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Monday, 31 July
links for 2006-07-31
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 31 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Friday, 28 July
links for 2006-07-28
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 28 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](1)
Thursday, 27 July
links for 2006-07-27
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 27 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
The Spousal Unit and Me

Bill and Cat
Originally uploaded by laze.

This is me and Bill, enjoying a wonderful Ethiopian meal at Queen of Sheba with Ryan (the photographer) and Paul during their trip to Portland.

The decimated dish you see before us is everyone's meal. It is served family-style on one platter, with your order facing toward you. Maybe. It doesn't matter, because it's all wonderful. You eat by tearing off pieces of spongy bread called injira, and scooping up goodies. Since you aren't getting your dirty fork in someone else's food, by the end of the meal, everyone is sharing. I want to go there again and again.

~~ | Cat Connor | 27 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](1)
Wednesday, 26 July
links for 2006-07-26
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 26 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
WVOX NY

I'll be taking an early lunch break tomorrow and talking with Lisa Tolliver for WVOX. I'll be utterly terrified. Please think happy thoughts for me.

~Blogathon 2006~ | Cat Connor | 26 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)

You know what to do.

~Blogathon 2006~ | Cat Connor | 26 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Tuesday, 25 July
links for 2006-07-25
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 25 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
An interesting several days

Lessee...

Last week I attended Webvisions. Instead of catching all the cool morning sessions, I was in CSS Bootcamp with Dave McFarland, and I don't regret a moment. That was a great class--it made things so clear. I have already pre-ordered Dave's book.

In the afternoon, I listened to a super talk from Andy about how web communities make their way offline. What a fun talk, with interesting history and delightful slides. Yes, I said delightful slides. I know those two don't go together, but it's true in this case. Afterwards, listened to Derek talk about community building, er, or something like that. Good talk, long title.

I wasn't going to attend Webvisions this year, but Paul and Ryan came into town, and those are two guys I had to meet. As is usual, I felt like I'd known them for years, because I did--online.

People I met this year:

  • Derek, who seems like such a sweetie
  • Rael, whom I just shook hands with and said hello.
  • Andy, who is a very nice guy with great ideas.
  • Scott, who is gregarious and fun. I remembered his Blogathon run from a few years back, and was all giddy when I realized it was "the music guy" I was sitting next to at lunch.
  • Paul, who was probably the second blog-friend I ever made, so this was a long time coming.
  • Ryan, who has helped me with two Blogathons, and also been an online friend a long time.
I think that's it, though I could be forgetting someone. Though the talks were great, my favorite part of Webvisions is always meeting people.

In other news, the last week has been scorching, in the 90s and 100s. Nonetheless, the Spousal Unit and I got out both Saturday and Sunday to go letterboxing. We discovered two parks we'd never visited (see, this is a limitation of being car-free. There are a lot of parks I've missed.), and found three of the four letterboxes we hunted. I must especially commend Calli K., who does some beautiful stamp carving, and made me want to do better.

~~ | Cat Connor | 25 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Saturday, 22 July
links for 2006-07-22
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 22 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Friday, 21 July
links for 2006-07-21
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 21 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](1)
Wednesday, 19 July
links for 2006-07-19
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 19 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Tuesday, 18 July
links for 2006-07-18
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 18 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](1)
A little peeved

I knew Technorati sucked, but it wasn't affecting me personally until they stopped updating the rank for Blogathon.org. Here's the search. Note the number of links (1,978 at this writing). These increase every day. Our rank?

Rank: 6,095 (1,096 links from 320 sites).

Uh.

Oh, and as I refresh, we're now showing 1,358 links. Yeeeeaaah, I don't think so.

*grumps*

~Blogathon 2006~ | Cat Connor | 18 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](2)
Pretty!

We found this box last night. Even though it's new, there were many lovely stamps in the logbook already. We were a little irritated because we went down the wrong staircase. I miscounted tennis courts. Don't do that.

Tonight, I believe we'll do some reconnaissance at a local spot where I'd like to place our first box.

~Letterboxing~ | Cat Connor | 18 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](2)
Monday, 17 July
links for 2006-07-17
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 17 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Of Cars and Obsessive Hobbies

There are a few things I've been meaning to write about for a while. Thing the first:

The Ultimate Tempation to The Car-Free: A Free Car

A 1987 red Peugeot, to be exact. Our dear friends, Kelly and John, have their cars exactly the way they want them after finally purchasing that snazzy grey beetle in the driveway. Since three cars are too many for two, they wanted to say goodbye to Kelly's sweet little Peugeot, either to charity or to us. We thought about it for longer than you might expect. A car? Us? Would we betray all our principles? Become gas-guzzling Republicans? Well, when the car was couched as a belated wedding present, we pretty much melted on the spot. And no, we didn't betray anything yet. We are still taking the bus to work. But the car has made some good things possible, and for that we are very, very grateful.

Which leads me to...

You Probably Want to Do This

The car has allowed the Spousal Unit and I to begin hiking; something we dearly love. I was researching a trip to Elk Rock Island, and marked several links, perusing a few, leaving a few for later. The SU spotted one of those I'd left for later, and thought I should take a closer look. It was a kind of treasure map, and referred to something I'd never heard of before: letterboxing. Letterboxing combines hiking in beautiful places, the mystery of a treasure hunt, and the easy-to-learn craft of stamp carving. And for the frugalistas, this is a darned cheap hobby. I carved my first personal stamp on Friday, and we spent all day Saturday hunting for letterboxes. We even found one! I haven't had that much fun in ages, and we are utterly hooked. Now I hope to hook all my friends. I've been using Atlas Quest (built by a local guy!) to find active boxes and log my finds and attempts. Soon, we'll be planting! Stay tuned, as I'll no doubt post clues right here for my friends to find first.

~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 17 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Saturday, 15 July
links for 2006-07-15
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 15 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Friday, 14 July
links for 2006-07-14
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 14 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Thursday, 13 July
links for 2006-07-13
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 13 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Wednesday, 12 July
links for 2006-07-12
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 12 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
BLOGATHON!

We're doing a little publicity push today, so I wanted to post and remind everyone to visit Blogathon.org, wander about the nicely-maintained footpaths, and maybe sponsor someone if you feel up to it.

Oh, and here's my favorite button ever (yeah, I'm a sucker for animated buttons. Sue me.):


~Blogathon 2006~ | Cat Connor | 12 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Tuesday, 11 July
links for 2006-07-11
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 11 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Monday, 10 July
links for 2006-07-10
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 10 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Sunday, 09 July
Powell Butte Nature Park

The Spousal Unit and I are working our way through Nature Walks in & Around Portland. Today's excursion was Powell Butte Nature Park.

The book describes it as forested and crowded. We missed both. Most of the park (that we've seen in one visit) is a gorgeous meadowland, filled with wildflowers, birds, and butterflies. When we stepped on to the wild horse trail, we were treated to a sky show; a hummingbird chasing down a kestrel.

Much of the path is paved, so if you have a friend in a wheelchair, this is a great place to take them for a nature walk.

Though there were some people there (bicyclists love the place), for the most part, we were on our own on a quiet, sunny Sunday afternoon.

Powell Butte Nature Park is a snap to get to: just turn South off Powell at SE 162nd and meander up the road until you can park.

~Portland~ | Cat Connor | 09 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
links for 2006-07-09
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 09 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Friday, 07 July
links for 2006-07-07
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 07 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Thursday, 06 July
links for 2006-07-06
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 06 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Wednesday, 05 July
links for 2006-07-05
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 05 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Tuesday, 04 July
links for 2006-07-04
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 04 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Blogathon!

I'm being smart this year, and instead of running this blog for 24 hours on July 29, I will be keeping up the front page of Blogathon.org. It's something that tends to fall short. Last year I did a lot of blogging on the front page for Sheana, and I think it made a difference (yes yes, I stayed up late and made a difference! hee).

Related to Blogathon, I have a favor to ask of all my readers who also have blogs. I'd love it if you could all join in--but I know that's a bit much. A mention on your blog, though, that would be fantastic. While we do have a press release coming, we've found in the past that exposure in traditional media doesn't have a large effect on fund raising. What makes the difference is more bloggers, and more publicity on the web. Every mention is important, especially now as people are getting signed up and ready to go.

I thank you, and so do lots and lots of other people.

~Blogathon 2006~ | Cat Connor | 04 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Monday, 03 July
links for 2006-07-03
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 03 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Sunday, 02 July
links for 2006-07-02
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 02 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
Saturday, 01 July
links for 2006-07-01
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 01 Jul, 2006 | | [Comments](0)
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