Oh my god - September’s OVER? Where the…but, no…wait, what?

*sigh*

Since the beginning of August my eyes have been fixed on the calendar, working like mad towards September 6th, 7th and 20th. Magic dates for Newcastle Days and Science Day that marked the end of the events season and the beginning of: holy crap, I have free time! I could go out on a Wednesday night! Or make phone calls for NO REASON AT ALL! Or go out with my husband and NOT talk about my tasklist all night long! I’ll talk about…um…Politics! Bah! Angry! GARRRR! That makes me look MUCH more interesting, smart and multi-faceted, right? hmm…

But now! I can do Things! Wonderful things! Like update my portfolio and answer email. Make personal appointments and call my mother. Take more freelance jobs and write that novel. Or maybe just sit here on the couch and catch up with Swingtown and The Two Coreys.

All fantastic plans that stalled somewhat when my Dad decided to visit. (complicated.) Then stalled again when I went for a quick-yet-traumatic-2nd-opinion from my 4th dentist this year. (scary complicated.) And my wheels are still spinning over how best to respond to a ‘friend’ who attacked this blog as a lame segue for a ginormous list of everything she thinks is wrong with me, wishes she could fix about me, and loves me even though I’m a pretentious bitch. Love and Kisses! (Dear friend: ’segue’ means ‘transition’. I know how you like to look things up. Try also, Rude and Friend.)

Among all these Things and more, I am slowly getting back to everything I wanted to do (and say) but put on hold the summer. I can’t wait to catch up with you all!

Awesome Things My Peeps Have Been Doing While I was Away
• Chandra - was sick and I’m a jerk for not leaving any sort of ‘hope you feel better soon!’ comment. But! She’s better now! And volunteering at Wild Child’s school (featured in the Daily Herald, too!) Yay!
• Corrine - had a new baby! Who’s gorgeous! Super congrats to Corrine, James & Pickle!
• Jana - got together with her ePeeps for a Girls Night Out and featured some hi-larious photos from Cafe Rio.
• Rose - Volunteered at that massive Obama rally in Germany, did a LOT of traveling (as awesomely usual), is a semi-finalist in a photography contest and is writing up a STORM at the News is Now Public.
• Stephanie - made me laugh my ass off with her awesome yearbookyourself photos
• Danny - made me cry a little with his wonderful post on gratitude, because he GETS it.
• Stacey - Bought a fabulous new house filled with “Old Lady Decor”. She’s already happily redecorating. See it in all it’s glory with this slideshow set to “soft-porn music”.
• Rico - Also bought a new house and is brewing beer, but recently lost his aunt. Love and comfort to you, Rico.
• Michelle - started a baking blog documenting her unbelievably FANTASTIC creations and the cake class she taught this summer. People, she made a COCKROACH cake that looked good enough to eat. ’nuff said.
• Loren - started a judo blog that is all sorts of amazing to me because growing up together I always knew this was a big part of his life, but had absolutely no insight into it.

In the process of upgrading to WordPress 2.6 today, my nice, logical permalinks got all jacked up. In the interest of just plain making them WORK right now, I’ve changed all my post links to WordPress’ default naming structure.

Which means, ONCE AGAIN, any post or page you’ve bookmarked or are trying to access via an old email from me, IS NOT GOING TO WORK.

*sigh*

I’ll letcha know if I manage to change them back to the way they were. Again.

And that Pop? Was my brain. I don’t even remember what it was I was reading 10 minutes ago that mentioned Time Magazine’s ‘50 Best Websites 2008‘ was published today, perking my interest just enough that I thought I’d meander on over there long enough to see whether Dooce was listed.

DUDE. I have FIVE browsers open right now. (I need one just to find my way out of the madness long enough to write this post.) The list is amazing. Not only is almost every single site on their list totally interesting/useful/freaking cuh-hoool, each one leads to three to six others.

Like Hulu and ModernFeed. FREE TV AND MOVIES. ALLL OF THEM. WHENEVER. And I don’t have to go to umpteen different sites to find any of it. And look! Burn Notice AND Battlestar, RIGHT THERE ON THE FRONT PAGE!!! I think Trav is going to die. He just got me a Shadow, and baby, it ROCKS the mobile web.

Here are a few other gems:

• GasBuddy - this one is kindof a ‘DUH’. seeing Albuquerque listed as one of today’s 10 lowest price cities, though - I wasn’t expecting that. Also? Historical trends and lotso tools & factoids that may actually come in useful. AND YOU CAN WIN FREE GAS.
• NexTag - totally awesome comparison shopping! I know, it sounds boring. BUT! Look! Real-life example: I can totally research real-time prices on my Nikon 40x fantasy umpteen times a day! Who knows what will happen? Dah da Daaaaahhhhh!
• Nymbler - this one’s for when I feel sick & twisted and really want to torture myself, but hey, that’s just me. For everyone else its a perky and happy baby naming website. It generates interesting alternatives based on your ideas with historical, ethnic and popularity info. huh. looky there. Using my name, a few Adamses and one Maas, I get an entirely white-bread list, except for ‘Percival’ and ‘Guy’, one is my favorite knight, and the other is my Dad. WEIRD.
• Urban Dictionary & Internet Slang Dictionary - Awesome! Just as soon as I qualify for ‘old’, I can APPEAR to keep ahead of the curve using these gems on my blog! a&f abft omg w/eva im l4m3rz.
• Someecards - someofyouwillbegettingthesefromme. soon.
• websoduku - in combination with my top 2 above, nothing at my house will ever get done again.
• Colorlovers & PixelGirlPresents - obligatory design bling!
• WikiSky & WikiTravel - Just click ‘em. Once. I dare you.
• Omiru - style that doesn’t stress you out. it’s for reals. as in Real People, not Vogue.
• searchme - MacGoogle? ooooh! McWebDreamy! yeah. i’m stretching. but the search is cool!
• Aaaand there’s more. But I am out of time. So go here & see the entire Time’s glitterificness yourself!