Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Woohoo! I am so proud of myself, let me tell you why. I loved my old template, but it was just time for something new, something more goofy! 🙂 I knew what I wanted, and I also knew that I wouldn’t find it anywhere on the web (I had looked) and so I decided something must be done about it.

My Mission: To figure out how to create my own blog template and graphics with the skeleton of a template I already had.

So first I called the web wizard (my brother who designs web pages, his link is the Creative Progression one in my extras section over there) and told him what I wanted and how the heck am I going to do this? It involved using the graphic of goofy hanging upside down with combining the words, etc. Was it possible with out fancy expensive software, etc? He told me it probably was and to ask my HHH (well, okay he said to ask Paul, but I refer to him as my HHH) what software we had that would best do the job. And that if I gave up on it because I couldn’t do it to call him and he’d do it Monday for me. Aren’t big brothers wonderful?

So then I called my HHH and he suggested 3 different possible programs that would probably do the job. So off to work I went.

I figured out how big the cow picture was and began to create a new graphic those same dimensions (which ended up being tweaked because of the composition of the cow pic) and began to add in all the elements of tthe new graphic that I wanted. The extra goofy pic, the letters, the title, etc. Then I lodged it in place in my template and began to figure out how to tweak all the coloring. Which number chagned what color, etc. I looked up the html color codes and everything. Finally I got it all put together how I liked it.

I don’t me to gloat, but I am so stoked that I actually did it! I am the bomb!

(Spins around, waving arms in air, and bopping head in rhythm)
“Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!”
“Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!”
“Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!”
“Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!”
I know, I am such a geek . . .

Oh! Those Curves . . .

We never used the word, (I hunker down into a whisper, shifting my eyes from side to side to see if someone else is listening), sexy, in our home. I never heard my parents tossing the word back and forth and we didn’t have a television, so I never heard it there. I knew what the word was and what it meant, it just wasn’t a part of my daily vocabulary, and on the seldom occasion I did use it, I always felt that I was being just a bit naughty, heh. 🙂 My best friend in high school would use the word though, rather frequently and we always laughed, she probably wanted to see what it took to turn my ears red. 🙂 There was one time though, we were Juniors, and our band was qualifying for state competition once again. We were up at Lewis and Clark College. . .

“It’s not that cold!” I laughed as my friend came around the corner with a black tuxedo jacket draped on her shoulders. “Who’s jacket did you steal this time?”

“It’s my sexy clarinet player’s jacket,” she declared. She played clarinet too and I thought of the only guy that played clarinet with her. He was really cute, one year ahead of us, sandy hair with a curlyish wave, blue eyes, nice looking face, and shy as all get out. He was very quiet and reserved and had ears that liked to glow red, similar to mine.

We hooked arms and joined a couple of our other gal friends meandering towards the entrance of the college, talking about my friend’s “sexy clarinet player”, which turned into a conversation about the word sexy itself. I was laughing, and thinking how bright his ears would really turn if he knew we referred to him as the “sexy clarinet player”. We stopped at the curb chatting and as I lost interest in their “sexy” talk I saw a school bus driving toward us. I had wanted to tease her, to give her a bad time about her usage of “sexy”. I didn’t say what I meant to say though. I wanted to say, “oooh, let’s look at all the Sexy people on the buses.” But, what came out was infinitely more hilarious, and embarrassing for me. As the bus drew near I proclaimed with a soft sultry, slightly mocking voice, “oooh, let’s look at all the sexy buses.”

I realized what I had said when my friends burst into laughter, and I joined them shaking my head. “J!” she proclaimed, “you never use the word sexy, and then use it to describe a school bus!” We dissolved into gales of laughter. She made sure to let everyone know of my faux pas (but I didn’t mind, because she wasn’t mocking me, and it really was funny) and it became quite famous. One friend jokingly asked if I found the flat nose buses more sexy or the regular buses. “Oh, the regular buses definitely! So many more curves!” I declared laughing. My friend even told my scandalous story to my mom, which had repercussions as we were driving down the street.

“There’s a mail truck, J” my mom said.
“Yeah, so?” I wondered where on earth she was going with this mundane comment.
“Well, do you find them as sexy as the buses?” she asked innocently batting her eyelashes.
“Mom! She told you, didn’t she?” I asked laughing, and trying to decided if it was mortifying or not to hear your own mother use the word sexy (after all mom’s are ancient aren’t they, well, to teen agers anyway, heh). 🙂

My friend was sure to tell my HHH before we got engaged, in fact it was the first time she met him. I belive she started off with something like, “I think there is something you need to know about J and school buses . . . ” He still gives me a wink every time we pass a bright yellow bus, but I assure him, “Don’t worry HHH, they don’t begin to compare with you!”