It’s Fun When Authors Link to Your Reviews
I love it when authors whose books I review link to me. Or comment on my site. 
I do the happy dance and then show my husband, who acts suitably impressed.
- Here is the link back I just found on Anne Cushman’s author website for my review of Enlightenment for Idiots:
Enlightenment for Idiots - News & Events page:
~ “…I could have traveled with Amanda and Devi Das stumbling for enlightenment for years.”
- Previously, Debra Gallant commented on my review of her Book Fear and Yoga in New Jersey:
Thanks for the nice review. I especially liked this insight: You can taste the sense of squeaky-clean New Jersey suburbia - and understand the price people pay to maintain such outward “perfection.”
- And lest you think only yoga authors keep track of who reviews them, here is the nice comment I got on my review of Blogging for Dummies from author Susannah Gardner:
hi jill,thanks for the great write-up of blogging for dummies — i really appreciate it and i’m glad you are finding it useful :) - susannah.
What is extra cool is I met Susannah recently, at the IzeaFest Blog Expo 08, where she was speaker. She graciously granted me an interview, which I will post shortly.
It’s strangely fun for me to get a shoutout from an author. Realistically, I know it’s not a big deal - I am an author myself (Arizona Off the Beaten Path, 4th and 5th editions). Some of my best friends are authors. But still. Everybody likes to be noticed.
Filed under All About Me, yoga | Comment (0)The Joy of Poop Putting
I like to putt poops off my porch. On a daily basis. It’s a great new sport that anyone can learn. The key is to get the poop to sail sweetly off your porch in one swing, using a golf club of your choice.
This fabulous game was developed when I realized, a few months back, that I had trained my pets to poop on the porch - my upper deck around the back of the house. Back when we first moved in, we didn’t have a dog run, and the deck was knee high with snow. So we encouraged the dogs to eliminate on the deck.
We built a nice big dog run in May. And really, the dogs did a lot of their business down there. Yet my littlest one still preferred pooping on the deck.
For months I had been kicking the poops off with:
- My Shoe (eeeew!)
- A Big Stick (not enough control)
- The Force (this rarely worked)
It occurred to me I could do better. I COULD USE A GOLF CLUB!
Of course I did not have a golf club, as I don’t golf, but by GOD why should that stop me? I saw golf clubs at Goodwill all the time. So I drove to my local thrift store and poof - there it was. A lovely sand wedge slicer for three dollars. Overjoyed, I brought it home.
Fast forward to now, mid-summer: I am now a proud expert poop putter, at least with a sand wedge. I have mad skillz. It can be tricky to get the poop off in one swing, as there is only a small opening between the deck and the wooden railing. It’s really easy to bounce the poop right off the railing and thus, back to where I started. It can take a few tries to get those dookies in a perfect sailing arc into the air.
But when they go, boy oh boy is it satisfying.
Filed under Family Life, Uncategorized, yoga | Comments (7)Happy with Crestline Living Development
I’m pretty pleased with how my Crestline Living site is developing. I still have a ton of work to do to make it really comprehensive: more basics about lodging, coffee shops, eateries, the towns themselves, the roads, adding more web cams, making lists of Most Useful Links, emergency and fire preparedness, shops reviews, summer concert series, day trips and weekend excursions. Etc.
I also had my FIRST post by someone I do not know on the site! On my Alpine Mall article. That makes me happy. Begging friends to post is a little demeaning. 
I do have a professional blogger on staff (Mdm Michelle Snow) to help out, which is a huge deal. 
She is also giving me a resdesign and working up my logo. I can’t wait to see the new look.
I also have to figure out a better way of hosting photos than using Facebook. It’s annoying and time consuming. Maybe using Flickr is better? Or using my own FTP host, which is like Greek to me? Erk?
In the discouraged front, I still have no page rank. Boo. And am not ranking on Google for Crestline CA, yet. I need a solid Google pagerank of 4 and to be the number on result for Crestline before I can actually go forward with my serious plans for the site. These serious plans include world domination, of course.
Mindful Yoga…
Here is my review of the yoga “workbook” Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life:
http://jillflorio.com/77_yoga_mindful-yoga-mindful-life-book
Even though the text was not what i was expecting, I am glad to have stumbled over it in my library. I think that later on, when I really want to dive into the yoga sutras, 8 limbed path, etc, I will buy the book and highlight things as I mentioned in my website review above (posted on JillFlorio.com).
I am just not ready yet to be a student of the yogic path. But When that time comes, I’ll want to keep this book on my yoga shelf for reference. Right now I am more consumed with learning the poses (asanas) than picking up philosophy.
If you are doing yoga, are you more interested in the physical poses or the spiritual path?
Filed under yoga | Comment (0)New Yoga Obsession
I have been so excited about yoga that I almost can’t stand it. I am working on reviewing all options for yoga classes up here in the mountains on CrestlineLiving.com (my website about Crestline, CA, my wonderful town).
It’s been a bit hard to DO the yoga every day since we ripped up the floor; it’s so unappealing to lie down on the dirty plywood and have to move the furniture around all the time. I really need to sit down and take a good look at the living room. Plan out how to make this area work for all the things we do up there - yoga, tai chi, watch TV, read, workout, use our laptops, have visitors sit down. It’s more of a rec room than anything else. Maybe we should forget the idea of even having a living room. Hmmm.
I am also dreaming about creating a dedicated yoga/mediation area, something very Zen-like, with a bamboo floor, huge view windows and large boulders as a sort of sand-less Zen garden for meditation (and maybe to even sit on). The Zen room would have room for two people to do yoga and tai chi at once.
Filed under yoga | Comment (0)
