ch ch ch changes.

I’ve decided to make some changes here at Pragmatic Compendium. I’m going to make it more of a compendium. Here are the changes:

1. I’m going to be republishing existing content from my other blogs into Compendium, so that this will be a one stop shop for all my posts. I’m doing this for a few reasons. First, I frequently can’t find my own posts because I can’t remember where I put them. Secondly, the stats from the other blogs don’t show much traffic from Compendium, so my readers are missing my posts. Compendium is only part of who I am. There’s more!

2. I’m going to keep the other blogs too and continue to publish in them. Every time I post in one of my other blogs, I will publish the exact same content in Compendium too.

Why not just put everything in Compendium and do away with the other blogs?
- The other blogs do get traffic, just not much from Compendium. Most traffic comes from subscription services/readers and search strings.
- Pragmatic Communion is JUST for devotions. By still publishing in Communion, readers who only want to read the devotions don’t have to wade through everything else to find them.
- Pragmatic Commotion is JUST for family stuff. Kid stories and quotes, photos, stuff like that. By still publishing in Commotion, friends and family who want to keep up with my family life don’t have to wade through everything else to find things only related to my family. I might not publish all the kid/family photos on Compendium. I’m not sure yet.
- Pragmatic Communication is JUST about communication: talking, writing, reading, and listening. I’m revamping my business website and will be linking to communication “articles” in Pragmatic Communication. My communication clients want to read about communication tips without wading through recipes, my favorite youtube clips and everything else unrelated to communication.
- Pragmatic Computing (my first blog, by the way) is JUST for computer tips and troubleshooting. It is also linked from my business website and my computer clients like to find computer tips without (again) wading through everything else.

3. I’ll be changing the sidebar widgets to remove the links to the last three posts on each of my other blogs. Since the content will already be within Compendium, readers don’t need to see the last three entries on those blogs. I will instead have a single link to each of the other blogs in the sidebar, in case readers want to JUST see devotions, or family stuff, or communication articles, or computer tips.

4. I think I will be removing links TO Compendium which currently appear in my other blogs. That means there will be no clear path BACK to Compendium when someone clicks over to one of the other blogs from here. However, ALL links from Compendium to the other blogs will open in a new window or tab, leaving the Compendium page open. My reasoning for this one?
- Communication and Computing? Clients don’t need to read such personal stuff about me. It makes things awkward for them. When I get to know a client better, I tell them about Compendium. I got a new client last week. A 64 year old man. He really doesn’t want to stumble upon my hysterectomy woes. Neither do I want him to. Talk about awkward.
- Communion – I haven’t decided whether to link back to Compendium yet. I think I’ll leave that two way clicking path available.
- Commotion? I’m considering telling my mother about Commotion. Somebody slap me. If I do, I don’t want her to find her way to Compendium. I will set all comments on Commotion to be approved before they appear so no one will accidentally “spill” the existence of Compendium. By telling my mother about Commotion, she will get photos and stories about the kids without me having to send the photos or tell her the stories. Somebody slap me. Or convince me this won’t be dangerous, that it’s a good idea and I won’t regret it.

5. I’m beefing up the categories and tags on all the blogs to, hopefully, make it easier for me readers to find posts about certain topics.

6. I haven’t decided how my menu bar at the top will change, but it will. (I’m open to suggestions.)

I LOVE my template, so it will NOT change.

So here’s a call for feedback! What else should I consider? What other changes should I make? What changes should I NOT make?

the “silent agreement” incident.

I took a second look at my hair after Stephanie’s comment about the red and I’ve got to say – I think it’s the flash. FirstHusband says he sees a little red when I’m in the sun, so it has to be the lighting. It’s really more of a light brown. I do color my gray (yes, I said it.), but I stay close to my natural color because I’m cheap. I just can’t afford frequent root touch ups. (I know, I’m even pragmatically VAIN.)

Way back, about 15 years ago, I colored my own hair. Once. I picked an auburn color and both FirstHusband and I HATED it on me. His only request since then is “please – no red hair.” The name of my current color is “chocolate” (I love that!) but it seems like I must have some underlying redness in there somewhere. It’s not intentional. I was blond as a child – EXACTLY like PinkGirl. I get highlights in the summer. Because I spend so much time outside, color just bleaches out anyway. It tends to get a little darker in the winter, I guess because I spend more time inside?

. . . I have a client that says I tend to “ramble on.” I don’t see it.

ANYWAY, after the requests for a photo of me with “big” hair, I’ve been looking through old pictures and it sent me on a nostalgic hair trip. I’ve changed my hair a lot over the years. I had the same stylist for 19 years and whenever she got bored (or when I got bored), I let her try something new. The only time I didn’t like one of her ideas was when she cut it short. NO versatility. The exact same hair every single day until it grew out. Never doing short hair again. So for the most part, as long as it was long enough to put up, I didn’t care what she wanted to try.

Then, after 19 years together, she changed her career. Left me flat. (I’m actually happy for her.) I spent almost two years going to another lady in her old shop and EVERY time I went, she wanted me to TELL her what to do. I just didn’t know. And she had no suggestions. So I HATED my hair during that time.

Apparently, I wasn’t alone.

Picture it: I’m at a client site, in the break room having lunch with some women I’ve known for YEARS. We’re all talking about hair. (I wonder now, if it was a setup.) During the conversation, I said, “I HATE my hair.”

And there was silence.

Now, what do women normally do when someone says that? You know. They immediately come back with stuff like, “No, I like it!” or “What’s wrong with it?” and other reassuring comments intended to firmly dismiss the possibility of bad hair.

Complete Silence.

So I said, “It appears . . . I need a referral.”

I got a double. Two of the women went to the same stylist.

It was a GREAT referral. I walked in, gave Lisa just a few criteria and let her have at it. Loved it after the first visit! She’s GREAT. Fearless and full of ideas. She’s already figured out what my hair will and won’t do. AND she’s reasonably priced. Double the fun! It’s coming up on two years of LOVING my hair. For the first time in a LOOOONG time! Since “big hair” went out. (I miss big hair.)

So what’s my “criteria?” Here’s what I’ve learned about my hair over the years:

Cut – Lots of layers because my hair has a natural wave that only comes through if it isn’t weighed down. When my hair is all one length, it just hangs there. Thin and straight and stringy. (Which was the case at the time of the “silent agreement” incident in the break room.) With layers, I can choose to blow my hair out straight if I want, but I still have the option of wave or curls.

Length – Just long enough to put up in a knot without falling down. That’s just below shoulder length for me. Too short and it falls down or sticks out when I put it up. Too long and, again, it just hangs there like string. Ugly string.

Color – I like my hair color to look natural – like I don’t color it at all – so EVERY hair can NOT be the exact same color. (That’s what happened when I colored my own hair.) And most importantly, I CAN’T afford a root touch-up every hair cut, so the base color has to be as close to my natural color as possible. Lisa has convinced me that I need highlights all the time, not just in the summer, but not too much, or I look like a blond. With dark roots. (Which was also the case at the time of the “silent agreement.”)

Other than that, I let Lisa have at it. I figure hair will grow out and color can be fixed. Every “bad” haircut is a learning experience. That’s how I figured out my hair criteria. It’s like the rest of my life. Most of the time, I figure out what works after finding out what doesn’t.

And I see Lisa on WEDNESDAY!

So thanks for all the positive comments about my hair! It takes away some more of the sting from the “silent agreement” incident. Friends tell each other the truth. Eventually. But true friends tell each other the truth much more quickly and don’t let them go two years with bad hair.

Want to see some more hair? After the big reveal and all the comments about how I don’t look like people thought, I wondered about my own preconceived ideas about how some of YOU look. I admit, I’m always on the look out for blog owner photos, so I know what some of you look like already:

Debbie’s Avatar Photo was professionally done, but she says she wouldn’t look like that if we saw her on the street. I found a family photo.

I remembered a tiny little photo of Elle earlier this year. It was a pretty quick find and a nice review of her writing along the way.

Kristin at “The Goat” has a photo on her “about” page – the link is waayyyy at the bottom of her page.

JanMary – I had some time yesterday, so I perused some older pages and found a photo!

I’ve not seen a photo of Lisa at Domestic Accident, but she refers to her daughter as “mini-me” so I just visualize her as a tall version of her daughter.

Lisa Writes has been brave for a while now. Her photo is also in her “about” page.

I’ve always pictured Memarie Lane with long, un-layered dark brown hair. Then she posted photos of herself immediately after . . . CHILDBIRTH. Now THAT’s brave.

Mocha with Linda buried a photo of herself in a post back in July, but I remembered it. You can zoom in!

Sandy has lots of family photos in her sidebar – my favorite is “crazy hair.”

Stephanie has short purple hair. Well, sometimes.

Tina ’s got a family photo in her sidebar. The photo is small, but I can see curly, brown hair. Her face is way too tiny to make out, so I’m thinking I would never be able to recognize her on the street.

Did I miss you? Comment and link up to your photo! No photo of yourself on the internet?

chicken.

don’t zoom in. seriously.

In honor of my one year blogging anniversary, I decided to use a photo of myself as an avatar. I admit, being invisible has it’s own comfort level, but after a year, I figure it’s time to get a little more personal. So, PinkGirl and I were having some fun with the camera, trying to get a good blog photo of me.

We took these last week. I give up. I can’t choose.

FirstHusband says these three show my personality:

But I’m leaning toward the very first photo we took . . .

Looking for feedback, people, this is my FACE. On the INTERNET. Where people can zoom in. and see wrinkles. eek.

it’s a pragmatic anniversary!

One year ago today, I posted on Compendium for the very first time – two posts, actually. In honor of that day, I offer the inaugural posts for your perusal:

just journal, even if it’s just one sentence. (What journaling does for me.)

and

be consistent. (One of my first lessons as a parent.)

My first commenter was Leslie at Lux Venit (my first 5 comments) and then Lisa at Lisa Writes (the next two). Thank you both for my first affirmation in the blogosphere!

pretty links

I’m fine with readers leaving links in their comments on any of my blogs. WordPress catches most spam and I delete the spam that sneaks through. However, some links are prettier than others.

Some links look like code threw up on the screen and don’t even work, like this:

<a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFLs9RI8mSA”>Small is Tall</a>

and some links are, like I said, prettier, like this:

Small is Tall

Ugly links are always welcome, but if you want to know how to enter pretty links, click on over to Pragmatic Computing and check it out. It’s easy!

---

Find more tips and ideas at Works for Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

a shout out to pinkgirl!

Welcome to the blogosphere honey!

PinkGirl asked me to help her make a blog this weekend and after explaining the boundaries (no real names, mom helps with any photos and most importantly – mom approves the post before she clicks “Publish”), she is up and running at:

http://pinkgirlsblog.wordpress.com/

I told her that it was HER blog and that I would not be taking dictation. And she is required to use the home keys. I’m so mean.

Family and Friends please comment on her blog posts. Please. please? (Gram, that means you too!)

what is it with watermelons this week?

Sometimes my blog stats spike. Usually due to a Mr. Linky post from another site or a kind “shout out” from another blog. But this week just confuses me. Take a look:

My September 8th Google search strings included:
watermelon (31),
square watermelon (8),
square watermelons (5)
resulting in 60 VIEWS of the “my kind of watermelon” post

My September 9th Google search strings included:
watermelon (19),
square watermelon (8),
square watermelons (6)
resulting in 70 VIEWS of the “my kind of watermelon” post

And as of 6:55 p.m. (eastern time) on September 10th stats:
watermelon (26),
square watermelon (10),
square watermelons (2),
square water melon (2),
water melon square (2)
AND “καρπούζι τετράγωνο” (1) (which, when Googled – showed THIS page)
resulting in 66 VIEWS of the “my kind of watermelon” post

Look in my sidebar under “Top 10″ posts. It’s moved to the top of the list.

I don’t get it. Do I just need to watch the news more? Disney’s Pass the Plate? Listen to NPR? Anyone?

UPDATE: I did figure out that the referring site is Google Images. Search for “watermelon” in Google Images and I’m on the first row. I guess when you’ve got a photo of watermelon showing up on the first page of Google Images, everyone in the world who searches for watermelon could potentially click on the image to see it better. Lucky me.

cookies and fries.

We don’t have snow days. We have hurricane days. Well, in this case, tropical storm days. The kids started school last week on Wednesday and I started catching up! Making some serious progress. I was in the zone! Then. School is canceled. So far, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. The kids are VERY happy: Three days of school, a weekend, one day of school, two days off for a tropical storm, two days of school (if all goes well) and then another weekend.

Am I being punked?

So. What do I do when I have to cancel everything because a tropical storm is completely interfering with my “zone?” And my client schedule? And my walking?

Well, I certainly can’t change my circumstance, so I have to change my expectations. I decided to catch up on my blog reading while we still have electricity.

In this case, I was catching up with Amy at God’s Work in Progress. Her post from Monday, entitled “Worth of a Soul – Hope Chronicles 63” included the lyrics to the song “The Touch of the Master’s Hand.” Click on over to see Amy’s entire post, but these words give you a glimpse:

“I see myself as that old violin. I’ve been battered and I’m scarred . . . Hopefully it makes me look at the battered person on the bus more kindly or the woman on welfare differently.“

Amy makes a difference in other people’s lives in a way I sincerely admire:

Take a Child By the Hand one (in the life of an overwhelmed mom),
The One Who Waits, (in the life of a small child in a heartbreaking situation),
Little Girl Lost (in the life of a child she may never meet in person).

Throughout her writing, you can see examples of her selflessness and empathy, while at the same time she is very open about her weaknesses and struggles.

I love the book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” so I was immediately curious when I read the title of the post: “If You Give Someone A Cookie.”

It sent me on a flash to the past and inspired some writing of my own:

When I was in high school, I worked at McDonalds. I started on “fries and shakes” (back when they actually MADE the shakes – with ice cream and syrup and a real shake machine). Over the years I worked every job, from birthday party hostess to counter to drive thru to grill . . . even manager trainee.

During my senior year of high school, I was assigned to work drive thru with another girl from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. One of us worked the window and the other “filled the orders.” Back then, McDonalds only had ONE drive thru window. Back then, working the window meant taking the orders at the speaker AND taking the money AND handing the orders to the customer. So, one of us stood in the same place for 4 hours every day and the other ran around like crazy, filling the orders. When I worked the window, I would take the order from the customer at the speaker, take the money from the customer at the window, turn around, grab the already filled bag and drinks, hand them out the window and repeat. All the while my friend and co-worker bobbed and weaved through the employees working the counter to grab food and fill the next bag. Some shifts I worked the window and she filled orders, some shifts she worked the window and I filled orders.

WE. WERE. FAST. Our goal was the “30 second drive thru” McDonalds constantly pushed. If the manager kept the food coming from the grill and there was an assigned “fry” person, we were very, very often able to meet that 30 second mark.

It got boring . . .

So, we looked for ways to make things more interesting. First we tried pranks and jokes. Like writing “HELP! LET ME OUT! on an empty bag and placing it where the filled order should go, that kind of thing. That got boring. What to do. What to do . . .

(continued in “don’t react. respond.” over at Pragmatic Communion)

---

Meanwhile. I hope the generator gets to stay in the shed.

okay. I’m back. I think.

wow. this will be stream of consciousness, so . . . good luck following it. and you know how, when I post, I usually have a point? Yeh. Not today. I also have decided to play a little game with this post. How many bloggers can I link to in one post? Let’s see, shall we?

The last two weeks have been . . . distracting. FirstHusband was on travel Monday through Thursday of this past week and Sunday through Thursday of the week before. (I’m so thankful he was home on the weekends.) This week, there are only two full days (Monday and Tuesday) and two half days (Wednesday and Thursday) of school and then. Summer vacation. (I’m so thankful that I only work part-time, mostly at home and can spend most of the summer doing fun things with my kids.)

I don’t expect to complete a thought until 7:35am on August 13th. (yep. that would be the first day of school.)

I read a blogger recently express how May was NOT her favorite month. (Was it Lisa Writes?) I agree. My body agrees. I put myself in traction this morning and right now, I’m on a muscle relaxant (hence the stream of consciousness). I have arthritis in my neck and I haven’t put myself in traction since I started working out with a personal trainer back in September. I was so cocky. I move up to 12 pound dumbbells for my workout and think I’m all that. So. I carried a couch. Not by myself, mind you. I only carried one side of a couch. A guy carried the other. I know. I’m paying for the stupidity today. (I’m so thankful that FirstHusband is home and I don’t have to work today. It’s a good day to do nothing.)

I carried the couch at a charity garage sale I worked on Thursday and Friday. It took 16 hours on Thursday (I didn’t work all that time) to set it up and there were a LOT of volunteers. Friday morning, I listed the sale on Craigslist and spent the entire day working the sale, stopped a few minutes before 4pm to go watch the “cheer” performance PinkGirl participated in after a week of after school cheer camp. Then PinkGirl was off to her first sleepover and I went back to help pack up the leftover garage sale stuff for the charity truck that was coming Saturday morning. The whole thing was exhausting, but I’m so thankful that we made $3,500 at the sale to benefit PinkGirl’s 1st Grade teacher. In December, this mother of two was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer, and I’m so thankful that, in April, she was told her cancer was “RESOLVED!” If you have questions about cancer, go on over to simply a musing blog and learn more about it. Thanks to Chilihead/Melanie over at Don’t Try this at Home for the link!

Going back in time to last Saturday, May 10th, I provided program and music at the Mother’s Day Brunch at my church. I’m so thankful that I didn’t forget any of the lyrics to either song, that people laughed in all the right places during my presentation and that I remembered all the sign language to my second song (Word of God Speak). I hadn’t delivered a full program in over two years and I was so stressed about it. I rehearsed in my solitary time (in the car) for over a month (yes, the sign language too), and was very worried that I would lose my focus, but I’m so thankful that in the end, it was like recess! Saturday afternoon, the family went to help my mother pack for her move to Arkansas. We left to come home at 9:45pm and the packing was still not finished. But I’m so thankful that we didn’t go back over there on Mother’s Day, but rather, spent the day together as a family.

Sunday (Mother’s Day), I sang at church and then came home to spend the afternoon saving hundreds of tiny little lives. See this is what you get when you don’t stock up on pool filters for the winter:

I spent Mother’s Day afternoon scooping HUNDREDS of tadpoles out of the pool. It was a mindless task, just what I needed that day and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to show my kids the various stages of frog life. Who am I kidding? I thought was cool! I had never seen a tadpole/frog in mid development before. Two legs in front, tail in the back? Weirdly cool. We put some in various stages of development a fish bowl and took them to PinkGirl’s 1st grade classroom for a few days. Then, when it was time for PinkGirl to say goodbye to all her (named) friends, I’m so thankful that BestDaddy was home to go with her down to the edge of the pond behind our backyard. They let the little guys go and had some wonderful Daddy/Little Girl time. Jump to today and BestDaddy and PinkGirl spent the afternoon saving more lives before finally draining the pool all the way. Then another trip to water’s edge and some fun alone time together. So sweet. In a span of one week, we transferred hundreds, if not more than a thousand little frogs to be from our redneck (above ground) swimming pool into a pond behind our house.

It’s going to be a very LOUD summer.

I’m WAY behind on the book study of The Excellent Wife, lead by Leslie over at Lux Venit, but I did ask FirstHusband to read Chapter 6 and the post I wrote after reading it. His words?

“Well, I read it because you asked me to. But . . . I’ve already been through all that and I just don’t want to do it again. I don’t believe that way and I don’t want you to do those things. I like us the way we are.”

I’m so thankful for this man. And for his momma. When we first began dating, he often told me that he was drawn to me because I was “different” than the other girls in Baptist Campus Ministry. Over the last 18 years, he’s convinced me that “different” was a compliment. When I studied communication in college, I learned about a phenomenon called Groupthink. In a (tiny, little) nutshell, Groupthink refers to the idea that absolute consensus is a bad thing. It produces poor decisions. Well, in our marriage, Groupthink isn’t part of our relationship. We challenge each other. We tell each other the truth, but always in love. If one of us is wrong, we want to know about it BEFORE we make a fool of ourselves or lose the respect of other people. We both want to see ourselves from the other’s perspective as well as from our own. It’s a truer, more honest and well-rounded reflection. As far as The Excellent Wife book study goes? I’m still reading the book, but as I continue to ask FirstHusband what he thinks of what I’m reading, I can tell you, the content of the book isn’t motivating life/marriage changes for us.

I LOVE the “momku” written by Jesus and Dark Chocolate! I think I need a grown-up slumber party like Domestic Accident. I definitely need to find out what Alyson is talking about. What is this “PedEgg” thing she’s talking about? And Rebekah? I’m right there with you when you say, “I’ve ‘met’ many people through blogging who I really wish I could live next door to and sit on the front porch with a cup of tea and chat.” And a big thanks to Mir for giving me a heads up on the next book I want: “Sleep is for the Weak.” And now Jane at What about Mom? has given yet another nudge to read “Atlas Shrugged” boost since I read that Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer had “Atlas Shrugged” on her reading list this year – but now it’s not on her list anymore. hmmm. I LOVE the photographs Chris posts over at Notes from the Trenches. Really, make the time to look. Wonderful! Also, check out the “Dadsense” song from Anita Renfroe over at Mommy Needs Coffee. It’s her follow-up to the Mom Overture I posted a while back.

And now for a walk down Memarie Lane, where the recipes are cheap, easy and delicious, the google search strings are weirder than mine and where Atreyu is still alive and well (btw, it’s Bastian who has to call out your new name). She’s brave enough to post a full-length photo of herself 20 weeks pregnant, helpful enough to share tips for talking to pregnant women and has posted – by far the BEST Lunch idea in the blogosphere.

So. My mother left. As I mentioned, we started packing her on Saturday, May 10th. On Tuesday, around 4:30pm, MiddleSister (mine) called from the Walmart parking lot while she was waiting for my mom to pick up prescriptions. MiddleSister drove the truck to Arkansas, following my mom, who drove her car. It took from Saturday till Tuesday to pack the truck. Monday I went over to my Dad’s house (sounds weird – “Dad’s House”) to help. I’m not even going to go there, but suffice it to say, at the end of the day, FavoriteSon asked:

“Mom? Can I ask you a question? Did I do anything right today?”

ouch.

I immediately apologized to him and told him it wasn’t his fault. I was taking out my stress on him and I was SO sorry. I HATE that I did that.

Anyway. My mom is gone. She left Tuesday and my sister flew home yesterday. She and my dad came to see me at the local bowling alley where I was at a birthday party with PinkGirl. I appreciate my sister for driving the truck to Arkansas. So much. If she didn’t do it, I’m afraid my dad would have. He is such a gracious man. I bought him a computer at the garage sale and spent Saturday morning cleaning it up, installing software and getting it set up for him.

Hey! I just realized something! I lifted the couch on Friday. My neck only hurt a little on Saturday and I had full range of motion. I bowled on Saturday. Today, I have limited motion and much more pain. So. I decree it was the bowling and NOT the lifting of the couch. Until I want to bowl again. Then, it was the lifting of the couch. Yep. That works for me.

I thought I was doing okay with the stress of all this stuff with my mom, but it turns out that my body is giving me away. I had a dental cleaning and the dentist says:

“You’ve been clenching. Does your jaw hurt?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve cracked a filling. Do you have any pain?”

“No.”

“Your temporalis muscle is about 4 times larger than normal.”

Then realization. “Could this be why I can’t open my mouth all the way? I’m a vocalist and I can’t seem to get a full voice sound because I can’t get my mouth open all the way.”

“Yes. Definitely.”

Well. crud.

Long story short? I need to relax my jaw. I cannot count how many times I caught myself clenching on Tuesday and consciously stopped. I’ve also been tapping out rhythms with my jaw. The dentist has instructed me to transfer the tapping to my fingers, so I’m going to intentionally give myself a new tic. While suggesting a mouth guard, the dentist also suggested I massage my jaw, use warm compresses, take ibuprofen and try to consciously STOP doing this. We both feel like I may be able to stop it, since it is a fairly recent development. It’s been 6 days and I can honestly say my jaw doesn’t hurt so much. I still can’t get my mouth open all the way. But it’s only been six days. I’m so thankful that I have a GREAT dentist! I didn’t always.

I got an Award this month! Mocha with Linda gave me a “You Make My Day” Award along with some wonderful, edifying comments in her post! Thanks, fellow freak!

Debbie over at Midnight Musings nominated me for another award! The Arte Y Pico award for blog creativity, design, interesting material, and contributions to the blogging community, no matter what the language. Wow. little me? cool! Thanks Debbie!

Okay, I’ll admit, I took a nap in the middle of all that. FirstHusband said I was “loopy” from the muscle relaxant and sent me off to bed.

Just before bed, PinkGirl climbed up next to me on the couch and said,

“Mom, who’s your favorite character in ‘Annie’?”

hmmm. “I would have to say, Miss. Hannagin”

“ME TOO! I like that song, ‘Little Girls’ that she sings.”

“ME TOO!”

Carol Burnette is so GREAT in this movie. (PinkGirl doesn’t really get why she’s drinking so much water. She thinks all the little girls just make Miss Hannagin crazy.)

We need a vacation. We’re going to spend a few days on the boat. DAYS, mind you. You know, drive over to the coast from our house (45 minutes away), spend the day on the boat and have it back to the marina before our storage facility closes up at 4:30pm. We may drive a little north and rent a day slip at another marina, but we would get a hotel room. LOVE LOVE LOVE the ocean. And the poem The Queen B wrote about vacation in Florida!

Still thinking about the question over at Mel’s World: If you had all the TIME in the world, and all the MONEY in the world, what would you do? Go on over and answer!

Like Lysa over at Proverbs 31 Ministries, I’ve been motivated to transition my bedroom from the “catch all” space to a relaxing haven. I’ll post photos soon.

Finally. Thanks Amy for so eloquently explaining one of the guiding philosophies in my life. Check out my post over at Pragmatic Communion entitled “builder unknown.”

@randbetween(1,100)

what?

That would be the Microsoft Excel cell formula to generate a random number between 1 and 100. You know, like when you have a drawing and need to pick a random number for a winner? Like I do here at Pragmatic Compendium every week? (it doesn’t have to be between 1 and 100. the number “100″ can be replaced by any number)

I’ve posted detailed instructions and a screen shot for this little time saver over at the Pragmatic Computing blog, so if you are tired of drawing little pieces of paper out of a hat every time you want to “select a winner,” head on over and check it out!

Of course, don’t forget to enter this week’s clean sweep(stakes) giveaway while you’re here!

Find more great time and money savers at Works for Me Wednesdays at Rocks in My Dryer!

i can see clearly now

When you read text on your computer monitor, do the fonts seem . . . grainy? Do the edges of the letters appear ragged? Especially italicized text?

On my Pragmatic Computing blog, I posted a “Pragmatic Tip” explaining how to make fonts appear clear and sharp. I LOVE the way text looks on my computer monitor now!

In honor of Works for Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer, I thought I’d invite you over to the Pragmatic Computing post to check it out!

Changing this one little Windows setting can make a big difference. It works for me!

Vista users:  Clear Type is the default setting for Vista, but I’ve updated the Pragmatic Computing post to include instructions to change it, just in case someone is interested.

need a comment do-over?

Ever leave a comment on a blog and REALLY want to remove it later? Maybe you have an embarrassing typo, maybe you shared just a little too much and have “commenter’s remorse” or maybe you accidentally posted a comment on the wrong blog post. I’m sure there are other reasons.

The good news? You may have some options!

If:
You have a blogger account* AND
You are logged in AND
You leave a comment on another blogger blog

Then:
Go to the blog where you left the (unwanted) comment.
Find the page where your comment appears.
Next to the comment, you should see a trash can icon. Click it.
On the confirmation page, click “Delete Comment” and you’re done!

See an example here.

*Did you catch what I wrote? A blogger ACCOUNT. I didn’t say a blogger BLOG. At least, not an active, public one. You don’t have to switch your blog platform. You don’t even have to create a “real” blog. You can create a blogger account, create a “bare bones” blog, make it private and ba da bing. You have a blogger account. Then, when you comment, use OpenID to link to your active blog, whatever its platform – BUT make sure you are logged into blogger when you comment.

Because, if you aren’t logged in to blogger when you comment, you won’t see a trash can next to your post later.  Here’s the thing. If you have a blogger account, but use OpenID to sign your comment, you won’t be able to delete your comment UNLESS you were logged into blogger when you posted the comment.

ohhhhh. (in the link above, blogger explains a few other reasons you may not see a trash can next to your comment)

I did that this morning. And then I had to email the blog owner to beg her to delete my comment for me! (no. I’m not telling who it was. you’ll go read my comment before she deletes it. I’ll give her public credit for inspiring this post AFTER she gets a chance to remove it.) UPDATE: Thanks, Amy for deleting my stupid comment.

You can also manually add a “delete” button on your blogger blog by inserting some code into your template. I found these instructions which provides the code allowing the comment author to delete it. I get the impression this would be for commenters who don’t have a blogger account. I haven’t tried it yet, but I probably will (Pragmatic Communion and Pragmatic Computing are hosted by blogger).

Unfortunately, if you have a WordPress blog, you don’t have that option. Here’s a WordPress FAQ (frequently asked question) and their answer:

Can I edit comments I wrote on another blog?

It is unfortunately not possible to edit or delete any comments you have left on another WordPress.com blog.

The best thing to do would be to attempt to contact the blog owner.

bummer.

Anyone know how is this handled by Typepad? What about other blogging software platforms?

---

A BIG Thanks to Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer for inspiring this post for her Works for Me Wednesday series!