Donna Andrews

Shoe freaks of the world, unite! Somewhere else!

One of the great mysteries of cyberspace--at least my small corner of it: why do so many people trying to sell shoes seem determined to spam my blog? I have the blog set so I see all the comments that are posted, and while Typepad does a decent job of filtering out most of the spam, a few make it though.  And they're nearly all about shoes. 

Oh, not overtly about shoes.  They'll post some vague, seemingly innocuous comment.  "Very, very well done" or “THIS IS A REALLY QUALITY POST. I FIND THIS INFORMATION THROUGH GOOGLE. GREAT JOB!!!” or, more poetically, “The road chosen in yesterday, please not return your head again and again. Regardless it ever gave …”  (These are actual quotes of  spam comments posted on--and now removed from--my blog.) And I will frown, and look down at the poster's name. And it will be something like "Discount [Brandname] Shoes" or "[Brandname] Chaussures." Or maybe the poster's name will be normal or at least innocuous, but there's the link to the website--www.[brandname]shoes.com.  Arrant spam.

Is it just me? Are the spam trolls under the misapprehension that I am someone whose blog draws an audience of fine footwear aficionadas?  Because anyone who's been paying attention would know that thanks to a badly healed broken toe, I've been living in Crocs the past couple of years, only recently acquired a pair of athletic shoes that I can wear without agony, and wouldn't know a designer shoe if it kicked me in the tailbone. Any shoe freak who finds her way to my blog would quickly give up in disgust and go elsewhere.

And I delete all the shoe spam as soon as I find it. In fact, I don't just delete it, I report it as spam.  They're wasting their time, and mine. And their time is their own, but I'm really tired of spending mine deleting them.

So is it just me?  Or is the entire blogosphere inundated with shoe spam???

 

Let there be light, and Wii

The power went out while my nephews were here enjoying a spot of Wii gaming.  They weren't altogether thrilled at having their screen time curtailed, but once they realized there wasn't anything I could do about it, we settled down for a cutthroat game of Parcheesi. 

What really cracked me up were the things they didn't realize I couldn't do for them.  "Can we have some macaroni and cheese?" I keep Annie's organic microwavable mac and cheese on hand, so normally that's a no-brainer of a snack, but I explained that if the power was out, the microwave wouldn't work.  Could I bake this cookie mix into cookies?  No power. After I vetoed a couple more impossible suggestions, and plyed them with what reasonably healthy cold snacks I had on hand, inspiration struck.  "Would you like a pizza?  I could order a pizza!"

Yes, they would love a pizza.  But instead of being able to walk over to my computer and order online, as I usually do, I had to find the phone book and look up the number.  I was over by the window, running my fingers down the fine print when power returned.

And there was much rejoicing.  And I fixed macaroni and cheese.

 

A small mystery solved

I've solved a small mystery.  I discovered embarrassingly late that I had NOT registered for Bouchercon 2011. And with a convention I regularly attend, I always try before the end of the event to register for the next one--how had I missed registering for St. Louis while in SF in 2010?

Fortunately I figured this in out time to register for St. Louis and be included in the programming.  And because I am a con addict, while I was in the dealer's room in St. Louis, I made sure to register for the Bouchercons in Cleveland (2012), Albany (2013), and Long Beach (2014).  I'd have registered for Raleigh (2015) if I'd found them.

Then, shortly after I returned home, Margery Mogg, the Cleveland registrar, told me that I'd already registered with them. So I didn't forget to register for the next Bouchercon while I was in SF, I just got confused about which one came next.

This time can we lose the mosquitos?

It seems to be raining again.  It rained last night.  It's supposed to rain again tomorrow.  After that, Weather.com predicts a whole week of partly cloudy or mostly sunny, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Meanwhile, my yard is a sodden morass of red clay and mud.  Evidently actual grass doesn't like this much rain, although the weeds revel in it.  Making a mental note to discuss core aeration with my lawn guy.  Also reseeding, organic weed control, and hell, maybe even resodding.

I can tell that either I didn't remove the little black rubber plugs from the drainage holes in some of the planters on my deck or those planters need additional holes drilled, because there's standing water in them.  I should be emptying water and drilling.  In fact, I should be going around emptying all the little nooks and crannies that have filled up with rain, because I don't think we've had a frost yet, and they're not predicting one any time soon, and mosquitos could still be breeding in all those little pools and puddles.

Instead, I'm making a list.  One of those useless but amusing lists that always seem more interesting than whatever we're supposed to be doing.

Creatures I will not be taking on my ark (if it comes to that)

1. Mosquitos
2. Ticks
3. Bedbugs
4. Stink bugs
5. Slugs
6. Emerald Ash Borers
7. Japanese Beetles
8. Cockroaches
9. Poison ivy
10. Fleas
11. Kudzu
12. Ragweed
13. Pigeons
14. Chiggers
15. And (sorry, Bambi-lovers) the Virginia White-Tail Deer

Happily accepting suggestions for other flora and fauna we'd like to see less of.