Aw, man! Dang me! My resolution here on my computer has completely revolted! Well, ok, it’s not actually the resolution - I know that, but, the resolution was the straw that broke the camel’s back!

Let’s back up a bit, shall we? Ok, when I turn on my monitor, there is a slight discoloration in one of the corners. It’s really a whitening, if you will. As I’ve been through this not too long ago with a TV, I knew the end was near for my precious, dear monitor…

So back to today, I’m working on some design elements that are baffling me on two of my sites, Lisa Marie Mary and Hippie Spelunker - H2. I get in touch with the designer to see if he can help me out, because, I am completely lost. He runs a really cool blog called One Man’s Blog. So he and I are going back and forth trying to see what the other is seeing. And I decide to change my resolution, just to get a different viewpoint, and possibly see it how he sees it.

And then….KABLAMMO!

My monitor now looks like my sons’ monitor, that I had to look at for seven months.

OH NOOOO! Just now, just this minute, I realized that the problem is not my monitor. Oh crap! See, when I was using the boys’ computer, I was using my own monitor, and that goofy thing happened on my own monitor, when using their computer!

The goofy thing is that it almost feels like you are looking at a strobe light. Headache inducing? Why, yes, how did you guess?

Crap - all this time (this past hour since it happened) I’m thinking, ‘Oh no, I’ll have to get a new monitor. But that is not so bad, since I knew it was coming anyways and it’s not so bad, since I’ve been wanting a flat screen, anyways.’

But now - having realized that when my sons’ computer did this, it was actually the computer and not the monitor - well, hell’s bells! I might as well go back to bed.

At the same time this is happening, my brand new ThinkPad is not cooperating.

I think I quit.

The in-laws came over yesterday for none other than a fish fry! The food was absolutely delicious, but, there was so much of it! And most of it greasy! I got so incredibly full, that I was hurting long into the night and morning!

We had fried catfish, homemade hush puppies (YUMMM!), potato salad, macaroni, and gosh knows what else! All I know is there was a lot of food to pick from, and it is so hard when there are so many dishes, because, of course, you want to try them all! I’m telling you, eat some good Southern cookin’ too often, and you will not be fitting into any bustiers!

Here is a picture of one of our desserts - a chocolate merengue pie made by Aunt Lisa. (No, not me Aunt Lisa, the other Aunt Lisa. Heehee) Pretty, isn’t it? She wants me to help her do a portfolio of all of the wonderful, yummy things she makes. That should be fun!

Well, we had a fun afternoon, but, boy was it painful! We enjoyed just hanging around and talking with the family, though. And then later on in the evening, it was just a cousin left with her hubby and one of her sons, and we had a fire outside and all sat out there talking and laughing and cutting up. I learned some interesting new phrases that cracked me up! (That, no, I shall not repeat here on the blog!) LOL!

This is just getting more exciting by the minute. See, the big thing that so many of us were looking forward to at PostieCon was the unveiling of the great big, new, awesome software that would revolutionize the consumer-generated advertising arena!

PayPerPost recently announced it’s ‘umbrella’ company, Izea. Izea is the parent company of all the companies that are a part of PayPerPost. So PayPerPost is remaining as it is, but, this is just an umbrella to catch all the companies in. You can click on that link and see all the companies under the new umbrella.

And the big new thing that Ted Murphy has been telling us about and pumping us up about for months is a super secret software system (say that five times fast) that will make things easier on all of us - advertisers, bloggers, and PayPerPost.

When I heard, about a month ago, that it was based on a social network, I got butterflies in my stomach! Social networks I can totally do! I love everything to do with social networking!

And just now, just this minute - I learned the name for the super secret software system! It’s called Social Spark! And there is an incredibly hot blogger, with a very sweet ass, who has the ROYAL SCOOP ON SOCIAL SPARK! Read it and get excited with me!

And go Digg her post, too! You can do that right here: Colleen’s Social Spark Scoop

See, here’s the chat:

.mcrmeebo { display: block; background:url(”http://widget.meebo.com/r.gif”) no-repeat top right; } .mcrmeebo:hover { background:url(”http://widget.meebo.com/ro.gif”) no-repeat top right; }

Isn’t that cool? I just realized that I could embed it here!

I wonder what happens to it later, when the chat is over. Or if they delete the room, what this post will look like!

Hmm..

Oh yeah, and you need to go DIGG the live feed - hurry, go now!
It’s right here: PostieCon live video/audio feed!

Oh my gosh! Now I’m even more connected to the goings on in Las Vegas! This is so super cool!

PayPerPost is streaming PostieCon live on the internet, and at the same time, they have opened up a chat room to further involve those of us at home! I even got to ask a question to one of the presenters - while she was talking! That was just cool!

So we did have one window open for the chat, and another for the live feed, and we were having to switch back and forth. Then this awesome blogger dude, Andy Beard - mashed them together on his site for us! This is so cool!

I’ve got Twitter open, watching for messages, and I’ve got Skype going with my rockin’ friend, Loretta, and I’m in the chat room/live video feed room - and I just popped over here to blog! This is so much fun! Technology rocks!

My cell phone is next to me and keeps ringing for the kids and annoying me - interrupting my techno-heaven. It is the one gadget I’m not interested in right now! Ha!

My sweet, silly children. Two of them asked me that, on separate occasions! They are completely aghast that I would let my friends run off to Las Vegas without me! I wish I could’ve gone! We just couldn’t afford it.

Next year, baby, next year! And I might get to meet up with them in New Jersey in May. *fingers crossed bigtime*

But in the meantime, those of us left at home are having a blast keeping up with everything that is going on in Vegas via Twitter, Utterz, Flickr, and, of course, on people’s blogs. It has been so cool to be completely interacting with them while they are out there. We’ve even helped them hook up with each other, at some points! Ha!

Here are some of my crazy friends the first day out there:

Aren’t they silly? That’s why I love them! And because they are an incredibly supportive group of people! They are all from different states - isn’t that a trip? I just got to thinking how cool that is, that we are all so ‘close’ - and most of us live in different states!

I’ll be dreaming of Postiecon next year, yes ma’m!

The boys came home from school today and within minutes, were fighting. What were they fighting about? They were fighting over who was going to get to practice their instrument in their bedroom.

One plays the trumpet and one plays the trombone, and they are working on completely different songs. They do not play together. So practicing together would definitely not work.

So there they both were - in the bedroom - one setting up, one already playing. Both being completely stubborn and refusing to even consider any other room to practice in.

I went in there and sweetly and kindly directed Patrick to another room. (And if you believe that, I don’t know what to say! Ha!) I told him that it would be easier for him to move and forced him into my room, exasperatedly closing my door - to which Shawn slams his door.

Fine.

They’re both in a room, door shut - practicing separately.

The lovely part is - they have Monday off, so this is a three day weekend I have to look forward to, with these boys who argue about every single thing they possibly can!

I don’t remember the school board running this ‘Veteran’s Day off’ thing by me! Hrmph!

Well, heck - that was always the rule when I was in school! Right! This is a crazy story, ya’ll:

And I understand that the student was actually trying to challenge the school on their rules. And I could see the ‘all black’ rule if that was related to gang activity. But - no political t-shirts in school? What the hell are we teaching these kids? So this is what their government class sounds like:

“Ok, kids, today we’re going to talk about the presidential elections, but, first let’s shut the door. The first rule about government class is that you don’t talk about government class.”

Haha!

And it is funny, because, it reminds me of a day I ‘challenged’ the dress code when I was in high school. I had these shorts, that were almost a skirt (very blousy/billowy - I don’t know what you call that) and they were really long, practically to my knees. And I had always worn them to school. And no one had ever said a thing to me about them. And then one day, some staff member decided that they didn’t like them and sent me to the office. Ugh.

And as my parents both worked, and I didn’t have a car, I was sent to walk home and change. Which I did. Heehee. I changed into my favorite miniskirt - which was way shorter than those darn ’shorts’!! And to make it even sweeter - I put on my roller skates and my walkman and roller skated back to school! Ha! I remember what …oh damn. I usually always remember what song was playing on my walkman. Now that I want to tell you what it was, it leaked out my ear and won’t come back! Doesn’t that figure?

I’ll come back and tell you when my brain stops teasing me like this. (I knew the song as I started this post…nuts, I tell you, just nuts.)

Let me tell you, though, I spent the rest of that school day in SMUG heaven!!

It will be interesting to see what comes of this young man’s case.

Ever since having a German next door neighbor last year, I have been so intrigued by Germany. I never really knew that much about it until I met Sonja, and she made it sound like such an interesting place. And the food she would bake for us - yummm! Every few days Sonja would knock on the door with some new taste treat that she had baked up and made sure to make plenty for us! She would often make German bread, because, she complained that our American bread was just too thin and light. Her bread was so delicious!

Being friends with her made me feel as though I was ‘experiencing’ some of Germany, but it would be really cool to actually go there and experience it! And from what I am finding online, the hotels in Germany look really neat. I mean, some of them sort of look like what you would find here, but, a lot of them just have really neat and different architecture than what I see here in Alabama.

I think one of the most exciting things for me to see would be the castles! The castles in Germany are called ‘burgs’ and they are all unique and different. That is so cool that they are not all your typical castle. I love that they vary so much in architecture and design. The Wartburg Castle is one of the oldest in Germany. It was built 938 years ago! That would be so amazing and would render me completely speechless. I get spellbound here in the States with 100 year old houses and such. I can’t even imagine being in a building that old!

I would definitely want to see The Berlin Wall. Going to Germany and not seeing it would be like going to Paris and not seeing The Mona Lisa. So I would definitely want to find about hotels in Berlin.

I would also look into hotels in Munich, so that I could see some of those old churches there. The on that is the oldest parish church in Munich has a very ornate interior and you can walk to the top of it, I’m assuming in a tower - and have a wonderful view of the city. But the one that I would love to see is this one:
It is the Heilig Geist, and I can’t find a whole lot of information on it online, but, the picture alone is haunting me. I’m going to have to keep looking and see what I can find out about it.

I just saw the cutest - and coolest - things for nursing moms and their babies and I just have to share it with you. Someone on one of my yahoo groups was talking about it.

They are nursing bonnets and they are called MoBoleez. They are cute, soft little hats with great big rims for the nursing babies to wear. They give mom a little bit of discretion and they shield the light from the baby’s face.

I would have loved one of these back in the day! I had so much trouble keeping the blanket up over my shoulder! If I moved too much, I made the blanket fall flat against my baby’s face. Or if I wanted to check on my baby, or coo at my baby, it was difficult to pull the blanket back discreetly and then get it back in place comfortably for both me and baby.

I know that a lot of people are in an uproar about public nursing. And I am totally on the side of the fence of the nursers - let them nurse where they want! For me, though, I preferred to be covered up for my own sensitivity. I did not hesitate to nurse anywhere, though.

So for a mom like me, these bonnets would have been perfect! I think they are a great idea!

And just look at the pics on the site - the babies look so darn cute under those big things!! I am really baby crazy right now, you’ll have to just excuse me. Must be something in the water!

I’ve got half a mind to hike up to our little hospital and beg them to let me rock some babes!!