Navigating the internet--with difficulty

People who talk glibly of various online programs that I don't understand frustrate me--now I can't even think of the names of those programs, but they are myriad. I have trouble mastering simple things, though I do okay on Facebook and Twitter (the latter is to me a bit boring). But tonight I semi-conquered two problems.
The first was my web page--well, I haven't conquered it but I made one small step. Some time ago, I submitted it to a blog that periodically evaluates web pages and came back with not a good score. The critic pointed out that it's an old picture--and it is, probably twenty-five years old. Then there was the complaint that no links make it easy for readers to click and order my books--most of my books are out of print and can only be ordered from individual sellers, but I guess I could put Amazon links. I hadn't gotten to putting old titles on Amazon and Kindle yet. And,  hey, I thought I was doing well to have a web page, let alone all that fancy stuff.
A colleague at TCU designed the page for me and did what I thought was a great job, though the critic called it simplistic. Well, I'd rather have simplistic than some of those web pages that are so fancy and intricate you don't know what you're looking at. I don't need bells and whistles--but I do need to update the page from time to time and my colleague, now an independent designer, charged every time as well she should. It's just that I need a page that is not in html and that I can upgrade--change a recipe, add a new event, etc. Besides, I have a new book coming out--have I mentioned that? oh, yes, I'm sure I have--and I need a whole new web page featuring that book, the new picture of me, etc. Not being smart about this, I assumed that the host I had required html and so I cancelled the account. Fortunately, there was a grace period, because someone from Wordpress.com pointed out to me that I still needed a host, even if I posted my page through Wordpress. So tonight I renewed the domain, just to be sure, even though it didn't expire until July 2012. Money wasted, but I was told if I let it cancel, I couldn't renew the name for 90 days, according to FCC regulations. So now that's done, and I assume all is well.
Then there's the food blog. For some reason, last night I couldn't figure out how to create a second blog on Blogger.com. Tonight, I breezed through it. And there's now a page called Potluck with Judy (notice I changed the title from Judy's Potluck, figuring that could too easily get mixed up with Judy's Stew). I think it can be found at http://potluckwithjudy.blogspot.com/ but one can never be sure. And I pretty much got it set up--a picture of me that's way too big, and I wrote an "about me" that didn't show up on the page. Figured I'd done enough for one night. I'll quit.
Occasionally--only occasionally--I'm ahead of my kids. When we went to Scotland, Colin said his brother wanted him to put pictures in Dropbox and he had no idea what that is. I do! I have Dropbox, but I mostly forget to use it. There was an exchange on one of the listservs tonight about whether or not you should revise in Dropbox or revise in Word and drag each new version to Dropbox. Please! When do these people write?
Some authors check their sales at Amazon and Smashwords three or four times a day--I would find that so discouraging I'd probably never write another word. I check, oh, maybe every two weeks. In recent months, I've gotten two checks from Amazon and they came as delightful surprises.
I want writing to be fun. I don't want to feel about it as I did whenever I faced the spreadsheets of monthly reports at the press. So I'll keep reading with awe and envy about the people who sell hundreds of copies online daily . . . and I'll just toddle along with my few copies. Ten? Hey, that's a big day.

Busting my buttons

I have a web page! It's up and running, and I'm excited. Please check it out at http://www.judyalter.com. I know there are bugs in it--links that aren't live, mistitled pages, etc., but the wondereful friend who designed it has gone on vacation and those will have to wait. Meanwhile, most of it's there. I've discovered in the world of writing mysteries that having a web page is an essential--not that mine has a mystery on it yet, but I'm working on that.
Actually, with Julia Spencer Fleming out of the way for the time being, I am back to my own books. I finished Chapter 6 on the new novel last night and today began rereading the first mystery. You know what? It didn't sound bad to me at all, and I remembered things about the characters I'd forgotten. I read it with an eye to making revisions, but so far I've only tweaked a few details. I do think I'll add an epilogue, which will nicely take care of the character growth and change thing. Not exactly a hero's journey, but . . ..
It was forecast to be 107 today, so it was definitely a day not to stick my head out. I cooked in the morning--you'd be surprised how long it takes to make basil mayonnaise, but is it ever worth it! My basil was kind of puny, but Jay next door brought me a bunch so large it looked like a bouquet. Using the basil mayo, I shaped chicken burgers and put them in the fridge and set the table for tonight. Then I spent the rest of the day reading my writing and had a good long nap. I've had Scooby in all day, because it's just too hot for him to be outside.
Tonight the neighbors and Jordan came for supper (Christian and Jacob had an evening together). It was Susan's birthday a few days after mine, so we celebrated late--they had been out of town. Sue from the other side of my house joined us, and Jay had a harem. (Did I mention how good looking he is?) He seems to like his harem, though he said his manners got confused tonight--should he pass things first to Susan, his wife and the honoree, or to me, because I'm senior, or . . . . As usual, he was good-natured about doing the grilling, even in the heat, and we had chicken burgers on grilled bread with heirloom tomatoes and basil mayonnaise. It was a great combination. I've been wanting to try heirloom tomatoes since they're all the rage these days. So I put five in a sack at Central Market yesterday and weighed it--$11+ worth of tomatoes. I took all but two back and tried again--still outrageous but hey! this was a party. Sadly, I have to report they just tasted like tomatoes. I'm going back to buying those on the vine.
Scooby spent the evening in my office, and was very vocal by spells about wanting to be out with all of us, where he would, of course, have been an unbelievable pain--excited beyond belief. Now, he's sleeping at my feet and shows no interest in going anywhere but to his bed. I hope this doesn't mean he'll want to go out at 3 a.m.

Heat Wave

This dark picture is Jacob looking out the front door, watching for Mama and Dada this morning. We had lots of fun last night--he watched a video some, but we played, looked at pictures, read books, and he played his special game of "make Juju think I'm going to do something I'm not supposed to" which he does with the devil in his eyes and a big smile on his face. But this morning, he woke, crying, at 6:30 (he usually is quiet until at least 7:30). He wanted Mama. For the next three hours he was alternately joking and being funny and crying for Mama.

After they left I did my one grocery trip. Today's prediction was 105 but tonight I think the news report said it was only 101. Tomorrow is supposed to be 107 (a record! oh, good!) and I'm glad I don't have to set foot out of the house except to water plants and feed the dog, who spends most of the day inside. I opened the door today at noon to give him a treat (with a pill hidden in it) and he bolted inside. Nor does he want to go out after naptime--he knows its the hottest part of the day. The trouble with this heat is that it makes you feel trapped--inside your house, inside your air-conditioned car, wherever you are. And it's sort of never off your mind. And don't even talk to me about the heat index--those are numbers I simply don't want to hear. Knowing about them makes it worse.

I fixed an exotic tuna salad tonight, from a recipe out of Gourmet. A layer of grilled eggplant salad with garlic, vinegar, parsley added to it, then chunked tuna, then tonnato sauce (I love that--a tuna/anchovie/caper sauce), then grape tomatoes, sliced in half and tossed with mint, salt and pepper. It was really great--but it was too many intense flavors. After a few bites, I ws sort of done. I ate almost all of it and then had to break my diet and have a small chocolate sundae to change the flavors in my mouth.

Now down to work. This afternoon I edited the first 90 pages of a novel I'm wildly enthusiastic about, and tonight I'm going to finish the sixth chapter of the new novel and then go back over the first one, Dead Space, with the idea in mind that characters must grow and change.

My web page is up--except I don't know how to find it, and the girl who designed it has left town for a week. I'll call domain.com Monday, because I really want to post a link here. I'll have a new email and everything. It's like anything else digital, electronic, or whatever--getting it up and running is a royal pain, always with complications, but once you do that, you're in business and using the system comes automatically. I'm waiting for that day.