Currently browsing: Damned headaches

Happy Mother’s Day!

I hope all you moms out there are having a wonderful day. I’m sitting here enjoying the quiet (and trying my best to stave off the headache that accompanies the rains like we’ve been having so much of lately!). I’ve called my mother and spoke to her a good while. I’ll soon call my mother-in-law and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day as well.

Jim, Jessie, and I had our celebration Friday night, as this was her mother’s weekend to have her. I received beautiful cards from each of them and a new mp3 player from both. A bright shiny red Sony Walkman!

Wow.

I couldn’t help but tear up just a little when Jim later told me that Jessie got her mother a DVD and a card “not as nice” as the one I had received. (I had gotten the “good” gift!)

And yeah, I allowed myself to enjoy that just a little.

While we were out, I stopped in Books-a-Million and picked up the latest installment of the Sookie Stackhouse series: Dead and Gone. I finished it last night and will say this — it’s an emotional roller coaster!

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and am a little saddened that I’ll have to wait a while before the next one comes out to see what direction the next book takes. There’s no cliff-hanger at the end, but I did pretty much cry all the way through the last chapter. The author killed a character I really liked. Well, actually, several had perished that I liked, but one had been a pretty big supporting character for the last few books. (but I won’t spoil it any further for those of you still reading it!)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, and hope the weather is better wherever you are than what it is here!

Nothing yet is good, right?

Things have been so hectic, it hadn’t dawned on me that I hadn’t posted in a while until this afternoon. I had originally planned to post some things this passed weekend, but my headaches from Hades had other plans in mind. I’m just now catching up on last week’s and this weekend’s emails, so if you haven’t heard back from me yet … you will, just give me some time!

There’s still no word yet on whether or not we got the loan for the house. We were turned down by our current mortgage company (how screwed up is that???), but that’s ok because the rate on that loan was outrageous. We’ve been told that things look good with the new place, so I’m hoping like mad that we’ll get it, but the suspense is killing me. ;P

Oh well … no news is good news, right?

Wow, I am going to hate moving!

Jim and I met with the realtor and builder’s rep yesterday. We signed a contract on the new house (which is of course contingent on us selling ours first) and put down the “good faith” earnest payment. So now we’ve got to go double-time on getting our current house ready to sell. We’ve basically got a week and a half to get most of our stuff moved out, all necessary fixtures replaced, the house painted, the carpeting replaced, and anything else that we think will help it sell faster.

I don’t have pix of the new house up. I took some yesterday using Jim’s cell, but they didn’t really come out (serves me right for not checking his cam settings first!). We’ll be going by there later this week, so I’ll take the “good camera” and get some proper shots taken and posted.

OMG, we’ve got so much to do!

Unfortunately my stress levels have been slightly elevated lately. I’ve had to double-up on my migraine pain meds, as I’ve had a headache pretty much every day lately. I’ve been a little snippy when I haven’t meant to have been.

God bless my family for putting up with me.

I’m dreading the actual move itself, but will be SO happy when all of this is over and done with!

I’m going to take the plunge

I was talking with a very good friend earlier today and our conversation turned to something that has been a “weighty” subject with me lately. We were looking at some pictures Jim had taken at Christmas. I asked, “Is that really how I look?” She sweetly assured me that she would LOVE to be my size and that I am “worrying about nothing.”

Oh sure, she’s 6 ft tall and gorgeous! Granted she’s what you might call “big boned”, but she’s also got all the curves that (IMO) a “real woman” should have. I admit it, I was envious — and I was appalled.

I know I’ve touched on it now and again on here, but I hadn’t actually verbally shared my weight fears with anyone, outside of my husband and my doctor. I eat pretty well, but I could do better. I know I don’t exercise enough, and I could do better.

My biggest problem has been my appetite. When my doctor had put me on Topamax for my migraines, it did wonders! It changed my taste for soda, helping me kick that bad habit for good (even to this day, cokes still taste a little “funny” to me!). It also stifled my appetite, helping me cut out all the snacks that I was constantly going for every afternoon and night. But the Topamax did little to help my headaches, so I was put on Amitriptyline.

The Amitriptyline has helped to significantly cut the frequency and severity of my headaches, but it has also doubled my appetite! What used to fill me up (before going on ANY meds) now does little to satisfy me. So in the course of a year and a half, I’ve undone what took two years for me to gain in both desirable weight and shape.

Because you know, it’s not just about the number on the scale!

Anyways, I’ve been looking into several products to help me out in that area, and I think I’ve finally found something that I could take to help me get back on track. Anoretix. While the website has the same fantastic claims as the others, I have seen a good bit of good feedback from people who have used the product. I have talked to my doctor’s office and it doesn’t interfere with any of my current medication, but I was advised to start out taking half of the recommended dosage.

I haven’t bought it yet, but I have spent the last few days reading various complaint and diet/drug review sites to see what others who have taken it have said. I did see that they have an unconditional money back guarantee (minus the shipping, of course) and that does impress me a bit … so if I try it and it doesn’t work for me, I’m only out the shipping cost in the end.

Ode to Cute

Had a good weekend. Jim, Jess, and I went down to Prattville and saw Jim’s mother. We did a bit of shopping, sight-seeing, and had some really awesome barbecue (I’m talking giving Green Top a run for its money good!!!). It rained all the way down there, and all the way back. I’m so sick of all this rain, it’s giving me headaches out the wazoo.

I woke up this morning with a headache and have been in a bit of a mood. Traffic was unreal this morning, so I was late to work. I stayed up late last night watching the Armageddon/2012 specials on the History channel, so I’m tired and a little cranky. (and when I don’t get enough sleep, I’m more prone to having a headache!)

I did get a little happy moment this morning … this bit of cute was posted to my friend Sangi’s LiveJournal:

Beaker was always one of my favorite Sesame Street characters, and I thought that was just too cute not to share!

WordCamp Birmingham Notes

Note: I had intended to post this Monday night, but work has been crazy-busy this week and Jim’s having a bit of a site snafu, so spare time has been pretty much nonexistent. LOL!

We had a wonderful time at WordCamp Birmingham this past weekend. A big thanks to Andre Natta and the B’ham team for all of their hard work. I’m most definitely looking forward to next year’s. The date is already set (September 26-27, 2009), so be sure to mark your calendar! Matt Mullenweg is slated to be a keynote speaker, so it should be awesome!!

The Future of WordPress

The first speaker we saw Saturday morning was Dougal Campbell with “The Future of WordPress.” He briefly covered WordPress’ version history and various milestones over the last few years. Thinking back, I think I started off with either version 1.0 or 1.1. I remember the upgrade to 1.2 being pretty hard, but that was nothing like having to re-do my theme for 1.5, LOL!

Ahh, those were the days … :lol:

He then moved on to the upcoming and much anticipated version 2.7. It’s due sometime next month. According to Dougal, there will be:

• more backend UI re-design;
• upgraded API, so you can upgrade themes, browse and install plugins and themes, etc.;
• comment improvements (many of these are covered in great detail on Otto’s blog) such as:
  • threaded comments
  • paged comments
  • auto-close comments
  • replying to comments from the Admin menu (a HUGE plus!!!)
• sticky posts;
• “Quick Edit” inline editing via Ajax for posts;
• HTTP-only cookies, a security feature;
• a new HTTP request API for plugin developers, replacing the current request API (Snoopy, I think?);
• and many others …

He also went over some possible features for future versions of WordPress:

• APP Importer: for Movable Type, Type Pad, Blogger, …
• A new “default” theme, possibly based on Sandbox or something similar to it. This will be replacing the current Kubrick theme.

Some features that he thinks are likely for version 2.8 (taken from the Trac Tickets) include:

• better page managment: select page order, hide pages
• expanded template functions: users, comments, attachments

We can look forward to seeing more CMS features, more social networking features, better widget management. Perhaps even OpenID (that would be sweet).

Documentation was brought up and he stated that there has been a big push (internally) to get the functions (I’m assuming he means the Codex?) better documented, updated, etc.

SEO For WordPress

The next speaker was Donna Fontenot, who had some really good insight on SEO for beginners. You can view her slides here. It is also available on her website in HTML format.

She started with a very simple recommendation as a first step for blogging: think first, write later. This can apply to so many aspects, and I admit it’s one that I don’t practice enough. You should actually USE the phrases you want to rank well for in blog posts. For best results, use them in prominent places:

• Document Title
• Body Headings
• In posts

Another stickler subject: Blog Visibility. In covering the WordPress Settings, she states that you should always make sure to have the privacy option set so that your blog is visible to everyone, including search engines.

Moving on to Permalink structure, the optimal setting is /%category%/%postname%/. For most blogs it’s ok to be different though. Dates, which are useless for SEO, are useful for users and are most generally preferred. It’s best to make sure that %postname% in there somewhere.

She talked a bit about URL canonicalization. Blog owners must make a choice: www or no www. Whichever you choose, you must consistently use it everywhere:

• Linking to your site
• correspondence
• email and IM signatures

Donna then moved on to categories. This is another thing I am doing wrong, LOL! She says it’s best to keep them as top-level important concepts, as opposed to tagging. Me, I tag and categorize all willy-nilly. Guess I’ll have to work on that. :mrgreen:

One of the plugins she highly recommended was All-In-One SEO Pack. I’ve heard about this plugin from several different people and from what I understand, it takes all the guesswork out of SEO for your blog. Donna says that the default settings work well.

Another plugin mentioned is: Excerpt Editor. This one gives extra control over excerpts, autogenerates excerpts (but allows overriding), prevents duplicate content between excerpts and full post, replaces the_content() with the_excerpt(), and more…

She spent a bit of time on two other post elements:

• Post titles:
  • use H1 or H2
  • Ok to use other tags, but H1 or H2 are best (use whatever suits your theme)
• Post slugs:
  • these should contain only most important words
  • and you should strip out “stop” words like ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’, etc. These dilute the value of other keywords in the slug (permalink)

Other topics covered were:

• Post Image Optimization
• Interlinking
• Encouraging Sharing/Linking
• Participating and Reciprocation

Donna’s presentation not only had a lot of good information, she also made recommendations as to customizations to themes and various plugins that could help improve the “SEO-ness” of your site. I highly recommend checking out her site. You’ll find a LOT of useful information there that she covered at WordCamp, and a lot more!

Merging your work life with your blog life

The next speaker was David Griner. His presentation was pretty comical, poking fun at himself (he’s not even a WordPress user *gasp* hehe) and his profession. While this wasn’t really one of the topics that first piqued my interest, it did have a lot of useful information for anyone whose ever wondered what it could take to make blogging a full-time job.

It’s not something I could do, but I admire anyone who does it!

Topics included:

• Pros of Freelancing
  • schedule your own time
  • stockpile blog posts in advance
  • decent extra pay
  • very minor level of celebrity
  • opportunities for guest editing/posting
  • work in your underwear
• Cons
  • most people suck at time management
  • you’ll starve
  • no benefits or security
  • can mess with your taxes
  • easy to lose steam
  • neighbors get tired of seeing you in your underwear
• Finding the right blog
  • you’re probably already reading it
  • who owns it?
  • how many writers?
  • Whats the output?
• Getting the gig
  • get to know the writers or editors
  • comment often under the same name
  • write response posts on your blog
  • if you like the site, help drive traffic there
• Asking for the job
  • no harm asking about openings
  • always write at least three sample posts that they could run that day
  • make sure your e-mail is colon-rupturing in its awesomeness
  • get across your enthusiasm for the blog
  • talk about how it has evolved
  • say why they need you
  • what is the blog missing?

You can see these and more in his slides here.

Break!

At this point, we broke for lunch. Jim and I didn’t go back for the late afternoon sessions. I was nursing a migraine and football would be on soon. (Hey, I’m a ‘Bama fan first and WP geek second! )

I went back Sunday for a couple of the sessions: Brett Bumeter’s “Windows Live Writer — Blogging with any Blogging Software Has Never Been Easier” and Mitch Canter’s “Making WordPress Dance.”

Brett’s presentation covered the Windows Live Writer application. It’s not really my cuppa, but would be a great interface for anyone intimidated by the web UI for most popular blogging software/services.

Mitch’s presentation covered several topics I had previously researched and I was impressed with the amount of helpful information he covered. He also had a great list of plugins that he recommended. I would like to see more of him next year, if he attends. You can find his slides here.

The Media

From watching the WordCamp Bham twitters, I can see that a photo pool is available on Flickr, as well as a handful of the presentation slides gathered on SlideShare. I also see that WordCamp Birmingham also made the local news. You deserve it guys, great work!

Good stuff. Can’t wait until next year.

(Updated to include slides links, thanks Don @ authorize.net!)

Fried pickle foolery

As a reward for helping him with his blog upgrade (read: snafu) last week, Jim took me out Saturday to my favorite restaurant, Cajun Steamer. I am absolutely enamored with their red beans and rice and my new favorite deep fried delicacy: fried pickles. I’ve tried those at several other places and IMO, nobody beats “the Steamer.” A close second would be the fried pickle spears at Porky’s Pride in Fultondale. (they have GREAT bbq!)

So yeah, I’m a fried pickle eating fool … maybe one of these days I’ll buy a deep fryer and start making my own. (I like ‘em spicy!)

Our internet has been doing going up and down for the last week or so, plus there’s been a lot of static on the line when we used the phone. This weekend we bought a new router (found that the old one was fine), several replacement splitters and panels for the phone connection in the living room (those were probably fine as well), replaced the phone line (well, that was probably needed), and finally found that when we unplugged the kitchen phone the static stopped and the internet connection seemed to stabilize.

Weird.

So with the internet connection back to somewhat normal, Jim was a happy camper and spent most of yesterday playing Conan. Me, I had a persistent headache — complete with nausea and dizziness, so I did a little cleaning, but spent most of the day lying in bed. Luckily, I don’t get these often. My migraine pain meds did little for the headache and because I was so nauseous, I didn’t eat (which usually just makes the headache worse). Ugh.

I seriously wouldn’t wish this upon anyone … except maybe the idiot neighbor who decided to let his dog yip for 6 freakin’ hours straight!

I don’t think I went to sleep until after 2 am this morning. Unfortunately the only things on tv at that hour are infomercials for anything from Proactiv acne cream to ‘magical’ body slimmers to Girls Gone Wild. Ugh. Lucky for me, Jim had just picked up a copy of last season’s The Closer dvd set, so I watched that instead.

So today I’m making a point to stay hopped up on caffeine just so I can stay awake. ;P

As much as I love working for UAB…

… I hate hate HATE their insurance! :evil:

In all fairness, they have been pretty easy to deal with except when it comes to getting my Axert refills. Honestly, I’m having to jump through hoops just to get what my doctor has prescribed for me!

In this regard alone, they are WORSE than Blue Cross!

Kickin’ weekend

Had a full weekend. Jessie’s karate school had a “Kick-a-thon” benefit for St. Jude’s early Saturday. She did pretty well for her first time. She made 300 kicks, but then had to drop out because she had gotten overheated and was about to be sick. (that room was SO HOT!) It’s a wonder nobody passed out. The winner was a little girl about Jessie’s age who had been taking karate since she could walk; she won with 3400 kicks.

That’s impressive, I don’t care who you are!

Afterwards, there was a potluck breakfast. We had a good time hanging out with the senseis and other parents. We left directly from there to head to Montgomery to see Jim’s mom and his brother’s family. The ride down was a bit of a pain — the out-of-town traffic was IMMENSE! Seriously, I haven’t seen traffic like that since Jim and I were stuck in the Hurricane Ivan evacuation.

Otherwise the ride down was nice. Jessie and I pointed out the state tags on cars that we passed and giggled at funny exit signs. There was one exit sign that was particularly funny (and not very work friendly, LOL!) … if Jim’s snapshot came out, I’ll share on here.

We went out to lunch at a nice Chinese place once we were down there and stopped by a farmer’s market on the way back. I LOVE going to places like that. Just smelling all the fresh fruit and veggies brings back memories. I told Jim’s mother, “This smells like home.” Or rather, it reminds me of Corner (the way it was when I was little).

Once we were back at the house, Jim’s mom showed me several art projects that she’s been working on. We sat and caught each other up on work and general family gossip. Jim helped my sister-in-law put together a plasma tv mount in the guest room. All in all, it was a very good time. We left early that evening because some pretty heavy storms were coming through that area. I had a horrible headache Saturday night because of it, and woke up with another yesterday.

I hated having to leave so soon, but we’ll be back down there in a couple of weeks. Jessie is staying down there this week and next week — though her mother is none too happy about it. She showed her ass a bit Saturday, especially when it came time for us to leave to head to Montgomery. She wouldn’t speak to any of us, and said not a word to Jessie. :roll:

One of these days, that woman is going to realize that the world does not revolve around HER.

So today it’s back to work. I’m waiting to call my insurance company to chew them out for delaying my migraine medicine’s refill AGAIN. They do this about every 6 months or so, and I’m getting pretty sick of it. They will be lucky if I don’t just reach through the phone and choke them! ??:

An update on things…

We are doing well. Saw the doctor and it appears that my aches and pains are not permanent. I’ve been feeling a lot better over the past couple of days, and Jessie’s bump on the head has all but disappeared.

My car is still incapacitated. Still sitting in my driveway. Still won’t lock properly. *sigh* Been dealing with several snags with the car insurance and rental companies, but things are finally starting to roll along.

Getting hit just before a holiday weekend sucks ass, don’tchaknow….

Should have a rental by tomorrow a.m. and hopefully someone will ride out to inspect the damages over the next couple of days. According to one of the adjusters, they’ve determined that it’s their liability and will be paying 100% on everything — which I knew all along, but they still have to be thorough and check out every little thing before starting the whole “we’ll pay for everything” process. (understandable, but aggravating … but what can ya do?)

I think I’ve replayed that accident at least a hundred times over and over in my mind. I know without a doubt that there was absolutely nothing in my control in this whole situation, but I can’t help obsessing over it. Luckily, we were in a large enough vehicle that we escaped with minimal shock and no permanent bodily harm.

That said, I can’t help thinking what would have happened if we were in Jim’s car … I seriously doubt his little Tiburon would’ve put up as much of a fight …

I know, I know … don’t dwell on it. (but that’s what I do!) This whole ordeal has been a real big PITA and a migraine-giver, but I can’t complain too much can I?

Funny thing: while sitting at the doctor’s office, received a call from the insurance company. It wasn’t a “good call” and shot my blood pressure up so high that they held me over and insisted on taking it again an hour later to ensure that it was just stress and not a real emergency. The fact that high blood pressure runs on my mother’s side of the family works against me there, and my doc “just wanted to be sure” that it hadn’t recently developed into a “real” problem considering I was sitting there already nursing a headache.

Yeah, better safe than sorry … and should’ve left the cell in the car. :lol:

I’m slowly catching up on emails and other business. I’ll most likely be back at work tomorrow. A big ‘Thanks!!’ goes out to everyone who’s called, emailed, etc. We appreciate your concern and support.

Next Page »