Foraging for the urban pumpkin

Took this pic on Charles Street near Revere; if you made it, let me know!
In the residential neighborhood where I work, people decorate with pumpkins. About 2 weeks before Halloween, decorative pumpkins perch at the entryways of brownstones up and down the Hill.   These elusive orange creatures pass thru in waves; first the giant painted pumpkins, then their slightly smaller kin a few weeks later during the Thanksgiving season.  And while they're certainly cute and prettty, I start eyeing them for entirely different reason.

Ya see, about 3 days after Halloween, the pumpkins start disappearing from the entryways and start appearing in the trash.  This is when I make my move.

Armed with nothing more than my giant IKEA bag (which will hold a toddler or a developing nation, take your pick), and a knowledge of the grazing areas of this giant vegetable, this intrepid explorer sets off in search of her prey.

As they browse for a chance to join their friends milling about near the refuge of the refuse containers, I strike – draping the IKEA bag over the chosen pumpkin and trapping it in place.  Although my squash(ed) prey struggles, rolling about in the bag as I carry it home, its conversion to a mashed, fried and baked state is all but assured.

For the next month I will hunt the pumpkin herd as it moves thru the neighborhood, drying and canning the nutritious vegetable as it moves thru the city in seach of a garbage dump to call home.

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…And Life Makes Other Plans

So the relaunch was gonna be the 1st of November, right?

Riiight.

So of course, this was the weekend I got some serious overtime helping to manage the Halloween crowds – and I really wanted the cash.

And of course I totally forgot that little children like to go trick o’treating on Halloween – and that my assistant (who works for me in the evenings) has a little munchkin.

And one of my dear friends lost her father in a freak accident.

When Life Hands You Lemons…

So, what to do when Life happens?
Here’s how I’m managing the situation-
First off, I reexamined my to-do list in light of my goals, values and changing circumstances.
In the case of this relaunch, the decision was easy – postpone the bleeping thing for a couple of months, when (I think) I’ll have the time and the energy. Problem solved.

As far as my assistant is concerned, the decision is easy – family comes first for me, so the golden rule says I have to extend the same rule to her. And the whole point of having a housekeeper-slash-assistant is to do the stuff that is low-priority, so the solution here is obvious as well – all the stuff on her list just gets pushed to her next work day.

So now I free to get the real work of this week done – time with friends and family.

The rest can wait.

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While I’m under construction… (Social Media)

Today I set up backup blank blogs on WordPress.com for my various websites.
Most web gurus say that setting up blank pages and accounts for the blogs and websites they own has reduced the number of scrapers (people who post copies of a web site) by opening an account with a similar name on social media.  Even if you do nothing with a blank backup blog, it effectively body – checks the unscrupulous who make want to earn a living off YOUR hard work.
Opening accounts on social media has the added benefit of providing people who might look for a site on Facebook or Twitter with a link directly to the main site.
Another great advantage to setting up pages and accounts elsewhere that direct readers to the main site is the blank-hits-the-fan factor. Websites crash. Blogs get hacked. Hosting services fry the computers that host the site. The blog tweak that was supposed to take 30 minutes has turned into a 3 day rebuild.
Stuff happens. Having a page already set up on a site like WordPress.com, allows for a fast redirect to something, ANYTHING, that lets readers of your blog know what the bleep is going on.

Bulk site name check for social media: namechk.com/

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While I’m under (re)construction…

As you can probably tell, I’ve finally decided to crash my website and start over.

And the best way to make God laugh is to tell her your plans…

So – While my ever faithful readers wait for me to get my current site together, I thought I’d let you know what I’m up to

* I’ve decided to sell several domain (names) I just don’t have the time for and don’t really jive with my life right now.

Putting Frugalmojo.com, .net, .org up for sale.  Been researching how to do this, as I’d like to at least recoup my costs for purchase and I think the site(s) might be useful to the right person.  Have decided to set up a landing page with a link to ebay so I can get it auctioned off.  (Look for a post about how that worked out for me)

*Dejunking/decluttering/cleaning out my stuff – I’ve been digitizing 99 percent of the paper files in my life.  Have been using an incredibly fast scanning system that involved my digital camera and a scanning cradle made from a cardboard box.  Something else to blog about…

*Finished setting up my latest continuous ink system for my printer.  For those of you who don’t speak Tech, that’s a computer printer that will never need ink cartridges again. Something else to write about…

So check in often, as I plan to make gradual daily changes to this site in time for the official relaunch (official cause I said so) on November 1st.

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