A Domestic Accident

The last of our waterbeds sprung its' last leak yesterday... and it was a big one. It was #1 Brats' bed, and since she uses her bedroom floor as a wardrobe and laundry basket in one, things got a wee bit messy.
She's learned though. She promised herself yesterday, sitting among soggy clothes and bedclothes on a floor that was like a giant puddle: "I'll never let this room get messy again"... Yeah. Pigs might fly, but I could be wrong.
Anyway - she needs a new mattress/new bed. One of those platform beds perhaps, or just a new mattress or two to go into her old bedframe... What she wants is just to have two mattresses on the floor (!). For convenience, she says, in case she has someone sleeping over. For the moment, that's what she may get, because while the waterbed frame is salvageable, the bottom is not!

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Building A Home

I've done it. I've built a home. Not literally - builders did the building, but I made the House Plans - down to minute detail.
If I'd known about Houseplansandmore.com back then, I may not have bothered. They really have houses for every taste, in various sizes, styles and layouts. Their Home Plans can be had in complete sets for the builders, and if you want they can also make you a Material List, that will save you loads of time and worry - believe me!
I was my own contractor in the building process as well - that's fine if you've got plenty of time, as I had, or you've got loads of experience in the field, which I didn't... I learned a lot though - one thing was: get help from people who know what they're doing!

So - If I'm ever to build a house again, I'll buy house plans. I'll know what I want though, so I may well be a difficult customer!
As for the house? I'm Norwegian, and a nature person, so I'd definitely go for one of the Log home plans they've got. Wood and stone - that's me...

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Lighter Days

We've still got snow here, but we can now feel that the sun is gaining effect, and the days are getting lighter by the... day!

That means lighter curtains will come up soon, and I don't have to worry about poor lighting indoors till around October! Not outdoors either, come to think of it, although I don't really want the autumn darkness to come as a total surprise to me this year (!) We need some more outdoor lights. That reminds me - must go out and change the bulb in the one we've got. The evenings are still pitch black, although they start a bit later these days...

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Safety At Home

We have an alarm system here, that we sometimes use... We've had dogs indoors for a while, which means we can't switch the alarm on when we leave the house (or go to bed), because the movement sensors would make the alarm go off right away... We can't really switch it on at night anyway - with brats all sizes roaming the corridors at night, we'd never get any sleep!
The main reason we have it is the fire alarm system that comes with it. The alarm system monitoring is such that the fire department would be notified quite quickly if we're not here, and the sound that goes off in the house in the event of heat or smoke is so powerful that we'd definitely wake up and have a chance to get out if there's a fire.
There's also a panic button. We don't think we'll ever have cause to use it, but we're so far from everything that we thought that was a good idea in case we ever had unwanted visitors. The kids are here alone from time to time too, so it's an added security feature. Granted, it would take some time for help to reach here, but at least we have the possibility to call for it, at the touch of a button.
Come to think of it - must see about connecting the fire alarm to our new barn/stables building. If we're going to keep animals in there, it's an absolute must!

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Interest Rates On The Up

Financial experts predict a critical rise in interest rates in this country - I'm guessing that this crisis is an international phenomenon...

Most people with Mortgages will feel this, and there's only so much one can do about it. One possibility is refinancing, of course, and getting quotes from different lenders. The easiest way to do this is to hook up to a Mortgage comparison site, and get your quotes online.

I don't know what we're going to do if interest rates go through the roof. I think we could have a bit to gain by refinancing - we have several loans that could benefit from being coordinated. Luckily, unemployment is at an all time low in this country, so I could always get a job.

I know, it sounds silly that I don't have one, but the organization it takes to have 6 kids in a very rural area makes it difficult for both of us to be working. Still, if all else fails, we'd just have to swing it...

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Easter has Come And Gone...

- and all the brats are back at school. Well, 4 of them, anyway - # 5 Brat is outside playing in the snow (yes, we've had 4 inches of the stuff over the last couple of days - so much for enjoying a budding spring this Easter!), and #6 Brat is asleep, bless his little heart...
Brats here are on their Easter break for 10 days, so Mum's quite happy to be back to normal. Bad, bad Mum...
Not only did we have snow, by the way, but on Easter Morning the temperature was 17 degrees below zero. Celcius, ladies & gents... That's cold, when your body is tuned into crocus and daffodils! Well, crocus, anyway. We'll have to wait another month for the daffs...
It's been snowing today as well, but the temperature is around zero, so there's hope for my flowers yet!

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What Host?

I remember when I was in the process of getting my own domain - I didn't have the first idea what to look for in a web host.
I tried to gather info, but when you don't know what you're looking for, you're very hard put to choose one!
I might have been a bit wiser, had I come across Mr. Kaushal Sheths' list of web hosting services at the time.
Now, he designs WordPress themes - both free and commercial ones, and you can imagine his frustration when his hosting company blacks out one day, with no backup... He then went to work finding the perfect hosting site.
His conclusion?
He went with Host Gator.

Being a total dummy in these matters, I could have wished for a little more info on the criteria behind the choice. Price, a backup network and a good support service - that's all fine, but it doesn't help me understand all the fancy numbers and letters these web hosting sites use when advertising their services.

I didn't go for Host Gator, you see, and since there haven't been any problems, I may have made a good choice, or just been lucky so far... I guess time will tell.

Still, an informative post, and certainly a place I'll check out the next time I'm in need of a WordPress theme for my dotcom!

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Do I Need New Clothes?

- or is it just a temporary thing? I've been losing weight lately, and with this sciatic problem I'm having, it's not from exercising...

I've become quite the pill popper after my visit to the doc - mostly painkillers, to my knowledge none of them are weight loss pills. Still, my trousers are falling off.
I'm looking forward to the day when I can squeeze into the jeans I've been hanging on to from before #6 Brat, but I'm not quite there yet. I wonder - should I buy some new ones now, or make do with belts until I get to where I want to be?

Oh - and don't worry about the pill popping - none of them are addictive, although I could get used to not being in pain... The worst they could do is bust up my stomach lining. If I don't take them with food. Which I do.

I think a shopping spree will be in order a little later this spring. If I diet actively, I should deserve one in a couple of months' time!

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Ha, Ha, Ha!

This is getting ridiculous. I'm sorry, Google, but it is.
I logged in to my ppp account yesterday, to see if there were any opps for my PR0 blogs - I've had a few for my dotcom blog, because it's well visited - and there were plenty of opps there... Odd, I thought, and went to have a look at my blogs' status. It turns out that this one, my poor stepchild of a blogspot-blog, has been given a PR2.

Why ridiculous? Well, I don't update this one as often as the other one, I mostly do posts with sponsored links here, and its' overall rankings (Alexa and Technorati) have suffered accordingly.

I'm wondering whether to get the old Google guru an individual health insurance, because it's obviously not feeling well.

Sooo... I'm now going to proceed as normal, and do all the things I'm not supposed to, just to see how long it will last this time...

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Home Decor Musings

I got this beautiful furniture catalogue in the mail yesterday, and I've spent an hour browsing through it just now. Norway actually has a lot going for it when it comes to furniture design and quality pieces. The thing is, of course, the price.

I haven't bought a lot of furniture in my life - most of what we've got are hand-me-down antique and not so antique stuff. My visits to furniture stores have been to buy sofas (twice) and kitchen cupboards for our new house. I've also bought a couple of free-standing wardrobes, as well as a bed or two, and that's about it...

When I get hold of one of those wonderfully glossy brochures that are all about beauty and interior design, my mind wanders past the shabby (not very) chic style we have at the moment to something a little more stylish, yet warm and inviting...
Still, I'm not sure I'd be able to live in such an environment. It looks great, but you have to maintain it that way, right? You just don't put a light-colored, $5000 dollar sofa into a house with little kids... OK, so you wait until they've moved out. The thing is, they'll have their own broods of brats soon, and they'll bring them here. What I don't want to be is a grandmother who has the grandkids on tiptoes because of the ruddy furniture!

The conclusion, of course, is that my home will never be shiny, glossy or stylish. It'll be a home, though, where I strive to make everyone welcome, regardless of age and sticky fingers...

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Get More Out Of Your iPhone

I live in an underdeveloped country - iPhone-wise, anyway... We can buy it in the US or online, but to be able to use it, we have to dowload an elaborate "hack recipe" and follow it to the letter, or else...

When and if it's released here, we'll be lightyears behind!

For Example:
iPhone SDK (iPhone Software Development Kit) was released by Apple on March 6, and it provides any iPhone SDK developer with the tools needed to build new iPhone software applications. They can then test and debug their code, and distribute their applications via the App Store.

To connect with other iPhone SDK developers, or be on top of what's happening, check out Planet-iPhones.com. Their new live chat feature will keep you up to date on the latest features for your favourite toy...
The Software Development Kit may not be for everyone (certainly not for me, I'm happy to be able to post live links on this blog, thank you!), but I'm sure it will provide iPhone owners with some cool stuff.
Now, Apple, if you would please release it over here...

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A Resolve

We've at least partly decided what we're going to do with our lives... A while ago, we considered going into a franchise venture in pet supplies.
Since the overall goal isn't to work all hours, we've decided against it. For now, anyway.

So, it's back to Plan A.There is a program in this country called Green Care, meaning that you use your farm and existing amenities to offer animal therapy, work training or just a safe environment to people with various special needs. This place would be great for a setting like that.

The resolve? To investigate the various possibilities within the Green Care program. If we can work out what kind of service is needed, we can offer a tailor-made setup here, and possibly make a small living from it, while doing something very worth while.

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I Should Be A Grandmother...

I sometimes wonder if I'm too old for this. Most people my age are in the process of struggling throught their kids' teenage years, trying to keep them from getting killed in traffic or through alcohol poisoning, and dreading the thought of becoming grandparents too soon...
Oh, I do that too.
I've also got a brat who was enrolled in 1st grade yesterday, and a tiny tot whos' most recent hobby is to throw toys, biscuits, half-eaten apples, more toys and everybodys' shoes all over the place. He's good at it, too. He manages to spread things around at almost the speed of light.
Since 1989, my indoor walk has been a careful, "feel-your-way-before-you-put-your-foot-down" gait. I wonder if I'll ever know what my normal walk used to be... By the time Miracle Boy learns to clean up after himself, I'll be in a walking frame!

I wouldn't swap this for anything, though. I don't think it makes me any younger (what does???), but as someone once said: "It's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years".

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Bags & Cases...

We're 8 people, and we're sometimes on the move. That means luggage, and lots of it... When I finally get my coveted storage space in the barn, I may have to make a separate room for bags, suitcases and rucksacks.

There's all sorts. Not much designer stuff, like Zero Halliburton and such, but there are small cabin cases for your overnight trips, huge suitcases that will be of excess weight even if filled with feathers, small bags, big bags, backpacks large and small (the kids have been scouts!). Any size, shape or even color of traveling gear - it will be there. Almost.

Still, if someone is going somewhere, and I've dug out what I think must be the perfect item... "Don't you have a smaller/bigger/black one?"
Getting all that out of my loft and into a easily accessible spot elsewhere will mean that I can just say: "Go and pick one out"... That goes for a lot of things, actually!

Oh, ye builders! get on with my barn!!!

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An Update For February

February saw the demise of my other blogs' PR of 3. I'm now the proud owner of 2 PR0 blogs... Yay!

Still, it didn't go too bad, incomewise. I managed to beat Januarys' results with a few dollars, and with traffic being quite good on my dotcom, opps seem to be quite easy to come by. Even PPP have some up for grabs now - I'm usually too late to grab them, though. The time difference is a bit of an issue there! PayU2Blog are still very good - they even give me some assignments for this blog. Linkworth look promising; with the links they sell for you, there's a chance for some passive income there too.

As for the new venues I signed up for in January, the results vary. Project Wonderful, that lets people bid on your ad spaces, brought in $5,67. Not a lot, but it's an almost passive income. All you have to do is to accept bids now and then. Pay Per Play are still testing - I've had a few ads, and there's 8 cents in my account. They're accepting new members again, by the way. It costs nothing, and you could end up earning on 100% of your traffic.

All in all, February brought in $251,37. Not bad, considering.

Traffic-wise, my dotcom did very well. 1800-odd visits in January, 3200 in February - I'm hoping that the trend continues. I have Entrecard to thank for that, there's no doubt about it.
Alexa has my dotcom on a weekly average of below 100K now and the 3 month average is around 147K. Its Technorati authority is at 338. This little blog doesn't get as much attention, and the ratings reflect that. I get quite a lot of comments here though - thanks for that!

A goal for March? Much the same as ever: Be better than my last figures...

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