Archive for the ‘Born to Blog’ Category

  • Table for Five 2006 – See the header, meet the blogroll!

    Monday, August 23rd, 2010

    You GUYS. Guess what I found??

    When I moved Table for Five from Blogspot to WordPress.com, back in 2006, I was so pissed off at Blogger that I actually DELETED their copy of the blog once everything was moved over. I never thought that I would one day wish I could look back at it!

    Well, that day came, I wished, and I found something I never thought I’d see again.  I used the Wayback Machine to do a search for table4five.blogspot.com, and LOOK:

    I was hoping for something I wrote in 2005, but this was as far back as it went. If you are wondering why it says I’m married to “BC” in the About Me section, it’s because originally Chris wanted me to use an alias for him.  Check out my humongous glasses!

    The theme was customized for me by a blogger whose name I can’t remember now, I remember her telling me she used Photoshop to create the image in the header and I thought that was just the coolest thing to know how to do.

    Let me show you my blogroll from back then!

    As Crazy As It Sounds was my sister-in-law’s first blog, she moved it to another URL shortly thereafter, and then stopped blogging.

    Baby Poop & Business Suits is written by a terrific Michigan blogger named Gerah, I’m sorry to say we’ve lost touch :(   Gerah, if you’re seeing this link, leave me a comment! Let’s reconnect!

    Baleful Regards is written by the wonderful Dawn, who I hugged over and over at BlogHer because I was so happy to see her! She lives in Canada and we first met at BlogHer 2006.

    Below The Eight is the blog of Fraulein N. from Philadelphia. You need to watch the YouTube video she posted about a woman doling out some justice to an attempted carjacker. It’s beyond awesome.

    Bombadee’s Garden is written by Jenny from Texas. I found her site and the top post said Group B Strep, so I scrolled down to read more, and found she has a new baby, and the baby has Strep :(  Sending her big virtual hugs for her and her family.

    Breed ‘Em And Weep is written by Jennifer Mattern,  a writer/poet/playwright/mother of two who is all kinds of talented. She’s been through a really, really rough divorce, her recent post combines an upsetting visit to Family Court with a recap of “Eat, Pray, Love” that is just brilliant. Give her that book deal NOW!

    Days Like These! is the blog of my dear friend Tanyetta, whom I wish I could just MEET already!  I know Florida is hot in August, but couldn’t BlogHer be held there just once??  Anyway, Tanyetta has been a loyal reader and Internet Friend for years now.  I didn’t realize it had been 4 years!

    Fancypants is no longer blogging, sadly.  She once sent me a mix CD of current music that introduced me to The Killers and Belle & Sebastian before any station in Lansing was playing them.  I miss her.

    Goose, Mousie, Daddy & Me might not sound familiar, but I bet you’ve heard of it’s author, Julie, who first renamed her blog Mothergoosemouse and then changed her focus and created The Mom Slant. She was also the co-owner of the defunct Parent Bloggers Network. I greatly admire Julie and am glad we have been friends for so long!

    Halloweenlover – I actually had the title of this blog wrong, it’s Lots and Lots of Nonsense. Halloweenlover is her online name. It’s been so long since I stopped by her blog that I didn’t know she had a ONE YEAR OLD BABY.  I suck.

    JenandTonic has now become Jennui dot com (pronouned jon-wee). I think Jen  is way brave for just starting over with new a blog after nine years.   Jen is lovely and kind and I look forward to seeing her at BlogHer every year.

    Mabel’s Mind Wanderings seems to have been closed down.

    Mainely Madge stopped posting in 2007, sadly. She was a fantastic teller of stories.  Her husband was almost killed on the job and they went through hell and back with their lawsuit, but she also had an adorable little girl she called The Bird, and wrote about their lives really well. I wish I knew if she was still around online somewhere.

    Mamatulip ‘s blog is actually called Where am I going…and why am I in this handbasket?, but it was probably too long to fit :)

    Mean Girl to the Rescue! stopped blogging in 2009, but for a good reason – she had a baby!

    Megger Says is no longer active.

    Mocha Momma is the lovely Kelly, who I first met at BlogHer 2006. We did the Chevy Test Drive event together in Memphis, in 2007. She writes really well and is funny, too.

    Mom/Ma’am/Me is the blog of my friend Nancy, although she hasn’t posted anything in a long time. Nancy was the first blogger I met IRL, when we met up at the Houston airport on our way to BlogHer 2006.  She was also one of my first regular reader/commenters.

    Mom-101 is, of course, the incomparable Liz Gumbinner, who was also one of the first reader/commenters on Table for Five. It cracks me up that I have her URL listed as NEW!, because back then, there weren’t as many Mom blogs as there are now, and finding a new one to read was a treat for me. Sorry about missing the hyphen back then, Liz. edited to add: Liz is also a partner in Cool Mom Picks, the website that finds the coolest products for kids of all ages and their parents!

    I just noticed I didn’t have any kind of RSS feed link back then! I guess if anyone was subscribing, they were probably using Bloglines and just typing my URL into the subscription box.  Can you even imagine starting a blog now and NOT having an RSS feed link?

    I hope you enjoyed this look back at Table for Five, circa 2006, and meeting the fine folks who were on my blogroll back then. I have to say, the sheer simplicity of it, the uncluttered sidebar, it looks wonderful.   It’s so hard to resist the allure of badges and buttons, they have been my weakness for years. I like the design I have now, to be sure, but seeing what I had, I should have appreciated it more.

  • A Promise I Am Making – As Blog Is My Witness

    Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

    According to a report from Harvard Medical School, “Each time you take a step, you put about one and a half times your weight on your foot. If you run or play tennis, three to four times your weight lands on each foot whenever it hits the ground. Every pound you gain in weight adds to the pounding on your feet.”

    From the time I had to walk a mile and a half from one end of Terminal C to the completely opposite end of Terminal A at the Detroit Airport last Thursday, my feet started to hurt. During the evening Bee Squad event, I stood for two hours and then finally had to sit down to get the pressure off my feet. At the People’s Party, I finally took off my high heeled sandals and walked barefoot the rest of the night.

    Friday I walked, and walked, and walked. And stood around waiting for elevators. And walked some more. I tried to massage my feet before I went to bed but it still took a while to fall asleep due to shooting pains in the bottoms of both feet.

    Saturday morning, I got a reflexology foot massage at the Unilever event. My eyes rolled into the back of my head more than once, and I had to force myself not to moan inappropriately. For about two hours after that massage, my feet didn’t hurt at all. But after more hours of walking and standing, and then dancing at the Sparklecorn party, my feet had finally had enough.

    I woke myself up crying in the middle of the night. The bottoms of my feet felt like they were being stabbed with hot needles. Nothing I did helped. I tossed and turned, rubbed my feet against the cool parts of the sheets, and somehow was able to fall back asleep.

    Sunday morning I looked at myself in the full-length closet mirror in the room and gave myself a stern lecture. I told myself that this was the last straw. I may not have the highest self-esteem in the world, but dammit, I’m important. I am worthy. I deserve to be able to move around comfortably.

    I have issues from my past that I believe have led me to be this overweight. I can’t afford therapy and am not even sure it would help. I know exactly what the issues are, exactly what makes me afraid to be thin. I also believe that I have the power to overcome those fears. Because I HAVE to.

    I cannot make it through another BlogHer at this weight. I never want to experience the kind of pain I had this past weekend again, ever. I do not care what it takes. If I can’t make myself enough of a priority to get myself in shape by next year, I am not going to BlogHer. Even if I have a sponsor.

    I hope that doesn’t scare off prospective sponsors, but it has to be said. I have to set a goal big enough to really want it. It has to be something that I can circle on the calendar and work towards. And the goal has to be something I want badly enough that failure is not an option.

    Regular readers know that I’ve been down this road before. I’ve announced my joining of Weight Watchers, my intention to start exercising, so I know what you’re thinking. But I’ve never dangled this big of a carrot in front of my nose before. The only other time I set a goal to lose weight and was successful was for my wedding. And I went from 160 to 125 in 8 months.

    I’m purposely not throwing out numbers or dates right now. I don’t want to set a goal weight number and then fail to meet it. I’m thinking in terms of physical comfort goals:

    Being able to go down into my basement, throw in a load of laundry, turn around, and climb back up the stairs without my heart pounding and breaking a sweat

    Being able to scrub my kitchen floor without developing an ache in my hips and thighs and breaking a sweat

    Being able to be on my feet for several hours, walking and standing, without my feet hurting

    In order to accurately recreate the physical requirements of BlogHer, I figure I need to go to the mall wearing a 15 pound backpack and then walk a mile, stand still for 30 minutes, walk another mile, and then stand still again. Oh, and pick up a couple of shopping bags along the way, and gradually fill them so they get heavier, and heavier.

    So here’s what I am going to do – I’m going to plan to be at BlogHer next year. I assume it will be held the first weekend of August. If I haven’t lost what I consider to be enough weight by say, May of next year, I won’t buy a plane ticket to San Diego.

    I’m thinking now though, that it’s too vague. How much weight is “enough”? What about pants sizes instead? Okay, I’m going to tentatively say that I want to be a size 14 by next May. Minimum. I’m an 18 now.

    Obviously that isn’t model-thin, but I think it would be a loss of what, 25 or 30 pounds? That would have to make a significant difference in the way I feel on my feet all day, right?

    The category for my weight loss posts will be “Blogging My Butt Off”. So if you want to follow along with my progress, make suggestions, send me encouragement, whatever, look for posts in that category.

    May 2011. Size 14. 25 or 30 pounds. Whichever comes first. Or no BlogHer next year. That’s the carrot I’m dangling in front of my nose to get myself motivated.

    Because I’m worth it.

  • Helpful Sites

  • Affiliations

    Bumble Bee Bee Squad

  • Web Statistics