AliThinks

What Is Up

Like Ally Bean, I don't have anything to say.

Well, that's not exactly true. I do have things to say, but it's more like Announcements To The Internet. I'll spare you another bulleted list, and just tell you what's going on.

Tomorrow evening I'm leaving for France. I'm spending the weekend with friends, and on Tuesday (while all you Amurrican readers are preparing your holiday barbecues), I'll pick up my kids after their last day of school (yes, you read that right: July 4th = last day of school in France this year; please, shoot me now).

The three of us will fly back to the States the next day, and we'll have a month together. My expectations are high. I don't know how else to put it.

Suffice it to say that my arms ache for my children. I won't even mention my heart.

But First, I Made It Look Like A Flying Saucer.

   

    Mmmm, mmmm, finger-clickin' good.

Irresistible, indeed!

   

     Just click it.

   
We walked to Graeter's after dinner, and we each tried the Black Raspberry Chip ice cream. Next time I'll try the Tangerine Cream, and not just because of the cool name.

Pleased As Punch

This past week I left my camera alone. I just didn't feel like taking any photos. This changed today when we went to Third Street Stuff for coffee. I spent some time editing my brother's thesis. When I had finished ten pages (and my coffee), I got up, stretched, grabbed my camera, and took about 60 photos.

I don't know if it was the bright colors at Third Street or if I was just ready to "see" again. You can view my photoset here. Allan's is here.

Categories?

One thing I didn't do when I moved my blog from AOHell* to Typepad two years ago was assign categories to my posts. At the time I think I just said "Eh, whatever." On occasion I regret that decision; it happened again today when I read the lovely Seuss's latest post. Her blog is password-protected, but I can tell you the categories she used tonight: I'm Such A Geek ▪ 'Round The Web ▪ In The News.

So I'm thinking about categories. And I'm calling on you for ideas. Here's what I have so far: Back In The US of A; The Grammar Maven; SmallTown, France; Blogalicious; I Heart IKEA. (Trust me, I have enough posts that praise IKEA). I just thought of another one: I Hate Teaching.

Feel free to suggest possible category names. I fully intend to delve into the archives and assign categories, because hey, Typepad now lets you kill more blog entries with one stone. I mean, in one swift action, you can assign multiple blog entries to one category. So suggest away.

*Don't laugh. It was April 2004. I had just finished a dissertatino (omigodthattypoissocutesoImleavingit) and I was dipping my toes into the big bad world of blogging -- which I'd contemplated since 2001 or so -- but until then, I wasn't sure I could put myself "out there" like that. (Heh, just look at me now). Plus, AOL France had just launched their blogging platform. And in my defense, when I got AOL back in 2000, it was the best ISP in France. Because really, I think AOL sucks. But I digress.

Star On The Wall

The other day I mentioned that my "measuring day" was coming up at Curves. Well, this morning I got weighed and measured. The 24th of each month is my day.

I gained two pounds. And a quarter-inch on my waist. What??!! I said I must be bloated, and my measurer said, "It's a possibility. Also, your body doesn't quite know what's happening to it." The only place that got smaller was my bicep. Go, biceps!

Then we did the body fat percentage. I dropped almost four percentage points, people. During my workout, the woman came up to me and said, "This ought to make you happy. You've lost five pounds of body fat. Do you want a star on the wall?" 

So I got a gold star today.

In Which I Try To Be Coherent

This morning I realized that my kids will be here in less than two weeks. Woo-hoo! And oh, shit! My things are strewn about the two bedrooms upstairs. My kids will inhabit those rooms this summer.

So I put some of my stuff "away" (I shoved things into a closet). I still need to clean up some other things. And Allan and I have some furniture to rearrange.

Oh, for fuck's sake. This started out lighthearted, and I lost my élan. I meant to tell you a tale of buying duvets and looking for cool duvet covers. The tale included calling upon my sister to purchase duvet covers for us from IKEA, since she lives about 10 minutes from the damn place. The tale also included the jubilant feelings I experienced when I realized that IKEA will ship things other than furniture! Things like duvet covers! Yay! And there's that coffee table (yes, coffee table) we noticed back in April. IKEA ships it!
Woo-hoo! Two duvet covers + one coffee table from IKEA, $298.98! Gawd, I heart IKEA. So. Much.

[Insert low, sardonic chuckle here]

IKEA merchandise, $298.98. Shipping, $300.88.

Ladies and gentlemen, three hundred dollars and eighty-eight hundredths for shipping.

I sent my sister an e-mail, detailing which duvet covers I wanted. IKEA's shipping for those alone was $20, and I calculated online that it would cost her less than half that amount to mail the things. We'll get the coffee table when we're in Pittsburgh in July.

So this post was meant to be humorous and snarky, and somewhere my balloon deflated. Nay, it got popped. At least you know the story though. I apologize for the piss-poor delivery. The sad thing is that it has nothing to do with the events described above.

Mystery Solved!

Hi Alison,

    Thank you for your note. I took a look at the source code
    of your weblog and it appears the problem is one of your
    posts. There's quite a bit of odd code in your "Another
    Head-Shaker" post and when I remove it from my test file,
    the sidebar appeared correctly. Take a look at that post
    and remove any odd tags.

    I hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any other
    questions.

    Thanks,
    Carla

No, thank YOU, Carla. The offending bit has been removed, the post has been republished, and my blog looks normal in IE. But you readers should still get Firefox.

More!

Since I am so lazy obviously under-caffeinated right now, I direct you to Allan's post about Feedburner. What he says is applicable here.

No, we don't always do the same thing.

Tweaking

After Allan and I went out for Korean food (je yuk bok eum, mmmmm!), we spent the evening doing a little blog rearranging.

I cleaned up my "Other Stuff" list in the sidebar, and then decided that my blogroll was WAY too long. So I've put it on a separate page (created by me! Almost all by myself!); you can access my blogroll(s) by clicking on the link called "Ali's Reads" over there in the sidebar.

I also opened a help ticket to see if someone at Typepad can decipher the IE viewing problem. We'll see what the solutions are. In the meantime, I've made it easier to track how my blog does look in IE by installing this Firefox extension. Right-click, view in IE, and presto! It's a neat tool, so if you have Firefox, why not give it a try?

In the meantime, feedback is welcome. I'm not done with the tweaking yet.

PSA

Alison says you should reminds you to floss and brush on a regular basis.

I Just Did Something Really Weird.

I wrote my son a letter.

In French.

He asked me to write in French so that he could understand it. Now the kid's eight years old, and can speak English. But like many smart kids, he's pretty lazy, and he says he can't read English. I suspect he can, but that it's an effort for him.

The other day we spoke on the phone, and I said I was going to write him a letter. He said Mom, can you please write in French?" I said I would. So I did. I gave in.

I think when the kids are here this summer, T. and I will practice reading English.

This Is A Major Award!

I've won a major award, folks. (You have to click on the link to see what I am talking about, because it's not a fishnet stocking-clad lamp).

Friday or Saturday is my measuring day at Curves, so I will have some numbers to report, I hope.  I'm mostly enjoying the exercise. There is that one moment during my circuit where I groan and think "I'll never finish," but fortunately it doesn't last. And? There is a difference in my body. I can tell. It's a good feeling.

Other snippets of interesting information:

Cocktail, Tea, Me?

What I want to know is, when did the humble coffee table become the "cocktail table"?

We went out browsing today, and at every place we went, those low tables you set in front of a sofa were called "cocktail tables." And even when we asked a sales person about coffee tables, he or she would tell us that the cocktail tables were located all around the store.

Okaaaay. Is this like calling prunes "dried plums"?  Or creme rinse, "conditioner"? Hey, let's sex up the name of this thing so that we can sell it more easily!

Not Fully (Re)Adjusted

Yesterday someone asked me how I was settling in to life back in the United States. I replied that I was fine, and that I liked it here. My interlocutor (gawd, I love using my French vocabulary in English!) said that Kentucky was a nice place to live.

It is.

What's weird is that it's like I never left the States. I really do feel at home here. Kentucky reminds me of Pennsylvania a lot. Was there some 13-year wrinkle in time?

Nah. I've been away. I get little glimpses of my absence here and there, but today it became evident when we were at the farmer's market downtown. Allan got a good chuckle when I asked if I could choose my own fruit. See, in most markets in France, you're not supposed to touch the produce. The vendor handles it all; you are allowed to point at the specific fruits and vegetables you might want, but mostly you just trust the vendor to make the right decision.

So I gave Allan my best Gallic moue, and proceeded to fondle the Georgia peaches.

Slice Me, Dice Me, Julienne Me

   

    This picture will look far cooler if you click on it. What are you waiting for?

Laguiole knives. I am drawn to bright colors and shiny things.

Okay, People...

...it's the weekend.

Why, Yes. Yes They Do.

He tossed the package to me and said "Tell me these don't taste like Johnny Depp."

Another Venue

The other day I posted about having been asked to write for a couple of other blogs. My guest post at Melissa's blog is up. It's a little different than what I might post here, so go check it out!

And thanks, Melissa!

Curious

I asked you which browser you used and how my blog looked. You delivered. Thank you. It seems as if IE is the culprit, but it also seems to be a recent thing. Heimo had a good suggestion: that I check my sidebar content to see if something I added changed the balance in the matrix. That's something I meant to do today, and then...didn't. The most recent thing I've put in my sidebar is the Ad-Free Blog button. I'll have to mess around in Typepad, and possibly call in a Help Ticket. As I've said to some commenters, I only have the Plus version of Typepad, which means I have no access to the CSS. Sorry. I still maintain that my readers who use IE (at home, not at work) should install Firefox, just on general principles. (Can you see me sticking my tongue out? Good.)

Okay, so. I have another question for you. I want to know what you prefer when you click on a link. Do you want the link to open in a new window (as is practice here at AliThinks), or do you want the link to open in the same window?  Please keep in mind that no matter what your answers, this is one thing I will not alter on my blog (there's that tongue again).

I'm curious, because in my post for Basic Juice, I followed Beau's protocol for links. It was weird to not add the target="_blank" bit of code that I add to every link here.

Maybe I'm alone in pondering this stuff. What do you prefer, a link that takes over the page you're looking at, or a link that opens a new window? Alison wants to know.

Edit: CJ told me that on her blog, she has links open in a new window. If you do it, too, I want to know.