Yes, I’ve been scarce.
Yeah, I haven’t been around much. I’ve been caught up with work, life, some travel for work a couple of weeks ago, and Winston. Thanks to the Posterous app I just found on Android Market, let’s hope I’ll be updating more often, eh? Winston
As of 1/16, Winston’s been my poochy pal for 2 months. It’s good times… I’m still learning stuff about him, attempting to teach him how to fetch, and may be taking him to his first park excursion with me tomorrow. Then again, it is almost 4am and I’m still wide awake… so maybe the park won’t happen until Sunday depending on how late I sleep tomorrow. I did some research today on dog parks, knowing that there’s one in Alameda but not knowing where any others are. I discovered a few on Yelp that I bookmarked, one being in Union City that looks really well maintained and has a little agility course and plenty of shaded comfortable areas for the owners to sit. The one I plan on taking him to this weekend, though, isn’t actually a dog park but was recommended in a Yelp thread since they allow dogs off leash, and it’s 10 minutes from my house off Marina. The site had some nice pictures, albeit small, so I’m hoping to combine walking Winston with taking some pictures…haven’t been out to take pics in awhile. And the weather this weekend seems pretty OK. I’m not sure I’ll actually let Winston off his leash tomorrow. I don’t know yet if I can trust him in that kind of setting not to run too far and not be able to be called back. He clearly knows his name, and the couple of times he’s bum rushed me at the front door and gotten out and run around, he hasn’t taken off down the street or anything… just runs out to the sidewalk, sniffs the grass, and looks at me like “well, are you coming for a walk with me?” before I drag his ass back inside. When he’s been around other dogs at the store, vet, etc. he’s usually very friendly and rarely barks or has issues. I hope I’ve encouraged him to “be the bigger dog” around the neighborhood since, when we walk, numerous dogs in back yards and houses bark at him as we pass, but he usually just looks at them for a sec and keeps walking. Today even there was a dog who’d gotten out of his yard that ran over and he barked at first but then they just sniffed each other until the other dog went along his way, followed down the street by a truck that passed us and stopped to collect him, so I assume the owner. But until I take him to a dog park, I don’t know how well he’ll behave. I hope he’ll do me proud! Lastly, as a responsible dog owner who (despite having to choke back a strong gag reflex) picks up her dog’s poop, I want to SLAP whomever it is in my neighborhood who’s been letting their BIG dog crap all over our yard, our parking strip, and the sidewalk up and down the block. I see how big Winston’s poop is and he’s a 24lb dog… this poop is bigger than MINE. As much as I dislike the poop being in our parking strip, I can SORTA understand why a person wouldn’t pick up the dog poop there and only pick it up if it’s like smack on a house’s lawn. But there was even a giant pile smack on our lawn. It’s not like the lawn is overgrown and unkept; Dominic mowed it like a day or two before the pile arrived. And I see it all over when walking Winston, but I never manage to see anyone else walking a big dog. There’s a lady with a poodle, the assholes across the street that let their fuckin’ chihuahua out like a goddamn cat (I swear, next time I see it out & no one in sight watching him, I’m calling Animal Control and reporting him a stray), and one time I saw a couple of kids 2 blocks away walking another pug, but I’ve only seen a couple walk a big dog once, and it was at least a week before the big piles of crap started showing up, so I don’t even know if it’s the same people since I haven’t seen them again. Even most the dogs we see in people’s back yards (through the fence) while walking are relatively small. I saw a pitbull yesterday, which is probably the biggest dog I’ve seen in a yard around here so far. Believe me, if I do see them again, I’m getting on their case. Uhm, yes, enough about dog poop…Work
Also as of 1/16, I’ve been with For Me To Coupon for a year. It feels SO GOOD to be with a company for a year after two years of short lived employment with New Edge Media and PMG. They’re instituting some comprehensive reviews with their other business, and including me in that, so I just reviewed how the year has been - terrific. I really haven’t felt this good about work in a long time. I’m not overworked, in fact I could take on more projects if I want, I’m listened to, I’m respected, and I enjoy work. Even tasks that are less glamorous and could be considered tedious, I really don’t mind much. I’ve always been a creature of habit, so I don’t mind the repetitive tasks every week since I’ve got the process down. I wish I could do more on the website end of stuff, but that’s my only limitation being that I don’t know a lot of the more advanced PHP and Java used on the site. Maybe I’ll try to tackle learning some of that this year since I finally taught myself a basic understanding of CSS last year. Every job as it momentary annoyances, but they come and go. AND here… mostly get addressed so they don’t happen again! But it’s going great. Travel
I just realized that I never talked about my trip to visit my dad in his new habitat - South Carolina! It was (kind of clearly) my first time in SC, and unless you include Florida, the longest solid chunk of time I’ve spent in “The South” as an adult (longer than 3 days in Dallas, before that I was in Arkansas for a week when I was 10 visiting my nonno). Some people go to new places and want to eat at high end eateries - not me. I was dead set on going to chain restaurants I’d heard of before but we don’t have here. So we went to a Cracker Barrel (pretty good), a CiCi’s Pizza (kinda crap, but $5 for all-you-can-eat can’t be argued with), and some BBQ places. And we ate at Ruby Tuesdays, which we don’t really have one near here and I’d never eaten before, and also a couple trips to Sonic since, again, the closest one to me here is sort of a pain in the ass to get to & isn’t on my way to anywhere, so I don’t go there often. We visited a Revolutionary War era plantation, an animal park for retired TV & movie animals (imagine like the horse in the Pippi Longstockings movie, who yes was there), some cool old cemeteries, took a ghost tour of Spartanburg since it was the week before Halloween, and some other stuff I barely remember right now. I took nearly 800 pictures, and it was a blast. Their new house out there is NICE, and I admit to being totally jealous to the point of considering a move lol. The other travel I’ve done since was for work. In September I went down to Santa Barbara for a conference hosted by one of the affiliate networks, CJ, so a smaller affair. Which was fun, and I got to feed a Giraffe thanks to a welcoming reception held at the Santa Barbara Zoo, apparently the only zoo with an ocean view. Most recently, I returned a couple weeks ago from Las Vegas for the big winter show, Affiliate Summit West. It was held at the Wynn, which is a lovely hotel, and I was lucky enough to get to be able to stay at the hotel. The lights and drapes were operated by remote panels on the wall, how cool is that? It was a great show. I think my next trip will likely be in March to Austin, TX for another conference. I’ve had layovers at the Houston airport and spent 3-4 days in Dallas when I started with New Edge Media, but I’ve never been to Austin so that will be exciting to go somewhere new. We may go to a second conference in New York and Las Vegas sometime this year, and of course Affiliate Summit East in NYC as well, which Dominic may be going with me again, which will be fun. Life
Just in general, life has been happening. Despite being on regular medications since I was about 20, I’m still trying to remember to take my medication every morning and night. Being the creature of habit that I am, you’d think that would be a no-brainer for me. As usual, I’ve managed to have to reschedule doctors appointments and lab work since I was too busy come time to go, so I know my doc will scold me, but at least this new doc I have does it with a smile and good beside manner. I’ve been aching a lot recently, which I attributed to a few things. Around Christmas I rolled my ankle a few times and it’s been hurting since, so I think it just hasn’t had time to really recover. Then my legs are aching, but I think that might be a good thing. Since having Winston, I’ve been walking more, and I think my body is just still getting used to it. Though because of the aches, I haven’t had the energy to even take the Wii Fit Dominic bought me for Christmas out of the box yet. Hell, I just took down the tree and Christmas decorations earlier tonight. So…
That’s pretty much what’s been going on. If anything else big & noteworthy happened, I probably can’t remember it because it’s 4am. Alas.
As of 1/16, Winston’s been my poochy pal for 2 months. It’s good times… I’m still learning stuff about him, attempting to teach him how to fetch, and may be taking him to his first park excursion with me tomorrow. Then again, it is almost 4am and I’m still wide awake… so maybe the park won’t happen until Sunday depending on how late I sleep tomorrow. I did some research today on dog parks, knowing that there’s one in Alameda but not knowing where any others are. I discovered a few on Yelp that I bookmarked, one being in Union City that looks really well maintained and has a little agility course and plenty of shaded comfortable areas for the owners to sit. The one I plan on taking him to this weekend, though, isn’t actually a dog park but was recommended in a Yelp thread since they allow dogs off leash, and it’s 10 minutes from my house off Marina. The site had some nice pictures, albeit small, so I’m hoping to combine walking Winston with taking some pictures…haven’t been out to take pics in awhile. And the weather this weekend seems pretty OK. I’m not sure I’ll actually let Winston off his leash tomorrow. I don’t know yet if I can trust him in that kind of setting not to run too far and not be able to be called back. He clearly knows his name, and the couple of times he’s bum rushed me at the front door and gotten out and run around, he hasn’t taken off down the street or anything… just runs out to the sidewalk, sniffs the grass, and looks at me like “well, are you coming for a walk with me?” before I drag his ass back inside. When he’s been around other dogs at the store, vet, etc. he’s usually very friendly and rarely barks or has issues. I hope I’ve encouraged him to “be the bigger dog” around the neighborhood since, when we walk, numerous dogs in back yards and houses bark at him as we pass, but he usually just looks at them for a sec and keeps walking. Today even there was a dog who’d gotten out of his yard that ran over and he barked at first but then they just sniffed each other until the other dog went along his way, followed down the street by a truck that passed us and stopped to collect him, so I assume the owner. But until I take him to a dog park, I don’t know how well he’ll behave. I hope he’ll do me proud! Lastly, as a responsible dog owner who (despite having to choke back a strong gag reflex) picks up her dog’s poop, I want to SLAP whomever it is in my neighborhood who’s been letting their BIG dog crap all over our yard, our parking strip, and the sidewalk up and down the block. I see how big Winston’s poop is and he’s a 24lb dog… this poop is bigger than MINE. As much as I dislike the poop being in our parking strip, I can SORTA understand why a person wouldn’t pick up the dog poop there and only pick it up if it’s like smack on a house’s lawn. But there was even a giant pile smack on our lawn. It’s not like the lawn is overgrown and unkept; Dominic mowed it like a day or two before the pile arrived. And I see it all over when walking Winston, but I never manage to see anyone else walking a big dog. There’s a lady with a poodle, the assholes across the street that let their fuckin’ chihuahua out like a goddamn cat (I swear, next time I see it out & no one in sight watching him, I’m calling Animal Control and reporting him a stray), and one time I saw a couple of kids 2 blocks away walking another pug, but I’ve only seen a couple walk a big dog once, and it was at least a week before the big piles of crap started showing up, so I don’t even know if it’s the same people since I haven’t seen them again. Even most the dogs we see in people’s back yards (through the fence) while walking are relatively small. I saw a pitbull yesterday, which is probably the biggest dog I’ve seen in a yard around here so far. Believe me, if I do see them again, I’m getting on their case. Uhm, yes, enough about dog poop…Work
Also as of 1/16, I’ve been with For Me To Coupon for a year. It feels SO GOOD to be with a company for a year after two years of short lived employment with New Edge Media and PMG. They’re instituting some comprehensive reviews with their other business, and including me in that, so I just reviewed how the year has been - terrific. I really haven’t felt this good about work in a long time. I’m not overworked, in fact I could take on more projects if I want, I’m listened to, I’m respected, and I enjoy work. Even tasks that are less glamorous and could be considered tedious, I really don’t mind much. I’ve always been a creature of habit, so I don’t mind the repetitive tasks every week since I’ve got the process down. I wish I could do more on the website end of stuff, but that’s my only limitation being that I don’t know a lot of the more advanced PHP and Java used on the site. Maybe I’ll try to tackle learning some of that this year since I finally taught myself a basic understanding of CSS last year. Every job as it momentary annoyances, but they come and go. AND here… mostly get addressed so they don’t happen again! But it’s going great. Travel
I just realized that I never talked about my trip to visit my dad in his new habitat - South Carolina! It was (kind of clearly) my first time in SC, and unless you include Florida, the longest solid chunk of time I’ve spent in “The South” as an adult (longer than 3 days in Dallas, before that I was in Arkansas for a week when I was 10 visiting my nonno). Some people go to new places and want to eat at high end eateries - not me. I was dead set on going to chain restaurants I’d heard of before but we don’t have here. So we went to a Cracker Barrel (pretty good), a CiCi’s Pizza (kinda crap, but $5 for all-you-can-eat can’t be argued with), and some BBQ places. And we ate at Ruby Tuesdays, which we don’t really have one near here and I’d never eaten before, and also a couple trips to Sonic since, again, the closest one to me here is sort of a pain in the ass to get to & isn’t on my way to anywhere, so I don’t go there often. We visited a Revolutionary War era plantation, an animal park for retired TV & movie animals (imagine like the horse in the Pippi Longstockings movie, who yes was there), some cool old cemeteries, took a ghost tour of Spartanburg since it was the week before Halloween, and some other stuff I barely remember right now. I took nearly 800 pictures, and it was a blast. Their new house out there is NICE, and I admit to being totally jealous to the point of considering a move lol. The other travel I’ve done since was for work. In September I went down to Santa Barbara for a conference hosted by one of the affiliate networks, CJ, so a smaller affair. Which was fun, and I got to feed a Giraffe thanks to a welcoming reception held at the Santa Barbara Zoo, apparently the only zoo with an ocean view. Most recently, I returned a couple weeks ago from Las Vegas for the big winter show, Affiliate Summit West. It was held at the Wynn, which is a lovely hotel, and I was lucky enough to get to be able to stay at the hotel. The lights and drapes were operated by remote panels on the wall, how cool is that? It was a great show. I think my next trip will likely be in March to Austin, TX for another conference. I’ve had layovers at the Houston airport and spent 3-4 days in Dallas when I started with New Edge Media, but I’ve never been to Austin so that will be exciting to go somewhere new. We may go to a second conference in New York and Las Vegas sometime this year, and of course Affiliate Summit East in NYC as well, which Dominic may be going with me again, which will be fun. Life
Just in general, life has been happening. Despite being on regular medications since I was about 20, I’m still trying to remember to take my medication every morning and night. Being the creature of habit that I am, you’d think that would be a no-brainer for me. As usual, I’ve managed to have to reschedule doctors appointments and lab work since I was too busy come time to go, so I know my doc will scold me, but at least this new doc I have does it with a smile and good beside manner. I’ve been aching a lot recently, which I attributed to a few things. Around Christmas I rolled my ankle a few times and it’s been hurting since, so I think it just hasn’t had time to really recover. Then my legs are aching, but I think that might be a good thing. Since having Winston, I’ve been walking more, and I think my body is just still getting used to it. Though because of the aches, I haven’t had the energy to even take the Wii Fit Dominic bought me for Christmas out of the box yet. Hell, I just took down the tree and Christmas decorations earlier tonight. So…
That’s pretty much what’s been going on. If anything else big & noteworthy happened, I probably can’t remember it because it’s 4am. Alas.
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Posted on Saturday January 22nd
About me
This is really an aggregation of some of my various online ventures.
