Some stuff I’ve enjoyed the past few weeks . . . .

iPad Reviews UK – How Wired Magazine Will Look on the iPad

The Gratitude Log – “The Happiest Place on the Internet” -The Gratitude Log is a website where you post things your grateful for. It’s a wonderful concept and I really like. This is my Gratitude Log page. Feel free to check it out and join if you like it.

Noupe – 40 Outstanding Photo Manipulation Tutorials. Some of these are pretty interesting – manipulations include blending a planet into a photo, how to create glass transparency, alien invasion, steampunk style illustration and many others.

Inhabitat – Texas Breaks US Wind Power Generation Record – this is pretty cool. And Texas is the leading state in wind power generation. Last year, they produced enough energy using wind turbines to offset electricity use in the state by 6.2% overall. But Friday, they set a record – 19% of the energy mix!

Blog Mommas – Take a break, share your blog, have some fun! Not just a blog directory for blogging mommas but also for dad bloggers. Check it out and add your blog too.

And I think that’ll do it for now. I hope you have a great week!

Be blessed,

Copyright © 2008 Annie Anderson | Blog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact annie@anniandersonblog.com so we can take legal action immediately.

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Post tags: around the web

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I spent some time this weekend going over those old blogs and importing most of their posts to THIS blog. So, if you browse around through some of the older posts here now, you’ll see a lot of content from those old blogs. There are posts that go all the way back to 2006 and as soon as I finish importing the remaining archives, they’ll go back to 2005 and maybe even 2003. There are now a little over 600 posts here on AABlog. And many, many other topics that I have not covered here before.

Over the next few days, I’ll revamp things a bit to make it easier to access older content so I’m looking into some type of archive plugin. If you know of good one, please do share!

Also, I may be re-posting some of those older articles to make it a little easier on you. If by chance you happen upon something in the archives you’d like to me re-post this week or next, let me know.

I’m now off to finish up some paperwork for my doctor and will hopefully have my referral for the MRI’s very soon.

Until then . . .

Be blessed,

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

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Post tags: Blogging, plugins, spring

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This morning about 6:45 after my teenager got on the school bus, I was sitting here drinking my coffee and I just felt kinda bogged down. Not heavy bogged down, but just enough that it caused me to think about things. And I realized that in order to CREATE anything, I have to be willing to LET OTHER THINGS GO. (Of course, I knew that already really, but it was one of those moments like “Well, hey, no time like the present!”)

And so shortly thereafter, I got an email that reminded me about renewing my weight loss blogs domain name and even though I enjoy that blog and I really do intend to write there more often, I made the decision to let it go – to not renew it. Once I had that decision made, it just kind of snow-balled a bunch of other similar decisions and I’ve spent the last while letting go of all kinds of things that simply no longer serve my purpose.

I feel peaceful about this change and I think that’s really helping me feel peaceful about some other changes that I’ve been considering for quite some time. Some HUGE changes, actually.

Now it’s just simply time to get on with it. As much as these other changes will be difficult, I am feeling ok about them in the long run. I know the short term will be rough and I’ll have to make some adjustments, but in the end, I think it’s the choice I have to make.

And I know that’s pretty cryptic – sorry – but I’ll let you know about those things soon. I have to make them happen first before I can really discuss them. But trust me – when the time comes, I will NEED A LOT OF TALKING and I’ll be here saying all that needs to said.

Until then,

Be blessed,

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Post tags: life, purpose, Self, themeword

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Some of you know I also have a blog called The Weight Loss Papers where I was chronicling my weight loss journey. But as I have not updated that blog for over a year since I usually just post here about those issues, I decided I will not be renewing my domain name for that site when it’s due in March.

So, I have imported all of the posts from that blog to this one. You’ll find them dispersed in between the regular posts here according to their dates. You can still go to The Weight Loss Papers at this point, but it will cease to exist on March 12th.

Be blessed,

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Post tags: Updates

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I’m a little sad today. Ok – a lot sad, really.

Our neighbor, Wendy, passed away this morning. She wasn’t very old – barely into her 60’s. She’s been our neighbor for 22 years and was a great friend of my mom.

About 8 or so months ago, Wendy was diagnosed with having ALS, known more commonly as Lou Gherig’s disease. The doctors estimate she’d been having symptoms of the disease for quite some time before the diagnosis but who knows how long, really. She often refused to see a traditional doctor. As a nurse, she generally “diagnosed” herself and was always trying weird things – fastings and diets and what-not. I’m sure some of those took their toll on her.

Anyway, she and her husband have been good friends to our family for many years and I’m sad she’s gone.

Please say a prayer, send a thought, light a candle for her and for her husband, will you? I know Jerry is going to need a lot of support in the coming days and weeks.

Thank you.

Be blessed,

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Post tags: friends, health

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The weather here in the Seattle area has been just absolutely gorgeous lately! I’m really enjoying it. It’s still cold in the morning and at night – about 30-36?- and warms up to the mid 50’s by noon or so. Quite nice! Things that don’t normally bloom until Spring are starting to blossom already and there are a lot of birds as well.

{Shoulder}

I think I must have inadvertently slept on my shoulder last night because it and my arm are incredibly sore this morning. Not just sore, actually, but downright painful. I hope the referral for my MRI comes very soon. Kinda getting tired of waiting. I want to know what can be done about this pain before it gets any worse.

{Weight}

Now that it’s been almost a whole month since my doctor changed my blood pressure medication, I’m absolutely sure it was what causing the weight gain. Since I began taking the new medication, I’ve lost 10 pounds and I haven’t changed anything else – foods, exercise, etc – so I know for sure that’s what it is. This is very good news! I am so glad it was the answer.

Let me tell you – being “in touch” with your body and what’s going on with it is very important. If I hadn’t been, I’d still be taking the other medication and my weight would still be climbing. Many people don’t understand those subtle things about their bodies and aren’t really in tune with what’s going on. You owe it yourself – and your family – to understand your body and your health. Taking care of yourself is paramount.

{Cane}

My cane arrived last Thursday and I went grocery shopping with my mom Friday. Using the cane was so nice. I was able to take the pressure off my leg a lot and that really helped my endurance. My back didn’t start really complaining until we were nearly finished with our shopping. And I didn’t have that odd grinding feeling in my back every time I took step. I think this is going to turn out to be very helpful indeed! Glad I decided to go with it.

{Projects}

I’ve got two major projects going on right now. Both are for my cousin’s hair and nail salon. The first is designing a website for her home salon and make up line. It’s been fun and challenging! The second is a web-based application I’m building with Ruby on Rails for her to keep track of her client information. I’m having a good time learning RoR as I go along and I think the application is going to turn out well.

{Snow Leopard}

I finally took the plunge and upgraded my MacBook Pro to the latest OS X operating system – Snow Leopard. It’s running great and I like the updates. Lots of new features that I didn’t have in the Tiger edition of the OS. Some of the improvements are just little changes but those are good too. My system is now running faster (although it was never really all that slow) and I gained a few GB of space on my hard drive. That’s pretty cool! Before SL, I had 24gb of hdd space and now I’ve got 30gb, so that’s a bonus.

{The Husband}

My husband has been in college since last Spring, taking the AA degree program in welding. He’s almost finished! Yay! He gets to take a certification test next week and then he’ll actually be qualified to work in the industry in Washington State. Then, he has Spring quarter plus a couple more classes over Summer quarter to complete the full degree. Being that he’s never really finished anything in his entire life, this is a huge milestone for him. Now, hopefully, he will find a good job in the industry and stick with it.

{Miscellaneous}

I think I’ll do an “Around the Web” update this week and maybe even a few other things. Haven’t done those in a while and I know everybody always enjoys those. So look out for that, probably Wednesday or Thursday.

And have a great week!

Until next time -

Be blessed,

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Post tags: Blogging, create, doctors, Family, health, stuff, weather, Weight

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Most people, just looking at me, don’t know there’s anything wrong with my arm. It looks normal – on the outside. On the inside, though, it doesn’t work quite right.

See, I have no feeling from mid biceps all the way down to the palm of my hand. It’s been like that for over 23 years now. Well, not quite as bad in the beginning – it’s gotten worse over the years. At first, it was mostly around my elbow and part of my forearm along with part of my wrist and hand.

What caused this?

A bike riding accident.

I fell off my bike going down a steep hill at a pretty high rate of speed and slid 20-something feet across the pavement. Thankfully I protected my head or I probably wouldn’t have had a face left. But . . . since I *did* protect my head as I fell and slid, I managed to totally screw up my arm.

When I was 14, about 6 months after the accident, I had surgery to repair part of the damaged nerves. The surgery rerouted the major nerve that goes from the shoulder to the hand, called the ulner nerve. It’s the one that makes your arm feel funny when you hit your “funny bone.” It’s not actually the bone you’re hitting that causes the funny sensation – it’s the ulner nerve. And let me tell you, when you DON’T have an ulner nerve there and you hit your elbow, it hurts like freakin’ hell. And I’m not kidding.

Anyway, the sliding across the pavement damaged that nerve along with just about every other nerve in my elbow region. In addition to the nerve damage, I also have tendonitis and bursitis in my elbow. I’m sure by now there’s arthritis too and who knows what else.

Over the years, the non-feeling area has widened and like I said above, it now goes from mid-biceps all the way to into the palm of my hand. Sometimes my fingers go numb too.

I cannot grip things with my right hand very well anymore as result. I drop things constantly or think I’ve picked something up but really haven’t. The sensation is all out of whack and it’s often hard to tell without actually looking to see what I’m doing. I can’t pick up a penny or a nickel or any coin from a table. I have to slide it to the edge of the surface and let it fall into my hand.

Now, as a right-handed person, this is not good. Especially as a right-handed WRITER. And although I am ambidextrous and can write left-handed, I do prefer to write right-handed because, well, it looks slightly nicer.

Yes, I can type – obviously. But do you know how beautiful it is to hold your favorite pen in your hand and write? Write on fine paper? Write and scribble and doodle? Pen lovely words to those you hold dear?

I’ve always been a “writer” type person. Even as a child. Most girls had Barbies and dolls and what-not. I had paper, pens, crayons and all that good stuff. I was always writing. (If I wasn’t out riding my bike, that is!)

I always knew this day would come, the day the doctor told my mom 23 years ago would eventually come. The day when I really couldn’t write well. The day my nice, neat, oft-complimented handwriting would turn into chicken scratch. That holding a pen would be so uncomfortable, I wouldn’t even want to write.

Well, that day is here.

It’s been here for a while now and I just didn’t want to admit it. I kept thinking maybe it was just the pen. Or maybe it was just the paper. But no, it really is my arm.

Earlier this morning, I wrote a note for my sons absence from school yesterday and didn’t even recognize my own writing. It looked like . . . I don’t even know what.

So, this is a very discouraging place for me. As someone who has always taken pride in their writing, to no longer have that is quite upsetting. It’s like losing your best friend or your most prized possession.

A part of me is gone.

And I’m really not quite sure what to do about it. I knew it was going to happen at some point, but I really had hoped it wouldn’t be until I was considerably older.

Until next time -

Be blessed,

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Post tags: health, stuff

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Simple as that.

I hope this clears up any “problems” you have with receiving emails about replies.

Have a great weekend! I’m going to go grocery shopping so I can use my new cane and see if it makes a difference in the pain in my back. I sure hope it does because walking around the grocery store and pushing a cart is very painful. I’d like to be able to walk around the store, do my shopping, get home and put my groceries away without feeling like my back got ran over by a Mack truck.

Until then . . .

Be blessed,

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I hate breakfast foods. Really, I do. I’m allergic to eggs, don’t like pancakes or sausage, can’t stand oatmeal or cold cereal, don’t eat bacon. I mean, what’s left after that? Hashbrowns? Who wants to eat hashbrowns every. single. day. Not me.

Waffles are okay – I like them, but as a mom of 4 children, who has time (or energy) to make waffles before school? I sure don’t. I already get up at 6:00am insanely early (for me, anyway, being a nightowl) and I refuse to get up any earlier just to cook. LOL

Okay then, what does one eat for breakfast?

Nothing.

Yes -I know, I know – everyone says it’s imperative to eat *something* for breakfast when you’re loosing weight. And yet, I usually just can’t. Nothing is appetizing at 6:00am.

But 10:00am? My stomach is ready for food at 10. Maybe it’s because it was conditioned to eat at 10 because that was our scheduled “lunch” time all during high school. I can eat lunch at 10 am. Or, I mean, breakfast.

Then again, maybe it has to do with that nightowl thing. I mean, if you get up 9 or 9:30, then 10 is the perfect time for breakfast.

And who says you have to breakfast food for breakfast? Is that a rule somewhere? I thought food was . . . well, food. You eat it, right? Who cares then?

Fruit is good. Ham sandwiches are good. Toast with almond butter is good. And smoothies. I can do smoothies. Or granola with a little warm hemp milk.

If you’re not a breakfast person (or even if you are), what do you try to eat for breakfast? And when? Early or later, like me?

I’m curious to know how you all handle the breakfast thing.

If it were up to me, there would not even be a thing called breakfast. LOL We’d skip right to lunch about noon or so and go on from there.

So, there’s my rant for today! Please . . . share your thoughts with me in the comments.

Until later -

Be blessed,

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Post tags: food, health, Rants

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See, what you may not know is that I’m “disabled.” I don’t like to label myself as disabled, though, because when I think of someone truly disabled, I think of my dad who not only had an artificial leg, but was missing several fingers on both hands. Yet, he never thought of himself as disabled either.

It used to bug me to no end when people would stare at my dad when we went somewhere. I used to get so livid that people could be so rude! Sometimes I even told them so! LOL (Yes, I was a feisty kid!)

I always think of someone in a wheelchair or someone who uses a walker or mobility scooter as someone who is really disabled. I think I’m doing pretty good most days when I see people using those devices!

And so, even though my doctor says I now must begin using a cane, I am not going to think of myself as disabled. So there! LOL

Last week when I was in the doctors office for my back and shoulder, she said I really should use a cane. Apparently the arthritis in my low back is really causing some degeneration in the spine that she’s concerned about. Especially since I lose feeling my leg quite easily. And when she couldn’t even get my leg to reflex when she tapped my knee with the little hammer, she decided we needed an MRI.

Hopefully the referral for the MRI for both my back and my shoulder (which she also decided was necessary) will come this week and I get those done. The doctor also thinks it’s time to get started on social security paperwork and I suspect that also will mean paperwork for a disabled parking permit.

The worst part for me is realizing that in the last 6 months, I’ve lost A LOT of motion in my legs and low back. It seems like no matter what I do, everything is getting worse. I feared that one day this would come. In fact, when I first hurt my back in 1997, the doctors told me then that it likely would occur at some point. I just wasn’t planning on it happening until I’d at least reached my 50’s or so.

Anyway, I’m not going to dwell on it – I will do what I always do – what my dad taught me to do by his example and that is to do the best I can and to take it one day at a time.

And when my cane arrives next week, I’ll post a picture of it for you! It shipped yesterday so hopefully it arrives by Wednesday or Thursday. I really hope Wednesday, though, because that’s usually when I go grocery shopping and it would make it so much easier! Even though my mom usually goes shopping with me to help push the cart and carry the bags in, I would like to be able to walk around the store without so much pain.

I also found a really cool walking stick last weekend but decided against buying as it was a little pricey. If it had been about $30, I probably would have gotten it. My mom thought it was a little high for me, though. Oh well!

I think maybe I’ll get a couple of other canes too. Maybe some fancy ones. I figure, if you’ve gotta use one, you may as well go all out, right? Be a little crazy, a little goofy. Have some fun!

Canes are the new shoes. I’ll have one for every occasion!

Be blessed,

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Post tags: Adventure, doctors, health, life, Self

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