The Obligatory (& Much Belated) 100 Things

1) I was born in the year of the pig.

2) I’m an Aries.

3) I share a birthday with Hayley Mills and James Woods.

4) My name (Shanna) means:

~ Hebrew: 1. Beautiful, 2. God is gracious; variation of Shannon; lovely

~ Nickname for Shoshana (Hebrew) "lily, rose"; short form of Shannon or Anglicization of Shaina. From Hebrew Shoshana ‘the lily of the valley’ or ‘a rose’ ‘you will find happiness’.

~ Generally considered to be a modern form of the name Sean, an Irish form of John. Shaina also means 'beautiful' in Yiddish.

~ Celtic/Gaelic Ancient God (Shannan)

~ Gaelic: little wise one (Shana, Shani, Shanna, Shannah, Shannan, Shauna, Shawna, Shannon), also connected to an Irish river Shannon 'old and wise'.

~ Shanna Quay: From the Gaelic "seanachi" - which means a 'storyteller', or someone who passes down the culture, history and myths of Ireland by word of mouth - as in songs and poems. It is pronounced Shanna-key. In Ireland, the word 'quay' is also pronounced like 'key'. (Many thanks to Steve Power of Shanna Quay - an Irish Music website which is sadly now defunct - for this lovely description!)

~ Old English: Lily

~ Slow Water. God is gracious (Irish/Hebrew). A feminine form of Shane.

5) My favorite flowers are soft pastel-colored daylilies and sweetpeas, white waterlilies, dragonfly columbine hybrid and dogwood. There is a day lily named Shanna. I also love the legend of the dogwood.

6) I am an INFP, and addicted to personality typing.

7) My childhood nick-name (given to me by my uncle Devin) was Snickersnot.

8) If I'd been a boy, my name would have been Shawn. I have a brother named Shawn. He rocks.

9) I also have a brother named Eric who totally rocks, too. And a sister named Shannon, who's also pretty awesome.

10) In all, I have four sisters and three brothers.

11) I have five children.

12) All of my kids have high IQs.

13) I have three boys and two girls.

14) My father's side is Irish and French were some of the original settlers in Cajun territory, Louisiana.

15) I have a 'thing' for geeks and/or nerds.

16) I think of myself as a geekette-wannabe-in-training.

17) I'm strong-willed, independent and stubborn.

18) I think I'm also nuts.

19) I plan on a career in Physical Therapy or Nursing.

20) And I want to be a web/IT geek when I grow up.

21) I also want to be a naturopathic doctor.

22) I am an ADHD crafter.

23) I love gory horror movies.

24) I also love chick flicks.

25) I love vegetarian food,

26) But I'm not a vegetarian.

27) I love chocolate, especially Hughes.

28) And Chicory coffee

29) I love Thai food (to cook and to eat).

30) I like to make soaps and toiletries.

31) My favorite scents are lemongrass, jasmine and any citrus.

32) My favorite color is green.

33) Blue is a close second, but really it's any color in the ocean-y colors that do it for me.

34) I love mermaids and Gwragedd Annwn and mermaid designs.

35) I even have mermaid Polly Pockets (which I stole from my daughters, tee hee).

36) I love and feel an affinity with Marlene Dietrich, who was largely misunderstood.

37) As was Marilyn Monroe.

38) I love crab and salmon sushi rolls,

39) And I sometimes make vegetarian sushi rolls.

40) My favorite band is the cure.

41) I am addicted to music and pretty much love any and all kinds, especially alternative rock.

42) I sing along with the radio constantly.

43) I want to sing with a band just for fun sometime.

44) I have a lot of friends in bands and music.

45) And not just in school bands.

46) I'm a craft addict.

47) I’m obsessed with sewing machines.

48) I have six of them.

49) I also probably have more craft supplies than Hobby Lobby.

50) Which isn't true, but I wish it was...

51) I love to shop at import stores and craft supply stores.

52) I also love fabric wholesalers.

53) I am a natural blonde.

54) Most of my friends will tell you that I live up to the hair color.

55) I'm also very intelligent. (No, really I am!)

56) Or maybe I'm just full of useless knowledge.

57) I love amigurumi and want to learn.

58) I also love Japanese Kawaii crafts.

59) I've always wanted a navel ring, but never got one (yet).

60) I went to two high schools (but most people know that already).

61) What most people don't know it that while I was raised in the Midwest, I first saw a cow up close in New England.

62) I’m terrified of spiders.

63) The South has bigger and meaner spiders. And LOTS of BIG bugs. Ew.

64) I've worked in some interesting places, including a sewing shop, massage therapy supply trade shows, an RV resort and a health food store.

65) I like my current job the best.

66) I have friends all over the world.

67) I'm most infatuated with Ireland.

68) My great love was an Irishman from Donegal.

69) We're still friends, and I still love and dream about the drunken bastard.

70) I was married to a Sicilian.

71) His ancestors ran a part of the Midwestern Mafia.

72) My ex's family was really into the stories.

73) I got really sick of watching the Godfather trilogy with my in-laws.

74) They also love the Three Tenors.

75) I got sick of that, too.

76) I did, however, gain an appreciation for La Traviata and La Boheme (operas).

77) I've never been out of the country. Not even to Canada.

78) I'd love to visit rural seaside Ireland and rural France.

79) I know a little French and want to learn Gaelic.

80) I listen to music from both countries.

81) My youngest daughter counts in English, French, Spanish and Korean. She's 5.

82) My oldest tested 2nd in the state of Wisconsin in the 3rd grade.

83) His principal called him "frighteningly intelligent".

84) My second-to-youngest had his IQ tested at 140. He was 6 at the time.

85) I first entered college in Interior Design.

86) I ended up finishing in Early Childhood Education.

87) Now I plan to go back to school for Physical Therapy and Holistic Nursing.

88) I love to write.

89) I once dictated an entire (original) story for a girl in a lit class (Doc's class - in CT).

90) I spent so long at it I didn't finish my own.

91) She got an A and claimed it as her own.

92) She later told me her mother planned to send it in to a magazine. I was secretly pretty pissed about that.

93) I still plan to write a book one day.

94) My favorite author (both for his writings and his beliefs) is Kurt Vonnegut.

95) I'm also really into Amy Tan's work. She's amazing.

96) I love history and historical fiction.

97) History was one of my worst subjects in school.

98) English and literature were my best.

99) Along with Biology and Allied Health. After graduation, I wanted to become a Radiologist. I put it off for my ex-husband and children.

100) I believe, above all, it's most important to do what you love.

Kinda dusty in here, eh...?

Phhhhblt! Judging from the heavy buildup of cobwebs in this joint, it's been awhile since anyone's come by - including yours truly! Let's catch up a bit, shall we?

It would seem that my transition from snow-accustomed Midwesterner to chicken-shit Southern chick has had its smooth patches and rough spots: the smooth being that I've successfully acclimated myself to these Hades-like temperatures, to the point that 60 degrees has me donning a sweater and my M&M's flannel jammy pants. The rough part? MY GOD, how do you people live with all these huge and plentiful masses of creepy-crawly, squirmy, wriggling, many-legged, ugly, nasty species of yucky things? I HATE BUGS!!!! :shiver:

I should add that we live on several acres of wooded land in a very small town. How small? Well, we've got a grocery store with about seven aisles, a hardware store that would fit in my linen closet and a florist's shop about the size of a pup-tent. Small.

Lots of stuff on my To-Do list has been shoved off into the procrastination never-land realms lately, obviously this blog being no exception. The good thing about being away so long is that now I can step back and take a look at my lil' happy space and see that GOOD LORD, do I have a lot of CRAP on this page!! So I'm also looking into a total redesign, and have made some contacts to that end. Maybe I can find someone who can make me a "blog toys" page, so I can keep all this useless junk and still have it be separate from the main page. ...Or maybe I'll just circular file all of it, which is probably the better option.

Since the cost of childcare has gone completely through the roof, I've begun a couple of ventures of my own: WaterLilies Online, a sort of "virtual assistant" venture, a la Microsoft Office Live's small business site offering, and a site for selling my hand-crafted doohickeys called Lilies of Annwn over at Etsy.

Now before you get all excited and rush over there to poke around, lemme just do some 'splainin here first:

Now hypothetically, Microsoft seems to have a cool idea here: Free domain registration and free hosting for a basic small business site, along with up to 25 company branded email addresses, also free. Sounds kinda cool, right? That's what I thought. So off I went, registered for my free site and had the whole thing, site design and all (with their built-in page editor, though the template pickins are mighty slim), done in a matter of a few hours. I was a happy camper...

Until the next morning.

I woke up with some idea on how to add a little more oomph to my new site and went right back to my digital husband (ie: my computer) to play in my new sand box. Much to my dismay, IE 7 refused to load the page editor. "Microsoft Live is experiencing technical difficulties, try back later", yadda, yadda. Great. So I tried opening IE without all the add-ons (you all know how much I love my toys). Still nothing. I cleared the cache, checked the firewall settings, everything I could think of. I also could not add nor access any of the email that is going to the site via the "Contact Us" module. Nothing I tried worked, so I sent an email to tech support. Here's what I got back:

Dear Shanna,

Thank you for contacting us at Microsoft Office Live support regarding your issue unable to edit your website and create user account and permission. I realize how this may have caused an inconvenience to you. My name is Shilpi Khandelwal and I will be assisting you.

I am creating SR # 1047664332 so that we can track this issue until it is resolved. I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. Please allow me to assist you in resolving your issue as soon as possible.

Shanna, I would like to inform you that the issue you have mentioned is an on going issue and we have escalated the same to our Product Development team and they are working diligently to resolve this issue at the earliest. So, we really appreciate your patience in this matter.

If you require any further assistance in Microsoft Office Live, feel free to contact us.

Have a great day.

Regards,

Shilpi Khandelwal

Microsoft Office Live Support

Um... And this means what, exactly?

So next I try the help forums for Office Live, posting my issues and the response of tech support, in the hopes that this was just a little glitch with an easy workaround. I tend to be moronically optimistic like that. I think it's the blonde in me.

I don't know exactly what kind of support these forums are meant to offer, but both of my posts asking for assistance or advice were deleted and marked as spam. The one Mod who answered me said he understood my frustration and said I should contact tech support. Yeah, been there, done that, ate the t-shirt. Support?? Are you freaking kidding me?! If this forum was a bra, my boobs would be catapulting off my knees.

So the forum idea bombed hideously and several days later, with many a grumble and plenty of whines, I again emailed tech "support" and got this response:

Dear Shanna,

Thank you for contacting us at Microsoft Office Live Support regarding your issue that you are unable to create email accounts and permissions.

I am working on SR # 1047664332 which was created for this issue.

My name is Arti Sharma and I will be assisting you today.

You have identified an issue for which there is currently no resolution. We will not be able to provide any updates or timeframe for resolution as no-fix can be determined for this issue.

I apologize for the inconvenience this might have causes. Please let me know if you should have follow-up questions.

Please do not alter the subject line if you reply so that we will receive the email at the correct department.

Have a nice day.
Regards,
Arti Sharma
Microsoft Office Live Support

What the heck?! So this means a) the whole part about the page editor was completely ignored, b) my site is un-editable and I may never see an email from a potential client, and c) Microsoft is obviously outsourcing to second graders.

Apparently this issue is one that is affecting a number of people using this new Office Live Basics service, and none of us are reaching a resolution to a problem which, according to tech non-support, may never be resolved. I'll be looking into whether my domain is transferable upon deletion of the Live account. I'd read somewhere that it's possible, so we'll see how that goes.

My second venue with Etsy went much more smoothly. I got my little shop all dolled up in no time flat. All i had to do was upload some photos of my lovely creations, and I'd be all set. Uh, yeah....

Do you have any idea what happens to a digital camera when a four-year-old with peanut-butter-and-jelly fingers gets hold of it? At least, I think that's what's making all the buttons and dials stick. Or maybe I don't want to know. Add that to the fact that I tend to drop things. A lot. Including my camera. Which no longer holds a charge longer than ten seconds before abruptly powering down.

Hmm... So how to post some pictures? I tried powering it on and snapping a picture really quick, but that didn't work since it needs power to upload the photos, anyway. It's not charging via the cord or base, either. And yeah, yeah, you smart ass, I did make sure it was plugged in and had batteries in it.

The new-and-improved Mr. Sunshine-with-the-pole-up-his-wazoo (whom we shall from here forward refer to as THE MAN) offered to let me use his camera, which is nicer than mine was. He told me that he didn't have the memory card for it, but that it had its own internal memory. I figured I was good to go and could post away on Etsy to my heart's content. Hahaha, funny me.

Let me reiterate here that I am blonde and tend not to think things through quite as well as I probably should.

After THE MAN left for the entire weekend, I realized that I don't have the transfer cable to upload the pictures from the camera. Oh, now that's just brilliant. But hey, the shop's storefront looks great...

So to kill some time and blow off some steam, I'm alternating between making seasonal and holiday banners to alternate on my Etsy shop, and making cute little glass bubble magnets. I'd show you, but I don't have a photo at the moment...