however you found this site, welcome!

The most recent posts on this site are listed in the sidebar. Specific pages with relatively static content are at the top of the sidebar. If this is your first introduction to me, you might want to read the static pages first to get a feel for my interests and passions. To see a list of other websites (mostly blogs) I maintain, check out the “Other Sites” page.

The purpose of this website is two-fold: to allow people who know me to easily find all my projects and interests in just one place, and to provide a platform by which I can establish a sort of “brand” for this name which I have been using for close to ten years now.

If you know me in person, you may be surprised to find my finger in so many pies. If you know me from online adventures only, you may be interested to know how truly boring and mundane my real-time life actually is!

I am a forty-plus mother of two, spouse of one, pack leader if you prefer (my dogs do). I like to garden, sing, paint, draw, play on the computer, write, dream and make pretty things.

I am shy and rather awkward in person, especially in large groups, but I enjoy sitting down with friends over tea, or walking through public gardens and museums. I completely lose my shyness around plants!

I have a college degree, but my only jobs after college have needed no more than a high school diploma and perhaps a class or two of college math. Since soon after the birth of our elder child I have been a full-time mother with occasional temporary work on the side for friends and family.

I have had a small business doing minor web design; and another making greeting cards and small clothing items (currently hand-painted scarves and ties). Those activities are currently on hiatus while I attend graduate school for a Master’s in Teaching.

Some technical details about this site… our domain host is DreamHost, and we use WordPress as the CMS/blog software. WordPress is free, but requires some ability to understand what to upload and how to connect things on your server — probably not for blogging beginners. If you are looking for a domain host, and decide to use DreamHost, there is a bit of a bonus to us if you tell them we sent you. From a personal point of view, we have used them for about three years and they provide good service with only one short downtime that I can remember. Tom handles the technical stuff, but from what I remember early on with the user interface for them it was pretty straighforward and easy to use. For me, easy is the deciding factor!

I have imported previous blog entries from stidmama.blogspot.com and the wordpress blog I kept at the family website — these are not well-labeled, and the timeline overlaps.  But it extends the archives back an extra couple years.

I still occasionally make a tech post on my livejournal site… but now usually cross-post between both when I have something to say about technology.

If you wish to read the story I write, please visit Babblestory.com — The story is also pretty much on hiatus while I am in school.

Welcome again! Sit back with a cup of tea or glass of lemonade, and enjoy!