thanks to dee, here's a quick update

No, no, don't worry, I haven't given up the ghost. Just fighting off the constant weariness that comes with the end of the school year. So much to do and so little time... you know the deal. I've been fighting on several fronts: technology that has been kicking my bum, being a bit under the weather (but not the flu, thank you very much), family issues, and trying to bite off more than I can chew at work, thus working late and coming home ready to sleep.

Oh no, I sound like I'm complaining.

Really, things could be much worse, so I don't mean to complain. I'm just tired to the bone, and I have commitments until basically the Fourth. Ah, sweet Independence Day, I am looking forward to it. OK, the Third, I shall be free on the Third of July.

So. Tired.

And I don't mean to keep you all dee in suspense for so long... I do fully plan to write the post about what was up in the garden. Just as soon as I get my pics off my husband's computer. (Oooh, a post with pictures! Really, it will be worth the wait.)

I'm reading those of you who are posting, but there's no time for commenting. I'm very appreciative, however, of the short stolen moments I get to enjoy reading!!

I must have been living in the Dark Ages

I finally figured out how to do these scheduled posts. I had heard about it, but I hadn't put any effort into trying to find the thing. (And it kind of feels like cheating, you know?) So anyway, now I can be all bloggy like the rest of you! Hah. So there.

I'm taking advantage of toddler napping time to create a (few) post(s) here instead of

• picking up all the toys
  
• starting a load of laundry
  
• thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner hubby is going to make for dinner
  
• reading a good book (what's a book?)

(Sound of sick baby stirring and then crying.) Right, that's why I'm not doing all those things.

excuses, excuses

OK, so I have my reasons. I feel like I've been sick since Valentine's Day (is that possible? maybe not quite that long, but almost). I also have a terrible tendency to bite off these huge chunks and then wonder why I feel like I don't have enough time to sleep. Working full time, having a toddler (who's been sick, too), trying to keep up with the laundry and myriad of other chores, taking a couple of (real) classes and one that's "just for fun," teaching a class. Nuts! That's right.

Oh, that's why I don't have time to go work out.

hi, bloggers! yup, I'm still here--well, sort of

So, where to start?

First, sorry, bloglanders, I haven't been keeping up-to-date with your doings. I've got a lot of you on my RSS feed in my email program (I really do love Macs!), which is great, because I don't have to keep checking the web to see if you've posted. Which means... I have no idea what you've been twittering.

But what that also means is that I can see how many of your posts I haven't read. If you are, like me, probably overwhelmed with life, then I've probably read everything you've posted. Dee, thanks for reaching out the other day! Not that I can find your email now, but I appreciated it. And thanks to Facebook, I guess, your feed is clear. There's no little number next to your account that keeps pestering me that I haven't read you. So when I see a little number 1 next to your name, I can get all excited and be like, "Oh wow, dee posted, I need to read this." (OK, I originally wrote this two weeks ago, and in October, dee was all like me, not posting or anything, but now that we have NaNoNaNoBloPoMoJo thingy going on, dee's posting every day. And, OK, yeah, I'm still caught up on her posts, because I gravitate to that little number "1" in my RSS feed.)

For now, the only folks I'm caught up with are dee, the kilowatt hour, Petite Anglaise, Kitty Cafe (I love that name! and sorry, I can't remember if you're "out" about your name, so I'm keeping you undercover), and Jo over at Counting Sheep. My guess is that they're just as overwhelmed busy as I am. I read all of Peevish's new incoming posts, but I seem to have skimmed over a few somewhere, so a sad little "3" sits by her name.

I was a lurker over on blackbird's blog for probably more than a year before she did the delurking thing that encouraged me to start blogging in the first place. But I'm way behind, and she has a "32" next to her name. Now, my life is out of control busy, so there's no way I'm going to read all those Survivor posts, even though I used to read them and everything else she wrote religiously, even though I've never seen a single episode of Survivor in my life.

And then there's Pumpkin over at My French Swiss window who is a diligent poster. During the summer I was pretty much up-to-date with her doings, but now I'm really over my head, and the number "101" 97 (hey, I'm catching up!) is next to her name in the RSS feed. Pumpkin, I want to know what's up and when your daughter is coming, but that huge number is a huge deterrent for me right now. Occasionally I click on one of her posts and look at the lovely photos and read what she's up to, but honestly, it doesn't happen very often now.

Another blog I had been keeping up with since January has been Dave over at 365 Days of Trash and now his number is up to "142." Sorry, Dave, I have no idea what kind of trash is in your basement right now. I do occasionally read a post that has an interesting title, but I can't deal with all the details right now.

And then there's Jen on the Edge, who I think is interesting, and I was reading her posts pretty regularly over the summer, but she is just too damn prolific for my school-year schedule. I really can't deal with the "185" in the RSS feed, and it keeps getting larger. I want to know what's up with her house and the kids and all the cool stuff over in Jenworld, but really, I just can't overcome that huge number.

I already deleted the Yarn Harlot from the feed, as she, too, was too prolific for me. And I really enjoy her writing, too. I actually found out about her through one of her books (yeah, she's a pro!), but her posts are many and long. I can't even tell you how many hundreds of posts there were for me to catch up on, even during the summer, and so I couldn't take it anymore one afternoon, and I deleted her. She's still on my blogroll, though. That much I can deal with, although I don't look at my own blog too often. Just too boring, I mean, I almost never post!

And yes, if you've made it this far, it's my birthday!

maybe, just to be on the safe side

So I was reading dee's scary/funny story (scary because... well, it's scary, go read it, and funny because dee is really good at making scary stories pretty damn funny, go read it already) about saving her kid's life while a bunch of strangers just pretended not to hear them, and here I am.

You know, a refresher CPR course is not a bad idea. I was forced to take took a class in high school, then took one when I was pregnant. But do I remember anything? Hmm. How many seconds to do any of the multitude of steps? (which they had the gall to change on me in the intervening years) Yes, a refresher course. That is, if I remember to sign up for one.

new look

Just a quick update to say that I chose a new template because with the addition of my new Blogroll (ta-da!), it looked too crowded. I wanted something that I could use the larger window for. I didn't spend a lot of time choosing it, so I may choose something else soon. But I really like the new Blogroll feature (another plug). It allows for a snippet of each newest blog entry, plus you can choose to have them show up in order of the most recent update. I think it's a cool feature, although I had a hard time getting it to work at first. No idea why.

UPDATE: UGGHHH! it's not working again. Grr.

still worried, but kind of moving on

Yes, I guess I'm still worried (see the other entry), but really, there's nothing I can do about it. Except stop blogging, I guess. Or start a new blog. Ugh, that sounds so tiring. I wonder if this person even realizes what happened. My guess is... she must. But she hasn't said anything about my slip-up. So I don't know if she's just trying to be polite and pretend nothing happened. Or if she actually didn't notice.

OK, moving on. (Well, maybe not really, as I would still like some reassurance....)

worried

So yesterday I was working. Thinking-type of work, at home, on the computer, not like heavy physical labor or dangerous-type stuff. Since I was on the computer, I was kind of goofing off at the same time. But since I was working and goofing off simultaneously, I guess I wasn't focusing as closely as I should have been (probably on either).

And so, I did something really stupid that I wouldn't ordinarily have done (at least I hope not). I put myself in kind of a vulnerable position with someone who I don't really know all that well, and now I'm really worried that this person might do something that is not so nice. Well, maybe this person wouldn't do that, and I hope not, because I'd like to think that I know this person well enough to say that, but quite honestly, I don't. I didn't realize it right away, but I realized shortly thereafter, and I can't believe I would be so stupid.

So I was sick with worry last night and into today. There's really nothing I can do about it, at this point, as what I've done is irreversible. I wish, though, that I had some reassurance that things would be OK. I'm still worried.

am I the last person in the blogosphere to figure this out?

I just figured out how to do an RSS feed to get updates via Mail when the blogs I watch get updated. Wow! Does this ever simplify life... well, at least as far as catching up with blogs goes.

Did all of the rest of you already know this? I feel so... 20th century. I used to go surfing occasionally to see if people had updated. I would check a couple of blogs every day, with people who update all the time. Others I would check more often than they updated, and others I would check less often. Now I can get an update easily. Whoa... am I impressed with myself right now!

OK, back to other stuff.

I just got my first spam comment

Unfortunately, I guess someone (or maybe "something"?) noticed my blog! I have enabled word verification so that people trying to sell their schemes online can't take advantage of my site.

I still want to hear from the real live people out there, though!

For the real folks out there, thanks for the comments! I promise to be back when I can find a few more moments in the day. Now, does anyone have any advice about how to do actually do that?

waste not, want not

I heard this story about a guy who plans to not throw anything away for an entire year on NPR on my ride home today. Fascinating. Here's the link to his blog, where he'll describe the process for a year.

It's hard to imagine not throwing anything away for a year. Including recycling. Yikes! We don't have much trash (considering), but our recycling bins overflow.

I love composting, and having a yard (finally!), makes it (relatively) easy to do. I once had a worm composting system, when I lived in an apartment in the middle of the city, but it didn't work very well for me. I guess I didn't have enough worms or something. But composting outside rocks!

I'll be following his progress when I can make it to the computer. Yeah, you know, I'm not here very much any more.

I didn't realize...

that if you start a post, then spend a really long time editing it and adding to it, Blogger publishes it on the day that you started it rather than the day you finish it. Note the 100 things about me post, which I just finished, and just posted, but it's on October 4. And for some reason, it says it was posted at 1:09 pm, but it's not quite noon now. I don't know. If someone out there reads this and can explain to me, I'd appreciate knowing why this is.