Whoa. It is May 8th (and I haven’t posted in over a week - oops) and my blog is 8 years old today!

The Golden Birthday! I couldn’t let it pass without pointing it out. Happy Blogiversary!

Crazy to think how much has changed in 8 years, and how much this blog has been a part of it all. From the incredible amazing people I have met - especially Mike! - and all of the life altering things that have happened as a result.

- I wouldn’t have met or married Mike if this blog wasn’t a part of it.

- My photography wouldn’t be where it is today. (See below. Several times.)

- I wouldn’t have met Kathy who set up the original Bayou Blurb which lead to H-Town Blogs and meeting Elaine which lead to my previous comment about my photography being where it is today.

- I wouldn’t know Chuck, my go to political advisor, who is actually the first person that Mike met in Houston and who I finally got to meet in person the same day I met Mike. UPDATE: I just commented to Mike that I probably would have met him eventually thanks to Chuck, and he pointed out that HE is responsible, at least in part, for Chuck blogging. How is THAT for circular?

- I wouldn’t have met Ann through her blog and her photography — and she was one of the first bloggers Mike ever met in person over in London, and she kept nudging me to meet him when he was back in Houston. (Ann still gets credit for me meeting Mike, not Chuck. Ann pointed out his blog while he still lived in London, probably 6-8 months before I met him. I never read his blog much though because it was way too geek for me.)

- I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet Jennifer, who means a lot more to me than she probably even realizes (my fault) and has helped me out a zillion times over with a slew of blogging things. She truly is the ScriptyGoddess. I’m thankful for her letting me visit her when she still lived in fabulous Boston, and I dream of visiting her now in Salt Lake City someday.

- Boston of course leads me to thinking of Erika, Su, Sooz (who was a huge help in putting together the big blogger bash the second time I visited Boston) and really - more people than I could list.

- Blogging lead me to meet Mac who inspired me to knit - and to attempt spinning - and graciously let me come visit her, took me all around Philly for knit shop tours (this is a very big thing for knitters), and best of all - let me visit for a trip to Maryland Sheep & Wool last year! Mmmm… fiber. Lots of fiber.

- Then there is the whole knowing Matt since he was in high school - before WordPress even was a dream yet - and spending days at the coffee shop with him & Mike as he geeked out and talked about the dream we would later know as WordPress. Once I gave it a name.

- OH! And HOW can I forget about Chris Pirillo and the Call for Help days? I think talking to Chris on the phone was one of the first time I squealed over meeting a geek celebrity. First of many times, I’m sad to say.

- While I’m naming names, I should point out Heather Champ who has been a huge source of inspiration since day 1, and a big supporter back when I launched Picture Yourself. She also lead me to Flickr, my constant addiction.

- Flickr then lead me to Laanba who lead me to meeting
countless awesome photographers in the Houston area that I didn’t already know through the blog circles. I learned later that my blog was one of the first blogs that she followed. The crazy circle of blogging.

- And my blog wouldn’t be where it is today if Ben & Mena hadn’t come up with the fabulousness that is MovableType that saved me from Blogger back when Blogger went through a slump and Greymatter couldn’t handle my posts. I resisted leaving MT for a long time and only converted when Matt came over to my house and did the migration himself. It is INCREDIBLE to see where SixApart has gone since MT first launched.

- Another VIP in the blogistory? Robyn, the blogger formerly known as Tampa Tantrum. Like Erika and Su, it is incredible to think of how much our lives have changed since those early blogging days of 2001. She has been an incredible help for my photography business - and a constant inspiration. I’m most grateful.

My list could go on and on and on as I pondered everyone I know and how they all interconnect. At the root of it all is the blog. 8 years, nearly 5000 posts, and countless memories.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to every single person reading this. My life truly would not be the same without you. Say hello if you have a moment - it is a day worthy of a celebration!

I’m a little bit obsessed with shopping for furniture for the Caroline Collective space these days. Randomly, throughout the day when I need a mini-break, I’ll find myself on different websites drooling over furniture. Tuesday night, after a client meeting, Elaine & I went and “booty tested” several couches at Ikea, and I think I have finally settled on a nice leather one that they actually keep in stock - I don’t have to order it. Now it is just a matter of selecting the rest of the furniture to go with it.

I realized that all of it is giving me an identity crisis with my branding. I love the swirly things like the little fleur de lis thingie in my logo, and I love brocade fabrics — but when it comes to selecting furniture, I keep going for very clean, modern lines. Mid-century styles. Danish inspired. Very minimal. I think that is a good fit though, as it is easy to decorate around it - I can dress it up or down, bring in the swirly fabrics if I want.

I keep reminding myself that if Tara was here, she would tell me to trust what I love.

And then I’ll find a really cool Victorian style couch on Craigslist which would make an awesome photo prop, and I get sucked back into the vortex of online shopping for furniture. I know that once I actually start buying pieces, this will settle down some - but right now, it is making my head swirl.

If you were to describe me - or select furniture that you think fits me the best - what would it be? If you were to walk into my office or studio tomorrow, what would you expect to see?

This interview with Ed Schipul is quite fascinating. I love that he covers the future of the internet, where people might be missing the boat, things like NetSquared and just a variety of topics. Ed himself fascinates me every time I’m around him - I’ve never been able to quite nail down what it is, but it is somewhere between his candor, his sincere honesty, and the fact that he is brilliant. It may also tie into the fact that as people, we are drawn to people who are either similar to us or who exhibit characteristics that we wish we had ourselves. For me, Ed has both. I can see that he is an extroverted introvert (matter of fact, if I had to guess his Myers-Briggs results, I would bet that he is about a 7 on the scale, truly introvert, but that his work forces him to be more extrovert than that.)

I met Ed last year just after SXSWi, and I was fortunate enough to do a temp project at Schipul right about that same time. I remember quite clearly coming home and telling Mike that he was running the company I had always dreamed of working at. My photography business was taking off, and while I had shot my first 2007 wedding, I wasn’t doing them full time yet like I am now. I actually had a “fork in the road” feeling - I felt pulled to want to work there, I admired what he is doing so much. In the end, I chose to stay on the path I was on, and I don’t regret that for a moment — but I can’t say enough good things about Schipul, the people that work there, and Ed himself.

Social media - it is where it is at. The world is being flattened every day.

I’m blessed to have them in my life, and Ed is a constant inspiration to me — even if he no longer comments on my photos on Flickr.

In honor of tax day, I thought I would give you some free money. Yes, sign up - get $25. Use the link above, and I’ll get $10 too. I’ll be grateful, you’ll have free money, it will be great!

Yes, it is a legitimate bank behind it. In case you’re nervous. Yes, they really do give you $25. I had mine in my account within seconds.

I am following 358 people over on Twitter. Meanwhile, 958 people are following me. Exactly 600 more people. Just noticed that weird spread in the numbers.

I’m also close to 1000. Who will #1000 be? Will it be you? What are you doing?

I am so completely in love with the bag designs over at Bring Your Own Bag! I’ve been trying for some time to always make sure I bring my own bags when I shop. It is just so wasteful to walk out of a store with a plastic bag that will end up in the trash as soon as you get home. When I can, I recycle them - the ones with the “2″ code on the bottom can be recycled in my weekly pickup - but why let them get out in the environment?

It is just incredible when faced with our overwhelming consumer society to realize how much stuff we have that we don’t need at all that will just hurt the environment some day. I’m doing spring purging right now, and it makes me sad. I’m giving away as much as I can - donating it to the local outreach organization.

Reading about Compact living just drove it all home earlier. Think before you buy. And Bring Your Own Bag!

For more about the Compact, you can read this article or The Compact blog.

Yesterday’s post ended up being all about knitting, and I guess I needed something soothing to focus on after the week I had had. No week starts of well when it starts with a crunch to your car which causes some pretty major damage.

On February 23rd, I assisted a photographer from Santa Fe with a wedding here in Houston. She had photographed the daughter’s wedding last year, and the couple who had been a couple for years decided to get married at last. The photographer had told me that it was near the Galleria, at their house, but she hadn’t told me the address until the day before. It was in River Oaks. Or, as I told Mike later, in the “Terms of Endearment” neighborhood. Seriously huge houses. In a part of River Oaks I’ve never been to, on a private lane. A huge tent was set up for the party after the ceremony, which was officiated by a well known judge in their living room. A gorgeous black-tie affair. Incredible, just incredible. We had a really great time photographing it all.

I left at about 1am, and set the GPS for home. (I had come from downtown, so I wasn’t going back the same way that I came.) Driving off, I misunderstood which road I was supposed to turn onto, and turned a block early on what was a dead end road. Crap.

Being River Oaks, there are no curbs, but many of the yards are lined with bricks or a wrought iron post & chain fence, about 10 inches tall.

I’m really good at making 3-point turns, or in this case a 5-point turn since it was a narrow road. I decided I would just turn around and get straightened out, heading back to where I needed to be. No problem, or so I thought.

I needed to watch the brick mini-wall that was behind me, so I slowly backed up, and then went forward — and my bumper, which is about 12 inches off the ground, went right OVER one of those wrought iron poles. Totally cleared it, which then caused me to basically hit the pole with my radiator instead.

Crap.

The CR-V started to make a horrendous sound. I got out to see if I could see anything, and the pole was fine, but clearly my vehicle wasn’t. Gah. I decided to drive to the nearest main road and see if I had any problems driving. It drove just fine - it was just the bent fan kicking on when I stopped that I heard making that awful sound.

I cautiously drove home, keeping an eye on all the gauges the whole way.

Monday morning, I went to leave for an appointment that was right by the Honda dealership. I figured I would go to the appointment, and then go to the dealership and get it fixed. As I backed out of the garage, I saw a liquid on the ground - blue liquid, so most likely the coolant from the radiator. Again driving cautiously and watching all the gauges, I went to the appointment and then to the service department.

As soon as the service department specialist came out and looked at the damage, he informed me that I needed to take it to the Collision Center. Seems the shield under the CR-V is mounted to the bumper, and the mounts were broken. You could see exactly where I hit the pole at all of 3 miles per hour. It wasn’t going to be the inexpensive fix I was hoping for. Oh, no. It was a big fix.

I called the insurance company, and started a claim with the option to cancel it if the repairs were low enough that we wanted to pay instead. Turns out that the whole thing was over $3000 with the rental car, and really? We have insurance for a reason. Just for times like this when stupid things happen.

It took them less time than they estimated to repair it, and I picked it back up last Friday with a shiny new bumper, new radiator, new AC condensor, some new hoses, a new tie-rod, and a long list of other things. Good as new.

As for me? I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt at all - the only thing wrong with me was a bit of a bruised ego from the stupidity of it all! I still can’t believe I hit a freakin’ pole and it did that much damage!

Every time I see all the news about Roger Clemens and the use of steroids and human growth hormones, and the Congressional hearings about it, I just find myself puzzled. Yes, it is a big deal. It is wrong. It is a terrible example for kids that look up to sports figures as heros. But … why is Congress involved? Don’t they have more critical, government related things to be dealing with? Like isn’t there a war going on and a possible recession looming ahead?

But we’re focused on ball players using steroids and human growth hormones? I just don’t get it. Please feel free to explain it to me - I really would appreciate it!

I *hated* working in a cubicle. I have noise issues, and I can’t handle listening to people talk when I’m trying to work. So I have to confess, this would have been my dream cubicle! It is just so cute!

Whew! What a week it has been! Mike & I started Weight Watchers on Monday. We are doing the Online version because I know we would end up skipping meetings, whenever I’ve done the meetings they talked about things on the site that I had already read, and because Elaine is doing the meetings at her work so she is keeping an eye on us to make sure we are in line. I’m actually moving our weigh-in day to today to sync up with her.

By Tuesday, my stomach was feeling queasy. I blamed it on the increased fiber intake. I was blissfully trying to ignore the fact that Jason had been sick 36 hours earlier and was still home from school. Oh no, it was the fiber. That evening, it shifted to having to admit that oh no, the fiber had nothing to do with it. Fiber doesn’t cause a fever.

Of course, I had a client meeting scheduled for Wednesday. I was not going to risk making anyone else sick though, so we moved it to Thursday and I instead spent Wednesday in bed. Still with a fever.

Thursday, feeling much better, I headed to The Woodlands to meet with my potential client and her mom - and learned while talking that she had found us because she is friends with Dan, the brother of the Emergency Bride, Lauren! Even more ironic, Lauren & I had already made plans to get together for lunch after my meeting! So it ended up feeling like visiting with long lost friends, and they were so fabulously cool. I was even more fascinated by the fact that she does college counseling for high school students - so part of our meeting wandered off into talking about Jason and his college future. I ended up devouring her site last night, reading all the articles she had linked to - things like her work just fascinate me. You can check it out if you’re curious over at Burnt Crimson. (She has all sorts of great posts there.)

Afterwards, I had to head to the iPhone store to have them help me reset my phone, as it had locked up after I got off a call. I did the whole hold down two buttons for a very long time thing about 10 times before I went in, but it didn’t work. Of course, as soon as they did it, it worked fine. *rolling my eyes at my phone* So I was able to hook up with Lauren for lunch after all!

Funny, isn’t it? We don’t memorize phone numbers anymore. So when technology bites us like that, we are lost!

Today is Twisted Yarn’s 4 Year Anniversary sale! (Well, it is tomorrow too.) So Katy & I are going over there to celebrate and get some knitting time. To be honest, I need a few hours away from the computer, away from “work” thinking (although really it never stops it seems when you’re the boss of you), and to just knit and be social. I’ve got my Noro packed, and my sweater that I finished the pieces on and need to stitch together so I need advice on how to do it - I forgot to steam block it last night, so I won’t get to do it while I’m there as planned. Bummer!

If I don’t return, I’ve succumbed to the yarn fumes. You’ll find me among the wool. Most likely Mountain Colors, but there could be some Cascade involved, and maybe some nice Malabregio laceweight too…

There were a few good Superbowl commercials today, but none of them are as good as the Cat Wranglers.

When I finished watching that one, I spotted this one - what the West would have been like with Shetland ponies! It is AWESOME!

So? Which one was your favorite Superbowl Ad this year? I think mine was most likely the SoBe “Thriller” ad, although the Pepsi Max one was pretty good too. And thank goodness there was no wardrobe malfunction with Tom Petty…

For more on Lauren & Dante’s wedding, be sure to check out the wedding photography blog. Lots of other photos - over there!

This month, Elaine & I - Fresh Photography - will be the featured artists at the Yale Street Market! We were even mentioned last week in the Chronicle!

Market coordinator Mitch Cohen says, “Christine and Elaine are what we are all about, finding your passion and sharing it with others. They’ve been chosen as a pair to be featured because everything about them is professional: High quality matted prints of their work, excellent booth display and a wonderful attitude. I see people return to their booth each month!” Cohen also pointed out that its artists like Mesker-Garcia and Tremoulet that have been the drive to keep the market going. Yale Street Arts Market will celebrate its fourth year next month.

The market is tomorrow, Saturday February 2nd, from 11am to 6pm. The arts market is located on the parking lot of Wind Water Asian Antiques Gallery at 548 W. 19th St. and open only on the first Saturday of each month, rain or shine year round. As we have been doing the market for over a year now, Elaine & I have decided to have a special sale this month to help make way to for new prints to be featured in the future - so come out and find some bargins! There will be door prizes too!

Oh goodness, do you realize how long it has been? Back in 2003, Mike helped me first define what a blurker is:

Blurker (BLUR-kur): n. 1. One who reads many blogs but leaves no evidence of themselves such as comments behind; a silent observer of blogs. 2. One who reads many blogs but has no blog of their own; a blog-watcher or blog voyeur.

So I’ve declared today and international playday. And I know people won’t see this, so lets just declare all the way through this Sunday a sort of playfest. Like the Superbowl of Blogs. Cheer on your favorite bloggers. Let them know you are reading. Give them your support. Leave as many comments on blogs as dollars are spent on Superbowl ads.

Oh, ouch. I hate to think of how much money is wasted on Superbowl ads. Maybe that isn’t a good idea.

Comments though are a GREAT idea. Don’t be a blurker. I promise, it doesn’t hurt at all. Matter of fact, it will feel good. Try it. Leave a comment. And if you write about this, be sure to trackback me too! (Props to Jay Lee for the suggestion! And thanks to Charles for helping to spread the word!)