[I accidentally published my notes for this post earlier. So sorry to have to do it over for those using Google Reader.]
We're trying to sell our house right now. It's discouraging, particularly when we worked so hard to create an awesome home: new appliances, new floors, new basement, new house. We're hanging in there though and realizing that we'll just have to learn a hard and likely expensive lesson.
I've also had a vocabulary lesson regarding the house. We have had several showings, which I actually called "viewings" when I talked about it with other people. A "viewing," however, sounds more like a funeral-related activity. I've caught myself saying "viewing" several times since the distinction was raised, and I envision myself lying at rest in our bed, hands folded as people parade through our house.
For each showing, we work really hard to get everything in place (like anyone can live this way for an extended period of time without hired help). When I get home, it's weird to think that other people were in your home, judging every little aspect of the place. It's a little spooky, but I'm starting to get used to it.
Surprise Party Video
Here's a video of the surprise party that Anna wrote about. This is right after we walked in. In a special adaptation of "Oh, Susanna," Tom, Henniker's favorite poet, showed us some serious love. Many thanks, Tom. Also, many thanks to Tim and his family for opening their home for the party. You'll notice that I'm not quite "with it" in this video. I was in class for six hours straight on this particular Saturday morning (mini-courses aren't a great idea). My eyes were glazed over, but I slowly came about through this performance--at least enough to demand the high octave leap at the end and then bark and clap like an ill-trained seal.
Comment Mechanics
I just read this post by David Pogue of the New York Times. He asserts, and I agree, that the various ways that we try to stop ad bots from commenting on our sites just doesn't work. Well, I'm going to try to go without having everyone decipher a squiggly word for a while to see how it works. Maybe it will feel like I'm not letting the terrorists win.
There is a program that I wouldn't mind using. I can't remember where I read about it, and I'm too lazy to grab a link right now. Trust me. This exists.
There are computers that are taking scanned images of old texts and converting them into searchable digital documents. The problem is that there are several places that require human reasoning because of ink blotches or other imaging problems. There are several websites that use people trying to prove that they're not a bot to do this work for document archiving. It seems that Blogger is not one of them.
There is a program that I wouldn't mind using. I can't remember where I read about it, and I'm too lazy to grab a link right now. Trust me. This exists.
There are computers that are taking scanned images of old texts and converting them into searchable digital documents. The problem is that there are several places that require human reasoning because of ink blotches or other imaging problems. There are several websites that use people trying to prove that they're not a bot to do this work for document archiving. It seems that Blogger is not one of them.
From Anna's Hand
Well done, all. You pressured Anna into writing a post. Keep it up!
Last Saturday, Austin and I were invited to have dinner with Pastor Rebecca and Bob Maccini in Henniker. We arrived at the Maccini's house right on time, and Bob recieved a phone call that he had forgotten to give a CD to Tim for his daughter Erin's disco themed birthday party. So before we dined we headed over to Tim's house to drop off the disco CD. Bob comes running out and says we have to see how they decorated the house for the party. We go in and, lo and behold, it is a surprise party for me and Austin. Everyone from the choir was there, and some from the Prodigals. They had special chairs for us to sit in, and Tom had written us a song to the tune of "Oh, Susanna (She Came from Alabama)." It was funny and sweet, and made me and Austin tear up a little. Then we had the chance to visit with everyone, and eat some great food; this choir is full of good cooks! Carol C. wrote me a poem titled "Anna's Garden;" it was lovely and precious. It will be framed and hanging in our new home. What a tresure! Carol H. is a fabulous knitter, and she made me a shawl. It is beautiful! On the follwing Sunday they blessed the shawl and said a prayer that the shawl, when wrapped around me, would bring love, support, and comfort. I loved all of these wonderful gifts and will cherish them always. We continued visiting with everyone through the evening. What a wonderful day!
This church, choir, and band have been a constant source of support and love for me during my time here in New Hampshire. They have given me free reign to direct and be creative. We have laughed and cried together, and made a lot of really great music. It is very sad to say farwell to these preciouse people. But we must. There is a strange mix of feelings that happens when I move: sad, excited, anxious, happy, and, this time, looking forward to the wonderful people of Cincinnati, OH. It seems that, no matter where life has taken me, there have always been wonderful and generous people there who are willing to open their hearts in friendship. Okay, well I wrote a post; I am sure to do it again when my arm is twisted. :)
[Editor's Note: Pictures of the Shawl and excerpts from the song and poem to come in a future post.]
Last Saturday, Austin and I were invited to have dinner with Pastor Rebecca and Bob Maccini in Henniker. We arrived at the Maccini's house right on time, and Bob recieved a phone call that he had forgotten to give a CD to Tim for his daughter Erin's disco themed birthday party. So before we dined we headed over to Tim's house to drop off the disco CD. Bob comes running out and says we have to see how they decorated the house for the party. We go in and, lo and behold, it is a surprise party for me and Austin. Everyone from the choir was there, and some from the Prodigals. They had special chairs for us to sit in, and Tom had written us a song to the tune of "Oh, Susanna (She Came from Alabama)." It was funny and sweet, and made me and Austin tear up a little. Then we had the chance to visit with everyone, and eat some great food; this choir is full of good cooks! Carol C. wrote me a poem titled "Anna's Garden;" it was lovely and precious. It will be framed and hanging in our new home. What a tresure! Carol H. is a fabulous knitter, and she made me a shawl. It is beautiful! On the follwing Sunday they blessed the shawl and said a prayer that the shawl, when wrapped around me, would bring love, support, and comfort. I loved all of these wonderful gifts and will cherish them always. We continued visiting with everyone through the evening. What a wonderful day!
This church, choir, and band have been a constant source of support and love for me during my time here in New Hampshire. They have given me free reign to direct and be creative. We have laughed and cried together, and made a lot of really great music. It is very sad to say farwell to these preciouse people. But we must. There is a strange mix of feelings that happens when I move: sad, excited, anxious, happy, and, this time, looking forward to the wonderful people of Cincinnati, OH. It seems that, no matter where life has taken me, there have always been wonderful and generous people there who are willing to open their hearts in friendship. Okay, well I wrote a post; I am sure to do it again when my arm is twisted. :)
[Editor's Note: Pictures of the Shawl and excerpts from the song and poem to come in a future post.]
Potter Goes Slytherin
The Harry Potter reference in the title of this post refers to the fact that a lot of people think I look like Hogwarts's favorite son. The early years of my life passed without any celebrity lookalike comments; rather, it was my name that led to friendly harrassment: "Austin from Boston [note: I am not from Boston]," "Austinioooooooooo Hall," "Il Pagetto," and the ever-popular "Austin Powers."
I'm not complaining. In fact, I liked that people would give me pet names. The Harry Potter books--particularly the cover illustrations--changed everything. At the height of the books' popularity, I was wearing my hair a little shaggy and my skin a little pale. I also carried a broom around with me for a variety of reasons. The likeness is, I must admit, fairly convincing.
As a lookalike, people expect a lot out of you. My strangest incident happened in Books-a-Million [a store that I haven't seen in a long time]. An older teenager approached me with her friend and asked if she could take a picture with me. With a puzzled look on my face, she said that she would have to run to her car to get her camera. Before she turned to go to the car, she said, "This is amazing. I kinda have a Harry Potter fetish." Somewhere in Alabama there is a girl with a picture of me and a strong set of feelings for a boy wizard. Creepy.
I've tried to embrace the Harry Potter thing, but it's sort of disappointing. More than anything, I've always wanted someone to say, "You know what? You look just like David Duchovny." Not going to happen, and, with Duchovny's recent bad press, it's probably for the best. Maybe Steve McQueen? Not even close.
Do you get any lookalike comments? Who do you supposedly look like? Is there someone you think you look like or would want someone to say you look like?
From the Floor: Outdoors and Undercover
Adelaide Macaroni Padgett is a puppy, specializing in sleep and play. She is author of The Perils of White Puppies in New England and Growling at Windmills. Her series for this blog "From the Floor" strives to provide a commonplace-if not subaltern-view of newsworthy events.
Pembroke, NH--As the high pressure front continues its move through the Northeast, I'm still--as you can see in the picture--having to get under a blanket at night. It's still dropping below freezing out there at night, but I have some good news: The time for playing outside has come. Puppies, rejoice!
I went outside yesterday for about 45 minutes, and it was fantastic. I ran after the ball for a while, and then I did a general sniff-through of the yard's perimeter. Everything was good except for one thing.
There were leaves on the ground. After all of that snow melted, there was a canopy littered across the ground. Either Mother Nature is a magician or my man-owner got a little lazy this fall. To top it off, he didn't even get a rake out. Nope. He just took the lawn mower to the brown, crunchy lawn.
I scoffed at his laziness at first, but I came to be very impressed with the results. No longer will I lose my tennis ball in the two inches of leaves. I have a grayish-green yard to bound across. Well done, sir.
Now I'm hoping that he'll take a torch to the shadowy corner of the yard with the big pile of snow in it. That's valuable real estate for a puppy like me.
Puritan Padgett
I have heard your cries, and I am now trying to force Anna to write about the weekend's activities. She'll cave in and write an excellent post; I'm sure of it. The weekend was really special, so, Anna, we're all looking forward to a great post.
Until then, I wanted to say that I've been using Google Analytics to monitor the traffic on the blog. For a Google application, Analytics is dense, but it provides some great information for someone who is just blogging for kicks.
One of the most important pieces of information that you can get is the keywords used in search engines that lead to your site. You actually get to see what people are typing in that ultimately brings them to your door. Usually you're looking at "theashaveit" or "The As Have It" for our site, but there is a recent search that is hilarious to me: "Puritan Padgett." This search led someone to this post, where I briefly discuss Plink and a Puritan Paperback that I read in college. There is a Professor Padgett somewhere out there that writes theological history books about the Puritan faith and can actually grow a beard. I can only imagine what this person--who stayed on the website for three whole minutes--thought when he or she saw brightly colored mugs. I hope it was a good experience, and they definitely bounced to the Jeremiah Burrough's link.
It reminds me of when Nate and I were running Rhubarbicon and someone found our site by searching for "Single Dad by Choice." When you land on a top executive's profile, I guess that you don't feel so alone in your life decisions. In fact, you probably feel quite empowered.
Until then, I wanted to say that I've been using Google Analytics to monitor the traffic on the blog. For a Google application, Analytics is dense, but it provides some great information for someone who is just blogging for kicks.
One of the most important pieces of information that you can get is the keywords used in search engines that lead to your site. You actually get to see what people are typing in that ultimately brings them to your door. Usually you're looking at "theashaveit" or "The As Have It" for our site, but there is a recent search that is hilarious to me: "Puritan Padgett." This search led someone to this post, where I briefly discuss Plink and a Puritan Paperback that I read in college. There is a Professor Padgett somewhere out there that writes theological history books about the Puritan faith and can actually grow a beard. I can only imagine what this person--who stayed on the website for three whole minutes--thought when he or she saw brightly colored mugs. I hope it was a good experience, and they definitely bounced to the Jeremiah Burrough's link.
It reminds me of when Nate and I were running Rhubarbicon and someone found our site by searching for "Single Dad by Choice." When you land on a top executive's profile, I guess that you don't feel so alone in your life decisions. In fact, you probably feel quite empowered.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
