The Queen B

Thank You & You're Welcome

You blogging buddies are just too good to me.

A big thank you to Darcie at Such The Spot. She so kindly sent me this sweet award.

Now isn't that nice? She totally made my day by my making her day.

I am going to pass this award to:

Jen at Today at Jen's House--she sent me the sweetest email Tuesday and it really did make my day!

Straight Shooter--she's had THE BEST attitude when faced with some scary stuff. I'm not sure I could hold it together at all, and she's done it with grace and humor.

Also to my mom, Beachy Mimi--she did something really nice for me yesterday. And, you know, she gave me life and all.

And then The Fritz Facts has totally stressed me out by tagging me for this 6 Words meme thing.

She must be mad at me or something.

Apparently, this meme originated over an idea that was prompted by the book written by Larry Smith & Rachel Fershleiser, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure. It'€™s a compilation based on the story that Hemingway once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his life in six words. His words were, "€œFor Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn."

Yeah. This is gonna be easy.

Hmmm. It is the summing up the life part that is difficult. I mean, I can quickly pull out some that sum up my week...

Crazy Queen Stressed Over Losing Hair

Can't Stop Eating Heath Bar Cake

Wondering Where I'm Going To Live

...but that isn't my life.

Oh, how I pray that is not my life.

So here goes:

Laughing My Way Down This Path - Um. Not so much.

Injecting Sarcasm Where It Doesn't Belong - Probably shouldn't be proud of that.

Appreciating God's Blessings More Each Day - This is true. I am doing this.

Should Keep My Mouth Shut More - Amen.

The Animals Took Over My House - Oh yes they did.

Laughing More Often Than Seems Appropriate - Not sure if this is good or bad.

Seeking Comfort A Little Too Much - What's the big deal?

Working Toward Mom Of The Year - Does this come in remedial?

Who Said Normal Is The Goal - Not me.

Thrilled To Be Where I Am - There you go. I need to stop with that one. That's my thing.

(I could keep at this for hours. Really. FOR. HOURS. For sure I will be speaking in 6 word sentences for the next day or two.)

It Was Hard To Choose One.

I Can't Come Up With More.

I HAVE TO STOP RIGHT NOW.

I'm tagging:

My Mom - because it will keep her up for days.

Lisa - because she needs to get back in the game.

Amy - because she will obsess.

The Roost - because she is going on vacation and I'm jealous.

Kelly - because she is so stinkin' clever.

These are the rules...

1. Write your own six word memoir.

2. Post it to your blog including a visual illustration if you would like.

3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post and to this original post http://herebaby.blogspot.com/2008/06/six-word-memior.html if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogsphere

4. Tag 5 more blogs with links

5. Don’t forget to leave a comment in the tagged blogs with an invitation to play

Hoping You Have A Great Day.

I Am Off To Read Blogs.

Can't Wait To Go To Sonic.

Large Diet Cokes Make My Day.

This Six Word Thing Is Ridiculous.

Somebody Knock Me Over The Head.

I Am Going To Stop Now.

Oh How I Need My Camera

Blogging is hard when you have no camera.

So if you go to the beach...don't pack your camera in a ziploc bag and try to hold it over your head to get to a boat in the turbulent ocean. Because then it will have to be sent off for 6 weeks. Because for some reason it won't turn on.

And your blogging? It will suffer.

These are the options I would have had for blogging today if I had a camera:

1. My cats curled up together on the couch. It was so cute. Then I would have gone on and on about how you all want me to rid myself of them while my house is for sale. Which is not really possible. You can't put a cat outside. It will run away. I can't board my cats every day. I can't lock them in a closet. So you've left me in a conundrum. That would have been a good post.

2. I also would have liked to post a picture of the mess made when I make cookies. Because then you would see that it is not at all practical for me to be whipping up a batch right before the house showing.

3. The entire Palace dressed for Vacation Bible School. We are doing a multi-generational VBS called Jerusalem Marketplace. It is great. But we are all dressed like Bible-Era people. And we look weird. Especially The King. He looks really weird. You would've loved it.

4. The baby birds on our back porch. When their mama comes to feed them I love how all 5 little mouths open WIDE. Nature at its finest. But you'll not see it.

5. I was going to show you the new flip-flops that QM/Beachy Mimi gave me. And I might have had a giveaway. Giving them away. To someone who likes the bling. But no. Not without my camera.

6. Heidi's FOURTH BOTTLE OF ANTIBIOTICS along with our THREE BOTTLES OF ANTIBIOTICS would been a good post.

7. The pool overflowing with water because I forgot to turn off the hose.

Instead, you get this.

Can I rent a camera? Serious. Not rhetorical. Can I rent a camera somewhere?

Well What Do You Know...

It was so much fun to read all of your amazing comments yesterday. I love that most of you have a well thought out reason for your blogging.

I mean. So do I. I totally have a planned out reason for why I blog.

I just haven't figured it out quite yet.

The world definitely has a need for rambling people that only know a little about a few things...

I did some other important stuff yesterday besides reading comments.

I totally listed my house for sale.

Which scares me.

And excites me.

We found a house that we love a little closer to The Princess' school. Lots of things will have to work out perfectly for us to be able to buy it.

Fortunately, I'm rather familiar with The One who works things out.

The other big news of my day was a monumental discovery.

You've no idea.

I can't even tell you.

So incredible.

Delicious.

Fantabulous.

Once you get to the cone, the ice cream is surrounded by a thick layer of fudge.

Oh my.

I may have to eat another.

And I'm so sorry that my mother felt the need to bore you with information about yours truly.

(QM, Just wait until I do an "About the Queen Mother")

I knew that I would regret showing her where the "on" button was....

Let's All Take A Little Timeout

I have talked with several bloggy friends this week who are just tired.

Tired of coming up with post ideas.

Tired of taking the time to read blogs and leave comments.

Tired of taking the time to create posts.

Tired of taking time from the really important things.

I certainly have those same feelings.

I think a lot of it is this particular time of year. May is always much more hectic than I anticipate.

You'd think I would catch on one of these years.

The weather is finally nice and nobody wants to be inside on the computer.

Kids are home and nobody has the ability to be inside on the computer.

I spent the day yesterday with one of my real-life bloggy friends, The Roost. Those of you that read her posts know that she is such an encourager.

I wish you could all sit with me at her kitchen table and listen to her words of wisdom.

We talked about how important it is to know your reason for blogging. Is it to offer advice? To keep an online journal? To send updates to friends and family? To be a springboard for a writing career?

Her reason is to minister to women.

Mine is to ramble about nonsense.

Which is totally as important as the ministering thing.

We talked about organizing your blogging. Some of you can just create brilliance every day. Some of us you are awake at 2 a.m. trying to come up with a coherent thought. Some of you have a supply of posts already written to pull out in emergency situations.

You are not my friends.

(Sticking my tongue out.)

Wouldn't it be nice to go into the blogging week with an idea of what it might look like? Maybe Monday could be wrap of the weekend. Tuesday could be a funny story. Wednesday could be a more serious post. Nothing written in stone, but just a rough idea.

And maybe all of you already do that.

You are not my friends.

(Sticking my tongue out.)

We also talked a lot about giving ourselves the ability to take a day off. Nobody can be creative every day of the week. It is just not possible.

And I think we should allow our bloggy friends that luxury. If Betty Blogger needs a day or two or three to regroup, then we should support her.

I love what Faithful Chick wrote yesterday.

Blogging is such a fun part of my life. It is a creative outlet. It is something that truly brings me pleasure. I have met some amazing people through it.

(Here's where I break into singing "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony....")

I want each of you to enjoy it. I don't want it to stress you out. I want it to be a complete stress reliever for you. I want it to fulfill the need that you needed it to fulfill.

I know there have been a lot of posts lately about commenting and etiquette and all that. To me it comes down to one question: Why do you blog?

I seriously doubt that any of us started blogging with our primary goal being to get a certain number of comments.

Take a bit of time to think about why you blog.

And then leave it in the comments. I think it will be fun reminder of what this is all about.

Yes. I realize there is serious irony in saying that the comments are not important and then asking you to leave one.

But I don't think this is the blog you come to for rational thinking.

So leave the comment, already.

My Mother Has Lost Her Mind

She's gone crazy.

Check out her blog for a chance to win a $200 Target giftcard.

You have to hurry. It is over Monday night.

And while you're there, tell her the next time she wants to hand out $200, her daughter would love to be the recipient.

But I'm happy for all of you.

Really.

I am.

Just thrilled.

The Dreading Before The Calling

I am all about friendship.

I like people.

Most people.

Ok. Some people.

But I have one friend that I absolutely cannot stand to call on the phone.

She left me a message last Wednesday and I can't force myself to call her back.

I am not exaggerating when I say that a short call with her is 45 minutes.

45 minutes.

Of ridiculous jabbering.

I've tried to cut in with these:

"Ok, well..."

"I've only got a few minutes..."

"I better run..."

"I've just got a quick thing to tell you."

"This will just take a second."

"I've got to head out the door."

No difference.

She keeps talking.

And here's why I can blog this complaint with no fear: She won't get internet service.

Which is why I have to call her.

Don't pretend that you don't know how nice it is to be able to shoot an email to your longwinded friend.

Not me.

I've got to endure the agony of the phone call.

And worse than the agony of the phone call is the agony of dreading the phone call.

Which I am currently experiencing.

Something I May Come To Regret

It is with great fear and trembling that I share this news...

The Queen Mother is, um, online.

She's blogging.

As her new alter ego, Beachy Mimi.

Stop by and welcome her.

Her blog is not fancy. We don't know how to do that kind of stuff.

(For the record, QM is fancy.)

And please. For the love of all things appropriate, ask her not to embarrass me.

You might also remind her that I know her password and can shut her down in a heartbeat.

Just in case.

I Might Just Start Up My Own Help Desk

While I do have a good friend who met her husband on a call into a help line, I cannot imagine too many other stories involving a help desk that end with "happily ever after".

Your immediate problem may or may not be fixed. The music is beyond annoying. The amount of time spent on hold takes up a great percentage of your lifespan. The "helpers" are generally pretty condescending.

So do you want to know how I spent my weekend?

Actually, how I've spent my last FIVE WEEKS.

Warning: This is boring. But it is all that I did this weekend so it is all that I've got.

I purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 last December. Soon after, we switched from a PC to a Mac. Adobe was very helpful (help desk call #1) and explained to me how I could trade my PC version of Elements for the Mac version. Except the Mac version didn't come out until March.

That was cool with me. I didn't use my PC version because in no way shape or form did I believe that Adobe would actually let me trade my used version. Even though they said they would.

So. The March launch date rolled around and I called Adobe (help desk call #2). They walked me through destroying my PC version and assured me that my Mac version was in the mail.

I received the Mac version about a week later and began installing it.

ERROR: ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 6 WAS NOT ABLE TO INSTALL

So I called Adobe (help desk call #3). We spent over an hour on the phone going back through the 48 minute installation process.

Same error.

They felt that I had received a bad disk, so they assured me that a new disk was in the mail.

I received the new version about a week later and began installing it.

ERROR: ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 6 WAS NOT ABLE TO INSTALL

So I called Adobe (help desk call #4). We spent over an hour on the phone going back through the 48 minute installation process.

Same error.

We then spent TWO hours on the phone cleaning, repairing, rebooting, renaming, saving, destroying, installing and such.

Same error.

Now I know you'd like me to get on with it already but I didn't have that luxury so neither do you. You're just lucky because you can quit reading.

Adobe sent me to their "next level". Same stuff. An hour. Lots of steps. Same error.

So they had me reinstall my operating system on my computer.

Did you get that? Reinstall my operating system on my computer.

So. I reinstalled. It took 2 hours. It rebooted. I installed Elements.

ERROR: ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 6 WAS NOT ABLE TO INSTALL

So begins help desk call #5. And here's the deal about the help desk folks...even after I give them my case number and we go all through the history of the my situation...the new person thinks they can fix it.

They can be the hero.

Well I'm just here to tell you it was not the case.

#5 was no better than #s 4, 3, 2 or 1.

And neither was #s 6, 7, 8 or 9.

Serious.

(And let's all wish Mr. Help Desk #6 a quick recovery with his toothache. It was really bothering him.)

This has been going on for weeks. FOR WEEKS.

Finally, this weekend I got connected with the Apple help desk (help desk calls #10, 11 and 12) and after hours of consultation, advice, trial, error and ANOTHER STINKIN' REINSTALLATION OF MY OPERATING SYSTEM...

it worked.

Elements is installed.

And now? I don't know what to do with it. No clue as to where to begin.

Suggestions are welcome. You can just call my help desk.

The Winner of the $40 Amazon Gift Certificate is...

Thank you to each person that signed up for the giveaway!!!

I can't believe how many of you signed up!! I wish I could give you all a prize.

But that would have cost me $34,500.00

And I need to save that for fuel.

Without further ado...

The Winner is

Kelly S!!!

This is Kelly S's comment:

Oh my gosh, my favorite thing is BOOKS, so I'd buy books books books.

Thanks for the chance Queenie.

Kelly S.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

113

I wish you all good results from the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival!!

Who Me? Copy?

Whatever. I'm swiping.

Lisa posted these questions the other day. She didn't really tag people, but I am pretending that she tagged me.

Because it is easy and everyone is signing up for giveaways and not reading posts anyway.

Where is your cell phone? In my purse. Or my car. Or maybe plugged in...

Your significant other? On the couch by me. We're watching Gilmore Girls. But he is gross and eating a bowl of canned peaches mixed with peanut butter. Sick-o.

Your hair? Just got it colored today. My regular hair person did it. She hadn't seen it since Johnny (who is dead to me) ruined me. She wasn't really impressed. And my color looks a little calico cat-ish. Perhaps I'm being punished.

Your mother? She lives about an hour away.

Your father? He lives about 10 minutes away.

Your favorite thing? Hmmm. Can't think of anything in particular. If my house was burning down I'd grab my wedding ring and my scrapbooks. So maybe those. And also a Sonic Large Diet Coke. And white birthday cake.

Your dream last night? No idea.

Your favorite drink? Diet Pepsi or Diet Mt. Dew

Your dream/goal? Hmm. To be contributing something and loving it.

The room you a€™re in? Den

Your ex? Who knows.

Your fear? That which I cannot control...but I'm working on it!!

Where do you want to be in 6 years? To be contributing something and loving it.

Where were you last night? My dad's house giving him a remedial lesson in computing.

What you a€™re not? Outdoorsy.

Muffins? No, thank you. I prefer bakery items that don't taste like cardboard.

One of your wish list items? An Amazon Kindle--but I don't really know anyone that has one. So I'm not sure about it. But I think I want it.

Where you grew up? Lots of places in Arkansas and Texas. We moved every 3 years.

The last thing you did? Baked chocolate chip cookies so that I could eat some dough.

What are you wearing? jeans and orange t-shirt

Your TV? On. Gilmore Girls.

Your pets? 2 dogs: Heidi & Ruby; 2 cats: Oliver & Chester

Your computer? MacBook Pro. LOVE IT.

Your life? Nothing that I imagined, for which I'm so thankful!! I love most everything about my life.

Your mood? Relatively upbeat.

Missing someone? Not so much.

Your car? Toyota 4Runner

Something you a€™re not wearing? Shoes--ditched at the door. Watch--can't type on the computer with it on.

Favorite store? Anthropologie

Your summer? Almost here!!

Like someone? People who are always genuine and never jealous.

Your favorite color? Black & Red

When is the last time you laughed? About 5 minutes ago...Gilmore Girls

Last time you cried? When my cat died.

Who will repost this? Anyone that can't think of anything else to post...

Thanks for indulging me.
Have a terrific day!