Tag Archives: blogging

Attaching the Unattached

Posted on May 24, 2012 | 4 comments

Good morning Everyone!

When I load pictures into my blog, I usually just load them straight from the “New Post” page on WordPress, but yesterday morning I decided to check the tab on My Dashboard marked as “Media” (for the uninitiated, I assume that is short for “Media Library”), when I came across a forlorn group of miscellaneous pictures grouped together under the label “unattached.”

Unwilling to allow them to languish forever in this lonely place, I have chosen a few of them to share with you today, accomplishing two purposes – something to write about today, and the creation of a “happily ever after” relationship for the pictures-formerly-known-as-unattached by providing them with an attachment here.

My first picture came from a couple of days before Halloween, when I took pictures of Kayla in the Rapunzel dress my mother made for her this year.   Here, she is working on (pretend) needlework.

Rapunzel, Halloween

My next choice was this picture from Christmas 2007, when Mandy (aka Bad Dog) was investigating what Kayla was up to Christmas morning.

This picture caught Kayla waiting for the Southern Star (one of the dolphin cruise boats in Destin, an experience I highly recommend).

Boat, Southern Star, dolphin

This sunset over the Gulf of Mexico was too spectacular to leave languishing in the realm of the unattached:

Sunset, Gulf of Mexico, Destin

Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico

So was this picture of the bridge across the Destin Pass.

Bridge over the Destin Pass

I loved this picture of Mandy (Bad Dog) looking up from her fortress spot from which to view the world at our old house.

Dog, Couch, Window, husky-basset hound mix

I also liked this picture of Darwin (aka No-No) coming into the kitchen begging for food.  He’s good with the sad face look, isn’t he?

Dog, Labrador Retriever

So there you have them – seven pictures who have happily been relegated from the forlorn category of “Unattached”  to the “Attached”!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

4 Comments

Posted in dogs, Travel, working mom

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Celebration! Drawing!

Posted on March 8, 2012 | 6 comments

Good morning Everyone!

A big celebration should be accompanied by lots of big balloons, hence the featured image for today and the picture above.  What are we celebrating?  This blog yesterday crossed the threshold of 25000 total views!

Now, whether this is normal for blogs or not, I do not know.  I do know that there are a lot of excellent bloggers who have been writing for a shorter time than I have with many more than 25,000 views; I also know there are many excellent bloggers that have been writing longer than I have that have fewer views.  But, for me, the idea that people have looked at my blog more than 25,000 times in less than a year is pretty mind-boggling.

For those of you not familiar with WordPress statistics, a view is the number of times someone somewhere has clicked on a link and looked at the blog, not the number of separate individuals who have looked at it, so my regular subscribers are a large component of that 25,000, and I am very grateful to all of you.

So what are we going to do to celebrate?  Well, today through Monday, I am giving everyone a chance to enroll in a giveaway drawing, if you wish.  I had the sooty tern picture that I painted with pastels made into notecards that are blank inside.  The notecards are on good quality card stock, with a slightly glossy finish on the outside, and a paper finish on the inside to make writing easy.  They come with envelopes that self-seal.  I am going to give away one set each of 8 notecards to two people in a random drawing between all entries.  If you want to enter, please send an e-mail to workmomad@gmail.com with the subject listed as “Drawing” and with your name, or nickname if you prefer and your e-mail address in the body of the e-mail.  I promise not to use the e-mail addresses for any reason other than the drawing, and will delete them once the drawing is finished.

I will draw two names randomly from the entries on Tuesday, March 12, and ask those people for their addresses to send the cards.  The notecards really are very nice, even if I say so myself.

Have a great day everyone, and again, thank you!

Nancy

P.S.  I wish I could give them away to everyone, but the cost of getting them printed was too high for me to do that.  However, if any of you have a burning desire to have said notecards even if you don’t win the drawing, let me know that in your entry too, or e-mail me after the drawing and tell me how many and I will let you know the price for purchase (shipping and tax is extra) so you can decide if you want to buy them or not.

6 Comments

Posted in working mom, Writing

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Celebration: It’s Been One Year!

Posted on February 23, 2012 | 19 comments

Good morning everyone!

This week marks the one year anniversary of this blog so today is the first day of the New Blogging Year.  From my first post, My Unintended Exercise, through my latest post, A Touch of Spring, it has been an exciting journey, and I just can’t tell you how much I appreciate your taking time out of your day over this past year to share this journey with me.

I will start off this New Blogging Year with a conversation Kayla and I had yesterday.  She was sick, and Mark was staying home with her since he also was sick.  Once we decided that she needed to stay home, both of us reinforced the idea that if you stayed home sick, you needed to rest and be quiet, not play and watch TV.  She willingly went back to bed, and when I was ready to leave I went in to her bedroom to tell her good-bye.  She rolled over, gave me a sleepy hug, then said, “Mom, can I ask you a question?”  I said, creatively, “Yes.”  She then asked “Is food included?”  I smothered a laugh, told her yes, food was included in a stay at home day, and then beat a fast track out to the car where I could laugh in safety.

During this past year, we have shared a lot of laughs, traveled together and even learned a few things.  You have been kind enough to read some of my poetry, read my posts about the history of the Ugg Cave Clan and listen to some of my whining thoughts on contemporary technology and other things.

Some of the posts that both you and I agree were pretty funny include my thoughts on The Perils of Absent-Mindedness, my one post that was Freshly Pressed, Rules I Never Thought I’d Need, Cheese Grits:  The Sequel, Please stop Improving My Life, Part I and Part II, Fibber McGee’s Closet and Drunken Puppies.

Together, we have traveled to many places, including Key West, the Smoky Mountains, Destin Florida, Oak Mountain in Birmingham, Pensacola and Callaway Gardens.  We also got to visit two fantastic restaurants, Lambert’s Cafe in Foley, Alabama and Captain Anderson’s in Panama City.

You shared the recently discovered history of the Ugg Clan with me in A Highly Biased History of Washing Machines, A Highly Biased History of Bowling, and A Highly Biased History of Bowling, Part II.  Research into the Ugg Clan continues, and I suspect that more of it will be revealed as time goes on.

Kayla, my daughter, has featured prominently in posts – the title of the blog is Tales from the Mom-Side.  Some of your favorite Kayla stories include Conversations with my Ten-Year-Old, Inappropriate O’Fences, The Art of Gentle Satire and the Vegetarian Veterinarian Veteran .

I had the chance to talk to you about our three extraordinary dogs, Tyra, Mandy and Darwin, aka Bad Dog and No-No, as well as tell you about our first dog, Shadow.

You and I also got to share some of the sweeter aspects of small town life in The 214th Comes Home and Homecoming Parade.

You have thought along with me in a few reflective posts, such as A Day of Thanks and Books:  Adventure of a Thousand Lives, as well as been kind enough to read some of my poetry in the posts A Poem for Memorial Day, A Poem for the Fourth of July, Praise, With Apologies to Samuel Clemens Moore and Christina Rossetti and in a funny remake of a popular Christmas carol, The Twelve Days Pre-Christmas.

A couple of other interesting posts including the history of the Thanksgiving Holiday (not the Pilgrims and Indians, but after that) and a discussion of one of the underappreciated tasks in the modern world: garbage collection – go without it for three weeks, and you will never take it for granted again!

Do I know where I’m going in this next year?  Absolutely not, but then that’s at least half of the fun!

Thank you for sharing these posts along with me, and here’s to a wonderful second year!

Have a great day!

Nancy

19 Comments

Posted in Reflection, working mom

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Say What???

Posted on November 21, 2011 | 10 comments

Good morning everyone!

I love WordPress.  I really do; in fact, I love it so much that when I started my second blog, The Football Novice, I didn’t consider using any other software, but immediately went to its sister site, WordPress.org. 

However, every once in a while, usually after I insert a picture, it gets temperamental.  Not a full-grown fit, mind you, just pouting, doing things like not letting me post two pictures in a row without a line of text in between , or changing the font of my post without warning, then reverting to the original font after one paragraph. 

I have discovered through trial and error that the best way to try to fix those little irritating changes is to switch over to the HTML tab and see if anything looks unusual.  Well, actually, since all of the HTML code looks unusual to me, I look to see if anything looks more out-of-place than the rest of the HTML code listed there.  So last week, when my font changed for one paragraph after inserting a picture, and nothing I could do on my regular screen (the tab marked “visual” where my writing usually lives) worked, I bravely ventured forth into the world of code. 

There are a couple of basics to HTML code that I have figured out on my own.  Any HTML code will be written inside the greater and less than signs.  (“<>”).  Sometimes, inside the bracket there will be some kind of letters, or the “/” symbol and some kind of letters.  This is turning something on or off.  The one I recognize the most easily is <ul>, which turns underlining on, and </ul>, which turns underlining off.

The culprit last week appeared to be a code called <div>.  Not having a clue what that meant, I did what any reasonable person would do, and googled it.  The first site I found said the following:

The command encloses, defines and contains an HTML document division. In the Netscape browser it functions essentially the same as the <P> (paragraph) command. In the Internet Explorer browser it is designed to be used in conjunction with Style Sheets.

Of course!  Why didn’t I think of that?  Needless to say, that didn’t help me a lot.  However, I did find a web site that took pity on less technologically advanced folks (I am a wife, mother, dog owner, lawyer, writer and lots of other things, but NOT a software engineer!), and explained things in a much simpler manner.

If you need it, go to http://om4.com.au/client/html-for-bloggers/. OM4, according to its web page, is an Australian web site design and development company for small business.    Basically <div> on WordPress tells your blog page that you are changing to a different type of page/formatting.  Now that, I understood!  OM4 explains many other commands in that article as well. 

After getting rid of some <div> codes, my text was finally correct, and I could breathe easier, and publish my post.

Of course, there was always the option of posting it with the unintentional font change, which would have saved me a great deal of time, but the perfectionist in me just couldn’t handle it!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

10 Comments

Posted in Technology, working mom, Writing

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And the Envelope Please…

Posted on September 27, 2011 | 22 comments

Good morning everyone!

As you may recall from yesterday, I am working through the responsibilities I agreed to in accepting the Versatile Blogger Award.  (Did I mention that I won an award?  I did!)  Today, I get to give out awards!

The Envelope Please! (From PrintShop Professional 2.0)

Here are the blogs to which I have awarded the Versatile Blogger Award. However, because some of my nominees have won this before, most of them blog in their “spare” time and have other full time jobs as well, and most of them are parents or pet owners, I am changing the terms of the award. You don’t have to do anything to accept this award. Period.

If you have not won the award before, you might consider doing one or all of the following three things: 1) Link back in your blog to my blog; 2) Nominate other blogs, as many or as few as you like, for the award and let them know about it, or 3) in a post of your choosing, list seven interesting facts about yourself. If you are winning this award from me, but don’t recall checking out my blog, please feel free to do so. If you don’t feel like doing any of this, that’s okay too; you still deserve the award.

So, here are my nominees for the Versatile Blogger Award in alphabetical order:

1) Bassa’s Blog – Bassa is a Caucasian Shepherd dog exploring the world in Tbilisi Georgia with the help of her tall man, De, the little person and has an uneasy truce with Mr. Parrot. Her unique perspective on things always makes me laugh.

2) Belle of the Carnival – Belle’s blog (and Belle may not be her real name but is short than continually writing “Belle of the Carnival” over and over) is about different things that happen to her throughout her life. Her recent post, about an important lesson her grandmother taught her, was so funny that I couldn’t read it out loud to my Mom through the second paragraph without both of us laughing so hard I almost didn’t finish. You may find it interesting to know that she is a “domesticated clown.”

3) The Big Sheep Blog – Yes, Lisa, I know you’ve won this before, but as hard as I tried, I just couldn’t leave you off of this list. Lisa’s blog is extraordinarily funny, and she has a unique perspective on the world that, perhaps frighteningly, I relate to. She has her own business doing free-lance writing as well as her blog.  Her newest venture is a new web site, www.ripe.com, meant to celebrate the vision and vivacity of women over 50.  I can’t wait to subscribe!

4) Born Again Brazilian – Born Again Brazilian is a blog written by an expatriate mother who relocated from New York City with her Brazilian husband and her young daughter to Sao Paolo, Brazil. Her blog is about her experiences in adjusting to, and loving, Brazil.

5) Brown Road Chronicles – Steve over at Brown Road Chronicles is another person whose posts are always very funny. He lives in one of the “M” states up north; Michigan or Minnesota or somewhere like that where the winters are ridiculously cold. His posts about his conversations with Julie at WordPress and the 911 operator in his city have been “laugh out loud” funny.

6) Conversations with Mary Ann Kempher – Mary Ann is a writer I met over at Twitter. She has completed a full length novel (I’m envious) and is in the throes of editing it and getting it ready to submit for publication. Her blog is about writing, and the writing life.

7) Just Ramblin’ – “Just Ramblin'” writes about her life as a working mom (although her human children are grown now) with two dogs in her house, including an 8 month Newfoundland “puppy” named Miss Stella. I relate to Just Ramblin’; our lives, except for the ages and numbers of children and animals involved sound a lot alike. She is an excellent writer and photographer, and her posts are visual and just plain fun. If you even love dogs just a little bit, you can’t help but fall in love with Miss Stella and Miss Sadie.

8  ) The Kitchen Garden – Cecilia is a New Zealander who married an American, lived in Britain for many years, and now lives in Illinois where she cooks and runs a self-sustaining farm. Her blog is about her life there and the recipes she cooks and memories from her time in New Zealand. She is an excellent writer.

9) Life With Briana – My cousin, Briana, is about three years younger than Kayla. Her parents, also my cousins, adopted her from China and she is absolutely adorable. The blog, written by her mother, Lisa, is a celebration of their life together.

10) Molly Greene: Worth Becoming – Molly Greene’s blog is about writing and her new adventure in life to make a living writing. Her posts are gentle, reminiscent and full of life. She often is able to tie in a unique and personal story about her past with advice about writing in a way that is marvelous to behold.

11) The Musings of a New Englander – Sharon is a writer also. She is a bird lover extraordinaire, and her life is dominated by at least five parrots of some kind as well as a finch.

12) The Roaming Naturalist – Nicole is a passionate conservationist with a knack for photography in an extremely photogenic state.

13)  Servant’s Life – Stacy’s blog consists of thoughtful and heartfelt discussions of various Scriptures. I never fail to learn something from one of her posts.

14) The Simple Life of a Country Man’s Wife – Country Wife’s blog is about her life on a farm in South Dakota. She is another young woman who has a knack for photography in a highly photogenic state and since she also helps her husband with their working form, she has a lot to write about. Her posts fascinate me and never disappoint.

15) St. Monica’s Bridge – Kristen is a Catholic mother raising 3 young children, one of whom has been diagnosed with an autism disorder. I am not sure where on the autism spectrum her daughter falls. Her blog posts are about her family, about the things she is grateful for, and she taught me about a word I didn’t know – “meme.”

16) Words by Stella DeLeuze – Stella DeLeuze is a writer, and has published a fun romantic novel entitled No Wings Attached, which I have read and enjoyed. Her blog discusses writing, as well as her pet iguana, Zorro. I don’t have a pet iguana, and don’t intend to ever have one, but I enjoy reading about Zorro. If you have even had the stray thought cross your mind that it might be fun to own an iguana, I highly recommend that you read this blog first!

17) WordSmith’s Desk – LeRoy Dean posts beautiful religious poems and observations supported by appropriate photographs on his well-read blog. He is unfailingly gracious to the new bloggers he meets on-line and is kind enough to read my posts and let me know what he thinks about them and also helped me to spread the word about one of my posts as well.

So there you have it, folks. These are blogs that I read and follow, and I am giving this award to them because I enjoy reading these writers and want them to know I appreciate their hard work. I hope you find at least one new blog on this list that you can enjoy too.

Happy Reading!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

22 Comments

Posted in Just stuff..., working mom, Writing

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