1. We go from flames to flood here in Central Florida. For weeks, we’ve had brush fires. Now? It’s been raining for DAYS. Thankfully, we aren’t at risk for any flooding, but so many people have been driven from their homes. And in this humidity it is VERY difficult to dry out and prevent mold growth. Here’s the Doppler image from Friday afternoon:
2. I’m feeling a STRONG need to PURGE my house of stuff. Wednesday, I must have lifted more than 50 books – one at a time. I listed most of them on the FREE swap site www.paperbackswap.com and a few on Amazon and half.com! Check them out and see if you want any of my discards! I also filled two boxes to go to charity. One to our church’s annual rummage sale and another to go to a library one of the missionaries from our church is setting up in . . . I don’t remember what country. oops.
3. I’m really liking paperbackswap.com! I’ve been a member for about a year and I requested my first book today. (I’ve been more interested in getting rid of books than receiving them.) A few weeks ago, I registered with its sister websites, cdswap and dvdswap to allow transfer of credits from one to the other. I transferred two book credits to dvdswap and ordered a dvd for FavoriteSon. It arrived within days and it was in great condition.
So, check out my “bookshelf.” If you see a book you want, order it and I’ll send it right out. (more purging!) I pay the media mail postage, so it won’t cost you a thing. Each book I give away earns me 1 credit and I’m saving up credits for Christmas shopping. Now that I’m on all three sites, I can get books, cds and dvds – All FREE! Did I mention it was FREE?
4. We’re trying out another free swap site too – www.swaptree.com. This site allows trades for books, cds and dvds, but it also allows trades for video games. I’m not sure if we like this site yet. There are no credits. Every item must actually be TRADED with another person. The system matches members up when trades are identified. That means trading only happens between people who want what the other person has listed. It supposedly can handle three way trades also. Each item is valued the same – you give one item, you get one item, no matter whether it is a book, cd, dvd or video game. We’ve listed a bunch of video games and we’ve begun to put items on our “wish list” but we haven’t had a transaction yet. We’ll see.
5. I’m reading fiction. FICTION. Those who’ve been around Compendium for a while know this is a big deal. I read a lot and I buy a lot of non-fiction books (used and cheap, of course), but I keep all my fiction books at the library. Mainly because I don’t read that much fiction and also because when I do, I don’t usually re-read the book later. Well, being physically limited while recovering from surgery, I’ve been trying to REST. Since reading non-fiction equals learning and learning – for me – equals research and idea development and . . . well, NOT rest, I decided to read fiction. I had seen some books reviews for Angela Hunt on Mocha with Linda’s blog, so I got a few of her books. My personal trainer also recommended an author to me. Before my surgery, I had asked for fiction referrals, and I got quite a few, but they just didn’t click for me. When I asked my trainer, she used the adjective I was looking for. FUNNY. Although I hadn’t realized it as I was asking for referrals, I really did want something funny. The author? Janet Evanovich. I read the first one before my surgery and FirstHusband read much of the second one to me during my first few days of recovery. I had to ask him to stop a few times because laughing was painful. Why I wanted funny while recovering from abdominal surgery, I do not know.
6. First day of summer for us! We all slept in, except for FirstHusband, who had to get up and go to work as usual. But NOT as usual. He didn’t have any KID DUTY today! He was so excited about the prospect last night that he asked PinkGirl to guess the first thing he was going to do when he went downstairs this morning. She had no idea. So he showed her. It was the iCarly belly rub dance that Spencer does on Nickelodeon. Basically, you pull your shirt up to show your belly and rub it in big circles while saying “Whoo, whoo, whoooooo. It means you are carefree and happy. umm, hmm. that’s what it means.
7. Working on an overhaul for business website. I HATE the one I have up now. It’s dark and gloomy and amateur and the menu is broken and it’s too fragmented and I hate it. I bought a template from allwebco.com and I’m transferring the content from old, ugly, dark and broken to new, classic, light and functional. It will take a while because it’s summer and the kids are home and my windows of time are just that. Windows. Tiny little windows. When I get it finished I’ll be asking for objective, honest feedback.
Join in with your own 7 Quick Take Friday post at Conversion Diary hosted by Jennifer!