I just squealed like a (very geeky) 2 year old because I managed to download and install a Facebook Like button on my blog ALL BY MYSELF.

Do you see it up there at the top of my post? ISN’T IT AMAZING?

In its virgin state it says, “Be the first of your friends to like this.” And since I’m a very kind friend to myself, I did the honors of “liking” my own post on my own blog JUST BECAUSE.

And then when I went back to refresh the page it said, “Jen Zug and 2 others like this.”

TWO OTHERS!

Two people like me besides my mother and my husband!

I frantically clicked all around the page to try and figure out who these other people are that like me, but I could not ascertain this very important information.

So whoever you are that likes me: THANK YOU.

In related news, you can also TWEET my post if you’re hip like that. Oh yeah, check out that retweet button down there at the bottom – you know you wanna hit that.

It’s only a matter of time, now, before my page loads go from the high 70′s to, like, much higher than that.

*cough*

Giving the WordPress app another try, and attempting to post from my iPhone.

I took this picture at the bus stop the other morning. Ruthie’s always had a flare for colors and patterns, and this bright combination on a sunny day made me smile.

It’s small moments like these I want to rmember most.

Here it is. My ignite presentation.

I’m pretty proud of it, just to let you know. I think maybe I like public speaking because I never really get nervous at the time of presenting.

I DO, however, have a nervous breakdown SEVERAL TIMES during the preparation of a presentation – particularly this one, as I feared NOBODY WOULD CARE about what a stay at home mom has to say to this particular crowd. But as you can tell by the laughter at appropriate times, I think I pulled it off.

Huge huge HUGE thanks to Bryan & the kids for putting up with my irrational mood swings, the growing laundry piles, and the generally chaotic home environment as I prepared for this event. Also, Bryan put up with a disproportionate amount of verbal abuse whenever he said the words “bullet points.” But in the end he was avenged, and did his victory lap around the house.

Also, big thanks, of course, to Brady and the selection team for picking me. Yea!

It was great fun, but I’m so relieved to have my regular life back, slaving away at home.

Apparently I’m taking a blogging break. If you want to keep up with me, I’m still going strong on Twitter.

It’s been snowing here for 40 days and 40 nights. The running metaphor among Seattle residents is from The Shining, in which Jack Nicholson goes crazy while snowed in at a remote resort for the winter. Seattle owns something like 20 snow plows for all its roads. Renton owns six. The Puget Sound area has chosen to not use salt on the road for melting ice in defense of the environment.

All this adds up to a gagillion people stuck in their homes, riding tricycles down hallways while chanting, “REDRUM! REDRUM! REDRUM!”

So, Merry Christmas to you. And if I make it out of Snowpocalypse 2008 with all my faculties intact, you’ll hear from me again.

I’m so not in the mood to blog anything, and I haven’t been doing much writing either. But I thought I would just mention that I am NOT a 75 year old man with gout. I saw a podiatrist on Monday and it turns out I have tendinitis, which likely developed as I overcompensated for pain due to plantar faciitis.

Wait a minute, maybe I am a 75 year old man…?

Ruthie starts full day kindergarten September 2nd and I’m simultaneously partying hard and dying inside a little. While I can’t imagine what my life will be like again with just one kid at home who sleeps for two hours every afternoon, I’m also realizing I’m setting her on a conveyor belt that will continue to eke her away from me little by little, year by year, day by day.

I’m not sure my heart can take it.

So we’ve been spending our last free days together, loving each other as we usually do – by yelling and screaming and slamming doors. Okay, you got me. There’s other stuff, too, happier stuff. Usually.

I’m going to the Blogher conference this summer in San Francisco. I’m glad it’s back on the West coast, because I went two years ago, but missed it last year when it was held in Chicago. Looking forward to seeing everyone again.

I just learned of a potential opportunity to read one of my essays at the closing keynote of the first day – twenty essays will be chosen across the five categories of Best Rant, Blogging About Blogging, Humor, Letter to My Body, and Parenting (details here). I need to submit my entries by Friday, so I’ve been poking around my archives, looking for something to send in.

My best work does not really fit into any of these categories, but alas, they did not supply a category of Best Downer or Most Likely to Make You Need a Drink. Nonetheless, I scraped together a few options to submit, and I wondered if you, dear readers, had any opinions on their quality? Be honest, because we all know I don’t need any more help making a fool of myself.

So if you can, please leave a comment here, or email me directly at jenzug (at) gmail (dot) com.

—

In the category of Parenting:
Secure Your Own Mask Before Assisting Others

In the category of Letter to my Body:
He should really teach all young men everywhere how to extract the truth from tired, chubby, stay at home moms.

In the category of Humor:
Cue Eerie Music in the Background of this scene (I hate this title, by the way)

In the category of Blogging about Blogging:
Blogging = fear + failure

If you can think of anything else I’ve written that might apply, please let me know. Not that I expect you think about it every day, and recite it to yourself in the shower. I’m sure that phase of fan-girl will come much later.

Things are backing up here at This Pile because I’ve been busy living life, which is what we all hope for, right? So here are a few things I need to update you on:

• My blog peeps gone done me proud. When Zoe’s dad, Paul, thanked me for taking on this fund raiser for a laptop, I reassured him I had no idea how it would turn out, that I could very well be handing him a check for thirty-five bucks when all is said and done. But you? You, Internet, made me cry. You raised $1,065 for the Faultner family, and I can’t even imagine how I could thank you for your participation in this. As soon as I figure out how to get Paypal to shake out all that money into my piggy bank, they will have their laptop. I’ll keep you posted.
• As promised, everyone who donated will be receiving a CD mix from me, so hopefully you all added legit addresses to the paypal transaction. The winner of the random drawing for a t-shirt from Mommy Needs a Cocktail, is (drum roll….) Jenny! I’ll email you about how to get that, darlin’.
• And lastly, the winner of the random drawing for my last Muxtape is Elisabeth! Be looking for that in the mail next week. As for the rest of you, the bad news is Muxtape experienced a database error that deleted this mix online, so you actually can’t listen to it anymore. The good news is, I’ll be posting a new mix on Sunday, so be sure to check back in!

Welcome to my website. I’m sorry it looks so crappy today, but my CSS disappeared. And? I have no idea how to fix it. We’ll see if I can convince my loving and handsome husband (flattery sometimes works) to fix it tonight after spending the entire day staring at his computer for work. He’s been known to say things to me like, “Please don’t ask me about CSS on Sundays.” Sigh.

Update: FIXED!

Lee LeFever over at Common Craft posted a new tutorial on Twitter that’s entertaining to watch. In fact, I posted the video here:

I’ve been blogging a lot less, lately, in an effort to focus more on my responsibilities at home. This has been good for my family life, but being a Stay At Home Mom can be lonely at times. Twitter helps me feel connected to internet friends – both far away and close! – without investing the time or brain power a well-crafted blog post requires.

For instance, a couple weeks ago I twittered through the Oscars along with several other twitter friends. We shared snarky comments about tacky dresses and commentary on acceptance speeches.

Twitter has become a huge part of my blogging schtick. You can sign up for your own twitter account here, and you can sign up to follow me here. You can update and read from your twitter home page, or you can set it up to update through your regular IM client if you use one.

Yesterday’s post was a bit hasty, and I forgot something very important: Thanks to Jeffrey Overstreet for signing a book for this giveaway! I encourage you all to check out his blog, Looking Closer. It’s full of great movie reviews, links, and other culture-related information.

Also? He’s sending Cyndere’s Midnight, the sequel to Auralia’s Colors, off to print, and it should be published in September!

My giveaway winner is a fantasy novice, interested in discovering new authors. Hopefully I had a hand in turning a new fan onto Jeffrey’s writing!