Post #100: A Post about Posts

Tags

postaweek2011; post about posts; stats; statistics

In honour of post number 100, I have decided to dedicate this post to talking about posts. In particular my posts. Here are some stats on my blog to date:

• I started writing this blog in July of 2010. My first post was about random ramblings about what I planned to talk about in my blog
• Yesterday, I had 10 visits to my blog
• Below is an example of some searches of my blog yesterday:
• Overall average page views per day in 2011 is 12 (so far).
• I have 6 pages, 16 categories, 32 approved comments, 360 tags, and 1368 spam comments that have been filtered as of November 20.
• I’ve used about three different WordPress themes beginning with Ocean Mist and trying out Coraline, and ended up with the Twenty Eleven theme (current theme)
• I have noticed that people often search my blog about information about getting a driver’s license in Indiana which, to me, is surprising considering that I have more information on the topic of immigration and I have even dedicated a full-page on the subject (it’s mostly completed, but I still have to add a few thing).
• I have been using the “postaweek2011″ tag, as suggested by WordPress, but I don’t really know if it’s been effective for my blog or if it’s just some sort of information gathering tactic for the WordPress people.
• Despite the increase in traffic to my blog, nobody has ever rated anything. (That’s ok, you don’t have to, I just added that for fun)
• The number of hits on my blog is (refer to the blog stat number in upper right corner of the page)
• P.S. Thanks for reading!

Making the most of daylight savings

Tags

postaweek2011; Chicago; daylight savings

This weekend, on a whim, B.B. and I decided to go to Chicago. It was a bit of a hairy drive there (I can’t tell you how many near misses we had including a guy who passed us from the right lane as B.B. was about to pass a semi–the guy barely made it through). People were driving like maniacs! Despite this, we made it to Chicago in one piece.

We went to a Greek restaurant called Greek Island located at 200 S. Halsted Road (in the heart of Greek town). A quirky thing about Greek restaurants in Indiana is that they always include ice burg lettuce in the Greek salads…by the way, this is also true of Greek restaurants in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Maybe it’s not fair to judge a restaurant by its salad, but it seems like all of the Greek restaurants in Indiana include other items that are not typical of Greek cuisine (things like Hoagies, for example) which makes it seem inauthentic. So, when we go to the Greek Island, it’s 100% Greek cuisine and the food is fantastic.

The meal started off well, but there was so much food! I think that I stuffed myself with too much bread and tzatziki. I was in no shape to finish the family sampler which had a little bit of everything like chicken souvlaki, mousaka, dolmades, chicken riganati, spanakotiropita, baklava, and Greek coffee.

We also stayed at a modern-retro hotel near O’Hare Airport called the ALoft, which is a minimalist hotel with a retro twist. The room looked pretty cool (I particularly liked the ice-blue retro clock in our room). The bathroom had a sliding mirror door and the shower had a frosted window facing the main room (so you could see the shadow of the person taking a shower). Even though it looked cool, you could tell it would look run down in a few years. B.B. called it “cheap-chic.” I also enjoyed the lobby which looked like you were in a trendy bar. In fact, there was a bar in the lobby with lighted shelves illuminating the dozens of bottles of alcohol on display. There was also a few lounge areas with fireplaces and lounge chairs and lounge ottoman seats. There was also a pool table and B.B. and I played a few games, which was pretty fun.

A view along Lakeshore Drive in Chicago--I wonder how these two got off of their bike.

Other things that we did in Chicago included making the most of our daylight savings day by sleeping-in until 8am (which was actually more like 10am in Indianapolis if not for the fall-back hour–Chicago is on Central time, so it was like adding 2 hours to our day!). We worked out at the hotel gym and we went to Navy Pier and wandered around (Navy Pier is similar to Granville Island but less folksy and more tourist-souveniry–yes, I made up that word). We also walked around downtown Chicago including the main strip, Michigan Avenue, also known as, the Magnificent Mile.

It was a pretty big day and we made it safe and sound, back to Indiana.

Harvest report 2011

Tags

postaweek2011; Halloween; squirrels; garden

Our tomatoes didn't do well, but our squirrel garden yielded results

Well, our little potted garden didn’t do so well. Out of the five tomato plants, we only had a few tomatoes grow. I attribute that to the rainy summer that we experienced. The red peppers faired a little better, but it was still easier and more convenient to drive to the store to buy somewhat fresh and ripe vegetables.

 

I’m not really sure what this squirrel is doing. I was watching TV and checking my e-mail when I noticed that Mr. Squirrel was digging around in the pot. B.B. thinks that maybe he was burying something, but I think that he was digging for nuts (or maybe some rotting tomatoes?).

 

I’m getting ready to carve my pumpkin. Then I usually put it outside to biodegrade after the trick or treaters stop by for candy. I’m told that squirrels sometimes eat pumpkin. But the squirrels did not touch our jack o’ lanterns from last year. Perhaps they were too scary looking. Maybe I’ll carve a happier jack-o’lantern this year. I’ll post it tomorrow…

When the power goes out…

Tags

postaweek2011; dark; power outage; reflecting

I often forget how reliant people are on electricity. It makes living life a little easier and a little more entertaining. When the power goes out, one can’t help feeling a little unsatisfied, irritated, or bored.

Take today for example. I came home to find out that the power has been shut off. Why? Because an electricity bill was not paid on time. I thought that I would just call the customer service number located on the notice that was left wedged in the door by the power company. But first I would have to charge my dead cell phone. It’s a problem because there is no electricity, the power died on the phone! I kind of wish that we still had the electric generator that we returned last winter because we thought that we lasted through the season of potential power outages.

I drove to the library and I am sitting in a well-lit computer lab. Just here waiting for my phone to charge. (Oddly, I don’t think that payphones exist anymore in many public places–I thought that there might be a payphone here, but there isn’t). I tried to logon to the website, of course I forgot to bring a sample bill to retrieve the account information. No luck there. B.B. isn’t around to help me out and the account is in his name anyway. I would call him but…

So, I am just putting some juice on my phone and then I will call customer service (which will be available to take my call for the next hour and a half–if I am not put on hold. Knock on wood). Plus, there is no guarantee that they will restore the electricity with a snap. It’s during regular business hours only, according to this notice. I got the notice when I came home from work at 4:59, with a dead cell phone and no landline in place because cell phones seemed convenient (so that’s why people keep landlines!).

It’s just one of those days. Just hanging out at the library and juicing up the phone, thinking of my next course of action, reflecting on things that I wish I had done, thinking about a better way to organize household matters and of course, planning out our dark evening in the house.

Tragedy at State Fair

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postaweek2011; Indiana State Fair

Last night, I was reading a book, when I heard B.B. sound surprised. We read online that a stage collapsed over people at the State Fair. Four or five people have died from the incident, several others have minor injuries. People were waiting for the band Sugarland to perform when a big gust of wind came up and blew the stage over onto fans. This story has made national headlines. What a tragedy.

The coffee cup list

Tags

postaweek2011, recreation indiana, summer time activities, things to do in indiana

"Whoa! Watch out for that horse-drawn buggy!"

There are a few things that I want to do this summer. It’s kind of like a bucket-list of sorts, maybe it’s more like a coffee-cup list. It’s a list of things to do in the short season of summer:

• Visit the Amish – I see the odd sign that indicates, “watch out for the horse-drawn buggy!” I think that it would be interesting to visit an Amish farm.
• Go fishing – I did that last year, but I would like to go again, weather permitting.
• Drive to Chicago and dine at some great restaurants.
• Go to a Major League game, maybe in Cincinnati or St. Louis
• Grow a mini-vegetable garden in our yard. I’m not sure what veggies grow well here, but I think that berries seem to do well, and of course corn (but I had enough corn from last year to last me into the next decade).
• Buy fresh produce at the farmer’s market
• Visit a bee farm (just a random thought)
• Maybe go see a concert at the State Fair - last year I went to the State Fair but didn’t see a show. I would go see Maroon 5 or Janet Jackson
• Take a relaxing canoe trip down one of the meandering rivers – B.B. and I went last year and it was pretty fun
• Attend a summer concert outside (maybe at Connor Prairie or at White River State Park).
• Go spelunking in some of the caves in southern Indiana
• Drive to French Lick - I heard it was kind of touristy town with casinos. I would like to go check it out.
• Go to Santa Claus, Indiana – I would just go because of the name.
• Take a plane trip to Seattle – yes! I am toying with the idea of making a short visit to B.C. this summer. Maybe in August. Maybe I’ll see ya there!

That’s about it for now, I’ll probably add a few more things to this coffee-cup list.

Royal Wedding Fever in Indy?

Tags

British Royal Family, Monarchy of the United Kingdom, postaweek2011; royal wedding; royalty; British monarchy, Wedding of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton

Over 1 billion (possibly 2 billion) people are expected to watch the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton tomorrow. This number includes a few people in Indy. British royalty is a bit of a perplexity to Americans. B.B. thinks it’s weird that we have British monarchy on Canadian currency. I don’t mind, it’s just part of Canadian culture. However, I don’t plan on staying awake or waking up early to watch the wedding.  I’ll just watch the highlights.

Blogging about driving in Indiana gets you Googled

Tags

Driver's license, driving search on my blog, Indiana, postaweek2011

I've got one of these--I look a little different though.

Every time I sign into my WordPress account, I look at my dashboard to see the activity on my account. There are a lot of interesting stats aside from the number of people visiting my page (I have over 2,000 hits now–woo-hoo!). Something that I have noticed that over the last several months, is that one of the most common searches on my blog is about getting a driver’s license in Indiana.

At first, I thought, “Why would people come to my blog to look for this information?” Then B.B. asked me what happens when I do a Google search about driving. It turns out that typing the following words “Canada drivers license Indiana” gets me a number 4 spot on a Google search (How to get a driver’s license  in Indiana) followed by my post about the round-abouts in Carmel which gets me spot #5. And if you do a more general Google search and enter words “Drivers licence Indiana” you will see that I have spot number 47. (By the way, this will change eventually as I am sure other people write about driving on their blog pages).

Why all of the interest? Who are you people? Are you like me and new to the United States and you want to get a driver’s license? Are you a teenager about to embark on your path to freedom and would like to start this journey by finding out all of the information you can about getting a driver’s license? (just so you know, if I was 15 or 16, I would do the same). I’m just curious and I thought I would share this with you.

Comfort pets

Tags

dog, guinea pig, pets, postaweek2011, Teemu

Pets make people forget about their worries.

Sometimes, when the world gets too crazy, taking comfort in your pets helps.

Maybe you’re wondering about the couple in the picture to the left. It’s Teemu (the guinea pig) and Lizzie (the shih-zhu). Lizzie is a house guest for a week (she’s a very nice dog). 

Everytime I look at this photo, it makes me laugh. They are such an odd-looking pair. They weren’t really playing together or anything, but they tolerate each other. Well, it’s more like Lizzie has mild interest in Teemu and Teemu is curious about Lizzie (guinea pigs are very curious animals).

The reason why Lizzie jumped onto the couch was because I was paying attention to Teemu and she was a little jealous. At first, Teemu was scared and he ran and hid under the newspaper. Then he realized that Lizzie had no intention of harming him. He slowly came out to investigate (it only took 5 minutes). Eventually he went right up to her. I’m not sure if he thinks that chewing hair is a sign of affection or if he just wants to get her attention (he does that to me sometimes when I am sitting on the floor leaning my back against the sofa). Lizzie didn’t really notice him chewing on her fur, but I moved him away before any major haircuts happened (she went for a long walk that day and was a little tired).

It just makes me feel better when I see that odd pairs can get along.

Discovering Germany in Indiana

Tags

postaweek2011; German; gnomes; desserts;

Last weekend, B.B. and I went and discovered an unusual and unique place in Indiana. It’s a German place called the Heidelberg Haus – it’s a bakery/store/coffee shop/gift shop that specializes in everything and anything German. I can’t even begin to describe it. There are literally, shelves and shelves of stuff. I have never seen so many beer steins and Gnomes all in one place.

After looking around the store at the various knick-knacks and German products (you could literally spend hours in there), we decided to have a snack. Unfortunately, the Heidelberg recently had an electrical fire and the bakery was in the middle of being repaired. We ordered some German bratwurst and had a coffee. While sitting at the counter and sipping on coffee, my eyes were constantly drawn to new things in the store. It was almost like a psychedelic sensory overload. It is a very interesting and cool place.

We are definitely coming back once the bakery is up and running to try some of the German desserts (by the way, did you know that “desserts” backwards spells out “stressed?”…I guess that suggests that maybe we need to eat desserts to reverse the feeling of being stressed).

If you find yourself hungry in Indiana and looking for something to do, I recommend that you go to the Heidelberg Haus which is located at 7625 Pendleton Pike in Indianapolis (from I-465, take exit 42).