June Plug

I'm relieved that this month is over. It's been a busy month. Of course, in this case, it's nothing but an arbitrary demarcation because I don't see things slowing down. As always, I'm trying to adjust to rate-limit the chaos, but it's been hard this weekend and into the next two weeks. We're in a bit of a heat spell here. Other places have it hotter, but we don't live in those places and those places are overall better equipped to handle it - they have air conditioning. I am really grateful to have a car with really good air conditioning for the first time in years, but the house is probably best described as miserable. Normally, I'd be able to escape to the office, but next week there's 2 days of holiday and then I have a week of vacation after that. Oh, well, can't be helped. Somewhere in there I'll have to acclimate because otherwise I will do that thing where you die from lack of sleep.

But, still, yeah, it feels like a little bit of a relief to be past June. As soon as I admit that, I come back to the thoughts of the first paragraph but if I allow myself to entertain them, we could be here for a long time.

So...

The Big Elements

simplify - I've been nibbling on a few things and working to simplify my process of getting stuff done around the house and getting stuff done at work. Recently visited a house where the children are a little older and all typically developing. I was all but bitter at how clean and orderly everything was. I was motivated and inspired to try to do more to declutter the parts of the house people see regularly. But - to where? That's always a frustrating question.

diet/exercise - I have felt really good about it every day where there wasn't a BBQ. There were two of them this week. I did get some walking it, but the last time was a bit miserable, even though I had a change of clothes. I think I'm going to sit out the next few weeks as far as walking. Perhaps a run early in the morning if I get enough sleep or can't sleep but need to stay indoors while it's light out. I've gotten better on staying on track at home, but it's not easy. Working to drink water whenever I want to snack.

work - it's been another good month. It hasn't slowed down there either, but I think I'm keeping on top of stuff mostly.

family - we got to spend some time with Lori's mom and my family for Rachel's birthday. We need to call Lori's dad and brothers. That's overdue.

family present ideas - I had a few for Rachel which I passed along to Lori and she added them to what she bought for Rachel and they seemed well received, so that's cool. I had an idea for Rachel, Lori and my mom, an early birthday present for my mom, but I let the opportunity pass without acting. I kept meaning to and never got to it. Unfortunate.

Top 5 Posts This Month

* How To: Fix a "TE Error" on an LG-WM2277HW (part 1 of 2) (Thursday, January 27, 2011) -- I will be surprised if I can ever write anything that will top this. Partly because I hope to never do this kind of project again on my own.

* Get Them Talking (A Work-Related Post) (Monday, May 27, 2013) -- A you giving your customers (and prospective customers) a reason to remember you?

* Facebook Messaging (A Work-Related Post) (Monday, December 13, 2010) -- Nope, Facebook still hasn't killed email. I think this post is still relevant because I don't think Facebook has done much to innovate at all on the inbox side of things. Except chatheads but no one likes those.

* Perk Me (A Work-Related Post) (Tuesday, June 04, 2013) -- Some thoughts on how to reward your employees even if you can't afford to give them a free catered lunch every day.

* @worldmarket Sweepstakes Misses the Mark (A Work-Related Post) (Wednesday, June 26, 2013) -- I complain about an email that was part of a contest and then offer up my own suggestion using nothing more than Blogger and the Mac's screen grab tool. It's not great, but I still think it's an improvement.

My Favorite 5 Posts This Month

* @worldmarket Sweepstakes Misses the Mark (A Work-Related Post) (Wednesday, June 26, 2013) -- So the post went live, Feedburner tweeted a link to my Twitter feed and in less than an hour, Cost Plus World Market's official Twitter account had responded with a thank you and an indication that they were passing it along to the company that was running the contest for them. Later that same day someone from the company running the contest visited my LinkedIn profile. Love the power of the

* Deleting the Cat (Sunday, June 16, 2013) -- Two years after she died, I finally deleted the cat off of Wii Fit. And then decided to go find the person who the cat was named after - and found her. After only 16 years of off-and-on searching.

* Disappointment (Thursday, June 13, 2013) -- Turns out you tell me something might happen, I start to imagine what it will be like when it does. And then if it doesn't, I'm very disappointed. And I'm starting to feel like someone's been doing this to me full-well knowing that the things they're saying are things they have no intention of following-through with.

* I'm... Listening (A Work-Related Post) (Monday, June 10, 2013) -- Are you taking your online submissions seriously? Or should you just stop taking online submissions?

* Perk Me (A Work-Related Post) (Tuesday, June 04, 2013) -- Make your employees feel valued and they'll stick around longer. Here's some inexpensive ways to do it.