So, I am a total Wordpress girl now. Every site I create now starts with Wordpress. And I’m in the process of converting a good number of current clients, whose pages have been handcoded HTML until now, to Wordpress.

And for shopping carts, I’m all about Mal’s shopping cart. It’s free, it has great features, and it has its own secure server.

Now I’m trying to find a way to get these two services together.

I did find a Wordpress/Mals Shopping Cart plug-in in progress, which looks like it can do the trick when you are starting from scratch and can enter each product individually.

But, I do have one client whose inventory changes every 6 weeks. And it’s hundreds of products each time.

Currently, I am using a heavily customized Photoshop Web Photo Gallery that generates the Mals’ code from the file name. My client puts the prices on the images themselves, so I only have to change the product description when I generate the Add to Cart button code. The rest (the user id, qty, etc stays the same).

It seems like it would be simple enough to generate that code as you would a caption. So I’ve been researching all morning, trying to find the best plug in to try my hand at customzing to make this work.

Right now I’m looking at AWSOM PixGallery Version 4.5.7. Or possibly NextGen Gallery.

I haven’t done any actual coding this morning, just research. And my brain hurts. Time to break for a late lunch at Wild Ginger and cleanse my mind with a funny mystery book….

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day.

For those who don’t know, Doug and I own Bargain Comics, a comic book store in downtown Colorado Springs.

We gave away comics at the store and at 3 local libraries:

• Bargain Comics, 19 East Bijou St, 10:30 – 5:00
• East Branch Library, 5550 North Union Blvd, 11:00 – 3:00
• Briargate Branch Library, 9475 Briar Village Point, 1:00 – 3:00
• Woodland Park Library, 218 E. Midland Avenue, 12:00 – 3:00

In the morning, I took Zander and Zevan to Zander’s soccer game at 9 AM at the YMCA. We were late, but Zander played the 2nd quarter as goalie and did a great job. He made some great saves and never let a goal in.

Afterwards we went to the car, and headed over to Washington to see the new site for the Montessori program next year. It happens to be right behind a Dunkin Donuts. Since we had a few minutes, we stopped there. The line was longer than we’re used to, but we made it to the school shortly after 10 AM. After the principal showed us the proposed room assignments, we took the tour. The building definitely has a more institutional look – low ceilings, cinderblock walls and not many windows. But the media center and computer room were both more clean and modern. Overall, it’s fine. We could have done much worse. You could see how much the current students put into the school, and it was sad for them to lose their school.

After the tour, we headed to the comic shop. The 501st Garrison were there in full force. They set up a tent out in front. They were really great. EVERYONE was so excited to see them.

They had started about 20 minutes before we got there, and despite cold, drizzly weather, there was still a line outside the door. We saw our friends Michelle, Jonathan & Jonathan in line as we wormed our way through the crowd to the back of the store. I put the boys in the back of the store, Zevan set up near the storage closet with his donut, and Zander on the back wall, reading comic books.

Barb, our manager’s daughter was there in a Captain America costume, complete with shield. We had a friend dressed as Flash manning the prize table until he was called to the East library branch, and I took over.

It was CRAZY busy nearly the whole day. The store was packed. Many people who came to shop or even just browse were surprised to find out we were giving away comic books.

Around noon, Grandpa picked up the ZBoys. We stayed busy all day, and saw a lot of friends, many of whom saw my event listing on Facebook.

A KOAA reporter came for the event. He was psyched because the Garrison was there, and he is a huge Star Wars fan. He filmed a lot at the shop, and we even were able to squeeze in a quick interview. My talking head appeared on the 10 o’clock news last night! The coverage was good.

KOAA will be doing a feature on the 501st Garrison next month – so the publicity was good for everyone involved.

I took a break around 2:00 PM when Candy & Misha came by. We ran over to Old Chicago’s for a quick lunch. I got back to the store and helped out for a while longer. The last friends I saw were Kristi & her girls. They were VERY excited to get comic books. Kaitlyn was so cute with her two year old voice saying, “Teen Titans!”

I left the store around 4:15 and headed home.

Whew! What a day!

So, as I look into creating website for the ZBoys – at their request , I started perusing some Wordpress Themes.

My favorite site for Wordpress themes by far is WP Zoom. Particularly the theme sets, like 50+ Free Themes for Personal Blogs and Best Free WordPress Themes in 2008.

Right now, for this site, I’m playing with the Notepad Chaos theme – it’s one I’ve been eyeing for a while, and will likely be the one that I use as a starting point to modify and come up with a custom version of it for myself.

I’ve set up the websites for the boys – and used some related themes and added a few custom touches so far.

For Zander’s site – I’m using the Wordpress Fun theme. As you can see, I changed the logo and the color of the boy’s hair. I removed the featured area and replaced it with his links and categories. Of course, that will change again

For Zevan’s site, I’m using Desk Space which has the same cartoon guy. I’ve customized the header with his name and photos and note from mom and dad

These will be a work in progress. The boys haven’t even seen these pages yet, and I’m sure they will have strong opinions about their sites.

“Hey guys, come inside, I want to show you something,” I called to the boys who were outside.

“Is it my website?” Zander asked eagerly.

“Uh, no,” I replied sheepishly. I had much cooler things to show like new pajamas for Zander and shoes that tie for Zevan.

After they tried things on and so forth, the discussion went back to websites. Zander suddenly wants his own website.

At the snack table, he declared, “I want zander.com”

“Oh, sweetie, that name is already taken. So is zanderscott.com.” Why didn’t I register that when he was born???

“Oh.” Thinking. “What about strawberry.com?”

“It’s taken.” This was followed by a string of random .com words, all common words.

“Honey, pretty much any regular word you can think of has been taken.”

“Oh. What about ?”

“I don’t know, we’ll have to check.”

So, when they came up to brush their teeth and put pajamas on, I went to GoDaddy to research domain names.

We finally settled on some domains for the boys.

Aw, that makes a geek mom proud. Now I’m actually going to have to build each a website. I need a kid friendly platform. I want to keep it on our own hosting account, of course.

An hour of searches for kid friendly platforms and I’ve come up with nothing concrete. Joomla Kids! has been abandoned. The Drupal version for kids hasn’t even started.

I guess I’ll start with Wordpress since that’s what I know best…

…my best friend May got a full time job! My running, climbing, work-out partner and fellow geekspeak coder best friend got a full time job!

It’s been weeks in the making, and the whole time I secretly wished she somehow couldn’t work out the child care situation or something – anything – so that she couldn’t take the job. I had no doubts that she would get it if she wanted it.

And then today she dealt the final blow. We met for lunch at Pikes Perk after her interview and told me, “They want me to start on Thursday.”

I mock-swooned, clutching my chest. It somehow felt like a break-up – a few days earlier than anticipated.

Then we had lunch and went shopping so she could have clothes to wear to work.

I’m happy for her, actually. I know she wanted to do this, and I’m glad she got the job (for me, there was no doubt). I’m bummed for me. It’s so selfish.

She’s been my consistent, reliable, well matched work-out partner for the past four years. Sure, I wish she was a tad bit slower runner (at the same time I wish to be a tad bit faster runner…), but otherwise, we worked well together in motivating each other to go that extra mile, sprint to the next mile marker, dyno to that not so great hold, swim just one more lap…

Sigh.

Of course, I’m in the process of applying for a full time job myself – something I thought I would never even consider – but the position is just too good to not try. So far, I sent a resume this weekend, and haven’t even gotten the obligatory “we received your resume” response. Not that I *need* a job. This is something I actually want to do. We’ll see.

This is *so* cool! I now have my own handwriting font for free from Your Fonts.

It was so easy to do – just print out the template file (PDF or JPG), write the letters, then scan it and upload it.

Wait a minute or so.

Voila! My own font.

It took me about 4 tries to get the letters lined up correctly and proportions – in fact, after I scanned it, I was able to move the letters up and down in Photoshop using guides.

I am going to see if I can figure out a way to enlarge the template so Zander can write his own font and then I canshrink it back down to upload. Then we can have his current kindergarten handwriting to compare to future years.

I just think this is the coolest thing ever!

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Rum Cakes by Kelli – launched!
Legend Antiques onsite inventory and buying trip catalogs – launched!
Scitec, Inc – launched!
MA! motherhood with attitude redesign – launched!

4 sites launches… well, 2 full site launches, one catalog launch and one re-design, but still – it’s been a lot of work.

As I was making the final changes for the MA! redesign launch just a half an hour ago, Zander came in (way past his bed time).

“Mom, ” he began. “I think that you have been working enough today, ” he continued earnestly.

He wanted me to lay down with him for a few minutes – as the boys often do. I do often indulge them, for 5-10 minutes, and then promise to return when I’m done working/surfing/watching tv with dad. And my promise is always fulfilled, although sometimes not until 2 AM when I crawl into bed.

We still, somehow, have a family bed. Although there was a year or more that they slept in their own room, we all sleep together now. And, unlike many parents, I enjoy it. There’s nothing I like better than getting into bed and snuggling one boy under each arm.

But tonight, I had to say no. I did acknowledge how sweet he was, but told him I was in the middle of launching the site, and couldn’t lay down just yet. He looked appropriately disappointed, but didn’t go into full slump mode, so I knew we were okay.

Truth be told, I’m afraid there will be a snow day tomorrow, so I need to get as much done as I can tonight.

Hmmm… I wonder how the daycare works at Bally’s gym?

Yes, that’s right. The gym.

Thanks to the Discovery Health Challenge, May and I both have 30 day passes for Bally’s Fitness. I have been there 4 times a week since we started. I have been running on the dreadmill, lifting weights and swimming.

Yes, that’s right. Swimming.

I am regsitered for the Falcon Ground Speed sprint triathlon on May 9, 2009

Yes, that’s right. A triathlon!

Because the Pikes Peak Ascent, Disney World Marathon and Disneyland Half-Marathon weren’t enough of a milestone, at age 40, I will do my first triathlon. 825 yard (754.38m) length swim, 14.69 mile (23.64km) bike ride and 3.1 mile 5k run. I know I can do the run. I found out in the last two weeks that I can certainly do the swim. The bike part – well, I guess I’ll just have to start training now.

And to top it all off, tomorrow May and I start a two week diet regime to lose weight. Even with all this exercise, neither of us have managed to lose any weight or fit into any smaller sized clothing. So… tomorrow it begins. I need to work on my food choices and late day eating. She needs to work on her portion control. So two weeks of fully aware portions and healthier choices. Sigh.

Did I mention that I still have a lot of work projects as well? I’ve got Strangers In Paradise, CSG|Digital, Integrated Building Solutions and Telematrix on the horizon.

In these times, I’m not going to complain about having work to do, but it is a bit overwhelming.