Introducing: Contagious Communications

www.contagiouscomm.com

Go ahead, check it out.

It's about 75% where I want it to be. I wrote last week about frustrations with the iWeb program I was using. It's an Apple product and so the site looked perfect on my MacBook. Then I saw the site on a PC and was horrified. I did some research and discovered this is a known issue with iWeb (oops): it offers way more fonts and colors than most PCs can pick up on, spacing gets off a bit, and heaven help you if someone is using Internet Explorer on their PC instead of Firefox or Safari.

In fact, I take that "go ahead, check it out," comment back. If you are in the Dark Ages and use Internet Explorer on a PC (seriously, why would you do that? Just change to Firefox. Trust me.), go to the top of your browser, click on "help," scroll to "About Internet Explorer," and if you do not have version 8 of Internet Explorer, I emphatically REFUSE to let you visit my website.* First, download the update to version 8, or better yet, get another browser.

There is still a lot of other work to be done on the site, but it has the basics! For the JB's of the world offering to spread my name, feel free to bookmark it.

And, feel free to be true friends and tell me if I have broccoli in my teeth. See a broken link, misspelled word, or dangling modifier? Don't hold your tongue.



*Which, yes, speaks to the limitations of the site. And the lesson was certainly learned. I went with iWeb because it can easily be hosted with Mobile Me, which I have because of my iPhone. So the hosting wasn't any extra. If I keep this up another month, I'll use Joomla or something similar and find another company to host it.

Nate's First Bday Party

I can't believe Nate is one already. I think he grows cuter every darn day, and is always so happy and smiley.

Yesterday wasn't an exception as we gathered to celebrate his birthday. David and Lauren's new house looked even better than ever (love the new painting over the fireplace, by the way), and what can be bad about a huge spread of Moe's make-your-own fajitas?

Some of the highlights:

Pay the Bills

I can officially pay the bills now, out of my official small-business checking account.

Of course, I need to actually deposit money into said checking account, but those are just details.

More details on this later... headed to Nate's first birthday party!

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggg!!!!

I know, I can't have a post one day titled "A Good Day," and the next type one titled "Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggg!!!!" but that's how I feel right now.

Completely unrelated to yesterday's post, this one is over my website. I created it on iWeb, an Apple program. It is beautiful, if I do say so myself.

Then I opened it up on a PC. Disaster.

Yes, I have had my MacBook for a mere four weeks, and I am a Mac snob. It's just... better.

So back to iWeb to see if I can figure this out. Boo.

A good day

This is going to be one of those annoying posts where maybe I should just not post at all.

It's to tell you that I had a really good day today. But not really tell you why it was such a good day.

Typical woman, right?

The morning was crazy hectic. I stayed at home today because I was focusing on one project and thought I'd really only bill a couple of hours on it because I'd spend most of my time waiting for people to return my calls.

Only, they all did. And then there were changes, so I had to call them back. It was like a nonstop phone fest.

Which was only stressful (don't get me wrong, I loved it -- I thrive in that shit) because I had a specific time I needed to stop. I had an interview this afternoon and one I was really, really excited about.

I wanted to brush up on the company, be super-careful in the makeup application, print out an updated resume (you know, one with my new biz on it and all -- oh! I also finished one page of the website last night, but hoped to do more today), leave with plenty of time to get there... you know, be me.

But I worked right up until 5 minutes after I had planned on leaving, rushed, ran out the door and winged it.

Which, I think was a good thing. At least, I think it went really, really well. In the worst case, this will turn into more consulting work. But I think it might be more.

Morning Routine

I need to get a morning routine down if I'm going to continue to come to this client site.

I'm riding in with Mike, and we've always left the house by 7:00 a.m. That gets us in to the office between 7:20 - 7:35 a.m., depending on traffic. This timing worked for us because we would leave on the earlier side, between 4:30 - 5:00 p.m. I also loved the time alone in the office it gave me to enjoy my coffee, wake up with Facebook, and generally get my day in order.

I used to actually describe myself as a morning person. I wake up at 4:40 a.m., walk the dog, work out in some fashion, shower, in the office by 7:30 a.m. I'm not sure many people in this town even wake up until 7:30 in the morning.

But I came to realize as there would be various interruptions in this otherwise seemingly perfect (for me) routine, that I am not, in fact, a "morning person." I can be very, very, very productive in the morning. More productive than most, I'd even venture to say.

If you leave me the f&*k alone.

I have realized that I am not a bubbly morning person, and get down right awful if you mess with my routine.

Right now, I don't have a routine. I had one for the first two weeks of unemployment that I really enjoyed. I slept in (until 5:20 a.m.), walked Goldie, workout, shower, breakfast, then sat at my kitchen counter and enjoyed the coffee and Facebook.

But now I'm coming into the client site for the foreseeable future, and I have absolutely no routine to speak of. If I don't come in with Mike, there's a big (as in expensive) issue about parking. But if I do, it's way earlier than this particular office opens.

Everyone at this office seems to be on a later schedule than I'm used to. I need to investigate if that's everyone, or just the people I'm working with. I went in last week one morning at 9 a.m. and there were, like, two people there. I need to ask when the earliest person gets there to open the office, so even if I'm not billing, I'm at least warm and safe and comfortable.

Because right now, I am sitting a block from the office, in a very, very small Starbucks playing really, really loud Caribbean music, crammed into a seat at a high bar next to a very, very crazy man.

No, really, crazy. He's talking out loud to himself and writing something in 72 point font that looks to be some legal appeal. He also seems to know every word to said Caribbean music. Wait... no, he isn't actually saying the words. He's humming out the drums. And he's really enjoying himself.

I need a better morning routine.

My Post-Workout Power Bar (Or, Cookie)

Mike and I are in a big debate over my post-workout snack. I call it a power bar. He calls it a cookie.

I think he's just jealous of them.

In truth, they are granola bars. They are adapted from this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, which does lean closer to the cookie argument (what with the corn syrup and granulated sugar).

But these work for me. I'm on a kinda low-carb diet ... which I hate even typing, because I'm clearly not on atkins. And I'm soooo not on a diet. It's more like I want to cut out the flour, potatoes, rice and such. I still eat tons of chocolate, all fruits, lots of nuts, even dried fruit.

I've been eating that way since May, and i like it. I like what it does for my body, I like what it does for my energy.

I also like working out, and found that working out and just eating eggs right afterwards wasn't cutting it. I needed more. So I found this recipe with the oats and nuts and dried fruit, maybe added in some chocolate, substituted the corn syrup with honey, dropped the granulated sugar, baked them in cupcake tins, and ... bam! Pop one of these babies post-workout, and I'm a happy girl.

Here's Smitten Kitchen's recipe list, with my changes:

1 2/3 cups quick rolled oats √
1/2 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar (use more for a sweetness akin to most purchased bars; use less for a mildly sweet bar) Totally no need
1/3 cup oat flour (or 1/3 cup oats, processed till finely ground in a food processor or blender) No flour!
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 to 3 cups dried fruits and nuts (total of 10 to 15 ounces)*
      1 cup dried fruit -- my latest batch was 1/2 cup dried cranberries and 1/2 cup dried apricots
      1 cup chopped pecans
      1/2 cup coconut
      1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup peanut butter or another nut butter (I used almond butter) (optional) I found it really helps with the mixing if you heat the peanut butter for half a minute on half power with 1 tablespoon water, then whisk until smooth
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons melted butter Ok, ok, this is a questionable ingredient, but ... yum!
1/4 cup honey, maple syrup or corn syrup
2 tablespoons light corn syrup (see Note above) No way
1 tablespoon water

From there, it's easy. Mix the dry...

 
mix the wet ...

 mix them all together ...

scoop into cupcake tins, back for 22 minutes at 350 degrees and ... voila!

**** December 8, 2010 update: I lowered the cooking time by a minute, and I like that consistency better. Also, I tried Robert's idea of the almond flour instead of ground oats and I LOVE IT. So now I use Almond Flour.

I'm, like, totally legal

So remember that post where I talked about creating a job?

And how that job was mine?

That was all well and good, but it was kinda, sorta an arbitrary statement.

Until the last 24-hours, when I both:
1. Submitted my first invoice for services

and

2. Applied for and was granted a "doing business as" and business license for the city of Alexandria.

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.
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I'm sorry, maybe you didn't realize. I was pausing to allow for applause. Perhaps I should say it again:

I FREAKIN' SUBMITTED AN INVOICE. People want to pay me to do stuff for them -- like, VOLUNTARILY.

And I FREAKIN' HAVE A BUSINESS LICENSE. As in, a REAL business. Go ahead. Call Alexandria City Hall. I'M ON RECORD WITH THEM.

Ok, ok, so I don't actually have payment for said invoice. But now you're just getting really picky.

I even have a business name, although I'm going to ask you to wait for it. (I am into branding, after all, and can't imagine MY OWN business brand getting away from me when it's been in existence a mere nine hours.)

I still don't know exactly where this is going, and if it's long term. In fact, I have an interview on Thursday. It may turn out that they become another client, or maybe it'll become something full time. I'm fortunate enough that I still have a little bit of time to figure this all out.

And even the teeniest bit longer because... I SUBMITTED A FREAKIN' INVOICE!

Apricot, Soy and Honey Slow Cooked Goodness

Last night I was reading October's Food and Wine magazine, and came across this recipe for "Apricot-Stuffed Pork Shoulder with Soy-Honey Glaze."

Looks pretty awesome, huh?

It was also a bit labor-intensive, at least in the unfolding, stuffing and wrapping up of the pork shoulder. That, and, it's fall. I want to throw a bunch of ingredients into a crock pot and smell heaven all day long.

So when I saw a pork butt at the grocery store this morning, I thought: hmmmm... I can work with this.

I took the basic idea, added a few ingredients, threw it in the slow-cooker, and, in fact, had a little slice of heaven tonight.

Intrigued by Food and Wine's suggestion to boil garlic and dried apricots, I did that. I'm interested in what the boiling of the garlic does... I guess lesson the intensity?  About 8 garlic cloves and 10 apricot halves.

Then I mixed together their other suggested ingredients (um, some of them), and added some of my own:

Ingredients

1. 8 garlic cloves, peeled √
2. 10 dried apricot halves √
3. One 5 1/2-pound boneless pork shoulder roast (here I used a 3.5 pound bone-in pork butt. mmmm... pork butt)
4. Salt and freshly ground black pepper √
5. Crushed red pepper (forgot this one! Didn't purposely leave it out, just read right over top of it)
6. 3 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine) or sweet sherry  √
   
7. 2 tablespoons soy sauce √
8. 2 tablespoons honey √
9. 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard Mike hates mustard and if he can detect even the smallest amount in a dish, he'll refuse the rest
10. 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil √

And because I can't leave good enough alone, my own additions:
    1.  2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
    2.  1 tablespoon molasses
    3.  1 teaspoon pickled ginger juice, with several slices of pickled ginger

All that... into the crock pot.

 Did I mention how much I adore pork butt?

Ever hour or so, I flipped the whole thing over, so that I could sit in the juice (the above only covered about half the butt). After 5 hours on high, it was beautiful:

 So soft and tender, it came apart even as I was pulling it out of the crock pot to pull into pieces.

 Before starting to shred the butt, I added 1 tablespoon corn starch to warm water, whisked it together, then added it to the sauce in the crock pot. I kept the pot on high and let that bubble up while shredding. Then I added all the pork back to the pot. 

 I know, you're so jealous you didn't come over tonight for dinner, aren't you? David, this just had to be the Sunday that Steelers were on regular TV, huh?

 The pooch even got into the action. She loves butt, too.

I Hate Networking

Networking. You gotta do it. I know this.

I know that the only nibbles I've had in both the job search and the freelance work have been through people I already know. So if I'm going to make a go of going out on my own, I need to network and continue to expand the group of people I know.

I signed up for a DC Flaks meetup on Wednesday, but ended up not going. I wanted to, I did. It was a happy hour at the District Chophouse, and while most of the people there probably wouldn't be able to give me work (because the group looked to be pretty young), I thought I'd be an unintimidating way to start this networking thing.

But then on the day of the happy hour, right as I was about to start getting ready to go into the city, the phone rang. It was my client, giving me another project. And I found myself going, "another two hours of billing tonight.... or small talk... two hours of billing... small talk...."

You can easily imagine which one won out.

And so my first official networking event was last night. I roped Mike into going with me, and promised him lots of wine to get through it.

I severely underestimated the amount of wine. And severely overestimated the amount of networking going on.

It was "Stomp the Presses" at the National Press Club.

Wine tasting, essentially, only on crack. There were over 80 wines, by my estimate, plus 6 whiskeys and 5 beers. We skipped the liquor and beer tables, but I think we hit just about every wine.

Yes, every one.

At least, from what I can remember.

After the first two tables, I psyched myself up to start striking up conversations with people there. They would either be journalists - who at this stage probably couldn't help me directly but would always be good to know - people who worked at PR firms - where I wanted to get a job or a client - or people who worked for news publications but in a corporate roll -- where, again, I either wanted to get a job or client.

The first person who made eye contact back was an intern. Yes, I knew he looked young. Yes, I knew he couldn't do anything for me. But it's baby steps, people! So a nice little 5 minute conversation, after which Mike made fun of me relentlessly for wasting time on someone who looked to be about 12. I take exception to the "wasting time" part, but we moved on.


The next one was looking promising. A single woman, we debated the merits of two wines on the table, cracked a few jokes, easy conversation going for about 10 minutes. I asked what she did, what brought her to the Press Club event. She knew the organizer she said... (good, I'm thinking...) She was a terrorist victim advocate.

Ok, moving on...


The next and final couple that we started talking to stuck with us the rest of the night (or we with them). There were the perfect kind of people to connect with ....


... for Mike. She was a final year law student and he worked for a defense contractor.

I hate networking.