So tell me what could the Tooth Fairy, your comments, Mary-LEU's award, 100% humidity, wounded wings, computer reloads, colds, pink eye, lightening, coffee shops, and another long assortment of events / items possibly have in common? How about the word "oops"?

The Tooth Fairy

The first "oops" is just for all you Tooth Fairy assistants out there.

One Tooth Fairy Assistant stopped by my husband's workplace recently. He shared this real life, absolutely true story.

One of his little wards left her tooth out for collection. He slipped in to her room as she slept, flipped open his wallet, pulled out a bill, and made the swap. Business as usual.

The next morning the very, very excited little darling ran to her daddy waving a $50 bill. Yes, that's F I F T Y.

The warning that the Tooth Fairy Assistant delivered is this: Never pull a bill from you wallet in the dark.

Poor Tooth Fairy Assistant only had a $5 bill with which to buy his lunch -- for several days.

Running Damaged

OOoops! For weeks I had a damaged shoulder from mousing around too much. But I started doing some stretching exercises, changed some sleeping habits, took more ibuprofen than I like to, and gradually started to improve.

I also ordered a $20 pen tablet to use more often than my mouse. It's a referb. I knew I was buying old technology. Oops! When it arrived, the box said "Works great with Windows 98!" But I tell you it also works great with Windows XP! Vista? What's Vista?

Ok this is just plain sick

Let's see ... On 8/25, I came and logged in to approve Atypical's comment from 8/8!! And oops! Not only was I shamefully slow in posting Atypical's post, I discovered that my comment notifications were no longer being received by my email (not that this is a guarantee because I don't always ck my email ... But ... Still!)

I'm going to plead for you to take into consideration that I had to reload my pc right in about this time as it was sick with some spybot of some sort.

And Ooops! Around the 20th came down with a cold.

But, here I was, on Saturday, the 25th (remember?) and I thought I was settling in to write a response to your comments and post an update, etc.

OOops! The day was rapidly heating up and the humidity was getting intense. We finally decided that even though I was only marginally well we HAD to leave the house out of self-defense. For example, the kitchen floor is ceramic tile and it was wet like it had been raining inside the house. Literally. And that bugger was slick as boogers. We were also concerned about running the pc's in conditions like that.

So we went to White Plains in what turned out to be 100 degree heat and 100% humidity to hide in the bookstore and pick up my new glasses.

OOOppps! My glasses are tri-focal transitional ... Ummm I'm fairly sure that the mid-range is messed up. Even after practicing with them for all this time, I'm still convinced. Soooo why not make a return trip to get them checked?

OOoops! On the following Wednesday ... just as my cold was truly receding ... I woke up with pink-eye aka conjunctivitis ... the VIRAL version, of course! So no three-day cure with antibiotics for me! It still dribbles some! Lets see I'm into day about day 10 ... at least I'm not waking up with my eye glued shut anymore! And I can even look at the computer for several hours at a time!

Oh but get this Oooops! Somehow I've still managed to gain a little weight! With next to no appetite! Go fish.

In the Billy Department

About two weeks ago Billy went to the doctor. So Ooops now he's scheduled for a little minor surgery in early October to rid of an annoying cyst-thing. He's relieved. So, really that might not fit the oops category.

But this does: Ooops! There was flooding in Ohio. The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams were called and Billy and another gentleman agreed to go ... but ... oops there were a few things to consider before they could leave ... and then oops there were enough people for the week ... plan for next weekend ... then oops ... really there were so many people and progress was going so well that well ... never mind.

Goodness all that "oh I'm going" "Oh, no, I'm going later" etc got a bit confusing. So much so that at one point I found myself making plans in my head for while Billy was gone ... even after I knew he wasn't leaving!

OH and there's this rather large OOOOPS!

How to NOT Light up My Life. Please!

We live on top of a hill. Our apartment is in the basement. (Only the bedroom can't see out, it's not a dungeon.) Up here, summer is thunderstorm season. So adding those two together we already knew better than to leave any computer equipment plugged in during a rain event. And we don't go to bed or leave until they are unplugged.

So, a storm moved in and we did all the usual things: unplugged the pc's, closed the windows, did not get in the shower, etc.

Yes. This time the house got struck and Ooops! Billy became part of the light show. He was cooking. The pot was an all metal stew pot. Ok, so, add this to the "What not to do during a thunderstorm" list: Do not cook on an electric stove.

After we got over the initial shock :~p Billy proceeded to give me a lecture (complete with props) about volts and amps. I'll spare you all the details. The bottom line is that there were enough volts for an impressive light show but not enough amps to kill him -- just give him the "hebejeebies."

Thank God!

Your Comments, Your Blogs, Mary-LUE's Award

Now, truly things are out of control here, in this department. I am struggling for balance. I miss ya'll.

First off, OOoops, the idea of trying to respond in posts instead of when I approve your comments ... obviously isn't working and isn't going to work. So, I'm returning to the old system.

I did enjoy reading the posts that ya'll linked to. Thank you very much!

And ya'll should find it amusing that my friends and family are beginning to tell me about ya'll's blogs ... Yes! It's true. And, no, not just Daughter V.

And I'm humiliated to admit that Daughter V had to tell me about my award, Mary-LUE. I should have found your note so much sooner! And that it's taken me this long to say "Thank you!" is beyond disgraceful. I really appreciate your kind words and hope that you still think most of the good things that you've thought before.

As to my own Writing

OOoops, I started this post in my journal on 8/29 while I was at the coffee shop waiting on my train to the doc's office.

Oooops, I typed up the first 1/3 on 9/4 ... and oooops it's taken most of today to get this finished (in between other stuff).

So, obviously, I need to go back to my 15 min a day plan.

I also started a Second Life blog for MarillaAnne. I did this because that particular blog hangs around in my profile in Second Life. That profile is one click away from every crazy and every wonderful person in there. So, yes, even though we all know that I can be tracked to this blog ... AND even though we all know there is a certain measure of risk in writing about ourselves on the web ... I have still decided to make it necessary for Second Lifer's to make it a research project to get to this blog. Ok it's a really short research project ... but you get it.

But oops ... I've not been writing for it either!

So by now you're thinking ... wait ... this woman has been wounded, sick, and obviously a little distracted with life ... is she really still in Second Life?

Ummm, yes.

And now I own a coffee shop in Second Life.

But oooops I'm going to weasel out of writing about it right this second because it will require several posts and for some reason my eye has become very unhappy with me and it is now past my bed time.

I started to go to bed and you know add some more to this in the morning ... but ... I think I've droned on enough in this post.

And ... just because this feels like a really long letter for the folks back home (yes, especially my fellow bloggers) ...

I just want ya'll to know I miss being with ya'll all the time and I think of you often. Hopefully, I'll be back with you soon.

Love and hugs,
Pam

Well ... let's see ... First to answer Mary Lou's question and then an observation about "my reader friends" as a group and then ... there was something else ... maybe it will come back to me while I write ... OH Yeah ... a request ...

How are things since my last post?

Well, I slept Tuesday a lot! Then Wednesday was a humid day that made me feel groggy as all get out, too. Yesterday, I fell back into obsessing over software flaws. Sometimes my old work is still fun -- when I'm not getting paid, it's not really my project, and I'm not required to show back up the next day!

OH Wednesday I spent some time gathering up the entirety of our story about us moving from Oregon to New York. It's now all in one spot and pretty much in chronological order. And I've met someone in Second Life who will translate a short version of it into German.

The funny thing about this gentleman is that he's from Southern Germany -- Bavaria. Bavaria feels about the rest of Germany pretty much the same way Texas feels about the rest of the union.

We talk different. We think different. And frankly we don't care if you can tolerate us or not.

It gets funnier. This gentleman's work requires that he speaks regularly with people in Texas. And they have pretty much taught him the Texan language.

Soooo ... now if the two of us can stick to a plan ... funnier things may happen.

The reason I've gathered it all up is so that I can start building a book in SL. My plan is to just leave a copy in each one of my shops and then add a few pages each day. This is not a simple plan. But that's another day and another post. (And I have the distinct impression I may have mentioned this before ... but ... we're gonna pretend I haven't.)

Alright and as to Billy and the young man he's been helping ... there was one day of joy ... only to be followed by more frustration.

Billy knows that it is a "simple thing" to fix. The young man can only see the whole process of removing the transmission again as painful and discouraging.

I will tell you this. I have watched Billy be discouraged about his own car and I have watched him want to give up ... I have watched him dilly dally ... I have watched him pretty much plan to shoot the thing. Sooo no one is more qualified to help this young man through his frustrations than Billy.

In short, this is turning into a huge life lesson for the young man. I am confident that he will rise to the occasion and face that car down. It is also giving Billy something to think about that is within his abilities to at least have some power of influence over.

As to the loss of Billy's friend, it is like a bruise. Sometimes it's tender without any pressure. Sometimes something will move up against it and it is a much more sensitive topic. Sometimes it is almost as if it didn't happen ... being so far from the core of his home.

~~~ The Observation ~~~

Since I'm not approving comments as quickly as I did in the past, they tend to come to my attention in groups. It is amazing to me how each one of you ... without knowing what the other has written ... will speak to me in similar ways on virtually the same track of thought. I appreciate so much that ya'll are not a "me too me too" kind of group and that ya'll do not mind giving a nudge to my own thoughts ... to provide a little encouragement and even a little challenge.

~~~ The Request ~~~

Would you please ... when you land here ... even if you haven't commented in months ... just like me ... Please leave me two or three links to some of your favorite posts on your blog or anyone else's blog -- posts that you want me to know about -- so that I can feel sort of caught up and a little focused?

~~~ A Little Good News ~~~

I'm starting to feel that writing bug again -- ideas are actually arriving of their own accord.

Alright ... Talk to ya'll later ... and please don't be bashful about the links to posts!

See the joy in your day!

Hmmm well it seems I am getting threatening posts and harassing emails. So I give up ...

Yes, it's true! Atypical said, "If you don't come out of hiding soon, I am going to have to send my rambunctiously adorable epileptic dog out in search - and he has a bad sense of direction!"

And Mary-LUE sent me a note saying, "You are awfully quiet. Has Second Life stolen you away from us?"

Even this IM from my own daughter!
[12:05] violetkey: Hi, how goes it?
[12:06] MarillaAnne: HEY I'm actually writing a post
[12:07] violetkey: yeah, i've heard that before

And from my own husband!
[12:12] Billy: u really should put up a new pic
[12:12] Billy: the snow is long gone now

So they've confirmed to me something ... it's time to take my own advice. It's time for me to give up only posting when I have time to write -- as I prefer to. It's time for me to stop dismissing the small bits of time that I have.

Between all the activities that spring brings and working towards having my own business in Second Life, I am simply not able to devote large chunks of time to writing those long meandering posts that I love. But that doesn't mean I should just stop!

Aside: I do have two longish posts that I'm working with but every time I sit with them, the heart of it seems to slip just beyond the confinement of words. But there is progress being made.

Also, for the moment, I am not going to separate my "First Life" and my "Second Life" in this blog. I had toyed with the idea. And I may yet. But for now, I'm just going to tell about both.

Today is about First Life and how proud I am of my hubby. (He gets very frustrated that I always make him look like a saint ... but ... he never gives me anything bad to write about ... for which I am eternally grateful!)

One Sunday morning, shortly after we started attending our church, the pastor and his wife told about a lovely dinner they had attended the night before. A church in Connecticut had invited them to a meal prepared by the men in the church especially for the ladies.

Well the men in our church were not to be outdone! And I do not know how they possibly could be. They rolled up their sleeves and the Saturday before Mother's Day they put on one Royal Shebang!

All of us ladies were properly impressed and I don't know how we could have enjoyed ourselves more.

Billy grilled all day ... brisket and chicken. Anyone who's had Billy's grill'n will tell you it is fantastic. He's very careful to cause the effect to be much closer to slowly smoked meat.

The rest of the men ... oh my! Decorated, organized, fixed excellent side dishes, planned/performed music, and then the pastor gave us some encouraging words.

Now, I want to tell you about the most amazing affect of two very important aspects: 1) This was not hailed as a Mother's Day dinner. It was a dinner to honor the ladies of the church (and their friends). 2) The men never sat down with us.

As an event to honor the ladies, the men made little speeches about things that this event had made them reflect on. How much the women do in the church, how as a group the ladies bring the feeling of family to the church (this was especially pointed out by a single young man), and how we work diligently, side by side, with the men to make community events successful, etc. These facts are true -- motherhood and marriage have nothing to do with them. It was all about the ladies bringing their unique blessings to the church.

Now, the majority of us are married. And I will be the first to admit that we fully expected the men to put out the food and all of us to go through a line and for all of us to sit down together.

But they did not do this. They seated all of us ladies and then served us. They brought us punch and bread and the main course and all the sides and desert and coffee or hot tea.

At first, it felt funny to be separated from Billy but I quickly got use to it -- as did all of the other married women. Soon we were a group of women laughing and carrying on and enjoying the company of each other.

After the meal they ushered us into the sanctuary and we were seated as a group and we sang together and were sung to by a few of the men.

Then the pastor spoke to us about how the pressures in today's world are huge for women and encouraged us to take them seriously. He encouraged us to especially protect our hearts, souls, and emotions by "Rejoicing alway."

"It is not always. It is alway as in every way." Also Rejoice is to re-live joy ... not that every moment is joy but that every moment we can remember another joy.

And all the while, most of the men were cleaning up in the back.

I cannot begin to tell you what a huge huge blessing the whole evening was. The men totally cocooned us into a moment just for us. And we women fully enjoyed the company of other women, each of us in a different place in our individual lives. ... our only common threads were our womanhood ... and the fact that each of was connected to another man or woman who was in some way connected to our church ... and no it was not always by membership.

Okay now this is one more aside for anyone who attends the same church: No, Billy did not make himself sick grilling. He woke up with a fierce headache Saturday morning and it carried on through Sunday. He just didn't admit it to anyone on Saturday -- not even me! And I ended up with a round of insomnia Saturday that hit me like a ton of bricks Sunday morning. (Often I make it through the next morning.) So that's why we weren't there Sunday. Ya'll didn't do anything to us :~)

Okay, tomorrow I will introduce you to Janford and her Second Life islands. An absolute oasis! Right now I have to get ready to attend a meeting in Second Life and then also follow up on some advice from Janford.

Ok well to quote del.icio.us on del.icio.us with running commentary [in between the brackets] :

del.icio.us is a collection of favorites - yours and everyone else's. ...

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website -- the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too. [It took needing to have access to my favorites from multiple computers before I would consider "going public" with my favorites. To help me feel a little bit less on display, I have many that are marked "do not share"] On del.icio.us, you can use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks, which is a much more flexible system than folders. [This is very true! Especially when you start combining tags in your searches. Like hmm Christmas+food]

You can also use del.icio.us to see the interesting links that your friends and other people bookmark, and share links with them in return. You can even browse and search del.icio.us to discover the cool and useful bookmarks that everyone else has saved -- which is made easy with tags.

.... Here are examples...

• Research - Writing an article? Researching .... Use del.icio.us to keep track of all the source materials and commentary that you find online. [If you highlight a sentence or two on the web site before you save it to del.icio.us, the highlighted portion will be saved, also -- but only a sentence or two.]
  
• Wishlist - Go to any commerce site, find what you like, save it to del.icio.us and tag it as wishlist. Then you can tell people to check out your wishlist bookmarks by giving them a link to http://del.icio.us/marillaanne/wishlist. [I didn't do that ... it was in the help file just like that.]
• Podcast - Want to hear some great podcasts? Visit the mp3+podcast tag combination and start listening. .... [I haven't tried this yet]
  
• Vacation - Planning a trip? Save links to hotels, activities, and transportation and use tags like "travel", "vacation", and "to-visit". [I moved a portion here to a more logical spot.]
  
• Linklog - Save bookmarks to interesting websites and add a bit of commentary to create a lightweight linklog. Then, use linkrolls or the daily blog posting feature to include your del.icio.us bookmarks on your blog or website. [I wonder who we know doing this to create her new "del.icio.us Thursday Thirteen." I guess we'll find out tomorrow ;~) ]
  
• Cookbook - Whenever you find a great recipe on a website, save it to del.icio.us. Tag it with the recipe's ingredients or style of cooking, and then when you're wondering what to make for dinner, you can use your saved bookmarks to help you remember the perfect recipe. [I've started saving them for Billy]
  
• Collaboration - Friends, coworkers, and other groups can use a shared account, special tag, or their del.icio.us networks to collect and organize bookmarks that are relevant -- and useful -- to the entire group -- complete with comments. [Those comments are very very handy when sending links.] [This is the portion I moved:] Collaborate with friends and family by using the "for:username" tag. [I share links with my middle child (the only pc oriented child that I have) and to my husband (Billy). I set up his account. He's still lame when it comes to using it but when he says "do you know where... , I tell him, "Look in your del.icio.us." The only bummer part about sharing is that you can't share with your network AND keep the link private.]

Ok so how do you get started?

First, go to del.icio.us and set up an account.

Second, download the tool bar accessories (very handy for one click saving /viewing of your del.icio.us faves) for FireFox or IE and then if you feel really lost read: a guide to saving bookmarks.

Third, send me links when you find something that is "Oh that's just so for:MarillaAnne." (Just for the record, right now, I'm not sharing my network list. I haven't heard that they want me to.)

Fourth, read this article by Brendon Connelly over at Slacker Manager: The Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us Users.

And Fifth, check your settings ... for some reason "Settings" is where you'll find great tools to help you create "linkrolls" and "tagrolls."

Just go slow. When you start to get comfy, explore your importing and exporting options (also in "settings"). Don't do any importing etc until you carefully read the instructions. The voice of experience over here says ... don't let it auto-assign any tags just make sure you have your faves already carefully organized.

There's one more quirk you need to know: when you type del.icio.us into your browser it must not have a "www" nor a ".com" near it ... it must appear just so: http://del.icio.us.

Alright I look forward to seeing what kind of fun ya'll have.

Mary is taking advantage of our alliance and sent me a note requesting a highlight on her post re breast cancer and breast self-examination. And ladies and gents ... I think she's on to a really great idea here ...

Mary's post documents some facts for women and Men regarding breast cancer. One of the facts is that 70% of breast cancer is discovered through self breast-examination. Something we all have heard about and uh I'm sure we all do on a monthly basis ... especially over 40 ... right? Yeah. I thought so.

Mary-LUE has the same challenge so she's decided to acquire some accountability and has made a pledge to the universe.

Personally I think she's onto the idea of a great meme. Let's go tell her we all need some accountability and we need her to run the meme.

Come on ... I need you to go post over there and back me up.

I knew I could count on you!

Tonya is a friend whom I've met face to face with exactly twice or thrice in ten years of communicating over the Internet. She sent me a note about Canstruction and gall bladder surgery.

Ok no they aren't related events and they didn't even come in the same note.

Let's do cans of peas first because they're more fun.

Tonya sent me an email full of very fascinating images like the one to the left. The image to the left is actually from the Canstruction® 2006 National Winners Press Release which announced the top 10 national winners from the 2005-2006 year (July-June).

From the press release:

The NYDC hosted the 14th Annual CANSTRUCTION Competition & Gala Reception, on November 9 - 22, 2006. I have not seen images from that event online. However, in NYDC's intro video that plays on their home page, it is mentioned that one year they collected and gave away 80,000 cans of food.

From Canstruct's Mission Page:

Mission: Canstruct a World Without Hunger

Trademarked by the Society for Design Administration, and working in tandem with the American Institute of Architects and other members of the design and construction industry, Canstruction® is making a significant contribution to the fight against HUNGER.

Canstruction® combines the competitive spirit of a design/build competition with a unique way to help feed hungry people. Competing teams, lead by architects and engineers, showcase their talents by designing giant sculptures made entirely out of canned foods. At the close of the exhibitions all of the food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, elderly and day care centers.

A visual feast for the eyes, you will not want to miss the eighty Canstruction® Competitions scheduled to occur in 2006-2007.

The NYDC hosted the 14th Annual CANSTRUCTION Competition & Gala Reception, on November 9 - 22, 2006. I have not seen images from that event online. However, in NYDC's intro video that plays on their home page, it is mentioned that one year they collected and gave away 80,000 cans of food. (And no I cannot explain why NY is having their 14th anniversary when Canstruction is half way into their 11th year.)

Look for a Hosted event: Participating Cities

To loads of images go to www.canstruction.org and
1) watch the images on the home page.
2) In the Competitions menu check out the winners from 2006 back to 2002.
3) In the Multimedia menu ... more images.
4) In the About menu there's a PowerPoint.

A good collection of images from the 13th Annual NYDC Canstruction can be seen at The Bridge and Tunnel Club. (Which is a new find for me.)

Oh yeah ... the gall bladder. It's Tonya's turn to have hers out. Pray it goes well.

Today I got a note from Carol who hangs out at BetterPhoto ... "How can I force line breaks into my text?"

Well, Carol, welcome to the world of HTML coding :-D

I just have one challenge. I'm not familiar with HTML enough to know how to force the HTML to show up as text. If I type in the HTML code exactly as you need to use it, the program I use will automatically apply it as code (just like BetterPhoto does) instead of displaying it as text. HTML applied as code is invisible to the person viewing the page.

So ... I'm going to refer you to Annabella. I found Annabella by hunting about (via google) for help in coding colors into my pages. I've not introduced myself to Annabella but I like her style of mmm "aging gracefully."

Annabella's pages on web page construction were written some time back and things have advanced a bit ... but the basics are still the basics and that is where we all start: Annabella's Basic HTML

You need to understand the following sections: Brackets, Case Sensitive, and Opening & Closing tags. Then read about paragraphs and line breaks.

One note about Annabella's explanation of paragraphs ... there was indeed a time when the "closing tag" was routinely not used in paragraphs. Before that time and since that time closing tags for paragraphs were/are considered to be tidy code.

When putting in my coding at BetterPhoto, I find it works best to open and close the paragraph tags before putting in my line breaks.

Also, where Annabella says "This misses one line ...", the American translation on that is: "The paragraph tag creates a blank line above the paragraph tag ..."

When you get paragraphs and line breaks down, the fun really starts with creating links.

Alright have fun and let me know how it goes.