She left me love
May 29, 2009 by Nicki
As I mentioned in my update, Jessie came to work with me Tuesday. I hadn’t realized she had left me this on my pin board until I got back in the office this morning:

She’s so sweet. 
Pain is bad, mmkay?
May 29, 2009 by Nicki
Looking back, I guess it should have struck me as strange that I wasn’t at all hungry Tuesday evening. I’d taken Jessie to work with me Tuesday and we had Stix for lunch. I just assumed because I’d had a huge greasy meal that I was a little out of sorts from that and didn’t think much about the lack of appetite. Around 2am Wednesday morning I awoke from a sound sleep with an excruciating pain. It hurt from just below my sternum, to underneath just the bottom of both sides of my ribs, all the way down the middle of my belly. It was like there was a huge burning knot in my abdomen and someone was trying to pull it tighter and tighter.
A slight back-track: I’d had this pain before, about 3 weeks ago, but it had only lasted a couple hours so I shrugged it off. This time was MUCH more intense and the pain lasted over 8 hours!
I know, I know … I should’ve had Jim take me to the emergency room, but I’m a proud stubborn (stupid!) woman and convinced myself that I could last the few hours until my doctor’s office opened. I phoned them as soon as they opened and was worked in that morning. I described to my doctor where I hurt and what I’d eaten the day before. She poked and prodded various places around my belly and sides — and even though the tightness and burning was gone, my stomach still HURT LIKE HELL when being pressed upon! She said it’s most likely my gall bladder and scheduled me for an ultrasound.
I had the ultrasound yesterday morning along with a few other tests, and am still waiting to hear the results. I know I’m driving the office staff crazy over there because I’ve been calling about every other hour asking if they had any news for me yet.
The not-knowing is killing me.
Everyone keeps telling me that gall bladder surgery is nothing to worry about nowadays and is “no big deal” … but you know me, I worry about the things I can’t control. Plus, I’m not crazy about being out of work the past couple days and I know that if/when I need surgery, I’ll need to be out more.
It serves me right for not having it checked out sooner I guess.
So, when I know more, I’ll post updates for everyone. Right now, it’s still pretty much a waiting game. If you’re the praying kind, I could really use it — and please include my family, they’re the ones putting up with me. 
Humpday Hilarities
May 29, 2009 by Nicki
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Sorry these are so late, I have a good reason I promise! (will post more on that later today)
This funny is courtesy of my Cotillion sister, Deb:
World’s Greatest Liar
Pinocchio, Snow White, and Superman are out for a stroll in town one day. As they walked, they come across a sign: “Beauty contest for the most beautiful woman in the world.”
“I am entering!” said Snow White. After half an hour she comes out and they ask her, “Well, how’d ya do?”
“First Place!” said Snow White.
They continue walking and they see a sign: “Contest for the strongest man in the world.”
“I’m entering,” says Superman. After half an hour, he returns and they ask him, “How did you make out?”
“First Place,” answers Superman. “Did you ever doubt?”
They continue walking when they see a sign: “Contest! Who is the greatest liar in the world?” Pinocchio enters.
After half an hour he returns with tears in his eyes.
“What happened?” they asked.
“Who the hell is Nancy Pelosi?” asked Pinocchio.
And this one is courtesy of Uncle Monster:
And this one is courtesy of Don:
A blonde heard that milk baths would make her beautiful. So she left a note for her milkman to leave 25 gallons of milk.
When the milkman read the note, he felt there must be a mistake. He thought she probably meant 2.5 gallons. So he knocked on the door to clarify the point.
The blonde came to the door and the milkman said, ‘I found your note asking me to leave 25 gallons of milk. Did you mean 2.5 gallons?’
The blonde said, ‘No, I want 25 gallons. I’m going to fill my bathtub up with milk And take a milk bath so I can look young and beautiful again.
The milkman asked, ‘Do you want it pasteurized?’ The blonde said, ‘No, just up to my tits. I can splash it on my eyes.
Site Maintenance
My host will be moving my account from PHP4 to PHP5, so just a head’s up: my site may be down for a little bit. (hopefully not long at all)
Update: Move went smoothly and everything seems to be working. Please let me know if you have or see any problems on the site. Thanks!
Updated WordPress Theme: Black Hat
May 26, 2009 by Nicki
This update contains several fixes and enhancements.
Details
Black Hat is a dark minimalist theme based on Adrian Diaconescu’s Corporate Sandbox, which is of course based on the Sandbox framework. It is has been built specifically with WordPress 2.7 in mind, but is also backwards compatible for version 2.6. (Sorry, I will no longer be supporting version 2.5 or older.)
Stickers icons courtesy of DryIcons. Favicon by Brian Brasher.
Features
Theme option for changing sidebar location – Pretty self-explanatory, there’s a theme option so that the sidebar can easily be moved from left to right and back again from within the WordPress admin panel. The sidebar can also be removed altogether using this option.
Sitemap template – If desired, you can create a sitemap for your blog by simply using this template.
Links page template – If desired, you can create a links page by simply using this template.
Printer-friendly stylesheet – Something I think a lot of users don’t think about until someone tries to print a post. Personally, I think all blogs should have these!
Admin & Login links – Many WordPress-savvy users don’t need a link to get to the Admin panel, but it’s nice for those of us who can’t remember the exact URL for it!
Favicon & “web clip” icon – Something else I think a lot of users don’t think about. Personally, I hope all my users replace these files with their own. A favicon helps your blog stand out, IMO. Web clip icons are used by iPhone and iPod touch users when adding a bookmark to the Home Screen.
Visual sticky post indicator – With the introduction of sticky posts in WordPress 2.7, I’ve noticed that it’s hard to tell if a post is sticky or not. I like visual aids, and this is one.
Easy to implement Feedburner links – By default, Black Hat features a feed icon linked to the blog’s RSS feed. This can be changed to a Feedburner RSS feed by simply updating the Theme Options page. Additionally, you can also add the Feedburner email subscription link for your feed.
Default and conditional feed options – By default, Black Hat includes the coding for the following feed types: RDF/RSS 1.0, RSS .92, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3. The RSS feed for all comments for your blog is also included. (note: these are overwritten if using the Feedburner option instead)
Conditional feeds: If viewing a single post, the comment feed for that post is available. If viewing a category, the feed for all posts in that category is available. If viewing a tag, the feed for all posts with that tag is available.
Additional/SEO meta tags – When developing my themes, I take the liberty of adding many commonly used meta tags. Most of the information is automatically filled in via various WordPress commands and can easily be modified by the user.
Twitter integration – In the post footer (when you click on a post, not viewing the index or archive page), there is a “Share on Twitter” link. You can also display your latest Tweet in the sidebar by updating the Theme Options with your Twitter username.
Related Posts feature – This function looks at the tags for a post and finds all posts matching those tags. If no tags are specified for a post, this function will not show up. This function can be disabled via the Theme Options.
Customized default avatar (Gravatar) to match theme design – Black Hat includes an avatar to match the theme style. To use, you would simply login to the WordPress Admin panel and set the custom avatar as default.
More detailed information on these and other features can be found in the theme’s readme file!
Fixes
- Comments displaying improperly (or not at all)
- Related Posts function now matches all tags, not just the first one listed.
- If a tag has been used only once, it is not included in the search.
- If only one tag is used, and it has only been used once, Related Posts function will not show.
- Comments and trackbacks now separated.
- If both trackbacks and comments exists, comments count corrected.
- Favicon corrected for backend (WP Admin).
- Navigation links added to post single view.
Availability
A Day of Remembrance
I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend. May we all remember why this day is so important and never forget those who are serving and have served to protect the freedoms that we hold so dear.

Remember folks, freedom is not free.
Humpday Hilarities
May 20, 2009 by Nicki
Today’s edition starts off with a contribution by Don:
Bill and Sam
Bill and Sam, two elderly friends, met in the park every day to feed the pigeons, watch the squirrels and discuss world problems.
One day Bill didn’t show up. Sam didn’t think much about it and figured maybe he had a cold or something. But after Bill hadn’ t shown up for a week or so, Sam really got worried. However, since the only time they ever got together was at the park, Sam didn’ t know where Bill lived, so he was unable to find out what had happened to him.
A month had passed, and Sam figured he had seen the last of Bill. But one day, Sam approached the park and — lo and behold! –there sat Bill! Sam was very excited and happy to see him and told him so. Then he said, ‘For crying out loud Bill, what in the world happened to you? ‘
Bill replied, ‘I have been in jail.’
‘Jail?’ cried Sam. ‘What in the world for?’
‘Well,’ Bill said, ‘you know Mary, that cute little blonde waitress at the coffee shop where I sometime go?’
‘Yeah,’ said Sam, ‘I remember her. What about her?’
‘Well, one day she filed rape charges against me; and, at 89 years old, I was so proud that when I got into court I pled ‘guilty.’
‘The dang judge gave me 30 days for perjury.’
And this one is courtesy of my mother:
First Celebrity to Die from the Swine Flu
And we all know who the carrier is!
Taking Humpdays a step further
May 19, 2009 by Nicki
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I’ve been working my way down my various “to do” lists for this site and finally finished something I had meant to do a while back: create separate feed and email subscription options for the Humpday Hilarities. Fueled by Feedburner, it took a little re-coding to get things arranged the way I wanted them, but now everything seems to be in order.
From now on, anyone who wishes to subscribe only to the Humpday Hilarities can do so via RSS or Email. Of course, I welcome everyone to hang around the whole feeds, but understand completely for those who don’t.
All Humpday Hilarities posts (as well as the corresponding tags and category) will display the following invitation:
Did you know you can get these weekly funnies sent directly to your email? Click here and fill out the email subscription link. Mailing frequency is once per week, with the rare exception of extra funnies posted for special occasions.
Your email address will never sold or given out to anyone!
Please let me know if any part of the site looks funny or acts up. And of course, submissions are always welcome. (Read: send me your funnies!) ![]()
I like Safari, but …
May 14, 2009 by Nicki
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For a while, I’ve been following the progress of Mozilla’s mobile browser project, codenamed Fennec. As the Mozilla team’s efforts push the project forward, I can’t help but hope that one day soon it will be available on the iPhone. Of course, this will mean that Apple will have to actually APPROVE the app for inclusion in the App Store.
As of this post, Apple has yet to approve any major 3rd party web browser application for the iPhone (meaning not based on Safari). That’s one of the few things where Helio had them beat. When the Opera “mini” browser was released, Helio embraced it. And how could they not? Let’s face it, the Helio native browser was sluggish and seriously lacking in many features where as Opera was sleek, fast, and surely had it beat. Heck, you could even manage your bookmarks online from the Opera website and easily synchronize with the browser on your device.
I would LOVE to see that kind of capability on my iPhone!
I had hoped that by now, Fennec would be far enough along that Helio users could use it. But since Jim and I have jumped aboard the Apple ship, my hopes are now that Fennec could one day soon be made available for iPhone users.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Safari … but I’m a Mozilla fangirl through and through! 
New iToy: Pogo stylus
May 14, 2009 by Nicki
Last week I had discovered something: I can’t type worth a flip on a touch screen when I’m mad! 
Jessie had suggested getting a stylus — well, in a round-about way, after discovering that her Nintendo DS stylus would not work with my iPhone. LOL! I thought it was a great idea though and began scouring the net for possibilities. And let me tell you, there are TONS out there. I finally popped back onto the Apple site and looked through their online store. One immediately caught my eye, so I ordered it: the Pogo Stylus.
I got the red one! 
It came in the mail yesterday, so I spent a good deal of time last night and this morning playing with it. I don’t think I’ll use it every day, but there will be times when I’ll need to take lengthy notes or maybe post to my blog, and this will come in VERY handy!



























