Well it’s almost here… my 40th birthday. I don’t feel anywhere close to 40 years old. I feel like I’m… 25? maybe? But not 40. But here I have a 16 year old son (driving!!) as sort of evidence that maybe I really am almost 40. My birthday is February 11… way back in 1972. I’m having a pajama party at a hotel suite to celebrate, but not until the following weekend, because of some guests’ travel requirements. It should be fun—at least lessen the pain some.

Happy New Year! It’s a brand new year… I hope everyone had a safe night celebrating New Year’s Eve. We went to a party at the neighbors’ house right next door, so we just had a short walk home. According to the Mayan calendar, 2012 is the last year—will the world end? I hope not. My year is beginning with an art show that starts January 12. I also have a show scheduled in March. I hope to make 2012 the year I really get back into painting. That’s my New Year’s Resolution.

Looking for holiday gifts? I’ve just finished updating my shops to bring them up to date with all of the products available at CafePress. I plan on creating and adding more designs in the upcoming weeks, as well. Products range from shirts (short and long sleeve, sweatshirts and hoodies, jackets, etc.) to mugs/glassware/water bottles to paper products (cards, posters, stickers, calendars, etc.) to gift items and more. Browse the shop by design from the main shop or use the product links on the left side to see all the designs available on a given product.

Last night it snowed for the first time this year. It was light snow, and wet (it had been raining all day on and off) but it did start to stick. When I went out at 8:30 this morning there were places where you could definitely still see snow (in a field, on some cars, etc.) Winter is coming!

Tonight Dan and Dominic and I are going into Boston to see Weird Al Yankovic live! I’ve wanted to go to one of his concerts since I was about 14 years old. I’m so excited!

Today Brad and I went live with the Original Virtual Bubble Wrap Android App in the Android Market. We’ve already gotten two 5-star reviews! Go ahead and download it and be sure to review it and leave a comment! This is the first app Brad and I have done together though I have some ideas for some new ones.

So Brad and I (my programmer partner) are almost ready to release our Virtual Bubble Wrap app for Android. It’s been beta tested successfully and it’s ready for the market. It will be a free download. I hope people like it.

Well, today was my last full day at the lake cottage in New Hampshire. I drive home tomorrow morning, whenever I wake up and eat. Dominic is staying to visit with my mom until it’s time for school to start (on August 30) so I’ll be driving home alone. That’s fine, though. I have an audiobook I’m listening to.

I’ve fixed the problem that was making some of the pages display just an error message, but now I have to solve the problem of how to implement the code that I want, which was what was causing the error. I have asked a programming guru (my ex-husband, Rob) to help and he said he’d look at it when he gets home. In the meantime, I’m enjoying my last full day in New Hampshire.

TROUBLE! We’re currently experiencing a programming error that is making it impossible to view some pages on the site. (For example, if you click on the text right above this, where it says “Thought of the moment”) Please check back soon as we’re working to fix it. If you’d like to be notified when the site is fully up and running again, please email me a quick note and I’ll add you to the list and send out a one-time email when the site is totally back up. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Today was a rainy day and I enjoyed that. It cooled down the temperatures quite a bit, and it sounds so nice on the roof. Even better if it had had thunder and lightening, but it didn’t. Oh well. The monsoon storms are one of the few things I miss about living in Tucson.

You may notice a few changes around the site. I moved the search box to the left-side menu at the top. I added captions to the random photos from the gallery. I added a random article (called “Random Bit”) to the left menu as well. This will bring up anything that’s been written in the entire history of the website, so it might be a little nostalgic. I reworked the Welcome article slightly, adding some links and changing some wording around. Nothing major. Oh, and I finally wrote a new newsletter. If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter you can do that here.

So Wednesday is my Friday as I only work Mon-Wed. However the rest of my week is kind of lame because I have an appointment with a new doctor tomorrow (we changed insurance and the old doctor is no longer covered) and then on Friday I’m having a major dental procedure. Kinda takes the fun out of having these days off of work. :/

So I just got back from the IJA (International Jugglers’ Association) annual juggling festival, this year held in Rochester, Minnesota. I went primarily to promote my bid for the magazine contract, but I had a good time seeing other jugglers I hadn’t seen in a long time and, of course, juggling.

The last two days I haven’t slept well and I’ve been incredibly sleepy at work. Like need a nap level of sleepy. It is very frustrating. I wish there was some magical sleeping pill that actually worked for me. The stuff I take only barely does the job. If I don’t take it, I am up all night and all the next day, so I know I need to take it, but I don’t fall asleep for 3-4 hours after taking it, so it’s not working right away, either.

So I’ve had a Google+ account for about a week now. Been trying to play around with it. So far I like it, but it’s hard to compare it to Facebook because so few people are in my “circles” compared to how many friends I have on FB. Go ahead and add me to your circles if you want to play around with it. If you want an invitation to the beta test, you can email me with the email address you want the invite sent to and I’ll send you one. Note that they’re not always accepting new accounts, so you may have to try multiple times once you get the invitation.

George R. R. Martin’s editor has announced that A Dance With Dragons is finished! Woohoo!

My YouTube video Ferocious Puffball vs Terrifying Hand of Doom has received over 50,000 views at this point. It’s a very cute video of my cat Ronon when he was 5 weeks old. Worth watching if you haven’t seen it already.

I’ve been watching the hatching baby bald eagles at this site. Right now one of the parents is feeding one of the babies.

FINALLY! George R. R. Martin has announced the publication date of the next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series! A Dance With Dragons will be released July 12, 2011! I’ve been waiting so many years!

25 years ago today I stood in the schoolyard of my junior high school in Florida, watching the space shuttle Challenger take off. Then it exploded in the sky right in front of me. It affects me to this day. I have a page about it

I love snowy days. The snow is coming down hard enough that they’re letting school out early today.

0/~ all I want for Christmas is my two front tires, my two front tires, my two front tires…
I got a really bad flat on Christmas Eve. The other front tire has a slow leak. Really gotta deal with those tires.

What is with goofy-shaped doors in science fiction shows/movies? I don’t understand the design rationale. Babylon 5 is an excellent example of a show with really goofy-shaped doors.

I’m not so sure that everything being “natural” is really all that great. I mean, people die all the time of “natural” causes, right?

My tailbone hurts. As usual. I had an appointment with another doctor and it looks like cortisone shots are in my future, along with possible amputation. In the meantime, here I sit, hurting.

Arrrg Ahoy, matey! It be Talk Like A Pirate Day!

I was woken up this morning by a pretty intense thunderstorm. Loved it!

All of the keys on my keyboard look fine except for the “N” which is almost totally worn off. Wonder why that one letter? Not the “S” or the “E” or anything like that, just the nearly-vanished “N”…

I love listening to the woods at night. I love living in the woods.

Last night’s fortune cookie: “You can depend on the trust of the collective” It sounds so “hive mind”—who knew the Borg were Chinese?

So today the Google homepage has a Pac-Man game to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man. I was then shown quite definitively that I still suck at Pac-Man.

I keep forgetting to tweet on Twitter. I just don’t seem to be able to keep up with the cool kids these days!

I’m not sure why my credit score went up by 70 points since last month, but I’m not complaining!

I’m excited yet nervous right now. My doctor is changing the medication I’m taking. With any luck, my memory problems (a side effect of my current medication) will go away!

I have conflicting feelings about getting snow. I really want a massive snowstorm. I love those. The problem is that it would mean our driveway gets plowed a bunch of times, and it’s $35 each time. So do I hope for snow, feeling guilty that it will be expensive? Or do I hope for no snow, and feel sad about it? Not that it really matters, since what I hope for has no bearing on what actually happens.

I don’t like sports, as a general rule, and find them even more annoying on TV. That said, my husband does enjoy watching the occasional game, and so I’m trying to learn to not hate it quite so much. To that end, we’re going to make margaritas, eat a lot of junk food, and watch the Stupid Super Bowl today. Wish me luck.

I don’t think I can imagine living without cats in my life.

After watching the “Greased Lightning” episode of MythBusters episode I now realize the reasons for not putting water (even just a little bit of water!) on a grease fire FAR exceed ‘it won’t work’ or “it will splatter” …holy fireball, Batman!

I really should be exercising more. I need to get into the habit of riding the LifeCycle on a daily basis. New Year’s resolution, a few weeks late!

The main reason I don’t read the xkcd web comic regularly is that I can’t usually remember the exact letters for the url. I know there’s an x in there, and a k, but beyond that it’s all sort of up in the air.

I need to get on the ball and figure out how to defer my student loans for a while…

My heart goes out to the people of Haiti after the terrible earthquake. I am sickened by Pat Robertson’s statements that this is because of a pact with the devil. What an asshat.

I wonder where the 30-minute sitcom went? Maybe it’s the TiVo and never sitting through commercials anymore, but I don’t seem to see anything but hour-long shows on these days…

I’m looking forward to going to the chiropractor this week. Maybe he can make the pain go away!

I have had my new Droid phone for about a week now and I must say it’s an impressive little gadget. I’m still getting used to it but so far, it gets a big thumbs up!

Dick Clark should really stop doing the NYE special. He kind of scared me. I feel bad for the guy, but come on.

Happy holidays everyone! I’m enjoying about 6 inches of snow in the yard so it really feels like Christmas to me. We are rapidly going through our supply of hot chocolate mix I must admit! Here’s wishing everyone a safe holiday season and a fantastic start to the new year!

I sure hope winter comes soon. I want to see some snow!