And sure… in today’s modern World of the Future, most people are never further than an email or instant message away. But emailing someone isn’t the same as talking to them, of being able to hear their voice from across the thousands of miles that separate you. Unfortunately, calling overseas (or at least calling over the seas surrounding the US… maybe other seas are different) can get really expensive, really fast.

At that point, phone cards start to become a truly viable alternative. I’ve always been annoyed by phone cards in the past – it was yet another thing to lug around in my wallet. But phone cards purchased from GetMeCallingCards.com are different. Their system is entirely online. You buy the cards online, then redeem them just by calling their toll-free number (which I’d just add to my cell’s phone book), entering your pin, and dialing the number you want to connect to. They take care of the rest. And better yet, their online system makes it a cinch to find low calling rates by comparing dozens of phone card providers to find the best price.

Anne is back in the states now (yay!), but it’s still very cool to know that if I ever need to call Amsterdam, I can do so for as low as 2.2 cents per minute. Friendships are maintainable at 2.2 cents per minute. :)

First up, I have a dentist appointment tomorrow that I’m a little nervous about. I haven’t been to a dentist since I left southern Iowa, nine plus years ago. Now, it’s not like I’ve been neglecting my teeth entirely: I brush my teeth 2-3 times a day, and even floss and use mouthwash on (okay, rare) occasion. So it shouldn’t be too terrible of an experience. My gums will bleed when the dentist pokes at them, and I’ll be scolded for not flossing more, and then hopefully they’ll give me a toothbrush and send me on my way. I’m pretty sure I have a cavity, though, so we’ll have to see how that goes.

And before I can go to the dentist, I have to fill out an absurd health history form. It has the following responses to all questions: yes, no, or don’t know. And then they ask a bunch of questions that can’t really be answered yes/no.

“Is your mouth dry?” Umm… do you mean right now? Because I had a glass of water a few minutes ago, so that would be no… but I didn’t remember to drink anything until after noon yesterday, so it was pretty dry then.

“Does food or floss catch between your teeth?” Like, every time? No. And not every tooth, either, for that matter. But sometimes, and on some teeth, food and/or floss catches.

“Are you in good health?” Wow. I don’t know… that’s sort of what I was hoping you would tell me at the end of my check-up. You know, if it’s up for me to determine, maybe I’ll just drop my dental insurance and figure out this stuff on my own.

And speaking of dental insurance, that’s another thorn in the ol’ side just now. It’s time to renew our insurance at work, so I’ve gotta determine if I want to make any adjustments to my coverage. I’m thinking about dropping to the lower insurance with the higher deductable, considering my high level of (self-diagnosed) health and low use of doctoral facilities. If I go to the doctor twice next year, and don’t end up chopping an arm off or anything, I could save around $400/year by switching to the cheaper plan. And since preventative care is completely free under either plan, I’d probably not have a reason to go to the doctor at all.

Otherwise, I’m going to keep my dental insurance (and start using it for what it gets me). And then I just need to decide if I want vision insurance. It’d cost me around $110/year to add it, and I do need a new pair of lenses for my glasses (after 7 years, mine are getting pretty scratched up), but would it be cheaper to go it on my own, or get the insurance? I don’t really know.

That’s all for now. I have a big important update I’ll probably share tomorrow, so that’s something to look forward to. :)

We got lost taking the subway from Evanston into downtown Chicago. Between the stop names on the Internet maps not matching the stop names announced on the trains themselves (and ~those~ not matching the names on the subway walls), and our not realizing that some stops were combination subway and elevated rail (causing us to wander for minutes looking for connecting trains), it took us over two hours to get into the city from where we were staying. It might have been faster to overnight in Davenport!

Then we ended up getting caught in a blizzard our second night in the city, but we didn’t let that slow us down much. We still explored the area around our hotel, getting totally lost (again) in the process. However, we found a ~fantastic~ sushi restaurant that normally required reservations, but they had an opening due to the storm, so we got in right away. And then we walked back through the blizzard to our hotel, where the bartender gave us a couple of free drinks that were tasty and strong.

My only real regret is that we didn’t get to see enough of the city. But hey, that just means we have an excuse to go back, right? This time, though, I think I’ll check out the Chicago tour deals at Trusted Tours & Attractions before we leave. They’ve got some pretty great prices on tour packages that make sure you get the most of your time in the city. They have some pretty cool online travel guides, too. And best yet, they have a deal going where you can win a $150 Magellan’s gift certificate just for signing up for their newsletter.

Sadly, Trusted Tours says there’s no Madame Tussauds wax museum in Chicago. I guess the fauxlebrities will have to wait until we visit New York.

I was doing decently, too. For the first couple of weeks, at least. I managed to lose around 9 of the total 17 pounds I was shooting to lose in the first 2 ½ weeks. After that, though, things started to go south.

Problem one was that I started my diet too late in the season. By the time my diet really got into full swing this year, it was competing with family reunions, barbecues, my birthday, and the Iowa State Fair… all of which fairly require the consumption of mass quantities.

Problem two was different. About a week into my diet, I decided I also wanted to start gaining muscle. Saying I want to gain muscle is often like saying I want to grow wings, in that they usually both have the same success rate. So to make this go-round different, I set myself up a couple of challenges.

Challenge one is to complete the Hundred Pushup Challenge. I’m halfway through week 2 at the moment… I managed to eek out 67 pushups Wednesday night, albeit in several sets. But already I’m starting to notice a difference in my arms and chest, and that has me encouraged.

Challenge two is to have a strong abdominal section. I’ve tried this before, and always grow disheartened, because due to extreme weight loss in the past resulting in excess skin, it doesn’t really matter how much I work out my abs – they’re always going to look soft. But I’ve decided to get around this by considering this time more of a lifestyle change than an exercise regimen with a specific goal. To that end, I now do crunches and other ab exercises every morning before I shower. I’m two weeks in, and am starting to feel stronger (though I doubt it’s noticeable).

Challenge three is just to jog more often. I jogged a lot last summer, but I gave it up over the winter months, and didn’t start getting back into it again until recently. Happily, I’m now back up to right around where I was this time last year: I can run a 5K route in right around 30 minutes, or at just over 6 MPH. Now I just need to decide which I’d rather work on: greater speed, or greater distance. Both have a certain appeal. And regardless of which I choose, I want to run at least 7 or so miles every week. This week I’ve managed around 5.7 miles, so I’ve got at least another 2.5 mile jog to go.

And the result of all this muscle-building balderdash? My weight loss had slowed down dramatically (and sometimes reverses). Long-term, having muscle is good for weight loss, because muscle burns calories. However, short-term, muscle is heavier than fat, so as I’m building muscle I’m also gaining weight. So I’ve put away the weight loss dashboard for now: it would only be discouraging to watch my weight plateau while I work so hard at something. Instead, I’m just going to do my best to eat healthily, exercise regularly, and we’ll see what happens.

There are only a few companies that I can find that will consolidate private student loans, but if I could do so, I think it’d save me a fair chunk of change. I currently have several tens of thousands of dollars sitting in loans with an interest rate of 8.4%. Even if I were just able to shave off a percentage point or so, that would save me a little money every month, and cut years off the term of the loan.

Of course, before I do to much work, I should probably check out my credit score. I haven’t bothered to check in a few years, but I can about guarantee that if my credit is poor enough to require Bad Credit Personal Loans instead of the regular sort, I’m not going to be able to get the APR I want.

Has anyone else out there consolidated private student loans? Mind you, I’m not talking about the federally backed sort — I have a few of those, and they’re consolidated at a ridiculously low 2.5%. But if you’ve managed to consolidate private student loans, in a non-sketchy way (read: I don’t want to refinance my house to do it), I’d love to hear about it!

In fact, I really ended up with more of a birth-week than a birthday. The festivities started on Sunday evening, with an impromptu boat ride on Saylorville with Klay, Megan, and Amanda on Klay’s boat (lovingly named “Ethyl,” unintentionally named by Yours Truly). We’d spent the day moving friend Sara from her apartment at 3KG (3000 Grand) to her new loft in the East Village. After that we were severely overheated, so the boat ride was a welcome cool-down. We even swam off the back of the boat for a while, which was divine. Afterwards, we headed to Appare for sake and teppanyaki. It was delicious.

Tuesday night, the four of us headed out on the lake again, as Megan and Klay were both going to be out of town for my birthday party proper, and they wanted to celebrate. This time we brought our food with us, and ate dinner on the lake. It was gorgeous watching the sun set over the lake, from the lake.

On Wednesday (day of birth), Amanda and I went out to dinner. We went to Appare again, but this time we stayed on the sushi side of the restaurant. We spent a couple of hours at our table enjoying sushi and martinis, and chatting about anything and everything that came to mind. It was very enjoyable. Amanda got me an iPod Shuffle and a gift certificate to iTunes, so I could listen to tunes while I jogged. It was an awesome gift, and also a hilarious one: that combo is exactly what I got her for her birthday three months ago. :)

Friday night was the night of my birthday party proper. We started the evening at The Lift, a martini bar on 4th street north of Court Avenue. Later in the night we migrated slightly south to the Royal Mile (a British pub), and ended up upstairs at the Red Monk (a Belgian bar). A good number of friends came out for the partying… over a dozen in all, I’d wager. Visitors included: Amanda, Justin, Tigon and Ben Woline, Jason, Daniel and Abbie Shipton, Hannah and Tono, Sara, Lindsay Reinert, Lindsay Rees, Nick, Adam Pirillo, Joe, Lisa, and Tae. And possible one or two others that I’ve forgotten. Amanda and I took a cab home, and I managed to go the entire night without losing anything I’d ingested, and I woke up entirely hangover-free. It was a good start to my 27th year. :)

Saturday night, a bunch of us got back together and headed to the Iowa State Fair for an evening out. I managed to eat both a foot-long corn dog AND a 5-pound turkey leg. Although, after having done so, I questioned my wisdom a bit. :) It was a nice, relaxing evening, and a great way to wrap up my birth-week.

At that point, you really start to realize how much of your income goes into paying off debts you already have. Now, like I’ve mentioned before, what I have is generally considered “good” debt. I have a mortgage, and a car payment, and student loan payments. And that’s really about it: I pay off my credit card every month these days, and I don’t have any personal loans floating around anywhere, and I don’t owe any shady creditors a single cent. However, that’s still a lot of debt. Just those three debts alone add up to over four times my gross annual salary… or monthly payments totaling around 75% of my total net income.

Sadly, in my case, the fine folks over at Freedom Debt Relief can’t really help me out. I have the wrong kind of debt – the “secured” kind, meaning the kind that is backed by collateral.

But if you happen to have a large sum of unsecured debt (credit cards, loans without collateral, etc), they might be able to help you out. They’re a debt negotiation service – basically, they work on your behalf with creditors to get them to lower the amount you owe. The premise is, getting some money back is far better in the creditor’s eyes as getting no money back, so they’re willing to negotiate to that end. And Freedom Debt Relief can often reduce your debts by 50% and consolidate them into a single payment.

Sure, you could do the same negotiations with your creditors yourself. Just like you could probably rebuild your own transmission or build your own house. But at some point, it just makes more sense to go to the experts and let them save you from all of the lost time, gray hair, and possible pitfalls along the way.

So here’s the plan: I’m going to try to start posting several times per week. Most posts probably won’t be the uber-long catch-you-up novellas for which I’m so infamous. Instead, most posts will be short, sweet, and to some sort of a point or another.

Oh, and there will be quite a few more sponsored posts again to go with the increased posting frequency. I know those aren’t anyone’s favorite or anything, but here’s the deal: everything I make online gets routed into my PayPal account. And I have declared my PayPal account to be one of my two wedding savings accounts (I also have a savings account with ING, cause they have a pretty good rate of return, especially compared to the stock market these days). So each time I write a sponsored post and make a few bucks, that money ends up going towards the wedding. Pretty cool plan, eh?

So, look forward to hearing more from me more frequently again. And I’ll look forward to hearing more from you-all in return!

We have a date/location for the wedding.
Our wedding will be on Saturday, September 12, 2009 at Jester Park Lodge, which is a very pretty, rustic lodge on the western shore of Saylorville Lake. Our plan is to get married and have the reception in the same location, thus cutting down on commute times and whatnot. Plus, that way we can get to drinking straightaway, which is pretty important. Anyway… save the date. And if any of you already have pressing commitments 13+ months from now, well, that’ll actually probably work in our favor. Amanda has just informed me that she has over 100 aunts, uncles, and first cousins in her family, and we’re really trying to keep the number of people at the wedding/reception to around 150 people. So I think that means that I get to invite half a dozen friends, my parents, and probably my grandparents. ;)

I have an iPhone.
Probably not as cool as my wedding news, but still pretty fun nonetheless. I’ve been craving an iPhone for a while now, and needed a new phone regardless, but I couldn’t really justify the cost. But when the new 2nd-gen iPhones came out, I scored an old 1st-gen model off of someone who needed the latest and greatest. So I got an iPhone, and at a really great price. Score.

Friend Anne is back in the States.
Admittedly, this one didn’t happen under the best of circumstances (but that’s none of your business, thank you very much!), but my friend Anne is back in the United States. She’d been living in Amsterdam since around the 1st of the year, and while that worked out great when we were visiting Europe this spring (free room and an excuse to visit A-Dam), it sucked not having her around more often. So now she’s back in the good ol’ U-S-of-A. Of course, she’s living in Minnesota for the time being, but it’s a start. And Amanda and I are going to see her this weekend (we were already heading north for a camping trip with her family this weekend), and I think I have her convinced to come down for the state fair, as well.

My dad is out of the hospital.
This is another one of those “silver lining” things that I’ve been so fond of as late. My dad is out of the hospital, which is pretty great news. Of course, that meant that he had to be in the hospital first, but I’ll take what I can get. He’d come down with MRSA, which is an antibiotic-resistant staph infection, and it was spreading through his body. But it seems to be under control now, at least to the point where he can leave the hospital after a 3-day stint, and I’m choosing to see that is good news. :)

I ate barbequed or grilled things for seven meals between the 1st and 5th of July. Yay Summer, I guess. If you do the math, that means I was eating grill-food for far more than 50% of my non-breakfast meals during that span (and I did manage to avoid BBQ breakfasts).

On July 1, August Home celebrated its 30th anniversary. As a result, I got to hear a bit of the history of the company, and it sort of cracks me up. Our CEO left Meredith on June 30, 1978, and on July 1st he decided he still liked eating and whatnot, so he’d better figure out something new to do. Yadda yadda yadda, now I have a job too.

On July 3, the UPS guy delivered a very awesome, very large present from myself (and Amanda), to myself (and Amanda). We’re now the proud owners of Rock Band, which is a ton of fun.

Hannah and Tono also came over for dinner, drinks, and some Rock Band action on the evening of the 3rd. We had brats (one of my many grilled meals) and ate out on the back porch, which was great until the mosquitoes figured out where we were.

The 4th of July rocked in all manner of rocking. Amanda and I woke up and headed straight down for a bit of Rock Band fun, then got ready for the day. Then we met up with a bunch of friends (Hannah, Tono, Megan, Klay, Sara, Julie) and had a free grilled lunch courtesy of Meredith. And then we headed to the fantastic and huge 80/35 concert and had a fantastic time. We managed to see four bands in action: Public Property (a local band), Ingrid Michaelson (really funny), Andrew Bird (so good, I nearly cried), and The Flaming Lips (pictured above, rocking). It was, all told, and incredible experience. After the concert, we headed downtown for drinks and got to bed way too late.

We got up way too early on July 5th and drove north to Minneapolis to attend the wedding of Amanda’s friend Nicole. Originally, I was a little miffed to be spending my Independence Day weekend at a wedding for a girl I’d only met once before, but I ended up having a good time, and Amanda and I took lots of mental notes for our own wedding and reception plans. I discovered that I really like Black Russians, and it’s become my new cocktail hour drink of choice.

We got back into town late on the 6th. Grandma and Grandpa drove Miles back up for us (they’ve had him nearly every other weekend ever since we got back from Europe!). They also brought us Arby’s, which was pretty nice, since all I’d had to eat so far that day was cookies and gummi bears. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The 7th and 8th were pretty low-key (which we needed at that point). On the 9th, we toured a reception hall that we liked a lot. The only negative, really, was that it’s a ways out of town, and we were originally hoping to have our reception in the downtown area somewhere. But the place is very pretty, so we may have to compromise on that one.

On the 10th we went to a Tweetup, which is a gathering of your friendly neighborhood Twitter friends. We only stayed out for a few hours, but we had a really good time, and met several new people. We also got to hear a live poetry reading, which I hadn’t done since college.

Ahh, the 11th… how’d it get to be Friday again already? We went out to Friday Fest with new couple-friends Tigon and Ben. We ended up having enough to drink that it seemed perfectly logical to ~keep~ drinking after the Fest bit ended, so we headed downtown to El Bait Shop. Ben is a huge fan of beer, but he’d never been to the Shop to witness their 160 Taps of Glory, so we figured we should remedy that. And after that, we headed back to our place for a little Rock Band action. On the way home, we stopped by a liquor store for even more drinks, and Ben bought a bottle of Iowa-made Templeton Rye. I gave it a try, and discovered that it’s easily my favorite whiskey, so I think we’ll be getting a bottle soon as well.

We were pretty lazy for most of the day during the 12th except a run to the Woodsmith Store for supplies, but that evening we headed to Lindsay Rees’s place for her third annual July barbeque. It was my third year in attendance, which made me the only true veteran there aside from Lindsay herself. We had drinks (well, I did – Amanda was driving, so she mostly behaved herself) and chatted, listened to music, played cards… all the fun mid-July barbeque stuff.

And then on the 13th we got up decently early, moved all our furniture out of the bedroom, and painted that bad boy. It ended up taking all day, because we were painting using three different colors (the ceiling is one color, the three walls another, and an accent wall a third), but I think it came out looking really great. Of course, the paint was still drying when it was time for bed, so we ended up sleeping on the futon in the basement last night. Tonight, we’ll pull off all the tape, put everything back in the room, and snap some pictures. So expect a post covering our handiwork in the near future.

And as for this week… it’s looking more sane and sedate. Which is good. Our only big plan so far is we’re going to a midnight showing of The Dark Knight with a bunch of Twitter friends on Thursday night (technically 12:01am Friday morning). And as a result, Amanda and I are going to take Friday off from work to have a nice, relaxing day to ourselves. Unless something really cool comes our way, of course. :)

Nor did it help that I caught myself a case of strep throat last week, and had to spend a couple of days at home. Well, a couple of half-days. I couldn’t afford to take full days off with as much as I had to get done, so I just quarantined my cube and talked to people at a distance. I wasn’t the most productive guy those days – web development is hard with a 102+ fever – but it was certainly better than had I stayed in bed all day.

Point being, I’m really starting to look forward to this coming weekend. I could use a break. Amanda and I will be heading down to Kansas City for the weekend, visiting friends and family. It should be a good time. And that of course means that Miles will be spending the weekend with the grandparents, which I get the impression that he loves and they tolerate surprisingly well, so it all works out.

In case you hadn’t noticed yet, I’ve posted a few of our eurotrip photos on Flickr. So far I only have Paris posted, but I’ll work on getting Amsterdam up there in the next week or so.

But then I realized that I didn’t have a ton of time to develop the website. And I didn’t have access to a huge cache of high-quality Halloween Costumes. And I didn’t really know the first thing about developing my own product-based merchant solution.

So in the end I gave up on the idea. I probably still own ghoulwear.com (I haven’t checked in a while), but I’m not doing anything with it. And so ended my dream of supplying myself with fantastic costumes at wholesaler prices. Instead, I turn to other online retailers such as InCostume.com for all of my costume needs.

However, I was pretty amazed by how quickly (and unconsciously) I reverted to some of my “bachelor” ways, particularly when it came to food preparation. On Sunday night, I made myself a batch of macaroni & cheese, which isn’t odd in and of itself. But then I plopped down on the couch with the cooking pot in my lap and ate straight from the cookery. No fuss, no mess. :)

And one other night this week I pulled out one of my true single-male favorites. It was late, and I didn’t feel like making a full meal, so I grabbed a cold hot dog out of the fridge, skewered it on a chopstick, and cooked it over the range. Then I just stuck it in a bun, covered it in spicy mustard and relish, and wolfed it down in three giant bites. Dinner took all of three minutes total.

I did try one ambitious meal last week: I made homemade rice and beans. I had a bag of dried black beans in the pantry, so I started them soaking when I went to work in the morning, then rinsed them and started them simmering when I got home. I flavored them up with some salt, garlic, and cilantro. Then I made brown rice – I sautéed some diced red pepper, jalapeño, garlic and onion in some olive oil until they were tender, then tossed the rice and water right on top. It wasn’t too bad in the end, but I think the rice could have used more flavor (that’s brown rice for ya), so I think I’ll be more heavy-handed with my peppers in the next go-round.

The only real bachelor thing I didn’t get accomplished this week was playing video games. I tried playing a couple, but every time I did, my computer would shut down after a few minutes. I think I have a component on its way out or something. Which is a little unfortunate, because I was hoping to start gaming a bit more, and I’m too cheap/poor right now to justify upgrading my PC. Life, it is hard.

It has to be a fairly stressful time to move, with the housing market as it is. Amanda and I were hoping to put our place on the market next spring, but we’re not sure we’d get our money back out of it that soon – especially considering there are already two houses for sale on our block at the moment.

However, there are always two sides to every market, and it’s a fantastic time to buy a house. The real estate agents in Austin must have had a heyday showing our friends around their fair city. The options are nearly limitless if you’re looking to buy (presuming you have a decent credit rating, I suppose).

So it will be sad to see our friends moving even further away, but hopefully the market let them make the most out of their move. Oh, and moving their careers forward has to be a nice big plus too, I suppose. :)

Hmm… I suppose I should make a point to get hold of my uncle this week and verify that we can actually crash at his place.

Traffic was more steady this month than most, and although the graph looks far less interesting than last month’s, traffic was almost identical overall, with less than .5% change.

I’m going to consider this a good thing: I didn’t get nearly as many links in this month as usual, mostly (I think) because I was writing more beginner-level stuff, and that isn’t as exciting to other CSS-related websites. However, my search engine visitors have continued to grow, from an average of around 88/day in April (with a high of 130) to an average of 165/day in May (with a high of 286). Thus, most of my growth came from work I’ve already done. And that’s pretty rewarding.

Subscriber growth remained steady. I started the month with around 580 subscribers, and ended it with around 950, which is decent. If this growth continues, I should reach 1,000 subscribers late this week or early next. And I’m pretty happy with the idea of having gathered 1,000 subscribers in four months of writing.

Sadly, my revenue was down pretty significantly this month: it was about half of what last month’s was. I lost one big advertiser and wasn’t able to replace them before the month ended. I’m still convinced that a redesign will help revenue generation a bit, so I’m looking forward to being able to redo the website in the relative-near future. I’m also still looking at various ways to maximize my revenue potential without making my website ad-centric. For example, I’m currently looking at ways to incorporate a few ads into my RSS feed, as it’s currently generating no income.

And… that’s that. My goals remain the same this month: grow my subscriber count, figure out a useful revenue stream, and pound out a redesign at some point.

Amanda and I are talking about getting a family cell phone plan together in the near future. Both of our contracts are up, so it’s a good time to combine forces and save a bit of money. And you know what a new contract means: new cell phones. Aww, yeah. :)

We’ve been talking about getting a family plan for a while now, but I’ve been holding off in hopes that AT&T would subsidize their iPhones, so I could get one cheaper with a new contract. And rumor has it that on June 9th, Steve Jobs is going to announce a new, 2nd generation iPhone AND new subsidies and discounts. If so, June is going to be a happy month for me.

And if the price is right and I get a new phone, one of the first accessories I’ll be picking up is an iphone case called the invisibleSHIELD – which sounds just about as SciFi as it is, I guess. It’s a flexible case that’s completely transparent, only one fifth of a millimeter thick (or roughly as thick as a human hair), and keeps your iPhone looking brand new for as long as you’d care to keep it. It even comes with a lifetime warranty, which is something you don’t often find on products under $25. In short, it’s pretty kick-ass.

June 9th can’t get here fast enough.

Erm… so yeah. I’ve been keeping busy, is what I’m saying. Work has been pretty darn busy, and June is looking even worse in that regard – workfriend Jeremy is moving on to greener pastures, so I’ll be picking up a little bit from him. And at the same time, they decided to ramp up the number of email promotions they send out. Brian is looking to hire a full-time email person to free me up a bit, but he’s out for a while because his wife is having twins tomorrow and he seems to feel that somehow involves him. So I expect to be pulling double-duty, in a sense, for at least the next month. I just hope it doesn’t turn into the six months of double-duty I had before we hired Jeremy.

However, I’ve finally got my evenings free again! Last Thursday was my last web class of the season. I’m not teaching anything this summer, so that’ll give me a few months off, at least. I’ll probably teach the class again in the fall, though, to help justify the time I put into the course packet and planning. So now that my evenings are free, I’m already looking for ways to fill them back up again. I swear: I’m the busiest lazy person I know.

CSSnewbie is still keeping me busy. You’ll be getting a 4-month update soon, but I’ll give you a sneak peek: numbers are about the same across the board, but I made less money again. Uhh… go me. Right now, I just have to tell myself that this is a long-term thing. If I keep at it, I’m sure there will come a time a year or two from now when I’ll look back and wonder what I was so worried about. Right now, though, it’s hard not to wonder if I’m not just filling my time with poorly-paid busywork.

Amanda and I spent our Memorial Day weekend in the backyard, cleaning things up. We borrowed a wood chipper from a work friend and spent one evening last week chipping up the last of the brush that was left over from our great de-Privet-ing adventure last summer. Then this weekend, we took our two wood piles (used for our wood-burning stove, theoretically) completely apart and reorganized them into one pile in one location (right behind the garage, for those that know the geography). It looks a lot nicer now, actually. And we have the concrete slab back there open now. I plan to build a compost bin on half the slab in the near future. Then I can clean up our very literal compost “heap” laying next to the slab — which is built on top of river rock, no less, which should make cleanup a joy.

So what’s the moral of the story? Well, that I’m pretty whiny, I guess. :) But also that I’m keeping busy. And that’s gotta be good. Oh, and I promised Amanda that I’d finally get around to putting up Europe photos in the near future, so that’s something to look forward to.

So far, we’re not doing so hot. On the last drawing for $162 million, for example, we matched one number. Total. There are 30 numbers on our ticket, and we matched one. Those are pretty impressive odds, really… they’re just going in the wrong direction.

But man, when we do win big, things will be interesting. I’m going to have a huge-arse computer with four monitors: two to keep track of my investments, one for surfing the web, and one for playing videogames All. Day. Long. Also, I’m going to finally get myself a scooter. And instead of making regular-type phone calls, I’m going to have a giant high-def video communication system for my life-sized telepresence. And I’ll probably have an iPhone on the side for days I don’t feel like putting on pants.

A supercomputer, a LifeSize telecommunications system, and a scooter. A guy can dream, right?

My visits saw a lot of hills and valleys over the month, as is normal I suppose. I had a nice jump right before I left on vacation thanks, once again, to StumbleUpon. SU also helped a bit at the end of the month, as well, although two mentions in Smashing Magazine also helped that one out a bit. I’m hoping the Smashing traffic will give me a nice boost over the next couple of days.

Also, for the first time this month, the greatest single source for me in terms of traffic was organic Google search results. Google sent me, on average, around 90 unsolicited visitors every day last month. That’s a great thing, because I didn’t have to really “work” for those views: they came to me, instead of me to them. Hopefully that number will continue to grow.

My subscriber stats saw more fantastic growth – in fact, I managed to nearly double my subscriber rate again last month! (Heh, do you like how I say “I managed,” as if I really had much to do with it at all?) I ended March with 295 subscribers, and ended April with 586. If I continue at this rate of growth, the entire world will be reading my website in two years! :)

So my goals for last month were such:

• Unique Visitors: 25% growth (~17,000)
• Page Views: 25% growth (~30,000)
• Subscribers: 50% growth (~450)
• Revenue: 100% growth (~$7.50)

And how’d we do?

• Unique Visitors: ~1% loss (13,494) (essentially no growth)
• Page Views: ~2% growth (25,563) (essentially no growth)
• Subscribers: ~99% growth (586) (exceed expectations!)
• Revenue: ~2709% growth ($96.08) (REALLY exceeded expectations!)

So obviously the real surprise story here is the revenue growth. What changed? Quite a bit (obviously).

Last month I was relying on two revenue streams: Google ads and affiliate ads. I had experimented with Google ad placement, moving it further down the page and adding affiliate ads where the Google stuff used to be. That was pretty much a big fat fail: Google brought me in $3.42 (half of the previous month) and the affiliates brought in bupkis.

This month I made a few changes. I moved the Google ads to a more prominent position (along the left side of the page), first and foremost. And then I managed to add two new revenue-generating streams: banner ads, which I’m selling myself through the site (no commission), and text links, which I’m selling through Text-Link-Ads (50% commission). I had been trying to sell banner ads in March, as well, but hadn’t been successful. This month, two advertisers approached me about ads, and I was able to work something out with them. Also, I snagged a text-link via TLA, which brought in a little something.

So what are my goals for this month? Well, I’ve decided I’m not going to set any hard-and-fast goals anymore. They were a great motivator at first, but I think I’m ready to look beyond specific numbers now and start looking at the big picture: how can I improve the site overall, thus benefiting all metrics? As such, here are my general goals:

• Continue to grow my subscriber count. Subscribers are a great source of steady readership, and are people I no longer have to “work” for. They don’t have to go looking for my site.
• Grow revenue, if possible. The more revenue the site generates, the more I can justify the time I have spent (and continue to spend) working on it. That will obviously mean more ads (or charging more for the ones I have), and there has to be a line somewhere when the ads become excessive. I don’t want CSSnewbie to look like JohnChow.com, for example. But a few more ads aren’t going to hurt anybody… ;)
• Redesign CSSnewbie.com. I’m working with someone at the moment to get a new design for the site hashed out, and hopefully that’ll be finalized in the next couple of months. The current design for CSSnewbie isn’t terrible, but neither was it carefully planned by a trained graphic designer. Instead, I threw it together one long weekend when I was looking for something to do. I think a new design would inspire trust and confidence in my articles – a well-designed site generates an aura of professionalism regardless of the quality of the content. And with quality content in addition to a great design, you’ve got a winning site on your hands.

So those are my goals! I’m not focusing on page views this month. If they grow, great. If they don’t, oh well. So long as I’m putting out sufficiently quality content such to attract new subscribers and advertisers to the site, I don’t feel the need to see a huge explosion in page views.

And of course, now that I’ve said that, page views will probably be the only metric to see significant growth this month. ;)

I thought I should probably write something really quick to let all those curious know that Amanda and I both survived our trip to Europe with dozens of stories, hundreds of photos, innumerable memories and no new scars. In short, it was a rousing success (but not necessarily an arousing success, which is what I accidentally typed the first time (unless you’re really turned on by success stories)).

Paris was beautiful. We spent hours wandering the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay. We wandered the streets during the afternoons and evenings, stopping at little cafés and browsing outdoor markets. We drank wine by the pitcher full (because it was cheaper than the bottle full) and ate some really stinkin’ good food. We saw the Eiffel Tower at night, twice, and took a boat ride down the Seine River. We spent a couple of hours just staring in awe at the majesty of Notre Dame.

Amsterdam was differently, but equally, cool. I’m in love with the city and have decided I’ll have to live there someday. Everyone was extremely friendly, and most everyone spoke English (which was a good thing, because our Dutch wasn’t exactly top notch). Most people ride bicycles everywhere, which has inspired me to start riding a bike again for the first time in well over a decade. It was early spring in The Netherlands, so we took a day trip to the Keukenhoff gardens to see the tens of thousands of bulbs in bloom. We also spent a long afternoon wandering the Rijksmuseum, which had a fantastic collection of Dutch art – I had no idea that the Dutch masters were so fantastic! We spent the evenings hanging out with our friends Anne and Luke at various drinking establishments. I discovered that I like fries doused in mayonnaise and peanut sauce (satay), which they call “fries at war.”

Munich was a beerily wonderful city. We stayed in a great location, just off a huge walking plaza that covered the entire center of the city. We spent a good portion of our time in Munich walking around, enjoying the sites, and then stopping in at various beer halls to take in the real local fare and scenery. We had a great time one night at the city’s biggest beer hall – the Hofbrauhaus. We sat at a traditional German long table (where you just sit down next to perfect strangers and make friends) and met a great group from South Africa, a couple from Ireland, and a couple of guys from Chicago.

And now, we’re back home. However, we’re trying to preserve the best of what we learned from our Europe trip. We brought back a few bottles of French wine to enjoy over the next month or so, and Monday night, I tried my hand at making traditional French baguette-style bread: success! Delicious, delicious success. My grandpa has loaned me his bike (an awesome-looking, old-school single speed Schwinn) so I can ease my way back into riding. Sunday morning, Amanda and I rode our bikes to the grocery store to do some shopping instead of driving. It was about five hilly miles round trip, and half of that with a bag full of groceries strapped to our backs, but we made it. I think it would have been easier had we not woken up early and taken the pooch on a two-mile jog that morning. :)

I know this was a brief update, but it will have to do for now. We have to take the cats to a vet appointment momentarily, and then we’re meeting friends out for drinks. It’s a hard life. I’ll try to get pictures up at some point this week.