. . . Ok, so there are no rumors. I just have an over-exaggerated sense of blog-importance, I know. For those of you paying attention at all, I’m not dead - just drained and crazy busy. Having also just gotten over a rough run-in with the flu, that was coupled with a nice dose of bronchitis . . . I think I’m ready for Spring to get here fast. Between this past week and the hives I had a few weeks ago - - I’m done with this being sick crap.
I’ve been keeping busy with blog/site design stuff, of course. Too many to list out here like I used to - if you’re interested at all, you can view my most recent in my portfolio. The web hosting side of things have been keeping me hopping, too - with the new upgrade out for WordPress . . . I’ve been running a lot of upgrades for clients while simultaneously trying to learn about the ins and outs of the new version.
I’m grudgingly coming around to it - - I actually really like it’s functionality now that I’ve dug into it more. I still miss the one page template concept . . . but am coming to appreciate the power of the templating feature that is built into the new version. I take to change like a fish takes to a bicycle . . . or something.
Updates on my life lately aren’t too overly exciting.
Ski season is just about over. Having spent some time over the weekend on the hills . . I can see that we’re looking at the end of it for this year 
I guess we’re going to have to plan a ski trip in a few months out west, to Tahoe or Breckenridge if we really need a fix. Plus, I could really use an extended vacation.
My daughter has spent the last three months of her life involved in her school’s Forensics program. Here’s a nice link that explains what Forensics is, for those of you who don’t know and think it’s a criminal science. The meets have been every Saturday at 7am and Thursdays after school until 9pm. She’s worked her little butt off for it too - - and has been rewarded with a gazillion blue ribbons, medals and she qualified for the Wisconsin State championship meet on March 12th in Oshkosh. She’s so excited and immediately made go shopping to pick up a huge bulletin board for her room where she can hang and display all of her ribbons and certificates.
Last night they had the Parent’s Night for the Forensics program, so we could see what it is that they do at these meets. Forensics is the art of public speaking - - mostly extemporaneous speaking and debate. The category she is in is called “Group Interpretation”. She, and a group of three other kids, perform a piece that gets evaluated by a judge and she competes against other groups from other schools in the area.
The girl is such a ham and attention seeker, I couldn’t possibly see how she could fail at this. And she hasn’t - - after watching her last night, it was easy to see how she qualified for the State meet. Afterwards, she informed me that she has every intention of trying out for American Idol when she turns 16. Someone, help me!
My son, on the other hand, got in trouble at school for throwing an egg down the hallway of the school after hours. He and a friend — they each threw one egg each and got caught. They were suspended from school for two days and sentenced to three weeks of after-school janitorial duty as a consequence.
His grades have been tremendous, though - and he’s been working really hard at school with his different projects . . . so it was hard to get too upset about it. I mean - I can remember doing basically the same shit in high school . . not with eggs — but I did get in trouble once for toilet papering the Principle’s house on a Saturday night. We had to come over every Saturday for a month and do yard maintenance on his house. It was either that, or he threatened to call the police - - which, at that age - scared me to pieces.
Of course, I lectured the kid on what a stupid thing it was to do - - even dumber to think he wasn’t going to get caught. He got scrambled eggs that night for dinner. Fried eggs that next morning for breakfast. An omelet for dinner the following evening - - and he finally relented and said, “Ok, ok - - I get it. It was dumb. Enough with the eggs, Mom!”
Now that I have had a moment to relax and blog - I think I’m stepping away from my computer to go blow shit up on my son’s XBox - - it’s always a good stress relief for me 
Sounds like we’re very similar in this...
2:48 am on March 3rd, 2005
*beep beep beep beep*
Excitedly, Jeanette says, “Look! There’s life!! Look!”
Rushes up and down the blogosphere hallways shouting the good news.
P.S. Glad to read about everything. I *almost* called (gasp) you today to ask if you were okay.
2:50 am on March 3rd, 2005
ha ha haa haaaaa on the egg meals. good one.
6:21 am on March 3rd, 2005
Eggs for dinner…..Roflmao, awesome, totally awesome.
8:31 am on March 3rd, 2005
I was down 2 weeks ago with the flu Lisa! I feel for you. It took me about 10 days to feel “better”. As for your death, I knew you were alive, but I took it that we will get weekly updates due to the work load you have.
1- Great for your daughter. Ham or not, how cool is that that she is pumped about the state competition and American Idol all in the same breath?
2- Your son..well I think the punishment you meted out was cleaver in a bitchy sort of way. 2 thumbs up on that. But I think you took it all in stride. How proud are you for the grades he gets? That is tremendous!
9:22 am on March 3rd, 2005
My Daughter is bringing home straight As right now, I’d trade it all for an ounce of common sence right now.
9:24 am on March 3rd, 2005
Wisconsin?
Do they have summer in Wisconsin?
I went to high school in Sturtevant (just outside of Racine), and I don’t remember any summer. . .
11:14 am on March 3rd, 2005
Out of topic a lil’ bit eh. I remembered you posting earlier about WordPress not being able to handle the thumbnails for images. I was having the same problem earlier as well. Somehow, I noticed something, whenever I create a thumbnail, there’ll be a new file in the upload directory. The name would be something like thumbnail-filename.ext. You could try to set the thumbnails again and see if it works for you. I know it worked for me. Cheers
1:02 pm on March 3rd, 2005
LOL! I love the egg meals - fantastic!
1:16 pm on March 3rd, 2005
Great idea about feeding him eggs for a while! LOL
5:57 pm on March 3rd, 2005
Needless to say, the kid had egg on his face . . . so to speak
5:58 pm on March 3rd, 2005
Thanks, Hallaj - but it still doesn’t output the code for you. I”d have to ftp in, make sure the thumbnail was created - and then type out the code for the thumbnail in my post. Too much work for tired fingers lol
5:59 pm on March 3rd, 2005
Pam - I’m sorry to hear about your flu! It’s awful, isn’t it?? Damn the Bush Administration and the flu vaccine shortage, anyways (well, if I were a liberal, I could blame it all on Bush, ya know)
6:00 pm on March 3rd, 2005
Edward - we have about 2 weeks of summer in Wisconsin . . . must’ve been so brief it didn’t stick in your memory
6:55 pm on March 9th, 2005
Forensics program…..when I was in 9th grade (wow eon’s ago - more than 20 years yikes!!!) we had a program just like that called Declam….I did poetry reading and read 3 poems about Abe Lincoln. All from memory….it was a great program for a shy thing like me to be involved in.
7:11 pm on March 9th, 2005
Same here, Molli
I was in Forensics for 4 years of my school life. My gig in Forensics?
I recited Edgar Allen Poe poetry from memory