Domestic Geek

When I got out of the shower yesterday, I looked in the mirror and the skin all over my face was dry and flaky. Ewww. I've also been scratching a lot and have noticed a couple of dry patches on my arm that aren't usually there. Since I don't have these problems in the summer when we're running our swamp cooler most of the day, it's got to be the result of the dry Colorado winter air. I do have a small vaporizer than I run when I'm sick, but it barely puts moisture in my bedroom, let alone the whole house. Plus, the dang thing is noisy! I know I need to get a humidifier to run when we kick the furnace on for the winter, but have you seen all the choices in the store? While hunting around online, I found a complete guide to buying a house humidifier. There's a page that breaks down the different types of home humidifiers as well as desirable features in a model. There is also some information on the top brands of humidifiers. If you suffer from dry skin and sore throats every winter as well, a humidifier just may be the answer—check out all the useful information at HumidifierInformation.com.

When Marcus and I get around to moving again, I'm going to check out the local water before we settle. Aurora has got some of the hardest water I've ever had to deal with. Thank goodness for that CLR cleaner (Calcium Lime Rust) or I'd be screwed. Every couple of months I have to soak the shower head to get it to flow, run it through the coffee maker, etc. Combine those mineral deposits with the soap scum in the shower and its a nightmare. I hate to see what the inside of our water heater looks like after four years of this. I just soaked the head of the sink sprayer because I noticed yesterday while filling Skippy's water jug how little water was actually coming out of it. Byers and Colorado springs has had the best water of any place we've lived. It never took a whole day to clean the shower at either of those locations. Deer Trail's water wasn't hard, but it smelled like sulfur. Ick, I hated how I smelled after showering there.

I've been doing a lot of reading on search engine optimization (SEO) during this job-hunting period. Since it seems that a lot of companies are requiring SEO skills of anyone their hire to do any web work, I wanted to see if it was something I really wanted to learn. The truth is, SEO is an animal unto itself. It takes a lot of knowledge to get the search engines working for your business. It's not enough to get clicks to your site, you need to be able to reach the people that will actually buy and use your products or services. If these companies were smart, they'd obtain the services of a company that specializes in Search Engine Marketing.

Apogee Search is one of those companies. They have recently joined an organization named SEMPO whose goal is to educate and foster awareness of SEM and its role in marketing. SEMPO has the sponsorship of search engine giants Google and Yahoo. Anyone who has surfed the Internet recently is aware of many of the unsavory tactics going on to boost search engine rankings. Apogee hopes their involvement in SEMPO will promote fair and ethical practices in the SEM field:

Apogee Search is in full agreement with SEMPO's recent moves toward establishing standards of behavior that will hopefully aid in cleaning up the dirty underside of the Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click industry. Apogee Search CEO/President William Leake, a frequent international lecturer and guest speaker on topics such as "Avoiding Search Engine Marketing Malpractice" has long believed that SEMPO could play a more positive role in advancing the overall industry.

For something as important to a business as optimizing their sites for search engines, they really do need to leave it to the professionals. I'll keep the folks at Apogee Search in mind when I get my own online business going in the future.

I'm surfing around the blogosphere this morning before I move on to a craft project I want to work on. I have things I want to say and stupid blogger errors out every time I try to leave a comment. This SUCKS! You know I'm not going to go back later and try to comment again. The moment is lost.

I guess the Mercury Retrograde is in full effect now!

Over at Jesser.org yesterday, Jess posted about a place called Chedd's. They make gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. At the moment they only have locations in downtown Denver and over in Littleton. If I'm ever in those areas, I may check them out. I hope they put one closer to my side of town, though, because I'm intrigued. I love grilled cheese sandwiches. Mimi's made a pretty good one that I tried for that brief stint that I worked there, but it was on the expensive side.