Happy New Year 2008!
Best wishes from all of us to all of you!
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Monday, December 31, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
A Family Trip?
may be in the cards - if hubby gets a settlement from his current(ish) employer.
The consensus around here is Paris... It seems the kids were all quite envious of our twosome trip earlier this fall, and that's where they all want to go. That's fine by us - having just been there, it's just that much easier to get around with 5 or 6 kids in tow!
With airports being what they are, I guess matching luggage sets for everyone might be a good idea - try working out which 12 disparate looking suitcases belong to your party among 2000 others... Bright red cases all around would be ideal, I guess.
We've been flying with 5 of them before - they're quite disciplined, as kids go, and I think a family outing is just what we need right now. Whether we take Miracle Boy along remains to be seen. He might just be better off with his grandparents.
First things first, though - we're off to see the lawyer on Friday, and having a decisive meeting with the employers on January 3rd. Until then, we're just enjoying Christmas, while toying with some very enjoyable travel plans...
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas / God Jul to everyone!
I'm all busy with Real Life at the moment, I'm sure things will get back to normal eventually... Till then - Good wishes all around!
Friday, December 21, 2007
An Update On The Home Front
Wednesday, hubby lost his job - they say they're downsizing, but they're really getting rid of the people that cost them money. The fact that they throw away good people in the process seems irrelevant.
We decided to go after them legally, and he has a good case, so he'll at least get 6 months worth of paychecks from them, hopefully a year.
I was fuming, and quite ready to put his employers' heads on cutting boards, and make like a guillotine, when hubby called yesterday (Thursday) morning, and announced that he'd got a new job... And one he really wants, as well. Good things happen to good people.
They may keep their heads. We'll still go after them, and I'll enjoy it immensely...
Monday, December 17, 2007
December 17 - Act Of Kindness
I have, but I'm not going to tell you.
I'll tell you about 2 small other things I've done today, though:
I've invited Sis & family to an expedition into the woods to cut Christmas trees this Saturday, complete with barbecue, and I've picked up Claire's prize from the shop, so that'll be in the mail shortly.
Not exactly acts of kindness, but that's all I'm gonna say...
Manic Monday # 36 - Carol
Mo has gone a-caroling...
Now, this carol has always intrigued me... We don't have it over here, and I'm sure it's packed with religeous symbols, but how do you wrap 8 maids a-milking? (For a start...)
*cue music*
On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
A Game Of Online Backgammon?
If you need to unwind between the Christmas shopping and the cookie-baking, a game of online backgammon could be just what the doctor ordered...
I love backgammon. I'm no master, and I don't play for money, but it's a game I really, really enjoy. I've played backgammon online in the past too, but it's been a while now.
With Mister Gammon, I'll certainly give it a go again. The graphics and design are way cooler, and you can choose whether you want to play for money or not. If you're new to the game, there's a section where the rules are explained, You can also get pointers on tactics and strategy.
There are tournaments too...
Enjoy!
A paid post.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Photo Hunt # 30 - Small
# 4 Brat: 2 minutes ago, she was just a small thing, running around in diapers...
She's now been to her first Christmas ball, and although still my baby, she's way past small...
More about the PhotoHunt
All Alone In The World...
I think we must be the only household in the world that doesn't own an LCD TV. We still have the old type, where the screen is a huge glass bulb, and that sticks 50 cms out from the wall. I'm sure there's a lot to be said about flatscreens, the best part, of course, being that they're flat. Ours works fine, though. Until it dies of natural causes, we won't be replacing it. Chances are, by the time it does die, something new and revolutionary is on the market, and those old-fashioned flatscreens can be bought for next to nothing.
That'll be the perfect time to upgrade for the likes of us!
Friday, December 14, 2007
Traffic Experiment - One Down, One Up!
You could say it worked. Between 2.46 and 2.48pm yesterday, I had well over 100 (closer to 130) visitors to my other blog from Bux.to. So - I did get my money’s worth. Kind of. Still, I’m not happy.
I had a vision of the visits happening over a few days, and at least one or two taking the time to say hello. Not so - people click, wait the allotted 30 seconds, and move on. Since it was all done in (exactly) 2 minutes, my $1,99 got me a (temporary) surge of traffic and a good chuckle…
What have I learned from this? This way of generating traffic certainly doesn’t serve my purpose. Yes, I would like traffic to my sites, but not without any type of interaction… It could be that one or two will be coming back, but I somehow doubt it. The majority of the visitors were (probably) from non-English sites - from Brazil, Tchech republic, Italy, China… Mind you, I can't tell. They didn't stop to have a chat...
Bux.to does pay you to click. For the big bucks, you need a big fleet of referrals though. (You can actually buy unreferred members to be put into your system - if they’re active, it’s quite possible to earn good money. The ones who clicked me were certainly VERY active LOL). As long as people/sites are willing to pay for that kind of traffic, there’s money in it for the clickers… I’ll keep my membership, but I won’t be paying for traffic again!
And now, to something completely different:
I signed up with another system yesterday too, Link Referral.com, and I got 20 visitors from there in the course of the first day. I also got one review.
It works like this: To get your site ranked well in their system, you log in on a daily (if you so choose) basis, visit up to 30 sites of your choice (you can visit as many as you like, but 30 is the maximum they’ll rank you for). You can also review sites, post to the forum and add a favorite for a better ranking. I didn’t do the maximum, but I still got 20 visitors, some of whom surfed around a bit, and one even took the time to give me a nice write-up. The better your in-site ranking, the better your exposure, and the more visits you’ll get.
These people are after traffic to their sites, just as you are, so they’re more likely to be sociable… and maybe strike up a conversation.
I’ll be investigating that one further - I’d much rather have 20 (almost) organic visits in 24 hours than 130 semi-automatic visits in 2 minutes!
You can pay your way out of doing the work, and get your site featured for a fee, and you can also become a paying member and be paid for your referrals to the system. I haven’t investigated that bit - I want to see if I can get some recurring traffic first. I might submit this blog too, but I'll stick to one for now.
Try 
. If you want to give it a go, you may find it's worth your while. There are thousands of sites on there, many quite interesting, so you might even get some new friends…
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Increase Blog Traffic And Get Paid Too!
I've just discovered a way to get traffic to my site and get paid in the process, so that even if I pay for the traffic, I get my money back with a little effort. Much easier than the Adwords/keyword racket, of which I understand nothing...
Bux.to will charge you very little for, say 100 clicks on your ad. (That's what I bought for my other blog, as an experiment).
I also registered for their PPC program, that pays me to click on their ads. Not much per click, but earning back the money spent shouldn't take too long. If I manage to refer people to the program, their clicks will earn me as much as my own clicks, so I get my money back even faster. I might even end up earning a bit, or I can plow it back into more advertising. Either way, I win!
At Bux.to, you don't have to sign up for both programs, you can choose to advertise without doing any clicking of your own, or you can sign up to be paid per click without advertising yourself - it's your choice.
Active referrals will earn you as much per click as you earn yourself though, so get the word out...
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Raffle Prize Update...
I'd just pushed "publish" on this post when the shop called to tell me the prize has arrived. They said 2 weeks, it took less than one! So - as soon as i can get my clammy hands on it, it'll be dispatched to Claire in Britain, home of inveterate hikers.
By the way, I watched the final episode of the new, beautiful BBC production of "Jane Eyre" last night, and I could swear I'd seen those amazing rock formations on Claire's blog...
Get A Better Deal...
Do you have a UK mortgage endowment policy, and are you thinking about surrendering it? Surrendering your policy back to the life company can often leave you with less.
Selling Endowment Policies to get better deals is something that Endowment Express can do for you.
Endowment Express is the leader in the endowment selling market in the Uk. They search the market so you don't have to, and they can get you up to 30%-35% more than your surrender value by scanning all the major buyers.
You fill in one form, and they give you a no-obligation quotation. Any with-profit policy is considered, and they do all the work for you, to get you the best deal available.
I should be so lucky...
This was a paid post.
At Last ! We Have A Winner!!!
What should have been a birthday draw was postponed by the almighty referee (me) to become a 10K draw, and was finally performed today, by the untouchable #5 Brat. So, for the final raffle on this blog, at (nearly) Christmas 2007, with the prize yet to be disclosed because of a slight logistical problem (I've had to order it, dammit!), I give you...
The draw!!!:
The list of contestants; The number of tickets in roman numerals, for those with more than one:
- My Dogs Keep Me Sane
- Chicken's Life
- The Buzz Queen
- Tinkerbell
- state of confusion
- The Mis-Adventures Of Captain Poopy
- Answers To The Questions
- Reba's Run
- Imma (Alice)
- Comedy Plus - II
- A Little Piece Of Me -II
- Down River Drivel - IV
- Mike's Place
- Us Danes And Our Family
- Skittles' Place
- Bee's New Blog - II
- Empress Bee (of the high sea) - III
Preparations. All the tickets are folded and put into the hat...
Ready... Steady...
Go! The untouchable # 5 Brat performs the daunting task...
There! We have a winner...
And it's Claire from A Little Piece Of Me!
Congratulations Claire! Now, all I need is an adress to mail your prize to - I promise to never come to haunt you without a prior invitation!
It'll be in the mail as soon as it's delivered.
It's not very big, it's totally Norwegian, and it's not a troll...
(I thought of sending off a kilo of Lutefisk, but that might have put your mailman off forever, so I changed my mind on that one.)
Read More......
Monday, December 10, 2007
Hotel Reservations Online
Are you doing what I'm starting to think might be a good idea? Going away for Christmas? If so, or if you're planning a trip in the New Year, you should check out Hotel Reservations.com.
Wherever you want to go, you'll find hotels at great rates here. You can book your flight from the site too, and arrange to hire a car or rent an appartment for your holiday. Actually, you can book the whole package from this one site if you want!
They have special deals and discounts as well, so you should be able to find accomodation to suit both your taste and your wallet.
Oslo, Bali, Cape Town, Atlanta - just type in your destination, choose a hotel... and book it. Easy peasy.
There's even an "Activities" section, where you can find out what's going on in choice destinations while you're there. I think that's pretty cool...
A paid post.
Manic Monday # 35 - Ornament
Manic Monday is brought to you by the ornamental Mo...
I thought I'd bring you a couple of photographs from my house today, and some of the more or less ornamental antique stuff that have found a loving home with us over the years. 
I found my old "setting case" yesterday - it's a frame where typesetters used to set type for newspaper pages - one frame equalled one page. They're great for displaying miniatures! There suddenly was an opening on a wall in our dining area, because I found another space for some blue& white china, and up it went.
The weird-looking thing on the left goes onto your shoulders (room for your neck, see?), and there's a leather strap with a hook hanging down on either side. That way, you can carry two buckets at a time, without overstretching your arms. I'm sure there's a word for it in English, but I have no idea.
To the right is a device designed to separate the cereal grain from the straw. You did that by spreading the straw with the grain on it out on the barn floor, and beating it with one of these. There are two rods, attached to each other with leather straps. You hold one, and swing the other.
There's a lot of good to be said about mechanical agriculture...
Most of the wooden spoons were made by my grandfather, except the one at the bottom, that's a real antique. My grandfather could make anything out of a piece of wood - sadly, he died way too early, which has led me to collect whatever I've been able to find that he's made.
This is a kerosene lamp that belonged to hubby's ancestors. A beautiful thing, in working order, with it's original glass top. We don't use it much - it heats up a room all by itself!
This concludes today's ornament post!
Growing Pains...
Miracle Boy's bed will need an extention soon... He's got one of those old-fashioned beds in two parts (mine, in fact, from when I was a wee brat) that you can extend and put in a larger mattress.
Yes, I know, I've got enough brats, and I've had my share of babies, but the fact that baby cribs are a thing of the past still fills me with a certain melancholy.
Kids grow up all too fast, but I'm lucky enough to still have a baby in my life for some time. I'm sure that when he's dressing himself, tieing his own shoelaces and starting school, I'll be happy with my new, baby-less life too, but I think that however old I become, I'll have that broody streak that'll go "aaaaah" every time I see some lovely baby furniture or smell a tiny baby's head...
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Yes, Yes, It's Coming!
I was a bit optimistic about that raffle prize - I thought i could just go out and buy it... No such luck. I've ordered it, though, but that means I have to post about the winner without the prize, which will take about 2 weeks to arrive. A New Year present for whoever wins - provided they'll give me their adress, of course. I'm not the burglar type, but how can you tell...
Anyway - the raffle draw has been held up by the everyday treadmill too, but I hope you'll all forgive me in time... Monday! Promise!!Keep your hair on!!!
Photo Hunt # 29 - Long
All right - I'm a Mommyblogger. I just can't help it, once in a not very long while, I have to blog about my children. This time - Miracle Boy.
Miracle Boy is the very healthy, lovely, beautiful result of a very short pregnancy. Nevertheless, the last weeks of that pregnancy were the longest 12 weeks in my life. 7 weeks in hospital afterwards seemed a long, long time too.
Since then, he's turned one, and he's just as he should be. Now, I catch myself wishing he could be a baby for just a little while longer...
| 1. maryt/theteach 2. kissedalotatoads | 3. liza 4. liza | 5. CostaRicaEarvin |
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Read More......Friday, December 7, 2007
A Simple Game Of Tag
I've been tagged by Sandee at Comedy Plus for A Simple Game Of Tag.
It's an easy viral one, and great for links exchange, so here we go:
The rule: When you get tagged, you have to add your site below the person who tagged you. By doing this you are letting the list grow. Then tag 5 others and let's see how big this can get?
Limadang.com
RamblingMoo.com
blogginginmypyjamas
StylewithPassion
Chinneeq
Dora-zooropazoo
Babyshern
HiPnCooLMoMMa
Rachel’s Soulful Thoughts
When Silence Speaks
Dancing in Midlife Tune
Underneath it All
I am Dzoi
Hobbies and Such
moms.....check nyo
Choc Mint Girl
Amel's Realm
My Thoughts
Rusin Roundup - Mel
MondayMorningPower
Comedy Plus
Mother's Home!
My tags:
Misty at My Dogs Keep Me Sane
Empress Bee at muffin53
Jeni at Down River Drivel
Reba at Reba's Run
and my dotcom at Mother's Got a Dot Com because Sandee said I could do it on both my blogs, and so I get to tag 5 more people!!!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Wordless Wednesday # 35 - Your New Home In A Tree?
| 1. Cyberbones 2. CK Go Places 3. Shelia 4. Shelia | 5. Chris in Oxford 6. Comedy Plus 7. Comedy Plus 8. empress bee (of the high sea) | 9. Misty Dawn 10. Misty\'s Words 11. Natalie 12. The Mommy Blogger |
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Read More......Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Final Raffle Tickets!
I've reached the 10 K mark, which means that a raffle draw is imminent...
I just have to give out some more tickets first.
To Christie, who was probably popping her # 2 son around that time... - 1 raffle ticket!
To Claire, for doing a cartoon quiz for my birthday, and to Bee, Tinkerbell, Kai, Shannon, Misty, Jeni and Sandee, who wished me well.
To Natalie, who commented on my PH on Saturday, and therefore is awarded the 10K visitor raffle ticket!
OK, that should do it - some of you have multiple tickets, which means more shots at the prize. Oh, and I've decided what it's gonna be. More on that soon! Must go and find a hat, my camera and all the tickets now...
Monday, December 3, 2007
Getting A Loan
We're in the process of putting up a proper stable building - our horses are the outdoor type, although they have shelter, but we feel we need to upgrade the sheltering, and also have somewhere to store the grain and other feed, as well as some of the tackle.
I guess that to get the best deal on a loan or mortgage, I'd better contact a real estate agent with some knowledge of farm real estate, to get this place valued. With interest rates going up like your average Mount Everest expedition, every little percent counts, and if we can get a good estimate, we should be able to get a loan at a rate we can live with.
I hate doing these "hat-in-hand" things... Wish me luck!
A Monthly Update - November
With the Gargle slap times two, my visitor count has gone down, and so have my earnings - the zero rank has had an impact on the number of opps available from PPP, Blogsvertise and others.
On the up side, my other blog has been accepted by both Sponsored Reviews, PayU2Blog, Smorty and Blogsvertise, and I've also had one mission on each blog from Linky Love Army.
I've also joined Commission Junction, and we'll see if anything comes of that in time. So far, it's been quiet.
November clocked in at $196, which isn't bad, but it's still 1/3 less than September and October.
Adsense (addspence) did just that - added 14 pence... and I'm still debating whether to keep them on.
Maybe I need to find a blogging niche and stick to it, but so far, I'm enjoying my miscellaneous blogging far too much!
I haven't thought much about either Technorati or Alexa this month, they seem to be stuck!
Still, 196$ is 196$, and they're all mine...
Manic Monday # 34 - Ship
Out to sea with Mo today!
In 2005, the Tall Ships Race made Fredrikstad, our nearest town, it's final destination.
It was a great experience seeing all those majestic ships along the river bank, and being able to go on board and visit them was a treat too. It was a great big party, that lasted 3 days, and I think the participants, tourists and town folks enjoyed it equally!
Tall Ships Race gathers about 4000 youth from around 30 countries aboard 70-100 ships. The route is different every year, and so the ships get to visit different ports around the world both during the race and for the finish.
Norway has several "School" or "Training" Ships, the best known of these being the full-rigged "Christian Radich". 
She was heavily featured in the 1958 docu/drama WINDJAMMER, that followed the ship and crew on a training cruise across the Atlantic and back. The film ran for 35 weeks at a NY cinema!!!
She also had a major part in the BBC TV-series "The Onedin Line that aired in the 70s.
Isn't she beautiful?
| 1. Shelia 2. empress bee (of the high sea) 3. And Miles to Go... | 4. Jamie 5. Comedy Plus 6. Deb | 7. maryt/theteach 8. Reba 9. Alice |
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Read More......Saturday, December 1, 2007
Beds & Such
We've all been sleeping on water mattresses for a few years, but as they all seemed to be leaking and needing patchwork done on a regular basis, we've now replaced them in all the beds in the house.
All the kids now have a thick foam mattress - actually, they've got two.
Since we kept all the water bed frames, we needed mattresses that were at least 25 cms (about 10 inches) thick, so we put two mattresses in each bed, so that when they have guests sleeping over, they can just take one out and make an extra bed on the floor.
Their rooms aren't very big, so there's no room for a permanent guest bed or sofa, and this seemed like a good way of solving that problem.
It also means that they have to clear their floors of clothes an clutter from time to time... Or else, no guests... Great system.
A Little Brother For Captain Poopy!
Poopy’s Mum is having her baby today (maybe she’s had him already)!
Captain Poopy was a preemie, and she’s been praying for and doing everything to have a full-term pregnancy this time - and she did it, against quite a few odds!
She’s now full term, and went off to squeeze the little dear out yesterday.
Go on over there and wish her well!
Update, newsflash, Dec.3rd: Mother and baby are doing great, and they're home. Congratulations, Christie & family!
Photo Hunt # 28 - Red
Amaryllis... Traditionally, they're red, especially in this season, but hubby got me a huge bouquet for my birthday, and they're not red, but a wonderful shade of pink, or even peach.
I didn't have a vase that was big enough, so I had to divide it into 2 bouquets, and have one in each window of our dining area. Aren't they beautiful???
A red picture to finish off this post; from a Christmas past. #5 Brat and Santa, both in red!
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