Or, you know it’s been a bad week when I quote Corey Hart to have the strength to go on

I am a complete and utter heel for taking so long to thank everyone who voted for me in the Good Mood Blogger Gig competition. All of the votes and encouragement meant so much to me, and although I didn’t make it into the top 20, I got well over 3ooo votes which is amazing. I meant to tie it into a post about self promotion, but then I got sick and could only think about how much I hated really big umbrellas in crowded places.

So, I was starting to feel better and about to get back on track when my stove and oven broke. A problem, but not insurmountable. I bought a hot plate and made arrangements for a repair.

Then, we discovered when trying to light the water heater pilot that the vent that is supposed to take away all the bad stuff, like carbon monoxide was completely blocked. As in so blocked that the utility company immediately turned off all the gas to the house because it was so unsafe. Our hot water and heat are gas, but luckily it wasn’t too cold and between the microwave, hot plate and electric kettle we were able to get enough water to bathe.

Which is a problem, but not insurmountable, so we called the heating and air conditioning people to come and take a look. The repair guy said he couldn’t do anything without the gas being on, but then he decided to pull the pipe thing away from the chimney and found it completely clogged with dust and rubble and whatnot. He said to call the chimney company.

Which was a problem, but not insurmountable, so my husband called the chimney company and they came right out on Friday night and said the chimney was completely clogged and an interior wall had crumbled completely many years before and to fix this would cost a couple thousand dollars.

This was a problem and felt pretty dang insurmountable.

But we surmounted, oh yes we did and yesterday they came out again and got our chimney nice and clear. The utility company only has emergency crews on the weekend though, so we’re still without hot water and heat, but the end is in sight.

And after a good hot shower, I will be back to my bubbly self, I just know it. In the meantime, I think it would behoove us all to watch this video and remember that Corey Hart believes in you! Don’t give up!

PS This is not obligatory, but I certainly think that some wow, you took care of four kids, a dog and a husband with no gas or working stove for many days is certainly a nice thing to do. I mean, obviously our pioneer ancestors did it and survived, but I am made of softer, 21st century stuff and need coddling.Similar Posts:

• Remember yesterday when I broke out the Corey Hart
• The Paranoid Mom Reviews New Products: Stove Top Quick Cups
• 5 Super Creepy Songs
• Read Twice, Post Once
• My First Life Coaching Session

I am so sorry that this is tardy, we seem to have come down with a fiendish plague at my house. I don’t think it’s swine flu or even regular flu, but it is responsible for copious amounts of snot and phlegm.

But that is boring and so to avoid the crime of writing while sick (which always results in page after page of me whining how UNFAIR it all is and weeping at the tender beauty of my courage in the face of rhinovirus) I’m proud to announce the grand prize winner is:

Alana from Girl Alive for 8 Hotdogs in a CAN with ONIONS in BRINE

Runners up:

Rina from Gotta Little Space for Potted Meat Food Product

Abbie for Placenta Shampoo

Sean from Lance Bass Ruined My Life for Book Thongs

Stephanie from Adventures in the Life of Me for Fortifido and Dog Snuggies. Be sure to check out her animals trying Fortifido and the Snuggie, too cute!

Abbeytoo for Creepy Glow in the Dark Skull Purse and Life Size Sock Monkey Ballerina

I will be contacting the winners by email later today to get their addresses to mail their prizes. Although I probably won’t get to the post office until we all stop leaking. I am a good citizen that way.Similar Posts:

• A Whole Brave New World
• Mondays are for Rambling
• 5 Super Creepy Songs
• I have one of the best writer’s websites in 2009 according to Writer’s Digest
• Letters to my life coach

Or, I’m in the 21st century, y’all!

My friend and coach Tim Brownson let me set up a Facebook fan page for his book How to be Rich and Happy. I’ve discovered I’m more than a bit geeked out about the possibilities of fan pages, so I’m exploring the idea of doing more. That’s a total hint for somebody who needs a page but doesn’t want them to do it themselves to contact me while I still work for pats on the head.

You can become a fan of How to be Rich and Happy on Facebook and get updated when there are new posts on the blog and other news. I think even if you don’t buy the book, the blog offers a lot of value.

By the way, Tim and John have decided to offer a larger free sample of HTBRAH, you can get it here, no need to register or join a mailing list, just click the download link.

Mah blog's on that there Kindle machine now!

I followed the brilliant advice of Kathy from Junk Drawer and made I Hate My Message Board available on the Kindle. At first, they were asking the princely sum of $1.99 to subscribe for a month but I’ve been knocked down to $.99. I feel strangely diminished by this. I don’t know if anyone will actually buy it, but it seems nifty to have it there and as any struggling blogger knows, every possible bit of exposure helps.

And I tell you this not because I expect you to subscribe but would really appreciate it if you have a few minutes and want to do me a huge favor if you’d do a quick review. Unless you hate this blog then I’m going to review your head and diagnose it crazy for reading this far.

If you’d like to publish your own blog on Kindle, here’s the link. The cut is something like 30%, which is a little weird since you’re doing most of the work, but since normally I do it for much, much less than a penny a page view, I don’t feel too bad about taking it.

So I got Google Wave and after waiting ages after I nominated them, my friends got their invitations and we’ve been playing with it. So far, our conversation has been like this:

Okay, I’m lost here.

Hey, what am I supposed to do

OMG, I can see you typing, that’s so cool!

Stop looking at me, I really can spell good wellgood properly it’s just cold in here

Ha ha you grammar isn’t ACK STOP LOOKING AT ME!!!!!!

What are all those empty boxes by my name I didn’t put them there?

Hey, everyone needs to get a picture because I don’t know who’s in here and I might say the wrong thing

How do you get a picture? I don’t see where you get a picture. HELP!

I’m so confused, my ADD is flaring up.

Let’s go back to Gmail

THANK YOU!

It’s been awesome and I’m so glad I went with my first instinct to invite my yackety yak buddies instead of people who had heard of it before and had good and useful applications in mind. You know what was funny? My friend Sean wanted to know what ping did, so he pinged me and the wave tab in my browser kept flashing Hi Tracy! and I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from and I was all CRAP what if by getting into a “wave” with somebody they can see into your computer and control it and open files and junk. I so do not need Sean to know my bizness. He’s a nice guy and all but he’d judge me for my browser history. You all would. (btw, go and vote for Sean. Then vote for me. No wait, vote for me first, because I’m needier)

All in all I can see a lot of possibilities with Wave but it’s going to take a lot of time before I feel comfortable with it, kind of like Twitter.

Finally don’t forget to enter the Scary Products Contest by October 29. I’m expecting great things from those of you that swore up and down you’d find something awesome!

Note: This post contained a lot of affiliate links for  How to be Rich and Happy and Amazon, if you click and buy, I get a cut. By the way, while you’re at Amazon, you could pick up one of these Kurt Cobain – Angel Tapestry or a Wolf Pack Decorative Tapestry Toss Pillow Better stock up for the holidays!

You might also be interested in reading my review of How to be Rich and Happy and an Interview with Tim Brownson and John P. Strelecky
Similar Posts:

• Who wants to be rich and happy?
• Mondays are for Rambling
• I have ONE Google Wave invite nomination left
• I had the perfect title come to me while I was in bed last night
• I have one of the best writer’s websites in 2009 according to Writer’s Digest

Or, this is why they call me two-sides Tracy. I always look at *both* sides.

Recent photo of me. My I am dorky looking. And askew, definitely askew

In the interests of radical transparency, I think it’s only fair I list the reasons I would not be the perfect choice for good mood blogger so that the people can make a wise decision.

• I wholeheartedly believe that the best way to be a happy person is to develop a sincere love of Air Supply. It’s about letting down your guard and allow yourself to really feel. Until you can do this, you have walls, my friend, and a walled person is not a happy person. Some people feel this is judgmental and unreasonable. They have walls, too.
• Cats and kittens will never be mentioned in my posts as a source of a good mood unless it’s because all the cats on my street decide to move to Toledo. You can’t really blame me for this, they like to congregate in my driveway and give me a dirty look when I want to park.
• There’s that inordinate obsession with canned meats.
• Tendency to write run on sentences so long and meandering that I can’t find my way out and so just slap on a period and hope nobody notices.
• Found out this week that I was confusing Eckhart Tolle with John Edward.
• My blog is called I Hate My Message Board. Clearly this title was not dreamed up by a person in a good mood.
• Briefly considered paying my children in chocolate bars to do cute kid things and say “Vote for our Mommy!” on YouTube. And if they wouldn’t perform, hire other people’s more cooperative children.
• Will probably spend a good portion of the prize money on uncouth iPhone apps and limited edition Japanese Kit Kats.
• Had anxiety over how often I could remind people of the contest without annoying them which somehow turned into me playing Irene Cara songs over and over and muttering how I won’t let the haters keep me down, even though nobody had said anything remotely negative.
• Speaking of, I think I have an enemy and that makes me feel delightfully important.
• Call my other mom-friends First Initial-Dawg or First Initial-Money. I know it’s wrong, but I just can’t stop.
• If I make it to the round where we have to do a video, I’m so screwed because acting natural on camera with a pleasant expression is not my strength. It will be like watching Ricky Gervais playing David Brent on The Office, you know that cringing because you’re so embarrassed for the person on screen thing, only I won’t be acting.
• Also, prefer the US version of The Office mostly because I find it hard to follow conversations in accented English.
• This might seem like a manipulative way to get votes or it might seem charming and quirky. I don’t know! I just don’t understand people! I mean, can’t it be both?
• Learned what “dragging my nuts” means this week and want desperately to use it in a sentence.
• I semi-lied up there about the cats, my good mood posts will probably mention Hello Kitty quite a bit.
• Have never seen any of the Matrix movies, always tell people I’ll get right on that then promptly watch back to back episodes of House Hunters instead and indulge in feelings of superiority because of my good taste, low maintenance personality and modest needs for square footage. I only mildly enjoy the superiority, mind you, but can’t deny that the enjoyment is there.
• If there was a cranky ass blogger competition, I’d run for it, too without giving up my quest to be good mood blogger.
• Am only using this to get discovered so I can pitch my idea for “Life Judge” to the networks.
• I believe the judicious use of the word “ain’t” is vital to my writer’s voice.
• Secretly hope I can make the word “dweeb” popular again with the young people and am trying to figure out a way to use the Good Mood Blog to achieve that goal.
• Am scared of any games involving balls and lash out angrily at people for throwing them at me.
• A lot of my humor is based on self-deprecation. It gets old.

There is more, but I don’t wish to bore anyone, just wanted to give you a good look at the dark side of Tracy. Look at it and ask yourself: do we really want to give her a larger platform? No wait, watch this first, get in a good mood, then ask.

I guess I should add “not above manipulating people with the sweet, sweet sounds of Air Supply” to get my way to the list.

And I know the roads to riches

And I know the ways to fame

I know all the rules

And then I know how to break ‘em

And I always know the name of the game

(that last bit where I quoted the lyrics was for my friend Sean to let him know the game is on my friend, the game is freaking ON)
Similar Posts:

• Since we seem to add a family member every two years
• The Six Grodiest Foods I’ve Tried So Far
• A celebration of my own labor
• Mondays are for Rambling
• A couple of announcements and requests

Or, I shouldn’t be given so much responsibility

If you don’t know what Google Wave is my friend Omar wrote a really good article to explain.

I woke up this morning to find an invite to Google Wave in my inbox. Better, I got to nominate 8 people to receive invitations, too. Now, I have no idea how this works, if they automatically put folks that were nominated on the short list to get an invite or if there is a screening process or what. Although you know, I don’t think that they can be looking at potential members that closely as I got an invite before my husband did.

Not that I am trying to rub it in or anything.

Of course, I had to invite my husband first, so that’s one down. But, you know, he’s always busy with “work” and Wave is useless, USELESS to me if I don’t have people to use it with that actually make time for me at all hours and are HAPPY to talk to me about my very important stuff so I invited the 6 people who are in my main email conversation gang. We already bullied them all into getting Gmail because we were afraid they’d stop accepting our emails once they figured out we can spit them out at the rate of 20-50 an hour.

I wish I were exaggerating, but no, between the 6 of us we can put out hundreds of emails on just the topic of jeggings alone. Never mind the acres of conversation on what that bitch did. And if you are that bitch, you know you were wrong for that. So wrong.

Clearly, I NEED them to get an invitation to the most wonderful innovation in online communication since Gmail. I know you are reading this Google so please, please, please let my friends in today so we can be cool together. Thank you and thanks for giving me so many opportunities to learn how to get whiter teeth! YOU ROCK!

Seven invitations down and one to go, which is where I am totally and completely stuck. Do I give it to my brother OR my sister OR my dad OR my mom? One of my fellow bloggers? Life coach Tim so he can snort at it? Random person on Twitter?

I mean, because I don’t want to waste it on somebody who won’t use it and I don’t want to give it to somebody and somebody else finds out and they start badmouthing me on plain, old-fashioned email and I don’t want to give it away and then not have any.

I just don’t want it to be over. I don’t want to have none.

I might get more, I might not.  Dangit, I just don’t know what to do. What do I do? Because I don’t want to know what will happen if I make the wrong choice. I’m just not that strong, my friends.

While I try to figure this out, please take a second to vote for me again. I’m already up to 174 votes. So many thanks to those that voted and helped spread the word through Twitter, Facebook and email. It’s humbling and exhilarating to know how many people are willing to help, if you just ask.

And if you make a good case for yourself in comments, I might be persuaded to hand over the last invite. Or I might not. As you can see, I’m pretty attached to it. Also have no idea if it helps or hurts to get a nomination from me, so it’s a gamble.

Similar Posts:

• A Whole Brave New World
• Here’s how the story begins
• Remember E-Cards?
• Read Twice, Post Once
• Mondays are for Rambling

Or, we’ll all be winners! Just by participating!

It is with great pride that I announce the first annual IHMMB Scary Product Contest. I’d be nothing without scary products like canned pupa and chicken in a can and I’m overjoyed – overwhelmed even – to be able to give back to the blogging community by hosting this award.

The Contest

Find and photograph a product that is scary in a weird, unusual, wacky sort of way. This post or my Museum of Snack Foods are examples of the kind of scary we mean. Post the photos and any descriptions on your blog with a link back to this post and leave the URL of your entry in comments. If you don’t have a blog, you can post on Flickr and leave the photo URL in comments.

Judging will be based not only on the inherent creepiness of the product but creativity in presentation and description. Go wild! Make a diorama! Stop motion video! Write a play! Make a collage!

The Judges

Since I can’t possibly make a decision this big all by myself, I’ve enlisted the help of many judges.

David of Blogger Dad I’d like to give extra props to David because he not only gave me the idea he also designed the logo!

Sean of Writer Dad

Margaret of Nanny Goats in Panties

J.D. of I Do Things

Ron of Clark Kent’s Lunchbox

We’ll be visiting all the entries and might just stumble, tweet or link your post on Facebook or our own blogs if it’s particularly good. We don’t want this just to be a contest, we want this to be a community building exercise. What does that mean? Danged if we know, but we highly encourage participants and spectators to go around to all the other entries – leave a comment, talk some smack, kiss some butt, whatever seems to be the thing to do at the time.

Because I’ve found that the surest way to form a bond with somebody is to ask them “What the heck is THAT?!?” And really isn’t this all about the friendship and community? Because I have to tell you, I’m providing the prizes myself out of my revenue and it shows!

The Prizes

First Prize will receive a I Hate My Message Board t-shirt as discussed in this post and only now going into production. It won’t look exactly like my crude rendering, but the same idea. And also a genuine

Cheeseburger in a Can mounted in a Lucite box with an engraved faux-brass name plate declaring the owner the winner of the First Annual I Hate My Message Board Scary Product Contest.

And of course bragging rights.

3 Runners Up will receive a random food item of my choice. Could be limited edition Pocky, could be those fish n’ cheese sausages I’ve been putting off forever. The real prize is the anticipation.

Official Rules

• Contest open to anyone, anywhere but if I can’t send you the prize because of customs regulations or other shipping problems, we’ll work out an alternate prize.
• All entries must be 100% your own photos and text. You can not use other people’s photos or text.
• All entries must have at least one photo and text to describe the item. You can do more than this, of course. We encourage you to go crazy!
• Absolutely nothing that involves cruelty to actual animals or people. We reserve the right to toss out any entries we find offensive or degrading.
• Link back to this post in your entry, either with a text link or logo button (provided below).
• Post the photo and description on your blog or your own flickr account and post the url in the comments of this post.
• We can’t accept entries by any other method than comments on this post.
• You may enter as often as you wish but each entry must be a separate blog entry/flickr photo and make one comment for each entry.
• Contest closes 11.59 PM CST October 29, 2009
• Winner will be announced by 11.59 PM CST October 31, 2009
• Winners will be notified by email, please comment using a valid email address that you check regularly. If we can’t reach you by 11.59 PM CST November 7th, we’ll give your prize to somebody else.

Suggestions

• Creativity counts for a lot
• So does enthusiasm – if it’s a tie-breaker, we’ll go for the person who helped us spread the word.
• Judges aren’t supposed to be bribed but you know I bet they’d be tickled pink if you offered.
• The more people participate the more everyone benefits. Who knows how many cool blogs and/or photographers this contest will introduce us to?
• Visit the other entries! Have fun!
• You can share your photos in our IHMMB Scary Product Flickr group (but still make sure you leave your url to your entry in comments)
• Join us on Facebook or Twitter - we’ll be sharing the judge’s current favorites and our own scary finds.
• If you like this contest, share it with friends. Any tweets, stumbles, sharing on Facebook or other social media is very much welcomed and appreciated.

Feel free to use the large graphic at the top of this post to share word about this contest, or you can use this button sized one:

Similar Posts:

• Baconnaise – A Review and a Contest!
• I’m going on the Shangri-La Diet
• It’s a rubbery sausage! Made of fish! And cheese!
• Friday Photo Fun
• A List of 10 Randoms and a Blog Reader Appreciation Day Prize

Everyone scream, I do! I do! Please check out my review of How to be Rich and Happy by Tim Brownson and John Strelecky. I was also lucky enough to be able to interview them and ask them some questions about how Rich and Happy can help parents, you can read it here.

Coming soon German canned meat vs. Spam – which does better in a sculpt off? This is truly the blog that offers something for everybody.Similar Posts:

• A Whole Brave New World
• Mondays are for Rambling
• Don’t Ask Stupid Questions – There Are No Stupid Questions – Book Review
• A WHOLE chicken in a CAN
• Things to do this week

Or, wow that was completely unexpected and possibly undeserved

Yup, that's me, page 51 of the October 2009 issue of Writer's Digest

Last night I was up way too late reading things on the internet and this email comes in saying my friend Margaret of Nanny Goats in Panties sent me a message through facebook saying “Dude you’re in the top 10 in Writer’s Digest” and of course my first thought is “Ha ha, Margaret sent this to the wrong person” and so I sent her the whole “ha, ha dude you messed up” reply and she was like what, you’re not I Hate My Message Board? And I was all Holy cow, I Hate My Message Board c’est moi!

She sent me a pdf of the article since there aren’t any all night book stores in Memphis and sure enough there I was and there was much shaking and disbelief and holy cowing and honestly I still can’t believe it.

I can’t take all of the credit though, I have to thank David Wright of Collective Inkwell for the amazing job he did designing my logo and customizing Thesis for me. I can’t recommend them highly enough and even if you aren’t in the market for custom blog designs, take a look at their site to read their serial novel “Available Darkness” and take part in the community conversations on their blog. Thanks so much Sean and David!

By the way, I have no idea who nominated me and want to send them a huge thank you! This is one of the most flattering, mind-blowing surprises I’ve ever been lucky enough to receive.

And to let you know just how huge an honor this was, here are the other blogs on the list:

1. Brian Wask he deserved to win the grand prize, his site is gorgeous!
2. Melinda Feucht check out her delicious food blog
3. Rebecca Crump love the name of her site. Another amazing food blog.
4. Chrystle Fielder Surprise! I love sites with cartoon caricatures
5. Virginia Smith I am going to have to check out her novels
6. Michael Wojciechowski check out his around the world section, he’s been everywhere!
7. Celeste Stene Duckworth I really love her color scheme. It’s like the total opposite of all the pink I have here!
8. Tracy O’Connor that’s me! Me! Yeah, I don’t know how I got in with the real writers either
9. Patrick Brown very scary!
10. Barbara Boughton impressive resume!

I have to say that as great as this list was, there are a few writer’s sites that I love that I think belong there, too and will be nominating for next year.

• Project Happily Ever After even though I am the perfect wife to the perfect husband, I enjoy reading Alisa’s advice.
• Halfway to Normal Kristen blows me away with her thoughtful, beautifully written posts
• Tumblemoose my friend George has been there for me from the beginning and his blog is a great resource for writers. If you are a blogger looking for exposure, be sure to submit your site to “New Blog of the Week“.
• Blogger Dad one half of Collective Inkwell, David is a good friend and hilarious writer.
• Writer Dad the other half of CI, Sean writes heart warming stories of what it’s like to be a dad and writer
• Nanny Goats in Panties for so much more than being just the bearer of awesome news
• I Do Things JD always makes me laugh
• The Junk Drawer Kathy is hilarious

Which blogs would you nominate for best writer’s blog of 2010? Let me know in comments!Similar Posts:

• Five Things I’m Addicted To
• Since we seem to add a family member every two years
• Things you could do while I am sick
• I am Learning the Social Web Media Networking 2.0
• A couple of announcements and requests

Or, I work hard-ish y’all!

Okay, well not that hard...

Photo credit: j3net

For labor day I thought it would be fun to take a look back over my most and least popular posts.

5 Most Viewed:

1. A WHOLE  chicken in a CAN what can I say? This is the post that will never die.
2. Pork brains in milk gravy although this one only has about 1/4 of the page views of CiaC, it gets more search traffic and might one day catch up. You know, because of the algebra and crap. There is probably a way to figure out when this will happen but my guess is we shouldn’t worry about it because we’ll all be dead by then.
3. People who need pupa are the pluckiest people I’m surprised this one wasn’t more popular as it had a video. Eh, you never know what the people will like.
4. Durian Candy a nice post, but nothing special. I think it got a major boost from being suggested at the bottom of CiaC
5. The Museum of Snack Foods just a list of all the MoSF posts I’d written to that date.

So it would appear that the only things I write worth reading are grody food posts. I like to think people come for the canned foods but stay for my other posts. Like these:

5 Posts I think deserve more credit:

1. All my Why I Hate My Message Board posts (WIHMMB for short). You know, I’m too close to them to really be able to judge their quality, but they are the whole reason I started a blog in the first place and as such they deserve to be read.
2. 6 Things I Secretly Hope are Included in Life Coaching it didn’t quite go that way, but it was almost as fun. This post was written around the time I felt like my blog was really starting to take off and reach a wider audience.
3. This is how we learned to be writers this post is about my high school days and how important writing was to me then. I was working on a series but it sort of fizzled out. This post is on my mind today because I’m working on another post related to this for this week.
4. Is racism the new N-word? I think I could have written this better, but I loved that it seemed to spark a lot of discussion. I don’t think we’re ready to stop talking about race in this country, not by a long shot.
5. Money, money, money, MONEY from my plausible explanations for inexplicable crap series. I don’t know if it’s one of my best posts, but it’s one of the few that my husband has spontaneously complimented me about, which means a lot to me.

I feel for the people who find my blog on accident while looking for something more useful.

5 popular search terms used to find this blog

(note each term got at least 50 visits over the last year)

1. Slanket coupon – I keep looking for one to add to my slanket post but so far no luck.
2. ascii lolcat – good ol’ ascii lolcat! It’s been good for 4-5 visits a week since I put it up.
3. creepy songs – I think people are looking for haunted house music and get Corey Hart instead.
4. 5 things I’m addicted to – I’m baffled that anyone would search for this particular phrase but people do a few times a week
5. lazy people – Heh, my mom was right about me. You look up lazy people on Google and I pop up!

Thanks everyone for reading this blog and making it so much fun! Hope everyone who celebrates it has a great and restful labor day weekend!

Similar Posts:

• The Six Grodiest Foods I’ve Tried So Far
• 11 Reasons I sometimes but not always dislike doing list posts
• The Paranoid Mom Reviews New Products: The Slanket
• WIHMMB – Reason #1 Message Board as Blog
• Wow this has been a busy week

Or, this sure is one self serving post!

My very own facebook app!

Yeah, that’s right, if you haven’t heard already from me tooting my horn all over the place, I made a facebook gift app. Why? For the traffic, of course! Plus, it came to me in the shower and I always, always listen to shower ideas. Now, I’m not sure if this will work but I’d be so grateful if anyone who is so inclined would head over to the Museum of Snack Foods app and spread some chicken in a can love.

Speaking of obnoxious, I’ve been totally self absorbed these past weeks working on my own stuff and haven’t been paying much attention to anyone else’s stuff. I know you understand, but I feel like I’ve been taking and not giving. As soon as I get my act together, I’m going to get back into the groove. It’s all going great, but wow doing stuff takes time. So much time!

Oh yeah, and I started another project that I’m not quite ready to reveal because it’s not finished, but I’ll be dropping hints like crazy because that’s just my style. That’s why I wait until the last minute to buy my husband presents because otherwise it’s like this:

Me: You won’t believe what I got you for Christmas.

Him: Oh goody, I’m sure I’ll love it.

Me: No really, you won’t guess, go ahead and try!

Him: I can’t wait to see.

Me: Okay, I’ll give you one hint, it’s something you really, really want.

Him: It’s okay, I’ll wait until Christmas.

Me: You don’t love me and think I’m fat.

Of course, now I’m worried because while I know what I’m intending to do with this secret project, I’m worried that I was a bit too, oh dry about it. Deadpan. Shoot, who am I kidding, missed the mark altogether. The good news, even if I did, I can still re-purpose it into something less performance art jokey and more just a thing. Which I think what Mr. No-Guess up there would prefer, because he kind of doesn’t understand this whole spending dozens of hours on a joke thing.

Intrigued yet? Or did I totally miss the mark on that, too?

Thanks again for considering to think about maybe sending your Auntie some pork brains and I’ll be back soon!Similar Posts:

• A List of 10 Randoms and a Blog Reader Appreciation Day Prize
• What We’re Reading Today at IHMMB Headquarters
• My ear itches on the inside
• 7 Things I really need to get the heck over
• I am in need of an authority and a niche