Filed under: life
Yesterday’s time change was almost the first one experienced totally automatically. It wasn’t until 3pm that I realized that my kitchen clock was off. Had it not been for my kitchen and Jeep clocks, it would have changed automatically on all my clocks, and I wouldn’t have noticed. I don’t know if that’s scary or cool.
I continue to hear this voice in my head: “Little things before big things.” Need to listen to that more.
I need to get out of Cincinnati. When I moved here – gasp! – 4.5 years ago I had to leave at least every 3-4 months because I felt claustrophobic here. I love the hills and trees, but it’s a lot more cramped together than the wide-open, boring planes of northern Illinois. Last time I was in IL was this past summer, and that’s way too long. We are going to do everything possible to get up there in April, and it will be our first trip with Garrett.
The “blizzard” was more like a temper-tantrum. I’d say that 90% of it has thawed already. After a severe drought last summer, all this snow is very welcome to me and my trees. As soon as it has dried up to the point where water is not standing on the sidewalk, I look forward to returning to a nightly routine of going for a walk.
IKEA opens its latest store in near by West Chester on Wednesday, and as of this morning there were tents outside the doors. Literally. Now, for the record, I’ve shopped at IKEA for nearly 10 years. Though I have a troubling fondness for the film “Fight Club,” I part ways with What Would Tyler Durdin Do when it comes to the Blue-and-Yellow. At one point, around 2002, I had to sit myself down and stop myself from buying more IKEA goods. My apartment looked like an IKEA in-store room (which my pal Drew sets up in one of the CA stores). Anyway – I say all of that because some locals are beginning to bemoan “IKEA-snobs” because of these campers, but I would probably qualify as an IKEA-snob and there’s no way I’d ever camp out for a store opening. I won’t say these people are losers – to each his/her own, but I have to believe there’s something more productive they could be doing. I’ll be at the store either late Wednesday or Thursday morning, but not after camping out a few days. I actually have need: I got Garrett’s changing table from the Schaumburg IKEA in July, and didn’t get the specialty-sized IKEA changing pad. So they can count on my $5.00 for that.
Tonight I launched the new D&A Design website update. It’s not an overhaul – just an evolution of the site. Part of putting together a good website is creating searchable content so when someone googles a word or phrase, they see your site on the first pages. This is an exercise in patience and craftiness. The key to success is words, and how/where they’re placed. My previous site was not too friendly for that unless you searched for my name, but now it’s better. For instance, I now have pages dedicated to my services: Branding, logos, packaging design, etc. That helps. The catch, though, is that for one’s site to be ranked, it takes a month or so to see progress. One thing that helps is when another site posts a link to a friendly site (most of the time), so if anyone reading this wants to link to our site, feel free! (www.d-a-design.com)
I discovered “The Devil Wears Prada” the other night. No, not the movie or book – the BAND. As JD said when I sent him a link to their myspace page, “must… resist…hope…” for this to be a sign of good to come out of the otherwise incestuous “christian” music industry. That’s another blog altogether.
I’ve discovered a fondness for 3 Musketeers bars. Who knew?
We’re going to sell one of our vehicles. We simply don’t drive very much anymore, so our 2003 Toyota Matrix (red) will go on craigslist.org soon. It’ll be odd to only have 1 car, but man am I excited about having less stuff. I need to do some serious spring cleaning soon and begin unloading stuff. If not craigslist, we have a plethora of resell stores I’d be happy to give stuff away to.
