I'm getting there. This is my 8th post. Not really a big milestone to be too proud of, but at least there's some action! It's spring! Just a little bit more TLC on this site and things will start blooming too, eventually. Hopefully. the last time I tried to tend a floral patch, I didn't do so well, considering that my plants in the other house were as low-maintenance as weeds. I hope that I won't be amiss in that way on this new blogsite. I will not!

I have enlisted my link to two blog submission directories, and I'm also trying to resuscitate my Amazon Affiliate career, as you'll figure out later. It never really took off before. Well, that's how far I've gone as of now. Slow, I know. But I like to balance my life.

Speaking of life...

I came back to work for the first time today since the tonsillitis. No one seemed to have missed me. But I'm happy because at least no one seems to be scared to be near me. Strep isn't so bad. 24 hours on antibiotics will actually stop you from spreading it.

Anyway, guess what I made for dinner! Oven Fried Chicken for hubby! I have always wanted to shift from frying his favorite dish into something healthier -- like baking. It's really easy to make:

First, I seasoned chicken drumsticks with apple jerk powder(but really, garlic salt and pepper are fine), then I dipped them in egg whites, then dredged and coated them with Bisquick (dry pancake mix), and I hang them on a chicken drumstick rack, and baked them in a pre-heated oven at 425 degrees, for about 35 minutes.

Hubby's so happy he just kept saying, "Why are you so good to me?"

You can make your own, if you haven't yet. And don't go anywhere! You can buy your drumstick rack right here. Click on the Amazon Icon: (*hint*hint*)

We need to think and eat healthier...the sooner, the better!


(In other words, please order the rack...so you can make Wonder Wifey happier too, LOL). And hey, my oven fried chicken story is real. As real as it's delectable promise! I'm serious. Ask hubby.

This blogsite still smells as good as a newborn baby and I'm already flaking on it? I apologize for not having posted for a week. I've been so busy with personal affairs quite recently and perhaps pushed myself too much that I'm now down with a very painful case of tonsillitis. I tell you, I need to muster all the courage and guts just to bring myself to chug a small amount of water from the bottle. One small gulp is a milestone, and is a love offering to the heavens for undergoing such kind of pain. Really.

I just got off the phone with my health-care provider after a very helpful yet helpless conversation on how to relieve myself of the pain, and after my long drawn out mutterings about my symptoms amidst the pool of drool that can't find it's way down the drain, a very red and tender uvula (I made sure I spelled that right!) that has the potential to swell into the size of Statue of Liberty given a couple more days, and underneath a blanket that reeks of illness.

So I have another phone appointment in an hour with my doctor, who unfortunately, no matter how miserable I feel, cannot do a throat culture for Strep over the phone. That means, I might have to drag my freaking tonsils to the lab. That, or I live with the risk of rheumatic fever from today onwards. I know all that because when I was a kid, they had to put me on prophylactic antibiotics because I was at a high risk some sort and I never fully understood why. And we can't take chances with the heart -- the most important muscle of all.

Anyway, if you've been here before, you might have noticed the musical chairs of links on the right side. I have not accomplished anything that is related to building and boosting this blogsite. I haven't enlisted in blog directories just yet. Haven't blog-hopped, haven't exchanged links, haven't anything!

I'm still trying and testing the final look that I want although I know that a blogsite is a dynamic work in progress forever.

If there is anything good that has come out of my efforts, it is the Live Traffic Feed. I adore Feedjit! Now, I know who stalks me. No, it's not you my dear friends in the blogosphere. It's this guy with a stamp of Glenview, IL. I know who you are. You can snoop here and in my other sites as much as you want. But I must tell you that I know you've been here. I smell it from the grave. I'M SORRY for stuff that happened, but I hope you understand that someone like me can't patronize losers, even for charitable purposes. I've proven that over and over especially on the last blow with you posting incriminating ads of me online which is totally IMMATURE of you and totally FALSE about me. So please respect it if you felt that you got chosen over, which wasn't even the case. Who knows, if I had chosen you and I to be together, either you or me would have been miserable by now. I knew in my heart and from the start that it wouldn't work and the parade of seemingly beautiful, awesome and too-good-to-be-true things wouldn't get us too far. I gave it a chance, it simply didn't pan out the way we had thought. Things happen for a reason. And some things and people really just aren't meant to be.

And I don't even know why I'm wasting my time trying to explain.

*whew*

I think that's the most personal thing I've ever lashed out in my history of blogging. Normally, I hold back on these things. But acute and painful tonsillitis can bring out so much hatred and pain from ghosts of the past. Try to have sore throat like mine! And tell me what kind of hideous monster it transforms you into.

There are a gazillion options out there. Cbox for me is out, for trivial personal reasons (firewall, LOL). Gibberbox takes a step longer to register an account (verify email and stuff...I like to simplify things on impulse). And Oggix seems iffy-- I'm just gut-feely like that. So, I decided to jump into the Shoutmix bandwagon. Here's a fool-proof tip: Observe what other bloggers have trusted. The applications are available and always ready for the taking on the sites -- I have a link to the shoutmix site now, just click on it if you want it. (And here I'd like to say thanks to a new addition to my blogroll, a blogfriend imported from Bravejournal -- Katiebug of Thinking Beyond *APPLAUSE*-- who I connected to Shoutmix from).

Aaah, Bravejournal! It has cradled me in its arms for a little over a year now, lovingly I can imagine. I love it there, I love the community and the features. And I'm not turning my back from it. So instead of migrating in a laborious exodus of blog posts, I chose to bilocate. It's not easy. But it's very fulfilling because I am able to express myself in a variety of ways: writing, design, wit, purpose and madness. I love the freedom that I'm enjoying right now in my own domain. I sometimes find myself wishing for more elbow room than there already is, but there's still a lot more than I can utilize with my time constraints at this point. And it's definitely a lot more than I used to have. We, humans, can never be content with what we get, can't we!

Anyway, if you're following my "blog development series" of posts in here and are waiting for the next step, you most likely will be very bored and will succumb to the urge of honking your horn and finally overtaking me on this road. Trust me, you will succeed at 2 mph speed. Even 1.

Nonetheless, I hope you'll be back. I know I have more to offer than my blogbuilding saga *I think*. And I apologize for the lag. I can't remain glued 24/7 to my sites as much as I want to.

In fact, I believe I'm lingering more than I should. So...later!

Trigger happy and aimless.

That sums up what I've done for this website so far today. Hey, at least I did something!

I still have't gotten a fra-la-la-shmalooting (I made up that word) tagboard like I said I would because Chatterbox is blocked by the fra-la-la-shmalooting firewall (now, you know what I meant by that new word).

Oh, I was going to discuss achievements.

Number one. I was able to include the free live traffic feed by Feedjit. I just realized I can get a customizable one based on my blog host in the same site. I'll deal with that later. Right now, I'm happy to see footprints on my site even if most of them are mine!

I've also managed to adorn the right side of my page with different gadgets like the Word of the Day, feeds from the blogs I RELIGIOUSLY follow (only five at the moment -- and two of them are popular people), a Blogroll of my blogosphere friends and real earth friends alike. Not that much, huh? Forgive me for my amnesia (progressing "senior moments" is more like it). Please leave me a comment if I forgot all about you and I'll be happy to add you! I also added other thingamabobs but this is only the beginning.

Don't worry, I won't end up with too much clutter around here. I tend to function better in cleaner environments anyway.

The next project is still a tagboard. You'll never hear the end of it until I am able to install one! Then making this blog known by enlisting in the top essential blog directories because gaining exposure for a blog is critical to building a following, readership, and revenue. And oh, revenue. The next step is sponsor-hunting, affiliate-hunting, and ad-serving. But they work better with sites that have been up and running for a while. I have to let this site age a little to better up my chances.

Oh Susanna, this is going to be a long and arduous process but since I was able to make it work with my Coffee, Anyone site, hopefully I'll accomplish the same here too. Hopefully even more, since this domain's mine!

Eureka!

I was finally able to make the upper right hand menu work with those sticky notes!!! It wasn't so difficult after all. I just needed to pay close attention to directions, which I usually have a tendency to overlook.

I'm satisfied with how it looks now.

Before I get side-tracked with all these bouncing thoughts and ideas in my head again (you don't know what I always have to put up with!), let me thank Author: Falcon Hive/Designer: Templatelite for making this template available for everyone. I am, of course, only one of the 13,310 people who has viewed it so far, the 31st person to put a comment on the link and OGK (Only God Knows) the umpteenth person to apply it to her site. If you feel that the same design will work for you, please be my guest! It's a free world! And if you encounter some kinks in the process like I did, I'll be happy, as long as it's within my powers, to lend a helping hand. I was able to make things work with a few tweaks and over a bowl of sugar-free cereal.

In a nutshell:
1. Download template
2. Save to a directory on your computer (anywhere's fine, but the Desktop always works for me since it's easy to find)
3. Unzip or extract files. Save again.
4. Open the file you saved in #3 and if your computer cannot crack XML and other jargon, try to use "Open with" -- Notepad always works for me.
5. Select All (and I mean everything on the notepad file you opened).
6. Copy.
7. Go to Edit Template.
8. Select All (and I mean everything there!)
9. PASTE. Since you selected all in #8, that means you'll write over everything with the new one you took from Notepad.
10. Save and you're good to go.

Why am I doing a blow-by-blow account of setting up this site? I'm not exactly a newbie in monetized blogging, but it's my first time to have my own domain and I have set my sights on pursuing other prolific online endeavors. I also have a cousin who would like to follow suit and I'd like to be there for her every step of the way.

If you're interested, follow me. I mean, don't stalk me in the grocery store as I reflect on which toilet paper works best. Just come back here once in a while. I'd be happy to walk you through the process the same way other bloggers have done for me. I'm building this site from virtually nothing so I'll do it by chronicling my progress here, in a lay person's point of view and from someone whose CSS and HTML skills are quite rusty from way back when, in between thoughts on homelife, food, travel and other things.

Next time, I'll work on filling up the spaces with interesting things (and links). Oops, I've said that already. And a tagboard. That's basic. Everyone needs a tagboard! Where will I get a frala-la-la-shmalooting tagboard.

Hopefully, this will be the ground zero from which information for online-earners and zealous homemakers radiate.

Not me!

I finally found the one. For this site, that is.

How do you like it? It started with me wanting a three-columned template so I decided to take matters into my hands and edit the CSS. Lo and behold, I made three columns *pat on the back* but there were irritating and stubborn lines that wouldn't budge an inch no matter what CSS or HTML hit-n-miss adjustment I did.

So I decided to download a ready-made template instead. Thanks to templatelite.com. I unzipped (ooh sexy), installed, finished my bowl of cereal and VOILA!

I've completely fallen in love with the entire theme (smitten is the word) although some nice features on the right hand corner aren't showing up like they are supposed to. I'll deal with that later. I'll deal with my other blog later too, since this coffee theme seemed to have stolen the thunder from it.

Next project: To fill up the vacant spaces with exciting things.

And a presentable blog sig.

All the best,
"C"

-2009-

I didn't know bilocating could be this hard.

I put up this site last Thursday (3/12/09) and except for the occasional tweaking of the layout to my heart's (dis)content, I have not done any new posting at all.

It's St. Patrick's Day tomorrow (March 17th)! Do you know why we celebrate this day? I'll be honest with you. I...DON'T...KNOW. I just know that this is Saint Patrick's (circa AD 385-461 according to sweet and reliable Wikipedia) annual feastday. St. Patrick is one of the patron saints of Ireland. The secular version of the holiday which both Christians and non-Christians celebrate includes wearing green (my blogsite's green, that counts!), eating Irish food (green foods?!), imbibing Irish drink like Irish stout or Whiskey and Irish cream.

Saint Paddy's is celebrated worldwide by those of Irish descent and increasingly by non-Irish people. My grandmother had never forgotten to recognize her Irish greatgrandfather. Does that make me "of Irish descent"? LOL. That little drop of Irish blood has very likely long since bled out of me when I scraped my knee in preschool. Nonetheless, I still hold a special spot in my heart for anything Irish, in memory of my grandmother, if not my great-ultra-ancient-great-great grandfather.

Ireland remains to be on the top 5 of my travel goals in life. In true "Wonder Wifey" (as I begin to refer to me in this site) fashion, I always prefer the historical facets over the modernized in a destination. Thus, I would love to explore Authentic Ireland in a medieval themed vacation and see castle upon castle of Irish history. That will include castle traditional music and banquet feasts, a viking tour of Dublin and an evening of storytelling to learn Ireland's great history reviving the ladies at court, fine feasts, jousting knights, early scientists, and a world where magic (magick!) was still very much alive -- I am passionate about that part too.

So, if you are seriously looking into visiting Ireland, don't stay in a hotel. Book in one of those Irish Castles or Manors or rent an Irish Cottage. And do a tour on Ancient Ireland (a package starts from $823 for 10 nights/ 11 days). Here are some itinerary suggestions:

-Medieval Castles & Fortresses
-2,000-year-old stone beehive huts
-Explore Medieval Towns & Villages
-5,000-year-old megalithic tombs
-Ancient Stone Circles
-6th Century Monastery perched on remote cliff

I have always wanted to explore Ireland's passage cairns, clamber through age-old fortresses, see exquisite art and carved stone heads rising from the earth, castles and ancient abbeys, and then experience a medieval banquet filled with sumptuous food and ribald music.

I can't afford a vacation to take a walk through time and feel the power of this land just yet, so I'm sharing this information straight from my bucketlist so you can do it for me if you can already (projection!!!).

There will always be a special spot for Ireland in my heart. Sometimes, I still think I was a druid princess in my past life. *wink*

Happy St. Paddy's!

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig...

Éirinn go Brách!

*drum roll*

Okay, no drum roll.

I'm a little stuck with my words even if I've been doing this way before blogging even became a household word.

So yippy! I'm bouncing off the walls! I finally have my own domain after some long drawn out vacillation. A milestone! "Wonder Wifey" is mine!

Why that title? Since I tied the knot with "Super Hubby" half a decade ago (holly molly, it's been that long?), I confidently christened myself that. Wonder Wifey I mean. He used to call me Wonder Woman -- nothing meaningful there, I just used to wear this favorite wonder-woman-wristband-of-a-bangle. And because! I'm in constant pursuit of being a domestic-slash-undomestic goddess while being a serious taxpayer in a real work setting by day (you know, a deskjob...being a full-time corporate pee-on, yada yada), a part-time blogger in between loads of laundry or trips to the pot to make sure I haven't burned the stew (does it burn anyway?), and being that uber-hot chick in the block, I mean, bedroom at night ***&*!#$@*&!*** in my dreams...

There you go! Not quite grand for a first post huh? But I came unprepared. Being the spontaneous and impulsive soul that I am, I just went ahead and got me the domain when this site fell on my lap without weighing anything else further. And why here?!? The answer is simple. Because it's SIMPLE, it has a relationship with Google so it said (whatever that is) and I don't need those fancy schmancy hostings and domains -- with my lifestyle, I don't have much time to manage the nitty-gritty anyway. I do remember a website telling people not to hold back from buying domains before it's too late because most of the good supercalifragilisticexpialicocious titles are selling like hotcakes if they haven't already. I can't let "Wonder Wifey" fly off the shelf to some other wristband-wearing-wonder-woman wannabe...and away from me *greedy*. Because between that and "Dancing Queen" which I also am by the way, uhrm uhrm... let's face it, last night at dance class, I had to stop for a moment when my breath took a hike while those highschool kids swayed their hips away to rigid tahitian drumbeats. Oh drat, I'm getting old. But I think can manage being Wonder Wifey forever. Well, this domain is mine for a year, let's see where this site takes me. Who knows, one day I might have to change into some kind of "Wonder Mommy" -- and that, my dear, is another long drawn out, exasperating yet exhilarating process.

But I will try to do away with some personal stuff here. I reserve that for my more senior blogs. I don't even know if I want to tie them up here *fishy*. But who knows again? I might wake up one day wanting things some other way, and so what? I do intend to make this a portal for my other homes on the net. I have some little ideas on what I want to add here...a smogasbord of sorts, perhaps something akin to an online home magazine with snippets for personal and professional use, food, housekeeping, advances in health and nutraceutical science (something I'm exposed to, professionally), Psychology (something I WAS exposed to, professionally), finances (something I'm very exposed to -- problems in particular LOL) and how to make money online (if I can come up with something brilliant that you still don't know about!!!) and yes, various thingamabobs that will potentially pay the bills -- well, who doesn't have that in their sites these days?

Let's see how this will evolve. I still need to think-rethink-think-rethink the process. Yeah, I'm suddenly saying this after I've already taken the leap. Sometimes, I function better after I've already committed. Because then, there's no way out. I have no other choice but to do everything right.

Disclosure Policy:

This policy is valid from 12 March 2009
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.
This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.
The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.
This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content will always be identified.