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It's like my dad told me back in the 90's, when the internet was becoming more mainstream, "Erin, the key to success is knowing how to do a good search."

And then, in 2006, after Google was WELL established and it turned out that search really was as important as he had forecast, he had this piece of wisdom to share: "Erin, now the key to success is knowing how to get yourself or your client on that first page of Google results."

He's so right.  Hello, success! </wave>

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I've read more books over the past week than I've probably read in the past year.  And it's GREAT!  I just got caught up on posting some brief reviews; feel free to take a look.

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I've been rather scarce for the past couple weeks.  I (obviously) was working hard for a while there on my apartment.  Moving around furniture; bringing in the new, tossing out the old, etc.  But I was also consumed by the flurry of work that always precedes a VACATION.  Yessirree ... last Thursday, I hopped a plane down to Alabama to start my Tour de South. 

I started in my hometown:  Demopolis, AL.  Visited with family there for a few days before heading down to the beach with my sister and her family.  And now ... I'm chilling in my Dad's house in Bay Minette, AL, with internet access for the first time in several days.  So I thought I'd write up a quick post to raise a flag to my whereabouts.

Plus, what good would I be if I didn't post a few pics.  ;)

First up, crazy Aunt Erin gave Ben a mohawk:

Mohawk!

And then, at the beach, Ben got sand on his nose and we all thought it was sooooo cute:

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Plenty more pictures (and some videos) to post ... later.  Stay tuned!

P.S.  The title refers to countless games of peek-a-boo with Ben.  Gets him everytime!

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You know, clearing out closets and such can actually be quite an adventure.  I mean, consider all the COOL stuff I came across in my current bout of massive spring cleaning ....

Styrofoam platter, anyone?  I only have 200, but I think I could spare one just for you.

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Yes, I have a sewing machine.  Are you really surprised?

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And now to report on my progress.  With great anticipation, I declare, "ALMOST DONE!!"  I'm still waiting on one last piece of furniture to be delivered, which will house all of the jewelry that is currently strewn across the floor along one wall in my bedroom.  And then I have several trips to the storage room, the trash room and Goodwill to get rid of the random piles of CRAP that occupy every open space.  Then.  With a sigh of relief.  I will be DONE.

One last picture for tonight that says it all:

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All that stands between me and pure bliss ... is a pile of junk.

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I spent most of today -- and well into the night --- working on stuff in my apartment.  It's still an overwhelming MESS.  But thanks to the generosity of the Kozel's (and Chris lending his brute strength and time!), I now have a new entertainment center.  Yippee!

The progress continues:

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Still picking through my living room, moving stuff around and clearing out some old stuff in the process.  I know this will be very satisfying in the end, and I'll have A LOT less stuff in here -- whether it ends up in the trash, donated to Goodwill, or stashed in my downstairs storage locker.  But for the time being, this is exhausting.   It's like spring cleaning on steroids.  Oy.

Believe it or not, this is progress:

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I bought a dining table and chairs last week.  And I decided to rearrange some furniture in my living room to make it all fit a little better.  But ... once I started moving things around ... I dunno ... I'm not in the right mood to do this tonight.  Not feeling inspired.

So I'm taking a break and will work on it more tomorrow or Saturday.  In the meantime, this is my living room:

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In Chicago for a couple days for business.  The event, the people, the food ... everything has been great!  I'm spending one more lazy night here and then will fly back to DC late tomorrow morning.  I hadn't gotten my hands on a Chicago-style deep dish pizza yet, so for dinner tonight, I had one delivered from the award-winning Giordano's.  Yummmm ...

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I haven't been blogging as frequently over the past several weeks.  Shame on me.  Have been a tad busier than usual lately.  Did get some really big news.  :)  (Which most of you already know about.)  I won't go into all of it -- Robert was kind enough to blog about it a few days ago -- but I will say, I was FLOORED and very honored.

In other news, I'm running another 5K tomorrow morning.  (Yay!)  This is a "Run for the Rain Forest."  Will keep you posted on how I do ...

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Although, I have to admit, it was entertaining in a way.  Hence my series of tweets from my time by the pool ...

there's an old man in a speedo out at my pool. see, i knew i came out here for a reason today. about 3 hours ago from web

oh, lord. i'm just trying to chill by the pool. i do not want to have to listen to my neighbors debate energy policy. about 2 hours ago from web

now listening to my neighbor complaining about her "long ass day" that lasted from 8:30 to 5:30. bless her heart. about 1 hour ago from web

That same talkative neighbor was also a tad obnoxious.  While I was cooling off in the pool for a spell, there was also a woman and her child (a 16-month-old little boy) playing in the shallow end.  The chatty chica came over to sit on the steps in the water and promptly instructed this mother that she should really enroll her son in swimming lessons.  Hmph, I'm always amused by such authoritative displays of unsolicited advice.

The mother politely indicated that the boy did do lessons at one point in time, but they enjoy "doing their own thing" now.  But chatty chica wasn't satisfied ... and continue to boldly throw out do's and don't's of teaching your child how to swim.  She was a former swim instructor, after all.  An expert.

I felt bad for the mother, who was just trying to enjoy pool time with her son.  But I did pick up a couple tips that I thought Andrea might find interesting:

• When in the water with a baby, it's better to hold him away from your body (or at least facing away).  Apparently, if you hold him on your hip or to your chest, like you do out of the water ... he'll get used to that and come to NEED that level of connection in the water.  Apparently ... that leads to the fear of the water or of swimming by themselves that so many kids deal with. 
  
• Supposedly, the water wings (or floaties) are better at acquainting kids with the water, as opposed to one of those suit-type-contraptions with the ring around their middle or a floaty vest.  The water wings give the kid a more realistic feel for the water and gives them more freedom of movement.

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