Domestic Geek

I'm really tired right now. I'm thinking of going to take a nap. See, even though I stayed up well past 1 am this morning, my internal clock had me out of bed at 6:20. What sucked major monkey butt about that is I thought I was late for work and that my alarm hadn't gone off like earlier this week. 6:20 is when I need to be hitting the road. After rushing into the bathroom, it dawned on me that it was Saturday. D'oh! So, all that adrenaline had me wide awake. *sigh*

I twisted both my ankles when I stepped off a ladder wrong at work. I can't remember if it was late last week or early this week. All I know is, they are both super puffy and hurt like a mother. I can never remember if you're supposed to ice swelling or put heat on it. Google tells me ice, so I've got ice packs strapped to my ankles. I feel stupid, but if it helps get the swelling and pain down, I'll deal. I think I'll fill up a pan with ice water later and soak in it.

Hey, I got off my butt and joined Facebook a few days ago. Here's a link to my Facebook Profile if you want to be my friend.

Marcus is super cool. He bought me a license for that Delicious Library program I wrote about a bit ago. Even though he claims it is not the case, I think he really wanted to play with it and got tired of waiting for me to get it. Getting my books into it is going to be a long process. Most of mine are so old that scanning them doesn't bring up anything in Amazon's database. I'm having to type in the ISBN number and that usually brings up something close. Then being anal and perfectionist like I am, I'm searching Amazon and Google images for the same cover. So far I've got a couple that I'm either going to have to deal with the cover being different, or I'll have to scan my own book cover. We'll see.

OK, I'm off to work on Wordpress stuff and figure out how to make a better looking twitter badge. I hate that one you get from their site. Seriously, you only display 140 characters or something, so why is the box that freaking huge? I can't even change the text size. Lame!

I went to the coolest presentation on Adobe Photoshop CS3 last night at the Denver Media Group function that was definitely worth the $15 I paid to attend. The presenter was Jay Kinghorn, a local Adobe Photoshop Certified Expert from Boulder. He was very knowledgeable, personable and packed a lot of information into the hour and a half time frame we had. I could've listened to him for hours. I must say I am impressed with how Adobe is developing Bridge and Camera Raw. Having not upgraded to CS2 when it came out, I was really unaware of the capabilities for photo corrections the newer versions provide.

I also got to see a couple of teachers from Platt, a girl I knew from school as well as a former coworker from the ad magazine in Larkspur (one that I don't despise). She was telling me how she and two other designers no longer worked there (2 were laid off and 1 quit). That leaves the original two and one of them had to take a pay cut. I'm trying not to be happy about someone's business floundering, but truth be told I am just a little. I'm so grateful that I'm better off now.

On good work-related new today, on July 1st I am eligible to participate in our 401K plan. w00t! Since they'll match up to 6% of my pay, I am thinking of doing that, but don't know if I can handle that much of my paycheck missing right at the moment. I'll definitely at least have 3% put away. That's like getting a raise right there in the long run. See, I didn't have the remote possibility of benefits at that old company. Speaking of benefits and thus dental, a pretty large piece of bone worked itself out of my gums today. Ick.

There is going to be doing a full day DMG event on September 13th that I would love to attend, however since the head of my department and one of my senior coworkers were talking about going this morning, I doubt they'll let me off for it. I told him I was interested in going and since that event is 3 months away, I'll have to wait and see. I guess it will depend on how busy we are at the time.

OK, I'm off to work on my craft blog for a bit. I totally screwed something up last night and had to get Marcus to revert to an earlier version of my database. D'oh! heh.

A coworker and I were talking about gardening a few weeks back and she mentioned that she and the kids were starting some sunflowers to put outdoors. I lamented that I haven't grown sunflowers in years since I really don't have a place that receives enough sun. She brought me a little seedling today and told me I should try growing it in a pot on my little back porch. That was so thoughtful, but the poor little guys seems awfully small. I wish I had purchased that small greenhouse at the local craft store that Nina and I saw a few years ago. It would be perfect to nurse this poor little guy along until he's strong enough to survive outside in a Colorado summer.

A store I've written about on here before, Online Discount Mart, has some Greenhouses very similar to the one I wanted back then. I've glad they're still available and I will definitely be getting one soon. While looking for greenhouses, I couldn't help but notice all the great new products they've gotten for summer—flags, statuary, birdbaths and lots more. They carry such a vast array of great items for the garden and the home. I'm still going to get a garden gnome from them, too.

I just noticed they have a Tips & Ideas section in their sidebar. I'm going to go peruse those links and see what great information they have to share.

I know I promised everybody a link to the craft blog on Sunday, but I ran into a few snags with the template I downloaded. First of all, I'm a little frustrated by coding hacks that don't know how to nest elements properly. Second, this whole WP way of doing things is throwing me a little. I'm used to having my whole index in one template and this modular thing is a little annoying. As soon as I've got it all figured out, then you guys will get a link. Sorry for the delay.

You know how I said the only thing I was going to miss when we dropped our satellite package down to the bare minimum was Mythbusters and the stuff on The USA Network? Well, I guess it's only going to be Mythbusters now.

Yesterday was the season premieres for both The 4400 and The Dead Zone. I did one quick check of their site hoping for episodes to watch before I sank to bit torrenting them or something and THERE THEY WERE! Woo Hoo!!!! You have no idea how happy that made me!

I hope they keep showing them.