Progress. At LAST!

Woot! We're finally making progress on the eatstayplay.com project.

The new programmer, the professional and talented Jaggy has figured out how to alter the "baseline" so my new brown buttons display and link correctly.

If you want to see a sample of the new home page, go to: http://www.eatstayplay.com/test/new-index.html


The new buttons are:
(drum roll please!)

Which links to my CafePress.com shop


Pretty self-explanatory. BUT I don't have the archive up-to-date yet so there's a holding page there now.

And, a link HERE. Too many newsletter readers were always asking for personal info so I decided to come back and blog some more.

Man Aprons

Alvin cooked me dinner (steak!) on Sunday and he wore my mom's purple flowered apron because he was wearing a new shirt and didn't want to get it greasy. As I dropped it over his head, I said,

"Don't worry, Alvin. I'll buy you a Man-Pron."

So, I had to jump on CafePress.com


And create some Man-Pron designs for him.


The section has NOTHING but the BBQ Apron (and the bib!) for each of the four designs. By the way, each image is clickable to that section of CafePress.com so you can get a Man-Pron yourself!

It says:

Do you need the perfect gift for the man in your life? The man who fearlessly cooks, barbecues, and puts MEAT on the table?

Look no further!

This section offers 4 popular designs of Man-Prons, the apron any red-blooded American man is proud to wear. You won't find any flowers, frill, or PINK on these aprons. Just tough canvas taht is ready to get bbq sauce and woodsmoke all over it.

These man-prons will keep your man cooking in style!

Glamping

Heard of this yet? It is "Glamour Camping" much like high-end safari tenting. It may be a tent but with Persian rugs, fine linens and gourmet food service.


RIGHT -- like that's something I want to do!


From: Randall Travel Marketing

The Fraggles are Coming!

Les and Kathy have joined the Fraggle crew. This is their first harvest from their first EVER Chino Valley garden. A square foot garden, no less.

It was waiting for me in an email called "The First Harvest"

Footers!

Woot! Dad drove by my new "house" on the way home from work yesterday and low and behold, I've got footers dug! I'm beside myself with joy. Do you have any idea how exciting it is to see real PROGRESS?

After all the endless meetings with the real estate agents, the mortgage brokers (I like the mortgage company I went with), the cabinet guy, the flooring lady, negotiations about price... You name it! I think the hardest part was when the mortgage fell out and I had to start over again.

But, I got it! We're underway! I wonder if their timeline is still accurate (close escrow on Oct. 21, 2008) or if we'll be ahead of schedule.




In other news:

I had nightmares last night about the briefing today. It's my first ever briefing that I'm running and presenting at. In SPANISH no less. Pre-Paid has great Spanish plans and a great DVD so I'm not too worried. I've got about 6 invites out and Lucy and I put flyers up all over town:

¿No le gustaría tener representación legal,

disponible las 24 horas?

¡Está invitado a una presentación gratis!

Venga i infórmece como pude hablar con un abogado,

en Español, sobre las cosas más importantes de

su vida:

- Alquilar una casa

- Tener un negocio

- Inmigración

- Comprar o vender una casa, trailer, o auto

- Tener trabajo en Arizona

- Y más

Esta presentación dura una hora. Invite a un amigo, un compañero del trabajo, o cualquier otra

persona que quisiera esta información.

Fecha: Martes, 22 de julio 2008 Horario: 7:00-8:30 pm

Lugar: 246 N. Hwy 89, Ste B, Chino Valley, AZ 86323

Telefono: 636-1725 pregunte por María o Lucy

No Niños Por Favor

So, we'll see. I'm hoping for a good turn out.

EatStayPlay.com Updates

Okay, so we're FINALLY underway with getting the big EatStayPlay.com switch over taken care of. I've hired a programmer through Odesk The On Demand Global Workforce - oDesk after a false start with the WRONG guy for the job.

The new guy is doing well, even if I have to stay up till 11:30 to talk to him and be back up at 5:00!

Wish us luck, hopefully I can unveil this in a week or so.

More Jellyfish

Birch "Scrips" Aquarium

This is a sea star (starfish!) stuck to the glass.

We went to the Aquarium in San Diego on Saturday before we met with a prospect for our Pre-Paid Legal meeting. (The meeting went well!) The aquarium was just the right size to see in about three hours.



Dad and I in front of a LIFE SIZE whale tale.

a-hem!

"I've a whale of a tale to tell you lad,
a whale of a tale or two!
'Bout the flappin' fish and the girls I've loved...
A whale of a tale and it's all true,
I swear by my tattoo!"

I have a thing for jellies. I take a MILLION pics of them ever time I see them. I think my photo would have been better if I'd taken off my filter... Still, they turned out amazing. Yavapai County Fair, here I come!

San Diego Zoo

We went to the San Diego Zoo on Friday. We were in Escondido for Dad's high school's 60th birthday party. Basically, it means that the class of 1966 are all turning 60 this year and they're having a party.

While I was at the Zoo, I took a TON of pictures of pigs for Alvin. He's nutty about javalina so every time I saw a pig I thought of him.

I love the ears on these guys!


I also took a photo of the Chacoan Peccary. They're the same flavor as a Collared Peccary (a javalina) only bigger. Of course, these guys didn't really LOOK bigger than a javalina, but maybe they weren't full grown.

Or, maybe the javalina in Prescott are just HUGE.


I also took a picture of this spotted hyena. Talk about BIG. He was about TWICE the size I was expecting him to be from pictures on TV. I'm glad he was asleep since even snoozing he was scary!

Kayak Princess

New designs on CafePress.com! These are two of my favorites. I added about 6 or 8 this afternoon while I was waiting to backup EatStayPlay.com.

"Fishing Princess" the original is a really popular design so I'm trying to capitalize on that by offering a different style crown and a different color.
And, since I JUST took up kayaking, here's a Kayak Princess design!

In other news, I've finally settled on a programmer that will help me bring EatStayPlay.com back to being a 100% free and open website. I'm running backups, checking specs, and hoping for the best. The real goal is to open it up and drive traffic up Up UP!

Then, back door into sales of ads, tees, and eGuides. Wish us luck!

Lucky Wishbone

Yeah! Dad took us to Lucky Wishbone for lunch (Nana bought.) I had a Pop Shrimp (10 pieces of breaded fried shrimp) that comes with to DIE for French Fries and Garlic Butter Texas Toast. Alvin was glad since I can FINALLY stop talking about Lucky Wishbone.

On our way home, I called Tio Anthony to tell him what we were having for lunch. He was suitably jealous. Of course, he always gets a burger, not shrimp, but the idea was the same.

A trip to Tucson is just never complete without lunch at Lucky Wishbone!

4th of July -- Tucson

I know Tucson is HOT in July, but this is a bit nutsy! Nana & Papa only have a swamp cooler and the monsoons have started. Did I mention that swamp coolers don't work in the damp? I feel like I'm melting

But, it is worth it since I'm getting to visit my two favorite people on Earth. We celebrated Nana's 81st birthday with ribs (hello! DON'T turn on the oven when it's this hot!) and an ice cream cake.

Today, we escaped the heat a bit and went to the Tucson Mall. It's very strange wandering the food court and not seeing anybody I know. When I was at the U of A, I always ran into people I knew or at least recognized. Now, nothing. Even if it wasn't summer I don't know how many of my friends are even still here.

I found great sales at JC Penny and Dillards. Yeah for finding school clothes that fit and are flattering. I was especially excited to escape the damp at Nana's house for a while. After, Dad & I went to Bookman's and I picked up $40 worth of Latin books. I'm especially excited about my two teacher's manuals that I got for $10 each when I can get them used online for $25 (plus S+H) and $50 retail. I LOVE Bookmans!

While my folks and Nana watched the D-Backs ballgame, I worked on Latin. Proud of me? I'm having a tough time deciding if I'm parsing everything correctly. It's not in my teacher's edition since the course material doesn't really care about parsing. I can see where it'll be nice to know but it'll be a bit hard to grade if I'm not 100% sure of the parsing. Hopefully, when I get back, I'll have my graded lesson returned to me.

Speaking of getting back, I think we're leaving Sunday. That's fine by me: gives me three days to work on PPL leads before we leave for the weekend for California. I think that before we go, I might put my photo editing software on my laptop and bring my memory card reader. It's frustrating not being able to add photos to posts-on-the-go.