Average Jane

Average Jane Plays Catch-Up

As much as I enjoyed my four-day weekend, it's put me a bit behind at work. Apparently my subconscious is very concerned about it, judging by the dreams I was having when I woke up, which included:

• Missing the school bus,
• Realizing I'd been inadvertently skipping a class in school, and
• Playing hooky at the lake during a school day and feeling guilty about it.

I'm thinking it would be a good idea for me to get into the office early today.

Average Jane Likes Twitter

Have you tried Twitter yet? If you don't know what it is, it's "microblogging," where you get 140 characters per post to answer the question, "What are you doing?"

I know, it doesn't sound all that appealing at first. It also sounds like it could be incredibly time-consuming, which is why I hesitated to join for quite some time. I ended up signing up right around SXSWi this year and was immediately consumed with jealousy that so many Twitter users were there and having a great time while I was at home (sick, actually, so I wouldn't have enjoyed myself there anyway).

The way Twitter works is that you follow the posts, or "Tweets," of people of interest. In my case, that includes people I know, people whose blogs I read, and miscellaneous bloggers and celebrities I think might be interesting, like @MCHammer and @LeoLaporte, for instance. There are also companies online, like @southwestair. Twitter users you follow can choose to follow you or not. Right now I am following 142 people and I have 152 followers.

You can post your own Tweets about whatever crosses your mind and also respond publicly or privately (when it's working properly) to other Twitter users by addressing your response to the person's user name with the "@" sign in front of it.

It's basically like broadcasting an instant message to a select group of people and it allows for interactions that would never take place any other way.

For example, I recently Tweeted that I was looking for someone to go to lunch with. @cadykansas, whom I had met only once before in real life, responded and we ended up meeting up and having a very nice lunch and chat. (Admittedly, the next time I tried that lunch companion recruiting tactic it didn't pan out.)

Just this weekend, @deew27 Tweeted that she had an extra Wii that she wanted to sell. I went and picked it up from her on Sunday.

This coming Friday, there's a Tweetup planned in Kansas City with @QueenofSpain. I watched the planning process bounce around on Twitter until eventually it transpired that the event will be held at my company's office. If you live in Kansas City and want to meet Erin Kotecki-Vest, let me know and I'll pass along the details. Oh, and be sure to sign up with Twitter so you don't miss these things in the future!

Twitter is not without its drawbacks. It crashes...a lot. Its functionality has been reduced for days now, and you never know when it might be down completely. There's also been an issue with their enforcement of their Terms of Service.

Still, it's a cool way to communicate online and I hope they manage to work out the bugs as they become more and more popular. If you belong or you end up joining, add me! I'm @average_jane.

Average Jane in the Garden

This weekend I've weeded, planted, mulched, lopped, pruned and hauled branches. Here's some of the result:

Average Jane Has Four Glorious Days Off

Ahhh. That's the sound of me looking forward to four full days to stay home and do whatever I want.

What I want includes:

• Spending my $100 gift certificate at a greenhouse
• Planting flowers (which will require careful scheduling around rainstorms)
• Other yard maintenance (removing volunteer trees, weeding, etc.)
• As many yoga classes as it takes to counter the yard butt I will surely develop
• Going to movies (after lunch today: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull")
• Attending every social occasion I'm invited to
• Daily naps

You'll notice that that's a pretty short list. I'll also be cooking meals, getting my hair cut and colored, catching up on my Bloglines feeds, doing a vocal practice with the band, etc., but I really like the idea of lazing about as much as possible between bursts of activity this weekend.

I'm up really early today, so I'm going to go to Coffee Morning and then to the plant nursery. What else do you think I should do with my free day?

Average Jane Has the Old House Blues

Yesterday I decided it was time I had something done about our slow basement drain. It had gotten to the point where every load of laundry overflowed the drain and wetted the floor about three feet around.

RotoRooter came out and started doing their thing. In both directions they came up with mud.

This is a very bad thing because it means that, as I had long suspected, the "grey water" from our kitchen and basement really does drain to the creek and not to the septic system. It also means that the drain line has been breached somewhere, but I'm certainly not inclined to dig up the basement floor, our concrete patio, and many feet of yard to find out where.

Our option, as proposed by the RotoRooter plumber, is to install a pump that will take wastewater from the kitchen and washing machine and feed it into a drainpipe to our septic system. For two thousand dollars, thank you very much.

That would be all well and good, but my husband and I are not comfortable with the idea of suddenly introducing that much extra water into the septic system without clearing the idea with a expert (aside from the initial plumber, who said "it should be okay"). You can see how the costs start escalating.

Then there's the issue of still needing a functioning drain for when the basement floods periodically. Or maybe the root problem there is trying to solve the flooding before it happens.

One way or another, the real drain is going to be on my savings account.

Average Jane's Anti-SATC Meme

I always liked Sex and the City just fine, but I'm not particularly excited about the movie. Thus, Suzanne's meme seemed like a good one for me:

"As the Sex and the City Movie comes to theaters near you and there is no escape from its press coverage, I present a meme for feisty, spirited women who share our lives and support one another, yet are also slovenly and/or miserly (or is it practical?)."

What's the cheapest pair of shoes you own?: All of my shoes are cheap. I know I have a pair that cost $4 at Target, but I can't remember which ones they are.

What's your favorite piece of jewelry, if you own any?: I like my ridiculously dated-looking gold wedding band from 1994. I have much nicer jewelry than that, but the plainer gold band is more "me."

What's your favorite t-shirt?: I care a great deal for my Fussy "I thought it was a porn site too, but I was typing it wrong" shirt. I also like the "I am the Internet" shirt I bought from W00t the other day.

If you could wear jeans every day, would you? I can and I do.

Do you comb your hair every day? Yes. My hair is probably the most high-maintenance thing about me.

Average Jane's Cat, Velvet

Today is the one-year anniversary of the day we brought Velvet home from the shelter. She's the cat in the foreground, with tiny-headed Xena behind her.

Over the past year Velvet has morphed from a scruffy-looking cat who had obviously had a rough life, to a sleek, shiny, well-fed girl. She's a beautiful cat with long legs, big eyes and a sweet face, who loves to be petted and cuddled.

We liked her from the first moment we met her, even though she was wearing a red collar that indicated that she'd been known to bite (as if any of our cats don't nip now and then!).

The shelter staff told us that she loved to chase and be chased by the younger cats, which was exactly what we were looking for in a playmate for Xena. What they didn't mention is that she likes to start those games around bedtime. Fortunately, they don't last long.

She has one other habit I'd wish she'd break. If I still believed in monsters under the bed, I'd never sleep again thanks to her evening ritual of scratching the slats that hold up our mattress.

Sometimes I catch her eyeing our aged cat, Velcro, as if she can't wait for her to die so she can take her place on my lap. Velcro may be old and deaf, but she's always quick to smack that idea out of Velvet's head - literally. On the other hand, Velvet has taken to giving Xena long baths, which is so cute I almost can't stand it.

I don't know how to wrap this up except to say that shelters are definitely the way to go when you want a new pet (unless, like Schmutzie, you end up rescuing one directly). You want a cat now, don't you? Admit it!

Average Jane's Triumphant Weekend

This weekend was marked by triumphs both great and small.

I started out on Saturday morning by sorting a year's worth of junk mail and six months' worth of glass bottles and jars, and taking all of it to the recycling center. They were having a special shredding event, so it saved me hours and hours of shredding my own junk mail. It was a lot of fun to lob the bottles one by one into the dumpster and hear them shatter. I recommend taking your glass to the recycling center any time you feel the need for a little anger management.

On Sunday I walked the half marathon. I prepared as best I could, with special socks, a bag that held two water bottles, and new capri pants that I'm sure I'll use later for yoga class. Once I cut the tags out of the pants to make sure they wouldn't start bugging me during the 13.5 mile walk, I thought I had it all planned out.

It turned out that the injury I didn't anticipate was caused by the seams in the sleeves of my t-shirt. They rubbed the undersides of both arms absolutely raw and there was nothing I could do about it, short of removing my t-shirt and exposing my pale, sports bra-clad flab to the world. I chose to suffer instead.

The walk went quite well and although I'm sure my legs will be stiff tomorrow (my knees are pretty stiff now), I handled it better than I had expected. Admittedly, I was pretty quiet for the last few miles and I wasn't inclined to hurry to catch up when I got left behind at the final stoplight. Still, it's nice to know that I'm capable of walking that far, even if I never do so again.

At band practice we auditioned a guy who used to play in a band with my mom probably 18 years ago. It went quite well, we're all exactly in agreement about what we want from the band, and he can even help us book gigs. [Clouds part, sun shines, chorus of voices swells.] He's the guy!

Look for gigs to be announced soon. I think we're finally on track to start playing out within a month or less. Hooray!

So how was your weekend?

Average Jane Says, "Order My Friend's Book!"

I have known Rita Arens since we worked together at a failed dotcom (was there any other kind?) in 1999. We've been friends ever since.

She is one of the most driven and determined people I have ever met - exactly the sort of person who gets an idea and makes it happen through hard work and sheer force of will.

She started blogging a few months after I did, and was my roommate at the 2006 BlogHer Conference. (In fact, she'll be my roommate again this year.)

Early in 2006, she started getting in touch with other moms who blogged to see if they'd be interested in contributing to a mommy blogger anthology.  I'll drop out here and let you read what happened over the next two years from Rita's perspective.

How's that for grit and determination?

Best of all, the book includes the writers of some of my favorite blogs:
Amalah
Binkytown
Birdie's New Mexico Time Machine
CityMama
Finslippy
Friday Playdate
Fussy
IzzyMom
Laid-Off Dad
Mom-101
Mommy Needs Coffee
Mommytrack'd
Motherhood Uncensored
Not Calm (dot com)
Paper Napkin
Rancid Raves
State of Grace
Surfette
Surrender, Dorothy
Sweetney
The Modernity Ward
The Naked Ovary
Three Kid Circus
Woulda Coulda Shoulda

So I'm here to report that I just pre-ordered three copies (one for me, two to give as gifts) at Amazon. It's also available for pre-order at Barnes & Noble and BookSense.

Mommy or not, if you like good writing and personal stories, you'll want to add this book to your collection.

Way to go, Rita!

An Average Jane Update

I know you're all waiting with bated breath to see how the minor civic and domestic issues I mentioned earlier this week have been resolved. In brief:

Neighborhood Parking
All of the neighbors gathered on Monday evening to find out the results of the parking survey. Everyone said that they don't want the entire street to have restricted parking; however, they wished that the guy on the corner would stop parking so close to the intersection. City officials plan to start by asking him nicely and proceed to put up "No Parking" signs on his block if that doesn't help. My husband and I were the youngest people at the meeting by at least 15 years in his case, 25 in mine.

Drooping Cable
Believe it or not, I actually got an e-mail back from Time-Warner Cable. It said to call the same number I'd called yesterday. D'oh! However, I pressed a few dishonest menu keys and managed to make my way to an actual person. They're not coming out until next week to fix the problem, but it's not that big of a deal.

Band Auditions
Yesterday we auditioned a keyboard player (who basically talked his way into an audition, as we weren't actually looking for a keyboardist), and another lead guitarist. It was kind of nice to have keyboards to fill in the sound on certain songs, but I'm not convinced that it's worth dividing our paltry earnings by 6 rather than 5. The guitarist impressed us by - gasp! - actually having learned the songs he told us he wanted to play. His tone was a little Dokken-y on everything, but perhaps that's fixable. No decisions have been made yet.

Aren't you glad for that thrilling report? I think I need to work on having more interesting adventures.

So how's your week going?