Archive for March, 2009
Life and Fog
Posted by: | CommentsLast week we had an extremely foggy day in Pittsburgh. Or, as Chloe likes to say…’poggy.’ Anyway, on that particular morning I dropped Becca off at Kindergarten, and Chloe off to preschool. As I drove to the restaurant to do some work, I thought about how going through life is a lot like driving in the fog.
Let me explain.
I know my way to the restaurant like the back of my hand. It really didn’t matter that it was foggy at all. My brain knew all the right turns to make. I didn’t have to look for any signs or landmarks. I knew they were there before I even saw them. I think that’s what it’s like going through a comfortable stretch in your life. You just go on auto pilot. You know where you are. You go there every day. It is your every day.
But what if you want to go some place else? I am at a point in my life where I think I know where I want to go. I believe I know what I want. If I were driving in the fog, but wasn’t driving my normal route, it would be a bit more challenging. I would have to look for signs and landmarks where I needed to turn. In life, sometimes I pass these signs up, and have to go around the long way. I don’t have a map, but rather a general idea of where I’m going.
Maybe I need a map.
How about you? Do you know where you want to be? Are you in your same comfortable routine drive, but want to go someplace else? First off, you need to figure out where you’re going. If you are driving around in the fog…no map…and no idea where your final destination is…you will just be driving around.
To be more specific, I know that I would like to make a living online. I have already started doing this (and will be creating a new blog soon about how I make money online), but I’m not making a living. I also want to push Downey’s House a bit further. I’m a little more unsure of exactly what I want here. Will it be an additional location? Will it be another restaurant all together? Not sure. But that’s after the online stuff.
I know that I want to spend time with my children. And I’m doing a pretty good job at that. I know that some day I want to have enough money to enjoy life a bit more. Travel some. Spend time with my husband.
So, what’s the point? I guess it’s this: I’ve made some goals and I’m working towards reaching them. But as I speak with friends and family, most are not quite sure where they’re going. Pick some goals, dammit.
Wow, that was a lot of back and forth babbling. Well, I’m on vacation, and being on vacation means that I get to think about life and where I’m going. Don’t worry. I’ll be back to ‘work’ soon. And I’ll stop being so….um…..’thinky.’
Excuse me….
Posted by: | CommentsJust a quick note to say that I traveled with two small children yesterday. They were very well behaved, but it was a CONSTANT stream of questions. I had to have a glass of wine on the plane just to deal. So, I’m thinking of you…but I don’t really have time to post right now. I’ll try tonight. We’re headed to Sanibel Island today to search for some shells.
BTW, the wine made it better. More later!
Thought Soup
Posted by: | CommentsI usually don’t post a lot of ‘techie’ stuff on this blog. I’m considering starting another blog for this type of thing. But I DID want to at least mention it.
Let me back up, first. I started blogging as a way to get the word out about the t-shirts and gifts that I design for CafePress and Zazzle. That was almost two years ago. I really didn’t know too much about blogging and such, so I jumped in with a free blogger account. I’ve been pretty happy with it.
But, once I opened the restaurant, I got a blog started over there. And I used WordPress. I love it! It’s on my own domain, and it’s much easier to tweak things. I have since used WordPress to set up an affiliate site or two. And I’m getting better at it! I’ve learned so much…how to install wordpress, playing with themes, and so on. I recently did two things with WordPress, and they’ve made me very happy.
First, I actually PURCHASED a theme. I purchased the Flexx theme from iThemes. I love it! It’s very easy to change the layout, colors and pics. Easy peasy. I also found a plug in for automatic updating. I loved it so much, I actually donated to the author (which is something I can’t afford to do as much as I would like). Here’s the link to the plug in.
Now, am I going to break up with blogger? Nah, I don’t think so. It’s worked for me so far, and I guess I’m sort of attached. I have, however, re-directed links to my own site. So, you can also find this stuff at http://blog.brainlint.net.
Just a little mention of regular life: The new menu starts at Downey’s House on Tuesday, so I’ve been busy! I’m printing them up today. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks trying to get the menu together, programming it into our POS system, and making sure we have all our i’s and t’s dotted and crossed. On top of it all, the girls and I are headed down to Florida on Wednesday. Packing? Haven’t even really thought about it yet.
I also (finally) finished reading Dead Until Dark. I really, really enjoyed it…even though it took me much longer than it should have to read it. I bought the next 2 books to read while we’re in Florida. Hopefully I get enough ‘me’ time when we’re there. If you watched True Blood, the book and the show are pretty similar. But I was surprised that there wasn’t any mention of Tara (the bartender). I’m not going to spoil anything for anybody, so I’ll just say that there WERE differences in the book versus the series. But I think that both are very good.
OK, the girls are complaining that everything is ‘Booooorrrrriiiiinnnnnnnggggg!’ How about an exciting trip to Staples, girls? (OH, that makes me thing of a quick side note: I have always loved the smell of office supply stores. I’m strange. I love the smell of toner and paper. It makes me happy. We walked into Staples yesterday and Becca, with a smile on her face, said ‘Mom, mmmmmmm…it smells GOOD in here! Poor thing.)
Wow…this post really did go just about everywhere. Like I’ve mentioned before, sometimes I just can’t focus 
Have a great day!
Decorating
Posted by: | CommentsJust wanted to let everybody know that I’m tweaking with the look of my blog.
In between laundry, cleaning, restaurant cr@p and drinking coffee.
It’s not getting done all at once, but about 10 minutes at a time.
Bear with me
Vinyl Sausage
Posted by: | CommentsWe have this slide bouncer thing. It was a gift. And a darn good gift, at that. Today it was beautiful outside. So, I asked Chloe if she wanted to play on the ‘bouncy slide.’ Well, of course she did. This thing is actually pretty easy to put up. Roll it out, plug in the air compressor, tap a few stakes into the ground, and you’re good to go.
She had a blast bouncing around on this all afternoon. When Becca got home from school, they were invited to a neighbor’s house to play for a couple of hours in their back yard. Fine. ‘Me’ time is good. The homework got done, and off they went. I had the house to myself.
I also had to put that thing away.
By myself.
Thank God there wasn’t some stray parent with a video camera taping their child outside. I had to look absolutely ridiculous. I started very calm and focused. I made sure the air was out. I start folding this thing up. Unfortunately, the size of the folded ‘bouncy slide’ was about twice as big as the bag I’m supposed to put it in. I unfolded. I folded again. I straddled this damn thing, shoving it into this bag. I was laying on the grass, holding the thing on top of me.
I was a mess.
But I got it in that damn bag.
Heather – 1
Bouncy Slide – 0
Take that, Little Tikes.
