Duotrope

Welcome to the new streamlined look.  I decided I had too many gadgets on the sidebars, so it was time to clean up, and in the process, I thought a new design was in order.  I hope you like it.

This was actually incited by my deciding that I could no longer advertise for Duotrope in my sidebar.  Duotrope, for anyone unfamiliar with the service, is a combination market list, search engine, and submission tracker all rolled into one.  It's got a lot more features than that, and it's awesome.  I use it all the time for my short story submissions, and it has helped me find no end of markets to send my work to.

So why, you might ask, do I no longer feel that I can advertise for them?  Well, there's been a lot of controversy about them for the last month because they just went from being free to being a paid service.  And I don't have a problem with that overall, but their price seems to have jumped pretty steep in my opinion.  I, and I'm not alone in this thinking if the huge number of comments on their facebook page are any indication, feel that they'll be driving away a lot of users--and they'd probably keep more people AND make more money at a lower price point.  And the number of users they have is important, not just to their ability to make money, but to all users, because one of their awesome features is submission statistics for all of the markets they list.  You can see average response times based on self-reported data from other users, which can be helpful in deciding whether a market is a good one to submit to, whether it'll respond too fast or too slow for you, and also in helping you determine if your response has taken too long and a query is in order.  If they drive away a lot of their users, their statistics will suffer.  Duotrope has stated that they don't think the stats will suffer, that most of the users they'll lose will be those who don't keep track of their submissions as regularly, but I don't share their confidence.  Personally, I plan to purchase one month every quarter or so, and just do my submissions in waves.  If I have a clear idea of where a story will go next during my "off" months, I'll still submit it and just report the submission later, but if I need help finding a market, the story will just have to wait around for a few months.  The one good thing is they say your account will still be there, even if you don't subscribe all the time.  So my data will all be waiting for me each time I purchase a month.

But all this isn't necessarily a reason to remove a link to Duotrope.  They provide an awesome service, and I've just said I will continue to use them, just not as often.  The reason I'm no longer linking to them is because they've chosen to not offer any kind of trial period for the service.  Virtually nothing remains free on their site.  Now, my link was worthless to authors who already know about and use Duotrope, because they already know how to get to it.  Having a link pointed potential new users to their site--something I was eager to do until now.  However, I don't see Duotrope attracting new users without a trial period.  Most people aren't going to plunk down money to use a service sight-unseen.  They won't get a chance to play around with the search engine and see how awesome it is, nor will they experience the thrill of trying to interpret the stats.  Without any type of trial, I don't feel comfortable directing people to try them out.  So I took down my link.

I've been rather disappointed with how Duotrope has handled this transition, to be honest.  Their PR was terrible and they just seem to have made a lot of mistakes.  They're new to this business model so I can understand, but it was disappointing.  I'm fully expecting there to be a lot of flux in this first year, which is another reason I don't intend to pay for a full year's subscription.  What I really hope is that this doesn't kill them, because they really do provide an incredible service.  It helped me find the only market that has purchased my work thus far, and they've regularly helped me stay on top of my game.  I want to see them succeed, and I want to see their users remain happy as well.

Lose Weight with one weird tip - hrm...

Did you ever see these internet ads?  "Lose Weight with this one weird tip," "Area Mom discovers weird weightloss tip that really works," etc.  I used to see them all the time, although they've disappeared lately.  Now, I ignore 99% of internet ads.  If I see them, I usually just scoff at their advertisements and move on.  So I knew before clicking that those ads would be some sort of scam, but as I'd been hoping to lose the last few baby pounds, I was curious whether there were any nuggets to glean from the excrement.

There weren't.  In fact, I sort of wish I'd saved the webpage, just to be able to show my children someday when teaching them how to determine if a website is reliable.  Does it claim to be written by an impartial expert without giving any credentials about the author?  Does it provide a glowing review without a single negative?  Does it pretend to offer a scientific experiment that turns out to be one self-reported case study?  Does it fail to offer explanations for why "scientific" choices were made?  Does it claim larger-than-life results?  Do all links within the website point back to itself?  Is there a pop-up alert when you navigate away from the page, asking if you really want to do that and turn down such an amazing offer?  Yes to all?  Well, hmm.....................

The main ingredient in the diet pills in question (and it took a little reading before I even got to the part where I learned that this "diet" involved several "natural" supplements) sounded familiar to me, so I googled it independently.  Know what the ingredient was?

The pregnancy hormone.

Yes, some wackos decided that hormones that prepare a woman's body to nurture a fetus for nine months would somehow make people lose weight.  Considering that women gain a heck of a lot of weight during pregnancy, the logic here baffles me.  (I'd also like to know how they extract this hormone in order to put it in pills.  After all, home pregnancy tests are designed to react to that hormone, and we all know what women have to do to those little sticks...)

The article I was reading went on to say that claims that the hormone would cause weightloss were scientifically unfounded and selling it was actually illegal (or perhaps they were working on making it illegal--I can't remember the details, this was some time ago.)  I was therefore surprised that I kept encountering these ads on a well-respected news website.

The ads did disappear after a time, and I don't know why.  Unfortunately due to the nature of cookies and web-crawlers, the ads on my blog will probably now include this one, if it still exists.  Don't click through if it does--unless you'd like a laugh.

I'm happy to report that, without any help from diet scams, I have met my goal of attaining pre-pregnancy weight, and have maintained it for a few months now.  And I'm not just talking pre-Kal'El weight, which was about ten pounds higher than pre-Zaxxon weight.  No, I've reached pre-Zaxxon weight.  And I am thankful.  Babies have permanently changed my abdomen, but at least I'm no longer carrying around the extra pounds.  And I'm more than happy to share my "one weird tip," absolutely free of charge.

Water.

I decided, more for overall health and not with the intention of using it to lose weight, that I needed to be more hydrated.  Instead of trying to carry water around with me wherever I went, I just decided to use the bathroom as a mental stop.  After using the bathroom, I grab the cup I keep in there, fill it up, and down it.  It didn't take long for this to become habit, and the last ten pregnancy pounds slid off pretty quickly.  I believe this was partially because my stomach was fuller before meals, so I ate less.  Whether it helped in other ways, I can't say, but I can say that it worked.   I can also say that I've gotten slightly healthier in other regards, most notably with skin.  I used to get chronic eczema on my hands, and while I still get flare-ups, they are far less common now.  There have been a few other benefits as well, but I don't feel I need to delve into those topics on this blog.

Me, ten weeks with Zaxxon, before I started to show

Me, immediately after Zaxxon

Me, about ten weeks with Kal'El

Yes, it's not a huge difference, but lots of pants still didn't fit.

Me, immediately after Kal'El

Me, now.

Woot!

Zoom!

We asked our family to pitch in and get Zaxxon an early birthday gift this summer, because we wanted him to have a bike and have the chance to ride it during the right season.  The family came through in spades, and so we got Zaxxon this wicked awesome Balance Bike!

It's a Mini Glider by Glide Bikes.  The principle of these bikes is that pedaling isn't hard to learn, yet that's all a kid really masters with traditional training wheels.  Take them off and the child still doesn't know how to balance.  Balance bikes have no pedals (and no training wheels.)  The child moves it along with his/her feet, learning how to balance as they go.  As they gain confidence, they pick up speed and will take their feet off the ground and glide, just like on a normal bike.  Supposedly, they'll transition to a normal bike with little effort once they have the balancing down.  These things are supposed to be all the rage in Europe, and are just emerging here in the U.S.

Well, I can't speak to the long-term effects yet, but Zaxxon has taken to this thing like a fish to water.  We've had it for less than two weeks and he's already zooming around, gliding, pretending he's going to run into things (and not always actually stopping in time,) and going so fast that we have to either jog to keep up or tell him to stop and wait.  I'm probably going to get a cheap bike trailer soon so we can pack Kal'El along and go for family bike rides.

These things come in metal or wood.  We thought metal would take a lot more abuse than wood, so went with that.  This particular model had two things we also liked, and was the only metal brand that had both.  1) It's got a hand brake, so he has a means of stopping other than his feet.  Traditional kids bikes brake by pushing backwards on the pedals, and since this thing has no pedals... 2) It's got foot pegs, so once he regularly takes his feet off the ground, he's got somewhere to rest them--and they're in roughly the same place as pedals will be, training him to put his feet in the right place.

We all love this bike.  If I were reviewing it, I'd give it five stars.  It's wonderful.  We have gone for walks/rides nearly every evening since this thing came into our lives (it's too hot in Colorado to take it out in the middle of the day right now.)

Zaxxon loves his bike.  It ROCKS!

A big map

I typically try to blog about writing on Wednesdays, but I can't think of anything to discuss this week.  Editing on the novel is on a steady, even keel (slow, but steady) and I also revisited a story this week, but nothing happened to spark conversation.  So instead, I'll show you a way in which I wasted a good deal of writing time a few months back.

I decided I wanted a detailed map of Kennedy Space Center, Titusville, and the surrounding area so I could have an accurate picture in my mind of where everything happens in my novel.  After spending a long time online trying to find a printable map, I gave up and made one from google maps, one six-inch square at a time.

In case you're interested, there are 53 squares here.  Hubby was amused by the new wallpaper in the office.  And yes, this is my way of dragging my heels when intimidated by the task at hand.  I've moved past this particular bout of writers block though, and I'm glad I have this reference.

What's the most time-consuming task you've done to distract yourself from writing?

Solar Eclipse in Colorado!

Yesterday evening, we packed up our dinner as a picnic and headed out to a nearby park in order to watch the eclipse.  It covered 80% of the sun at maximum viewing, which was only about 20 minutes before sunset.  My parents were kind enough to pick us up some eclipse glasses a few days ago, so we had a safe way to watch.

Not a bad picture, considering all I did was aim my point-and-shoot camera through the eclipse glasses!

The weather was not ideal--partly cloudy, the sun kept popping in and out of clouds.  Once the sliver of sun got thinner than this, my camera couldn't figure out what to focus on, especially since it was rapidly moving behind clouds as I tried to aim.

Zaxxon observed that the sun looked like the moon.  We enjoyed examining its shape, and observing that first the crescent pointed down, and then as the eclipse began to wane, the crescent pointed left.

We found it amazing how powerful the sun still was.  You couldn't tell at all, by trying to glance at the sun, that anything different was going on.  Now, if it had been noon as opposed to nearly sunset and if it hadn't been cloudy, then perhaps the light would have dimmed enough to take notice of the change in light.  However, we felt that we were nearly the only people at the park aware that anything special was going on overhead.  The park was crowded--I think a soccer game had just ended--but we passed only two people we were certain were watching the eclipse.  They had either a very small refractive telescope or a very large zoom for a camera, mounted on a tripod, aimed at the sun.  I wanted to walk over and chat, but by the time I was ready to do so the sun had just set, and they walked off in the other direction.  Oh well.

Don't I look cool in my eclipse shades?

Trying to keep Zaxxon eating while balancing an eleven-month-old on my lap (who kept sticking his fingers into my food) and periodically putting on the eclipse shades or trying to snap photos through them was quite an experience.  I was actually reminded of a story by Connie Willis, which I looked up after we got home.  It's called "And Come From Miles Around," which appeared in 1979.  It's the story of a young mother who drove 700 miles with her husband, his coworker, and their two-year-old to watch a total solar eclipse.  The weather threatens to be horrible but she figures out, based on things she saw whilst chasing the child around, that special visitors came to see the eclipse who would assure good weather during the show.  I re-read it last night and felt kinship with the protagonist and her attempts to keep her daughter occupied.

The playground behind us helped to keep our brood occupied.

We had fun, and decided that perhaps we'll take a road trip in five years--the next time there's supposed to be a total eclipse in the USA.  It would be neat to see the whole thing.  As for something nearer, there's supposed to be a transit of Venus sometime in early June, and we're wondering if that will be visible without magnification through the eclipse glasses.  I also wonder how expensive solar filters are for telescopes.  If I can get something cheap, perhaps it's time to dust off my old six-inch reflector and have an astronomy party.  One thing I'm not sure of though:  how does one align a telescope to true north during the day when the north star isn't visible?

Geeks Unite! Let's fly on the Enterprise!

Yesterday evening, I walked into the office to see hubby reading an article with this title:

Starship Enterprise could be a reality by 2032, engineer says


An in-depth news article is Here, and the actual website is http://www.buildtheenterprise.org/
 
Basically, this guy believes we can build a spaceship with the design of the Enterprise, and he says, "It ends up that this ship configuration is quite functional."  It wouldn't have everything, of course, and there would be no warp power, but he believes it would be capable of exploring our solar system within a decent timetable (90 days to Mars.)
 
How awesome would it be to have a real starship Enterprise?  Hubby and I will be celebrating our ten year anniversary next year and intend to take a cruise for the occasion (our honeymoon was a cruise, and we are ever-eager for more.)  Now we know what our 30th anniversary cruise will be too!
 
The website, which was just launched about a week ago, is aimed at trying to convince...well, Everyone...that this is worth the investment.  He's aiming at NASA and Washington, but it seems to me that his target audience ought to be private investors.  I've long thought that the future of space exploration will probably come from the private sector, because that's where the people with the interest and money are (in fact, that's part of my novel.)  Find the Star Trek nerds with large disposable incomes and get them onboard.  The rest will follow.
 
Anyone care to meet in Ten Forward in twenty or twenty-one years for drinks as we sail to the Moon or Mars?

Interview at Myself as Written

One of my blogging chums, Charlie Holmberg at Myself as Written, runs a series called "Someday Stars."  This week, she interviewed me!  Check it out at the link:

http://myselfaswritten.blogspot.com/2012/03/someday-stars-meet-eileen-rhoadarmer.html

This is how Zaxxon sees the world

As I was getting ready to make play dough the other day, Zaxxon started playing with the camera.  I was amused by many of his shots, and thought I'd share.

(I think I was wearing this same shirt the last time I let him take pictures)

(I like the way he captured the sky and trees on this one)

Kind of puts life in a different perspective, doesn't it?

Merry Early Christmas to Me

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I'd like my work to be more portable.  My laptop's battery isn't worth much--not to mention the hooks holding it on broke so it slips off easily--so it's basically a desktop computer these days.  That's fine most of the time (even though the basement is freezing,) but there are plenty of times that I wish I could bring word processors with me on the go.

Tablets are all the rage these days, but I know I'll never be a tablet person.  You can't type anywhere near fast enough on those things even if you could manage to hit the right part of the screen every time, and the keyboards you can hook into them aren't very good, in my opinion.  Yes, tablets will never be the tool of choice for writers--at least not without DRASTIC improvements to design.  That doesn't stop me from having a tablet, but only because my father has decided that they are his new hobby--he buys them broken, voids their warranties by taking them apart and moving parts from one to the next, and puts together a smaller number of working ones.  Mine is one of his refurbishments.

I've been liking the idea of netbooks, though.  I particularly like how small and light they are--perfect for taking with me while the boys go to storytime or lessons or something.  I can sit and work while they have fun, and my computer won't weigh me down at all--not at 2.7 pounds!

Hubby liked this idea too, so we've been researching them.  After we decided on ones we liked, we kept an eye out for sales.  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, since I don't like crowds, lines, or shopping) the Black Friday deals were all for models that didn't perform as well as we'd like.  We did find one on sale, though, and so we decided to get them now.  Our original plan had been to ask for gift cards for Christmas so we could buy our new toys, but now we'll need that in cash, to reimburse ourselves.

We didn't wait until Christmas to open them and start playing (can you blame us?) but we did open the boxes in front of the Christmas tree!

Giving a Camera to a Three-Year-Old

I let Zaxxon take pictures with my camera for the first time yesterday.  This shot would've been great if he'd left the flash up.

And this one would've been great if he hadn't cut Kal'El's eyes off

Oh well, not bad for a first-timer!  (We got lots of shots of the floor, too.)

Science Fiction Mommy is on Facebook

Well, I've done it.  I created a Facebook page for myself.  I have a personal one, but now I have an "Author" page that people can "Like" if they so choose.  So if you're interested in getting writing updates to your facebook, or want to connect/network in that way, please check it out.

http://www.facebook.com/sciencefictionmommy
(There's also a "like" button on my left sidebar now.)

There's been a lot going on and little time to post.  I hope to get a few more updates on the blog soon!

My New Workspace

Yes, having a second baby meant I got booted out of my old office. Hubby and I used to have separate work spaces, which was nice because hubby sometimes works on film editing and that can be noisy. However, we no longer have room for separate work spaces, so I have moved downstairs into our combined office.

Hubby used to have a very old Mac at this desk, but it was time to let it move on.  Most of the toys on the shelf are still his, as are the tapes.  It's been kind of fun getting everything reorganized, but it's also been nice that I've been able to do it at a leisurely pace.  The saddest thing is that this isn't going to be very comfortable in the winter since the basement gets really cold.  *sigh*  The things we do for our children.  I'll just have to drink lots of tea.

Maternity leave ends tomorrow!  And this is where the magic will happen.

I Won a Prize!

So I was a little disappointed in the way the prizes worked for the Ultimate Blog Party this year.  They had a prize form to fill out on the 5 Minutes for Mom site, and I'm sure it was much easier for them than last year's process (where they randomly chose winners from the thousands of comments and then had to check out the person's blog to see which prizes they preferred to win.)  However, I was upset that they required at Twitter identity in order to enter.  I've had no desire to join Twitter as of yet, but there was no way around it, so I didn't enter.  Bummer, since I won a prize last year.

However, some of the blogs I visited in my whirlwind week had giveaways of their own, and I won one of them!

I won a giveaway from Christie over at Average Moms Wear Capes.  I got to choose a necklace from her etsy shop, and this is the one I've requested:

Pretty cool!  Thank you Christie!

Our Solution

A few weeks ago, our washing machine ceased to drain and spin.  I'd been thinking it took too long to drain for some time now--possibly for its entire life (~18 months) but it's hard to say for sure since this is the sort of thing you don't write down until much later.  In retrospect, it was probably only a few months.  At any rate, I was really upset that our washer went kaput when it was so young--but past the end of the warranty.

Hubby, on the other hand, consulted our good friend Google and found some promising leads--promising in that it was user-maintenance, so we could attempt it without spending money on a service call.

It turned out that one of our son's Halloween socks (missing since, you guessed it, Halloween) had somehow gotten sucked into the drain pump.  Don't ask me how; I really can't fathom it.  I mean, the drain holes in that washer (and all washers, really) are TINY!  However, it happened, and has been acting as a filter to catch lots of gunk for the past five months.  I don't know whether it just got forced into a completely blocked position recently or if it just happened to catch enough dirt now to complete the clog, but this was the cause of the machine's failure to drain (and consequently, spin.)

I was glad we were able to do this work ourselves, although it was a PAIN!!!  It took 3 1/2 hours (not including the time to disconnect/reconnect the water supply hoses, move it in and out of position, etc.)  The most time consuming and obnoxious part was getting the black drain hose in and out of the machine.  The clamps holding it in place were darn-near impossible to work with.  Now don't get me wrong--I'm very glad they're tight and keep water from spilling all over our floor--but a really tight clamp holding a flexible rubber pipe to a small surface area is hard to manipulate.  Getting it off took several minutes, but getting it back on took close to a half hour--with sore arms and small nicks from the rough metal edges of the machine to show for it.  Hubby says this makes us officially parents--not only have we done home-repair work, but it's home repair work directly linked to our child.  Without him, we wouldn't have needed to do this.  (And he didn't even do anything!)

Despite the fact that I can't figure out how the sock got through those tiny holes, Hubby and I now faced a dilemma.  We're going to have tiny socks in our lives for a long time still to come.  So how do we keep ourselves from having to repeat this adventure?

Our solution:  the sock bag.

This bag is a reusable mesh produce bag sold at King Soopers.  We had five already, and decided that buying another 3-pack was in order.  Each child now gets a bag to hold their socks in the wash.  This way they can't get sucked into the ether, plus they won't get lost in larger pieces of clothing.

(Betcha didn't know the washing machine really CAN eat those socks that go missing!)

Where do you Sign an Anthology?

My parents came over this weekend and asked me to sign their copy of Doomology!  So here I am, signing my first autograph!

This sparked a conversation regarding where, in an anthology containing multiple authors, does one sign autographs?  The title page?  The table of contents, next to your story?  The first page of your story?  Wherever you darn well please?

Considering that these are my parents we're talking about, and they're unlikely to have any other Doomology authors sign their copy (unless someone else happens to fall into their laps) we decided it didn't really matter.  In fact, I imagine most anyone who asks me to sign Doomology (at least before I make more sales) will be people I know personally who aren't likely to seek out other autographs for the book.  But I'm still curious about what the 'proper autograph etiquette'--if there is such a thing--would be in this instance.  Both Google and Ask.com have been unhelpful, at least with the various ways I've attempted to word the query.

I signed my parents' copy next to my name and story on the table of contents, which strikes me as probably the best place.  After all, if you had every author sign the title page you'd end up with a huge mess, and possibly some bigheaded person would sign in huge letters in the middle in an attempt to take center stage.  But I wondered what other authors thought.  Where would you sign?

How Did I Miss Banned Book Week?

Well, to be honest I've never actually participated in anything to do with the week, but I do take pride in reading the books.  In fact, as a writer I think I would take a certain amount of pride in having people try to ban something I write.  It would mean I was saying something.

My high school had a science fiction class, which I took during my junior year.  (More than 10 years later, I still think that's cool.)  It was an excellent class, and introduced me to many great pieces of literature.  But the thing I remember most about that class was something the teacher told us one day:  "If you haven't offended someone, you haven't really said anything."  I don't believe he was the originator of this quote, but he is the person who introduced it to me, and it had a profound effect on me which has lasted to this day.  People get offended by things, but that doesn't mean they aren't worth saying.  Sometimes it means they're worth saying even more.

The sad thing is that I don't even remember this teacher's name.  I should probably go check out my yearbook--since he had such an impact on me, I owe him that much.  Hang on...

It was Mr. Ron Elms.  Thank you, Mr. Elms!

One of my facebook friends posted this article yesterday, about libel lawsuits that kill books far more efficiently than trying to ban them.  It's worth reading for any author--and readers as well.  It's a good idea to make dramatic changes to anyone living that you don't plan to show in a good light, or so it seems.  But isn't that one of the great things about science fiction?  You can imagine a horrible outcome to a current event, but place it so far into an exaggerated future that no one can really point fingers.  In fact, if you do it right, people from all sides of the political/religious/scientific/whatever spectrum can look at it without taking offense, because if it's good they can claim people of their beliefs would bring it about, and if its bad they can blame it on people who don't agree with them.  (George Orwell, anyone?)

The Funny Thing About Formula

I received something amusing in the mail yesterday.  It was a notification about a recall on baby formula.  I found this amusing because I haven't used formula in more than a year, and when I did use it, my son got approximately one or two bottles per week.

Though I was primarily nursing, I gave my son formula for two reasons.  One, I wanted him to be familiar with using a bottle in case a) I needed/wanted some time off or b) there was some kind of emergency.  Two, I wanted him familiar with the taste of formula for reasons a and b above.  My motivation for this mostly came from a horror story my mom tells of a time she was out with her sister, and then stuck in traffic, when I was a hungry infant.  I flat-out refused the bottle of formula my dad offered me and by the time Mom got home I was hysterical, she was engorged, and nursing was uncomfortable for both of us.  Apparently I also gave my dad the crustiest look when he handed me over, at least according to my aunt.  I wanted to prevent any such thing from happening with my son, especially as I wanted to not HAVE to be his only source of food 24/7.

Okay, there was your story for the day.  Anyway, I mostly got the formula I used from free samples, but I also joined all the formula clubs so I could get their checks and coupons.  I purchased two, maybe three cans of formula total.  Eventually the checks stopped coming, probably because I seldom used them.  The formula club is the only way I can think of that Similac got my address to inform me of this recall.  But really, you'd think they'd realize that I wasn't using formula anymore considering that my son is almost two and I used so few of their checks.  Are there really people who keep giving their kids formula for this long?

The most interesting thing about this recall notification is the manner in which they sent it.  It came in an 8x11 inch padded envelope, and yet there was only one folded piece of paper inside.  I suppose they were counting on the uniqueness of the envelope to catch my attention--which worked, I opened it right away--but wouldn't a normal envelope with the bold words "ATTENTION:  BABY FORMULA RECALL" on the outside attract just as much attention?  At least for parents currently using formula?  It was a voluntary recall too, not even a known health threat.

All right, I'm through musing on this subject.  At the very least, it gave me something to talk about.

Welcome to the New Science Fiction Mommy!

As you can see, I've done a little redesigning.  Firstly, I now have a button you can grab and imbed on your own webpage if you'd like a fancy link to me--it's just below "About Me."

The whole blog redesign basically centered around that.  I've been wanting to make a button for a while, but didn't know how and didn't have an image either.  I finally started browsing royalty-free clip art and discovered that there were some alien images that came close to what I wanted.  So I copied them and got busy editing and tweaking to my heart's content.  I not only made the button but the fancy new header and a banner I can add to message board signatures (if they allow such things.)

I found this very detailed article on ehow telling me exactly how to add the code for the button and text box to my blog.  It was far easier than I'd imagined and wasn't worth the worry I've given it during the months that I've been putting this off.

Then I decided that a lighter background might be easier on the eyes (I got a bit of feedback on that a while back), so I found a new one.  I've also added nice, fancy links to NaNoWriMo and Critters, as you can see on the right.

I'm very happy with the new look, and am proud of myself for figuring out how to do it.  However, I think I'll stop pretending I know how to write code and go back to my novel.  Enjoy the new features!

Many Silhouette Giveaways

Well, how about that?  Not even a week ago I blogged about my son's birthday invitations and how I would like to get a Silhouette machine, and then my friend finds two Silhouette giveaways to enter!  Sure, my odds are about 1 in 500 (and that's if more people don't enter before they end) but that's still a chance, right?  So for anyone else who is interested, here are the links to the Silhouette giveaways:

From Blue Cricket Design (ends September 29)
http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/2010/09/show-and-tell-with-silhouette.html

and from Somewhat Simple (ends September 30)
http://www.somewhatsimple.com/2010/08/abc-create-with-me-huge-giveaway.html


Holy @#$#*@#!!!  There are more of them than I realized!  Here are a few MORE Silhouette giveaways:

From Amy's Finer Things (ends Sept 30)
http://amysfinerthings.com/giveaway-silhouette-craft-cutter-300-value

From Twig & Thistle (ends Sept 30)
http://www.twigandthistle.com/blog/2010/09/giveaway-silhouette-digital-cutting-tool/

From The Shopping Mama (ends Sept 30)
http://theshoppingmama.com/2010/09/crafting-made-easy-with-the-silhouette-craft-cutter-review-giveaway/

From Our Best Bites (ends Sept 28)
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/09/silhouette-digital-craft-cutter.html

From How Does She? (ends Sept 29)
http://www.howdoesshe.com/silhouette-machine

From Crafty Pod (ends Sept 30) (that sure sounds like a sci-fi name to me!)
http://www.craftypod.com/2010/09/27/review-giveaway-silhouette-craft-cutter/

Let Pumpkin Season Begin!

Yesterday, I went to a Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off.  I found out about it last week and thought it sounded like fun.  I was also hoping to find some advice, because I have a horrible time growing pumpkins.  Few of my female flowers open (they just wither on the vine and die) so I don't get the chance to pollinate them (yes, I have tried to help my pumpkins have sex.)  So I was hoping that somebody there might be able to tell me what I was doing wrong.

The weigh-off was for the Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers Club.  It had many elements of a typical fall harvest festival--food, drink, bouncy castle, face painting, baking contest--with the notable difference that the competition fruits were a yard in diameter.  There were some pretty impressive pumpkins at this thing.  I went by myself, but next year I think I'll bring the family.  My son is a little timid in crowds right now, but by next year I hope he would enjoy the bouncy castle and the fruit that's bigger than him.

I didn't stay the whole time, so I didn't get the chance to see what the heaviest pumpkin weighed.  (They were starting with the lightest.)  I wanted to see the big ones, but needed to get home.  However, I did stay long enough to see how they transported the pumpkins, which I was really curious about.  The smaller pumpkins (like those for the junior division, which I DID see all of) they simply rolled the pumpkin back, pushed a tarp with handles under it, and then team lifted it with two to four people.  I knew they were never going to do that with the thousand-pounders, so I was curious.  The answer is that after using a forklift to bring the pallet with the pumpkin over next to the scale, they used this apparatus, hanging from the forklift, to wrap around the pumpkin:

Then the forklift carried the pumpkin to the scale, where they removed the harness and weighed it.  Pretty nifty!  (By the way, this pumpkin is tiny.  It only weighed in at around 275 pounds.  Last year's Colorado record was somewhere in the vicinity of 1,200-1,300 pounds!)

One of these years, perhaps I'll grow a giant of my own.  After I get my growing problem sorted, that is.  Of course, I'm hoping that I'll be in a completely different house next spring, so my problem might go away on its own.

After seeing all the giants yesterday, and considering that we're now five days from October, I decided it was time to puree the pie pumpkins I got at last week's farmers' market in preparation of doing some pumpkin baking.  I make some killer Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies which I can only allow myself to make in October and November so my family doesn't overeat all year long.  We also have some good pumpkin pasta and pumpkin soup recipes, and I like to make my own puree.  I only got 5 cups from two pumpkins though, so I'm going to have to buy another 4 or 5 of them.  The soup takes 4 cups on its own, and the cookies take 2 for each batch (technically that's for a double batch, but I always make it double, it means I can wait a little longer before making more.)  So I'm going to need to stock up on more pumpkin.

I hope everybody's Halloween/Harvest Time goes well!