3 posts to go....

....after this one that is...until the end of NaBloPoMo. I think I'm going to make it!

I haven't got much to report today, I had a big fight with Wordpress with whom I am trying to start a relationship. It was so good in the beginning, I was full of hope that things would work out between us. Sadly, today our future does not look bright. Wordpress was full of potential but he's (it is male I'm sure of it) a bit too high maintenance for someone of my limited web design and HTML skills (not to mention patience). Why can't they make changing things on it as easy as it is on the Wordpress.com blogs? I didn't think I was asking too much, my needs are simple, but it seems it is not to be. So I think it's over. I'm trying not to be bitter.

Not much else happening, tomorrow is busy, the girls are in the local Christmas pageant with their school and my in-laws are arriving for a short visit. It will be a busy day. I'd better post early, I'd hate to miss one at this late stage.

Frustration (Alert! Boring geek post)

You know what makes me crazy? Well I'm going to tell you......computers, software, the internet, blog providers, hosting, domain names, ISPs, IIS's, PHPs and HTML.

I'm not finished....Wordpress, Blogger (sorry Blogger), Typepad, Godaddy, Squarespace and Netregistry....ah to hell with it, I'm still not finished but I can't go on because if I do I might have to smash my fist right into this computer and that would end my blogging/website building efforts. Which may be a good thing, but I'm not ready to quit just yet.

I honestly don't think my needs are outrageous. All I want is a blog provider that will allow me to host one more than one blog (well done all of you), have extra pages (thanks for nothing Blogger - hello Typepad and Wordpress), allow javascript and html stuff like sign up boxes in the sidebar (goodbye Wordpress) allow easy importation of Bridget's Flame (Typepad, you've disappointed me) and allow me to keep the blogs separate and authored under different names (get stuffed the lot of you!!!!). Not ONE of them has all of those things.

So I turn to Squarespace, they provide everything except the multiple blogs....I can live with that....it will cost a bit more, but not much.....then they change their editing to the MOST clumsy, hard to operate system I have EVER come across. Every little changes takes ages while pages load in a clunky and uncoordinated fashion. Goodbye Squarespace. Netregistry? Forget it. Not worth a mention except to say how crap they are.

Godaddy, be my knight in shining armour. I own the domain names, I can get some free basic hosting but they have very affordable hosting packages with extras so I'm prepared to pay.....and they have access to the same Wordpress blogging software and I can download it for free. By doing it this way I can have the javascript and HTML stuff I want. Huzzah!!! All my prayers are answered. Except no matter what I do I get a message telling me that my various hosting plans (I tried the free and the paid) are not compatible to downloading Wordpress.

To say I am frustrated is an understatement. I just didn't think the great big swearword I'm using is suitable for a blog title.

Is it really too much to ask to have all my blogs (Bridget's Flame and the business blog/website) in the same place, doing what I want them to do in a reasonably priced (better still FREE) fashion and providing all the appropriate tools for blogging?

Apparently it is.

Sure if I had an enormous website budget I could just pay someone to sort it all and tell me when they're finished. But I don't have that enormous website budget so it's down to me. Plus I am stubbornly independent and want to do it myself.

I have spent days....DAYS I tell you, on this stuff. It's not a lot of fun, and at the end of them I feel a lot like this cow....

But I have learned a LOT of stuff and can have a fairly competent conversation with tech support when I have to, not that it ever really solves anything. Sigh.

Ok, off I go, into the abyss once more.....wish me luck.

Just bits and pieces

Quiet day today, just messing around on the computer (I hesitate to mention the 'w' word, but there you have initial). It's warm and sunny and I can feel hay fever coming on. There are a family of Magpies in the tree outside my office window and the babies (not tiny babies, big babies) are still being fed by their mother and she is run off her feet (or flown off her wings) going backwards and forwards with food for them. They've no sooner guzzled it down their throats then they're calling for more. It's a noisy call too. Bet she can't wait until that lot leave home.

Today I also tried using blogger in draft. In 'normal' blogger I am always having to tweak the HTML version to get my posts to look the way I want them to, I had high hopes for BID however it's just as irritating as the original one, more so in some respects, so I've abandoned it.

There is a man erecting a 'For Sale' sign in front of our neighbour's house. I hope it wasn't something I said. Ha, not really, we knew they were selling, they both work in town and apparently they aren't enjoying the commute - that's what they're telling us anyway.

Also today is the day to.....

Support the global call to action and make poverty history. Find an event near you...look here or here. Some events were yesterday so you're too late for those (in case you hadn't realised).

Our school assembly today was dedicated to 'Stand Up'. There has been some fundraising recently but today in assembly two classes (including Hannah's) presented a short film about people living in poverty and gave some information about the background of 'Stand Up' and talked about how we can help. Some children stood in silence holding candles throughout the assembly. Father John read from the gospels (Jesus washing the feet) and he asked the children what that story meant, of course there was a lot of talk from the young ones about dirty feet, wearing sandals and not showering enough. Some older chidlren were able to articulate the idea of being humble enough to wash another's feet but I think most of the little ones just thought Jesus was helping the disciples with their hygiene - and they were all ok with that. One little girl pointed out that her mummy washes her hair for her.

Hannah had the job of carrying the Gospels today. She was thrilled by this and made me promise to put a photo on the blog. Here she is....(she's the short one).

On my desk

I have a confession - two in fact. First, I am a voyeur. Not in a pervy way (well not much) but in a more domestic way. I like seeing the inside of people's houses. Especially work rooms and desks etc. I can't explain it but I don't feel too guilty owning up to it here because anyone reading this is probably a bit of a voyeur too, isn't that why we read blogs ....it's not? Oh....that's just me is it? Well now you know.

The second confession is that I'm quite lazy. If there's an easy way to do something I'll find it and take full advantage. So when I discovered that Kirsty at Kootoyoo had a 'game' called 'On My Desk', where every Wednesday's post is a picture of what is on your desk that day, I was all over it. First I crept around the players blogs in my raincoat peeping at their desks then I realised that I could do it too and it would solve the blogging problem one day a week - there's not usually much to talk about on a Wednesday. I'm sure if I surf the blogosphere long enough I can find a game for every day of the week and you'll never have to listen to me blethering again. Well, sorry to disappoint you (third secret confession, I like the sound of my own voice). So from now on Wednesdays will be 'On My Desk' day and you'll get to see a photo of my coffee cup what I'm working on and perhaps a bit of an explanation.

First a bit about my desk. I love it. It's old and pretty crappy looking. It was once an office desk from some government department before they decided that office desks are better when they're U-shaped lumps of formica surrounded by 'walls'. Remember when people worked in offices at solid wooden desks and everyone could see each other? Anyway, my desk is from those days. It's scratched and ink stained (ink? what's that? it's what we put in pens before gel was invented - tsk) and the drawer handles are ugly and sometimes they get loose and fall off. I'm always planning to sand and varnish it and buy it new handles but I quite like it the way it is really. It has character and it has seen me through many a long and stressful project/essay/assignment and we have bonded through my pain. Those scratches are battle scars. From time to time I look at the smart shiny desks in the office supplies shops that come with matching bookcases and comfy leather chairs but they are so heartless and unfriendly. I'll stick to my solid old friend thank you very much.

So getting to the point (finally), what is on my desk? I've blogged before (with photos) about my office tidying projects, those things are still there, Tara and the piece of Turkish textile. I also permanently have a desk lamp, my laptop, a file stand thing, a photo of the girls, a box of tissues and at the moment I have a very dusty red 1960s Swedish Art Glass vase that I found in a box of 'junk' my mother-in-law gave me to look through (she thought there might be something I'd want).

I'm not usually given to 'ornaments' (dust collectors) and something like this is not usually my taste (too 'retro') but for some reason I like it and in certain lights the colour is amazing, so I'll clean it up and find a spot for it. And of course Swedish Art Glass is very collectable.

There is the ubiquitous coffee mug, I have several lovely ones but today I am using one that cost $1.49 in the supermarket. I bought it for Hannah to take to school on hot Milo days (she breaks them a lot - 5 so far - so I bought a cheap one). It's a hideous colour but it's big and I needed a big cup of coffee this morning (don't ask).

And lastly, what am I working on today? Well it's not on my desk top, but it is on my desktop - the dreaded website. Which will probably explain why I've just spent and hour faffing about with this blog post and taking photos of coffee cups.

Welcome to 'On My Desk Wednesday'.

Poor neglected blog

It's been 8 days! EIGHT! Unbelievable. Why so slack I hear you ask? I don't know I reply.

Well ok, I have been busy with work, developing some business, working on the you-know-what and generally getting back into work mode after several months off. Here's some evidence in case you don't believe me...

Hmmm, not there yet but getting close. In some ways I'm quite proud of the fact that I managed to work this long without procrastinating by blogging instead. But I feel a bit bad that I ignored my blog.

I've also been busy receiving parcels from blog friends...well one parcel from one blog friend, Kathyann at Meg's Mum's Muffins read my homesick post and sent me all this....

So first on the agenda is potato scones this weekend while torturing entertaining the family with the Scottish accordion music. Actually the girls love it, Tom's suffers in silence, he knows the risks involved in marrying a Scottish woman - it's not all bagpipes and haggis. Thanks again Kathyann, oh.. and Aislin and I have reached an 'understanding' over the lavendar bag.

We are also enjoying our abundant crop of tomatoes. We have three varieties and they are all fantastic. We're getting a good dose of Vitamin C and Lycopene just now. There are so many we're going to have to start bottling sauce and making chutney soon. In the meantime lunch today was wholegrain toast with sliced 'just picked' tomato (still warm from the sun) with a sprinkling of Malden. Yum. It really is the simple things isn't it?

Don't mention the war...

....actually by war I mean website - but it's close enough to being a battle ground to merit being called the war. Because I am working on it again. Hey! Regular reader! I just saw you fall off your chair laughing......cut it out. Anyway, previous experience will tell you here, here oh and here that I find working on the website slightly rather totally effing frustrating. So I am not going to write about it.

So this is the official 'don't mention the war'* post.

It is really difficult to think of something else to blog about when I'm in the death throes of web design (HA! 'web design'....my turn to fall off the chair laughing) because it is so all-consuming that I become obsessive, but I'll try.

I can talk about the 'picnic' the girls and I had yesterday. We went to a local park and Hannah 'accidentally' dropped her sandwich on the ground, Aislin ate a quarter of hers and wanted shortbread instead. At one stage we were joined by two other families, they had three little boys each so the girls made friends with them. At one point I saw the crowd of 6 little boys wandering away from the play area to check out some cars. There in the middle of the crowd I spotted Aislin. The shape of things to come I wonder. I took a photo of Hannah on the Flying Fox....

...at least she was on it when I started to take the photo.....so I guess this is actually a photo of Hannah falling off the Flying Fox. Not to worry, nothing broken.

While we were there Hannah kept taking off her shoes and just leaving them lying wherever she kicked them off (much like home). I told her repeatedly to pick them up and leave them by our table. But what do I know. We left the park, went and picked up the mail, stopped at the local shop for milk and it was about then that Hannah announced that she'd left her shoes at the park. I ranted all the way back there and all the way home again and most of the way through dinner......just to be sure.

If you like I could talk again about the heat and also mention the fact that neither of the TWO ancient air conditioners we have are working. No? No, quite right too.

I'll just leave it at that then shall I?

*You probably have to have seen this episode of Fawlty Towers to fully appreciate this blog title.

15 minutes of fame

You'd think, wouldn't you, that my newfound freedom would result in endless blogging about my new life and how exciting it is. Well, it is pretty exciting from an 'I DON"T HAVE TO GO TO WORK ANYMORE!!' perspective, and it is nice to be home and baking bread every day again and getting up an hour and a half later than I previously had to on work days (yes, you did read that correctly, an hour and half, it's worth it for that alone). And I am enjoying the generally more relaxed feeling that we all have now. But isn't it funny how one kind of busy-ness can so quickly be replaced by another kind of busy-ness? First of all there's the business - working on the website - no, don't ask, I'd have to make you bleed. Then there's the general family stuff. Like making a frog costume. Oh yeah, a FROG costume.

Aislin goes to Fairy Ballet and very cute it is too. Except for the 'concert' at the end of every term. Well, that's cute as well but it requires a costume, and this term hers is a frog. The concert is really just a short demonstration of what they've learned during the term, 15 minutes to be exact (come on..they're four years old - their attention span doesn't allow for longer than that). But it means that a costume must be made for a 15 minute demo - which is tomorrow. I am oh-so-happy about that as you can probably imagine.

When they send the notice home, telling us what part our amazingly talented children will be playing, they also take the opportunity to advertise their costume maker who will run us up a fabulous ensemble for our offspring at the special members only price of $50. Now we've already established in previous posts that I can be pretty average in the parenting department so I am sorry, I am not paying $50 for a 15 minute frog costume. So I decided to turn down their generous offer and make it myself. I realise the resulting abomination costume may cause Aislin to be scarred for life and in therapy for years but shit happens.

So today (and I also like to leave everything to the last minute) I will be donning my creative hat and making a kind of vaguely froggy outfit.

I'll post a photo.

Tangled web...site

Remember the 5 minute web design? Well they have it in theory. Sure you can sign up, choose your design then add all your stuff, press 'publish' and you'll have a website. I'm sure it is possible to do that. When I joined up the lady on the phone said 'you can have your website up by this afternoon'. That was last Tuesday. No, it's not up yet........alright??? There is a small problem - it's the 'choose your design' part. I am ready to kill someone. It's hard to choose, they brag about having over 800 templates. Here's a head ups people 800 templates is TOO FREAKING MANY!!!! Honestly I'm going insane with the damn things. Sure I'll admit that I'm not famous for my ability to make a choice over just about anything but geez, the most decisive, emphatic king of all choosers would struggle with this.

It's very hard. Then this morning I thought I had it. I had finally decided on one, 'Venetian' if you're interested. But somehow between the 'which one would you like' and 'yes please I'll have this one' the damn thing disappeared!! So I couldn't have it. I can tell you there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth after that little debacle. So it's back to the drawing board, but seriously, I can hardly bare it. I know I have to just get on with it, and I will. But once I've made that decision I don't want to make any more, they better not ask me how many pages I want or what colour text I'd like or where I want my pictures. They'd just better not.

I've got no hope have I? Crap.

They stole my idea

My 5 minute website idea? Someone has stolen it. Actually after a bit of research I found quite a few people have stolen my idea...not only that, they implemented it within 24 hours of reading about it on my blog!!

I bow to their greater organisational skills.

I suppose there is the remotest chance that they actually had the idea before me? Nah, ...course not....

Smarty pantses.

Wouldn't it be nice if.....

1. Chocolate wasn't fattening
2. Dogs cleaned up their own pooh
3. Children cleaned up their own everything
4. Dinner cooked itself
5. Web design was easy

Anyway, that was just a few thoughts to get me started. All of these thoughts, I should add, came to me in the 10 minutes it took to go to the Post Office and collect the mail today. No, I don't know what's going on in my head either.

It all began because I felt like some chocolate, but Friday night is chocolate night (well one of the chocolate nights) so I thought 'it's the afternoon, I can't have chocolate now too' (who makes these rules?).

Then I saw a nice dog. I'm not allowed to have a dog (Tom said it's him or a dog...I'm still deciding). This one was lovely, so I wistfully watched it for a minute. I thought about why I'm not allowed to have a dog. It's mainly the pooh...on the lawn.

Then we got home and I looked around the house, I have two children at home today, Hannah is sick with a cold. I don't need to explain this one further do I?

Number four should be pretty self-explanatory as well. 'I hate cooking' will help you along a bit.

Web Design. Hmmm. I can't decided whether to actually blog about this because it makes me so damn mad. I might need a large whisky to go with that chocolate (sorry, bad combination). Note to Tom if you're reading this, get back to work and stop fretting about your Jameson. The short version is my web design people did a crap job. I hate my website. I am not paying anyone else to fix it because I already spent too much damn money on the one I have. I am teaching myself Microsoft Front Page and HTML so that I can fix it myself and never again have to rely on another incompetent human being to do this for me (I want to be the only incompetent human being dealing with my website). But it's excrutiatingly slow and I'm easily bored if I don't see results and achieve stuff immediately. I'm childish like that.

So the thought popped into my head 'here's an idea.....make web design EASY!!!!'. And I mean to mere mortals that don't want to study computer science or web design for years. So, one day, I'm going to make a fortune by inventing a way of getting a website up and running easily - in like, 5 minutes. Sorry web designers everywhere if that gets in the way of your dreams of world domination and making billions at the expense of we website dunderheads. Enjoy it while you can, your days are numbered (probably in the millions).