April 12, 1999

Wow! I'm inspired -- I fixed the darn counter on my /soap index page earlier today, causing like two hits -- since then it's gone to 24 hits. I wanted to make a useful site but with the trouble I had listing it on search engines (which is a much bigger PITA than it was four years ago, lemme tell ya) I didn't know if I was successful or not. Kind of a pleasant surprise. :)

BTW, if you're into hippie angsty chick singers (loose categorization), you should get Ani DiFranco's cd "Little Plastic Castles." I know, her newest one is "Up Up Up Up Up Up" (or however many "Ups" there are in it) but I think I like "Little Plastic Castles" a little better. And not just because of the single "As Is" (because if I was judging based on the singles, I would like "I'm Not Angry Anymore" better). It's catchy. I'm listening to it now. Anyways, I guess it's one of those kinds of cds where you either love it or you hate it. It's good happy driving- with-the-windows-and-sunroof-open-on-a-sunny-day music. :) Well, I'm listening to it now and thought I'd plug it.. Now on to your regularly scheduled diary entry.

OK, so I fixed my counter. My old one had 2772 hits on it. Yay! Moving right along....

Well, I called my old University today to say hi. OK, not really. I called to find out how much I still owe them, and if I could enroll for summer session if I pay them back. Well no, I have to reapply, and it's too late to apply for summer so I have to apply for fall. No biggie... I just thought it would be ok to take a class or two over the summer, now that I have free time. Oh, and I owe them $1200. Thankfully I'm getting a fat refund from Uncle Sam on my taxes -- I guess with the acquisition at work and my salary changes and all they must have deducted too much. Oh well, it still works out in my favor. Muahaha. So I'll finally pay back the Uni and get them off my back, then I can work on the good ol' bank student loans. Speaking of monkeys on the back... Yeehaw.

Oh wait, what's that you say? You're here to read about soap? I suppose I better start talking about soap if I want to see my counter keep going upwards... :)

Well, I finally got the Milk Soaps Swap boxes sent out the other day. What a relief that was. Don't get me wrong, it was fun to run the swap, but the waiting and emailing people to find out where their soaps were was the less fun part. One person never did respond to any emails I sent after she signed up, which disappointed me -- I mean, it's one thing to drop, and that's fine if you have to drop out for some reason, but you could at least acknowledge the emails when people are waiting on you. I thought maybe she lost her email account or something, but then I saw postings on a list from her email address, so I don't know what was up with that. It was a disappointment, anyways. Well, I did learn a little bit about running a swap. First of all, next time I'll run to the post office and get those delivery confirmation slips ahead of time. When I went to mail those things, I waaaaaaited in line to get to the window, and when I finally made it up there the cashier made me go back to the writing table and fill out all the slips and then I had to go back in line after that. Moreover, she didn't even give me enough slips so I had to go back and get more when I was 2 short. That was a little frustrating -- all together it probably took 45 minutes at the post office -- but I think it can be streamlined next time so that it's an easier process. The fun part was cleaning up -- we had styrofoam pellets scattered all over the floor (apparently they make fun cat toys) and cardboard boxes and stuff everywhere.. So after we sent off the boxes, Steve took a walk to get rid of post-office-related-stress and I cleaned house. I threw out the busted boxes from the swap -- you know, one of those boxes came in to me with the side banged in and ripped open? It's a miracle nothing was lost! Good ol priority mail. -- and threw out old boxes I'd been keeping "just in case" and threw out boxes of old Avon brochures. Filled up two of those *huge* black plastic trash canisters out back, just with old boxes and junk. Woo hoo! Then I sat down and listed a couple items on eBay to get rid of them. First I listed all my old Avon samples in one huge lot. That was a pain because I had to sit down and go through everything I had -- and I didn't realize it but I had a *ton* of stuff -- and list it all on the auction. I listed it starting at $10 because I just want to get rid of it. I've got like 4 days left on the auction and the price is up to $51.50. Proof positive that whatever you think is junk, you can sell for an unexpected price on eBay. I mean, I would have been pleased to get rid of it for $10... plus I was going to throw in some other stuff too. Well, the other thing I listed, which was a set of Jenny Craig motivational videocassettes, has no bids yet. If nobody bids on it and the auction closes without selling, maybe I'll relist it at $5. I just want it gone.. Clear some junk out of the house. Might sell some old books and stuff too. It's a good way to get rid of *stuff*. I'm a terrible packrat so I have a habit of keeping everything I get my paws on, which I think drives Steve nuts. He's started complaining lately about how every time I bring a pound of something into the house I have to get rid of a pound of something else. :) Well, I just want to get un-backed-up. Sigh.