Archive for January, 2008
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
This weekend, we shall move helenjane.com over from our old host Dreamhost.
We’re also moving from Movable Type to Wordpress.
(A picture of my dog for your patience through this administrative post.)
Dreamhost has been remarkably inconsistent in service — plus, the fact that they accidentally billed us well over a grand — well, its deal was sealed. I’ve moved all our client sites and helenjane.com is the last to go.
In installing different blog software for various clients, I’ve worked with many of the biggies. Blogger, Movable Type, Expression Engine, Typepad, Vox, even b2Evolution.
And I have to admit, I’m kind of sad to say that Wordpress is the winner.
Why am I sad?
I’ve spent so many hours learning Movable Type, (so, so, SO many hours) and I hate to think that all that time was fairly unnecessary. Wordpress has been easier to install, easier to manage and quicker to run. Templates seem a little more rigid, but I’m sure with a little more time, I can figure that out.
And hey! I’m not here to get in an argument with you about which service is better and why. This is my experience, it might not be yours.
So in the middle of these changes, I realized that I want to better update and integrate my recipes. And that Photos section up there? Well, most of those are on Flickr. And that resume? All that info is on LinkedIn. And that Links section? Better managed by a blogroll service.
Any other recommendations?
Part of me is reluctant to move all of this info outside of my immediate control, but those services do it much better than I can. They’re easier to update, import and have better search engine visibility than my meager site.
Why am I telling you this?
Because the site will be down for the next few days.
Yeah, I know, I don’t have to do this live, but I’m an impatient lady.
And I hope to reward you for your patience with a shiny, awesome new site very, very soon.
Posted in Updates | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Well, there’s not a belly update, really.
I’m just looking, well, stocky.
I’m just rocking a thick middle.
Thick middle.
I have never been tiny, always medium. I range from medium to large medium.
And wherever I fall in that range, I have all kinds of insecurities and self-hates.
And when our dear friends come and put their hands on my bloaty, bulgy, very thick middle, well, I recoil.
I want not to.
I want to proudly wear snug tops and
lift up my shirt to show the world,
“HEY! There’s finally a fetus up in there!”
But that’s not going to happen.
Not to mention the tattoos readying themselves for mass realignment.
(You REALLY don’t want to see those.)
Posted in Prenatal, Updates | 15 Comments »
Friday, January 25th, 2008
One of my secret goals for this year was to work on more art.
See, I used to make lots of art.
But when you make art-like things for commerce, all thoughts turn to
“I really should be spending my time making art-like things for commerce.”
Not, “let’s make some art!”
So this year I’m turning to external sources of motivation for artmaking. I’m taking a printmaking class at the local community college. Ten weeks of studio space. A $25 materials fee. Six hours every Wednesday. Wow.
My first class was Wednesday.
Eight ladies in the class. Five are over seventy.
Although all seem to land on the Cranky side of the Cranky/Wise older lady continuum, they’re filled with great ladyknowledge and a willingness to learn.
And that’s good enough for me.
(And I like having the instructor repeat everything she said, A LITTLE LOUDER, PLEASE.)
I made a foam print of a monster and a robot. It was as easy as carving a shape into a piece of foam like the trays that chicken breasts come in. Voila! Art!
How silly of me to forget.
Posted in Updates | 5 Comments »
Monday, January 21st, 2008
We had another Cheesewhizzes party this weekend. The venue was Hall Winery’s absolutelygorgeous Rutherford facility. The winery has unbelievably moving art, and a chandelier that looks like tree roots hung with crystals and sparkly lights and that doesn’t really explain how breathtaking the venue.
(Planning a trip to the Napa Valley? Just look at this photo gallery! Make an appointment there for a private tasting. Do it right before you go to Auberge du Soleil to watch the sun set from the balcony. Tell them Cheesewhizzes sent you.)
Since most venues that are that breathtaking are up twisty roads and around hairpin turns, we hired a driver. Fued, from Black Tie Taxi, was personable, and most importantly, patient.
This Cheesewhizzes event had 80% people I didn’t know attending. Now that is some crazy stuff. Our little cheese tasting group has grown from ten to roughly 50 in a few short months. The venues are more and more luxurious, the cheeses, more adventurous.
Sadly, due to an all-encompassing fear of Listeria, I didn’t eat any of the cheese. Come to think of it, I didn’t drink any wine either. So instead I prepared snacks, ran dishes and made sure people knew the way to the bathroom. There will be time for cheese and wine.
Most importantly?
Natalie and I spread Cheese Enthusiasm.
Can you feel it?
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Friday, January 18th, 2008
Last year, I resolved the following:
I resolve to send prompt thank you cards.
I resolve to take more photos, and update my website more regularly.
I resolve to try a new meal at least twice a month.
I resolve to take significant steps toward independent and self-sustaining income.
I resolve to be a better friend.
I think I had too much going on in my head last year to be a good friend or to update my site more often. But 2007 did find me making money on my own, trying new meals and sending thank you cards.
2008 has a few thank you cards that still need to go out, but who’s counting?
So, resolutions for this year.
Make a healthy baby.
Pay off both my credit cards.
Become more flexible. Both physically and mentally.
Quit flaking on getting back to people. It’s a shameful habit.
There we go!
What are you resolving? Anything new? Same old, same old?
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
With all of the sleeping and client work I’ve been doing, my resolution and my recap have been a little delayed.
(Plus, James is sick! Super sore throat! Sleeping all day! Orange Juice IV drip!)
But here we go. On the recap part. The resolution part will come tomorrow.
You’ve already heard about the whole pregnancy thing, but other items of note from 2007 include:
An amazing South by Southwest.
This year, I was able to share the trip to Austin with husband James. He had just as good a time as I did. SXSW blew my mind and opened a whole new future for my company. I learned so much about the future of the online space.
We went to Quebec for a week!
We took a great trip to Canada for gorgeous Jorge and Julie’s wedding. I finally got to see Niagara Falls and it was awesome.
Cheesewhizzes.org
With a new direction from my talented friend Natalie, our little Cheesewhizzes group has taken on a new life. Burgundy, Champagne, Piedmont — new places, new cheeses and new dishes have grown our little group from 10 to 40. We’ve taken it on the road and taken it home.
Cheesewhizzes rocks.
This week’s Cheesewhizzes is our fanciest yet. We’ve even hired transportation!
A summer Midwest tour
I was able to take a summertime trip home whereupon I visited my family, went to BlogHer, crashed my 10 year college reunion and made it to my gorgeous friend Alyca’s wedding reception on the lake. I love going back to Wisconsin in the summer and this trip was no exception.
I quit my job and started my own company!
Probably, the biggest, most exciting part of 2007 finds me pushed out of a job that was a terrible fit for me.
And thank God for that.
Maplevine has been a joy and a joy and a joy.
I absolutely adore my clients,
I love the work that I get to do and
my blood pressure has been normal for the first time in ages.
Bocce, bocce, bocce
This year James and I got even more involved with our bocce team, Joanie Loves Bocce. Between our team track jackets and food themes, everything got better. Our playing got better and our team is even more tight. Go Joanie!
Yes, there was heartache this year. Yes, I spent a good deal of it crying.
But I’m tougher, I’m more sympathetic and eagerly anticipating all the changes to come.
After all of that, am I sure I want to write some resolutions?
(Of course.)
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
Holy guacamole, those were some week-making well-wishes you sent me over the last few days. Thanks!
Up until this week, pregnancy has been very difficult for me. I woke up with pounding headaches, alternating between extreme nausea and knee-quaking hunger and have been crankier with the people I love than I would like to admit.
This disappoints me, as I always thought I’d be one of those shiny earth-mother types, for whom pregnancy is a breeze and growing a fetus means glowing and yoga and essential oils.
The funny thing is that after both reaching this point and sharing the news, my symptoms seem to have decreased.
I’m pleased to report that the morning sickness has mostly abated. And when I say morning sickness, I mean an all-afternoon nausea. I’m also pleased to report that the exxxtreme Dan Cortese-type sleeping, in which I slept 12 hours a night and enjoyed another 3 hour nap, has also eased.
I still seem to need 12 hours a night of sleep, but am not nodding off at my monitor.
Maybe that earth-mother lady still has a chance.
Om.
Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
Three first trimesters in one year is hard enough for anyone.
Looking back at 2007, I have a hard time believing that was me.
Last Christmas was the first time we found out we were pregnant. We were so excited, so hopeful. But at the first doctor appointment, it was not to be. The miscarriage happened during what was to be a party trip to Las Vegas.
That time seems so surreal. I existed, I was so sad.
I took the time to feel awful, I grieved.
Memorial day, that was the second pregnancy. At the time, I had a new boss I irritated by being within 50 feet of him. This meant daily insinuation of HR meetings and an immediate and ominous “30 day review.”
Screw that.
I quit that job for July Fourth. My going away party included hemorrhaging. So while everyone congratulated me on my new endeavor, I doubled over with pain.
I drank too much that day.
I drank too much for the next many days.
But see, I had a new business I was starting!
New business! New business!
No time to mourn these petty losses!
Busybusybusy with new clients and new work and an exciting future!
Let’s put this behind me! Onward!
New business!
Except see, that two miscarriages in one year don’t really go away like that. They stick around in the back of your head whispering such goldens as,
“You’ve failed your husband.”
And “you will never make a baby”and
“you don’t deserve to procreate” and
“you’re going to have to start an infertility blog,” and
“how will we ever afford to adopt?”
Three months after the second miscarriage, I continued to break down when I saw pregnant women (pregnant dogs, babies and even “What Not to Wear” episodes featuring moms).
I continued to avoid babies,
I continued to tell you, “I’m all right, I’m just fine, busybusybusy.”
I became a master of glib.
To her credit, my sister saw how glib wasn’t working.
(Funny, how with me, glib doesn’t work. I try and try, but every time I attempt glib, I fail miserably. Take that 2008! I’m done with the glib!)
She treated me to several sessions with a talented acupuncturist*, who quietly demonstrated now wasn’t the time to be hard on myself. Now was the time to heal, to come back. He made my life worth more than procreating and work. He recommended a ceremony to honor my losses, I took that advice and it helped me.
* If you live in the Bay Area and think are interested in acupuncture, go see him! Byron is the bomb.
I know it could be worse, I know I got off lightly.
This is but a drop in the relative pregnancy suffering bucket.
Just with the eight weeks of pregnancy, plus ten weeks plus the past 15, well, that means I was pregnant for a total of eight months this year! EIGHT MONTHS of first trimesters! That’s eight months of persistent nausea, eight months of awful headaches, eight months of not drinking while the rest of your wine country friends sip away, eight months of giant, swollen boobs, extreme fatigue and irritation.
That’s quite a year of crankiness and hermitude.
Why am I telling you about these miscarriages?
Because, in my mind, they had futures, real futures.
And weren’t right for this plane.
I’m complaining complaining with a happy ending, complaining so that the lady — that poor lady with the swollen and the sick year — complaining so the lady who lived through that particular 2007 gets her due.
I tell you because we have good news.
This third time around, we’re scared and filled with trepidation, we’re superstitious and terrified.
But we’re pregnant.
We’re a little over three and a half months there.
Did I mention we’re terrified?
We have heartbeats and
we have wiggles and
we have extreme morning sickness to back it all up.
And we couldn’t be happier.
I debated sharing this even this early.
If we have another catastrophe, won’t it stink to have to tell more people?
But I get a lot of support from this site, and I want you guys to come along with me.
I need this right now, no matter what happens.
Quick Helen Jane’s breeding fact sheet
Due date: Sometime in late June/early July
(I have my estimate, the doctor’s office has theirs.)
What’s the name? You’ll have to wait until July for those facts.
Will you find out the gender? Same.
Biggest craving: Pineapple.
Second biggest: Rice pudding.
Work plan: I plan to continue work. I come from a long, proud line of working mothers. And I look forward to continuing that tradition. Thank the internet my work allows me to be more flexible than most.
Fate of the man room: Unknown.
Posted in Uncategorized | 59 Comments »
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
James and I threw our annual holiday cocktail party and true to form, the costume box emerged. We served a cranberry/orange/tea/vodka punch and a Lillet cocktail and by far, the cranberry/orange/tea/vodka punch won out.
We made some awesome appetizers. Bloody Mary crab shooters, cinnamon chocolate cookies and curried pecans were crowd favorites. My favorite part? All had been eaten by the morning.
My sister bought James fake mustaches for Christmas this year and yea, the crowd delighted.
The wigs needed a good brushout, but we’ll save that for the next party.
The next week, Natalie and I took our cheese tasting group, Cheesewhizzes, on the road. We headed to California’s Central Valley and showed ‘em how we roll. Tasted some delicious cheeses and enjoyed some of the most delicious Tuscan food this side of the Atlantic.
After the cheese party, it was time to get sick again. And that’s where I’ve been since, oh, say December 19. It’s recently settled into an awesome sinus infection which recently got into a tooth. Like I said, AWESOME.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
