where did all the fun go?

Blogger gives me the ability to see how many people are reading this and I've noticed that the 3 homeless people that USED to read this blog, no longer do.  Basically, this means no one is reading this, so I suppose at this point, I'm just writing it for myself.  I'm actually kind of okay with that.  I mean, I'm pretty selfish so as long as I'm okay with it, that's really all that matters, right?  But it does make me wonder, why isn't the blog as popular as it once was?

The rational person in me knows that most likely, it's because I went 2 years without posting anything.  I've walked away from people for much less, so I certainly can't blame anyone who did that to the blog.  But I also wonder if it's just because I'm not as fun (or funny) as I used to be.  Personally, I think my early posts are pretty cool.  Let's face it, life just hasn't been as much fun as it used to be.  Three quarters of my kids have moved out of the house and the one that's left behind has me just over halfway to the mental ward.  Hubby's had way more health issues than should be allowed by law and I have (gasp!) a real, full-time-with-no-summers-and-two-weeks-at-Christmas-off job.  So life is just way more work now than it used to be.  Yeah, the really good stuff was back when I started blogging. 

I've gotta do something to change this.

I'm still around, just not here

It may appear that in the past few weeks I've gotten pretty slack about posting, and I guess that's true to a point, at least when it comes to this particular blog.

Occasionally (ha!) I tend to loose focus on one thing when a new interest/obsession crosses my path. You ever hear that saying that goes something like "Some people think I have ADD, but I - ooh, look, a shiny object"? That would be me. If I get more than one thought in my head at a time it becomes too crowded and the extra ones must vacate the premises immediately. But anyway, I digress.

In June I got bitten multiple times by the photography bug and that itch it's causing? It just won't go away. In fact, it's gotten worse. On the other hand, I'd like to think my ability to take pictures has improved. I'm really into wanting to just click away at everything under the sun/clouds/rain/raging blizzard/dark of night. This interferes a little bit with other things like eating, sleeping, doing laundry and working, but I'm not much concerned with trivial things like that when I'm obsessing. Anyway, to 'showcase' what I've done, I put together a photoblog and in the last week have managed to hit up most everyone I know, begging them to pretty-please-with-sugar-on-top let me take their picture. If all goes as planned, tomorrow I'll be taking photos of some friends.

If you live in the Denver area and are interested in having some photos taken for free, let me know. You can email me at betsy(dot)huffstetler at gmail(dot)com and we'll see what we can do!

keeping up with current events

While watching CNN this morning, they had a segment about a 'bedrest' study that NASA's doing to examine the effects of weightlessness, which I thought was pretty interesting. But even more interesting was the Pillow Astronaut Blog, written by one of the study participants. I'm not so sure I could do it, but the materialistic weasel in me could put the $17K in reimbursement to good use. Nah, I think I'll stick to being a mom. It's considerably less pay, but pretty damn rewarding.

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Have you heard about the bill that was just signed into law that is giving up to $450 billion (yes, BILLION, with a B) to help out homeowners that can't pay their mortgage? Now, not to be a bitch here, but WTF? I'm sorry, but when I ended up losing my home because there were major medical bills (no credit cards, thank you very much) and no money coming in, did someone offer to bail me out? Uh, no.

Now I totally think that if people were taken advantage of by unscrupulous mortgage brokers, then by all means, help them out. But if they can't pay the bills because they didn't read the fine print or are too busy buying a new Mercedes, then shouldn't they be on their own? And what about all the people who've already been foreclosed on? Do they not get bailed out just because they weren't able to hang on until now? And what about the people who lost jobs and can no longer pay for their homes? Should they be helped, too? And just whose ass will we pull the $450 billion with a B out of? 'Cause I gotta be honest with ya, I just don't have that kind of cash, laying around or otherwise. Our government is creating a very dangerous precedent.

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One last tidbit... What the hell was John McCain thinking with his newest anti-Obama ad? Britney Spears and Paris Hilton? You know those two couldn't figure out how to vote if someone did it for them. That ad just makes McCain look like a bonehead.

Connections

I have this great little counter (nope, not gonna tell you where it is) that shows me where people who visit my blog are located. It struck me as I was looking at it, that I, or probably most anyone for that matter, can find a connection, no matter how loose it might be, to places on that list. For example:

I know who's reading me in Montana (Hi Lynn!), and I'd love to believe that Dooce is reading me up in Salt Lake City, though I'm fairly certain she's not. I'm descended from folks in Ireland, which is kind of near Scotland, and hubby's got family in the Lafayette, Louisiana area. Some of my lineage is also English, and Kenin loves to watch The Arthritic Adventures of Bait Boy (aka Deadliest Catch), and I believe some of the boats on the show are out of Washington state. The author of The Butterfly Mind was/is living in france with her husband, and my brother and sister-in-law are working in Iraq, which is near Jordan, in the Middle East. I drove through Tulsa a lot on my from Arkansas to Colorado, and I spent a fair amount of time at the Smithsonian, in Washington DC.

See? If you look hard enough, you can find a connection to just about any thing.

Merry Christmas to Me

This afternoon was Kenin's company Christmas party and although I was half hoping that the snow we got overnight would be bad enough that we were unable to attend, it didn't work out that way.

If you've read my blog, you know that I'm not his bosses' biggest fan, so for me, the bright spot in having to attend was that I might be able to say some of the things that I've had on my mind. That didn't quite work out the way I wanted either, because Kenin let me know before we left home that I was not allowed to tell Mr. Bossman that he was just damn lucky that Kenin was still working there after he decided to rescind his contribution (aka paycheck) to my bank account while Kenin was recovering after his recent surgery. After all, even though he told Kenin that he'd be paid while he was out of work, recovering from HIP SURGERY, he decided that would just not be something he was willing to do. It apparently wasn't enough that he screwed Kenin out of a commission check without telling him, two days before we were to go to Jena's wedding. But, me being me, all hope was not lost. I've gotten pretty good over the years at telling people to eat shit without them realizing it. It may not make them feel bad, but it sure makes me feel better. And that is all that counts, no?

So, at the party, Bossman #2 comes over to talk to us and somehow the conversation works its way around to work. Shocking, huh? Well, he mentions that they are considering planning a trip to the Left Coast to visit some vendors and I put my 2 cents in and mention that it's a good thing that Kenin isn't a big fan of California, since he won't be going. Let's face it, no commission also means no more sales calls. Good for me, bad for them. According to Kenin, Bossman #2 caught the dig. :) Then, later, Bossman #1 says to me how hard Kenin is working and I told him that I thought he was working way too hard, especially since he hadn't been released by his doctor to work more than 4 hours a day. Oops! LOL Kenin tried to recover from that one, but I'm glad Bossman #1 knows that he's working twice what his doctor wants him too, and I hope the weinie feels guilty as hell, too, 'cause I'm bitchy like that.

All in all, I'd have to say it was a productive day.

Why is it...

That if I click the 'next blog' link at the top of this page that 99% of the time, I get the same things - a blog in a language that I can't read or porn? I'm barely functional in English some days so I'm pretty sure that blogs in Spanish or CHINESE won't work for me. Plus, I'm practically middle aged and married so you know I'm no longer getting laid. Come on people, give me something more original!

My PageRank is...

The good folks at blogflux.com offer a page rank service by google.com along with the following words:

Google's PageRank is a way of knowing how important a site is. Show off your PageRank to your blog readers.

Well, me being me, I put that little puppy right down on the page and and BAM! Just butter my butt and call me a biscuit! I discovered that I'm about the only person who ever reads my blog. Not a biggie, though. I'ma figgur this stuff owt an git better at it. :)