I did a whole bunch of nothing today, and I enjoyed every minute of it! I got up when I felt like it, bright and early 8am. Watched TV, surfed the net, played with doggies, etc. Then Courtney and I went to dinner with the grandparents. That's always an adventure. I watched QAF, and then geeked out on the computer.

I got the beginnings of the photoblog page up. Hopefully I can get it done tomorrow. I'm not going to migrate the old stuff, but I'll point a link to that page for all to see.

My friend Matthew was playing DJ all night, so that made the night go by fast. He even talked me into plugging in my web cam just for shits and giggles. I was working on the MAC, and on the PC the web cam was always a hassel. On the MAC I just plugged it in and it was ready to go! Kick ass!

Okies, I'm off to catch some ZZZZ's

VH1 has been airing promos for "I Love The 90's" series during the "I Love The 80's" shows this weekend. It got me wondering, am I really that old that I crave to go back to a period of time when I was reckless and carefree?

The critical years for me are from 1990-1994, when grunge, Depeche Mode, beer and living in OB ruled my life. Chad barely remembers much from this time. He calls me for his "remember that day when we..." stories. I think what I miss is the music, Joey Uhlik before Meth took him away, no bills, 90210, and going to Depeche Mode concerts twice a year. Otherwise I'm pretty happy at not looking back. Maybe in ten more years I'll feel differently.

Corporate firewalls and iTunes just do not mix. I can't stream any kind of internet radio. DAMN DA MAN!

Anyways with that in mind, let me just say that local radio sucks ass. No really it does. At least here in the Phoenix market. Why can't we have a cool station like KROQ or 91X? I swear these station managers must be deaf cause if they could hear the crap that they are putting on the air they would go crazy!

I so need these to make office life better.

Sorry the postings have been a little slow this week. Things were a little crazy early in the week. the drama has cooled off just in time for the long weekend. This is the first what I call 'normal' holiday I've had in like 5 years. I get the full three day weekend off from both jobs. What's a girl to do with her time? I'm sure I'll find something to get me in to trouble.

Courtney is off too, I think. He's been 'let go' from the restaurant. We're not too happy about it, but we're not suffering. I told him that maybe it was a good thing that this happened. It might open possibilities for him else where. He's actually taking it pretty good. He's got time for himself now, something he hasn't had for a long time. I think he's even a little bit happier now.

I've going to work on the photoblog this weekend too. Brian took some cool pictures that I think everyone needs to see. Plus I have pictures of Maggie to share. I'm not going to spend the whole weekend in front of the computer, but I may utilize my multi-tasking skills...get a tan, and design a photoblog.

Have a wonderful, safe, and fun holiday weekend!

I'm suffering from a lack of sleep. Both jobs have running in circles over the last two days. But I've got all the drama squared away now. I'm so ready for the long weekend. I've got a book that a friend gave me, the pool is calling my name, and I have nothing planned but to get some rest and a tan.

So I missed the boat for the FREE version of Expression Engine by pMachine. That kinda of sucks.

I'm a little frustrated at all this Blog-Drama. It sucks that I did a redesign only to be looking at other options. *Sigh* If I could afford Expression Engine, I'd probably go that route. I just can't justify $149 for something that is just a hobby for me.

When I went to my Weight Watchers meeting on Tuesday, one of girls touted about these hot dogs which are next to nothing in point values. After my workout last nght I was totally starving, and I was craving something salty, so I thought I would check it out for myself.

Ball Park Fat Free All Beef Franks: 1 point each
"I'm Watching My Carbs" hotdog buns: 1 point each
Wolf Brand Hot Dog Sauce: 0 points for 2 TBSP

Now that's a 2 point chili dog! Pretty darn cool. The chili comes in a can, you can find it next to all the other fatty canned chili's in the store.

The taste test:

This is in response to Mena's post on Six Apart. I guess people are still upset about it. If you're not a MT geek then this blog entry will just be Greek to you.

I build and maintain blog websites as a hobby. I do not charge for my services, nor do any of the websites I build for others. These are all non-professional websites. Each blog has about 5-10 authors, and each website has several blogs under one domain. Every page on the bolg uses MT for the most part. The people I make sites for are truely computer novices, so MT makes their publishing very easy. I also use MT for photoblogs.

My big concern is pricing. Since my friends and I are struggling chefs and what-not, cash for this stuff is very limited. I've been able to reduce hosting and domain costs by shopping around, but MT has the market cornered on blog publishing. They are the best, and I've gotten pretty good at working with it and using the MT plugins.

So I've fallen off the wagon the last few weeks with my Weight Watchers diet. I think it's the change in my work environment and Coachella that just threw me out of wack. I've gained about 3lbs back over the last 6 weeks. Not much I know, but when the gals at Weight Watchers pull you aside to ask you what's wrong, I guess I need to focus again.

I've stepped up my workouts and I'm at the gym at least 3 days a week, although I really need to make it 6 days a week. Last night I was on the treadmill and I normally average about 30-45 minutes, just under 2 miles. I thought that I would push myself a little harder last night, I did 60 full minutes, 3 miles, and burned off 400 calories! That about a 20 minute mile. Tonight I'm going to try for 18 minute miles, and work my way down to 12 minute miles, something I have been able to do since I was 12 years old.

Since this has been the biggest news in BlogSphere over the last week, I've been doing my share of reading on it.

Everyone has an opinion. Initally it was upsetting news, now that we've had a few days to let it sink in and Six Apart has responded let's take a more rational view of the changes.

First off, it's their company, they have a right to change it when ever they want. As would most people if they owned their own company. Secondly, don't upgrade. It's as simple as that, just don't upgrade. I believe that I have 2.661, install files since I recently moved to a new host. So if you need it, I'll give it to you, as would many other bloggers if you just ask nicely.

Mena does a good job with her response to all the trackbacks...go check it out with an open mind.

I'm still on the fence about the whole thing. My problem is that I've gotten used to MT and nothing else can even come close to it. I'm still researching other avenues because I totally support the open-source movement. But I guess as long as v2.661 works and does what I need it to do, then I'm going to stay put until another open-source program blows me over.

Celebrity Theatre Gives Ticketmaster Da Boot

It's about freaking time! I hate that Ticketmaster has this huge hold on live events at every venue on this planet. I paid $40 in lame ass fees when I bought the tickets for Coachella. And it pisses me off that I have to pay a convience fee when I purchase tickets over the internet. WTF is that all about? I don't speak to a human, so why is more expensive? Do the mainframe computers get paid an hourly wage?

Pearl Jam tried to boot Ticketmaster from their tour, and I totally supported that effort, but it still failed. I hope that Celebrity can survive and get good acts without Ticketmaster.

Thanks Joelle for bringing this to light.

It's all over many blogs by now that Six Apart is going to charge for their v3.0 of MovableType. I'm not a huge web designer, but I do like to design sites for friends and who ever is interested in blogging. I don't charge for my services at the moment, so I loved that MT was free and so easy to install and use. I've donated $$ to MT way back when I was learning the program and needed their support. Now, I've gotten the hang of things and don't need all the hand holding. I'm a bit disappointed with the news because I love the program so much, but I do understand that Ben and Mena need to put food on table and roof over their heads. Dude, put down the crack pipe...$69.95?? Are you joking? I can't afford that...and neither can the people I've designed for. That price doesn't get you much either. Oh so you get on the Recently Updated list...BIG WHOOP. They are still even charging for installation and support if you need it.

I just can't justify the price...looks like I need to look into GreyMatter or pMachine as alternatives.

Good luck MT. You're gonna need it now.

I love my iPod. I mean really love it. It has made me love using my MAC G4 more and more everyday.

I recently started using iCal for MAC. It puts Outlook to shame, and I love that I can use my own colors to code all my events. I sync iCal to my iPod and now I have my calendar readily available. It's just great!

So I was looking for a way to publish my iCal without using a WebDAV server or paying the $99 bones for a .MAC account. Last night I found two perfect programs to help me: (sorry these are MAC programs only)

So my friend Brian and I meet up at the Starbucks close to our office every morning before we come into work. He's usually there before me, cause I'm slow to get out of the house :)

Today I go there before him. I parked my car and gave him a ring to see how far away he was. While I was on the phone with him, I noticed a gathering of people at the bus stop across the street. Nothing unsual there right, well I kept watching. (I'll take pictures next week to show you)

There is a lady on the bench reading a book; a young girl and what appears to be her boyfriend; a couple...the woman is wearing a skirt with a mysterious brown spot on the back....the man is wearing wrinkled black pants, wrinkled once was white now grey shirt, and a poorly tied tie.

The young girl proceeds to smack the crap out of her boyfriend. It really looked like it hurt. The mysterious brown-spot lady proceeds to pop pimples on wrinkled guy. The young girl smacks the boyfriend again, lifts her shirt to check out the shadow of her huge ass, and when the boyfriend attempts to mimic a sex act with her shadow, the young girl smacks the boyfriend again!

I was totally hooked on watching these people. Brian tells me that this is a regular thing for this crowd. You gotta see it. Pure comedy.

Welcome to the world Maggie! First off let me tell you that you have inherited the same large forehead that your mother and grandfather had. Sorry about that. :)

I'll be your hip and cool Aunt. I have just one tip for you:
STAY AWAY FROM THE POLE!

Nuff said.

I'm still getting things moved over to the new webhost. The recipe blog is going under construction for a little bit. If there is a recipe that you would like to request, please just drop me a comment at this entry, and I will email it to you.

I want to make the recipe blog better for you. I hope to have it back up over the next month.

Thank you for your patience.

I think I've got this CSS layout deal squared away. I think I was making harder on myself than I needed to. If anyone is looking to change their formats to CSS, I highly reccommend TopStyle Pro. I will help you keep your sanity, especially if you're not a jedi master when it comes to CSS.

I am well on my way now. If you sent me an email yesterday, please resend it, chances are I didn't get it because of the move. I have to work my other job tonight, so archives and photoblog will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.

Congrats to my sister and her husband on their new arrival. I still don't have all the details other than I know it's a girl. I'll post more when I get the info!

testing testing 1-2-3

It's moving day here at alittlegroup.com! Yeah!

It seemed to be a slowday for emails and such, so I packed up the van and the kids and we're moving on out. It will take about 24hrs for the nameservers to update. Tomorrow you should see a bright and new website with a totally CSS design that I am very excited about.

I've had this site for about four years now, and I am always amazed at how much I have learned about web design. I like to challenge myself with every new design. The hand coding process is the art for me. That's where the talent lies.

Archives will follow tomorrow after I get home from work.

Check out this article about the Pixies set at Coachella.

I love Robert Smith and The Cure, but the Pixies kicked ass. New music lately for me has been pretty plain. When I look at my playlists in my iPod, it's filled with all the old stuff. I refuse to let the old stuff die!

Well, I'm home. I just finished putting up the pictures from the show. Go check them out. I'm pretty impressed with some of the pictures of Robert Smith. Even from an angle they turned out quite well.

Check out the rest of the story....

Saw the Pixies last night. Kick ass show! I was totally stoked...I wasn't up close, but I have many pictures of the people and things I've seen. Lots going on everywhere you look.

Death Cab For Cutie...run go buy this cd or download from iTunes. Very cool band!

It's hot and dust is everywhere. My allergies are killing me. It took us 2 hours to park, and another 20minutes to walk to the gates. We spent about $20 in bottled water alone. Trash is everywhere. The news reported that there are more than 50,000 people here for the show!

The Cure is tonight! We're going to head out a bit later today since there aren't that many bands we wanted to see today. Camp our butts in from the main stage, and hang out.

Look for pictures tomorrow afternoon. We should be home around 3pm!

Love ya!