Christy’s Ramblings

www.petresearch.net is a pet resource site that Jason and I started up about a year ago. It’s come a long way in that year and started out as just a pet project (no pun intended) and has grown to be a valuable resource. We have spent the last several weeks revamping the site and adding in user pet blogging capabilities, a discussion forum and other hands on features, with more to come in future releases. If you’re a fellow animal lover, come check us out!

A screenshot of the site would have been a cleaner image, but that would be cheating for Project365, now, wouldn’t it?

If you are reading this, and if you are a regular blog reader here, then you have already noticed the change in site theme. I tend to change my themes often, but I wanted a theme that I could better personalize with my own photography, but still have a clean feel to it and have an additional column to work with.  So voila! All the header images are made up of my own personal photos and randomly rotate on refresh.  They are mostly my wildlife and pet shots, as those are my favorite subjects.    More will be added as new favorite shots are acquired. It’s actually the same theme I use for my PetResearch blog, but configured a bit differently.  I have a few other changes to  make, but this is the bulk of it.  Enjoy!

Wow, it’s been a busy week.  Work has been hectic, stressful and crazy for the last week with no end in sight.  I’m reaching major deadlines for my day job and for my side business and it’s really keeping me on my toes.  We’ve gone into mandatory overtime for the next two months for a project implementation at work  and I’m struggling to catch up with another deadline for one of the Mesker side business projects.  On top of that I have two agency visits this week to Eastern Kentucky, which means another over night trip (had one the week before last, also).  But at least it should be interesting - it’s a part of the state I’ve never been to before and I plan to take my camera with me for some sight seeing opportunities!

Luckily we got to go hang out with some good friends last night.  It’s amazing how a few hours with good company can de-stress the body!  I love my friends!

On a side note, we just launched another blog project this week…sort of a pet project (no pun intended!) call PetResearch.net.  This is a joint effort between Jason and I to publish some of the research we’ve done over the many years each of us have had animals and pets.  It will range anywhere from the average household of dogs and cats and span out to pocket pets (rats, mice, gerbils, etc) and also going into wildlife rehabilitation and capture and release tips.  It’s still work, but it’s a break from the everyday work that both of us do, to an extent, in that we really have a passion for it and enjoy it.

And on that note…it’s back to work for me!

Welcome to Kentucky - where if you don’t like the weather, just stick around for a few days, it’ll change!  Here it is, the beginning of January when it’s usually beginning to hit the bitterly cold temperatures, and I’m sitting on the screened in porch with my laptop,  in my pj’s, drinking coffee, blogging and listening the birds chirping like it’s a nice spring morning.  At 9:00 am it was 59 degrees.  The only thing keeping it from being warmer is the overcast skies that will bring in the thunderstorms later this afternoon.

The dogs are getting a kick out of it, too.  When it’s nice like this we leave the back door open so they can come in and out as they please.  I think they spend a lot of the day going in and out just because they can!

Yup, my kind of weather.  Anything to be outside and I’m happy!  So if you’re in the Kentuckiana area, get outside and enjoy because snow is in the forecast for Wednesday!

Welcome 2009!  It’s going to be an interesting year.  Portia turns 16 in a couple of weeks, Jason is working for himself full time and I’m vowing to get in shape - and am actually going to do it this year.  Business is booming, friends are plentiful and life is good!

Speaking of friends, we had a great turnout for the New Year’s party last night.  I think we had about 30 people in the house.  It’s been a while since we’ve thrown a New Year’s party and we had a blast!  The night went so fast, as it always does when having fun.  We slept in until 9:30 this morning, cleaned up from the party aftermath and are focusing the rest of the day on vegging out and relaxing - a rare occurance for us.  I’m relaxing so much that I changed out of one pair of pajamas in trade for another pair of pajamas!  Can’t beat comfort.

Some other miscellaneous updates.  Jason has started his new finance blog called Understanding Finances.  This is something he’s been wanting to do for quite some time and I’m glad he finally got it started.  Also, Emily, my mother-in-law, started her own blog for her wonderfully delicious recipes.  You don’t want to miss out on the Marvelous Recipes blog!  Both blogs are highly recommended…no bias at all, nope. 

All the Mesker critters are doing well.  Pip the mouse is growing, but still isn’t big enough to go in a cage.  We have discovered that Pip is a girl, so at least we can stop calling her s/he.  She prefers to keep to herself for the most part and mainly comes out at night to play and eat.  She’s a bit intimidated by Hazel, one of the pet store mice who is the biggest girl in the cage, but I think in time they will get along just fine in the long run.  I can put my hand in the cage now without freaking them all out too badly, so progress is being made.  I hope to have more photos soon.

That’s my update for now.  Happy New Year to all!  I hope 2009 brings you much peace and happiness.

Welcome to my new blog home!

After pondering for several months on what to do with my personal site, I finally decided to combine my site and blog into one place/domain. The best way I found to do this was to set up a Wordpress blog/site (sorry Blogger!) and keep everything in one place. I will be adding more to the site, but for now I have everything that I had at Blogger moved over.

Anyone that has me in their Blogroll or link lists, please update your links to point to my new forever home at http://christy.mesker.us.

This is a list of links that are either mine, friends, family or those I frequent often.  I’m sure more will be added as the days go on.

My Sites

• Delicious Bookmarks
• Facebook Profile
  
• Flickr Photostream
  
• Garden & Home - Crafts, Recipes, Gardens, Home Decor & More
  
• Linked In Profile
  
• Louisville Photography Collective Profile
  
• Pet Research - Pet Health Tips and Care
  
• Follow Me on Twitter
  
• Web(foo), Inc
  

Friend’s Links

These are sites that are owned by family, friends and acquaintances.

• Dances with Rats
• D.S.E.
• Fotographic
• From the Silicon to the Tanana Valley
• Geo’s Interests & Happenings
• Jason A’s Videography
• Jason’s Flickr
• KC Expression
• Korrie York
• Marvelous Recipes
• Michael Lamsfuss
• Pig’s Tails
• Rob Metzger Photography
• Tails Blography
• The Artist’s Eyes
• The MacGirl*

Photography Sites

• Digital Photography School
• Louisville - City of Possibilities (on Flickr)
• Louisville Photography Collective
• Photojojo
• Scott Kelby - Photoshop Insider
• Strobist
• What the Duck

I’ve decided that I work too much to blog about anything interesting.  Thank goodness camping season starts this month!  We’re hoping to go camping at the end of April with a gang of friends at Green River…should be a good time!  I haven’t been to Green River since I lived there oh so long ago.  We’ve actually got our camper up for sale in hopes of getting one that will better meet our needs.  We’d like one with a slide-out and more storage space.

So I finally decided it was time to enter the lovely world of blogging. I love reading friends blogs, and even some techy blogs, so why not?

A little about me to start things off. I’m currently 31 years old and live in Kentucky with my husband, Jason, and my daughter, Portia. We have 3 dogs (Hardy, Blue & Lois Lane), one cat (Big Worm) and one rabbit (Oreo, aka: Bunn). I used to have pet rats up until a couple of months ago. Great little pets, but it was time for a rat break after 12 years and too much heartache.

I work for a local insurance company as a web developer/web focus admin/programmer. I also have my own business in web development. I named my company after my dog, Blue. In my spare time I love to try out new crafts and hobbies and improve on others, namely scrapbooking, glass etching, rubber stamping and photography.

One of the big reasons I wanted to start blogging is to capture our soon to come camping expeditions. We recently purchased a travel trailer so we can go camping with our family, friends and furry critters.

Much more blogging and photography to come!