May 26th – My writing writing writing motivation
But first….
The *plan* today was to lounge as usual during Uppers, then run on the 56 trail avoiding the extreme hills for a change, then shower, then start writing, then eventually head over E & R’s place for afternoon working and dinner.
That latter bit didn’t quite happen, but I did have a really really enjoyable run. I used to whine about the rolling hills on the trail, but after three straight weeks now of running the ass kicking hills around my block, those gentle hills finally do seem – gentle! I didn’t want to overdo it since we have a longer run workout tomorrow but I did run for 3.3 miles over 35 minutes and honestly felt fantastic the whole time. I enjoyed the smell of the chaparral, the bird songs and even getting to see some of the little songsters as well as many butterflies. There was a lot of activity in general on the trail including a little girl being led around on one of the local horses that board along the trail.
After the usual post running routine and a few chores, I sat down to write.
OK, so why am I embarking on this writing and web business development journey? Is it just for money?
Well, since in the last 9 months I’ve made a grand total of $400 on it – no, not entirely! Is there a damn good chance of more money than that? Absolutely!
But that’s not everything. I have never in my life been about money for the sake of money only. If so, I would have gone on to get my MBA or my CPA license.
No, I truly truly LOVE what I do at NU. And I have found out since working with Eve, that I also really really LOVE this writing thing!
OK, so technically it is copy writing that I am doing along with (so far) a how to manual.
But I am also learning. And I have always loved learning. It’s why I read so much. Mostly online of course, but still doing the best I can to read magazines and books.
Do I *want* this to replace my day job? Not at all – at least not yet! I need and love my day job for what it is: financial security, benefits, retirement accounts, an awesome work environment and something completely different from writing. It’s like I get to use both sides of my brain nearly equally through the day. Balance. Love it!
Since I do have a means to support myself already, (and so does Eve), we are not desperate to start something and screw it all up. We can take our time and go through the proper steps and make mistakes and learn from them and it isn’t life or death.
Given all those reasons why I am enjoying this, I was actually not terribly disappointed when it became clear as the day unfolded that the girls would not be able to meet tonight. I started in on a new version of the ebook at 11am and I didn’t stop until 7pm. There are 9 chapters, 8 needed to be completely re-written or replaced and I am plowed through 6 of them today. I stopped at 7 because I could feel myself getting tired of the topic which means I would start cutting corners and I don’t want to do that. No, I’ll let this sit.
Tomorrow will probably be an off day from pergola topics. Got the message that the upgrade is going along as planned so I will need to get into NU at noon. We are running at 6:30. I’ll be at NU for 3-4 hours. I really really need to buy groceries. If we meet at all it will be on the topic of other business sites. It’s a three day weekend so I’ll pick this up Monday and probably finish it and even still have time to sit in the sun.
Enough rambling – lord, I’ve writing a bazillion thousand hundred words today! Have some not unexpected beautiful lavender flowers:
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May 25th – Losing Steam
Uh oh – I guess I should be impressed that I maintained my motivation to write in here every day for this long!
I was literally in bed before I remembered tonight.
Can you blame me? It’s Friday. It’s been an intense week. I left work after FINALLY training with my co-worker on her tasks about as late as we possibly could today. If anything at all goes wrong in this upgrade process this weekend and we cannot start testing until after 2pm Sunday, then I have to cover two systems. That’s fine – but I haven’t worked on a daily basis in the Asset Management side in several years and I really needed a refresher. I’ll be fine, but let’s all of us out there in internet land cross our fingers for a smooth process ok?
Meanwhile, after spending every night this week heading out *somewhere* I was just thrilled to get home and not have to go anywhere.
The problem is that I did have to write. Just studying the first module of the web business design class has reinforced to me how much the site AND the ebook need upgrades. To my dear friend who amusingly pointed out that having the read the word “pergola” in every other sentence was jarring – I agree! Thankfully the focus on heavily laden keyword articles for SEO placement is falling away. Now I get to write for CONTENT, simply placing the keywords in more naturally occurring places. I was fighting that all along so this will be much easier. But, it also means yet more re-writing. Argh!
So after a rather disappointing Bistro Meal package dinner of shrimp risotto, I got down to the business of improving the business. Two new website articles and the first chapter of the ebook are revamped and I’ve got the new chapter titles and approximate order of them assigned.
After all that I watched the season finale of Glee 
Needed the total focus shift. I still love that show. It’s more of a guilty pleasure now and other’s have fallen off the trendy bandwagon (especially since some episodes did sink into silliness), but I still laugh and cry and smile and sing along with the songs. Kurt’s dad doing “Put a Ring On It”? Utterly, perfectly, touching and hysterical. Love those two characters and their interactions.
Anyhow – a moment of beauty – no pictures today. That would have meant I prepared! But, as I was typing away in the blissful silence of the house because all other occupants were gone…well THAT was a moment of beauty for sure. Then off in s distant corner of the room I heard a faint sound that is even more fabulous than silence.
It was Chip. Drinking water.
I could hear his kidneys continuing to heal with each exquisite lap of liquid.
Dream on my friends!
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May 24th – The Storm Begins
You know how I said yesterday that it was the calm before the storm at work?
Yeah well, the storm rolled in today SO here’s what you get before I head out for another dinner meeting on job/career #2:
Yes, I did run. 3 miles! I could have run 4-5 but I had to get ready to go to that darn work thing. Hrmph!
Good thing I ran too because there was a baby shower at work and with cookies n cream ice cream AND warm gooey chocolate chocolate chip cookies. Ahem.
Hush up.
Unexpected Beauty entry – I am currently way too happy to see a certain cat eat wet food. He used to hate it. Now, it’s like instinct has kicked in and he loves it. Phew! Thought I would capture him chowing down and got lucky enough instead to capture a classic kitty move
Sluuuuurp!
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May 23rd – Gastronomical Beauty!
A blissfully uneventful day at work. That will change tomorrow as we now have less than 48 hours to the software upgrade changeover. It felt like the calm before the storm today really.
I was able to listen to the audio version of the entire module of lessons that I had read yesterday. A great way to present the information in another format and allow for some more slivers of knowledge to soak in. They did too! I took lots of notes as they would say something that triggered a dusty brain cell to shake itself off and go “Hey! You! This applies to the pergola site!” Heh. Yes, my brain is a nag.
Hush up.
The evening though, was somewhat momentous. It was the LAST class that 26 had to take in his DUI probation program. We had finished the regular Wednesday classes back in early Feb, but then there was this ONE lingering Education Series class that had to be taken in a particular order and it finally came back around again tonight. Now, he just has to settle up a small fee, turn in some AA meeting or NA meeting signatures and meet the counselor for a exit meeting on 6/2. This has been literally YEARS in the making and I swear I almost want to throw a party like it’s graduation day when he’s done. He kinda deserves it because, while the reason there have been fits and starts and delays in this whole process were largely his own – we both also agreed that it felt like this place was NOT invested in helping him succeed. It’s run out of the state college system and it’s supposed to be a rehab type process which you THINK would mean they look better if they successfully graduate people out of it. Yet there was just a ton of incompetence and mixed up messages and unclear instructions given.
I’ve made the best of the whole thing over the last year since he got back full force into the classes right as I started dabbling in this web business. So, I could sit in the nearby Starbucks and write which was actually nice since I focused better there than I would at home. Tonight’s class was a longer one though and I have gotten so good at writing while sipping a Naked Juice and watching the crowd ebb and flow in the store that I was done with my planned article in an hour. With still another hour + to go I decided I needed dinner. Usually I just eat something light when we get home, but tonight that would have meant eating after 8pm and I didn’t want to wait that long. Also, it was jam packed and I was at center table with no outlet in reach and the sun was in my eyes and it was cold in there! IOW – whine whine whine and oh, was there a *better* place that I could be? Perhaps.
It was 6:30, I was hungry and I still have my birthday gift card. Therefore I was able to treat myself to a little slice of unplanned, unexpected gastronomical beauty:
Yes, that IS what a hamburger is ALL about!
Yes, I *am* running again tomorrow morning, why do you ask?
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May 22 – Beauty in many forms
This morning I was greeted on my run with the songs you can hear above. Over and over the Song Sparrows in the neighborhood were singin’ about the day getting started (and, I am sure, yapping about this crazy human huffin’ & puffin’ as she jogged past them!)
Here’s what they look like so you can picture them: (I didn’t see them, or take any photos. I was, after all, running!)
As hard as it is to get my Not Even CLOSE To A Morning Person ass out the door (took 15 minutes of internal debate to make it happen), I am always glad when I do. I love being out there in the morning. It’s quiet – so I can hear the birds instead of listening to cars whizz by. No one is mowing their lawn, no kids are in the park playing yet. The temperature is perfect this time of year. No wind, a little moisture from the overnight clouds, no hot sun, just cool comfortable running weather. It also just smells better. Probably the lack of exhaust belching cars again, but I swear I smelled the sweet scent of jasmine in one spot and sweat peas in another that I hadn’t noticed on the same route on Sunday.
My only complaint which will exist as long as I live here are the hills. Kick ass hills. Every damn route I take over 2.5 miles long that involves me just running out the front door vs driving somewhere means at least two 4/10 mile long uphill battles and one more about half that. And are they ever battles! What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? RIGHT?! ’Cause I am gonna get mighty strong doing this shit :->
A quick catch up on yesterday. Eve & Renee and I met for dinner and to brainstorm *seriously* about where we are taking these websites we are creating. Renee is involved now because she is determined to get into fitness coaching. Eve and I needed to solidify what, exactly we are doing with all this. We renewed our own commitment towards the long haul together on this with the intention of being a consulting team for future clients. But first, we need to prove we can do what we want to teach so that means getting a few different types of online business sites up and running profitably (including one to support Renee’s endeavor). We are taking a 5 month online course on the topic which really has us both amped up & excited about our prospects.
Also, what inspired me to look for unexpected moments of beauty yesterday was this site in my rear view mirror as I drove in to work:
Jaguar XK
Doesn’t it look like the car is smiling at you? It sure made me smile and then it reminded me of an Unexpected Beauty meme that I participated in a few years ago. Seemed like as good a week as any to bring it back around.
Oh hey – did you notice the new blog style? If you view this in a Reader probably not, but I did have some fun picking out something a little more spring-y simple and fun.
Had our first Varsity Football parent meeting tonight. Yep – Varsity! How did that happen? They started up with Spring Football – no pads or hitting – it’s essentially two hand touch. But, the skills players like 15 get to start running routes and plays and getting their timing together with their quarterbacks. We are not stressing about academic eligibility as much since we confirmed that his AP History class DOES count a grade higher as long as he has at least a C. We didn’t notice that rule last semester since he had a D ;-> But, he has a pretty solid C which he will most likely keep so he’s already over the thresh hold for fall sports as long as none of the existing grades falter.
And now I need to get back to reading this course module. One thing I’ve learned – I need to close the laptop in order to read and comprehend anything. I’m probably going to have to go over the material 2-3 times for it to sink into these old brain cells. Read it through once. Read it again taking notes and then listen to the audio version just to be sure I don’t miss anything. I’m pretty sure I smelled smoke as I dove into it earlier…yes, my brain is on FI-Yah!
Buzz buzz!
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May 21st – A pic in time
Since I got home late & tired from a big meeting with Eve, all I have today is this example of what I intend to be a week of pictures of unexpected beauty. Pretty sure nothing is more unexpected, or beautiful to most of on a Monday morning as a totally empty email inbox. Stunning!
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May 20th – Mother’s Day redux
When you have kids, you have to let go of any notion that your day belongs to you. Best laid plans and all that. Same for cats as we learned last weekend when I had to postpone Mother’s Day dinner plans due to Chip’s little bladder adventures.
However, my idea that this weekend would be easier anyway since 15 is with me and not his dad like last week throwing another complication in the family gathering process was not quite accurate.
The first wrench thrown into Sunday dinner plans was 15 suggesting we switch to Saturday since the previously planned 2nd paintball outing had been moved to Sunday. Therefore he wasn’t sure, nor was he in control of when he would be back from that. That looked plausible at first. 26 was planning on helping his dad with a flooring install meaning he would be away from a couple of days but that was planned for Wednesday so he would be home Sat morning. Then Wednesday became Thursday and then finally Friday morning so there was no way he would be back in time. We went with a late Sunday dinner (7pm is late for my mom ) and I crossed my fingers that everyone would be back in time.
Meanwhile I had the afternoon blocked out for the usual long run with the girls and then a circuit class at the park.
15 gets word that they will leave at 7:30 this time instead of 10:30 so now we are even more secure that he will be back earlier so I toy with moving the dinner to 6:30.
Day is planned - now GO!
*bing*
Text from Tanja that her young daughter has a fever so there wont be a circuit class.
Fine. That means I just have the 90 min run at 2pm and so I’ll probably be able to get home and shower before picking up 15. Nice.
Drop him off.
Head back home to resume typical lazy Sunday watching Uppers & Nerdland on the DVR. Make grocery list for planned run to the store after and do more ebook work.
Get call from 26 that he is on his way home. Excellent. Now 15 is my only wild card so I change dinner officially to 6:30.
Head to grocery watching the clock so that I can be done in time to meet the girls for our run.
Putting my shoes on and grabbing keys to go when
*bing*
Eve texting to say they are running late and would 2:30-2:45 be OK?
Fine – 2:45 is pushing it and perhaps 15 might have to walk home from the drop off point if they get there before 4:30, but it’ll work.
I sit down to work on the ebook when
*bing*
15 texts to see if I can pick him up in an hour. Not from the high school, but from the paint ball place! 45 mins away! I call him and find out that he’s out of ammo and pretty wiped out and sunburned and that the other kids were not planning to leave until 5pm – meaning he would have been back around 6 – not 4 or 5! Aack!
(good thing Eve was running late eh?)
I let the girls know I was out for the long run and looked up directions to the paint ball place. I figure I can still get up there and bring him back and then at least go for a short run before I had to get ready for the dinner.
Why was I insisting on running you ask?
Well, the problem is that when I looked at my running activities on Runkeeper Friday night I noticed something. I’ve said I wanted to run every other day this month as much as *possible*. I noticed that I had, indeed, kept that up. I had runon even numbered dates all month. Uh oh. Now that my brain has seen the pattern – it is locked and loaded to make sure I don’t break it! That mild OCD kicking in. Good for keeping me in shape, bad for keeping me sane!
However, I did it – got back home with 15 at 4:00, ran for 30 mins, showered, and was ready to go at 5:45 both boys securely in the car with me without any major rushing or stressing. PHEW!
Of course, I rewarded myself by declaring it was “dessert for dinner” night. I ordered a small dinner salad and then had Oreo Madness. TWO Oreo cookie ice cream sandwiches with chocolate and caramel syrup. Mmmmmmmmmm. But I could only eat 1.75 of them! Dang it! No salad next time – took up too much room
No eclipse viewing for us – we were out at said dinner plus it was May Gray cloudy all around us.
And now, pictures from The Boyfriend who is in Japan for two more days for work. His first time there (he’s usually sent to China). I was happy to see he got to do some sightseeing:
Sumo wrestling
Mt Fuji
Sayonara!
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May 19th – Hearth and Home
Catchy title eh? Ads a lovely delusion of grandeur to the much more boring reality that I basically stayed put and did chores 
OK, not entirely true.
I did run out to Starbucks to grab breakfast. My cereal box for the week was empty and I didn’t want to make eggs and I have $ on my gold card so – Saturday treat! I enjoyed it while watching Up & Nerdland on the DVR.
THEN the chores started.
Well, sort of because I had planned on getting that water fountain for the cats and also some new everyday shoes for 15 and then meet up with Padres/Adam Lambert buddy David at the mall so he could pay me for the tickets I bought for him. We decided to meet up for lunch there so we could catch up because I realized that while I “see” him on twitter on facebook everyday – and he is constantly updating both – I had not actually TALKED to him In Real Life (IRL) in almost two years!! So strange. I swear I feel so close to many people who I engage with every day via one of the social media sites that I forget how rarely I see them IRL (if at all).
It was a great time and also quite encouraging to talk to him about things like college with 15 there. David is young – younger than 26 – and he and his boyfriend are both just finishing their bachelors (though David started a little late). Sergio graduates in June and David graduates next year. The encouraging part was when 15 told him about wanting to study computer science, David’s eyes lit up and he shared that his brother completed his degree in that at SDSU and went right to work as a programmer with SDG&E (local utility company). That got 15′s eyes to light up and hey – as you all know all too well – ANYTHING we can do to get his motivation and interest perked up is a huge blessing!
Ok, once we got home from THAT we did stay put. Cleaned, did laundry, cleared out the ‘fridge, setup the fountain and watched the cats. They decided it was interesting but not worthy of drinking from it. Grrrr. Chip stuck his nose in the falling water and promptly jumped back shaking his head. I let it run for awhile since it was supposed to do that to prime the pump and then later I turned it off and sure enough about 10 minutes later they both drank from it. Stinkers!
Spent the rest of the day reading and researching for improving the ebook and also just in general on content writing or simply writing techniques. It was good to see that the system of steps I came up with on my own to do this research seems to be consistent with what other web content folks follow. I’m either brilliant or a lot of this stuff is just common sense Sometimes though, we need to be reminded of the basics to get them to click more solidly in our pea brains that retain knowledge for a grand total of about 3 minutes!
Now back to Lizz Free or Die which I am absolutely loving.
Peace out!
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May 18th – A moment in time
The day started off odd enough. First 15 was up and showering by 6:30 on his own – I can only imagine this was due to him having sort of reset his clock this week in preparation for yesterday’s REALLY early morning for the AP test. So I was in the office by 7:30 and rolling along by 8am when Eve called me. She wanted to see if I knew anything about a post on someone’s Facebook book that seemed to indicate someone we knew had died. But, I was not friends with this person and as we talked I could barely remember the woman she was asking about. I think I had met her maybe three times at race events. The guy on facebook who Eve knew though was someone I knew a little better since he had taken circuit classes with us back in the gym days and we had talked to him more extensively at the races. We both could only remember her first name. Eve said she would call a few others in our racing circle and let me know. Turns out, Melissa was this Melissa from the rather horrific crash on the freeway late Thursday night. In an instant, and what seems to have been without any warning at all since she never slowed down – she was gone. Here one moment, gone the next. Thankfully all alone in her car given that she has two young daughters (safety seats were found in the back of the van). But still. Gone.
Put quite the pallor on the day as you can imagine even though I cannot really specifically remember her.
For whatever reason Eve and I spent just about the rest of the day texting each other – mostly about our website projects. It was a good distraction and since we hadn’t really communicated all week it was much needed. As I mentioned yesterday, our Google rankings hit the site hard and while we are working on drastically improving the quality of the content in the ebook and on the site, we need to think of how far we want to go with this. We know it can run at a profit – not necessarily a huge one, but still a steady one. And it feels like our first baby and is certainly our test case where we are learning a ton about what to do and NOT do.
Anyhow – part way through the afternoon I noticed that I had apparently been unable to properly eat my yogurt this morning and I had a lovely peach colored dribble stain from on my depp purple shirt down to my black pants. Lord. Start the week with my zipper down, end it wearing my yogurt.
Good thing I work in a basement and can easily go several hours without anyone seeing much more than the top of my head in the cubicle farm!!
26 is off to his dad’s for a couple of days visiting and helping him install new floors at his place. Even though it’s been peaceful here all week, it is still a nice break for both of us.
15 decided to fill the gap by bringing a friend over to stay the night. One of his football buddies who he has befriended over the last year. Sweetheart of a guy. Pretty much 15′s physical opposite though! Super tall and skinny. I was very thankful that I had bought the larger sized can of re-fried beans for the planned bean and cheese burrito night. They ate so many that I warned 15 to open his bedroom windows and not create any sparks in that room tonight! It’s going to be quite dangerous in there!!
Kept up my pattern of running on even numbered days in May with a surprisingly strong 2.8 miles down and up two hills and kept it at a 9.50 min mile pace. Surprising given it was Friday and given how badly Wednesday went and that I was really not trying to go fast tonight. You just never know with running, I tell ya.
After dinner I sat on the sofa with the cats & watched TV. I cannot believe how closely I pay attention to their eating/drinking and litter box habits these days. I’m still concered about Chip drinking enough water. He needs encouragement so I am going to get a drinking fountain tomorrow with running water to draw his attention. Had one a couple of years ago and he liked it. He’s always been a “water” kitty in that just the sound of a faucet brings him running. He was super clingy tonight so I thought it was time to share a picture of him since he’s been THE main topic of conversation all month!
And because – well – gotta capture those moments, right?
The look o’love
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May 17th – AP test day and a new slow cooker recipe
Amber knows where her food is and she’s keeping a sharp eye on it Just In Case!
One of the new routines thanks to Chip’s bladder issues is that instead of leaving dry food out for them all day, I fill their bowls twice a day. This is not a big deal for Chip, but for Amber it is utter hell. I tried to ease her into it while Chip was at the vet, but she’s still in protest mode over the whole indignity of it. One of the OTHER things I need to do is keep their food seperated because I really don’t want Chip eating hers. And heck, I would ditch hers but that’s a large container of not inexpensive Royal Canan cat food and there is no way I am throwing all that $$ out! So, I moved her food bowl around the corner and away from Chip’s eyes and smell. I put his food down in the old spot and as he chows down I move over to the dining area and scoop some food for Amber. When she’s done, I wash her bowl and put it back in the container.
It took her a grand total of ONE day to figure it all out. When she is hungry – that is what she does. Plops herself down in front of the container an stairs hopefully at the top, just sure that the power of her kitty cat sad eyes will cause the container to gush out food for her poor starving self. Pathetic.
Anyhow, while I am happy with the eating arrangements and Chip is eating more wet food I now see that he is not drinking as much as he used to. So, a water fountain will be purchased this weekend and maybe some clam juice to flavor that water for him. He’s fine. Much calmer and not vocalizing as much and (thankfully) not peeing on the floor voluntarily or not and also NOT fussing with his hind end (sorry).
So yes – the title – AP test day!! 15 had to be down there at 7am so he was up at 6am and was actually ready to go on time. Even mildly awake! When I picked him up, he seemed pretty upbeat stating that the multiple choice was so easy that it made his teacher’s questions seem like they were from Harvard. 1 essay was easy, 1 was so so and 1 was hard so he had to do a lot of pulling of information out of his ass - which we know he is good at – hopefully good enough to get a decent score
I dropped him at school for the last period of the day after getting him a sandwich and then I came home to listen to a webinar and to some more ebook research. I also started a new crock pot recipe that has been getting rave reviews:
Slow Cooker Creamy Ranch Pork Chops and Potatoes
I don’t have their handy dandy plug in to display recipes, so I took a screen shot – You really need to click on that link and read their post. They are so damn funny!
I cooked it on high since I was home and could start it later. I have to wonder if cooking it on low would have been better? One pork chop was tender and fell apart fabulously, the other one was tough and seemed overcooked. Same uneven results with the potatoes. It’s a pretty new cooker not used all that much and the last time it cooked perfectly but we almost always use low vs high. 15 cleaned his plate (I gave him the the tender chop) and I came to the conclusion that I just don’t like pork chops. I know – as much as I love bacon I am just not terribly thrilled with any other parts other than a truly perfectly cooked tenderloin. I’m not a huge fan of the pork roast or chop. Sigh…..the sauce was damn good and the well cooked potatoes were quite yummy.
Back at some more technical writing. Oh hey – a little it of what I do has risen all the up to the Wall Street Journal this week. They wrote about the recent Google search update that knocked a bunch of folks off their results pages. Ours was one of those 
Our traffic has tanked since April 24th. And it was at an all time high plus ebooks were selling steadily until then. I find it funny that Google names their algorithm adjustments after animals. I keep saying that I am a “sad panda about Google Penguin” Heh. Because, you know, we survived the Panda updates but couldn’t get past that damn Penguin!! Anyway, I know, your eyes just glossed over if they didn’t already from the never ending cat/bladder talk. Sorry – documenting this for historical purposes and all that.
Cya
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