Back to work

Phew!

I've been a bit busy over the past few days with updating this blog, the website and my newsletter. It's all due to giving myself a week off of work after returning from Rome before beginning my dissertation - and discovering how much I haven't done in the past 12 months!

So, where do I begin? I guess the first thing you will notice (perhaps) are the changes on the blog itself. I was getting very frustrated with the fact that my Archive section listed every month since 2004, so I finally bit the bullet and changed to a "new" way of editing the template - essentially using Blogger's easy drop down menus instead of having to constantly find and learn new HTML code! You can still use HTML in places, but mostly it was a case of using drop down boxes to change things.

I've also added tags to some of my posts - that took a while too. Tags (or labels) have been used on posts that include links to new photos, updated poetry, new issues of PALS and other important features like my wedding. Clicking on any tag takes you to all the posts associated with that tag. I've also tagged posts with photos named on them that have been removed from our website, and posts with broken links (and named the broken link). This means I don't have to re-write posts every time I break a photo link - which unfortunately started to become necessary when we used up all our storage space on our website by adding too many pics!

Finally, I've added an additional link to the blog. After playing with Google Reader and adding some of the blogs I'm interested in (finally sat down and figured out it worked properly) I decided that Profmike's blog was worth adding as a link here. It has info on all the books he's read, and is a good complement to our book club site!

So, that's it for changes to the blog. I've also been updating our website - firstly with new poetry on my poetry site. Additonally I've added photos of our Rome holiday to our Photos webpage, and a press release to the website front page. I'll post the Press Release as a separate blog article too, above this one (something I used to that I think was a good idea and will start doing again).

Finally, I've made a start on Issue 24 of PALS. I'd already added a couple of articles I'd received a while ago, but I've begun to chase people for additonal articles and hope to have enough to fill the issue by the end of June - hence the press release above! On top of that, I've even managed to write some letters - a good way for me to remember why I started all this in the first place, and getting back to doing the thing I enjoy most - simply writing letters and keeping in touch with my pals! I have to admit I've been horrendous at that lately, and I'm going to make a massive effort to be a better pal in the future.