...some great customer reference questions

I'd like to personally thank Adam Kalsey for writing this blog post five years ago. The internet's a beautiful thing!

I'm in the process of getting a customer reference call scheduled with a Documentum web content management customer and needed a jump start on providing some questions up front. Adam's blog post was the perfect thing. I love the internets!

When interviewing references, people don’t often know what to ask other than non-specific questions about how they like the product and how good the vendor support is. This is certainly the information you want to get, but unless you ask specific questions, you aren’t going to get specific answers.
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...I really have it so easy with such a teammate husband

I think sometimes I take it for granted what a truly giving and concerned husband I have. He is a true teammate. Caroline isn't just my job or just his job... She's our job and we help each other. Neither of us feels "stuck" (at least I don't... I hope he doesn't!). When the going gets rough, we trade or double-team, and I appreciate that so much.

Tonight, Caroline poo-pooed in the bathtub for the first time, lol. :) Pete called to me, I rushed in like a pit stop worker with a diaper, he took her and the fresh diaper into the bedroom to keep dry and warm and happy while I cleaned up the bathtub, and then he came back in to continue Caroline's bath. Easy as pie with two people working together!

So Pete, if you ever read this, thanks again. And if you don't read this, I'll just make sure I remember to keep telling you in person.

...about the dumbest looking new car I've seen yet

OMG, am I right or am I right?

The new Nissan Cube. Entirely inelegant, it's a very poor shot at asymmetry. I mean, I like the idea of the wrap-around window, but not on this rolling refrigerator. Yuck. And I thought the Scion xB was fugly...

...crap does indeed roll downhill

:-\ Nuff said.

Gotta work harder at climbing that ladder. I'd love to let some of this just roll right over me and smack into somebody else's face for once. Argh.

Gripe over.

...I can actually get better at jogging

I've never been a very athletic person. More the music and computers type, which always exercised my mind more than my body. Luckily I had been blessed with a metabolism that didn't require me to move much in order to maintain your average everyday okay kinda body. And I was just fine with that.

Then I had a baby. And my body went to hell. Caroline is of course worth it and so much more, don't get me wrong. But now, for the first time ever, I look at my body and know I'm going to have to work at it, and it's turning out that I have to work hard at it. :-\

So I tried the walking aerobics video I have. No dice, my hips screamed for mercy after a couple weeks and I couldn't even sit without being in pain. Then I turned to Plan B: Jogging.

At first I was terrified because I had tried jogging once or twice during college. It always ended in fitful spurts of attempting to breathe after a short period of time, which then led to immediate discouragement and quitting. But now, things are serious.

My first recent jogging session started with a commitment to 2 miles. I ended up walking about half of it, but I was okay with that and decided I'd try again. Two days later, I jogged 1.25 of the 2 miles, and two days after that I jogged 1.5 of it! In all honesty, this felt like a miraculous event to me, that's how much I had despised and given up on jogging in the past.

Now I'm slowly trying to work my way up to jogging the entire 2 miles and it actually feels like it's attainable. And that feels good. I certainly haven't dropped any weight yet, and I only jog about three times a week, but my hips feel good, my mind feels good, and I think I might actually be able to do this.

...there's a Catan card game!

OMG there's a Catan card game! And it's a 2-player game, so it's something Pete and I could play together (since we can't play Settlers of Catan when it's just the two of us).

It looks like a slightly complicated card game, and the estimated play time is 60 - 120 minutes so it would take a little brain power, but dang it looks like fun. Luckily there's an interactive tutorial that would help.

I still have an Amazon.com gift card from Valentine's Day..... cha-CHING! Amazon, don't let me down now!

Acknowledgments: Thanks for the heads-up, Mom! :-D

...the Krasl Art Fair is July 11 - 12 this year

We are once again excited to have the top 216 artists line the bluff and have art lovers intrigued and delighted to see amazing art. The venue, atop the bluff of Silver Beach, provides one of the most spectacular views of Lake Michigan coupled with the high quality of artists, truly earns the Krasl Art Fair on the Bluff its status as one of the top 100 art fairs in the nation. The country’s troubling economy poses a challenge for all of us this year, including the artists, whose livelihoods are based on local art fairs. Recognizing this challenge to not only our 216 artists, but our buying public, we encourage the artists to offer various price points of $25.00-$50.00 among their work.

Woohoo! $25 - 50? Maybe I'll actually get to buy stuff this year! It's usually a 'look but don't touch' fair for me every year, which I don't mind just because the art is so gorgeous and fun to browse. But if the artists actually go along with the encouragement from the Krasl Art Fair folks, I'll actually get to purchase one or two beauteous things! Excitement!

Read more about the Krasl Art Fair