Author Archives: LA Blogger Gal

Weather Can Affect Migraines: Or So They Say

3 Replies

Did you know in Germany they have a phoneline you can call to get updates on the weather and how it will affect your migraines?  I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not.  I’d be afraid that I’d start having more migraines since I the weather says that I should.  Yeah, not such a good idea – at least for me (though I do love my emailed pollen/allergy alerts during allergy season).

But something has been going on this past week, I’ll give you that.  First off, my snow-predicting elbow (that I broke about 10 years ago) has been aching something fierce.  And well, I’m more than a little confident that we’ll not be having any snow in the near future here in the San Fernando Valley any time soon.  Come to think of it, my snow-predicting elbow isn’t really all that useful here in SoCal much at all (though I can predict snow in the mountains).

More annoying than the aching elbow though is the migraine-that-isn’t-quite-yet-a-migraine. Meaning that for the past week, I’ve had the early twinges of a migraine that well, never came to be.  One might think that this is a good thing.  Sadly, when it just keeps dragging on and on, but isn’t quite enough to pop a pill, it’s just annoying instead – in a dull aching kind of way.  And well, there’s no real escape from it either.

So weather, if you’re listening, how ’bout a change? Maybe some rain?  Or better yet, a heavy downpour?  I know the folks up north dealing with those fires would sure appreciate it.  As would I.  And my elbow, come to think about it.  Or well, just let things turn into a migraine already so I can just take my pills and be done with it.

Ready to Go Green Inside the House

3 Replies

I’ve always been a recycler.  I was pretty much raised that way – we’d save our newspaper until the car nearly bottomed out taking them to the recycling center when I was a kid.  I’ve gone through and changed out all of our bulbs as they’ve died.  That even includes the bathroom vanity ones and well, that took a bit of getting used to.  I do my best to conserve around the house whenever and wherever I can.  And now, now I’m ready to switch up all of my household cleaning supplies.

So I ask, which line of eco-friendly cleaning products do you use?  Which particular products do you use – all purpose cleaner, toilet cleaner, dish soap, laundry soap, window cleaner, etc.?  Where do you purchase them?  Have you considered making your own cleaning products – gotta love vinegar and baking soda?

Did you change everything, or just wait and change up as things ran out?  I’m thinking of just taking what I have left down to the S.A.F.E. Center’s hazardous waste drop off here in town and starting completey fresh and safe.  I have to admit though, a part of me just cringes at the thought of just wasting my cleaning supplies like that.  Then the other part of me cringes even more when I think about how much of my bath & body stuff I’ll be tossing (and giving away to charity).

So spill.  Tell me all about what you use, why you use it and what you love about it.  Come to think about it, tell me what products that you’ve tried that maybe you didn’t like quite so much.

Talk About Feeling Overwhelmed

3 Replies

I just got off of a teleseminar with Adam Urbanski and Coach Deb.  Now I know how folks feel when they leave my workshops on basic blogging and basic social media.  It’s a LOT of information to absorb and process.  I just have to remember that I don’t need to do everything all at once.

Today’s session was an in depth discussion about twitter.  Perfect timing too since I was asked to write up an article for the LWL magazine on twitter basics.  This session really helped to come up with some good, clear examples of how twitter can be an asset to a small business.  Now I just need to break it all down to it’s most simplest, bare bones measures since many of the women in the LWL are just learning about twitter and other various forms of social media.

Adam is running this Contact to Contracts teleseminar for two more days.  We still get to hear from Mari Smith tomorrow about Facebook and Nancy Marmolego about integrating social networking strategies.  The teleseminars are free (which is always a good thing), so be sure to register.  If you think you missed out on Coach Deb’s info, then go ahead and order the VIP package with both audio and transcriptions of the calls.  Good stuff.

Now that’s the massive note taking has stopped, I must find a cure for my hiccups and find some lunch.

Holy Hell it’s Hot!

2 Replies

You know it’s going to be a hot day when you wake up and by 10:00Am it’s already 95 or so.  Yeah, that’s what our past couple of days has been like.  And let me say, it doesn’t make for happy times.  Even the plants are miserable.

So Hot I'm Wilting

Yesterday I woke up early as I had a networking/biz thing to get to.  Since it was still 80ish the night before (in our bedroom!) I was having some challenges falling to sleep.  Needless to say, once I got home from the event (did I mention that they were working on their AC so it was painfully hot?) I just crashed.  I fell asleep in the bedroom until it just got too hot and then I moved to the floor, in front of our AC to finish the nap.  Yeah, not the most comfortable.  We finally decided that we needed to get out of the house and headed out to dinner and the movies (Baby Mama – was cute).

Today I’m off to the deep San Fernando Valley to meet a bloggie friend, Speedy Canizales for a bit.  She writes these amazing posts about the wonderful places she visits (I believe she’s still writing about her recent trip to Manila with her family).  We’re meeting up to talk about her writing a piece (or fifty) for my site about traveling and playing a tourist in your own town.  I’m really looking forward to it – especially since we’ve been trying to schedule this for about 6 weeks now.  I’m not looking forward to the insane heat though, but hey, we’ll be inside the mall so at least that part is good.

For the rest of the time, I’m going to sit back and do my best to stay cool.  Well, as cool as we can with our (seemingly) wimpy AC.  At least the temps look to be dropping next week (in the mid-80’s instead of the low 100’s).  Hope the rest of you are staying cool as well.

Just Testing My Feed

2 Replies

I recently installed a new RSS button and wanted to check out if newly written, post-dated posts show up in the RSS as being new.

Feel free to just ignore this post and stay cool in this crazy, insane heat (at least here in LA).

Trying to Decide If I Want This

5 Replies

Or it would just look horrible on me.  I’m thinking I might want a casual, sundress sort of thing (or two) for BlogHer. It’s only $25 and made in the US (from b&lu).

Yeah, I know, I shop before I travel.  I just can’t help it.  It’s a compulsion.

ETA:  decided against it – went with something else instead.

The Crazy Shit That is My Life

5 Replies

Let’s see, where do I start.  This is going to sound a tad disjointed, but bear with me.  You see, I’ve been taking more and more steps towards being more green.  As part of that movement, I’ve switched to more natural deodorants – no, don’t worry, this won’t be about stinky arm pits.

My favorite deodorants are from the LUSH line.  They not only smell great, they work and well, they’re natural (or at least more natural and aluminum-free).  Only problem, they also get a bit crumbly.  So as you’re wiping the pits, pieces crumble off and onto the floor.

I also feel the need to remind you that it’s been HOT out here lately.  And you’ve heard me mention it before (and will probably here me mention it again and again to come), we don’t have central air.  We do have a window/wall unit, but really, it only makes the living room cooler.  The rest of the apartment remains mere degrees cooler than the outside.  And well, when it’s 95+ outside and 85+ inside, it makes household chores a bit daunting.

Needless to say, I have vacuumed the carpets since before we left our on vacation a couple weeks back.  It’s on the list of things to do, but really, I have to wake up early (as does the hubs – therein lies my challenge) to beat the heat and well, that hasn’t happened just yet.

Bear with me here, I’m getting to the point of my story…

So this morning, I was getting dressed and putting on my shorts, when something got into my eye.  Apparently, I must’ve flicked a deodorant crumb up into my eye as I raised my foot to get into the leg of the shorts.  Don’t ask, I’ve no idea how I’d be able to do that.  Thing is, I did.

I got the fleck out.  I’ve washed my eye again and again.  But you know, my right eye is still tearing up (it’s now about over four hours later!) and well, it still burns and itches a bit.  I guess I probably scratched my eye a bit.  It’s not enough to go to the doctor though.  Hell, if I poke around, we probably have eyedrops left over from the last time the hubs scratched his eye in his sleep.

Oh well, shit happens.  And of course it’s the crazy sort of shit that seems to happen to me with some annoying frequency.

Here’s hoping you’ve had a better day thus far!

Time Seems To Be Getting Away From Me!

2 Replies

Going from weekend away, to prepping for official biz launch, back to extended weekend away, on to the hubs working from home for the week, then to me seeing clients daily…well, I have no idea what day it is.  Worse still, I have to buy my plane tickets (or decide if I’m going to carpool) to Blogher and do it now!

But really, I swore that yesterday was Thursday.  So of course, I woke up thinking that today was Friday.  I can’t believe that I can have something going on every day, yet still not know what day of the week it is.  That’s just craziness, I say.

Of course I have mountains of laundry to do and well, it was already 93 degrees by 10:30 this morning!  Hard to find the motivation to clean and take care of the house when it’s already too damn hot both inside and out.  Thursday and Friday we’re expected to be in the 100’s again.  *sigh* I really love our apartment, except in the hot days of summer when our wimpy AC continuously seems to let me down.

Needless to say, I’m fairly certain that I won’t be posting up any photos for Wordless Wednesday.  I still haven’t gotten around to uploading my Jersey pics (see previous mentions of time getting away from me) and well, I just don’t have the desire to do that today.  Sorry.

Instead I’ll focus on my massage and adjustment scheduled for later today.  Lord knows I need it since I”ve been on the verge of a migraine for the past 4 days and everytime I reach back to scratch or something, I get sharp pangs in my shoulder.  Not cool, but both are simple things that the chiro can fix. Yay!

My one other crazy, big plan…to finish this last Outlander book.  I believe I have less than 100 pages left and I’m just digging it.  Of course, historical romances, especially those that are nearly 1000 pages long, tend to warp your sense of self a bit.  We were out walking the dog late last night (when it’s cooler) and I reminded the hubby that we should be wary of coyotes since it’s nearly a full moon.

The hubs asks me what I would do if I encountered a coyote.  My first thought…well, that I’d shoot him with my rifle, of course.  Then I remembered that I don’t have a rifle and moved on to the dirk that I have on hand.  Um…only to realize that I don’t have a dirk either as I’m not back in the 1770.  Silly woman – my actual response was that I’d scream and make a lot of noise. Whatever that might be worth.

And don’t even get me started on the wacky dreams I have when I read the Outlander books.  Crazy shit I tell ya.  But I still love them.

Okay, off to get busy and get to work.  Stay cool in this heat!

Let’s Get Writing

3 Replies

I’ve been asked by our LWL leader extraordinaire to write up some how-to articles for the LWL online magazine.  We’re thinking to focus on the various, mainstream social media outlets and write up some basic tutorials. She’s hoping that I can write one piece a week starting in July. This won’t be such a bad thing, though the pressure along could likely do me in (lol, nothing like being under pressure to get a gal to write).  The good thing, when all is said and done, I just might have a little ‘ol ebook already written and read to go.

First up, Twitter.  Any suggestions, advice or things for me to consider when starting with the most basics of basics?