Check out my article in Extreme How-To!

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The current issue of Extreme How-To Magazine (available at Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, all over the place) includes an article by moi called Bright Ideas for Deck Lights (see the cover). The story was written to showcase the products available from Aurora Deck Lighting, but it's a good over view of deck lighting (solar, low voltage, wired, unwired) -- truly everything you need to know. If you are interested in turning your outdoor living enviornment into a place you can use at night as well as during the day, check out Aurora's products, and be sure to tell them you heard about them from Extreme How-To magazine and the article by Connie Jean Holubar!

My future home

Discovering the line you won't cross.

As a writer I've done a lot of projects that were a struggle to do. Not because of the work itself, but because of the content. I worked for an ad agency in Dallas that had a client list that made people yawn. I could literally see them zone out about two clients into my list as soon as they had asked "Who are your clients?" My own mother once told me she guessed that I must be good at promoting boring things. I had never looked at it that way, but I guess she was right, because I've had a successful career.

When I started doing "my own thing" again here in Texas I decided I would focus in on areas of interest to me. It helped that I had a good customer base of clients who had hired me for my expertise in certain things (initially crisis communication, then economic development, then media relations and PR, and now I guess because I'm cheap). Long story short, I've always had the "luxury" of working for people I want to work for doing things I want to do. The few times that I've lost a plum assignment working for someone I really liked, I've grieved. I like my work.

Over the years and through the economic ups and downs, I've adjusted my business strategy and philosophy as needed. A few years ago I decided I would not work with people I didn't like, no matter how good the money or how interesting the product or service. About a year ago I amended that rule (economy and all), as long as the pay was good and needed, but I still am careful what I work on.

More importantly, perhaps, in the internet age than liking the client is having a sincere interest in their product or service and in having a desire to do what Jesus would do and help them out, no matter how much I like or dislike them individually.

Based on that measure, I've fired only a few clients who didn't deserve that treatment, who didn't treat me with the same kindness, but for the most part I have had the privilege of helping a lot of people, and I feel good at the end of the day. I price my services fairly, I give a fair days work -- more than a fair day's work, often to the point of not making much money on something at all -- but I do it because it helps someone.

Today I met the point where there was a definite line in the sand. I had been alerted as I am every day to a dozen or more jobs posted on a service to which I subscribe, and which, in all honesty, brings me in a not unhappy piece of revenue on an annual basis.

I usually find one or two things on this service every week or so that make sense for me or that I want to do, sometimes because they offer a unique challenge or because it gives me a chance to learn about something interesting. But today I found one that I considered for just a moment, but then clicked away, both saddened and disgusted, and energized to write this post.

I will not, I found out, take on the challenge of assisting with a grassroots campaign to sell an ointment that cures foot fungus. That's where I draw the line. I realize that ten million people suffer from foot fungus, which I assume is a rotting, icky thing that I've seen portrayed on TV by a nasty cartoon character (shown lifting up the big toenail and jumping inside with his nasty friends). You've see the ad. It's nasty. Anyway, two people have already bid on the foot fungus job, and so they obviously need that work worse than I.

So I'll return to the pile of work I do have and quit looking for more. That should make my current clients happy, since most are waiting for me to deliver something or call them or call someone on their behalf.

I return to my work knowing that I do have choices with what I do, and today writing about a company's marketing campaign, writing a few press releases, and calling a few clients and their customers for interviews to write a feature story will have to fill my need to do something productive. I don't have any new business to work on today, but I have lots of old business, for some really great people who have businesses that are doing well if not thriving in this economy.

This little exercise this morning also has given me another reason to be thankful. Not only is the sun shining with promise of the most beautiful day of the year thus far, but I, thank the dear Lord, do not have foot fungus.

Family Vacations

So far we are having a great time on our spring break trip. We saw the space shuttle Discovery launch yesterday and today we took an airboat ride in a real Florida swamp -- Boggy Creek.

Sure, we're five miles from Disney World, but we've been there, done that. Today was supposed to be a theme park day, and the kids had agreed on Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. But instead we slept in a little late and weren't really moving too fast today. So we opted for a lower key experience.

I had been on an airboat ride in Florida when I was a kid. It was somewhere west of Fort Myers in the Everglades. But the rest of my family had never been. I can't say anyone was too excited, but it was an easy 20 minute drive south of Orlando on a country road, and it was well worth the trip.

My favorite parts of Florida are not the theme parks. I don't like spending several hundred dollars in one day to stand in line. It was fun when the kids were smaller and they got so much out of it, and our family is a pretty patient group, but now I have teens. That makes it more of a challenge.

So we come to Florida and do different things. We'll go over to the beach (that's free), and we'll find a cool go-cart track. There's tennis here, and that's great. We played bingo this afternoon. (Yesterday we watched; today I wanted to play. We played four games for pots of money that ranged from just over $100 to $250. That's worth sitting an hour for, and it's worth the $6 it cost me to play. I didn't win, but I met Shirley and Larry from Pittsburg. It was fun.

We've only been here a couple days, and the vacation hasn't been perfect. I try not to let it hurt my feelings that my 14 year old told me, "I didn't come all this way to hang out with you." But it also was nice when, given the chance, the kids did not want to go to Universal Studios today by themselves.

Seeing the space shuttle launch was especially cool. We didn't drive to the coast as we'd originally planned because we were going to combine it with a beach visit, and the news said high rip tides made swimming hazardous. I didn't want to listen to the kids whine about going over there and not being able to swim, so we stayed here. It was fine though, because we scouted out a spot at the edge of the resort, over a lake, with a clear horizon. We gathered there with dozens of other families and my son took video. It will be up on YouTube when we get home and I'll link it here.

More to come from Kissimmee, Florida. Tomorrow we're going to try to get up early to hit a bucket of balls on the driving range and play some tennis. Tomorrow night we'll go see a spring training game: Atlanta Braves and NY Mets. Vacations in Orlando, even when you've outgrown Mickey, are worth the trip.

Family Dinners are Fun!

Our family helped my mother celebrate her 70th birthday on March 5 with a trip to Benihana in Dallas. If you haven't been to Benihana lately, you really should make a point of going soon. It can be pretty pricey, so be prepared for meals in the $30 - $50 per person price range,plus tip, depending on drinks, appetizers, sushi, etc., but the experience is well worth it. Even our three teenage boys had fun and THANKED us for taking them there. My mom and sister even tried their first sushi (well psuedo-sushi). Personally I liked the Mango Sakitini best. (And I could do without the green tea ice cream...ick.)

From left, bottom, my big brother Bob, my sister-in-law Amy, my mother, me, my husband, Mark. Top left, my son Tanner (16), my nephew Bret (14), my son Dylan (14), and my sister Kathleen.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Out of the mouths of babes...

We all know kids say the darndest things. They ask questions, and as parents we're supposed to answer them because it's our job to be their first and most important teacher.

Yesterday, as I burned the morning toast for the second time in as many weeks, my 14 year old looked at me and with a pensive, serious, almost concerned expression on his face he asked, perhaps more rhetorically than to me, "Why do they put a setting on a toaster that burns the toast?"

As the search engine in my brain took off in a slightly foggy, early morning quest for the answer, it bogged down. I couldn't answer. I didn't know what to say. Within a split second my brain processor had eliminated "To toast other things that require higher settings," because there was nothing I could think of that you toasted on the highest settings of a toaster.

I also had eliminated the response "For the bagels," quickly realizing that bagels require an even lower setting because otherwise the edges burn. Pop tarts require lower...

Holy Cow. Dylan had asked a question to which I was stumped. "Why does a toaster have a setting that burns toast?"

It's not the first time I couldn't answer a question, but usually the questions I can't answer revolve around school subjects like Texas History, of which as a non-Texan I've been spared, or algebra, or kid needs like how to string a guitar or reinstall XP. Usually when it comes to basic kitchen appliances I am master of my domain.

So what is the answer? Why is there such a high setting on a toaster? Did a design team in some factory decide to add hotter settings just because they could? Did a marketing person suggest "more settings" as a way to get ahead of the competition and provide more fodder for bullet points in an ad? Did an executive devise the idea as a way to raise prices? Is it a conspiracy between bread manufacturers and toaster producers, perhaps combined with the power companies and big oil to get us to use more energy, burn bread thus increasing the rate at which a loaf is consumed...are the farmers and the grocery stores and the bakeries all in on this?

Or is this just a symbol of the waste that has been occuring in America as we add bells and whistles and heat settings to appliances that no one needs but that require more materials to provide thus more jobs and more expense and the resulting ability to charge consumers more money for the same old thing?

I don't know. If you think about it too hard it makes your head hurt. I'm sure my son forgot his question and hasn't given it another thought. I on the other hand have been pondering it off an on for about 28 hours now. Subconsciously, but still.

Out there somewhere is the guy (I'm guessing) who designed my GE Bagel Switch 4 Slice Toaster. He (or she) knows why there is a setting on a toaster that burns toast. He or she probably also knows what cooks in a toaster on the highest setting. If anything.

Jack Welch probably knows the answer. I don't know the answer. I'd like to know why my toaster has a setting on it that burns toast. Does this make sense? To anyone? Can something be done about this? Is there a watchdog group out there that needs a cause? Why hasn't Congress brought in witnesses? Why hasn't this issue been raised before...

I for one plan to use this newly acquired realization to remain above the influence. I plan to keep my toaster set conservatively on 6. I suggest, dear reader, that you heed my advice and do the same.

Valentines is over, so what do I do with the box?

My spouse thoughtfully gave me the traditional heart shaped box of Russell Stover chocolates. Although the chocolates were gone by weekend's end, the box has been laying around. Today I picked it up with plans to get it off my kitchen counter, but now it's on my desk, here by my computer, because I can't decide what to do with it.

I recycle just about everything. From cat food cans to plastic milk jugs, soda cans to Lean Cuisine boxes, if it's paper, plastic, aluminum or tin, I have a container for it and a recycling center down the road that will take it.

But what about this heart shaped box? It's really too pretty to throw away. It has Russell Stover's name stamped into it, so it's not really good for decorative purposes, I of course won't throw it away, but it's really too pretty for the recycle pile. I'm in a quandary. I really don't know what to do.

If anyone out there has a creative use for a heart-shaped box, let me know what it is. I did a quick search on Google looking for ideas, but to no avail. I can't be the only person with this problem. In past years I've received chocolates, so I must have gotten rid of the box one way or another. I don't have a stockpile of these boxes in a closet or on a shelf. But I can't imagine myself throwing them away either.

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE HEART SHAPED BOX WHEN THE CANDY IS ALL GONE???