Monday, May 23, 2011

Happy Birthday Aidan!

Yesterday was a memorable day for my son, who turned 6 years old. Melanie and Daryll decided to throw him a party at a nearby Chuck E. Cheese and it was a blast. What started out as 5 people turned into 12 as the week went on and plans were made.

Who all came? Aidan, Golf and I,  Mel & Daryll, Caroline, Mom & Dad, Josh, James & Mariko. We got there at noon and Mel had already got us a set of tables with Toy Story napkins, plates and balloons. We got tokens right away and Aidan went off to play while I visited with Mom and Mel. All the men had a great time going back to their boyhood and playing arcade games. :)

Aidan had a chocolate layer cake and TONS of presents! From Mel & Daryll he got a Pirates of the Caribbean poster and Jack Sparrow costume, Mater alarm clock, Toy Story 3 Wii game, and a neat floppy kind of Frisbee.

This morning Aidan woke up to his new clock and he was loving it! He's also got his poster set up right over his bed and it looks fantastic!

Caroline got Aidan a Spirograph, which Aidan absolutely loves. He began using it as soon as we got home and can already make some neat designs.

Mom and Dad got him a set of jammies and some money for his college fund (I have to remember to get that done today!)

Mar, James & Josh got Aidan a Mater's Adventures Wii game and some nori seaweed for rice rolls for his lunches. Yummy! Aidan will probably start playing his new game over the next week. He started his Toy Story game last night, and I'm sure he'll begin his new Mater game too.

Golf and I got Aidan a new Ironman comforter and sheet set, Golf got him a Masked Rider action figure and a Japanese robot he loved as a kid. I got him a 60-piece world map floor puzzle since he loves the big USA puzzle he has.

It was an AWESOME party and one he won't soon forget. What a special day and a big huge THANK YOU to everyone, especially Mellie and Daryll for putting it all together. You're the greatest. :)

Sunday, May 22, 2011

A Night of Fun with Kylie Minogue

For the second time in about a year I got to go see Kylie in concert! This is her APHRODITE LES FOLIES 2011 TOUR.

Caroline got our tickets and we went with her friend Woody and Michelle. We danced and sang along and lost our hearing! LOL! What a great night. :)

Here are some YouTube videos of her concert - not in San Francisco, but other parts of the world, but it is the same show.

Excellent!





Saturday, May 14, 2011

Now a Bi-Monthly Contributor!

I've got my first regular writing gig and I'm very excited about it! Tina over at Shopaholic Mommy and I have collaborated together and worked out an arrangement where I will be writing a bi-monthly column about strollers!

The first article I wrote is about your reviews. Consumer reviews have become so important for both future customers and for manufacturers and marketers. It's a first-hand insight to a person's unique experience with the product and it might be similar to what you may go through if you purchase it too.

I want to know what to expect if I plunk down my cash for a product. And in the case of strollers, it can be several hundred dollars!

So in my first column at Shopaholic Mommy, I talk about the stroller manufacturer Baby Jogger. They are one of the most popular companies on the market today and they paid close attention to the customer reviews on sites like Amazon and Diapers.com, where some reviews were less than stellar and quite consistent with the same problems in a few of their stroller models.

Find out what that problem was, which stroller had that problem and what Baby Jogger did about it in my first column: How Your Stroller Reviews Helped Baby Jogger. Leave a comment when you're done! :)

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Facing My First Challenge

While the world is fixated on Bin Ladin's death a few days ago, I am completely focused on my business and my first problem I've encountered thus.

So on my stroller site I'd been experiencing nothing but roaring success, meeting my goals ahead of the date I set. Then I got hit by a Google algorithm update just before Easter and my traffic drops by a whopping 2/3!

Needless to say, for about a week I was half-paralyzed in shock. While I realize that Google does not owe me a living, I had been working on my site full-time, pouring ALL my energy into it and pushing myself to the maximum to put out the best quality information on the internet. That's saying a lot, considering the crap sites out there, so I was floored when Google deemed my site not worthy of ranking.


So I did the only thing I could do - I did a careful self-audit of my site and fixed a few problems and kept building more pages. I have to have faith that this will all work out.

One successful "infopreneur" had traffic plummet on his site too, a few years ago, and he mentioned how he had faith and kept building. His traffic returned within 3 months and skyrocketed afterward. I have to believe that my site will do the same.

This is my business and the ONLY thing I want to do. I WILL overcome!