I'm so glad you could stop by. This is my personal blog of daily life and my journey through life. You will find a strong emphasis on family and friends as well as finding my ancestors through genealogy. Unlike my other blogs this blog is more of a catch-all so any topic is fair game.
Trust me on this one, Grandma has been around oldest grandbaby to know this warning should be headed :) Oldest grandbaby has two cats, one who's name is rather difficult for a toddler to say but the interpretation gets lots of chuckles! Grandbaby has window markers but hasn't tried this with the kitties yet. This is not my picture but thanks to a wonderful friend I'm sharing the email with you. Enjoy!
If you are an owner of a dog that belongs to a 'dangerous breed' category and you also have a small child, please take this as a warning.
Don't leave your dog with the child unattended under any circumstances.
Only a moment was enough for the following to happen!
I've been here over a week now awaiting the arrival of newest grandbaby. Despite a promising trip to the hospital on Friday the little one has decided to wait a bit longer. In the meantime, I've been blessed with being able to spend time and share this wonderful experience with the kids. Oldest grandbaby is quite entertaining. I'm getting a lot of hugs and kisses. She is really enjoying me being here and I'm enjoying my time here as well. Please stay tuned for grandbaby's arrival.
It will be a week tomorrow since Grandma arrived at the home of oldest grandbaby to await the arrival of youngest grandbaby who is due according to the doctor any hour now. No, there has not been a rush to get to the hospital yet but soon. Grandma will be watching oldest grandbaby while Mommy and baby are in the hospital.
Grandma doesn't have her much beloved Photoshop on the laptop she borrowed from Grandpa so will not be able post much in the way of photos until she gets homeside. She does hope that her readers will understand. She promises to resume regular posting as soon as possible. In the meantime Grandma will keep her readers updated as to what's happening and may even find a special cartoon or joke to share as well :)
A little over a week ago I removed the entrecard widgets from all of my blogs and posted why I left entrecard on the 16th. The following day after a lot of prodding entrecard removed my cooking blog but refuses to remove my other blogs. In the meantime they spammed my email inbox with 14 messages saying they had removed my cooking blog. Realizing that entrecard was still sending my other blogs traffic even though the widgets had been removed I poked a little fun at them in the entrecard fiasco inviting Graham to enroll in the Behavioural Modification School for Candidates. Despite the humorous component of entrecard refusing to remove my blogs and continuing to send me traffic, many are dying to know what my life is like without entrecard?
I honestly have to say life without entrecard is so much better! I still visit the favourite blogs I discovered through entrecard. Commenting on their blogs allows me to keep in touch and that in itself has made for a much more enjoyable blogging experience. Please keep in mind that I forfeited 17, 463 credits or in perspective approximately 29 days or 145 hours (at 5 hr daily) of faithfully using the entrecard site daily so to Graham who says the credits are free I will tell you right now they are far from free. Earning these credits rob you of time that can be used for promoting your blog in more effective ways than mindless dropping cards. Earning credits also rob you of precious time from your family and friends as well as quality blogging time. Don't forget if you don't have quality content which really does mean quality blogging time then you will not retain traffic regardless of where that traffic comes from! At first I was concerned that I would see a drop in traffic and I would be lying if I said I didn't BUT what I also saw within the first 24 hours of removing the entrecard widgets was a good 10% decrease in bounce rate. Yes, my traffic decreased but those visiting were staying on my blogs longer. Essentially by eliminating the drop and run traffic from entrecard almost immediately resulted in a higher quality of traffic and that was across all five of my blogs. The next thing I noticed was an increase in comments and they were quality comments rather than the fly by thinly veiled spam comments. Finally I noticed something that I didn't think I would notice. I found I was all of a sudden excited about blogging again! I no longer saw that I had to do so many drops to drive traffic to my blogs. I saw that the traffic was going to come if I just kept blogging and that in itself was exciting. In hindsight Graham Langdon founder of entrecard did me a huge favour by inviting me to leave. I fully expect my blogs to have a considerably longer lifespan than entrecard. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that leaving entrecard has made my blogs stronger because the focus is now on blogging where it should be. This will be my last blog post on entrecard.
Grandma is helping Mommy and Daddy of oldest Grandbaby play the waiting game. Grandbaby Grandma is learning an awful lot about oldest Gradbaby's favourite television celebrity. Grandpa will visit when youngest greets the world. Grandma with stay for another day or so then will be off to visit second Grandbaby (who is now walking!) so Mommy, Daddy and oldest Grandbaby can get acquainted as a family. Stay tuned!
This photo has been making its way through emails. I did not take it so can't take credit for it. This is what happens when computers invade every aspect of our lives. It does make for a funny picture and likely got a lot of chuckles :) You don't suppose Photoshop® had anything to do with it, do you?
Entrecard has certainly created a huge fiasco for themselves. Bloggers throughout the blogosphere are either dropping entrecard entirely or taking a wait and see approach. Many are no longer accepting ads or advertising with some saying they will leave the widget on their blogs until entrecard removes them. Now I politely requested the deletion of my entrecard account but entrecard refused to delete all five blogs. That means four of my blogs are continuing to get free traffic from entrecard but entrecard is getting nothing from my blogs. Why? That's because I removed the widgets. I did not want to give them any chance of running inappropriate or offensive content on my blogs. If you are even remotely thinking of leaving entrecard manually remove the widget from your blog before requesting your account deletion. If you do not take this measure Graham will take his sweet time removing your blog from the system leaving your blog open to displaying inappropriate ads. This could cost you in terms of readers and subscribers. It could also cost you in terms of other advertisers pulling their ads due to in appropriate content. Unless you are going to babysit your blog 24/7 get the widget off if you are in this position.
Graham has displayed his immaturity and rudeness over and over again so I would like to invite him to look into the Behaviour Modification School for Candidates. This well respected Canadian training program will quickly change all of your bad habits, Graham. Smooches and thanks for the free traffic :)
Look who was peaking in my window this morning. Isn't he adorable? This cheery little fellow has been visiting our yard for a couple of weeks now. He's a very friendly little fellow that likes to sit close to our windows watching us. It's just brightens the day to see him!
This isn't the first time a bird has taken a shining to us. We had a bluejay that would sit on the windowsill and peck the window until I tossed peanuts out for him. A very friendly robin used to follow me around in my last garden. We get a fair number of Juncos here as well. They too are extremely friendly little birds!
I requested the removal of all of my blogs from the entrecard system on March 16 (why here). I received 14 messages from them saying Mom's Cafe Home Cooking had been removed. This was the principle account with all other blogs linked to it. Today I received a message that an advertisement was waiting for approval. How could that be when my account was supposed to be deleted. Searching I found that only my primary blog had been deleted but not the linked blogs. This is priceless!
My Journey http://entrecard.com/details/88967 Garden Gnome Wanderings http://entrecard.com/details/108591 Garden Gnome at Home http://entrecard.com/details/88999 Canadian Perspective http://entrecard.com/details/104909
Now this raises a few questions.Why were these blogs not deleted from entrecard's system as I requested? Could it be they left these blogs on their system to inflate how many blogs are actually in the system to attract paid advertisers? Does Graham not know how to use the delete key? Does he not care that members are still trying to buy adverts on my blogs and without my approval the ads will run in 10 days meaning that member paid for advertising that will not be shown because I have removed the widgets?
Here's what I think.These four blogs were intentionally left in the entrecard system to make it appear to advertisers that there are more blogs in the system then there actually are. This really is a last ditched effort for entrecard that has already been predicted not to work. Several well known bloggers have already written on why this is destined for failure including this well respected blogger. Graham has decided to run paid advertising on the entrecard widget 50% of the time which means objectionable and undesirable content can appear on a member's website causing them to lose readers and possible breaking the TOS of other advertising they may already have on their blog. In short he is seeing member's blogs as his personal advertising space to do with what he pleases. He is losing quite a few bloggers who weathered it through his last fiasco over banning a member for a Twitter comment about his hat. Now some blog hosts such as Today.com will not be able to use the entrecard widget which means a lot more blogs are going to be leaving.
Graham does not understand that entrecard only exists because of bloggers and bloggers can certainly take it down. Bloggers can blog about it and he can't censor as he is so very famous for. He can't even comment on blogs unless the blogger wants him to because he taught us bloggers what censorship was all about, a lesson that won't be forgotten any time soon. Graham does not care about members period and he has made that abundantly clear over and over with his actions on the entrecard forums, his relationship with employees and volunteers behind the scenes, and his moderators on the forum. He's rude, obnoxious and very,very immature. More importantly he is running scared right now because the end for entrecard is right around the corner. I for one am looking forward to entrecard's demise!
I have been a member of Entrecard for quite some time. I have been a regular dropper and in return have visited many wonderful blogs. I have removed all five of my blogs from Entrecard after owner Graham Langdon wrote this regarding my request for an apology after an Entrecard moderator wrongly accused me of writing a paid post about LED lights.
yeah... you have such a problem with the staff, moderators, service and policies just pack your bags and see ya later. I won't have people like you disrupt peaceful and intelligent conversation geared at everyone gaining a deeper and clearer understanding of our new policies. We don't have the time to waste when so many good natured people are asking real questions and looking for clarifications... only to get muddled by the mud you're throwing around.
Someone kick this guy off the forums and out of Entrecard...
This is now a matter of principle. How the owner can say that to a member of the community is beyond me. I did not and have never made any paid posts on my blogspot (Blogger) blogs and I have no intention of ever doing so. This moderator was upset because I questioned two points in the announced changes. First, the rule the mandatory placement of the widget above the fold did not fit with my design so I questioned that. That rule has now been modified to within 1 page scroll. The second issue was regarding the paid ads they intend to run 50% of the time and if you didn't want those ads on your blog then you would have to pay to not have them be shown. The third issue also addressed is now they will be accepting paid ads and being able to cash in your credits every member realizes a tax liability so it is Entrecard's responsibility to have their members fill out all the necessary paperwork. They have taken this step but it would strongly be in their best interest to do so before they start running paid ads. I have taken Graham's advice and left.
I valued each and everyone who dropped on my blog. I will see many of you again and continue to read my favourites as well as comment. Thanks so much all your support.
Yesterday we hosted a large event so after getting the guys settled I sat down to check my email. What was supposed to be a bit of quiet time for me turned into immediate panic. One of the banner exchanges I participate in is changing their rules dictating where the widget can be on my blogs and introducing ads that I have no control over unless I pay to not have them displayed. Neither of these changes sit well with me so I went to the forums and voiced my opinion. At the same time I cancelled all advertising form this exchange. And the heated discussions have continued. The ultimate was this afternoon when one of the moderators accused me of writing paid posts on my Blogger blogs when in fact I never have and that's one thing I really don't like. I am upset and I am fuming because I put a lot of support into it. Then I did a bit of a think.
Change is always difficult but it is an opportunity for learning and growth. It can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it. In this case I think I have pretty much made up my mind as to how I will proceed in the matter. In this case change is going to be a blessing because it is a change made freely based on my guiding principles. I'm sorry but I will not compromise my principles and sell myself short by allowing something on my blogs that I know my readers would not want or appreciate or even be offended. This is the first time as a blogger I've had to take a really hard line and what I quickly realized is where I draw the line in the sand and I'm sorry no one is going to cross that line. That is a blessing because I now know where I stand and what I will put up with as a blogger. Sot it was a blessing!
It's that time of year with bikini season just around the corner so I have decided to lose a bit of weight and get in shape to become that lean mean muscle machine I just know I can be. Here's my list of things I'm going to greatly reduce or eliminate. Combined they should get rid of a goodly amount of extra weight I've been carrying around.
self doubt - This just has to go. I'm an accomplished person and I don't need anyone else to tell me that. What I need if for me to tell me that!
guilt - I'm sorry but I will no longer take ownership for problems that aren't mine.
negative self talk - This huge weight is just too big for me to lug around anymore so I'm kicking it to the door.
anger - Some anger is a good thing but anger over long past events is just draining and weighing me down.
impatience - I want it and I want it now! Well too bad, this bad boy is out the door to be replace by a pared down version called patience.
To help me in my goal of losing weight I have embarked on the following time tested for effectiveness exercises:
one good belly laugh daily - This is going to be a tough one some days but I am determined to get my flabby abs toned up.
pat myself on the back often - This exercise will build upper body strength while making my pecs look pretty good!
living in the moment - This exercise will come in handy while shopping with my husband. I will simply enjoy being with him and ignore the aching back, sore feet and growling tummy. I will just slip my hand in his and be thankful for this moment.
fire building 101 - I will write down every single thing that is keeping me angry or guilty. Then I will cart that list to the fire pit. This should build both upper and lower body strength while providing that cardiovasular work-out. I will set that list on fire and let it go. This exercise will be repeated until such time the fire department no longer has to attend.
smile - This exercise will keep all those nasty wrinkles from forming on my face by toning the facial muscles. It will also exercise my cardiovascular system when I share a smile with someone else.
Look out world! Here come a new and improved ME v. 2009! I'm going to look so good in my bikini this year LOL.
Last Saturday night we turned back our clocks effectively initiating Day Light Savings Time (DST). So I'm happy surfing the net when I come across a blog that declares that DST does not save energy. Well I am going to dispel that myth right now! We aren't even a full week into DST and already I have saved oodles of energy. Here's some of the creative ways I've saved energy since DST began this year:
electricity - I rolled over and didn't see any light coming in our bedroom. Assuming it was pre-dawn I pulled the covers over my head and promptly went back to sleep awakening in the late pre-lunch hour. This meant none of our normal lights were turned on that morning so right there I saved electricity. But it got better! I fumbled for the toothpicks to keep my eyes open but switching on even one light was just too bright so I turned it off. My eyes wouldn't focus enough to find the tea pot so I grabbed a glass of water and went back to bed. The tv was off too deferring to the Kodak colour episodes of CSI playing in my dreams and let me tell you it was a heck of a great episode, one I don't recalling seeing previously.
heating - Spending all day in bed under a nice feather duvet means there's no need for the furnace to run. Good thing I turned it off the night before so the balmy just above freezing temps in the house could clean the air and kill off all those dust mites. Oh well a full day of sleep thanks to DST versus cleaning, I'm pretty sure you know which one won.
water - Seriously saved on this one! I didn't have to shower or anything other than pull those covers up higher. I didn't run the dishwasher or washer either but that kind of thing is highly over rated when DST kicks in.
calories - The average body needs 600 calories daily to maintain life. Thanks to DST I had ZERO! This is a real plus but when I consider the calories used rolling over, pulling up the blankets and stuffing toothpicks in my eyes while walking around in a sleep deprived stupor, heck I can eat a gazillion calories in prep for the end of DST so it will balance out.
cooking - Not cooking saved me a lot of energy. I was going to order out but couldn't find the phone in the dark and likely wouldn't have been able to use it. Besides CSI: Criminal Dreams was on.
Thank-you Ben Franklin for saving me all this energy. I honestly could not have done it without you! Well maybe I could but that would take a lot of energy something I'm working hard to save thanks to DST.
This morning I had plans to blog about another topic but because I have another sinus attack. Saline rinses are keeping the congestion in check but not doing much for the pain so I sat sipping my hot tea while I dropped on EC. My mind wandered to how winter had not been all that kind this year. By mid-morning I was ready for a second pot of tea so shuffled to the kitchen when what did I see? It simply could not be! My eyes must have been playing tricks on me so I grabbed the camera, tea forgotten and snapped several pictures. There right in our yard was a robin! Take that you scaredy groundhog (hysterically laughting).
For those who don't know in northern regions seeing a robin is the first sign of spring. I never did make that second pot of tea. Just seeing that robin was enough to make me feel a bit better. He stayed for awhile so I sat watching him pondering the upcoming spring and what we need to do. I hope he visits tomorrow!
I'll bet you thought I would forget this very important day, didn't you? Well I didn't and I do have a very good excuse for not posting earlier. See my sometimers kicked in. I got up a bit later this morning just after 7 am clearly feeling rather horrible with the onset of yet another sinus attack. Despite wanting to crawl back into bed I made a large pot of green tea. While I waited for the kettle I got a bit of relief from a nice saline based nasal spray I found. From there I settled down to drop EC and blog, with the food channel on followed by Unsolved Mysteries then back to the food channel all the while getting up and down with no clear focus. I got pictures ready for a couple of entries on Mom's Cafe Home Cooking, answered a few emails, made a graphic for today's post. I have seriously been all over the place today! So this post has been waiting on the back burner waiting for me to write something somewhat intelligent but it has taken until now to realize I needed to do that.
Today is 03/03/09 which has some significance in the mathematical community. It means the day and the month are the square roots of the last two digits of the year. See, 3 x 3 = 9 or √9 = 3 or 32 = 9. That funky looking sign is the sign for square root. A square root of a number is a number multiplied by itself that gives you that number. Three is the square root of 9 (eg. 3 x 3 = 9). Four is the square root of 16. Five is the square root of 25 and so on. And that's about all my brain can take at the moment but I do wish you a very happy Square Root Day!
I am a wife, mother and grandma who enjoys the many aspects of homemaking. A variety of interests and hobbies combined with travel keep me active. They reflect the importance of family, friends, home and good food.
"I have called this principle, by which
each slight variation, if useful, is preserved,
by the term Natural Selection." —Charles Darwin from "The Origin of Species"
