We purchased an air conditioner. Hurray! It’s the first air conditioner I’ve ever had. It’s the window kind, so we’ve been having *fun* trying to fit it into our old 1855 window frame…. more on that to come. We’re still working on a unique shelf that juts out from the window, upon which will sit the A/C’s bulky butt. Man, those things are bulky. I guess they have to be.

I’m also starting to take more time off from work. I try to get my writing assignments done by the time I have to cook dinner. I don’t always make my goals, and sometimes I wind up staying up much later than I like. But at least I’m not working non-stop anymore.

Gardening is on my mind lately. I bought some hostas and a few blackberry bare roots (all died but one). I have to plug them in sometime.

And of course, I have a lot of loose ends to finish up after last year’s renovation. I still haven’t completed that kitchen bench. And my living room/office needs a lot of decorating help. I have Ethernet and VGA cables strung about everywhere. I dislike cords all over the floor. :-p My intention is to build a very nice modern office with updated equipment (i.e., an i7 core computer with slick video graphics array or DVI cables, and… *sigh* yeah) with nice furniture and orderly shelves! I can see it all in my mind’s eye. Reality is another matter, lol.

All in good time.

How are your summer projects going? Or are you one of those lucky persons that have no projects???

*sigh* To Do Lists....

Sorry if I haven’t been around. Since I got some new wheels, I’ve been zipping around town with my newfound FREEDOM, baby! Booyah!!! We have a travel vehicle once again! I’m thinking about getting some New York Traveler promotional items. How about a big car magnet with my logo on the side, huh? Or maybe some Mrs. Mecomber Bic Clic Stic pens or groovy GOPromos personalized notepads??? I think it would be SO cool. I actually will be getting some New York Traveler t-shirts for us to wear when we visit museums and such.

OK OK enough teasing. Here’s the original photo of Livvy.

She’s hiding here. Under the island.

Please excuse the dust bunnies. They are taking over the house. :-p

She literally SQUEEZED under the island. It was funny watching her. I only had a split second to snap a photo with the cell phone, so that’s why it’s a little blurry.

So you guys were RIGHT!!!!! You’re all professional kitty finders, you are!

When it comes to getting promo stuff, I REALLY ought to market the cat. I think she’s more popular on the Internet than I am. :-p

I joined SponsoredReviews.com in early 2008. Combined with the handful of other companies that I’ve joined, I make a pretty good supplemental income (enough to be paying off for that huge kitchen renovation we did over the summer). SponsoredReviews asked me to write about my experience with them. I’ll also offer a few tips if you want to get paid for blogging.

When I first joined SR, I wasn’t raking in the dough. Blogging for pay takes some time. That first year, I earned about $250. In 2009, I earned almost $300. I started up a bunch of new blogs and so far for 2010, I’ve earned over $700 with SR. That’s not too shabby, if you ask me.

SR is easy– probably the easiest blogging company I work for. The format is very simple (here’s the link, here’s what you say, boom- done). Some companies make you wrangle with a billion links and requirements and such. I like SR because it’s simple. Secondly, SR gives you 65% of the payment, where other companies take 50% share or more.

I wish there was more work at SR. A few months ago, I was clobbered with advertisers asking for reviews– I think I earned most if that $700+ in about three months over the summer. But work waxes and wanes. That’s the nature of making money online, of course. I like SR, so of course I want more work there.

If you are serious about making a little extra cash in the side, even if it’s just to get a pizza every month or to help pay off the mortgage, you CAN earn money by blogging. SR is one of my main income-producing companies, and they are a reputable one with which to do business. Check them out, you may like what you find.

New York Renovator is my little home on the Internet. I blog about our adventures as we *try* to fix up our 1855 home in Upstate New York. We’ve been here 10 years, but have really only recently begun to update. We’d been running on 1920s knob-and-tube wiring, a 1940s heating system, and 1950s plumbing for TOO LONG. Just a few months ago, we gutted and renovated our kitchen. By ourselves. Yes, I’m exhausted. lol. But not so much that I can’t blog about it. And I can’t believe WE DID IT!!!! Yay!

You can read about our story here. And read about the history of this house and how we got it, here. Or, you can just read about this year’s project, the kitchen and dining room. Or, if you’re looking just to have fun, you can check out my Find the Kitty Friday posts here. My Tabby Point Siamese cat, Livvy, is the star of that show.

When you’re ready to pull away from my riveting posts and photos, continue the Blog Jog to Soul Mate Tips, or check out other participating blogs at the Blog Jog Day Blog.

Thanks for visiting!

It can be difficult finding new blogs. I have joined a good share of blog network communities, and have dropped out on most of them. Spam blogs, or splogs, seek out such communities as audiences to spew their low-quality content amongst more serious bloggers. I’ve been wandering around for some good blog communities to join, and have hit on a few since, but the kitchen renovation set me back on promoting my blogging. Now, I’m ready to begin again.

Blog Jog Day looks like it is very different from the rest. So HOW is it different?

Firstly, you are assigned a partner, and you link to that blogger in your Blog Jog Day post. This is terrific for the uber-busy folks (like me) who, if given a choice, will probably not visit a blog because something else comes up. With Blog Jog Day, I KNOW that another blogger is counting on me to continue the hop, just like I am counting on others to hop to mine. So there’s an actual mission involved. I like that.

Secondly, you pay to participate. In the past I would have been very skeptical about paying to join a blogging community day, but after experiencing the splogs and quibblers from other ventures, I’m ready to make my time worth spending. The pay rate will only draw serious bloggers into the pool, a very welcome feature indeed. For every blog you want to include, it’s $2.00. I entered in this blog and my other blog, FreakyFrugalite.com.

Thirdly, Blog Jog Day is run by Carol, who has a blog and is an author. A lot of writers with blogs joined up for the previous Blog Jog Day in May. So you know you won’t be getting dumb comments from spammers or people just looking to hawk their wares. Definitely a plus, in my opinion!

Blog Jog Day is Sunday, November 21st. Sunday is a difficult day for me, as I am away from home most of the day, at church. Yet I had made plans to be sure to participate, in the evening. So if you are a serious blogger ready to make some new (literate) pals and get some new (serious) followers, check out Blog Jog Day. You can read about it at the Blog Jog Day blog and sign up to join here. Carol has made it very easy to join.

As for me, I’m going to buy my flavored coffee, special chocolate, and prepare my warm blankie in preparation for the big day. See you then!

An ad community I’m a member of, Entrecard, has recently announced that they will be placing their own pre-approved advertiser’s widgets on our blogs. This is a bone of bitter contention amongst us in the blogging community, who feel that Entrecard has no right to insert ads into our blogs without our approval. I am thinking of either dumping EC or placing the widget at the bottom of my blog. Things are still developing it seems, so I’m hoping things will work out as they always have with EC.

Anyway, I’m letting you know that, while I am careful to monitor all my ads and the sites they point back to, sometimes the sites turn, and post things I greatly disapprove. I will deny these ads any “air time” on my blog. If you come across an inappropriate site, please drop me an email, leave a comment, or use the Contact Me form to contact me personally. This is a godly, family-friendly blog and I want to keep it this way! Thanks for your support.

I found a cute website called Rules of Thumb that some of you readers may enjoy. It’s basically a website of stories, trivia, and myth-busting facts about commonly-believed ideas. I like how the site is compiled, and they also inject healthy doses of history in with their tales.

A rule of thumb is a homemade recipe for making a guess. It is an easy-to-remember guide that falls somewhere between a mathematical formula and a shot in the dark. A farmer, for in­stance, knows to plant his corn when oak leaves are the size of squirrels’ ears. An economics profes­sor knows from sad experience that inviting more than 25 percent of the guests for a univer­sity dinner party from the economics depart­ment ruins the conversation. Rules of thumb are a kind of tool. They help you appraise a problem or situation. They make it easier to consider the subtleties of the topic at hand; they give you a feel for a subject.

A hundred years ago, people used rules of thumb to make up for a lack of facts. Modern­ day rule of thumbing is rooted in an overabun­dance of facts. The average person, confronted with the Internet’s oceans of data and multiple overlapping Ph.D. dissertations, often is as perplexed as a pioneer chemist trying to whip up a little gun­powder without a formula. A pilot in a tight spot doesn’t ask questions about aeronautical en­gineering; a pilot in a tight spot asks “now what?” There are times when you don’t need to know the best way to do something. These are times for ballpark figures, for knowing what you probably can get away with.

So while you’re not exactly going to absorb enough information to pass medical assistant training school or anything, some things are kind of cute. Like this one:

Try this: Count the number of times a cricket chirps in 15 seconds, and add 37. No, you didn’t just calculate your age in cricket years – you measured the temperature outdoors in degrees Fahrenheit. You just used a rule of thumb.

I do take issue with the statement: “A hundred years ago, people used rules of thumb to make up for a lack of facts.” I don’t see where this has ended; people still use rules of thumb to make up for lack of facts! I mean, look at evolution! Now THAT’s one urban legend I love to see dismissed.

January: We started off 2008 with a stomach bug. I discovered the wonderful wonders of ginger beer, but got sticker-shock at the store prices. I found a recipe for making it myself! I also found out the hard way what to do if a washcloth is flushed down the toilet. And here’s another little tip about clogged drains. I also did a little research into managing excess (or any) rain for recycling: here’s my rain barrel idea, and here’s how we rigged up our sump pump pipes to irrigate our garden. (Not too many photos with these, sorry– this was before I got camera-fever!). Here’s some thoughts on whole-house surge protection. We had a spectacular, record-breaking January thaw of 70 degrees! That was great. Don’t want to wallpaper but like stripes? Paint them on! It takes a little time, but it’s much more enjoyable than hanging wallpaper.

February: I blogged about my concern over the flooding and water run-off problems plaging New York State, and my own property. NYS has been very negligent with maintaining its infrastructure, and allowing bloated over-development. And the State doesn’t seem to be doing much about the mysterious bat deaths. It was a great month for dwelling on creepy critters– I blogged about the Mother of All Wasp Nests that formed in our maple tree, and reminisced about having to remove a huge bee colony from our bedroom wall (inside the studs). Oh, and if you haven’t bookmarked my post about a formula for removing skunk smell, be sure and do that. You never know when you may need it.

March: March is a soggy month– here are some tips for coping with a wet basement. Here’s our wet basement in action. I was reading headlines that foretold of a coming financial crisis in the banking industry. Here are some posts where I made some calls for thriftier, more resourceful living: with kitchen appliances; avoiding the home improvement magazine temptations; diluting your laundry and dishsoap detergent (and I also dilute my liquid soap in my bathrooms); changing one’s lifestyle; new does not always mean better. My thoughts on curb appeal as we gear up for spring. And is sometimes the case, we got a winter storm warning– for March 28!

April: GARDENING! FINALLY! I spent a lot of time choosing seeds and starting my seeds indoors and prepping my large vegetable garden. I also planted a grape vine, my first! My electrical wiring that I had done last autumn was approved and I got a certificate from the electrical inspector! I was feeling discouraged about my renovations (lack thereof), and reminded myself of my buried treasure. I did a lot of thinking about our society and economy– does money make you happy? And what will happen to our food supply and food costs in this country? And I wondered if I would ever “go Amish”? (I would love to). I also posted a few quick and frugal tips, for keeping your laptop cool, and gardening uses for coffee grounds.

April and May: I slowed down blogging a little, as we were preoccupied with a caterpillar invasion; planting my little seedlings in my flower and vegetable beds (such lovely green!); thinking that American citizens really need to resurrect community living again; watching my gardens grow.

June: Seeing an infomercial got me seething mad about how easy it is to create a serfdom in this country. In the garden, I blogged about treating chlorosis in your young trees. I also blogged about fixing up your paint cans for less messier painting. And I did a post about Our Renovator Story, with links to all the things we have done around here so far. We had an Energy Audit done, no big surprises there– our house is a money pit! Speaking of money pits, I wrote this. And suggested that everyone make one of these. On the light side, my kids made cool Lego models of Jim and Elisabeth Eliot’s mission to the Auca tribe in Ecuador.

In July, my lilies bloomed. Ooooo.

Everything was growing like crazy! My Adirondack Red Potatoes grew! Yum! And I just love the color! We worked on our Secret Garden. I also wrote about the plight of the natural gas mines here in the Northeast. We got our Weatherization Grant job done– wow what a great job!

August: We got some outdoor work done– a beautiful concrete walkway for our Secret Garden. We used a Quikrete mold and it came out very well. I blogged more about thrift and our society, posting about the Planned Obsolescence that corporations afflict us with. I challenged a CNN article about “recession-proof” jobs– uhhh, I don’t think so! If anything, I think all these “crises” have been planned, for governments to gobble up our land and resources. One of my posts about such a thing got posted on the fron page of Alex Jones’ Info Wars website. Who really owns your land?

We installed a French Drain outside to help with the water problems, because we have too much water around here. We walked in our steamy, soggy yard early one morning to find a tiny snake.

September: With the onset of school, I was so thankful I’d installed Cat5 in the walls when I gutted the living room!!! I posted some tips about how to save $$ over the winter (take it from a pro). Now that the days are shorter, make indoors more fun for the kids– glow in the dark paint! We love ours. My back went out again and I got an exercise ball– when I could extract it from the boys!

October was busy, but I did some blogging. I discovered a very cool touch-lamp gadget– I love this! I also did a review of the Temperpedic Mattress– we got one for my bad back. Yours truly was interviewed by a real estate expert, this was fun! I won a video contest with a $500 prize! Snow fell. We had fun with our new kitty, Olivia. Gosh, she’s ADORABLE! I did a post on the secret Underground Chicken Movement, sweeping the country and throwing governments into tizzies!

November: I did a post on winter preparation. I did a paper towel comparison review, in time for the holidays. Results were surprising. My review of a GE upright vacuum gave a thumbs down.

A laminate flooring update (it’s holding up well). DO NOT cover your cold air return vents! I mourned the death of the Yugo… BYE BYE! FINALLY a can opener that works for me! I interviewed the delightful Martha Webb on home staging– read this post before your next open house!! More government tyranny. We’ll see if these kitchen trends come to pass this year *shudder*. I was bored. What’s inside a computer keyboard? The cat discovers the delights of toilet paper, terrific. But she’s so ADORABLE!! VERY cool virtual skylights, I want some!

December: Can’t afford a real tin ceiling? Try this. It works for us! Another cool touch-light gadget, love these things! We got our first bird feeder and made a video for the momentous occasion. And I thought my beagle was bad.
Lake effect snow, in pictures before and after. Times are changing– literally. We got a ton of snow to see the old year out and the new year in.

Whew! I guess I blogged a lot! Here’s to a terrific new year!