I just found out tonight that my favorite local grocery store, Wild Oats / Whole Foods, is closing. I've decided that it feels much like being dumped.

Sure, I can just drive for an hour to another one, and that other one will be very similar to my old local store, but it won't be the same. It won't be the same friendly faces. It won't be "right around the corner." Things won't be in the same spot. The cashiers won't joke around with me in the same way. It's much like being dumped but then being told, "Hey, you can date my brother if you want." Sure, they look similar, and they might even sound similar, but it's not the same.

Some of the employees told me which other stores they would transfer to and suggested that I come by those stores to visit with them once in awhile. It was very sweet, but it felt far too much like "But we can still be friends."

I can just go to other grocery stores in my area, but I don't want other grocery stores. I want my old grocery store, the one I fell in love with, the one with the earth-tone colors, samples of organic-natural-fair-trade-vegetarian-eco-friendly treats scattered throughout the store, aisles of PETA approved cosmetics and lotions with "try me" stickers on at least one of every product line, progressive or folk music playing through the speakers in the ceiling, and weekend events like free wine and cheese tastings and free 5-minute massages. The other stores don't have that. They only have some guy who interrupts the pop top-40 music to mumble over the loudspeaker about the special of the day, and their organic-natural-fair-trade-vegetarian-eco-friendly products section doesn't bloom with variety at all, and I've never seen them offer their customers free massages.

Oh well. Every relationship breakup in my life has pushed me toward becoming a better me. Maybe this one will do the same. Maybe it will inspire me to open my own little health foods store or cafe and not rely on others for my grocery needs. Maybe it will force me to find better stores, leaving me to wonder why I was so madly in love with this store in the first place. Maybe this store was just a phase in my life, and I need to appreciate it for what it was and start a new chapter. Whatever. I still hate being dumped.

Labels: Things that Annoy Me

15 Minutes a Day
I've decided to use my birthday (a couple weeks ago) as a "New Year's" resolution day. After all, it's a new year of my life. I've realized that the easiest way to work on goals and projects is to break them down into small pieces. Then, every day, work on completing those pieces a little at a time. For me, 15 minutes is the optimal time for working on a task. It's enough time to get something done, to make progress, but it isn't overwhelming.

Journaling
Journaling is a part of therapy for me. It has been the primary way I figure out my problems, come up with my solutions, and plan my life.

I promise myself to journal 15 minutes per day.

Yoga
I'm doing yoga again. I'm focusing on power yoga because it simultaneously increases the heart rate, strengthens the muscles, and stretches. I always stand taller after doing yoga, and if I do it in the morning, it gives me more energy to do other things throughout the day.

I promise myself to do yoga 15 minutes per day.

Strength Training
Strength training is amazing. It build muscle, and muscle burns fat. It builds bone, fighting off osteoporosis. It increases strength, which is useful in emergencies and self defense. It makes your look fit and sexy, not skinny and sickly (once you lose the fat, that is. It decreases the risk of injuries caused by weakness.

I promise myself to do 15 minutes of strength training per day.

Cardio Training
I often catch myself complaining how I can't get a 1 hour cardio workout into my day, but I can get in 15 minutes.

I promise myself to do 15 minutes of cardio training every day.

Getting Glamorous
I'm fully aware of how putting on some nice clothes and makeup and doing something with my hair can give me a big boost of energy, confidence, and motivation. It's easy to get into the mom-frumps (sweats and a ponytail), but it doesn't take much to get out of it either.

I promise myself to spend 15 minutes every morning giving myself the gift of glamor by wearing makeup, put-together hairstyles, jewelry, and comfy-fashionable clothes.

Playing with My Kids
My kids and I have a very playful relationship, but I don't think I do enough sit-down-and-play-with-me interaction. I love playing with my kids, but some days, time gets away from me, and before I know it, it's bedtime.

I promise myself to spend at least 15 minutes every day actively playing games, make-believe, etc. with my kids.

Cuddle with My Husband
Work, chores, and parenting tend to occupy most of our time, so we don't get enough time alone together most days. Our marriage is definitely strong and happy, even though we don't get lots of time together, but I'm sure it would be even better if we were able to devote a little more time to each other.

I promise myself to spend at least 15 minutes every day paying attention to my husband.

Home Improvement
I have quite a few unfinished home improvement projects that have lingered on the to-do list for far too long. I'm going to start getting them done.

I promise myself to spend 15 minutes per day doing something to improve my home.

Scrapbooking
My poor scrapbooks have been left unfinished for far too long. I'm going to take scrapbooking off of my someday list and start incorporating it into my daily schedule.

I promise myself to work on my scrapbooks for 15 minutes per day.

Music
I started playing piano again. It has been a long time since I really sat down and worked on playing a song. I usually just sit and play random stuff, but now I'm dusting off the sheet music.

I promise myself to practice piano for 15 minutes per day.

Visual Art
I started drawing and painting again. I've been slowly collecting art supplies, art books, and art videos for inspiration. My husband bought me a bunch of supplies for my birthday (nice stuff too). I especially love drawing and painting pictures for my kids. For me, praise from children is far more gratifying than praise from adults, so I think that's where I'll focus my artistic energy.

I promise myself to draw or paint for 15 minutes per day.

Creative Writing
I love writing fiction and poetry, but it seems like I rarely have as much time as I would like to do it.

I promise myself to indulge in creative writing for 15 minutes per day.

Labels: My Life

Sponsored Review

I'm always happy to see sites that help online writers, bloggers, and webmasters, so when I was asked to review http://www.kaushalsheth.com I was happy to check it out.

Kaushal has lots of WordPress themes, articles about things like the best web hosting, updates about Internet industry news, posts about fun stuff, reviews, tutorials, and personal reflections.

I was particularly impressed by the WordPress templates. They are simple layouts with beautiful images and attractive color combinations. I currently use Blogger for most of my blogs because I wanted something quick and easy as well as stable, but I have been tinkering with WordPress lately. I love designing my own layouts and themes (I've even made a living from it), but it can be rather time consuming, so I'm not above using pre-made templates to setup quick side blogs. Templates are also very useful for anyone who doesn't know how to design a custom template and doesn't want to pay for a designer to do a custom job. If you run a WordPress based site, you definitely need to check out the templates.

I also enjoyed his articles about blogging and web designer resources. Part of what I do requires me to find out what 3rd party services are best for my clients (as well as for my own sites), so I love sites / blogs that share links to useful services (especially if those services are free or low cost). Thanks for those, Kaushal. You should definitely add more of those.

I'm sure I'll be heading back to Kaushal's blog while I continue to play with WordPress.

Labels: Sponsored Reviews

On my Kristen's Guide website, I've replaced all of the AdBrite ads in my right, blue column with Project Wonderful ads. I'm very impressed with the Project Wonderful revenues. They're all flat-rate ads (CPD -- cost per day), so it doesn't matter if visitors click on them or how many page views I get. I get paid as long as there's an ad there.

And since fees are calculated on a bidding system, my advertisers get to decide how much they're willing to pay to advertise on my site. That was a bit stressful at first because the numbers would jump up and down throughout the day. Sometimes, bidders were willing to pay $2.00 per day for an ad (woo hoo! that was more than I was charging for manually set-up flat-rate ads), and other times, the bids were only $0.02 per day per ad (ack! I made more with AdBrite). It's all just fluctuation, though, and like a stock market investor, I had to learn to just sit back and wait until the end of the day to see exactly how much I made.

Overall, I'm earning three times as much as what I was earning with AdBrite, and I have better control over the ads approved, and I can turn off those annoying animated ads.

I'm still using AdBrite for my text ads in the left, navigation column, and those ads are continuing to perform as they always have. I'm debating if I should keep them though.

Labels: Blogging and Websites

Kristen's Guide Alexa Rating: 303,661

I wonder if I can get it in the top 100,000. That would be neato.

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Update...March 10, 2008...Alexa rating is 285,039

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Update...March 14, 2008...Alexa rating is 277,140

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Update...March 17, 2008...Alexa rating is 259,920

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Update...March 26, 2008...Alexa rating is 245,654

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Update...April 16, 2008...Alexa rating is 159,602

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Update...July 30, 2008...Alexa rating is 142,963

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Update August 17, 2008...Alex rating is 138,004

Labels: Blogging and Websites

very sick daughter + mystery illness + pediatrician + "take her to the hospital emergency room now!" + 6 hours of waiting for test results = VERY SCARY NIGHT

Fortunately, it had a happy ending.

Labels: Funny Families Kids and Parenthood

I typically recommend Dell computers to my friends. (My husband and I are the all-knowing computer geniuses among the people we know, so we frequently research and recommend computer products.)

I like Dell's affordable prices, remarkable quality, and service plan, which, get this, actually results in somebody coming to your home and fixing your computer. (Although the phone support can sometimes be a pain because they often want you to reinstall Windows for everything, even when I'm absolutely, 100% certain that the problem is a hardware issue and has nothing to do with windows. But I digress.)

So I'm reading about business values and such, and I came across Dell's name in a book of eco-friendly companies. I decided to check it out. And that's where I found something that made me smile.

A real recycling program.

Don't throw your old Dell products in the trash. Send them back to Dell for recycling. (Click on your country's flag to be taken to the recycling page for your area.) Dell will take them back and figure out a way to put them to good use.

Labels: Environment

I decided to update my site stats reports on my website Kristen's Guide (the reports are taken from my server, not third party services), and I was pleased to see how my little site has become more popular over the years.

2002-2004: I didn't even bother to look at stats

2005: 319,358 page views (average 875 per day)

2006: 509,886 page views (average 1397 per day)

2007: 947,835 page views (average 2597 per day)

2008: in progress (already averaging 3639 per day)

Yay for me!

Labels: Blogging and Websites