Keep Pushin'

I almost have the website reorganization and alignments completed.  I managed a pretty spectacular failure or two in the process.  I think because of my redirects, I lost access to the mercuryranch.org WordPress site, then, when I moved everything to a new directory to regain access, I forgot about going in to change the database settings.  By the time I learned how to do it via the database, I already had something boogered up.  I wound up deleting the files and the database and starting over.  It was a bare bones site, and I'm pretty pleased with the new basic iteration.  I should do similar iterations for all my domain names, which will get BlueHost's static page off them.

One of the spectacular failures (and I have no idea what happened) was my Joomla Test Site. I lost all access to it and got a message saying my host needed to be running such and such version of PHP or higher.  Well, my host is running a higher version.  Since I had not idea what happened and had nothing of value on the test site, I deleted the test site. I'll kill the data base next time I go in there and start fresh if I decide to attempt it again.

I moved Rantings and Ravings to jeanschara.com.  It went fairly well.  I still have 300 redirects to fix, but I'm plugging away at those a little at a time.  So, Rantings and Ravings, Philosophical Meanderings, and Inuit's blog have all been moved to their new homes.  NatRogers.com remains untouched. As mentioned, mercuryranch.org is rebuilt.

I have been working on Polar Bear on the Loose type-in.  I have 61 pages to go, and I need to do some modification for chapter separations. Then, I'll be ready to send it to beta readers.  Are any of you interested in reading?

I finally got the formatting closer to what I want for the 2014 A-Z Blogging Challenge ebook.  I have it in .pdf format now, and I need to read it to see if I can make any obvious improvements.  Is anyone interested in reading it and telling me the areas where I'm stupid to let it go out in public as it is? I'm thinking about putting this on on Amazon for sale, so I need to know any of those places.

No further work on Granite Hill.

Natasha's foster mommy suggested Rossie might benefit from a couple of months in a room where she isn't subjected to the other cats (but gets regular visits from us humans). I am amenable to this idea, but I'm not sure Mr. L will go for it.  The easiest way to do that would be to move her to his office (which he keeps closed off from cats anyway).  This could work in her favor in several ways.  First, she's not subjected to the other cats beating her up. Second, we'd be the only people she'd interact with, and she does get lonely, so she might seek more interaction. Finally, without being chased, she might relax and feel more confident.  Natasha's foster mommy had this approach work for one cat but not another who was being scapegoated, so there are, of course, no guarantees. 

I've been inventorying and photographing 9 crates and 5 boxes of glassware. I want to start getting rid of excess.  I also want to quit purchasing duplicates.  The first step in that is to know what I have.  I've all but stopped purchasing Fenton thumbprint.  I have a surprising amount of Bakewell and Pears (which is my preference).

I'm waiting for Mr. L to call the gas company.  His hesitation results from knowing when they replace meters, they are moving them above ground, and he (we) do not want a gas meter sticking up by the street (Not only is it unsightly, we think it's dangerous to have it exposed that way). We have seen that they will put them by the house (where we want it), but we don't know how to make that happen. He doesn't want them coming out and putting in a new meter when we're not here to make sure it goes where we want it to, and we're heading to San Antonio for a week soon.  I hope he will make the call after we get back. (The utilities are in his name.) I'm sure he'll get around to doing the right thing soon.

Unfortunately, Mr. L's attempt to getting a Tuba Christmas event going in our little town fizzled. He needed at least four people (including himself), and only he and two other guys showed up for his organizational meeting (they showed up as a favor to him). As a friend of his said, it made it further this year than last year. I'm not sure he's going to try again this year.  He spent $120 for two weeks of ads in the paper (yes, they were expensive) and got nothing to show for it. The ads were large and well-placed. We can only conclude tuba players in town don't read the paper.

Daphne got her shots and clean bill of health at her annual check up.  I took Natasha and Tarzan in for a few concerns, but they were given a clean bill of health, too.  Always happy to have healthy kitties.  Like I told Dr. Val., "I'd rather you tell me they're just fine instead of wishing I'd brought them in sooner."  She agreed.

The Week Ahead:

• Mammogram on Monday
• Guess I better get Christmas cards prepared
• I've picked up a ton (not quite literally) of pecans.  Pecans for Christmas for everyone (Tammy, if you don't want any, tell me now. Wendy and Stephen got theirs already.)
• Work on Polar Bear on the Loose, 2014 A-Z, Granite Hill, and 2015 A-Z Planning -- I don't have a theme yet.
• Continue work on glass inventory
• Evaluate where I am in all the courses I'm taking and develop a plan to complete them.  PLF 2015 kicks off again on Monday, and I upgraded to get the latest version, so I'll be working through that.  I hope to be in a better position this year to apply what I'm learning.
• Discuss a plan for Rossie with Mr. L that involves keeping her in the den (Mr. L's office) when we're here and in the spare bedroom when we're in San Antonio. Initially, I'll recommend doing it for two months and evaluate where she is on a month to month basis.  Always with an eye for what's best for Rossie.

There's probably more in there than I can get done, but I at least want to get some plans made that can be executed.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!