Kathy emailed me from a coffee shop this morning, letting me know that authorities are now saying they’re ahead of schedule and they might have power by the 13th.  *blank stare* Just in time for Thanksgiving!  *sigh* However, the rest of her block has power. It appears her line was ripped from the pole by the wind.  Naturally.

So, aside from the fact that she’s going stir crazy and couldn’t possibly stomach another episode of TLC’s “A Baby Story” (courtesy of her aunt’s condo in Coco Beach), she and the bambina are doing just fine.  She asked that I keep everyone abreast of the situation and let you know that she’s doing what she can to stay in contact.  There may be a laptop in the works.  I’ll keep you posted!

Thank you very much for your patience and please don’t hesitate to contact me (Joelle), if I can be of assistance in Kathy’s absence.  Thanks!

Due to Hurricane Wilma, Kathy will be unavailable for a while. Unfortunately, we don’t know how long, but the authorities are saying potentially two weeks until her power comes back on.  South Florida has a 98% power outage and Kathy says they are also asking that residents of Palm Beach boil their water before drinking it.

Kathy’s home, family and furbabies are fine, but this is a terrible disaster and recovery takes time.  We understand that you may be waiting on some projects from from her and she will do her best to get to them as soon as she is able.  If you have an emergency, please email me and I will do my best to help you as soon as I can.  Otherwise, please just hang tight until further notice. 

Thank you very much for your patience. We apologize for any inconvenience.

We make no secret that we are in love with pMachine‘s content management system, Expression Engine.  We use it to run this site!  When I started using it 2 years ago, I was coming out of a bumpy relationship with a big-name blogging platform.  It has a its merit — the latest versions are snazzy!  I still value and recommend it; it’s great software. But, the spark between EE and me was immediate and undeniable.  Publishing was instantaneous, spam was captcha’d, I didn’t have to be a savant to understand it and baby, I was head over heels.

Since then, my affection for EE has only grown.  What was once foreign and exciting has become, to an extent, comfortable and familiar.  And just when I think I know as much as a girl can know, they surprise me.  They added a built-in gallery module, created a separate discussion forum module and best of all, they listen to their users requests when building new releases.  It’s so flexible, I’m often amazed at what can be accomplished with it.

My only real gripe was with finding things in the documentation.  Guess what? They took care of that, too.  And this, ladies and gents, is why we love them.  Check out some of the quick-reference links you can now find in the Expression Engine User Guide.  If you’re new to EE or simply want to learn more, take a look around.  Soon, you’ll have stars in your eyes, too. 

Quick Start Tutorial
Getting Started with Expression Engine
Getting the Best in Technical Support

You can also find these links, along with other helpful sites in our Resources section.  Enjoy! 

It’s about that time again — time to carve pumpkins for Halloween!  I’m a big fan of pumpkin carving, though I suspect I’m even more of a fan of cooking the seeds than anything else.  I definitely appreciate a well-carved pumpkin, though.  Sure, your basic jack-o-lantern is adorable, but I always enjoy those who get really creative.

A fun way to do that is to use pumpkin carving patterns. There are lots of sites out there, but a friend of mine turned me on to Pumpkin Glow, which has so many different patterns, I want to carve a whole patch!  I think my favorite is the “Napoleon Dynamite” pattern.  I think I might need to carve a flippin’ sweet pumpkin this year. GOSH!

Other pumpkin carving patterns:
Pumpkin Masters
The Pumpkin Wizard
Spookmaster

Greetings! I find it hard to believe it is Autumn already. Like Joelle, living in a place where there isn’t much “fall” going on besides the overwhelming Halloween costume display at Target, I still like this time of year. Thinking about it makes me dream of cinnamon pumpkin smells and makes me want to roam around in Williams Sonoma sipping hot mulled cider dreaming up my next pregnant cooking frenzy. Ask any of my friends, I have been craving pumpkin flavored anything for weeks. And candy corn? Bring it on. 

The season this year also means I am at the point of no return with regard to my schedule. I am packed to the gills and cannot take any new work due to my impending maternity leave in December. Officially my maternity leave will start probably a week before Christmas and last through April 1st of 2006, though we will be informally “closed” during December wrapping up client work and of course Christmas presents. I’ll be coming back part time in April while I adjust to the new schedule of a working mommy. But never fear, I will return and hopefully with some overflowing new creativity. As for my day to day schedule right now, I am here my usual full time hours.  I will be out of my office next week from October 13th - 14th and then will be working remotely for a good portion of the following week October 17th - 20th.  I will be immediately available by email during that time. 

Thank you to all my clients for the well wishes with my pregnancy and for keeping me occupied with great projects!