Or wait… how does that go again?

I may have mentioned a few thousand times that I’ve had a hard winter. My spring has been better, by far, but I am still very much subject to the pitfalls of having not very much to do and all day to avoid doing it. Summer is looking hopeful… but I may need to make an executive decision as to when summer actually starts, if only to relieve Ishi from the burden of coming up with creative new ways to find clean underwear.

In a sort of tongue-in-cheek homage to the colossal waste of the last six months, I thought I’d share the top ten online time sinkholes I’ve grown fond of. I waste time other ways, of course, but in keeping with the nature of the blog, let’s stick with teh intertubes. At the very least, this list should help with the nagging question Ishi must ask every single night: “Just what on earth does she do all day?”

My Top 10 Time Annihilators

In ascending order (least time wasted to most).

10. Facebook This was at one time around 2 or 3, but I figured out that the only way I can f-book is from my BlackBerry. Any other attempt to have Facebook in my life results in a catastrophic loss of time. I am talking time hemorrhage. I give myself an hour every two weeks to stalk everyone’s photos and recent status updates, and that’s it, out of sheer necessity.

9. Cute Overload I find the bunnehs eemposseeble. Many’s the grey morning that has been brightened by redonkulous noses and prosh paws!

8. Disapproving Rabbits I miss the daily dose of disapproval administered to me by my Stupendous Six. They were hilarious and darling, but of course oh-so-disapproving when warranted. This site is awesome.

7. Deviant Art The talent on this site is intriguing. I’ll log on to look for something specific, like a colour palette for a site I’m working on or something and then two hours later, I’m still there, leafing through stunning portfolios with a cold cup of tea at my elbow.

6. Passive Aggressive Notes This one is embarrassing, but I vowed to be honest. I believe wars could be prevented if world leaders were allowed to slip each other notes with heart-dotted “i”s and multiple exclamation points. I find the situations people find themselves in and the notes they write to deal with them absolutely hilarious. Slight warning: The notes themselves are fairly harmless, but the comments are not. Foul and vulgar are a fairly tame way to describe them.

5. Biblical Archaeology Review On the one hand, many would consider something like this site totally out of place on a time-wasters list. I’m subscribed to the print magazine and read it from cover to cover within a week of getting it. Since it only comes out six times a year, I find myself wandering over to the website for the e-features in order to get an extra fix now and again. It seemed to me to be a fairly virtuous waste of time… until a comment calling it “candy for academics” was published in the most recent issue. Now I’m not sure how to categorize my time spent on it!

4. LOLcats / I Can Has Cheezburger? I used to spend a great deal more time on this site, but the bandwagon has been overrun with nitwits who don’t quite understand the genius behind excellent LOLcat humour. It has mostly degenerated to overly obvious and cutesy descriptions of cute cat pictures, but I still find myself combing through the dross to try and find the flakes of pure gold such as the LOLrus and bukkit running gag. I’ve made quite a few of my own and if I ever manage to remember my password, I’ll start posting them here.

3. Our Stage This is an amazing site. Independent musicians of every possible stripe and flavour upload their music here. There is a competition in every genre every month and the fans (that’s us!) judge battles between songs, determining who will be in the finals. My Dad has quite a selection of his music there and I signed up to support him – now I’m hopelessly addicted. It’s fun but it’s also such a privilege to listen to so many truly worthy artists who haven’t been overproduced into a slick, bland package for the masses.

2. Ovusoft Forums I am here way too much. Toni Weschler’s amazing book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, now comes with a software program to take your charting to the next level. As if that wasn’t cool enough, there is a forum completely dedicated to TTC^[1] and charting. When I started charting I devoured everything I could get my hands on and learned as much as I could. Now I answer questions and help other ladies understand the process, while getting companionship and support from ladies who, like me, have been trying for a while and also, like me, have lost at least one pregnancy. I maintain that I need this support, but I also admit that I’m there for a lot longer every day than I need to be.

1. SparkPeople It’s only been in the last week that Ovusoft Forum isn’t in the number one slot! SparkPeople is the single most valuable online resource I have ever come across for people who need to manage their weight. It’s 100% free. The articles and information presented on the site come from trained and certified professionals who have a passion for healthy living. The site offers sophisticated and easy-to-use tools for setting goals and tracking progress, for tracking nutrition and exercise, and also for watching the pounds go down. There are separate sister sites such as the integrated recipe site where SparkPeople members can share their recipes. I have spent an inordinate amount of time choosing recipes to try and entering my own to get the breakdown of nutritional information in them. It’s probably one of the most eye-opening things I’ve learned in my weightloss journey – how many of my recipes were not at all conducive to my efforts! A lot of it is time well spent, but too much time well spent is still a bit of a waste, so this gets the top spot.

1. TTC stands for Trying To Conceive [↩]

April…
Come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain;
May, she will stay,
Resting in my arms, she’ll stay.

June, she’ll change her tune,
In restless walks she’ll prowl the night;
July, she will fly
And give no warning to her flight.

August, die she must,
The autumn winds blow chilly and cold;
September I’ll remember
A love once new has now grown old.

- Simon & Garfunkel

It’s been a long winter. I’ve been caught in grief’s icy undertow more than a few times, and there have been fresh white squalls to try what little strength was left in reserve.

But now the sweetness that is spring is returning… the air is milder and evening comes drifting down so delicately scented that it hurts my heart. Blossoms drop gently from the trees to welcome the tender buds that will transform the valley into a medley of green. It hurts less and less to remember last year and the baby who would have been born just a few weeks ago.

I know that particular ache will never completely ease… rather, just as sweetness lingers, so will the dull, heavy bruise of loss cling to my heart, my skin, my very breath. I will forget about it when the sun shines on me in moments of joy and peace. I will remember when something presses on it, catching me unawares, reminding me. And this is good. This is as it must be and I no longer protest.

I forgot January has a thirty-first. Oops.

Three babies were born in my family this week. Two of them in the last two days. I’m okay, I really am, but that would be a lot for any infertile and it’s definitely a lot for me.

I just need to process it all. But I’ll be okay.

I have to be.

Ishi and I had dentist appointments today. Cleanings and checkups. Mine took just an hour and when the dentist came in, she said “Same old, same old!”

I was horrified. “You mean same old, same old, I have three or four new cavities?!” I had been mentally preparing for the news of one, perhaps two new cavities.

“No! Same old, same old, you need to get those wisdom teeth out. You don’t have any new cavities!”

I never thought I could have an appointment like that. Soon, I will explain what a triumph this is for me!

Would you do me a huge favour? Just click on that little comment link and tell me: what’s the most you’ve ever paid for a bag?

I was all set to order the Buxton Bag, you know, the one that’s on TV all the time. Apparently you can carry everything you’ve ever worn on your face, two bottles of water, a camera, an umbrella and your neighbour’s cat in this bag. It’s exactly what I need, I swear. I have tried so hard to pare down what I need with me when I leave the house, but no dice. I must either get a bag that will do the job or become an agoraphobic.

Anyway, I was all set to go, credit card in hand, when I stumbled across a blog that said the Buxton bag was for ugly people who didn’t care how they looked. Well, that’s fine. I’m ugly and I don’t care how I look! But the comments section was literally pages and pages of people saying that the bag is a complete rip-off, falls apart at the first touch, and stinks. To high heaven.

Well. That slowed me down. I absolutely hate buying things that I end up having to return. It just takes all the (two atoms’ worth of) fun out of shopping and makes me more anxious the next time I have to buy something. So I thought I’d do a search for organizer bags and then had to use an entire roll of paper towels to soak up the puddle of lustful drool that pooled at my feet.

There are bags and then there are bags. Forget shoes. Never understood that whole issue, but bags… *sigh*

I eventually found nirvana when I clicked on a link that took me to the Planara Expandable Three-Tiered Messenger Bag. It would hold just about everything I could possibly need for a day out, even my camera, and it even has a pocket for my BlackBerry! Bliss! Ecstasy!

My answer to the question I asked at the top is $60.00. I once spent $60 on a Swiss Gear backpack and regretted it within three weeks when one of the straps started to fray. Paying almost $100 for a bag just seems like something other people do – not me!

To be honest, I’m not sure Ishi would speak to me again if I tried to spend a hundred bucks on a bag. What’s really scary is that I’m not sure that wouldn’t be a good trade!