Remembering where my guy had parked his car means a spanking for me

My guy is directionally challenged. He relies on a GPS to get him to any destination that he needs. I don't even want to know what would happen to him if this gadget wasn't even invented!

The other day, my guy and I headed out for lunch. I start getting worried when he wanders around the parking lot.

"Do you know where you car is?" I asked him.
"It's somewhere over here," he gestured.
"That's half the top floor of the parking lot," I pointed out.
"I will eventually find it. See, there it is!"

We got into his new car and my guy drove us to our regular restaurant. He can figure out the general vicinity of the restaurant these days. He no longer needs to pull up this saved location on his GPS.

"I decided to do away with my GPS," my guy stated along the way.
"What?!" I questioned and exclaimed simultaneously.
"I have decided to use Google Maps on my phone instead. It's more reliable," he admitted.

I was relieved.

He parked the car and we entered the restaurant. We are regulars there. We are always promptly greeted. The food was yummy. We ordered our usual dishes. I went with the spicy garlic chicken. My guy ordered the spicy ginger beef.

We love spending time together, even if it's for an hour at lunch.

After we had filled our tummies up with good grub, my guy picked up the tab, and we proceeded to walk out the restaurant.

My guy was heading in the wrong direction.

"It's this way, sweetie," I said, pulling his hand in the correct direction.
"Ah, I knew that," he said, smirking.
"No, you didn't. You would have wandered around the entire parking lot, like you normally do," I stated.
"You are such a bad girl," he replied.
"No, I'm a good girl. I am leading you to your car," I stated factually.
"I need to lead you over my knee," he replied.

It's a good thing that I am good with directions. Otherwise, we wouldn't make it back to the office at a decent time. And, I wouldn't get a spanking so quickly.

Having lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant, being groped, and showing quiet signs of affection

My guy pinged me first thing on Thursday morning on our corporate instant messaging application. It is always nice to hear from him.

He asked me whether it would be okay to change our lunch plans. Two of his students wanted to have lunch with us. I was okay with the extra company, but we would lose some quiet time for ourselves.

Well, I found out later that his entire class wanted to go to a Middle Eastern restaurant for lunch. It was nice meeting his students. I especially enjoyed talking to one gentleman who lives in Dallas, but is originally from London, UK.

My guy and I sat next to each other at the restaurant. He discreetly touched the side of my thigh as we conversed with everyone. I went and caressed his leg. He hiked up his pant leg and I caressed his bare, muscular calf for quite some time while chatting with others.

The food at this restaurant was delicious. My guy and I both had beef shawarmas. I went with the platter version, whereas my guy just had the wrap. We also had hummus and pita bread.

I caressed my guy's thigh. He quietly held my hand under the table.

When our entire group was done, we went to settle the bill. My guy paid for me. He's sweet.

We then all left the restaurant. My guy and I were at the back of the pack. He discreetly and strategically groped my left buttock as we went through the first set of doors. I looked at him and smiled. He placed his hand on the small of my back. I quietly grabbed his right hand and squeezed it.

We can be affectionate without being bold. It feels good.

Mondays are better with a sweet guy

We typically dread Monday morning. Its arrival signals the beginning of the workweek for most adults.

Today, I had a different outlook. It was the first day seeing my guy again.

The feeling was mutual. He sent a message on our internal instant messaging system, saying hi during his course break. He indicated that he'd break for lunch at 12:30 pm. I was good with that.

He pinged me at exactly 12:30 pm, asking whether I was ready to go. I was. We met downstairs in the lobby.

My face lit up in a smile as soon as I saw him. He reciprocated. He noticed my blue jacket on and liked it. It is one of the best, cheap purchases I have ever made at Walmart. My guy and I were both impressed at how good it looked.

I threatened to drive his new manual car as we walked towards it in the parking lot. It's fun teasing him. His car looks nice. It was my first time in his car, moulding my butt in the passenger-side seat next to my guy. Yes, he worded the moulding-my-butt comment when we last spoke.

His car drives smoothly. My guy had his hand on his car's stick shift. He strategically placed his right hand on my left thigh. That was nice. We held hands for a bit on his car's stick shift, with mine on top of his.

"I hope you don't confuse the car's stick shift with your own," I teased.
"The question is whether you will get them confused," my guy grinned.
"Let me see," I remarked, running my hand down the car's stick shift. "Hard to tell. Get it?"

He liked my pun, as corny as it was. We continued to enjoy each other's company as he drove us to our usual hangout for lunch.

Mondays are better when you get to spend it with your loved one.

Reliving Nintendo handheld gaming systems and never wanting to grow up

When I was in grade 12, just before my December exams, I saved up enough money to buy my first handheld gaming system. I got a Game Boy.

The store that I purchased my monochrome Game Boy was Consumers Distributing. It was essentially a catalogue service. You'd mark the items that you wanted on a piece of paper, and you'd then hand it to staff who would go into the warehouse to find your item. This store has since disappeared, as has the original Game Boy.

Here is a page from a Consumers Distributing flyer that likely caught my eye back then:

Courtesy: Forum Vancouver

By the way, I also purchased the rechargeable AC adapter later months later.

Well over a decade later, I decided to get another Nintendo handheld gaming system. I went with the Game Boy Advance SP. I purchased mine in grey. The screen was colour! You could fold the system in half.

On the weekend, I went to Shoppers Drug Mart to get a few things. I was mainly there to buy a jar of peanut butter. The Nintendo 2DS was on sale for $100. I had $170 worth of points to spend at the store. I decided to ask whether there were any systems left. 

The nice man working there said that he'd check in the warehouse. It reminded me of being at Consumers Distributing as a teenager. He asked me what colours I would like. I said blue. Otherwise, any colour would do just fine.

Five minutes later, he came back with the sea green colour, which is also white. I was pleased. It looked nice. I was sold. There is nothing like a few gaming system.

I am like a little kid sometimes. I went to Best Buy to browse games afterwards. I found a used one that was half price. It was Tetris, which is reminiscent of the first game that came with my Game Boy. I bought it.

Naturally, after my purchase, I went back to my car, opened the Tetris box, took out the cartridge, opened my Nintendo 2DS box, powered the device on (it had a full charge!), placed the Tetris game into the slot, and played the game for an hour. Yes, I played a game in my car on a rainy afternoon.

Although many would say that I am mature for my age, it's nice to not act my age on the weekend. It's nice to relive how I felt about playing an arcade game. It's exciting. It's challenging. It sparks my sense of wonder and fun. It makes me happy.

It will be interesting to tell my guy about my purchase. We are similar when it comes to games. We like puzzle and word games more than anything, but we both love pac-man.

No wonder we get along well.

Missing my guy and reflecting on steamy, brief Skype chat

I especially miss my guy (MG) this evening. Two more days are left before we see each other.

The other week, we had a brief messaging session on Skype before we talked to each other. I normally don't bring my phone into the bathroom, but I had a feeling that he would ping me while I was taking a shower.

MG: Hi
MG: Guess you are having your shower
Me: Hey
Me: Yes, just finished showering... me clean!
MG: =)
MG: Wanna talk a bit?
Me: Sure. I have to put some clothes on first.
MG: Don't and turn on your camera. =p
Me: LOL! You won't see much. It's foggy in here!
MG: Oooh, steamy!
Me: Yep, that's me... LOL
MG: LOL

It'll be nice to steam up the treehouse windows soon.

Spanky Pig

Now and again, I like to search Apple's App Store for any games about spanking. Tonight, I came across Spanky Pig.

I can't exactly give you an in-depth review. I have only played it for ten minutes.

The objective is to spank as many pigs as you can within a given time. The pigs move closer to the hands, so you can slap their backsides.

It's fun and challenging so far, but it would have been nicer to be able to upload a picture of someone you know that needs a good spanking, which would replace each pig's face. This feature would motivate me a lot more.

The hand animation would be a lot better if it were a swinging hand that didn't look so stiff!

Of course, they have to keep this game clean so that it gets approved for downloading in the App Store. Perhaps I should design an adult version. Sadly, I don't have time to learn how to develop applications on iOS. Maybe I can coax my guy to design one for me.

We're s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g... we're shopping!

My guy and I are shoppers. Finding out that he loves to shop was refreshing when we first started dating. It still is.

While my guy was in Seattle a few months ago, he was trying to find some power converters that would work in Cairo. I offered to help find him some, eventually getting eight of these power converters for $5 each. We were both pleased with my find. My guy was particularly proud of me, as he felt the satisfaction of benefiting from such a great deal.

I asked my guy to buy me some bagels in Montreal a week or so ago. He didn't hesitate to get me some. I asked him to buy two dozen. He did even better and got me three bags, each of which had nine. I was thankful.

"I am back in Montreal in December," my guy stated. "I can buy you more bagels."
"That would be great," I told him.
"I know how much you like bagels. How many can you store in your freezer?"
"I don't want you to load up your car full of bagels such that you can't fit your stuff in it" I replied.
"They don't take up space at all. Besides, I love it when you have favourite foods that you love eating. I don't mind getting them for you. Whenever you eat a bagel, you can think of me," he said, being his sweet self.
"I can easily fit four of those bags in my freezer," I replied.
"Perfect. I will buy you that many the next time I'm there."

I am a lucky guy to have a handsome, sweet shopaholic getting me yummy bagels in his travels.

We also spent another evening on Skype, shopping online for laser-cut floor mats for his new car. We learned a lot about them together. He likes the fact that my eyes don't glaze over car talk. It's mainly because my dad was a mechanic, who is now retired. I grew up with seeing car parts and such. Car accessories are more interesting, though.

My guy purchased a set of floor mats. I can't wait to see what he thinks of them. I may order a set for my car.

P.S. This blog post's title is a lyric from "Shopping" by Pet Shop Boys.

From flight to teaching, and an automatic punishment

Last night, I drove over to my local Starbucks to get a slice of apple pound cake. Well, it's more like a circular apple pound cake. I like it a lot. It's both comforting and yummy.

In the same parking lot, there was a car with steamed-up windows. That sight made me smile. You could see an arm or two come up slightly now and again. It made me reflect on the numerous treehouse times that my guy and I have had. Sure, it isn't the most private location to be intimate, but it sure beats lying on the ground!

The other night, my guy and I talked over Skype.

"I'm back in the office in a week," my guy explained.
"That week feels like forever," I admitted, obviously missing him.
"I know. It won't be too long," my guy reassured.
"I wish I could meet you at the airport, but you don't have much time," I pointed out, as he gets off the plane to immediately teach a course.
"You know that as soon as I see you that I have to punish you," he hinted.
"Perhaps I should show up at the arrivals level," I remarked, which made him laugh.
"With your cute bottom exposed?" he asked me.
"I am sure the security folks would have an issue with me if I did that," I said, smiling.

It's less than a week now. At least I get to see him at the office for the whole week in a few days, so I'm pleased.

The bagel drop and new car pick-up day

My blog posts are not in chronological order these days. I can only blame it on my Mac mini's issue after upgrading to El Capitan. Although I can use my Mac mini again, syncing photos between it and my iPhone is unpredictable.

Anyway, this post follows the one about my guy driving home from Montreal a couple of Fridays ago. He called me about thirty minutes before he reached the Starbucks in Scarborough. It was good of him to do that. I was at another mall shopping. I told him that I'd meet him soon.

I got to the Starbucks parking lot about ten minutes before he did. I saw him pull into the parking lot. I got out of my car and headed over to his car. My cell phone rang.

"Hey, I'm walking over to your car," I said to him.
"Okay," he replied. "Good timing!"

My guy opened the door. I said hi to him. He reciprocated and noted that it was a bit colder outside. He got out and put on his jacket. He looked good and happy to see me.

We hugged. He smelled good.

"Missed you," I whispered in his ear. He hugged me tighter, which was his quieter version of feeling the same way about me.

We chatted for a bit. He handed me a bag full of sesame bagels. I took a whiff and nearly melted. My guy smiled. He knows how much I love bagels. I thanked him for getting me them.

My guy couldn't stay long. He was heading to Oakville to pick up his new pre-owned car. I asked him whether he had a friend who could drive his other car. He did. He was staying over at that friend's house, as he had an early flight out to Newark the following morning.

He looked down and commented on my Converse sneakers that I was wearing. He remembered my dyeing them purple, as the original purple colour had faded a lot after being in the sun for a long period. He likes them. I do, too.

We hugged once again. I wished him a safe drive and flight. He nodded and told me that he'd call me soon.

It's not easy being with a travelling guy. On this trip, it was nice that he was able to sneak in a couple of quick visits along the way. He told me that he loved seeing me, even if it was for ten minutes this night. The feeling was certainly mutual.

Meeting my guy for lunch as a stop on his trip eastbound and getting a punishment threat

My guy drove to Montreal for business a couple of Sundays ago. He wanted to do lunch with me en route. I was game.

My guy called me at around noon. He sounded sleepy, which worried me.

"You sound like you just got out of bed," I remarked.
"I did, pretty much," he replied.
"That worries me," I admitted.
"I'm in Mississauga," he stated.
"Oh, geez. You have been on the road for an hour!" I calculated.

We agreed to meet at a Starbucks in Scarborough. It is located just off highway 401, so it was perfect for him. As for me, getting to this location would take me fifteen minutes.

I could hear my guy drive away with a dinging noise in the background.

"Put your seatbelt on," I told him politely.
"You can hear that?" my guy remarked.
"Of course," I said. "Good, the warning chiming has stopped."

He chuckled. He knows that I mean well.

I saw him an hour later. He had missed my text message with the exact address. He was going on the exit information that I had given to him, but saw my text after stopping at a gas station close by the Starbucks to fuel his car up.

We met just outside of Starbucks. When we had talked, we both weren't too hungry. However, we were now. We decided to try out the restaurant across from Starbucks. My guy and I held hands as we cut across the parking lot.

We had a good brunch. He went with the Spanish omelette. I went with French toast with strawberries. Both dishes were larger than we had anticipated, but were yummy.

My guy broke the news to me that he had finally put down money towards a pre-owned manual car. I was pleased. He showed me photos. It looked nice.

"So, I get to drive it, right?" I said, teasing him.
"If you get manual driving lessons, I'd be happy to pay for them. Then, we'll see," he said with a grin.

Later on, my guy was complaining about something. I also tease him about his whining.

"Don't make me drive your manual car!" I threatened him, which actually made him stop whining temporarily.

Anyway, my guy perked up. It was probably a combination of seeing me, having food in his stomach, and downing a cup of coffee.

We left about 1.5 hours later. My guy asked me where my car was.

"Do I always have to point it out to you?" teased my directionally challenged guy as he squeezed my hand.
"At least I know where you car is. It's right there!" I said, pointing it out in the fairly busy parking lot.

We walked me over to my car like the true gentleman that he is.

"Give me a hug," my guy said, with his arms extended.
"What happens if I don't?" I asked him after I was in his embrace, hugging him back.
"Well, you'll get punished so hard that you won't be able to sit down for a couple of days," my guy stated casually.

I wished him a safe drive. He blew me a kiss and we parted ways.

My guy's reaction to the Slap It butt lamp

My guy continues to be on the road. He is in New Jersey for the week.

He's an interesting guy. He decided to hit New York, since the Big Apple is so close to Newark. He disliked driving around in the city. He complained about parking prices.

I have never driven in New York. I have always walked, or taken a taxi or the train. Perhaps that is one reason why I love visiting the city. Well, that and visiting M&M's World and the Hershey Store, among other sites.

Anyway, my guy and I were chatting a bit on Skype before we talked. I gave me a link to the Slap It butt lamp.

His reaction was sweet:

A butt lamp that needs to be spanked to light up. It reminds me of someone cute.

I'm still working on having him get it for me as a gift. It's quite the challenge! I may need to cave in and buy it for me.

Happy Thanksgiving! Lunch with my guy a couple of Wednesdays ago

Happy Thanksgiving! I have plenty to be thankful for in my life. Thanks to you for reading along with me, and providing me with support, encouragement, and joy. The same goes for my guy, my family, and my friends.

Considering that most of my Mac mini issues are fixed, I can move on to blogging more regularly. I am thankful for having a working computer.

I still have an issue with syncing my photos correctly to my iPhone. It works perfectly fine when I sync with my iPod classic, mainly because I sync my entire photo collection to it and it fits. My photo collection is too large to fit on my iPhone, so I have to be selective.

Luckily, being selective has made me realize that the sync works fine for all my photos before I upgraded from iPhoto to Photos. In other words, I only get the photos that I want up to April 2015, even though I can see all my photos after that month in the Photos application. Strange, huh?

So, geeky girl, who can't help but to troubleshoot, is trying something new. I am exporting all my photos to my external hard drive. I created a new Photos library and am currently importing all my photos. We'll see if this task works. It takes many hours to complete, which is why I am running this importing process overnight.

Anyway, over a week ago, I wanted to write about my lunch date with my guy. He drove all the way up to my neck of the woods to see me. We live approximately an hour's drive away from work, but in opposite directions. In other words, he drove for two hours to see me.

We went into the Chinese restaurant and sat down. My guy said that I looked cuter than ever. His sweet compliments come out stronger and more frequently when he misses me.

We ordered a couple of dishes, which were pretty big. It worked out well. We ordered a seafood fried rice dish, and a spicy chicken and shrimp dish. We talked and laughed.

We also held hands across the table. I enjoyed that. He then played footsie under the table. I ended up rubbing my leg against his and caressing his knee with my hand. He pulled my leg up and caressed my toes, admiring the metallic dark blue nail polish that I had.

Once we were done eating lunch, we had some quality time in a corner of the parking lot. We got into my guy's car, with my being in the backseat. He backed up the car while caressing my leg. It was nice.

He then got into the treehouse. We hugged. We kissed. He fingered me a few times until I came. I jerked him off until he came. We cuddled. We napped. We woke up in each other's arms. And, we talked.

It was a wonderful afternoon. It was warm inside of his car, so my guy opened his car's sunroof.

I love that my guy enjoys shopping. Many guys don't. The shopping mall that we were at has an outlet store for a major department chain. He asked me about it. I suggested that he take a look.

He also noticed the mall across from the dealership where he was to test drive a car. I told him that the Bay was there, which is a department store that he shops at often. He told me that he'd go there after taking a look at the potential car, too.

We spent three hours together. It was great. We kissed and hugged one final time. He then looked at my leg and placed it on his lap.

"My jeans have a side zipper," I told him.
"Nice," he said, unzipping it and caressing my bare calf.

It's nice that he likes my legs. I love being with him as much as I can.

Fixing issues after my operating system woes and talking to my directionally challenged guy

My guy and I work in the information technology sector. He often tells me that he hates technology. However, he is good at practically everything he works with. His skill set constantly amazes me.

He only has one downfall -- he is directionally challenged. He is heavily reliant upon his GPS, so I know that he never forgets to have it with him.

On the other hand, I sort of make up for his couple of weaknesses. I tend to remember where he has parked his car whenever we are out. I am a geek when it comes to technology. We have mutual respect and admiration for each other's strengths.

So, this post will probably be my last one about my Mac mini issues. Here is the latest since a representative at my local Apple store's Genius Bar wiped out my hard drive and reinstalled the seemingly problematic El Capitan operating system.

The unfortunate part was that none of my external devices were not syncing properly after El Capitan was successfully installed. I am hoping that the next operating system release doesn't cause so many problems!

I am putting together this list of issues and what I did to fix each of them, in case I need to reference what I had done in a year's time:

• Photos library does not appear in iTunes
  It turns out that you need to make your Photos library a system Photos library in the Photos application. The change has to be done in the Photos > Preferences dialog. After you make this change, other applications, like iTunes, can find your Photos library.
• iPhone does not sync properly in iTunes
  It applies to most Apple devices that sync with iTunes. The existing content was a part of my old configuration on my Mac mini. That old configuration no longer exists on my Mac mini. As a result, in the case of my iPhone, it needed to be restored. I could then fully restore the phone using the last backup.
• Even after the first two changes, my photos and music still don't sync with my iPod or iPhone in iTunes
  There are a lot of i-products. Apple seems to be moving away from all that recently, with Apple Photos and Music, as examples. There are more steps to make sure that the Mac mini and the device sync up:

1. Completely exit both Photos and iTunes. Proceed to shut down the Mac mini.
2. My music is on an external hard drive. It needs to be powered down. I also unplugged its USB cable from the drive.
3. Leave all devices turned off for a minute. Power on the drive first, and then the Mac mini.
4. When the Mac mini is fully booted up, connect your iPod or iPhone to the computer.
5. Ensure that you have selected some music and photos to sync. They should sync up fine.

I was able to successfully sync my music and photos on my iPhone again. Currently, I am working on my iPod classic to sync all my music and photos. The latter will take a while. I have over 20,000 songs, which is my entire digital collection.

On Friday, my guy drove back from Montreal. He called me at around 17:00. I had missed his call, probably because I was walking to my car and didn't hear my phone ring. I called him back.

"Hey, did you call me?" I asked him.
"Yes, I did," he said cheerfully. "I thought that you may have been in a meeting."
"I was till 16:45, but I am in my car now," I explained. "I take it that you're driving back right now?"
"I am. I am a third of the way there," he said, with a tinge of being disappointed that he didn't leave earlier.
"It's okay," I replied. "Are you at least over the border into Ontario?" I asked him.
"I'm in Brockville. Where is that?" he asked me, which confirmed that he is still directionally challenged.
"Yes, you are in Ontario. Welcome back!" I exclaimed with glee.
"Thanks. I don't see any French signs anymore, so I am in Ontario."

He's cute. We agreed to meet in Scarborough, close to highway 401. My guy had bagels to deliver to me. We also wanted to see each other as soon as possible.

My Mac mini update and more

I thought that I would check in and say hi. So, hi!

The good news is that the technician at my local Apple store's Genius Bar got my Mac mini up and running on Wednesday. I am blogging again using it.

Unfortunately, the fix required wiping out my Mac mini's hard drive contents and reinstalling the new El Capitan operating system. Of course, things are never smooth after such a restoration. Now, my photos do not sync with my iPhone. Ah, the joys of technology!

It has been a rough week at work. My manager suffered an eye injury. He has lost vision in his left eye. I don't know at this stage whether the vision loss is temporary or permanent, but I am hoping that it is the former. Our team at work is pooling our money for a get-better-soon gift for him. We had thought of flowers, but his particular hospital wing does not allow them. So, I will probably need to resort to chocolates and a get-well balloon when I place the order on behalf of the team. It's the thought that counts the most.

I hope to place the order tomorrow and go see him on the weekend. It makes you appreciate people you work with under such conditions. I hope that he is on the mend.

My guy is currently in Montreal. I had hoped to join him, but we have an intern who started with the company on Monday. I have been training her. She's a good person. Needless to say, this week has been both draining and challenging.

My guy decided to drive to Montreal for his business trip, similar to what I had done back in April. I asked him if he could buy some bagels for me, as they are simply yummy. He didn't hesitate. He told me that they would be my souvenir. He's sweet, as usual.

So, my posts still won't be all that regular until I troubleshoot some minor issues. Wish me luck!

Lunch date on Wednesday with my guy

Late Tuesday afternoon, my guy called me on my cell phone. I was in a meeting and didn't have my phone at hand. When I got to my desk, I felt like pouting because I had missed his call.

He eventually found me online and we sent instant messages to each other. He had figured out that I was in a meeting. I told him that I had less than fifteen minutes before my next one.

He told me that he would be "north of Toronto" on Wednesday. I said that he could be at the North Pole! He was going to look at a car in my neck of the woods. We agreed on meeting for lunch. I asked him to ping me once he was done.

On Wednesday afternoon, he called me a number of times, letting me know what was going on at the dealership. He then asked me to select a restaurant to meet. We met halfway at a Chinese restaurant in Thornhill. Naturally, I had to text him the address to enter into his GPS. Otherwise, he would be completely lost.

My guy called me as I was doing a detour. A lot of construction was happening along the street that the restaurant was on. My guy was already there. I was impressed. I told him to be his attractive and adorable self waiting for me. He chuckled. He liked that.

I eventually found him wandering out of the local grocery store that I often stop at before heading home. He asked me where his car was. It is so typical of him. I pointed it out for him. He then hugged me.

It was a good start to a lunch date. It was also nice to see him in my area and see his smile.

Operating system woes with El Capitan

I have been an Apple fan for at least a decade now. I became one when I had a corrupted .dll file on my old Windows mid-tower and had to reinstall everything from scratch.

For the first time, I have a similar issue, but with Apple's latest operating system, El Capitan, on my Mac Mini. I decided to upgrade to this version the other night. Such a huge mistake!

Windows has the blue screen of death when nothing boots up properly. After installing El Capitan, all I see is the Apple logo and a status bar that does not budge. I have unplugged every cable to my Mac mini, except for the power cable and the monitor cable. I get the same result.

I have a Genius Bar appointment slated for next Wednesday. Luckily, I do have my work and home laptops, so I can still blog and stay connected like the geeky girl that I am.

There is a first for everything. 

I will resume my regularly scheduled blog posts soon!