FeeFiFoto Blog

It's Bastille Day, And You Know What That Means: Time To Update The About Page

Image here.

In case you're confused, there's really no connection between Bastille Day and updating my About page. I'm just messin' witcha.

I have, however, updated my About page, and here are some highlights:

I'm a recovering attorney with two kids, two dogs, a gift site called FeeFiFoto (duh), and very little free time on my hands.

1. I'm really good at parallel parking.  Someone gave me a lesson when I got my first car and I've never forgotten how.  I could park a school bus if I had to.  As long as the bus had an automatic transmission.
2. I did fail parallel parking on the driver's test, however.  Both times.  But I can do it now, I swear.  I even give lessons.
3. I do know how to drive a standard transmission, just not one on a bus.
4. Do they even make school buses with standard transmissions any more?  It's been a very long time since I've ridden a school bus.  Since I get motion sickness even at the mention of a bus, I don't think I'm going to be finding out about the transmissions on school buses any time soon.
5. Something something spoons...
6. ...
7. Something something blah blah weather...
8. I can complete the New York Times crossword puzzle, in ink, any day of the week.
9. I'm a Beatlemaniac.
10. I'm a serious chocoholic.  Ask about the chocolate stories sometime.
11. Blabber about hobbies...
12. ...
13. I've never smoked a cigarette or taken drugs.  If you need someone who can honestly say that to your kids, call me.
14. I'm  definitely a Disney and not a Warner Brothers.
15. Boring information about my family...
16. I hated practicing law.  I spent most of my tenure slinking around the office clinging to a wall,  wearing beige to fade into the paint, staring at my feet in the hope of never making eye contact with anyone, especially my manic-depressive bipolar secretary, who might yell at me or demand I practice law, for which I clearly was not qualified.
17. I have math phobia, although unleash me in a roomful of typos and grammatical errors and I'm happy as a hog in a mud puddle.  I might even correct the typos in your comments if you're really nice.  I can't wait until my kids are old enough to handle the family's finances.
18. Exercise?  Excuse me while I hide...
19. What my dog ate...
20. Will somebody please clean up this mess?!...
21. I have beautiful blue eyes that turn greenish when I wear green, purplish when I wear purple, and turquoiseish when I wear turquoise.
22. Sports...
23. I've  been within spitting distance of the following celebrities; although I'm too polite to have spit at any of them there are some at whom I might have liked to spit:  Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Eva Gabor*, Larry Hagman, Prince Philip, Shirley Jones*, Nelson Mandela, Neil Diamond, Oprah Winfrey, Joe Namath, Hugh Grant, Teri Garr, Joan Rivers, Lou Brock, August Busch II*, Itzhak Perlman*  (key: "*" indicates handshake or conversation).
24. More junk about my family...
25. I can see Russia from my house.

Why are you still here? Get out of here and go update your own About page. Scoot!

Don't Know What I've Done To Deserve This

I've been highlighted by FishHawk.  Must be  slow news day ;).  Seriously, thanks FH.

Oh, and by the way -- as long as I'm here, Happy 3d Birthday Miss Puppy.  We're glad you're part of our family.

I'm A Twitter Quitter

It didn't take long.  One of my goals for 2009 was to learn to use Twitter to promote FeeFiFoto.  I joined in January, and unjoined today.  What went wrong?  I "followed" lots of people, but I could never quite figure out exactly what I was following, or why I should care.  I kept coming into conversations already in progress, and it made me feel the way I used to feel when I picked up my grandparents' party line in the middle of someone else's conversation.

For the moment I've returned to the basics to promote my blog and my site: finding and commenting on well written and insightful blogs.  To date, I have 163 subscriptions in my reader.

Entrecard, stop snickering.  You might be next.

PS: can anyone tell me why Spellcheck didn't flag the error when I typed "subsxriptions"?

Who's In Your Reader? Tell Me What To Read

Image: TV Acres

I have to confess: I've been abusing Entrecard.  I signed up a year ago, early enough that my ID number is in the low 6000's.  Entrecard seemed to be an excellent tool for developing readership and finding hidden jewels among the mountains of fool's gold clamoring for my attention in BlogWorld.  I liked Entrecard; still do.  I dropped and dropped and dropped; it was one of the few situations when dropping something was actually a good thing.  I left comments and discovered blogs that give me immense enjoyment, like I Do Things and The Junk Drawer.

But I strayed.  Oh Lordy, how I strayed.

Vacation?

For the next week and a half or so, I'm going to be on a trip with Robespierre and my nephew, Sweet Talker.  I won't be posting regularly, if at all, for some or all of the following reasons:

1. We'll be on a train much of the time, without reliable access to wireless internet.
2. My laptop will be in for repairs.
3. The dog ate my homework.

To make up for my absence, I've scheduled some older posts (from the days when I had no readers to speak of) to rerun.  Enjoy, comment, discuss amongst yourselves, and I'll see you soon.

Cupcake, Anyone? My Daughter's New Blog Design

Cleopatra-Queen-Of-The-Nile has just celebrated her one year mark as a blogger.  When she first started blogging I expected her to lose interest in no more than a month, but I shouldn't be surprised that she's kept it up for a year since she loves to write and she's darn good at it.  In addition to learning the ins and outs of blogging she's built her own fan base, with regular visitors and commenters.

Her blog's original name was The Big Hannah Montana Fan, which I thought might be pretty limiting, but I figured she'd lose interest in blogging before losing interest in Hannah Montana so no harm would be done.  A few months ago, still posting reliably every two or three days, she asked if she could hire Ana, from Chica and Pumuckl, to design her a new look.  The price was right, the time was ripe, so she got in touch with Ana and they got to work.

Where Have All My Readers Gone?

Yesterday I was up to 51.  Today I'm at 19.  And now, this evening, I'm back to 51.

Whoops -- 19 again.  Wish I were 19 again.

No I don't.  I just wish I looked 19 again.  Yeah, that's it.  Without the bad perm.

I think my blog might be possessed by the devil.

Blogging Philosophy And Goals

Congratulations to Cromley on his three year blogging anniversary.  In his celebratory piece he harks back to his first post, where he set out some goals for blogging:

"1. Entries will be interesting to at least one person other than my self.
2. If they are not interesting to anyone besides myself, they will simply be bizarre enough to elicit a rounding chorus of “WTF?”
3. This is not a journal or diary of my private thoughts. If I wouldn't converse about the topic with actual people, it doesn't belong here.
4. Everything will be true and accurate (That one might be a tad ridiculous)."

I expected at least a giggle from the preposterous ambitions of a first time blogger (I wanna make a million dollars... convert the entire Western hemisphere to my religion... lose weight...) but instead I nodded in agreement so vigorously that my glasses fell off and I had to wrest them away from the dog.

Still Trying To Conquer The Drop Down Menus

First they worked, then they didn't work, then they REALLY didn't work.  At the moment they're useful only as paperweights, which makes them completely pointless as my blog is paperless; I'm keeping them around only to preserve the links in case I ever figure out how to get them working again.  I really like the Flooble menus like the one I put on Cleo's blog because they can be color coordinated, but those won't work here either.

Suggestions, anyone?

Housekeeping: I'd Rather Do It Here Than In My Actual House

First, I'm suffering from a cold that makes my head feel like it's filled with cement, so if I begin to appear incoherent please bring me some frozen pasta and glue 51 cent stamps to my wrists until October gleegle frhisogrn... umm, wait -- was that incoherent?  Sorry.

Second, thanks to everyone who sent best wishes to my dad: Daisy, Nessa, Fisher, Jack, Lynn, Lydia, Carol, Mom, Alice Audrey, Jamie and Ruthie.  We got better news than we had hoped for.  As you may know, after bypass surgery the new and remaining arteries develop additional small channels that help supplement established blood flow.  One of these small tributaries has closed up but there's no need for repair; the Man From D.A.D. went home at the end of the day and enjoyed all of Sweet Talker's weekend Bar Mitzvah festivities.

Creating A Memento Of A Family Vacation: Personalized Photo Book

Remember our trip to London?
Kids!  What Are You Gonna Do?
Now Accepting Applications For The Position Of Grandchild
Teachable Moment
Her Dead Father
Jet Lag + Muscle Relaxers = ZZZZZ

Cleo and I made up a photo album of our trip.

Now.  Here comes what some might regard as shameless flogging of our photo gift site, FeeFiFoto.  If you're not interested in a bit of flogging salesmanship, then feel free to move along, but do come back and visit us tomorrow.

We made a real, hard bound book commemorating our trip, containing 100 pages and somewhere between 100 and infinity photographs of Cleo, me, Schpilkes, The Man From D.A.D., various famous London locations, antiquities, food, the occasional celebrity, and a Rolls Royce, but mostly Cleo.

Adsense Doesn't Make Sense To Me

Step One

• I want to make money from my blog.  Everyone else does; I want to too.
• I sign up for Google Adsense and create a nice looking, not too intrusive tower ad, color coordinated to my blog.
• I post my ad and wait for the money to accumulate.
• One hour later I check my tower and see that it's running an ad for one of my competitors, a company that makes photo personalized travel mugs similar to the ones we offer on FeeFiFoto.
• I sigh in disappointment and cancel the ad.

Step Two

• I investigate my options for filtering out competitors from Adsense.
• I repost my ad.

Step Three

• I remind myself that reading the instructions at some point is always useful.

Hey, I Got An Award!

Nessa gave me an award for sparking creativity!  Here it is, suitable for framing and hanging on the wall my blog:

Isn't it pretty?  The background looks all festive and bubbly, I love the typeface, plus I'm so glad I got the Creativity part instead of the Controversy part, because I don't want to be controversial.  No, no -- I want everyone to love me.

Thanks Nessa!  You're a gem.

Increasing Technorati Linkage

Links, links, links

I don't usually do this sort of thing, but Shinade is one of my faithful commenters, and I could use the linkage.  So here goes:

View blog reactions

Does Anyone want to increase their number of backlinks on Technorati? If so, then join the movement on MoneyBush™ and watch your blog grow with us.

Here are the Rules:

1. Copy the official list below into a blog post of yours.
2. Add your link to the bottom of the list.
3. Comment HERE so that we can update the list with your link.
4. Watch the backlinks to your blog increase dramatically via Technorati.
5. The sooner you join, the more backlinks you will recieve.

Just Plain Silliness

Overpunctuating

I received this note from the guardian angel who supplies all my graphics:

"Hey!

I removed the exclamation points from the Fame Contest Winner! Because I remember you saying that you didn't want all those exclamation points! So! I removed them!

Anyway... It's attached... As a throw... Cute baby...

I must start using ellipsis points from now on ...

        Cindy"

I'm Verklempt

Love letter from my daughter

This is what I found in Cleo's locker Tuesday night during the school Open House:

"Dear Mom,

    I don't know about you, but so far I like third grade.  A lot.  Everything is great.  Don't you think?  I am very excited to learn new things.  The only sad part is, I miss my teachers from 2nd grade.  Am I going to let a bump in the road get me down?  No.  Why? Because we are already learning and having fun.  I have a feeling an awesome year is coming.  Can't you feel it?

                Your best and only daughter ever,

                Cleo."

Where did this kid come from?

Visit Cleopatra-Queen-Of-The-Nile at her blog, The Big Hannah Montana Fan.

I'm Going To Have To Add On A Trophy Room

Maxwell The Tattooed Boy just gave me a Kick-Ass Blogger Award.  Thanks Max.  I'm flattered.  I have you in my Reader too.

I have to run carpool, but before I go I'd like to pass this award on to Freaky Frugalite.  Enjoy!

Yeah, So I Talk A Lot. So What?

Created by OnePlusYou

I found this test at Freaky Frugalite; she's way verboser than me.  I don't mind having blog posts that are 132% longer than average.  I interpret that as an indication of my superior intelligence.

Either that or my inferior editing skill, but we won't talk about that.

At least it's better than that stupid blog readability quiz.  My blog always comes up at Junior High level:

Meanwhile, Cleo's (Hannah Fanna's) blog always comes up at Genius level:

 

And she's all: "Nyah nyah nyah nyah NYAH nyah!"  And I'm all: "Hey, I have a law degree," and she's all: "I'm smarter than yooo-ooo" and I'm all: "Shut up or you're grounded!"

Trying Something New -- What Do You Think?

Here's a list of all my commentators for the month of August. Thanks to all of you for keeping me company.

a-bit-of-this-and-that
awhitecat
absolutelymoms
aliceaudrey
bestofstupid
bighannahmontanafan
bizphere.com
Rita's Digest
bonoriau
cafeendofuniverse
chatbugkaren
communicationexchange
crazyadventuresinparenting
daisythecurlycat
debateurdebates
dirtylaundrydiva
elle3belle
esperanto.memlink.ca
familycorner
57designstudio
fightingwithwriting
georgiafarmwoman
gnomespeak
hotchildinthesuburbs
idothings
itisnaptime
izzymom
itsmyimagination
jackbenimble
karensopinion
karensroad
laarnaay
leslieinvancan
marmaladeskies
meganlovesdance
momgrind
morgenfiles
myashleyleigh
mysoulfulthoughts
mythoughtsideasandramblings
pentimento
naturalhawg
neuroticbynature
newyorktraveler
nomadbackpackers
omalyn
pamibe
powellriverbooks
rileytiki
rnning2wn2
ruggratsx2
saralifeinwords
scrappyd
sharonahart
skincaretreatmenttips
snapcatch
speedcathollydale
starryskye
travellingspouse
vividlamp
WhatsAllThisThen
windersnest
womanist-musings
zipntizzy

I Won An Award From Two Cat Friends And One Cupcake

Anyone who checks in here regularly knows that we are a dog family, but lately I've been gaining a new appreciation for cats.  I just received an award from Chica and Pumuckl, two golden cats from Egypt who just moved to Germany.  Look at them -- how could you not want to snuzzle kitties that cuddle each other in a heart shape?

Chica and Pumuckl have honored me with the BFF Gold Card:

And, as if the Gold Card weren't enough, Hannah Fanna has honored me with this:

Now, according to the rules, I should reaward these awards to a bunch more bloggers.  Wish I could decide, but I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.  Besides, I just drove two hours north yesterday, and a corresponding two hours south today, so if I don't get off the computer soon my typing will fewjs  ves8f-2 T&^OPDR E56t8iRC{O EW^Yy8o;y89p)xc

Oops.  Too late.

Seriously -- thanks to the cool Egyptian German kitties, and thanks to Cleopatra for these special honors.