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Shoe shopping woes

Posted on June 4, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Let me start by saying that I am not the kind of girl that likes to go clothing or shoe shopping. If I find something that fits and I like it, I will buy several of the item to last and call it a day. On Sunday, I went out to look for a dress to wear to a family wedding coming up soon. Nothing that I had worked for a number of reasons, so shopping was a necessity. My mother and father took me to look in places that they had seen dresses. After no luck at Kohls (no dressy items at all), we went to JC Penney. My mother had bought her outfit for the wedding there and knew that they had a good plus sized department.

We got to the department and there was a lot to browse though. Of course, any two piece items were automatically out. My top and bottom are much different in size. I could technically go to the non-plus size for pants and skirts, but not tops. *sigh* There was a large display of summer dresses without sleeves. I was ready to dismiss them when my mother talked me into trying them on. She reminded me that I could always something to put over my arms if I wanted it.

The first dress I tried on left me without words. It fit, almost too well. The length was perfect, the sides were high enough to cover my bra and the girls were in place nicely. My mother asked why I never wore sleeveless items. I think this reminded me why. Most items are not made to fit like a dress and show off too much bra or even more that should not be seen. I kept trying more dresses on and fell in love with another dress. My mind immediately went to the cocktail parties at BlogHer this summer. I walked out of JC Penney with two new dresses at 50%. A quick call to TechyDad made me realize I was lucky not to be home.

Now the hunt is on. I need a pair of shoes to match my dresses. If at all possible, I would like silver wedges so they can be worn with both. Thursday, I spent the day on a shoe hunt. Talk about frustrating! Thanks to a high instep, cute shoes are hard to find that fit. Shoe after shoe did not work. I really liked a pair of silver wedges at Macy’s, but after 3 minutes the leather left a nasty looking rub mark on my foot.

Looking online is great, but I really need to try something on. Not sure I have enough time to order something in case it doesn’t fit. I did find a great looking pair of shoes called Cupcake from the YOU line by Crocs. Before you roll your eyes, check them out here:

So my question to you this week:

Do you like to go shopping for dressy clothing and shoes and why do you feel this way? If you are a shoe expert, any suggestions on where to hunt would be greatly appreciated.

Update: About 30 minutes after I typed this on Thursday evening, I was talking to my mother on the phone. She was near another shoe store and asked me to meet her there. Thank you Super Shoes! I found several pairs of shoes that fit, were cute and worked with my dresses. Not the best photo from my cell phone, but it will do for now (modeling shots were on Twitter last night).

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #102

Categories:
BlogHer family me moments shopping TechyDad vent

Roof be gone. . . literally

Posted on May 5, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

This just has to have some words this week. Tuesday afternoon, the sky was turning black when I went to pick NHL up from school. I let him play on the playground for a few minutes. Then the rain started to come down a little and we ran to the car. We made it home as the wind started to gust. Within seconds of getting into the house, we could not tell it was day time and the hail started. The wind was horrible. I went to unplug the computer and get the kids to sit on the couch. The lights flickered and for a while the storm surged outside. The wind and sounds outside were unreal.

When it was over, I thought we were lucky. Many people in the area had no power. Ours stayed constant. TechyDad was making dinner and my parents stopped by to see the kids quickly. When I went to follow them outside to say goodbye, something caught my eye. There a metal area on the roof that did not look right to me.

I did not check alone. I went inside and asked hubby to come quickly outside. We went back onto the sidewalk and to our horror saw the hole in our roof (the flat rubber section) with birds flying into it. I immediately wanted to be sick. I called my parents to come back over to see it. Then, I ran inside to call the insurance company. They have people calling in the morning. I was given a number of a person to call Tuesday night to try to get a tarp put up. Unfortunately, they told me that it would be too dark and could not do it. So, tonight, little sleep will be had as we hope that the scattered thunder storms STAY AWAY until we can get a tarp up.

*sigh* Dull moment I could really use you!

Categories:
bad news house losing my mind photos vent weather Wordless Wednesday

Denial of the 3 year old kind

Posted on May 4, 2010 8:44 am by TheAngelForever

In less than two week, I will once again be the mother of a three year old. My baby is going to be three and it is hitting me hard. When I turned thirty, there was too much going on in my life. A pregnancy scare distracted me from the realization of the milestone. Now, as my youngest turns three and our household is getting ready to leave being two year olds for good, I find myself sad.

Sure, for three years we have known that our family was complete, but I guess it never really hit until recently. It has just hit hard as we weed through baby clothing/toys and things to give away. In addition to this, JSL is signed up for nursery school next year. We took the plunge since both TechyDad and I believe it is important for his developmental and social growth. As much as I have looked forward to some time alone where I can go to NHL’s school and volunteer without my toddler, I am going to miss my little adventure buddy. I think it really is true, you do not appreciate what you have until it is gone or almost over. I have told myself to stop, enjoy and cherish these moments, but have I? I am not too sure about that really.

So excuse me for a little while. My two year old is grabbing my arm to head outside into the beautiful spring day that awaits us. I must make the most of these last few days with my two year old before he continues to three and many more milestones ahead of him.

First, I will wipe my eyes, give him a big hug and be so very thankful that I have had these almost three wonderful years at home being his Mommy.

Categories:
birthday jsl looking back me moments milestone photos sahm vent

Blogger beware of content scrappers

Posted on April 30, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

For over a year now, I have been seeing ping-backs coming to my website from people linking back to my blog posts. A lot of them are from websites that are scraping content from multiple blogs for each of their posts. Typically, they use RSS feeds and go from there. They always link up to my post and put a line or two of my content. This bothers me, but at least they are not taking all of my written words and are linking back to give me my traffic for the content. If you are a blogger you have no doubt experienced this.

Now let us go to the Darkside of scrapers . . . cue the Darth Vader music. (Note: now an Update on the bottom)

Recently, I have seen a slew of ping-backs from Ubervu. I have to admit that I did not put much thought into it, I just assumed it was like the other RSS scrappers out there. Apparently, I am quite naive and many of you may be as well. Thursday, I saw the light. Thanks to Christina Gleason (aka @Cutestkidever on Twitter) sending out a Tweet with a link to her latest blog post called Ubervu Steals Your Blog Posts AND Your Comments. When I read her post, I was angry. How dare they think that just because our blog posts and comments are online that they do not have to abide by DMCA laws (FYI – DMCA =Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998)..

It quickly got worse. TechyDad helped me to check out what they had taken from me. He did the following search on Google to check:

Before my eyes, I saw that there were at least 43 mentions of my blog and Ubervu. I went back to Christina’s article to figure out what to do. Clearly, I did not want to allow them to steal my material and make money off of content they were directing back to their website and not mine. I went and submitted a request to have Ubervu take off any content/comments/links to my website. I reminded them of infringing the DMCA and started to re-Tweet to everyone to let them know about this new scraping phenomenon.

TechyDad also found the following items and sent out Tweets:

Disqus is working with Ubervu?!! http://bit.ly/bCZIVj
Also worth reading RE Ubervu: New Class of Scraper Site That May Kill Your Rankings w/ Duplicate Content http://bit.ly/cGeKRc via @pocketseo

I have to admit, my blood was boiling at this point, especially when I read how they were defending that they were stealing from people. Taking attention away from my content and pulling it up for you on Google – NO THANK YOU! Of course, to make matters worse the following ping came through at the same time:

Yes, while I was fighting back against them, they were stealing more of my content. So, if you are a blogger – please check this out and protect your writing. Also know that Ubervu has profiles that link up your comments on blogs and Tweets. We need to unite as a blogging community to make sure Ubervu stops and others know we will not tolerate this.

So my question to you this week:

Do you check ping-backs to your blog? Have you seen anything from Ubervu before and will you let them know that they are stealing from you and going against DMCA.

Please pass along this information to other blogging friends to check out. We must stand up against this so others know not to steal like Ubervu.

UPDATE: I wrote this post Thursday afternoon and since that time a lot has happened. Ubervu has replied on Christina’s post. They explained what their intent was and are working on fixing items as quickly as possible. I know that my links/comments are now giving 404 error messages, but my profile on their search is still there. What Ubervu is quickly realizing is that their idea may have worked had they asked bloggers/Tweets if they wanted to opt into this service. Autopilot grouping people into such a service is the WRONG way to do this. I will give the person on Ubervu’s Twitter account credit for replying to things and watching the Tweets as things have progressed Thursday into Friday.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #97

Categories:
Aloha Friday bad news bloggy friends bzz interesting me moments real world news stupidity vent

My six year old barber

Posted on April 3, 2010 8:14 pm by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL,

Not too long ago, a bunch of other parents were talking about how their kids had cut their own hair. I mentioned that I was worried about my two year old doing this, but thought that my first grader was safe from doing this. Of course, our scissors are WAY back on the counter where any little people would have to use something to climb up and reach for. Clearly, I jinxed all of us.

After lunch today, we packed everyone up and went to the park. Here you are on the swings having a fabulous time in the gorgeous weather.

Yes, I will admit your hair is on the longer side, but we were waiting to get all hair cuts in a week or so. Obviously, you did not get this memo. When we were done at the park we went to get some fruits, veggies and more eggs at Price Chopper and then back home. JSL was sleeping in the car, so you went outside to play with the kids in the neighborhood. You rode your bike, played soccer, had a super-soaker battle and used bubbles. When you were done we deposited you into a bubble bath inside.

When you got out of the tub, I dried off your hair with a towel and joked that you had wild and crazy hair. This statement will now haunt me. I left you in the living room with your clothing while I went to help Dad and JSL in the bathroom. The little guy was heading into the tub. Suddenly, you came to me and asked for help getting hair off your hands. I asked you to repeat what you said.

After this, things get a little fuzzy in my head because I was SO angry with you. Apparently, you climbed up onto the counter in the kitchen and lopped off a huge hunk of your hair. I saw it and immediately went bonkers. I calmed down long enough to call Supercuts to see when they closed.

With you crying in fear of what they were going to do to fix your hair, we drove there to see what magic could be done. Of course, you flipped out when it was your turn. I think the person before you having a buzz cut with a 1 blade made you think you were going to be that hairless as well. We convinced you that it would not be that bad. Thank goodness we went quickly. The woman there was able to make it look pretty darn good. It may be shorter than you usually get in front, but, when you look fast, you may not even notice the tiny patch missing.

With any luck, you learned your lesson that you are NEVER to use scissors on any hair, fur or similar item. They are only to be used on paper or something else that an adult approves. Mommy and Daddy also learned that we have to hide the scissors now and they are where even I can not simply reach for them. Always remember, even when I am upset with you, I still love you with all of my hair. . . -er I mean heart.

Love,

Mommy

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