Welcome September & Happy Labor Day!

Betsy Ross is my hero, whether or not she made this flag for General Washington.

I just processed a boat-load of tomatoes. I blanched them, then chilled them in ice water to remove the skins. I will freeze them now for a tomato sauce in the future. It's an easy process in theory, but these are mini Roma style tomatoes that I'm growing this year. It's takes about six of them to equal one regular sized Roma.

So I've been peeling little effin tomatoes for the last hour. I'm making buns for dinner too. I put some wheat and a some honey in the dough, so I guess I can call them honey wheat buns - well, honey wheat slider buns. We're having sliders for din din. Yay!

I suppose all this should be over at foodie judy's blog with photos instead of here. I wonder why I have three blogs. (Actually I have more but some are not active.) I am so hesitant to give up on Foodie Judy. 

My Bento blog has a niche, so it's not going anywhere, and I've just started the "Bento of the Day" gig. We'll see how that goes. I started a Flickr group called "Bento of the Day." I post the bento on Flickr, Pinterest, and Twitter, as well as blog it. I'm trying to uncover bento bloggers I'm missing because we aren't on the same highway, so to speak. 

What I'm uncovering is that Pinterest is winning the hearts and minds and time of folks like us. 

I still like to read blogs. I still use Flickr even if the new and improved layout is a little annoying. I wish Twitter was funner. And every once in a while I am amazed at Tumblr. I mean the talent and creativity of some those I follow is awesome. Facebook is a love/hate relationship. My email is clogged with a lot of stuff I don't care about. 

And that's my status of social networking to the people who might read this. 

Tell me where do you think all of this interaction will lead? Would you like a free gift? 

Everybody likes a free gift. I've had give-aways before, and some people will follow you - my guess thinking their odds are better to win, then unfollow you when they don't. It kind of stings. 

But in order for them to find you, you have to put "give away" in the title. And I didn't, but I might edit this again, but I probably should move on.

Cheers to the Five Year Mark!

A Nice Sauternes and Salad

Here's to Judy's Notebook, a five-year old blog about nothing in particular. Here's to everyone who has followed this blog, which I consider an anchor to my other blogs, which are many. Here's to everyone who has unfollowed this blog, just to prove I'm not spiteful, even though I am, traders. Here's to being a columnist to 25,000 people per week, then becoming a blogger to a few people per month, ouch. Here's to starting then stopping then starting then stopping then starting this blog. Here's to not dying along the way. Here's to all you crazy Snapple Rain affectionados. Here's to Googling Snapple Rain and seeing my photos in the number one and two spots on the Google images. Here's to my favorites bloggers, listed on the left side, the list may have changed over the years but I still love you all. Here's to trying new things right here like GoodReads or starting a book club or Twitter or Tumblr, which I still love, and thank you, you know who you are, for introducing me to these fun activities. Here's to my first post, not much really, but has totally reminded me of my wood rat, so sad, and how much work it was to live out at the ranch. And finally here's to Silas, who should probably have his own fan club, his own limo, and his own personal chef, oh wait, he does have his own chef, that would be me.

xoxo
Judy

Yay! for May

April is always a tough month for me. My birthday is the last day, so I end up feeling like I'm waiting waiting waiting, then Boom! Birthday is done and gone. Also since I was born on a decade, so decade birthdays are even more anxiety driven.

So May First is the day I get to exhale!

May First feels like the beginning of the year, time to set resolutions, clean the closets, plant a tree.

So when I discovered nablopomo monthly theme for May, I said Yay! 

Things are looking up. 

Wake Up To A New Day

It's such an uncomfortable feeling to be de-followed. I sort of didn't like the concept of following in the first place, but now that I'm into a very specific hobby, bento boxing, I can see the merits. You can see who others are following, so you can branch out and explore in a more specific way. Plus it has that "I'm in the club" vibe (something I used to hate but now I like).

I guess we can change. Evolve. Break a habit. Wake up to a new day.

Truth is I was probably de-followed because I de-friended her from my facebook. (I guess you just don't do that!) I started in ernest facebook, myspace, twitter, and tumblr all about the same time. I think I had accounts with facebook and myspace for much longer but never explored them.

It was all experimental. Facebook I've noticed can be crowded with - mmmn - how should I phrase this? Crowded with gum flappers. Also facebook is crowded with game players. Now myspace is all about the gaming. 99.9 percent and I think I've had my fill. Yup. I played on myspace and discovered there are a lot of mean people out there. They want to attack you! Over and over. They say "it's just part of the game." But I think they get a little too much joy out of it. And I don't. So that's when the seed was planted.

It was time to back away slowly.

Facebook is okay but I'm not really active. Every once in awhile I like to do a personality test or something, but it's definitely on the back burner for now. myspace I think I'm going to axe entirely, although I really like my page.

Twitter and tumblr are a different story. I still haven't explored them completely, and they still hold a bit of surprise for me.