Monday morning Blog Girl and I were up bright and early so she could drop me off at the airport on her way to the Mouse’s corporate offices. I had done almost all my packing the night before and gathered all my remaining items and we were out the door and at the airport 2 hours before the flight departed. We kissed on the curb in front of the departing flight level and I went inside with my baggage and got in line, happy to have everything going so smoothly. Some 5 minutes later when I stepped up to the ticket counter the young lady took my e-ticket, greeted me and asked, “May I see a picture ID, please?” I reached to my back pocket for my wallet and as my hand closed on empty space my stomach simultaneously gave me that sinking feeling that you dread having. I had forgotten my wallet!!

I stepped out of line, pulled out my cell and called BG and we quickly worked out a plan; she would return home, retrieve my wallet and bring it to me at the spot we kissed. Here is one of those (many) reasons I adore her; though this would probably make her late to work she never uttered one word of unpleasantness or displayed any kind of bad attitude. When I thanked her profusely later when she handed me the wallet, she said “You would have done the same for me”. Yes, I would have…just not as nicely. Thank you, ma chérie.

Other than that self-imposed glitch, everything else went very smooth. my flight arrived 10 minutes early, and even though I had to wait in line almost an hour, the folks at the car rental desk were gracious and helpful (I ended up with a Hyundai Sonora, a nice car that even has a sunroof which I haven’t tried out yet). I arrived at my hotel at 1:30pm and they were adamant that I could not check in until 3pm, so I grabbed some lunch and then went to the office to meet folks and get started on some paperwork and training. When I got off at 5pm I drove the 15 minutes to my hotel and checked in without a hitch. My room is a suite with a front room that has a 32″ TV in an entertainment center on the front wall, a three-person sofa on the left wall with an end table and a stuffed upright chair cornered to the sofa. The right wall has a two-seat dining table then a small sink, mini-fridge and microwave. Opposite the little kitchen area is my bathroom and then the back room is the bedroom with a king-size bed, nightstands, spacious closet and a set of drawers with another 32″ TV on top facing the bed. The back wall is a double window that gives me a beautiful view of…the front parking lot. Oh well, lol. Best of all, the rooms have wireless Internet!

I went back out after getting everything unpacked and hung up and/or put in drawers to buy a few groceries, then came back to the room ate dinner and sat down to watch TV. More on that later.

Work is going well. There is a lot of training, reading of policies and practices and classes to attend. Friday I get to drive to Americus, GA for a big press conference that will involve both of the U.S. Senators from Georgia and several U.S. Representatives, a mayor, etc. I just have to “shadow” one of my trainers, keep my eyes and ears open and my mouth shut, lol. But I have a LOT to learn in a month and while I am enjoying it, I am mentally exhausted at the end of the day. Tomorrow I’m going to try and start using the hotel’s fitness center for an hour each night to de-stress. Amazingly, they have no pool! I was looking forward to swimming while here.

This is not as hard on me (I’m a cave-dweller, remember?) as it is on BG, because of my hermit-like ways, but it’s still lonely here without her. Fortunately, we have a cell phone plan that allows unlimited cell to cell calls and long-distance that is free all the time, because we have been logging a lot of hours on the phone. Last night we chatted on webcams for about an hour and it was nice for both of us to see each other. Technology definitely makes being apart easier to take. Plus I’ve been in e-mail contact with lots of friends and loved ones (keep them coming!) and spent some time talking to my oldest friend, Dave, on the phone last night.

I noticed tonight, while watching the news on WSB-TV (the ABC affiliate) that former Orlando TV reporter Ross Cavitt is working here in Atlanta for WSB-TV. I always enjoyed Ross’ space shuttle program reporting and it was nice to see a familiar face in an unfamiliar city.

Speaking of seeing a familiar face, I also saw John Morgan doing a commercial for Morgan & Morgan, which I thought only had offices throughout Florida, but apparently has expanded. I almost felt at home!

Finally, this was in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper under their “The Vent” section (similar to the Orlando Sentinel’s “Ticked Off” column) which was in response to an article a few days ago about people moving to the Peach State, and made me laugh out loud;

“Floridians are now moving to Atlanta? Just what we need - more Yankees”

Saturday we met up with our good friends Kirk and Laura at Universal Studios around 5 pm. We thought the plan was to meet for dinner and to stroll through the Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. And it was..sort of. It turned out that Kirk and Laura wanted to treat us to dinner for our anniversary and had made reservations at a restaurant that Blog Girl and I had looked at back in October and said we wanted to come back and try; the interesting eatery known as Mythos, Grotto of the Gods.

Mythos is located on the Islands of Adventure section of the park in The Lost Continent. The interior of the restaurant is filled, or rather I should say the walls, ceiling and floor are shaped like incredible statues of mythical creatures and there is a waterway running throughout the restaurant. The water represents the River Styx and the mythical shapes are Perseus, Andromeda and Cassiopeia, among many others. Click on my Flickr Badge on the right and you can see pictures from inside the restaurant of the various mythical gods and goddesses.

I had the filet mignon with asparagus tips and fried onion sticks and it was delicious. Cooked as I asked (medium-well), flavorful, tender and juicy. We enjoyed the food and the chance to catch up with each other (mostly Kirk and I, as Blog Girl and Laura work together). The atmosphere of the restaurant, the decor, the lighting and the otherworldly ambience, made for a delightful experience.

After leaving there we walked through the rest of the Islands of Adventure section, passing through Jurassic Park, Toon Lagoon, Marvel Superhero Island and Dr. Seuss Landing before heading over to Universal Studios to enjoy the fun of Mardi Gras, or at least the early part of the celebration. Lots of pictures over on my Flickr page.

We finished up with an ice cream dessert and left for home around 9:30. We had a wonderful time and appreciated the gift of the fantastic dinner our friends gave us for our anniversary. Thanks, Kirk and Laura.

April is Autism Awareness Month. Autism receives as little as 5% of the research funding as other less common diseases.

The year was 1997.

Bill Clinton began his second term as President of the United States.

Tony Blair was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

IBM’s Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, the first time a computer beat a chess World champion in a match.

Timothy McVeigh was convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and received a death penalty sentence.

The first book in the award winning Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling is published. (The last will be published this year)

NASA’s Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.

Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in a Paris tunnel.

Scotland voted to create its own Parliament after 290 years of union with England.

The domain “Google” was registered.

Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule

The Florida Marlins won Game 7 of the 1997 World Series against the Cleveland Indians 3-2 in 11 innings.

The Green Bay Packers win Super Bowl XXXI, defeating the New England Patriots 35 to 21 on January 26th in New Orleans’ Superdome. (Sorry Jason)

The term “weblog” (later shortened to “blog”) is coined.

The late Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker passed away, as did poet Allen Ginsberg, magician Harry Blackstone, Jr., French explorer Jacques Cousteau, American actors Robert Mitchum, Burgess Meredith, Chris Farley, Denver Pyle and James Stewart, American television reporter Charles Kuralt, Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, United States Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, American comedian Red Skelton, professional wrestler Brian Pilman and American musician John Denver, among others.

And while celebrities such as Woody Allen and his adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn were getting married, an obscure man and woman (to everyone but each other) in Orlando, Florida were married in the beautiful backyard garden of the bride’s parents, writing their own vows, choosing their own music and surrounded by family and friends.

As I told my children shortly before the ceremony; outside of the days they were born, this was the happiest day of my life.

It still is.

Happy Anniversary, Blog Girl. Thank you for the 10 happiest years of my life. And thank you for loving the man behind the mask.

First, I want to thank Beth W. of MegaCon 2007 for issuing press passes to The Masked Blogger and his associate ZenGrrl. We enjoyed covering various aspects of the Con and the access that the press passes allowed us. I’m already thinking about adding video coverage for next year’s MegaCon. Thank you, Beth.

Here’s some final thoughts on MegaCon 2007:

Outside of a seemingly unending variety of Superman tee shirts (I wore 3, a different one each day, myself), there were 2 others that seemed to be very popular; the “Evil Keeps Me Young” black tee shirt with white lettering and the “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Roslin” tee shirt which came in a multitude of versions.

But by far the one tee shirt I wanted to buy as a gift for a friend of mine (you know who you are, lol) was the one that proclaimed “Dip me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians!” Too bad I’m so cheap.

The “celebrity” guests were a good mix this year. Noel Neill, Margot Kidder, Lou Ferrigno, Sean Astin, Kevin Sorbo, Mary McDonnell, and Jamie Barber on the media side and MegaCon Guest of Honor Dick Giordano, Adam Hughes, J.G. Jones, Adam Kubert, Amanda Conner, Barbara Kesel and perennial MegaCon guest, legendary artist George Perez, among many others, made for a slate of guests with something for everyone. I even saw Virgil from WCW and WWE Wrestling at a signing table, but sadly no one was in line to get his autograph.

Speaking of George Perez, the man is still looking absolutely fantastic following the diet and exercise regimen he’s been engaging in to control his diabetes. In fact, he looks like one of the superheroes he draws. And on a cool side note, I just noticed that on his website he excerpted part of my blog entry from my Saturday post.

I believe this is the first time ever that I have attended all 3 days of the Con, usually I have attended either the Friday and Saturday shows or just the Saturday show. Maybe next year I’ll be able to take part in some of the after hours events as well.

I do have to say I was disappointed in some of the disorganization that was apparent. MegaCon is a huge event and the bigger something is the more of a chance there is that something or somethings will go wrong. I thoroughly understand that some guests have to cancel at the last minute, especially when there are blizzards grounding flights. I have no problem with that. I understand that not all of the volunteers will be well informed and so won’t be able to answer your questions, even simple ones. I know that sometimes, last-minute sessions will be thrown together and that, subsequently, presentation media equipment will not be on hand or in working condition. I can see where someone responsible for scheduling a panel session may not know how popular the guests might be and would hold the panel in a room much too small for the eventual throng. I’m aware that programs are printed at the very last minute, in order to be as current as possible, and that as a result there is an increased chance for typographical errors that will list incorrect rooms or times for panels and sessions. I even recognize that someone responsible for printing an official sign may not be educated enough to use the proper form and spelling of a crucial word. But when all of those problems, mistakes and errors (along with some I’m sure I’m not aware of) come together at the same time and location, it can prove frustrating to attendees.

My hat is off to the organizer(s) of MegaCon. As I said, it is a HUGE event and undertaking and it would be impossible for everything to go exactly right. But it seemed that there was a higher incidence of problems at this Con than those I’ve previously attended. MegaCon is such a prestigious convention that I would prefer to see as much of it go right as is possible.

If you’ve never been to a MegaCon, you should definitely make plans to attend. Next year’s MegaCon 2008 takes place on March 6th through the 8th and I’m sure it will be one of the best MegaCons ever.

Today was the final day of MegaCon 2007. As predicted here yesterday, today’s crowds were much smaller. When Michelle and I arrived at 10AM, we had no trouble parking and upon entering the 3rd level of the “C” hall we could look down on the Dealer Room and actually see open floor instead of a solid mass of people.

We decided to take advantage of the relatively quiet Dealer Room to finish our shopping. Michelle wanted to pick up a couple of things for her friends and I had some final things to pick up for family. I limited my shopping to family members who would enjoy the unique offerings of MegaCon and did not even buy anything for myself (though I was sorely tempted to do so) because of trying to save money for our upcoming trip to France. I just kept repeating, “Remember France, remember France” every time I was tempted to pick up a comic, graphic novel, artwork or piece of memorabilia. I also picked up a LOT of freebies, like posters and promotional comics, for Mikey to enjoy.

Frugal shopping caused me to miss a seminar I wanted to attend, “Anatomy of a Pin-up”, and to be late arriving at Mark Simon’s “Thriving Artist” class, but it put us in the room early for the Kevin Sorbo Question and Answer session that was scheduled at the last minute late last night or early this morning) by MegaCon. Thankfully we had checked the update bulletin board (actually looking to see if anything had been cancelled, not added, lol) and found out about the former “Hercules” and “Andromeda” star’s appearance.

Mr. Sorbo is a very personable actor who enjoys making puns at every opportunity. The audience was mostly composed of females who no doubt used to watch “Hercules” to see Mr. Sorbo’s muscular physique which was often showcased on the show, or gaze at his handsome visage. But he proved to be more than a pretty face with his quick wit and detailed answers to questions that were posed. Personally I only watched perhaps 3 episodes of “Hercules”, which I found to be more or less silly, and despite my best efforts I could never develop an interest in “Andromeda”, though I thought Mr. Sorbo was excellent in the late Gene Roddenberry’s story that was originally written back in the ’60’s. As he put it, “I went from Herc to Kirk”. All in all, this was a very enjoyable question and answer session and it was kind of Mr. Sorbo to agree to such a session without it being previously scheduled.

Then we moved to the room next door to watch “Arne Starr Presents”, which is Arne’s regular offering at every MegaCon. Arne is a working actor, comic book writer and artist and regularly shows the latest trailers and previews of upcoming films. as well as sharing news about current industry news. Here’s a list of the trailers we got to see during the 90 minute presentation:

Bug

Dead Silence

Disturbia

Black Snake Moan

Grind House

The Reaping

Are We Done Yet?

Pride

Hot Fuzz

The Lookout

Zodiac

Reno 911

Ocean’s 13

TMNT

The Kingdom

Live Free or Die Hard

The Number 23

The Invisible

The Last Mimzy

Sunshine

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

300

Ghost Rider

Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer

Transformers

Spider-Man 3

Rather than take the time to link each of the above titles, I’m going to suggest you Google them if you want to check the official movie sites. Some of the trailers I have already seen in theaters or on TV, but many of them I had not and there are now a few extra films that I plan to add to my movie-going schedule.

After that it was time for me to say “Goodbye” to MegaCon 2007, while Michelle remained to check out the final panels and do an interview with Lloyd Kaufman of Troma fame. I’m sure if you check out her site or Orlando MetroBlog, you’ll find her latest views on MegaCon 2007.

Tomorrow I’ll have some final thoughts about this year’s MegaCon. Hope to see you then.

MegaCon 2007 opened yesterday at the Orange County Convention Center and runs through Sunday at 5pm. You can get my take on the first day here, and ZenGrrl’s here over on Orlando MetroBlog.

As expected, today is a madhouse! Saturday is always like this. Friday is light because it’s a workday, Sunday because things are winding down. Saturday is most people’s favorite day to come. It began with the line to get into the parking lot stretching out to International Drive (when are they EVER going to build a parking garage for the West, or “old” concourse?), the long walk from the satellite parking lot that we had to be directed to because the regular one was filled and they no longer offer a timely shuttle service from that location, and then the shoulder to shoulder crowding within the “C” Hall as thousands of fans, many of them adorned in costumes of their favorite character from comic books, movies, novels and video games.

We finally made our way to the room for the first panel we wanted to attend, “Not My Character” which featured Brian Pulido, Mike Carey and my favorite, Barbara Kesel (I thoroughly enjoyed her panel at last year’s Orlando Comic-Con) speaking and answering questions about how they, as writers, take on a character that was created by someone else and move the character forward. They offered some very interesting insights into the process and their thinking on what works and what doesn’t.

After that was the “Marvelous Men” panel in the same room (no fighting the crowds) that included Steve McNiven, Mike Perkins, Tim Townsend, David Finch and, sitting in the for the absent Jimmy Cheung, Brandon Peterson, talking about what is happening within their own titles and across Marvel Comics as a whole. I stayed for almost all of this one, then ducked out early to attend the “What’s New In The DCU” panel right next door (again, no fighting the crowds) that was run by DC Comics Senior Editor Mike Marts, writer Jimmy Palmiotti, and artists J.G. Jones and Ethan Van Scriver as they discussed the possible ramifications of the “52″ storyline and it’s follow-up, “World War III”, the All-Star line and some of the non-superhero genre books (specifically Palmiotti’s Jonah Hex western).

After that I fought the crowds to go downstairs to the main dealer’s hall and there had to be 10 times more people there than the previous day. It took short, shuffling footsteps and was so crowded that I thought some people should have at least asked me out to dinner first. After scoping out the celebrity area I shuffled my way back out to the front hall and took several pictures of fans in costume. I was hungry but the food court area was completely filled (so much so that people were sitting on the floor in the front hall trying to eat) and I really did not want to eat at a place that serves worse quality food than the theme parks at even higher prices.

It’s 2:30pm now and I’m sitting in a chair in the front hall that I grabbed as soon as someone moved their ass out of it so I could write this and not have to sit on the floor. I’m watching a man inventory a pile of comic books he just bought, checking them off of a list he brought with him that he undoubtedly printed at home. I know, I’ve been there and done that. (Hey, I’m wearing my “Say No To Kryptonite” tee shirt! I know I’m geeky.) The crowd is mostly younger adults in the 18-35 year old range, but there are also younger teenagers and senior citizens in attendance. People in costume continue to stream through the entrance doors and make their way to the dealer’s room area. From my vantage point I can see the attendees of the Orlando Trucker’s Convention lined up at the hall entrance next door, staring at the parade of what I am sure they regard as weirdness (and let’s face it. it is) walk past them. Of course the sight of so many shapely young women in various stages of undress who are not asking them for a lap dance might be appealing to the majority of them.

Time has passed for me, but not for you unless you got up and stopped reading after the previous paragraph.

I went back to the first room we had been for a “Special Panel TBA” which turned out to be a tribute to MegaCon Guest of Honor Dick Giordano. Mr. Giordano has been in the comic book industry since 1951, working as an artist and inker, then serving as Editor in Chief of Charlton Comics and later as the Executive Editorial Director of DC Comics. In recent years, he and his creative partners formed Future Entertainment, a multi-media company. Comic book luminaries and legends such as George Perez, Adam Kubert and Brian Pulido, among others, took to the dais to honor Mr. Giordano. As a crowning touch, a proclamation from Orange County Mayor Crotty was read, designating February 17, 2007 as “Dick Giordano Day”.

The surprise tribute was over just in time for me to then head over to the “2007 Web Cartoonist Choice Awards” presented by CCA. A list of the nominees and winners can be found at their website. An interesting situation has occurred. I grabbed a chair and table at the back of the room after the Web Cartoonist Choice Awards ceremony was over to do some writing. The next event had been cancelled because the guest who was scheduled to appear was stuck up north due to the blizzard. In the course of 45 minutes 20 people or so have approached me while I’m banging away on my laptop, apparently under the impression I am in charge of something. Fortunately, I know what is going on and what the schedule is so I can direct them to the correct room or give the information they need, but it kind of troubles me that I LOOK like such a huge geek, LOL.

Time has passed, I hope you’re still here.

At 5pm, I joined Michelle for the “Meet The Stars” panel featuring a question and answer session with Battlestar Galactica stars Mary McDonnell and Jamie Barber. I don’t watch the show (I know, sacrilege. I’ll catch up by watching the DVD’s one day) but my friend Kirk is a huge fan so I was wishing he had been there to enjoy the interaction between the show’s stars and fans. I thoroughly enjoyed both of these performers and watching them and listening to how passionate they are about their show makes me want to watch it even more than before.

See you there tomorrow?

I don’t patronize the Wal-Mart near the Blog Cave. There’s a couple of reasons for that. The biggest reason is that it is ALWAYS crowded, unless you go in between the hours of 2am and 4am. In addition, the store itself is so overloaded with merchandise that it always looks cluttered, makes it almost mandatory that you walk down the aisles (what there are of them) in single-file and constantly amazes me that the Fire Marshall hasn’t cited them for hazardous conditions. Personally, I prefer Target stores for my discount shopping.

But if you are a shopper who frequents your area Wal-Mart, you might be interested in visiting Wal-Mart Crime Reports, which tracks the number of police calls to individual Wal-Mart stores and allows you to view those numbers of the stores closest to you when you submit your zip code. Amazingly, when I put in my zip code, the store closest to me has the lowest number of calls of all the stores in the greater metropolitan Orlando area. Still, that number, gathered since 2002, works out to one call per week for the past 4 years.

If you’re interested, check out your own local store and see how many police calls have been recorded.

Although I have missed Blog Girl while she has been away, I have also enjoyed the solitude of the Blog Cave the past few days. I’ve been able to get quite a bit of reading done and spent several hours working on designing and coding my new writing website. I was even able to relax a bit by sleeping in until 6:45 this morning. That will become even more important in the coming days.

I found out a few days ago that I’ll now be spending even more time away from home each workday. The big government agency that I work for finally found a new building for us. The biggest problem with it is that is now an hour’s drive each way from the Blog Cave to the new drone dump, so 90 minutes a day that I used to have during the work week to do things in the Blog Cave will now be spent driving on Central Florida’s wonderful toll roads. It’s not really as big an issue for me as I make it sound; after all I was able to spend 2 years driving just 12 miles a day round trip from the Blog Cave to work and back. But I got spoiled and will miss the time to work on projects or just relax in the Blog Cave and I certainly won’t enjoy the tolls I’ll be paying.

Speaking of which I went Thursday night after work and bought an E-Pass transponder from my neighborhood Publix, then came back to the Blog Cave and signed up online to fund the E-Pass so on Monday I won’t have to fumble for change at each toll booth. I don’t really like the idea of the E-Pass because to me it’s just another way for Big Brother to keep tabs on me, but like a lot of things we do these days, the convenience is what ultimately draws us. The toll roads are set up in such a way now that if you don’t use an E-Pass, you’ll end up sitting in a mile long line of other drivers waiting to throw quarters into the bin and so you still waste the time you hoped to save by taking the toll road in the first place.

While I’m griping; about the only TV that I watch in “real time” is the local news and sometimes the national news or news talk shows. Everything else is DVR’d and I get to skip through the commercials. But I have to tell you that the increasing preponderance of campaign and candidate commercials are about to make me swear off even the news programs until after next Tuesday night. It seems like EVERY commercial is related to the upcoming election. I guess it’s doubly aggravating to me because I have already voted, so there’s nothing I’m going to hear that is going to change my vote. Thank goodness we got rid of the land line house phone and I don’t have to listen to a dozen recorded calls from candidates and causes every day when I get home.

Blog Girl will return home Sunday afternoon and even though I have enjoyed my time alone, it will be nice to have her back in the Blog Cave.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we were going totally wireless here in the Blog Cave. This past Monday morning the land line was turned off (just in time to avoid those intrusive campaign calls before the election in 3 weeks) and I collected all the wired phones from around the Cave and placed them in a box to go in the attic. Although I’m glad to have them gone, it turns out some habits are hard to break. For instance, I still walk into the Cave and instinctively look to where the answering machine used to be to see if any messages came in while we were out.

When Blog Girl called to tell BellSouth we wanted to turn off the land line, I was mildly surprised to hear from her at the conclusion of that call that there was no effort to try and talk us into retaining the line. Family, friends and acquaintances have reported to us in the past that when making similar calls they have been offered rebates, chances to hold their number for 60 days in case they changed their minds, or at the least to have a recording on the line to direct callers to any new number. Not that we would have used them, but Blog Girl received none of those offers.

I came across an interesting piece of information that may explain that lack of effort.

Current Analysis, Inc., a company that, according to their website, “provides competitive response solutions that enable companies to effectively anticipate and counter competitive threats, and win more business.” released statistics that showed as customers continue to trade in land lines for voice-over-Internet-protocol phones, cellphones and cable-enabled phone service, 20 million phone lines have fallen out of use in the past six years in the U.S.. 20 million! That’s a little over 9,000 each and every day of those 6 years.

No wonder they gave up trying to talk customers into retaining their home land lines.

You may have noticed some of the changes I’ve been making around here. A few days ago I added a graphic link to my new MySpace site, a couple of days later I added my list of books read (that is still a work in progress as I have to get the books I’ve been reading in 2006 listed) and today I changed the header graphic above and the color of the sidebar headings. Let me know what you think.

But I could not have done any of those things without the help and assistance of 2 lovely ladies who graciously gave me their time and technical know-how. I can handle your everyday HTML coding but for some reason I’ve never been able to get a strong handle on CSS coding, which is the basis of WordPress templates like the one I use for this blog.

So I’d like to offer a sincere “Thanks for the info” to Hänni (HAW-knee), the Grand Empress of Hännihaus and Michelle, the Goddess behind Zengrrl. Shortly after sharing some of her knowledge of “the Force” (mere mortals such as myself can only handle so much in one session) Hänni packed up her bags and moved Hännihaus to the Lone Star state of Texas. Thankfully that move was not a result of meeting me, but rather a move already in the works so that she and her hubby could live closer to where he works. The Sunshine State’s loss is the Longhorns’ gain, but hopefully the “art”-ful one will find the time to return and visit O-town occasionally in the future. Michelle is an obvious graduate of Hogwart’s School of WordPress Wizarding and helped a great deal with issues I was having with my header graphic and sidebar additions. I told her that once I saw what she did I would be able to do it own my own after that, but I almost put the lie to that statement today when I was attempting to change out the header graphic. However, after some tinkering and spellcasting, I was able to get the graphic I wanted to show up where I wanted. Michelle is currently splitting her time between Mouseville and the cheesehead state of Wisconsin. She’s been back in our neck of the woods a few weeks but Blog Girl and I haven’t had the chance to meet up with her as of yet. Soon, hopefully, soon.

I’ll continue making changes in the decor around the cave, but the real credit goes to Hänni and Michelle for getting me on the right track. That’s why I’m grateful to the ladies.