Life in the Slow Lane

This is the post I almost didn't write. And before I can actually write it, let me put in a few disclaimers: This is the life I know. This is not intended as a statement about the lives of others or of how lives should be or even of how my life will be tomorrow. This is right now, in my little house. I sit long-ways on our rocking couch, the laptop topping my lap, my legs resting on the pile of yet-to-be-answered letters I dreamed would be considerably smaller by now, my feet hanging off the armrest on one side and my shoulders hanging over the other side. The toy box is tipped on its side spilling out a conglomeration of toys, baby books, wooden spoons and other miscellaneous kitchen items that worked particularly well as distractions at some point during the last few days. There is a basket of laundry that includes a load of clean, dry towels and clean, wet diapers. The sink is full of dirty dishes, the drying rack is full of clean dishes, and the table is full of everything tha...

This is a rant cleverly disguised as a "how to" article. 1) If you want your email address to contain both letters and numbers, resist the temptation to use “L”s or “1”s. It is probably a good idea to stay away from “I”s, too. (Say "no" to tinkerbell11@domain.com). 2) Remember that your email address is just an address, not everything you want to share with the world. That is what the body of the email is for. Otherwise you have an irresponsibly long email address that will cause everyone to hate you each time they have to enter it. (IsaveOrphansFromMeanStepmothersWhyDontYou@domain.com) 3) On a similar point to number two, if your domain name is extra long, remember the KISS principle. (KISS@happyhappyhuntinghouse.rr.co.uk) 4) Just because you have a favorite letter or number doesn't mean that you can't make good use of non-favorites when crafting your address. If you have to count to make sure you have the appropriate number of keystrokes, i...