happy new year!

Okay, I'm back! :-) Apologies for the lack of blatherings. Things have been crazy here, what with holidaystuff and visitorstuff and workstuff. A friend of ours from Ireland is staying with us for a few more days, which is why I've cut down on my (normally quite insane) online hours. Has anyone here seen Titanic yet? We've tried several times without success. The movie has been selling out hours before showtime. We're going to wait until the crowds die down a bit before making another attempt.

first advertiser!

Haven't got my groceries yet, but it's not really their fault. Got a phonecall a couple hours after I placed my order from a pleasant-sounding woman who thanked me for my order, but said they wouldn't be able to make the delivery before 4 pm, as I requested in the "special notes/delivery time preference" section. They could, however, deliver my groceries between 6-8 last night or anytime today. At the time I wasn't sure of our plans, so I asked them to hold off until Monday. So...supposedly my groceries will arrive between 10-11. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping things work out...I'd love to be able to use this service from now on. The phone woman asked me how I liked the online shopping experience and the website, whether I had any questions or comments.

We have our first banner advertiser for Inkspot! Supposedly a cheque and contract is on its way. Jeff and I went for sushi at Fune's down the street to celebrate. Yum. This time we started chatting with the head waiter after the meal, and Jeff is going to give him some tech help (the guy accidentally trashed his Japanese version of Netscape). As thanks, he gave Jeff a beer and some Scotch, gave me plum wine. After the second glass of plum wine, I think I told Jeff I had to go home (it doesn't take much to get me tipsy).
Fell asleep almost immediately. :)

Installed ICQ today. Both Jodi and Scott had mentioned it to me a while ago. I was prompted to install it because my marketing guys suggested it would be easy way to have business meetings. Wow, fun stuff! Love the chat function! Very dangerously easy to use. You can download the software from ICQ or Mirabilis. Both sites are difficult to reach sometimes, so be prepared to be patient. If you DO get an ICQ number, feel free to try buzzing me for a short chat during the next day or two (I want to test it out some more). After that, I may go to privacy mode most times during the workday. My ICQ# is 7249542. Anyway, had my first online business meeting a few minutes after installing the software. Very cool.

jodi's cool site of the day!

WOW!!!! Jodi's Muse's Muse site is Infinet's COOL SITE OF THE DAY today! SO COOOOOOL!!! For those of you who haven't been on the Web that long, Infinet's CSotD is -the- original "cool site fo the day" award. The others all jumped on the bandwagon when they saw how popular Infinet's site was. Many congrats to Jodi!!!!

babysitting

Going to Port Elgin to visit friends (and do some biking) this weekend, so no blatherings until Monday.

Thanks to Sherman Dorn for pointing out the CNN news article entitled, "Chocolate lovers could save rain forest"! :-)

Thanks to Jodi (the Cool Site WebQueen :)), who told me that Inkspot was mentioned in the July issue of Web Guide Monthly (p37). They seemed to review the business writing section of Inkspot, and nothing else.

Had a UT practice last night. Ate some of the chocolate cigars that Alisa was kind enough to send us (thanks, Alisa!), practiced some stuff for Contata. We have two new kids' songs to work up for the short kids' concert we have..."My Little Sister" (an a capella song by Martha formerly of Martha & The Muffins) and a fun popcorn song sent to us by Gary McGath (thanks, Gary!).

Did some babysitting yesterday. Had both Sara and Annie BY MYSELF for the first time for a few hours. I know this may seem like nothing to you parents, but I'm used to having only one child at a time, or having Ruth around to lean on. Anyway, it went pretty well. Annie seemed to be in barnacle mode, and insisted on wrapping herself around whatever part of me she could reach (usually one leg), no matter where I went. Made walking around a bit awkward, but I managed. Sara is VERY talkative these days, and tends to talk really really fast and constantly. Sara brings over a beach ball so we can play ball; Annie immediately releases my leg and toddles briefly away to bring back a tennis ball, also wanting to play. Sara shows me a tiny doll she recently got as a present; Annie grabs at the doll and starts yelling when Sara won't let her have it. I turn away briefly to get Annie's pacifier, turn back to find Annie shrieking and Sara looking way too innocent.

ME: "What happened?"

SARA: "She fell down."

At this point Annie toddles away and toddles back, tearfully waving an Anastasia video (I bought this for Sara a couple weeks ago).

ME: "Ok, you can watch 15 minutes of the video, Annie, while Sara and I play together."

SARA: "Could I watch Anastasia too?"

ME (sighing, and utterly exhausted): "Uh sure, okay. But just for 15 minutes!"

I plop both girls down in front of the tv and play the video. Immediately, it's as if a giant blanket of silence falls upon the room. Annie and Sara both sit down on the floor and stare up at the screen, utterly entranced (Sara insists I fast-forward over the scary Rasputin part, which I do).
I start to see how tempting this sort of thing might be to parents sometimes. I know my sister and her husband are pretty strict about how much TV their daughers are allowed to watch each day. What about the rest of you parents? Do you have any restrictions at all? And how closely do you monitor tv-watching? I'm curious.

When I left to go to UT practice, Sara had a good grip on my arm when I tried heading out the door. "Don't go, Auntie Debbie, please! Can you stay for supper? Can you stay for just a few more minutes?!" Her voice is desperate, pleading. Yes, I know full well she knows she is manipulating me. But I feel immensely guilty nonetheless. Ruth ends up having to manually pry Sara's fingers off my arm. (She would be prying Annie off my leg at this point as well, but Annie was sleeping.)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

monimals

Very relaxing weekend. Took walks along the beach, went biking, watching videos (Chasing Amy, Bottle Rockets), sat around a lot, chatting. Many thanks to Craig White for hosting us. Craig is the editor of MapArt maps, the best map company in the universe, by the way. They have mainly done Canadian maps but are gradually starting to cover U.S. territory as well.

Thanks for the explanation of Monimals, Lissa and Annie! I would say I want one (yes, Sherman, I am an Ideal Yuppie Consumer :-)) except I might be switching to a laptop soon, which might not be as conducive to fuzzy animal head covers. Also, I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one easily manipulated by small children. :-)

We had dinner at my sister's place last night. Sara made spice soup with Jeff (they're very into 'science experiments' these days) while I bonded with Annie. Annie dragged a giant lift-the-flap farm theme board book to me for reading. When I got to the page with a tomato on it, she got all excited and tried to eat the tomato off the cardboard. Ruth took pity on Annie (I just laughed, I'm such a Cruel Aunt) and cut up a real tomato for her, which she seemed to enjoy much more. Then she wanted to kiss me; she's just learned how to kiss people, and so of course we're all lined up in hopes of getting Annie-kisses these days. Anyway, she was still munching on her tomatoes when she offered me her kisses, but of course I took them anyway...big, juicy, tomato-laden kisses that left squishy bits on my cheeks. I love being an Aunt. :-)