Is It Fall Yet and Girl's Bathroom!

Ready for some more whining?? I'm so sick of this weather!!!!!!!!!!!! In Michigan, it's been about 100 degrees for the past 4 or 5 days. Our power went out from Wednesday night until just this morning.

Everyone is or has been sick in our household for the last 3 weeks...besides me (knock on wood). Poor hubby has strep. The girls had relentless fevers for 5 days apiece.

And did you know we sold our house faster than our new house was built? We had to move into a two-bedroom lower flat. BUT something kinda nifty-- I unknowingly moved into a flat between two people I already knew! The first is a Jazzercise buddy I met through a friend. The second is a super cool author that I have met and written about before. Small world!

So really, things have been pretty stressful-- we're cramped, sick, recuperating from the 4 day power outage, and just plain tired of living out of boxes. I just have to keep looking to the new house. It makes me happy. I drive by it every day. Here's what it looks like right now:


At this point, dreaming about decorating and picking out every nuance of this new house is what's keeping me going. I love Nicole Balch's boards, so I thought I would create some of my own.

Here's my first design board! The girl's bathroom. The only bath in the house with a bathtub, actually, or shower curtain. But I found the perfect shower curtain from Pottery Barn Teen. What do you think?


I'm going to try to create a design board for each room in the house, and then I'm going to compile them into a book with the pictures of the construction of the house. I think this will be a good creative project for me. Hope you like it too and will follow along! I know my posting has been sporadic. Thanks for sticking with me. :)

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Miss you all! xo

CAKE TREASURY!

Maisey's Daisey's was sweet enough to feature Girl Land's Buttercream Love earrings in her cake treasury (I want some right now) and even sweeter let me know about it! This plus a very sweet email from a satisfied customer made my day a bit brighter. Especially after having a sick kid (at least we just found out she doesn't have mono...phew) and having my car break down and get towed today. This weekend can only get better, right?????!!!!

P.S. I want that Let Them Eat Cake necklace like stat...

Behold the Kitsch

My eyes! My eyes! This is extreme kitsch overload...even for me! Just finished putting this together. The wreath, Merry Christmas plaque and the pom poms are new, the deer and Santa are vintage. The larger Xmas plaques are hard to find, but I did find them on Etsy. Jennifer of Lulu's Cupcake Boutique was awesome in getting them to me tout de suite. Thanks, Jennifer!

Sorry for the massive overuse of Picnik effects as of late. My camera is crap. I can't take a good picture after sunset to save my life, and the Lomo effect especially really helps. I need to invest in a new camera, but after snooping on Flickr to see what some of my other peeps are using, it's looking like I am going to have to spend some major dough to get something good. Which I may or may not be willing to do. To be continued...

July So Far...

I can't believe it's already July 11. It's been a tad rough around here. V has had bouts of ear infections on and off since December. She had a doc appt yesterday, and spiked a fever of 101. She's on a 3rd (and final-- there are no other) type of antibiotic, and we have an appt with the ENT specialist on Monday. Poor baby-- she seems like she feels ok, but she's been SUUUUUPER clingy. And she's always been a great sleeper, but she woke up at 4am this morning and cried on and off until we got her up at 6:15. Suuuuuuuucks.

I am making an escape tonight to an all-girl's party, however. Eat my dust, Ryan. My friend, Jen, is having a New England clambake tonight. I made some wine glass "charms" with a nautical theme and inspired by Twig & Thistle's downloadable 4th tags.


We've also been eating our weight in...

Oh, something fun though...I got in under the wire as part of Denise's Twilight swap. Fun stuff! I'm kinda freaking though because we have to have our packages out by July 24, and I was thinking I'd have more time. Oh well. Will work out. I have a bid in on something from eBay, and if I get it, I'll be excited.

Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend! It's mugglicious here in MI. Yikes.

I Want to Be the Girl with the Most Cake

Inspired by Kat’s tune-titled blog posts, I have made my own. Well, except it’s a lyric, not a song title, per se.

But I digress.

Photo courtesy of Paula Wirth via Flickr

Yesterday was my birthday (yay me), and it was the first year in which I felt pretty blah about my birthday. We did go to my parent’s, got to have a date night (on Friday) filled with mojitos and bad movies (ugh, Year One…), and I did get a lovely cake decorated with yellow buttercream roses. But it just wasn’t the same. I’m thinking that maybe I am enjoying the girl’s birthdays so much that there isn’t enough excitement left for my own. I find this pretty pathetic. Here’s to making my special day more of a conscious celebration next year. It will be a Monday, so I WILL be taking the day off.

As for my blog post title, I think I won hands down after this weekend. Blurgh. I am down, ladies and gentlemen, but I am not out! Onward to Jazzercise!!!

And speaking of yellow buttercream roses, I love this ♥ And no fat or calories! Yummy!

Photo courtesy of pbrigitte zombuki via Flickr

I Still Don't Like Hockey

The Hockey Gods are stickin' it to me. Last week, I dared admit that I was OVER the whole Red Wings hockey thing goin' on here in metro Detroit. Anywho, I received this email from our babysitter this morning:

"IF YOUR CHEWING GUM, SPIT IT OUT NOW. IT MAY JUST FALL OUT OF YOUR MOUTH WHEN YOUR JAW DROPS.

A FAMILY FRIEND OF MINE (MADDY) SAW SOMEONE VERY SPECIAL ...... AT THE WINGS GAME!

JUST TAKE A LOOK FOR YOURSELF.......

If you will excuse me, I need to go cry. Not only because Maddy got to meet taylor, but also because the wings lost the cup :'("

I totally love our babysitter. She actually makes me look FORWARD to having teenage daughters someday.

I've become somewhat disenchanted with Jazzercise. If you note my Skinny Girl Land chart to the side, you will see a somewhat sudden and drastic weight gain (2.2 lbs in one week?!) Yeahhhh, that would have been the week I Jazzercised 5 times in a row. Screw that. I went only 3 times the following week, and I lost 3.6. So methinks I'll be sticking with the 3x/week. I don't even care if it was water weight, muscle weighs more than fat, I would have lost more than the 3.6 the following week, blahdiddy blah. I ALMOST WALKED INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC. That will not happen again.

Final note, almost done compiling my 2009 Girl Land Summer Soundtrack! Tune in later this week...I know you are all holding your breath (heh). Happy week. xo

So This is Three??????

UGH! We had a pretty nice (but exhausting) evening. Q chose to go to McDonald's-- gross. And then the junk food continued, but goodness if it didn't look pretty...

The cupcake got a little warm and goopy in my car. I realized half way home that my seat warmers were on. I really love Kroger frosting. The Wreckless Eric cake will be eaten Sunday when family comes over.

Anywho, Q got a rad Yo Gabba Gabba microphone, lots of books, and an mp3 boom box with big ol' kid size buttons. After which, she was a total sh*t. No thank yous (she's always great about saying thank you, but apparently not to her parents), whined about everything, and was basically getting belligerent towards bedtime.

My friend told me once that they're the "Terrible 2's" but there's no term for the 3's because they're THAT bad. Sigh. Well, Q obviously got the memo on that one in advance.

On a craftier note, I made little gifties for Q's daycare buddies for her party today-- these personalized animal rummy totes with matching bookplates, some rainbow goldfish, pencils, and Skittles. I had fun with it. I hope everyone liked them! The tag read, "I turn 3 today! Thanks for being my friend. Love, Quinn."

That Sounds About Right

So typical Monday. I get home, I'm tired and crabby. I feel like I live in squalor. Everything is in chaos. Quinn eats her dinner (crab quiche and grape tomatoes) and Ryan gives her a few orange segments-- she starts choking on a piece because she takes WAY too big of bites...and she pukes all over me as I'm eating my dinner. Lovely. All night long I got to hear, "Sorry I puked on your pants, Mommy."

I started making some glitter houses like last year's. Glad Amy nudged me in the right direction because my heart wasn't into it. Until tonight! I like this one, and I do think it looks better in person, but I'm wondering if it's too plain or too gaudy. I like that perfect mix, ya know? I owe the color combo to Sweet Jessie. And the little girl in the doorway came from some wrapping paper she sent me last Xmas-- I printed it on vellum. It looks cute with a little flicker LED light inside. I couldn't get a good pic of it with the lights off though. I feel like there should be something around the windows, but I don't want to overdo it. The windows are also vellum that let the light through and they do look less plain in person.

So I'll have two like this one at DUCF, two like the last year's, and one medium size that I'm not sure of the color combo yet. Maybe a red house with a white roof? Seems so crazy to be talking about Xmas since we haven't even seen Halloween yet!

Speaking of, we took the girls to Boo at the Zoo this weekend. We were hemming and hawing up until the very last second. Stopped at Pronto for some booze to warm our cockles (um, us, not the girls) and then proceeded to the zoo. Quinn decided she liked saying, "Here you go" instead of "Trick or Treat". Priceless. Vivian was just all around pissed. We had a snowsuit for her with ears on it as her costume was being altered, but she wasn't having it. So Ryan zipped her up in his jacket, poor baby.

Hope everyone survived their respective Monday. When you get puked on, the week can only improve, don't you agree?

One more thing-- I have a new term here in Girl Land bloggy world, COO (= Currently Obsessing Over). Today I'm COO the upcoming Twilight soundtrack. I thought I was too old to appreciate Paramore, but then I read the lead singer is 34 (Older than me! Yay!), and their song, Decode, is super catchy. I will be buying the soundtrack on November 4 after I cast my vote (EEK). Another nifty draw is that I read today that Robert Pattinson's voice (he sings a song on it) is like a young Jeff Buckley's. SOLD! Actually, I think the latter's songs Everybody Here Wants You or New Year's Prayer would have been lovely and fitting for the soundtrack. Or Fiona Apple's The First Taste. I told you...COO emphasis on the first O.

100th Etsy Sale!

Wow, I can't believe it. Who would have thunk it last January that I would have sold 100 items by now? Not a record-breaking feat by any means, but something I am personally proud of. I still love Etsy as much (if not more) than I did the day I found it. Sigh.

And my 100th sale was a lovely experience. Katie of Skunkboy Creatures (dahhhling shop) bought one of my Welcome to Girl Land trinket boxes. Her 5 year old daughter liked it so much that Katie requested a special one for her! I changed up the story in the box and popped her name in. I hope she likes it. She also got a few extra goodies because she was my #100: a little Hello Kitty shopping bag (you know how I loves my kawaii!), personalized keychain (do 5 year olds carry keys?), a homemade hair tie smaller for kid hair, a heart pen, and an owl pencil eraser. Yippee skippee.

Do you have wonderful weekend plans? Tomorrow is swimming with Quinn, Amy, and her daughter, Ramona. Afterwards, a Dream Cruise party. For you locals, I'm sure you all know the Woodward Dream Cruise is this weekend. UGH. I so loathe it. When you say you loathe the Dream Cruise around these parts, people look at you with this LOOK. Like you just said you worship the devil or drive a foreign car or hate Crocs (no, I don't worship the devil). We usually try to get out of town since we live like 1/2 mile from Woodward, and it sucks because you can't even CROSS it. Dummies block the intersections. It's ridic.

OSB Update: It is onnnnnnn...I so lost 3 lbs this week (whoop whoop). I'm so excited. Makes me *almost* want to exercise after going going going for 14.5 hours straight all day every day (wah, poor me). But two things: our WW leader gave us these WW brand mini snack bars to try-- Peanut Butter Bliss. I almost peed my pants they were so good. One WW point. And found this recipe from Sarah who found it from Turkey Cookies, and I finagled to make it points/diet- friendly. I could eat 1/4 of the entire thing, and that would be only 5 pts:

Grammie's Zucchini Quiche

4 c. thinly sliced zucchini

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 T. butter (instead of 2 T.)

1/2 cup Egg Beaters (instead of regular eggs)

2 tsp. dried parsley flakes

1/2 tsp. garlic powder, dried basil, oregano, salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 c. part skim shredded mozzarella (instead of full fat)

1 tsp. mustard

Saute zucchini and onion in butter until tender. Whisk the eggs, parsley, salt, garlic powder, basil, oregano, and pepper together. Whisk in mustard. Layer zucchini and cheese in pie pan. Pour egg mixture over top. Bake uncovered (yet with a pan underneath so your oven stays clean) at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until knife in the center comes out clean. Let stand for five minutes and serve.

Really not major changes. I doubt you'd even miss the stuff omitted. I'm going to make it this weekend and let you know how it turns out. Yummers!

Sick of Pee

Ugh. The smell is permanently in my nose. Between my kid, and my two RETARDED cats, I can't get away from it. I shouldn't say that-- Q is doing great...just a few dribbles here and there. My cats on the other hand. They've decided they like to piss on the part of the plastic cat pan liner that sticks out. So disgusting. This is one of THE ONLY times I wish I were pregnant again. So I don't have to clean the fargin' litter boxes. Bleh!

How was your weekend? Ours flew by, and I was too lazy to take any pics. Saturday was chock full of fun. My loverly friend, Katie, and her 3 super cute kids came all the way from Kalamazoo, and we ordered in pizza and went to the zoo. She's a great mom-- I need lessons from her. And the girl is sickeningly gorgeous. And what makes her more so is that she doesn't know it.

[Hi Kate! I need pics if you have any!] Don't you love it when your real-life friends read your blog??? It cracks me up for some reason (Danielle...and Shelly...and Amy...Ginny...).

Anywho, after the zoo, my couz came over to make Pancake Puffs for Quinn. Have you seen this pan? They were good, but I was challenged in the flipping department.

Then we were off to a swim party hosted by yours truly! I work for a local municipality, and I won a family swim party at the city pool at an employee appreciation lunch last year. The weather and turnout was great (38 people in all!), and my kids were SOOOOOOOO exhausted at day's end. This post is short on pics, so here's a Polaroid emulsion I did from a slide from 1960 that was labeled, "Rosamund". Very pool party-esque.

One more week of freedom before back to work! Where did the summer go???

When It Rains, It Pours

In a good way, this time! Look at MORE gifties that sweet Naomi sent! I knew I was getting some Cram Cream goodies from Naomi's bloggy contest, but there were MORE treats inside! A hedgehog/mushroom onesie for V (from one of my faves, Maya Elise Boutique), some Glitter Workshop barrettes/bobbies for Quinn, gnomey hedgie postcards for ME and some yum orange choco soap too! Also, the Cram Cream key cover and cup. Quinn absconded with the cup and soap, so it's missing from the photo, but you can see the cup here! Topped off by a darling vintage baby card. I love it. Thank you sooooo much for everything, Naomi! What a sweetheart.

Ryan took this grainy photo of me and Vivi yesterday, and I liked it. Not very flattering, but captured my mood entirely-- exhausted but happy. Dig my sausage fingers. I'm retaining water STILL! Still can't wear my wedding ring.

One last thing-- I finally sold a set of Wee Berry Push Pins. I've had these guys for like a year with none sold at shows or in my shop. The Etsy pic is fuzzy, and I'm too lazy to retake. Anywho, packed them up and mailed them with a few vintage paper coasters. From my mother's kitchen drawer no less! They've totally been in there since the late 70s, early 80s, so I finally asked for them. I so love them!

Waiting for Q to wake up from her nap. We went to the swim club this morning, and it was CLOSED. Poor kid. Apparently, they don't open till 3 before school is let out. So we're going to try again at 3 sans Vivi. It's just too hot out there! Can you believe 88 degrees so far? I'm such a wuss.

Here's hoping for a cooler weekend! Have a happy one!

I'm Here!

Sorry for the hiatus in posting! I have to say I've been a pretty miserable person lately, and I get tired of hearing myself whining-- so I can't imagine that YOU all want to hear it. Now I have a cold too. Dagnabit. But enough about that...

So I took a few pics of Q's room. I'm so lazy that I haven't really finished it up. I need more stuff for the shelves, but only a handful of her books will fit in the built-ins. I also want to buy her a carrying case for her records. Haven't found anything great yet.

I like this area. Still need to add details. I have a gnome embroidery I want to do on linen, and my dad gave me a skeleton key from my grandma's house that I want to hang up too...

Here's her kitchen. I'm a tad bummed about the clock. It's really hard to see the hands from more than like a foot away. I even painted the hands black (instead of gold). No difference really...

And I don't know what to do with the curtains. Right now, they are just the heavy brown ones we had when it was our bedroom. I bought white swiss dot, but I'll need to get darkening shades for them. Don't quite know what to do.

Just a few more...

That's about it. We rented Sweeney Todd and After the Wedding. We are about 3/4 done with Sweeney Todd (tried to get it in at naptime), and it's good! Ryan and I saw the play about 11 years ago. One of our first official dates!

Happy weekending, all!!! xo

Can’t Sleep

This insomnia thing is getting old. Last night, I was plagued by my precious pregnancy congestion and had horrible dreams. Found this print on Etsy which illustrates my feelings to perfection! Isn't it lovely???


Didn’t help that Q was talking in her sleep all night and that we’d just watched Ghost Hunters before bed. As an aside, when asked this morning who she was talking to, she replied, “A grandpa”. EEK!!!

Also didn’t help that I couldn’t help thinking about something horrible that happened—one of Q’s buddies at daycare was pulled out at the end of last year because of his parent’s financial situation. Then I found out yesterday that his daddy committed suicide the day before Easter. Not like I even knew the man (he was 30) or even knew his name—only enough to say hi, but it kills me to think of that little boy (he’s 3) without a dad and what his future holds. Really terrible. Ok, sorry, don’t slit your wrists, y’all…

On a more uplifting note for me anyway, there is something kinda nifty that’s cropped up even if I don’t end up being involved. The said nifty thing will be occurring when I am only 1 week from delivering V, so it may not work out, but I will give more details as things progress…sorry to be so mysterious. Just don’t want to jinx anything. I’ll give you a clue though (even though it will probably confuse you more than anything seeing as I don't knit OR crochet!):



Hope everyone has a loverly weekend! We have swim lessons and then a fun playdate scheduled with Amy and Miss Ramona tomorrow afternoon. Oh, and thanks for all the comments and emails about Ryan’s car accident. He’s A-ok. At this point, our deductible and 3 weeks of having to pay for a rental is our worst problemo for which I’m grateful. Also, the d-bag neighbor removed his upside down shed. Yippee!!! Life is good.

The Good+, The Bad- & The Ugly!

+My new shipping label prepared by Lisa! I am so impressed. My regular graphic design go-to gal is getting married this month (the nerve!). So I did an Alchemy request instead, and found Lisa who whipped this up really quickly…and CHEAP. I should be able to do stuff like this myself, but I really need a book or take a class for my Photoshop which ain’t happenin anytime soon.

+My mother-in-law is staying with us this week to watch Q because her daycare is closed for Spring Break. So she made chicken souvlaki last night. Tonight is tacos. Ahhhhhh. I don’t cook like ever, so it has been nice.

+I had a surprise switch in docs at my 34 wk appointment today. It was with a man OB. Thank God no pelvic exam needed today! I didn’t want more people than necessary checking out my biznass, please and thank you.

+Dexter is on Amazon Unbox just in case I miss an episode. If you have Tivo, Amazon Unbox is so cool!

-All my maternity shirts are getting too small on me, and I refuse to buy more with only 5 weeks to go. Not a pretty sight.

-My boss told me I looked like an Easter egg on Monday (I had a pink sweater on). Yesterday, he said I looked like an egg yolk (I had a yellow shirt on). I told him to get the eff out of my cube because his stripey shirt was making my astigmatism go zany. D*ck.

-My poor dear friend, Amy, is 3 days past her due date. C'mon kiddo! We're all waiting!!!

! My sausage fingers, heartburn, pregnancy congestion, and mostly my super gross CANKLES (I can’t believe I’m sharing this with you). I retained water like this when PG with Q, but it was late summer…not early spring!

! Grody Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is organizing his Legal Defense Fund. Get the fudge out of office, you scumbag!!!

Crafters for Obama!

So we made a good-sized donation last night, and I wanted it to go to C for O, but they were having server issues, and it didn't even take me to the C for O donation page. It just went into the general pot. Phooey. Oh well. I just think this is such a great undertaking on Julie's part! It's all pretty exciting.

NKOTB (OMG)

Not sure how I feel about this. A little old. Weird. Nostalgic. EMBARASSED thinking of how much time, money, and energy from my teenage years went into my NKOTB devotion. Shudder, shudder. Yeesh.

And if I don't feel old enough, we gave away a mattress set to a guy from our I.T. department last week (for free-- just to get it out of the house). So the guy calls my friend in another department to ask her if there's a restaurant I like, so he can give me a gift certificate-- very nice. Then he goes on to say it was nice of me to give away the mattress and for my son to help him load it on his van. Leigh says, "Her son?". He says, "Yeah, her teenage son". Ummmmmm, yeahhhhhhh. That would be my husband. My friend said she almost pissed her pants laughing.

First of all, Ryan does not look *that* young (although he always gets carded, and I never do). But second of all, I don't think I look old enough to have a teenage-- wait, theoretically, I guess I would only have to be 3 years older to have had a 16 year old son at age 20. Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I'm going to sleep now. Don't wake me. Ever.

The Barfalonies

Know what's worse than vomiting for 7 hours straight? Being nearly 6 months pregnant and vomiting for 7 hours straight. My darling Q passed the barfalonies on to me. She hurled once on Saturday and was done. I, on the other hand, thought I was dying yesterday. Today, I'm much better although I had to go to the doctor because I have a urinary tract infection too. Lovely!

But I walked into my doc's office (who is also Q's doc), and I see my good friend, Cindy, sitting there! She was also feeling under the weather, but we had a nice time chatting for a bit and trying not to breathe on each other. She and I have the same general prac as well as OB. Weird.

And on the way to pick up my multiple prescriptions, I found an estate sale! I was so bummed about missing the one yesterday, so this was a nice consolation. I didn't find too much, but a few cute things (more pics here). Hope I didn't give everyone there the barfalonies too...

Oh! And look what I won on eBay yesterday for Quinn's room! It's a Hansel and Gretel nursery lamp. I am bidding on something else as well, but I don't want to jinx it, because it is FABOOOOOO, let me tell you!!!! Her room is coming together, but still a WIP. I may take a few pics this weekend though...

Anyone??

So I thought it would be fun to do this contest...the lovely Colleen is the only person to play so far!!! I've got good vintage and handmade stuff available here, people!!! For free!!! Don't make me beg (hee hee).



On another whiny front, I have my first NPC (non-paying customer) on Etsy. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, but she placed a rather sizeable order. Sigh. It's been three days, and I finally decided to relist these three items above and request cancellation of the order.

I am, however, thankful for my wonderful health, family, and good luck in general (knock, knock, knock on wood). You cannot believe the amount of bad luck that has befallen some of my friends, their siblings, their teenage daughter's boyfriends, their husbands and daughters, etc. I know they will all muddle through and be ok in the end, but they shouldn't have to!! Really, I thank my lucky stars every day!

Et Tu, eBay?

I have to give you all a warning. I have never EVER had a problem with eBay ‘lo these many years I have used it. Well, until this weekend. I had to have this egg nog bowl and mugs. I was going to buy Naomi’s but then I saw the whole set and decided I “needed” it. For what, I have no idea.

So my advice to all you eBay buyers is this. Before bidding, you apparently need to confirm shipping with the seller (even if it is clearly indicated on their listing) because while sellers are “encouraged” to indicate proper shipping charges, current eBay policy does not mandate that their invoice reflects the shipping charges that were quoted on their listing. I ended up paying almost $5.00 more than was quoted on the listing page. So anywho, all, buyer beware.

Edit: I have calmed down *a bit* and after reading my post again, I felt like a total crazy woman. Therefore, this has been edited down a bit to convey my intended "warning to ebay buyers" only. :) Oh, and to show you my cute egg nog set. Sorry for freaking out. Ommmmmmm, ommmmmmmm, ommmmmmm.

It's Not Me, It's You, Prison Break

Prison Break, this is painful, but we have to end this thing. I know that sometimes one cannot control the direction that his network has decided to take, but my love for you (well, more like for Wentworth) just isn't enough this time. How you could just suck me in and make promises to me like you did? After all the time I'd invested in you and how I stuck up for you when people wanted to know how a "Prison Break" could be stretched into three seasons...what did I get for it? I'll tell you what I got! Sara's head in a box!!! And you know that if you hadn't killed her now, it would have been done later this season-- let's not fool ourselves. I thought I could forgive you when you killed off Tweener last year, but it still hurts. Bottom line is this, PB-- you should know that I had Tivo'ed your last two episodes, but I never watched them. And tonight, I finally had the strength to erase them.

You're dead to me, Prison Break. Forget you ever knew me.

(I don't know what's sicker-- the fact that I'm such a TV junkie or that I took the time to write this post).