Woolly Mutts

You know you want to go there.

I love me the internets.  The internets and I have been tight since I first heard the buzz and whir of a modem connection and the happy words "you've got mail".  My Amazing Husband and I first made a connection via the internets.  My mind cannot wrap itself around a world without instant information retrieval.  If this is wrong, I don't want to be right.

But of late, those internets have been getting sneaky.  They pay attention to what I type and where I go and then ZING, they hit me when I least expect it. 

The other day I was surfing around, glanced to the top of the page and saw this picture:

I looked away, and then my brain connected and I looked again.  I know that shoreline.  Wait!  I know that room!  That's our room!  That sneaky internet figured out the place I want to go right.this.minute and is now taunting me.  The advertisement is for East Bay Suites in Grand Marias Minnesota and that window is our very favorite room.  I have spent hours sitting in a comfy chair gazing out of that far window at Artist Point. 

I thought perhaps it would be a one time thing, but no.  Now I see it all over the internets.  It whispers a sneaky little " you know you want to go there" in my ear each time I see it. Oh you evil internets.  You have found my weakness and now stalk me with it.  I feel betrayed.

In truth, it is genius marketing and my hats off to the clever person who created it.  There is no question we will return to room 3...um...something.  Third floor, north corner room.  Otis the elevator will be happy to take you there.  Two bedrooms, fireplace, full kitchen, washer dryer, view to die for.  I could live there happily forever.  We WILL be there again and seeing the advertisement warms my heart a bit....while similtaneously being stabbed therein.  Good marketing does that.

See you soon East Bay Suites...maybe this Fall....and give your PR person a raise.

How to care for introverts.

Just about the time that I was telling myself that I needed to start spending a little less time staring into the internet abyss along comes Pinterest.  As far as I know, it's by invitation only (like Rav was in the beginning) while they beta test, but I got my invite the same day I requested it, so don't expect a long wait.  In a nutshell, you find things that interest you and then pin them to your cyber bulletin board.  Then you wander past other peoples boards and see what interests them. It's sort of visual rabbit hole in a good way. I wanted to just say no, but once I started to look at other people's boards I couldn't stop.  I'm still a few levels below lame with my own Pinterest boards, so if you go do not judge it by my contribution.

On my first day of Pinterest poking around I came upon this:

I don't know who originally wrote it, but may all us introverts stand up and cheer...somebody out there gets us.  Every single bullet point on this list is me....well...maybe except the 35 minute warning...I can probably finish up in 15.  The not interrupting, the observing first in new situations...me and me. 

Being an introvert isn't always an easy thing.  I tend to be quiet and shy which is often misinterpreted as snootiness or lack of interest.  I have developed the ability to be social in crowds when the need presents itself, but then I must to go to a quiet place for awhile.  Crowds, noise, chaos drain my energy.  Quiet alone time refills my tank and I can move forward to be productive.  To the average extrovert, and here's an interesting thing, most of my best girl friends are extroverts, I am seriously boring.   While they may not be the life of the party, introverts bring other fine things to the table.  Sincere sympathy, empathy, the ability to listen and really hear. We're creative, responsible, and extremely loyal.  We rock....just a little more quietly.

So get out there and show your introvert buds some love and if you're on Pinterest, give me a yell.  Or maybe a whisper.

Stuff you should know

I'm an information junkie.  It's ok, I'll admit it.  Random information about ....well.....just about anything, really excites me.  Following leads on topics is a good time, I know...a little weird, but a good time none the less . The only person I know that might be a bigger information junkie than I am would be my Amazing Husband.  His search for information is a little more focused to the world of science and math, where my thirst is pretty generalized.  I'm on a civil war kick right now.  Could be the source of the Nile next week, who the heck knows.  My brain is sort of scattered that way.

So, being always on the search for new tidbits of info I listen mostly to talk radio (NPR you know I love you) and a fair number of podcasts.  Several of the podcasts are knitting related, or may be aimed at a favorite tv show, (Jay and Jack of the Lost Podcast rock), or possibly more girly like Lipgloss and Laptops.  Lately though, I have become a very devoted listener to "Stuff You Should Know" with Josh and Chuck.  The thing I love about Josh and Chuck's podcast is the diverse selection of topics.  One week it's Habeas Corpus, next week it's about Tesla and Edison.  Spontaneous human combustion, lobotomies, can lakes explode, how propaganda works.....random, researched information.  Josh and Chuck are pretty funny guys who work well off each other and work hard to make the information credible and interesting.  It's become my lawn mower listening for a several weeks and I can hardly wait for the next one.  I understand that the How Stuff Works people have lots of other podcasts with equally cool content.

A quick word about podcasts. I listen to my podcasts via my ipod and itunes.  They are free and can be subscribed to so that they download to your itunes regularly.  I believe that there are probably several other ways to listen, like directly from their websites, but I've never had that experience.  However you find most convenient listening for your life and schedule, podcasts are the worth doing some research on......and that might lead to research on toads, or why leaves are green, or where cotton comes from or the best dog food to feed, or....

Mail Call

Our internet provider was recently taken over by Comcast.  We are currently not amused as prices went up and reliability of service went down.  To make matters worse we are forced to change our email addresses.  Again, not amused.  Should you need to contact me via email my new (and cheesy) email addy is hollyberry57atcomcastdotnet.  (replace the at and dot with @ and .)  Amazing Husband's new (and not so cheesy) address is ildenizenatcomcastdotnet.  Send us mail any time.  If we're lucky, Comcast will be doing their job correctly and we might even get it.