An Observation On My Blog Hits

Thanks to both the Hit Counter and Live Traffic Feed, I've been able to keep track of not only how many hits I'm getting on my Blog, but also where they are coming from AND what they are landing on.

Up until fairly recently, the majority of these (sometimes well over a hundred hits per day) were landing on my post, "Does Microsoft Hearts CHEAT?" In addition, many of the visitors leave comments and it's apparent that several of them come back from time to time to see what other people may have posted. Again thanks to Life Traffic Feed, I can see not only where they are coming from (literally all over the world including some places I've never heard of), but also HOW they found my post. For example: Saint Albans, Vermont, arrived from google.com on Mrs. B's Brilliant Blog: Does Microsoft Hearts CHEAT? by searching for what's a good winning percentage in computer hearts. It also provides the date and time they landed. I've been getting a kick out of seeing what these folks are typing into the various search engines!

A few weeks ago, I started to notice that another entry, "Which of Henry VIII's Wives Are You Most Like?" was getting its fair share of interest, mostly from visitors arriving from the UK. It is at the point now where I believe this post gets just as many hits per day as the one on the card game.

What is intriguing is, no one has yet to post a comment! I really wish someone would as I'd like to know what they think about what I wrote! Is it that the British don't think it's polite to comment or they can't be bothered? Also, they seem to be arriving from something called "images.google.co.uk (or whatever country if not the UK) which leads me to believe they are looking for pictures of Hank's wives and are somehow led to my Blog (because I do have pictures of each one in the post). Maybe THAT'S why they are not commenting? They just want to see a picture?

Anyway, it's been fun keeping tabs on who is visiting and from where and what they are looking at!

Mrs. B

Blog Block Busters

Thanks, Analee, for some of these ideas. There is nothing like rambling on about lists of this or that to, hopefully, get creative juices flowing again. And, what follows is a true ramble of a bunch of stuff most people probably won't care about!

5

...things in my shower:

1. Ivory soap

2. Aqua-colored bath pouf

3. Soft Soap body wash

4. Two washcloths

5. (technically six) a tall stainless still contraption that holds all the above

...favorite articles of clothing:

1. Reversible (red/grey) fleece jacket I got at Target several years ago for cheap. I shoulda bought several of 'em!

2. Work out pants (also bought at Target over 10 years ago; I always feel good that I still fit in them!)

3. Black coolots from Chico's

4. Green Levi shorts

5. Brown "Dog Rescuer" tee-shirt

...things on top of my refrigerator

1. Cake stand

2. Ceramic Jack-O-Lantern

3. That's it. I just cleaned a bunch of stuff off and moved them to the top of the cabinets

...favorite "easy" things to eat/make for dinner:

1. White chicken chili

2. Burritos

3. Penne with blue cheese pesto, asparagus and toasted walnuts

4. Cajun bean soup

5. Buffalo chicken wraps with black beans

...wonderful traits about Mr. B:

1. He's honest

2. He's a wonderful chef

3. He can do just about anything around the house/yard

4. He's affectionate

5. He is smart/doesn't miss much

...movies/TV shows I've seen recently:

1. Dexter Season 3

2. Forever, Darling (a REALLY awful movie with Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz)

3. The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

4. Gone with the Wind (I just felt like re-watching it)

5. True Blood Season 1

...books I've last read:

1. The Secret of the Old Clock (yes, that would be Nancy Drew!)

2. Something for the Pain (book club)

3. Night

4. The Killing Dance

5. The Last Wife of Henry VIII

...ways to save money:

1. Clip and use coupons. Yes, it IS worth it!

2. Use loyalty cards; ditto, the above

3. Look at circulars and plan meals around what is on sale

4. Join a club like BJs or Cost Co. There are some things that are SO much cheaper (cat litter, for one; something we need A LOT of these days). Just be careful you don't buy too much of something you'll never use up (those Keebler bags of cookies I bought thinking they'd be good for Mr. B/The Kid's lunches have long since gone stale)

5. Count up all the money you save from the ideas above each month. Move that amount of money from your checking account into a special savings account. In about 18 months, I've saved roughly $2,500 doing this!

...different/sort of weird things people might not know about me (or know all of them):

1. I can read Tarot cards

2. I can cast Astrological charts

3. I am semi-ambidextrous

4. I can type really, really, really fast

5. I usually read several books at a time (for example, right now, I am reading/listening to: Roots, The Hidden Staircase and The Hour I First Believed)

...tidbits about my pets (well, six):

1. Lucy: Is afraid of sprinklers

2. Pete: Stares at me. It's unnerving at times!

3. Lily: Growls when she carries a milk jug ring around in her mouth

4. Ares: Although not the friendliest of the bunch when he's awake, always sleeps at the foot of the bed near Mr. B's feet

5. Athena: Destroys bugs

6. Apollo: Squeaks when he meows

...things I am going to do today:

1. Go to the dentist (routine cleaning)

2. Meet with KB Homes about our buckling carpet

3. Clean The Kid's bathroom

4. Go to CVS and see if I can't find a product I've been searching for

5. Mail mom and dad's anniversary card

...things I do now that I didn't do 5 years ago:

1. Blog/Facebook

2. Walk a dog

3. Serve on a Board of Directors

4. Have wedding anniversaries

5. Have my own business

Hey, time's up!

Mrs. B

Pete and Apollo "Playing"

Pretty much every morning, Pete does this thing where he gets one of the long wand-toys and drags it around while howling up a storm. This morning, I finally managed to capture it on video (he usually stops when he sees the camera; I guess he's camera-shy!) He had a playmate today in Apollo, although watch how Pete takes the wand-toy away from Apollo.

At one point I cock-eyed the camera; sorry, I keep forgetting that, unlike a still photo, I can't rotate the video film back upon viewing!

Apollo is settling in pretty well. It was a bit rough the first few days for him because the other four basically shunned him, but, most of the hissing and spitting has stopped. I will say, though, that he's definitely turned out to be our buddy of the bunch (he likes humans; maybe it's because the other four have sort of paired up?) He is also a special friend of Lucy's!

Coming soon: Our Path to Five Cats!

Mrs. B

REALLY Glad I Wasn't Interested

For a little over a year now, I've been providing HR consulting services to a fairly well-known company. A brief recap; this came about because a guy I used to work with in a former life contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in doing mostly compensation reviews on their prospective hires, as well as a few projects. After a bit of soul-searching and considerable encouragement from Mr. B, I decided to give it a whirl.

The first few months were pretty busy, mostly with getting up to speed on the organization and reviewing salary offers. There was a bit of project work but not much. Initially, I drove to their facility (located an hour and a half one way from here) once per week for a day (doing, really, the same thing I did while at home but they were interested in face time). During one of those visits, my pal (their top HR person) pulled me aside and asked me if I'd consider taking his job because he was going to leave HR and go into sales.

There were many reasons why I said no: Too far to drive every day. I knew it would end up being a 60+ hour a week job (not including the commute) and I'd been there, done that and burned out and walked away once already. I was concerned about leaving Lucy alone that much. The HR guy's boss (Hyper Dude) would drive me insane. I didn't care for the environment (HR people in cubicles? Give me a break. No privacy). I wasn't certain I agreed with the culture OR could influence it. In the end, though, the primary reason turned out to be quite simple. I didn't WANT to do it.

I continued to provide support to them off and on and to keep in loose contact with the HR guy, who, despite his statement that he was going to go into sales, remained in place. Due to the economy and probably a few other factors, things began to slow down after the first of the year. However, just when I'd think the gravy train had arrived at the station, someone from the HR department would get in touch with me and request assistance with a new project or a few salary offers would trickle in. Case in point, a few weeks ago, they asked me to conduct a offer decline survey on the roughly 50 or so folks who had declined their job offers in the past year (frankly not a terrible number given how many offers they made).

Although the work for this company never turned out to be anything really exciting, I'm not complaining. They agreed to my hourly rate and have been reliable in paying my invoices in a timely manner. I've learned a bit about doing consulting work and even more about myself as I've flip flopped back and forth regarding whether I want to do more of it and what that would involve. Not to mention, this gig has paid for several things that we might not have otherwise done (e.g., vacations and a sprinkler system), has allowed us to pad our savings account a bit and has kept Lucy and the Pussycats in kibble and cat chow (ok, ok, I'm sure we could have paid for this, anyway!)

So, yesterday, I get a really odd email from one of the employees (not my pal) in the HR department asking me if I would be available to go down there this coming Monday to sit in on a six hour meeting with the HR department and another consultant, followed by a one on one meeting with the CEO. This seemed weird to me. I mean, I haven't been on site in almost a year (I think the last time I went down there was mid-October 2008) and, other than necessary involvement regarding offers, I've not had much at all to do with anyone in HR except my pal (and not even him all that much).

I got in touch with him to ask, in a nice way, "What the...? This doesn't seem appropriate to me".

He said, "Right on target. Just make up an excuse why you can't come on such short notice". He then went on to tell me that the CEO has decided HR needs a review, he's not happy about what they are doing (or not doing), he's never satisfied, he's never run an organization, he has no clue, he's fired 10 managers so far this year (including Hyper Dude), he thinks he can do whatever he wants, he thinks if he puts your name (meaning mine) down as the HR person, that you'll simply show up (HUH?), etc.

My pal is a seasoned HR professional. Yeah, he might not run things the way I would and he may be a bit scattered, but, heck, he knows what he's doing. The company, if I haven't mentioned, is Japanese and there have really been some tough cultural barriers that my friend has run up against and it's become too much for him (and, apparently, the CEO is gunning for a way to get rid of HIM).

Sales job? Never happened. Another HR job? Economy sucks. So, he's treading water.

Hey, I don't want ANYTHING to do with this. For all the reasons I mentioned earlier, I have no designs on his position nor do I want to participate in this particular witch hunt.

So, I won't and that's that and I wish him all the best and hope he lands on his feet.

This strange situation just highlighted how very, very glad I am that I didn't get sucked into that environment as I know now I WOULD have been absolutely miserable.

Mrs. B

Blog Block

I'm not sure what is going on lately but I just haven't felt like blogging much. Maybe I've run out of things to say? Nah, that can't be it!

Similar to writer's block or being speechless, I suppose I'm Blog-Less. As in, blogging less; don't have quite as much to blab about, can't think of anything fun. Blog burn out?

Sorry, y'all. Maybe the urge will come back to me soon! Or, something really interesting will happen such that I'll absolutely have to share.

I'll be on the lookout for topics.

Any ideas?

Mrs. B

A Few of Our Zoo

L-R bird watching are: Pete, Athena, Ares and LilyIf only I could get out there to lick the mail man!

This past Friday was a rainy day. All pets were quite interested in and entertained by staring out the windows.

Mrs. B

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