Rain Boots And Woodpeckers - Blog Stats For This Blog's One Year Anniversary

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United States	6482
Russia	1096
Germany	352
Canada	341
United Kingdom	274
Australia	150
France	70
Indonesia	47
India	47
Brazil	45

On this day, exactly one year ago, at almost this very exact time, I created the Konabarbie blog and did my very first ever blog post.  It was very lame, I didn't know anything at all about blogging (that hasn't changed much), but I thought it would be fun and occupy some of my time since The Boy had just left for college.  If you want to torture yourself and read it, go here.  I really wouldn't bother though.  Not worth the click.  Really.

It's amazing how much of my time and life was consumed with The Boy, Asperger's, and the ordeal of getting him through high school (kindergarten, elem school, middle school, life).  This ordeal made even worse by the fact that over time I had become worn down, depressed, ADD, and a host of other yet to be diagnosed issues that have popped up and become worse over the years of stress and not having time to deal with my own stuff.  Just dealing with The Boy's issues was enough.  Who has time do deal with their own issues when they have kids with issues?

I went from 250 mph to 20 the day we moved The Boy to school and hired a tutor to basically take my place while he was there.  And all the accommodations were lined up and soooo easy to get.  (unlike the other school).  AND best of all, The Boy suddenly, miraculously, started doing things on his own and taking some initiative.  Now why couldn't he have done that all along??  Before my hair turned gray and my mental state collapsed.

Well anyway, with him gone, for the first time in 19 years,  I had free time on my hands so the Konabarbie blog was born.  I had just gotten back from doing Ironman 70.3 in Hawaii with The Murph, so that's where the "Kona"part came from.  The barbie part came from me and The Murph always joking that we're "Ken and Barbie".  Lame, but I do love Barbie and Ken and I do love Kona (it's Hawaii, what's not to love!)  so "Konabarbie" became the name of my blog.

   

  KONA

+

BARBIE =

KONABARBIE

Looking back today over Konabarbie's all time top blog posts, I'm a little surprised about which ones made the top three.  I never knew there were so many people out there looking for rain boots.  It must rain a lot across the globe because the blog readers come from all over.   Also, who knew Woody Woodpecker was such a popular guy.  Or maybe people just enjoy seeing The Murph, Odyssey Home and me totaling screwing up a perfectly good photo op.

Surprisingly enough, none of my cat antic posts are all that popular.  Only to me, but that's okay!  I love all my cat pictures and cat blog posts.

My all time most popular post, which to this day (even now), is on in the top three page views is Rain Boots And Rolling Bags.  Number two top blog post is Woody Woodpecker and number three is Love These MK Rain Boots.

I do love those Michael Kors Rain Boots!  Looks like I'm not the only one out there who does.

Finishing up in the top five are The Not So Great Baby Chick Idea, when I discovered I couldn't raise chickens in the backyard and The Dolly Parton Bridge , which is a very unique structure we encounter whenever we go to visit The Boy at school.

Hauling Out The White Clothes is hanging in there at number 6.  It seems like there is always someone googling the key words "Why never to wear white clothes in San Francisco".  Poor folks probably wonder how the heck they ended up on Konabarbie's porch.

I always enjoy seeing what key words bring people to my blog.  The most unsettling was when I saw that someone found my blog by typing in "lulumon ass" because of this picture that The Murph took of me when we were at the park.

When I first saw "lulumon ass" I freaked out.  I didn't know if I was on some kind of porn site or why the heck my ass was involved in a google search.  I still don't know if I like my ass being out there on the Internet, but The Murph and I joke about it every time I wear those lulumon tights.

Now whenever I wear these Lulumon tights....

The Murph (rather sarcastically)  "Lulu Lulu Lulumon....  asssss!"

Me (defensively) "Leave my ass out of this!  I didn't want my ass out there all over the internet!  YOU are the one that took that picture!"

The Murph (Laughing smugly) " Ohhhh.... but you were the one who put it on your blog!  You're out there all right!  Lulumon ASSS!!"

Followed by an extremely evil laugh....

Top Ten All Time Blog Posts

Rain Boots And Rolling Bags

Love These MK Rain Boots

Woody Woodpecker

The Not So Great Baby Chick Idea

The Dolly Parton Bridge

Hauling Out The White Clothes And Shoes

Wedding Wednesday-Color Confusion

2011 In Photos

This Was A Tough One-Special Needs Ryan Gosling

It's Friday! Know What That Means?

I guess you just never can tell what will happen to those pictures you post out on the internet and which ones will bring you blog traffic.

I'm looking forward to another year of blogging!

Hunker Down!

The last couple of days I have been skyping or on the phone with The Boy regarding whether he should come home to get away from the hurricane that is out in the gulf or stay at school.  On Sunday, The Boy was very nonchalant about it all.  He was staying down there, his room mates were staying.  Everything was okay.  No biggie!  In one ear, out the other.  He's not concerned.

That's great (not really).  They aren't in a flood zone and are not directly on the coast.  There were no mandatory evacuations down there yet.  The only problem was that they have no food or water in their apartment.  They are on a meal plan so they go to the school cafeteria three times a day to eat, which is not very far from the apartment, unless there's a hurricane coming ashore with 50 mph winds and driving rain.

Then the cafeteria is VERY far.

Not very conducive to walking around campus to eat with debris blowing around and The Boy doesn't have a car down there so no driving.

I told The Boy that they need to go the store and stock up with water, snacks and flashlights with batteries.  His room mate has a car and even if his room mate wouldn't go to the store, The Boy could have gotten some water and snacks from the campus book store to tie him over if he can't make it to the cafeteria.

Of course, he didn't do anything.

Then yesterday evening he calls me in a panic.  Apparently, the winds have kicked up down there and he's gotten a taste of what it's going to be like when Isaac comes ashore.  He doesn't like it at all!  He begs me to come get him.  The only problem is that by now the interstate that goes down there is closed to southbound traffic.  All traffic is heading north so people living down near the coast can evacuate.

It's amazing how much things can change in 24 hours!

By then, Zones 1 and Zones 2 had mandatory evacuations.  Zone 3, where The Boy lives does not have a mandatory evacuation.  His room mate who has a car does not want to leave.  He wants to ride it out.  The other room mate who's parents live nearby, bailed out and headed home.

At first The Boy said his dad was going to find an alternate route and driving the 4 hours to get him.  Then I was going to take him back down at the end of the week.  But I guess his dad couldn't figure out a way to get down there safely, not to mention the traffic coming back north is probably backed up for hours, so that plan fell through.

I haven't heard from The Boy this morning, but he's probably still asleep since all his classes have been canceled for the next two days.  It looks like Hurricane Isaac has moved even further west and Mobile and Pensacola is not going to get the worst of it.  That's good.

We've gotten good reports from the condo association about the weather in Pensacola Beach.  Things are looking good.  Nothing really bad yet.  They expect business as usual for Labor Day.

I'm sure it still isn't going to be fun experience for The Boy.  They are going to get very high winds and heavy rain for a few days.

At this point, however, there's nothing left to do but "hunker down".  I've heard that phrase a lot the past couple of days!

Sunday Things- Wedding Music, Hurricane Isaac, Long Run...

Just when I get one thing checked off the wedding list another 100 things seem to pop up out of nowhere!  I have spent the past two days trying to decide on songs for the ceremony, which florist to use, getting the house cleaned out for family staying here, etc.  The only songs left to decide on are the processional songs for the bridesmaid and then for me.  No way am I doing the boring Wagner wedding march from lohengrin.  Du du dudu du du dudu.



No way!

I really don't understand why that song is so popular since it comes from such a sad, tragic story.  Not to mention I read somewhere today that Wagner was actually anti-Semite.  Basically a Nazi and I don't mean like the Running Nazi.  A REAL one!

I could go with something very traditional, kind of boring, but still very beautiful such as Pachebel's Canon in D, but I am hoping to find something more unique to me.



  I love the Butterfly Waltz by Brian Crain with piano and cello.  Beautiful!




The Murph is coming down the aisle to a more fun song and I may find something fun for the bridesmaids.  I think for me I should stay with something classic, beautiful and well...  bride like.  Unless I find something too fun to resist.  Any ideas?  I'm desperate!!

In between wedding song researching, I did get to run with the Running Nazi this morning.  We did our usual 12 mile loop and got caught up on things since I NEVER see her anymore since she got the new job.  It was nice catching up with her.  I hope she likes the bridesmaid dress!  It's my gift to her since she will probably hate it but wear it anyway for me and say she loves it of course.

I am also very worried about The Boy.  Tropical Storm Isaac is suppose to turn into a hurricane and it's heading straight toward the gulf coast.  My mom has already sent me an email from the governor declaring a state of emergency which I forwarded to The Boy.  I hope this system turns and goes somewhere else.  If this hurricane hits Pensacola Beach it will be the first one since The Murph bought the condo down there.  He bought it after Hurricane Ivan which totally devastated Pensacola Beach, FL, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, AL several years ago.  It was heartbreaking to see all the things we loved destroyed.

I don't like hurricanes.

Once the hurricanes come ashore and move inland, we can get very dangerous weather as far north as here in Birmingham.  Tornadoes, torrential rains.  The first time my basement flooded was during several days of rain from a hurricane.  During one of the last hard rains that came through here, The Boy woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me the ceiling was leaking down in his room.  And his room is at the bottom of the house, three stories down.  I think it must have leaked through the fireplace which was right above where the water came through.  I can't even imagine what days of rain from a hurricane system will do.

The Boy does seem very happy with his choice of living arrangements this year in college.  I feel better that he's around other people and not isolated in a private dorm room.  He's called or emailed me several times letting me know of things he needs.  I have some things to send him this week.

During the move, his laptop screen got cracked even though he boxed it up with padding.  At first his dad didn't want to take care of it and apparently it isn't covered by insurance.  Now, however, his dad is helping him take care of it.  He does work for a computer company!  The Boy said it doesn't cost much to replace a computer screen.  That's good because when he first told me the computer was cracked I thought he was going to need an entirely new laptop.

The Boy loves all his classes.  Not surprising since most of them are computer related.  I do miss him though!

I have a feeling this is going to be a very busy week!

Wedding Invitations and Addresses

I am so excited because our wedding invitations have arrived and they do look very lovely!  They turned out exactly as we had imagined and now we have to get the envelopes off to the calligrapher to be addressed.

I informed the Murph a couple of weeks ago when we had the final proof and ordered them that we needed to have all the addresses by the time they came in so we could get them off as soon as possible. Do you think that happened?

Heck no!  We are both such procrastinators!  I had most of my addresses of family and close friends from my real estate days when I sent all kinds of things out to them reminding them "Hey, I'm a Realtor!  I need business.  Here's a Christmas card, an Easter card, something for Ground Hog day..."

The only addresses I don't have are of my friends who have moved.  The Murph on the other hand, has his own personal way to handle things.  He sends out a group text on his cell phone asking for mailing addresses today as I'm getting the rest of my addresses.  I reminded him that this was suppose to be done a week ago, he says, "See, no problem!  I have all my addresses right here!"   At this point he hands me his cell phone with about half of his addresses that we are missing.

It's hard to be upset with the Murph.  He thinks he did such a great job and is so happy about it.  To be honest, it isn't a big deal.  This is a very small wedding and we are only inviting about 50 of our closest friends and family so it shouldn't take long to get the missing addresses or for the calligrapher to get them addressed.

At some point it will get done...