Average Jane

Blog

  • Average Jane Raises a Kitteh

    Ever since he arrived, I've been taking regular photos of myself with Dr. Jones using the Photo Booth application on my iMac. He's gained more than five pounds in less than five months, so I figured this was as good a time as any to share the photo progression to date:

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    Photo 13
    Photo 18
    Photo 22
    Photo 27
    Photo 35
    Photo 40
    Photo 43
    Photo 63
    So now you've not only gotten a look at how my kitty went from teeny to big, but you've also learned that:

    • My makeup doesn't necessarily last all day,
    • I get a little puffy from time to time,
    • I wear glasses in the morning and evening,
    • I have no brand loyalty when it comes to cat litter, and
    • My office is a disaster area.

    Since we're keeping it real, I'll admit that I actually re-shot today's photo before I posted it. I took some pix after I got back from breakfast and immediately regretted that I'd been out in public looking like that. I had residual makeup on from last night's gig, my hair was a giant frizz-ball from loading gear in the rain, and I was wearing an over-sized sweatshirt that made me look enormous. So I straightened my hair, reapplied makeup (even though I'll never get rid of all of the purple glitter eyeliner from last night without a shower or two), and changed into a t-shirt that fits.

    Verisimilitude has its limits, is what I'm saying.

    Okay, I've completely hijacked this post away from Dr. Jones with my own self-consciousness. Back to him: he's still very talkative, rather needy and a champion eater. I'm looking forward to the day when he's completely grown up and less enthusiastic about things like eating my plants and gnawing on the paperwork I leave on my desk.

    So basically he's still an annoying kitten in a big cat's body – but at least he's cute.

  • Average Jane Is Tempted To Buy Something

    Over the last few weeks, I've watched a really effective use of Facebook marketing play out on the Crazy Aaron's Puttyworld page.

    It started with a little teaser post:

    Tp1
    Not long afterward, it progressed to this:

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    They kept the interest going:

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    And finally they put out a call for suggestions as to what to name the new product and wisely tied it to a push to gain more fans.

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    Over the next week or so, there was hot debate over the name, which ended up narrowed down to a four or five selection poll. A vocal faction wanted to call it "Cloud Poop," but the eventual winner was "Liquid Glass."

    They reported as they made their way through various production tests and worked out a packaging design. Finally, the big announcement came that it was available for sale.

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    However, it was a limited production run, so they were able to build on the excitement they'd generated and come close to selling out pretty much right away:

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    All in all, it was one of the most fun fan engagement initiatives I've seen on Facebook. Best of all, it was completely carried out on the wall and the company website, so there was minimal cost involved.

    Did I buy some? Well, no. I already have an ample supply of other colors of Thinking Putty and if I were to buy an additional variety it would probably be Strange Attractor (which I have previously purchased as a gift for my cousin). However, it's clear (no pun intended) that lots of other people stepped up and bought some.

    Obviously not every product is as outwardly fun as Thinking Putty, but companies would do well to follow their example when it comes to sharing the new product development process to generate anticipation.

  • Average Jane Catches Up

    Ah, I remember the good old days when I could blame Twitter for my lack of blogging. Now I don't even tweet that much anymore. Shall I make Facebook my new scapegoat or just admit that I'm horribly over-scheduled, with a twist of laziness?

    So what have I been up to?

    Well, I had a book club discussion about this:

    Ppz

    In keeping with the subject matter, I wore my Iron Maiden shirt.

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    I'm pretty sure Eddie is a zombie, right?

    I planted a bunch of bulbs that will grow into these:

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    …and also quite a few hostas. It's going to be a while before I see anything surface, but I'm hoping for some nice, healthy plants like the one above, which grew next to our garage a couple of years ago.

    Bossy's (No) Book Tour rolled through Kansas City and gave me the opportunity to hang out with Cagey, Rita, Angie, Anne, Becky, Kate, Jenny and Deanna, as well as non-bloggers Kim (hi, Kim!) and Linda.

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    I took part in a yoga flash mob in the Crossroads district last week. I was in the very back and apparently out of everyone's camera range because I didn't see myself in any of the many photos of the event.

    Yoga

    My sister, niece and nephew came with me and I also ran into Jenny and my friend LuAnn. Even though I was late enough that I didn't do all ten sun salutations (it was probably six or seven), I still had sore abs all weekend long. So, yay!

    Last Saturday I bowled on my company's Corporate Challenge team and lowered our overall score disgracefully. Evidently my Wii Bowling scores have no bearing on my ability to bowl in meatspace.

    That afternoon I went to see Iron Man 2 with XO and his daughter, and the whole Sader Family. Later that evening, I went to Queen of Quirky's house to watch the Avatar Rifftrax with fourteen other people.

    Then there's work, volunteer work, etc. All the stuff I always do that isn't worth detailing again.

    And now I'm caught up. Whew.

    Looking ahead, my band is playing on Saturday night in Blue Springs, Missouri. All the details are here, if you'd like to come out. It'll be our first chance to play some of our new songs and also use our cool new banner that I got from VistaPrint.

    Speaking of VistaPrint (hey, I've gone on this long, might as well keep going…), their boundary-infringing marketing philosophy kicked in again as soon as I placed my order. I deliberately chose not to sign up for their e-mail list because I know how they are, so they CALLED ME ON MY CELL PHONE to try to up-sell me and talk me into signing up for their e-mail list. No, no, a thousand times no! 

    I am in the middle of "And Another Thing…" by Eoin Colfer, which I found on the bookstore bargain table for $5.95 while I was killing time before Iron Man. I had been *this close* to buying it at an airport bookstore at full price last month, so naturally I had to buy it and congratulate myself on my thriftiness.

    So rather than go on forever and blow another ten days' worth of blog topics, I'll bring this to a close and go read my book. Goodnight, all. Enjoy the rest of your week!

  • Average Jane Puts Her Skills to Work

    My job title is Social Media Strategist. That means I help devise strategies for clients to incorporate social media into their corporate communications, marketing and even customer service practices. It includes blogger relations (which is interesting for me considering that I'm often on the receiving end of blogger pitches), and sometimes even handling a company's Facebook/Twitter/YouTube, etc. accounts on a day-to-day basis.

    I've mostly been putting this expertise to personal use when it comes to promoting my bands. My current cover band, Rock Machine, has a Facebook fan page and a MySpace page, both of which come in handy for inviting people to come out and see us play.

    I also recently started a Facebook account for Soroptimist International of Kansas City, MO. Even if you're not a member, you might enjoy "liking" the page to see how this venerable businesswomen's service organization is continuing into the 21st Century.

    Just yesterday, I became an admin of the Facebook page for The Animal Rescue Alliance (TARA), a local foster-based animal rescue group for which I volunteer. Up to now, my work for them has been mainly to take a shift each Sunday morning caring for the cats that are up for adoption at a Petco store. The volunteer who had been handling the Facebook page recently passed away, so it seemed almost selfish not to offer to take on the updates considering how well-versed I am in the medium.

    In addition to all that, I had an idea this week that I think will be a great value-added service for my husband's recording studio clients. He was talking to a band that had just recorded an album, urging them to start their promotion now – before the final CD copies are completed. I was eavesdropping (we were in my car) and said, "Tell them to submit it to Pandora now because they take a long time to evaluate songs."

    Even though I could only hear my husband's half of the conversation, it's obvious that the reply was, "What's Pandora?"

    That led me to a train of thought about offering a Band Promotion 101 session for the bands that record in the studio. I could spend a couple of hours teaching one or two of the most marketing-oriented members of a band how to optimize their Facebook and MySpace presences to promote their gigs and sell their songs. I could introduce them to the top online radio outlets, talk them through submitting their music to iTunes, CDBaby and other online stores, and basically just get them started down the path of growing their base of fans and customers. Sounds like fun!

    I already eat, sleep and breathe social media, so I'm always happy to jump in and do something new there. It's work, but it's also fun. How great a career is that?!

  • Average Jane Goes to the Zoo

    Last week I went to a fundraiser at the Kansas City Zoo called Pints for Penguins. It included ample amounts of Boulevard Beer and, rather randomly, a troupe of swing dancers.

    Attendees were also invited to visit the Tropics habitat. It was raining, but my group huddled under two umbrellas and made our way there.

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    The capybaras were my favorite, of course. One of my goals in life is to meet and pet Caplin ROUS someday.

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    They spent some time swimming and hanging out under their waterfall, too.

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    Here's my sister bonding with a prehensile-tailed porcupine through the glass.

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    I didn't catch what these were. Perhaps we should have visited the animals before we used up all our drink tickets.

    We all had a good time and I'm sure I'll be visiting the zoo a lot more this year. I have Groupons for two Segway tours, which we're planning to take at the zoo. I'm sure I'll also take the niece and nephew at some point this spring or summer.

    What's your favorite animal to visit at the zoo?

  • Help Average Jane Help Babies

    I may not have babies of my own, but I want everyone else's babies to be healthy. Next Saturday, May 1st I'm doing the March for Babies walk in Kansas City. If you can contribute even a dollar or two, I'd very much appreciate it.

    A big thank you to Cagey for contributing the first $25. Who's next?

  • Average Jane Gets Started

    After I posted the carrot cake recipe, it occurred to me that it wasn't a very good juxtaposition with my post from a few days earlier complaining about being fat. However, it's not as though I baked a giant cake to eat all by myself. That's one of the reasons that it's nice to work in an office – I can continue my baking hobby and other people do the majority of the eating.

    This week I went to both yoga classes at the office and I'm all set to go to class on Saturday morning as well. That'll be a total of 4 classes in 9 days, counting the class I took at my sister's yoga studio last Friday.

    You know what? I already feel more energetic.

    I'm not stopping there, though. Before I got sick the time before last (for those of you playing the home game), I did Day One, Week One of the Couch-to-5k program. The random virus I caught put a prompt halt to that, so I'm starting over tomorrow after work.

    Finally, I recently bought a Groupon for three weeks (six classes) of fitness training "bootcamp." This is the one that scares me the most, in part because I'm a 30-Day Shred dropout who couldn't even get through the DVD once without having to stop and lie on the floor, hoping not to die. However, I think if I time it so that I have a couple of weeks of aerobics under my belt first, I can make it through without collapsing or otherwise embarrassing myself.

    The key for me is going to be adding exercise to my daily routine. The logical way to do that is to cut back on "sitting at the computer" time, of which I have WAY too much.

    I've set a couple of goals that I think are achievable:

    The actual numbers don't matter to me (I've never owned a scale). I just want to get leaner, have more energy, and reverse the trend that's making me look way more matronly than I'd like. So here I go…

  • Average Jane Makes A Carrot Cake

    IMG00131 I had a ridiculously enormous piece of carrot cake while I was in Dallas, which reminded me about this recipe that I haven't made in many years. I can't take credit for the recipe itself, but I'll give you the link and my advice for getting it to turn out right based on past experience and having made it last night.

    It's called Fourteen K Carrot Cake and the thing about it that makes it way less trouble than 99% of the carrot cake recipes in the world is that it doesn't contain grated carrots. Instead, you make it with baby food carrots and you get the expected carrot-y texture from coconut and crushed pineapple. 

    It also gets points for not even mentioning the one thing I don't like about most carrot cakes: raisins. Bleh.

    The one place where the recipe steers you wrong is the baking time. It says 40 minutes, but it's really a good 55 minutes if not an hour. At 40 minutes, the center is still all woogy when you give the pan a poke. Yes, woogy is a baking term. I don't know why you've never heard it before.

    I let the cake cool overnight and then I made a batch of this cream cheese frosting. I used a food processor to mix the ingredients, which I highly recommend. I even more strongly recommend letting the butter soften as the recipe instructs because otherwise you'll be picking out big chunks of unblended butter while you're applying the frosting to the cake (heh). 

    As you can see from my blurry camera phone photo, it's a thick cake that rises almost to the upper edge of the pan. My colleagues worked on it all day long and didn't even eat it all.

    So the bottom line is that this cake absolutely rocks and you should
    make it. You won't be sorry.

  • Average Jane Travels

    Thanks to a meeting agenda miscalculation, I'm currently killing time at Dallas Love Field airport while I wait for a flight that leaves in about three hours. I've already been here an hour.

    I'm not willing to pay another $5.95 when my two hours of online access expires, so I'll probably have a delightful dinner at Chili's Too or some other airport food standby (Potbelly, California Pizza Kitchen, etc.). I'm not sure yet because I plopped down as soon as I saw a comfy chair/electrical outlet combo and thus have not yet explored the terminal.

    As soon as my cab reached the airport, I made my way to the handicap stall in the restroom to change into jeans and sneakers before I checked my suitcase. It made me feel like a spy. (A spy whose feet immediately felt better.)

    Dallas is one of those places I've only ever visited on business, so I have absolutely no idea what it's like outside of a couple of office buildings, the airport, and now the Galleria Mall because that's where my colleague and I shopped and had dinner last night. Oh, and the nearby Embassy Suites, which I now know has two beautiful swans living in a fountain in the lobby. They also have clear jugs of fruit-infused ice water in the lobby, which I want to recreate at home. I'd get some swans, too, but I think they're big enough to kick the cats' butts.

    So that's my current reality. Once I run out of 'net access, I'll dig out "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." If it looks like it won't make it through the whole flight, I'll go to the bookstore and buy something else.

    How's your evening shaping up?

  • Average Jane, Land Monster

    It's funny how much weight gain denial I am capable of. Admittedly, I'm currently extra bloated from the cavalcade of prescription pharmaceuticals that are still working their way through my system, conquering my bronchitis as they go. Still, I know a problem when I see one. (And I happen to know exactly how much I weigh right now, thanks to my doctor visit on Sunday.)

    I just finished trying on every article of corporate wear that I own. I have meetings tomorrow and the next day that require me to be considerably more presentable than usual, so I hit the long-term storage closet to see what I could dig up.

    It turns out that I was a size 8 the last time I had occasion to dress up on a regular basis. I am…not a size 8 now. Or a 10. Maybe a 12, but today I wouldn't even take that bet.

    So all my suits are completely out of the question. I tried on several pairs of slacks and although a few of them made it past the thunder thighs, buttoning them would have defied the laws of physics. My jackets were all in the category of "fat guy in a little coat." 

    The last time I put myself through the same ordeal, I ended up buying a pair of voluminous black slacks which I still have. They're not exactly stylish, but at least they don't cut me in half at the waist. I'll be wearing them both days, thank you very much.

    Then there was the issue of what kind of top to wear. I dug out a decent looking black tank top to pair with the world's most durable silk blouse. (Seriously, I've had this Casual Corner blouse since the 1980s. It's been dry cleaned two dozen times or more and it still looks great.) For Thursday, I dragged out a black, sleeveless shell and a pashmina I got in our department gift exchange last Christmas. I figure if I can't fit in my jackets, I'll just wear a shawl.

    So obviously this can't go on. My diet is terrible and I don't get anywhere near enough exercise. I spend a disgraceful amount of time sitting: in front the computer, in front of the TV, on the couch with a book. One yoga class every other week isn't cutting it.

    I have a plan, though. It won't be fun and I know I'm going to have a really hard time motivating myself, but it's better than continuing to Jabba-the-Hutt-ify myself. The self-improving misery begins Saturday. I hope I'm ready.