For those of you stats/comment crazy people out there, sorry this is late. With my parents in town and Sophie's birthday and all, well... I've been a bit busy. I am behind on comments (backed up through the month of April) and am zipping through the f-list. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon.

1	kingdavey		32
2	louenn		25
3	ayoub		23
4	billzy		14
5	kikifitz		13
6	stellardreams81		10
6	leanbysummer		10
8	aellwynde		9
8	uawildcatgrl		9
10	msbluerasp		8
11	catscar		7
11	rredhead		7
11	holding_on		7
14	callita623		6
14	sewcute		6
16	thesynergizer		5
16	mariaslilgurl		5
16	crystella74		5
16	pensivesea		5
16	jemmind		5
21	lindalee_		4
21	parlet		4
21	chelchik		4
24	sweetdaisy.blogspot.com		3
24	thetar		3
24	nppyinzer		3
24	isyllt		3
28	dantex		2
28	sheilamarie		2
28	redrain		2
28	mrsbkwod		2
28	talismanaz		2
28	danaewhispering		2
28	mdunnbass		2
35	zyada		1
35	r3mdh		1
35	writer_lilies		1
35	munkyette		1
35	autumnwalkr		1
35	itsdavesblog		1
35	munedust		1
35	sissybunny97		1
35	refuse2bdefined		1
35	rodshark		1
35	blondieoubre		1
35	ladanea		1
35	jazzistar79		1
35	basketcaselady		1
35	missjewell		1

Generated with help from LJ Comment Stats and ljArchive

Also, a quick welcome to the following people as they're new to my f-list within the past 15 days.

• r3mdh


• steve_savicki


• grace_in_spades


• thisplacehere

• I'm caught up with comments up until April. Sorry for the blast from the past. There are a few I would have responded to if I'd gotten to them earlier but the time lapse just made them seem inappropriate for some reason.


• My parents will be here on Saturday for a week. I will most likely be somewhat quiet then.


• .


• Not only did Sophie not cry at nap time today, she managed bedtime without tears as well! She also was able to fall asleep without me in the room both times!


• Wednesday morning (4/23/08) was another huge moment for Sophie. She managed to pee in her potty, and it wasn't just a few drops! She woke up with a dry diaper and as soon as I realized it was dry, I asked her if she wanted to use her potty. She said yes, so I grabbed the new potty books and we sat down to read. While I was reading, she managed to accomplish the task! Of course, we haven't had any other successful pees since then, but I'm unconcerned at this time since we're not working on potty learning hardcore or anything.


• Sophie likes chocolate pudding and managed to eat it today with a spoon without getting much on herself other than the mess she made on her face whenever she licked her lips (pudding was all over her tongue while she was licking).


• Parents of small children looking for good books. Check out Mo Willems. His books are full of awesome!


• Not only did our ladybugs survive the storm last night (not sure how many), but it appears as though some of them have already laid eggs and they seem to have survived as well! Our plants also seemed to have survived, even the tiny basil sprouts. We still have to plant the lantana and the other flowers I bought for the front yard.


• I need to make up a menu for this week and go grocery shopping. We have Dream Dinners Saturday morning, but I'll still need to pick up other food stuff for Mom and Dad.


• Update on the ball game this Saturday night: B is going to take my father and is going to ask his father and another friend to join them. We'll see what happens. Mom and I will stay home with Sophie. Yeah, it would be a good time and all, but I don't want to leave my parents alone the first night they're in town, nor do I want to leave Sophie with a sitter.


• Lots of cleaning and other fun things will be filling my day tomorrow.


• Ooh, almost forgot (and this is pretty huge). There are currently two possibilities of remote work in the pipeline. I'd have to choose one over the other, but it would be doing the same exact thing, which is exactly what I did for nearly the last four years I was working as well. I'm hoping at least one of these pans out. I'm hoping for the nine-to-five job over the super-insane-schedule job, but at this point, I'd honestly be happy with either.

That's about all I've got for now. I must go to bed. I'm not tired (frustratingly enough), but Sophie wakes up awfully early and I need to be ready for it.

Lots going on right now. Need to make a list. Beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed and need to compartmentalize.

Garden: We'll be going to a few nurseries in the area to find plants, hopefully some of them (or all of them?) organic. I got out the Texas gardening books today and need to dig up the websites so we can figure out what we're going to do. I know B is mainly focusing on the vegetable garden, but I really want to fix the front flower bed as well.
Guests: My parents might be here starting this Saturday for a week. They won't know until about mid-week when my mother's coworker is supposed to return to work after surgery.
.
Minnow Minnow Pea: I need to work on cutting out material to have saved up for sewing sessions. I also need to work on a design for a website, finding a graphic for the logo, deciding on a font for the logo, and laying out the pages I want to have. I'm trying to decide if I want to forward the blog there and lock this one down to friends only. If I do that, I'm trying to decide if I should bother putting the recipes over there as well. I will definitely have the crafts blog over there and then just dump ChaCha. I really need to get the tags/labels ordered, too.
Crafts: On a related note, I need to complete the boat blanket for Maddy (one cable panel left, and then whip stitching it together and knitting the border). I also have plenty of bibs to finish. They're just needing snaps. Gifts need to be given!
House: Lots of cleaning I want to get done. Our bedroom still has piles of artwork from when we moved... two years ago. I also want to make a final decision on the color in the bedroom and the dining room. We'll probably paint the dining room next since it's so easy, and I'm pretty sure we're sticking with the brown chip we picked out last year. I thought we had finally decided on red for the bedroom, but now I'm torn. I love the blue in the guest room so much I think I might want that in the room back there. I'm so frustrated now.
Job Hunt: I am still rather beat down about this whole job hunt. I have my fingers crossed on one position, but it isn't even open yet. I also received an email from a recruiter in Georgia for a remote position and I keep forgetting to call him back. I get a few minutes when Sophie is sleeping and my brain just shuts down and I forget about all the other things I need to do until she gets up again. I hate that.
Craigslist: I was able to get a few things sold from the last big listing I did, but not much. I took more pictures of items today and will be posting those soon. This stuff needs to be gone!
Weight Loss: I have been overweight my entire life. I am tired of being overweight. Unfortunately, I like food. My portion control isn't bad, nor are the foods I eat, normally. However, my metabolism is in the toilet and I really need to work on giving it a good jump start. I need to focus on drinking more water, getting better sleep at night, and cutting out the things I eat/drink on a regular basis that are detrimental to my overall health. I also need to figure out an exercise plan that I can manage with Sophie around.
LJ: This is low priority, but still something I want to work on. I changed the layout and it's okay, but I think I'd like to find a different one. I really like the three column layout, so I don't want to give that up. That limits the layouts that work for me, of course. I also really want to work on my user icons and setting up various mood themes. Of course, I'm fairly behind on comments right now, so I'd like to get those cleared up as well.
Future posts: I have a few ideas running around in my head regarding future posts. Some of these are posts I have said I'd be writing for over a year now, some of these are newer. I am horrible about writing these down or actually getting around to writing them. Meh. Some of these ideas include posts on children's books, working from home, various movie and music reviews, various tips and tricks in the kitchen (such as how I store my bacon, exciting I know), as well as the picture and video posts I keep promising.


I think that's about it for now...

At 4:30 this morning I wake up to "Mommy, help me!" She crawled into bed with us and either needed me to cuddle her (I was facing the opposite direction) or needed the covers. I think we managed to cuddle for about five minutes before she decided she needed to get up and get some milk. Needless to say, we've been up since then, and it's not been much fun. She keeps switching back and forth between sweet as pie and demon child. Thankfully, the demon side is kept to a minimum this morning.

In other news...

I actually managed to look up the seats for the game yesterday. They're pretty decent seats as far as I can tell. The price I mentioned yesterday was a group rates. The tickets themselves are worth about $200 or more, it would seem. For you baseball buffs out there, the tickets are in section 14, row 24. That is the day my parents are supposed to come into town, so I think what I'm going to do is send B and my father to the game and ask the neighbor and his son if they would like to go along.

B and I went to dinner last night without The Kritter. We went to Texas Land and Cattle. I ordered a mojito, but the waiter informed me the mojitos they served are not the best mojitos since they use a mix. I decided to go for a pina colada instead (lucky me, it was cheaper than the mojito) and I am so glad I did. It was really the best pina colada I've ever had. Dinner for me was a ribeye (medium rare, of course), a baked sweet potato (with some sort of killer sweet cinnamon butter), and a salad. I didn't finish the steak or the potato, so that might be lunch today. We split a dessert that was somewhat similar to a chess pie (that's what it makes me think of, but it's not the same) and a coffee as well. It was nice to have a night out without Sophie and she seemed to have a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa, so it was good all around.

I'm behind on recent comments because I've been trying to take care of ancient comments first. I am trying to catch up. I'll get there eventually. I'm also going to try to find time to set up a couple of mood themes I found that I really like as well as play around with user icons and update my profile. Yeah, right.

If anyone has ideas of where I can find clip art or other images for Minnow Minnow Pea, or if there's anyone willing to be commissioned or who knows anyone who might want to be commissioned, please let me know. I should see if Katie at gronkfanclub would be interested. She was going to create some icons for me once upon a time but things got crazy for both of us...

If you hadn't noticed already, I'm in the process of trying to clear some truly OLD comments out of my inbox. I've been meaning to do this, but life gets in the way. Don't feel obligated to respond to my comments unless you truly wish to do so.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled LJ....

Yes, I know it's not the 15th. I like to let the day complete and then do the stats. I also know it's the top 18, but I'm trying to be fair. No new friends added during this period (probably a good thing since I struggle to keep up as it is.

1	kingdavey		18
2	louenn		14
3	ayoub		8
4	uawildcatgrl		7
5	mariaslilgurl		5
5	kikifitz		5
5	billzy		5
8	callita623		4
8	leanbysummer		4
8	rredhead		4
11	stellardreams81		3
11	msbluerasp		3
13	holding_on		2
13	nppyinzer		2
13	mrsbkwod		2
13	parlet		2
13	harmonyinmotion		2
13	sewcute		2

Generated with help from LJ Comment Stats and ljArchive

From the profile page:

1. There will be a topic post each week with screened comments. You will post your entry there. I will then take those entries and post them in a separate entry as "entry 1", "entry 2", etc.


2. It would be best if you could not name names or in any way refer to yourself in your entry.


3. You must have a REAL journal to compete (since it's done anonymously here there's no need to have public entries in your journal)


4. You cannot post your entry in your journal until voting has closed.


5. You cannot pimp for votes in any way.


6. There are to be no recommended reading lists.


7. All votes will be community only.

(there will be a weekly or daily "conversation" post where you all can meet and greet if you so desire)

(rules will be added as we figure things out)

If you've joined, awesome! Please spread the love in your own journal and encourage others to join as well.

If you haven't, but you love to write, please join. I am not the type of person to join the LJ contest communities because they're so drama laden, but based on who the owner is, I'm fairly confident there will be no drama and am hopeful this will encourage me to actually get the brain working again.

Total comments: 862 (with comments from myself and anonymous)
Total comments: 484 (without comments from myself and anonymous)

( ...because I'm feeling nice... )

Also, please welcome a few new friends (announced twice monthly):

chelchik
danaewhispering
nppyinzer
munkyette
ayoub
torturred_soul
sewcute

Ganked from stegzy:


( Click here to see! )

Okay, here we go again with the poll...

First, a little explanation as to why I'm changing the options.

lindalee_ mentioned that using 00 in whatever name I select might lead to confusion, and she's very right. Ever since I've been using this name, there's always been a bit of confusion. I don't want to carry that over to a possible website or something for people to search since they might not realize they're zeros.

I believe pensivesea mentioned that Tiny Treasures is a little overused and she's very right. I was actually doing a search on it as she was typing her comment and I found a mess of sites all related to baby items or daycare and don't really want to have to compete with that (or run into legal issues with it, for that matter).

Now, that out of the way, I suppose we'll be starting over here. I'm so anxious to get these ordered! I think my biggest problem right now is coming up with a cute logo. Any artist out there care to offer up any cute and adorable designs? :)

Poll #1155642
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Which name would you suggest for tags for sewn items that might possibly be sold at some point?

If you selected Other, please list your suggestion here.

---

Also, don't forget the Friending Frenzy! If your name is listed in the main entry, make sure you've added a comment about yourself. If your name is not listed in the main entry but you're interested in joining in the fun, let me know because there will be another round.

I need to do a post about a few Bzz campaigns I'm doing. I'll be giving away some coupons for free products if anyone is interested. I haven't decided if I want to do a trivia quiz or just a first comment first serve type of thing. I need to do it soon, though!

I have videos and pictures to post if I ever get around to it. We're either having issues with our router or our ISP and any pictures we host here cannot be seen by anyone else. It's becoming highly annoying.

winter_in_asia has posted an entry about no content in his journal for those of you upset by recent LJ changes. I know at least one or two people on my f-list are upset by this, so please take the time to check out his entry and join in if you wish. It might be a slow day for the Salmon....

Does anyone have ideas for other items I might be able to sew quickly and sell? Thanks to msbluerasp, I've added zippered pouches and pincushions to my list of things to try. I'm guessing I could probably do placemats and napkins as well. I've also considered making simple purses of some sort. I'm really thinking about setting up an Etsy account and selling the bibs and all the stitch markers I've made so far, and was trying to come up with anything else I might want to add to the mix there.

We'll be fish sitting this week for Thomas the Beta, our neighbor's fish. Exciting, no? I think it will be interesting for Sophie to see another fish other than the ones we have at least.

Okay, I think that's it for now.