A Sunday Personal Post — Like You Care

I have been hunched over my computer all day working on a god-awful sample for some research. I have a random list of hundreds blogs in Excel, I hit on the url, it takes me over to website in Safari, where I hunt around for an e-mail address, often ending up in an e-mail program, and then back to Excel where I paste it in a little square.

I believe I am too good for this job. Get me a grad student. I need a lackey, please!

Because I’m bored, it is taking me way too long and my co-author finished her end a couple of weeks ago. I often get stuck actually reading the blogs, which is death to automated e-mail collection. A couple of observations. There are a good number of blogs in the Large Mammal category of the Truth Laid Bear than only had 20,000 visitors in the past year. Not that is anything to sneeze at, but should they really be a Large Mammal? A good number of those Mammal imposters were from the evangelical circle. Are they cross linking each other better than other portions of the blogosphere?

In between finding e-mails addresses and reading a good number of blogs, I did other things to keep my marbles.

1. I trimmed the hedges. We have to devote a portion of every weekend to yardwork. Our shrubbery is less than fine. We have several hundred year old yews all dead in the inside with only four measly leaves to keep them decent. There’s an arborvitae shaped like a Boobah. It wiggled when I trimmed it like it was being tickled. They are joined by a few other misshapen trees that looked just fine in the Kennedy Administration, but now bend toward the ground held up by a string on a fence. They should all be ripped out and replaced with small boxwoods and dwarf pines in a soft bed of black pine mulch and framed by hostas, because people take their shrubbery very seriously these days. But we don’t have time for that, so instead we’re just fiddling with the semi-naked yews and the Boobah, so that we don’t shame the neighbors.

2. I remembered that it was our 1 year anniversary in our house. I’m becoming more aware of anniversaries as I get older. Less careless of time. I remembered my blogerversary last week. Steve and I celebrate our wedding and our first date (Halloween where we saw the Village Parade and went to the Kettle of Fish on 3rd St.) In my twenties, I could barely keep track of my birthday. Maybe I’m remembering these events because there’s more to celebrate as life gets more full big events. Maybe all this anniversary mushiness is just one more sign that I’m middle aged. Get me an SUV. I need one of those big ass cars, please! And throw in some elastic waist pants, as well!

3. We took the kids to church. Wrangling two boys in church is an athletic event and usually I’m whooped at the end of the hour and cursing my mother for instilling some ornery guilt mechanism that makes me show up every Sunday. But the savages did quite well today. Ian didn’t escape out the side and make the long run up the center aisle to the horrified priest. In fact, he showed off his mastery of the word “peace” and shook everyone’s hand on our pew. Jonah kept his wiggles under control, too. So we gave them their first “A” for church.

4. Steve grilled. He has one of those charcoal Webers that is a big circle with legs. We’re very snobby about grills, so you should just know that this grill is not only esthetically pleasing, but has superior taste to the gas models. No discussion permitted. He made pork chops, boiled new potatoes, steamed broccoli, and made a salad. All while I futzed with those damn e-mail addresses.

All the up and down from the computer kept us home bound today, which was good for a change. Had a chance to be still and think. Tomorrow is Monday and the craziness begins again.

I’m heading into the week with some personal posts in mind, a book review, and the usual commentary on whatever I’m reading.