times the person doing the give-a-way lures the visitor into following them (see #2), tweeting about the contest (see #5) or doing a post on their blog for more entries.
7. Pictures - Personally, I include a picture in almost every post I do because for me, it's more interesting and I hope for you, the same. The better the quality and the more relevant to the post, the better, in my opinion. I decided to use one of my many self-portrait shots for this one because I was stuck otherwise.
8. Creating Aliases - When I created this blog in June 2008, I spent about three seconds thinking of a name and who would be visiting. I expected a few of my family members a few times a month. So in turn, I used my real last name and the real first names of my family and friends. Apparantly, this is bad etiquette in the world of Mommy Bloggers. In turn, I have renamed my blog (with a misspelled word) to WebSavvyMom.com for $10 a year (see this blog entry to learn how) and still continue to use real first names. I am not going to be famous, I don't write anything that will put my child into therapy (I hope) so real names are how I roll. Plus, I'm not Dooce.
9. Blog Buttons - It's important to create a blog button that reflects the look of your site but more importantly, to include the code on how to let others add the button to your site. Please note my button to the side advertising Flashback Friday, in case you want to use a HTML widget (see #3) to add it to yours.
10. Theme Days - There are many people I follow who participate in blogging theme days such as Wordless Wednesday, Writing Workshops, etc. For those of you may have missed it, this is my third shamelessreference to Flashback Friday. I started it in December 2008 and just realized that it may be something others are interested in. Please stop by on Fridays and join in the fun. If not, be sure to leave a comment (see #1) or tweet about it (see #5).

What have I missed? What other things do bloggers like?

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Finally, My Humor Pays Off

I look at a lot of random blogs week-to-week but there are only a handful that I visit on a regular basis. To name a few, IAMBOSSY.com, ThePioneerWoman.com aka Ree Drummond and married to "Marlboro Man" aka Ladd Drummond and VodkaMom.

One that I found a few months ago is called BecomingSarah.com. Sarah and her husband are expecting their first child and live somewhere in Southern California. She shares very honest and witty stories of her pregnancy and I'm sure they will continue when her life is turned upside down expands to welcome a new addition to the family.

She had a Name that Photo contest of the following picture of her cat.
(I'm "borrowing" this picture from her flickr account - click the image to see all of her photos.)

My suggestion: The Hand That Rocks the Kitty.

Guess what?

I WON!

Sarah is generously sending me a $25 gift card to Target.

As many of you know, I win a lot of things off the radio, like Dave Matthews tickets but I've hit a dry spell lately. This was a great way to start off the week.

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Pump up the Volume

Stealing is a sincere form of flattery.
Well, I just saw how a friend had a playlist on her blog so I looked into getting one here and then I stole a song I like from another friend's blog (well really her website). Both are linked at the bottom of this page. Thank you Maria and Julie.
I called this entry Pump up the Volume because I hope you like my (well Julie's) music selection at least for now. I loveeee so many songs that I will change it soon so it's not autoplay and have some other options.
By the way, we own the movie Pump up the Volume with Christian Slater and Tim has refused to watch it for the last ten years because I joked him once that it was about breakdancing. Haha...

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