Link Scraping, Hyperesthesia and Other Wonders of Modern Life

This week, I completely geeked out over a solved problem.

I LOVE problem solving. I loved Nancy Drew and have always considered myself to be a pretty good detective. I'm good at what a friend and I call pattern recognition.

Most things that need to be figured out follow a pattern. If you can see the pattern, you can solve the problem, be that problem some psychotic human behavior, psychotic animal behavior or mechanical or software issues.

I won't bore you with the details of the solution to my problem, but if you run a business Facebook page (or a dozen, as do I), you've dealt with the issue of link previews being generally bolloxed 9 times out of 10. By some small miracle, I crossed paths with someone who knew a workaround and I was all...

Really. That's footage of me.

I have little to no self control.

Anyway, as if to humble me, what immediately followed this discovery was my corrupted video file, so the universe was all - BOOYA - even Steven, lady.

But I rallied, and re-filmed for you today. We can't let the electrons keep us down.

Now I'm kind of a dingbat and I initially forgot to pre-order the sneak peek host sets from the new catalog (email me if you need one) - and so I had to place a second order to get this GORGEOUS new set called Best Thoughts. It was screaming out for some no line watercolor.

So I screamed back.

Isn't that a great image? I love how big it is and all the coloring possibilities. After I was done, the image sort of reminded me of a heat map, and this card I did some time ago. You should read that post anyway, because it has an important message in it. :)

Here's the rest of the set:

These new scripty fonts are the bomb. And I love big, bold images.

So this video actually worked. You can see a little more about the Zig Clean Color markers and this stamp set (and my name for the flower), finally. It's a quickie - so tell your boss you're on a conference call and just watch it.

Listening to Splotchy attempting English words at the top of his voice as I type reminds me of another discovery this week. Splotchy has hyperesthesia. (This is not the discovery - I knew this just a few weeks after we got them.) We suspect that their mom or dad was Siamese, because of their facial features and the hyperesthesia. We always thought that Maddie didn't have it because she doesn't have the twitching/rolling coat part and some of the other symptoms, but I finally found an article that explains that her obsessively grooming the tip of her tail until she looks like some weird punk rock cat with poor salon care - that's hyperesthesia too. We always thought it was anxiety, but this makes so much more sense.

The genes never lie.

I just thought some of you pet owners would want to know about that odd quirk in the Siamese gene pool - even as remote as it must be with these two little knuckleheads.

OH - and things are happening in the garden - we have both tomatoes and squash already.

These are lemon squash - a variety we've never tried before.

And these are my beloved Sun Gold tomatoes - they are the best tomatoes on earth in my opinion. We loved our Sweet Millions last year too - especially because we were getting 30ish per day - but the Sun Golds are the best flavor I think. We also have two Black Krim plants - which I think is the best flavored full size tomato. Last year I bought a plant which was labeled as a Black Krim but was a horridly dull, bland beefsteak cousin. This year, we've grown from seed, because that was a waste of water and time.

Our yard is nearly completely shaded, so it's really amazing the difference in progress between my plants and my sister's plants - she has a spot in a full sun community garden and is much farther along.

Our salsa garden is also progressing nicely - and my Thai pepper plant has about 100 chiles on it - so I'll be making some sweet chile sauce soon.

We learn things every year, so I'm looking forward to what this year brings.

I hope you have a safe and relaxing Memorial Day weekend, and enjoy all the blessings of the price paid.

Loveyameanitbye.