Welcome back! Coffee's always on around here. Pull up your favorite chair and a grab a cup. Enjoy your visit today! And don't forget to stop back by again soon.

Just a little update this morning -

Some of you know I also have a blog called The Weight Loss Papers where I was chronicling my weight loss journey. But as I have not updated that blog for over a year since I usually just post here about those issues, I decided I will not be renewing my domain name for that site when it’s due in March.

So, I have imported all of the posts from that blog to this one. You’ll find them dispersed in between the regular posts here according to their dates. You can still go to The Weight Loss Papers at this point, but it will cease to exist on March 12th.

Be blessed,

{Weather}

The weather here in the Seattle area has been just absolutely gorgeous lately! I’m really enjoying it. It’s still cold in the morning and at night – about 30-36?- and warms up to the mid 50’s by noon or so. Quite nice! Things that don’t normally bloom until Spring are starting to blossom already and there are a lot of birds as well.

{Shoulder}

I think I must have inadvertently slept on my shoulder last night because it and my arm are incredibly sore this morning. Not just sore, actually, but downright painful. I hope the referral for my MRI comes very soon. Kinda getting tired of waiting. I want to know what can be done about this pain before it gets any worse.

{Weight}

Now that it’s been almost a whole month since my doctor changed my blood pressure medication, I’m absolutely sure it was what causing the weight gain. Since I began taking the new medication, I’ve lost 10 pounds and I haven’t changed anything else – foods, exercise, etc – so I know for sure that’s what it is. This is very good news! I am so glad it was the answer.

Let me tell you – being “in touch” with your body and what’s going on with it is very important. If I hadn’t been, I’d still be taking the other medication and my weight would still be climbing. Many people don’t understand those subtle things about their bodies and aren’t really in tune with what’s going on. You owe it yourself – and your family – to understand your body and your health. Taking care of yourself is paramount.

{Cane}

My cane arrived last Thursday and I went grocery shopping with my mom Friday. Using the cane was so nice. I was able to take the pressure off my leg a lot and that really helped my endurance. My back didn’t start really complaining until we were nearly finished with our shopping. And I didn’t have that odd grinding feeling in my back every time I took step. I think this is going to turn out to be very helpful indeed! Glad I decided to go with it.

{Projects}

I’ve got two major projects going on right now. Both are for my cousin’s hair and nail salon. The first is designing a website for her home salon and make up line. It’s been fun and challenging! The second is a web-based application I’m building with Ruby on Rails for her to keep track of her client information. I’m having a good time learning RoR as I go along and I think the application is going to turn out well.

{Snow Leopard}

I finally took the plunge and upgraded my MacBook Pro to the latest OS X operating system – Snow Leopard. It’s running great and I like the updates. Lots of new features that I didn’t have in the Tiger edition of the OS. Some of the improvements are just little changes but those are good too. My system is now running faster (although it was never really all that slow) and I gained a few GB of space on my hard drive. That’s pretty cool! Before SL, I had 24gb of hdd space and now I’ve got 30gb, so that’s a bonus.

{The Husband}

My husband has been in college since last Spring, taking the AA degree program in welding. He’s almost finished! Yay! He gets to take a certification test next week and then he’ll actually be qualified to work in the industry in Washington State. Then, he has Spring quarter plus a couple more classes over Summer quarter to complete the full degree. Being that he’s never really finished anything in his entire life, this is a huge milestone for him. Now, hopefully, he will find a good job in the industry and stick with it.

{Miscellaneous}

I think I’ll do an “Around the Web” update this week and maybe even a few other things. Haven’t done those in a while and I know everybody always enjoys those. So look out for that, probably Wednesday or Thursday.

And have a great week!

Until next time -

Be blessed,

It seems there’s still some confusion about the disqus commenting system. So, just be clear . . .

• You do not have to sign up with disqus to comment.
• You can use your name/email/web address to comment just like usual on WordPress blogs. Disqus calls this commenting as a “Guest.” Disqus does not “get” your information when you comment this way. I do, though – just like I do when using normal WP commenting.
• Disqus isn’t going to send you spam if you don’t sign up for the service when you comment as a guest.
• If you don’t want to get email replies when others comment on the post after you, uncheck the “Subscribe to comments on this post” box BEFORE you submit your comment (it is checked by default and I don’t know how to change that).
• You can unsubscribe from post comments in any email you receive about a new comment reply. Just click the link at the end of the email that says “Unsubscribe from comments.”

Please do not call an email you get from this blog about a follow up comment on a post SPAM. It is not spam. You simply didn’t uncheck the box to subscribe to comments when you posted your comment. That’s not my fault, dear. It’s yours. And it’s easily fixable. So just fix it if you don’t want emails about replies, okay?

Simple as that.

I hope this clears up any “problems” you have with receiving emails about replies.

Have a great weekend! I’m going to go grocery shopping so I can use my new cane and see if it makes a difference in the pain in my back. I sure hope it does because walking around the grocery store and pushing a cart is very painful. I’d like to be able to walk around the store, do my shopping, get home and put my groceries away without feeling like my back got ran over by a Mack truck.

Until then . . .

Be blessed,

I’ll have the entry for this weeks {W}rite of Passage Challenge up Tuesday. Oops!

Got busy with other stuff and totally ran out of time.

See you tomorrow.

Be blessed,

A few months ago, I tried to install the disqus comment system. I have a disqus account and really like being able to post comments on other blogs and be able to track them. But I didn’t like how it worked on my site so after a few weeks, I uninstalled it.

And now I’m going to try re-installing it. So, if things seem broken or other-wise borked, blame it on disqus!

Please bear with me while I sort any kinks and do let me know if you have any trouble. (You can send me an email from the contact page.)

Also, I may be playing around with a few other things – possibly the header and maybe even the site design.

Thanks!

In the arena,

Want to work with an award-winning writer? Now is your chance! Hurry and book for the first half of 2010 before the calendar is full. I still have some space available. Check out the Hire Me tab above for info on how to contact me and your reserve your spot now.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

My posts over the past few months have been few and far between. I’m not going to rehash the why’s now (you can read my previous post for a glimpse at that) but again I’d like to apologize for leaving you hanging! And also thank you for sticking with me. I appreciate that you’re still here reading along.

So, every once in a while, I flip-flop around, wondering exactly what this blog is all about. What should I write here? Anything? Everything? Should it only be about personal things? Or business? Maybe both? Or even something else entirely?

And I always come back to the answer that it should include everything. It just feels right. Several years ago a well-meaning friend said I should separate the business from the personal and not have it all on one blog and while I appreciated her input, it just doesn’t work for me. Everything in my “real” life overlaps – why I should it not overlap here? For me, it’s part of being authentic.

Over the next few weeks you may see a some changes going on around here. I am planning to incorporate more business related things including current designs and projects I’m working on as well as some thoughts on more work-type topics. What exactly that entails at this point, I’m not entirely sure. We’ll see what happens as things go along.

And I say this because every time I try to make some sort of schedule or plan for what I want here, it always goes by the wayside at some point and I rarely stick to it. So I apologize for being so vague but I do hope you’ll enjoy what happens and I hope you come along for the ride!

Stay tuned! I’m going to talk about Thanksgiving next and also something I read on another blog this morning.

Have a beautiful Sunday!

In the arena,

I’ve been listening to Christmas music all weekend! The last few years I’ve been rather “blah” about this holiday but this year, I’m pushing all that muck aside and allowing the light to shine. Are you ready for the most special season of the year?

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Hey! I’m writing this to you from the Wordpress app on my mobile. It’s pretty cool so far and I’m hoping it will allow me to update things much more often.

I hope you had a great Veteran’s Day Wednesday if you’re here in the US. And if you are a Vet, please accept my deepest gratitude for your service to our nation. We are free because of you. Thank you!

Have a fabulous weekend, all!

~Annie Anderson