For the first time, both my kids were really old enough to enjoy tricker-treating. We walked up the block to neighboring houses, then hit a block where many children were out. We saw several families we know, and we had a fun time seeing many lovely decorations, including a black light that made us glow, twinkly lights on festive branches, the ubiquitous spider webs and a spooky guy who jumped out and made the girls scream.

Hope your evening was fun and fab too! Happy Halloween!

I do this fun thing: I go to people’s home offices, small businesses, and such, and fix their computer problems. Sometimes this means that I help troubleshoot their small networks, test a cable or two, reinstall their software, replace faulty components, and the like. It’s a kind of deluxe service, really.

Not to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty good at this. I even like it, at least when the customer is nice enough. Most of clients seem to like me, not because I’m a total computer geek (I’m really not) but because I’m calm and reassuring as I go about finding solutions to their problems.

One client of mine is a pretty busy doctors’ office, where they have severals doctors, nurses, and medical support staff, and a fairly complex computer network setup as well. They have to deal with a medical computer resource company for some of their needs because they have to do medical billing and the like, so I am only a part of their technical support. I basically fill in for them where their other resource leaves (blaring) gaps in the service they provide.

For example, the file server at the doctor’s office recently up and died and so the office manager called this support company and was soon up and running with a leased replacement PC. Unfortunately, the tech who’d come to set up the leased PC apparently took it upon himself to remove the “dead” computer. And all the data on it. You know, the data they’d been “meaning to” back up ever since I’d last recommended that they get an external hard drive and back up their data.

When I came in to help them with their transition of using this new PC, they asked me why their shared files weren’t coming up anymore. “Those files are all on the dead PC — where is it, I’ll help restore the files from the hard drive. Where’s the old PC?” I asked, not realizing it had been whisked away the day before, theoretically to be recycled. The poor office manager was apoplectic; she called them and was told in no uncertain terms that it would be impossible to return the hard drive to them. I then calmly told her not to accept that answer; their files were certainly not recycled as quickly as all that, get that drive back and I’d try to rescue their files. And with this push from me, she called back, got what she wanted; the hard drive came back and I was in fact able to give them every file intact. Success.

So you can see where the loyalty comes in: sure, I can’t do their medical billing software, or maintain the server that handles it, but I can damn well help them identify bullship when it comes rolling in. And getting data off of a hard drive is well within my comfort zone of PC repair.

The thing I like about fixing stuff, is that it’s so definitive. I have a task, a goal, it’s usually pretty short term, and it’s either possible or not. I can usually do a typical consult within about 2 or 3 hours; sometimes it’s more like 4 or 5, but generally it’s easy to do this part of my job within the confines of when I have childcare. Once in a great while, I bring my kids along to a fixing stuff gig, but I avoid that as much as I can. I don’t like being interrupted by the little ones, and I feel guilty telling them to go away and play in the doctor’s waiting room (for example). I also don’t feel very professional wearing my yogurt-smeared mommy hat when I’m trying to fix stuff and sound calm and reassuring.

The other thing I like about fixing stuff, is I can charge for it. I get about $100 per consult, more if it’s longer than two hours. I feel like that’s a nice way to pass a couple hours; I get paid, my clients feel happy and grateful. Such a win-win. And for some bizarre reason they like to tell me I’m a genius. (Well, says my inner snark, I may well be a genius, but fixing your network connection is not proof thereof.)

One other thing I like about fixing stuff, is that I feel cool when I can pull a screwdriver out of my little backpack. Sure, a few other things might accidentally spill out along with it, but hey, a gal needs what she needs, right? Only really a problem when you happen to be traveling through an airport’s security checkpoint. The TSA doesn’t look kindly on even itty bitty screwdrivers.

I think of the fixing stuff as my main real “freelance” work. It’s the only aspect of my work that both pays and is directly for my work and my work alone.  Other services that I do are sometimes farmed out to subcontractors, programmers, or Drob — and our web hosting sales are directly supported by the sys admin stuff that D does. But the Fixing Stuff… that’s all me.   That’s very gratifying.

On the home organization front, war continues to wage between the laundry and dishes. The dishes are winning, we think, but barely. Sleep continues to be pushed back into the wings while open hostilities are exchanged between the dirt in the bathrooms and the cat puke on the stairs.

Here’s a before and after set of pictures of tonight’s skirmish in the kitchen:

On the self-enrichment front, I’ve finished my drawing workshop and here is a before and after comparison. The first photo is a sketch I did shortly before taking the Faces drawing workshop, and the second is a sketch I made after the four-class workshop.

On the ailing parent front, who will manage to make me feel guiltier? Will it be the sad, pathetic alcoholic father, languishing by the pool in sunny Ft. Myers, Florida? Or will the Italian mother (bonus: catholic) wear me down faster with her lower back pain (er, pain in the ass?) Only the shadow knows.

Finally, the cat thread. The current score is:
Evil Cat: 3. Soft Paws: 0.

D dropped his ailing laptop on Friday morning; it was already a fairly abused piece of electronics — life within D’s bookbag is not ideal if you’re a laptop.  But the 4 foot drop out of its not-zippered-shut-after-all case to the hardwood floor below was more than the poor device could handle. The little metal tinkling sound that comes when you shake this laptop now sounds something like a cross between a maraca and a broken filament in a lightbulb.

To make a long story short, even though D and I are both kind of handy with computers, we decided to buy a new one rather than try to resurrect the obviously damaged goods.

Off to Best Buy went we:  Long haired compu-geek hippies with our kids in tow: blond pig-tailed seven-year-old C (a computer game fiend if ever there was one) and her adorable side kick A, cheering her on. Waltzing into the display of laptops, we grownups began muttering about CPU’s, RAM, and all that kind of jazz.  Blithely ignoring all etiquette, I set up C with a game of Chuzzle, something she quickly mastered. That took care of occupying the one child, but no dice with keeping A happy. Since I didn’t much approve of her idea to lay down in the middle of the aisle, flailing her legs around and singing songs of her own tuneless composition, I picked her up and soon had her bouncing on my shoulders while we watched C play Chuzzle.

On my back, my trusty little bookbag, with its trusty little zippered compartments.  Only one problem. Apparently, the darn thing wasn’t actually zippered. Unbeknownst to me, while I bounced and wiggled my 4 year old (along with, no doubt, plenty of my own parts a-wiggling and bouncin’), flotsam and jetsam came spilling out of my bookbag, making a huge mess just behind me.  A very tentative nerdy PC sales guy came over and pointed out my situation.

I  looked down to see the mess I was making. Among the receipts, loose change, and occasional goldfish cracker were several tampons spread out in an array that spread a five foot radius around me. Oh dear. No wonder the guys were so hesitant to say anything. Clearly they were mortified; one the one hand they wanted to help clean up, but on the other hand… EW, man, those is GIRL things!

I wasn’t too embarrassed, though, and quickly thought of a way to defuse the situation.  I  set A down and asked her to help me clean up, taking care to snap up the personal stuff quickly.

The staff didn’t seem to mind us that much once we had selected a model and asked, got this one in stock? We even bought the 3 year Spills and Drops warranty and a new laptop bag (one that has closed sides!).

I just love babies. So much. Cute and tiny, with their little fingers and toes and their soft, soft fur.

Fur? Oh, I didn’t say human babies, did I? In this case, it’s a pair of baby guinea pigs.  We adopted them about 3 weeks ago, and they are by far the best eaters of the household. This alone is quite endearing, but they have other charms as well.

Their fur (black, with white) really is very, very silky soft. They make lots of cute little noises, sounding like squeaks, squeals, and the occasional Space Invaders arcade game from the 80’s. The one on the left, with the white shawl is named Sasha, but she’s nicknamed  Gilgamesh.  The one with the white stripe is Daisy, but her nickname is  Hammurabi. They are delightful.

I have to share this really fun thing with you.

On pbskids.org, you can use their Jakers!  postcards to create your own semi-animated postcards. It works like this: you use their limited palette of colors, and  brush sizes, and can draw and write whatever you like. Then you click Preview to see what you’ve drawn– it re-draws it for you, at a faster speed than you actually drew it. The effect is really neat.

Here’s an example (click to see my drawing animate before your very eyes):

http://pbskids.org/cgi-registry/postcard/read.pl?card_id=5497977 

Now that I’ve shared this extremely fun and addictive thing with you, I MUST. MAKE. KIDS. LUNCHES. FOR TOMORROW.

Stepping away from the computer as soon as I click Publish….

Thursday is the day that our local farmer’s market opens up, offering a variety of special treats from Lancaster Country, PA. This week, the Amish couple that I’ve grown so fond of brought homemade rootbeer, fresh potatoes, beets, tomatoes, and oh, yeah, Whoopie Pies.

I also did a quick shop at the our local co-op food market, and bought some fresh sausage made from naturally raised pork as well as organically grown swiss chard from a nearby farm. I scored some local fresh goat cheese, too. Have I mentioned how much I love my food co-op? It’s a wonderful place to shop if you like fresh, organic and local foods. I even managed to snitch some slightly wilted lettuce leaves from out of the compost bin, which our baby guinea pigs can enjoy — a big bag of greens for them: FREE! And to make it all even better, my favorite blend of organic, fair-trade coffee was on sale for $6.99 per pound. Usually I just buy whichever kind costs the least: but this time, I was able to buy the kind I like best AND have it be the best price in the store. A great haul!

So tonight, here’s what we ate. For appetizers, we had brown rice crackers (ok, these were not local, but they were organic) with goat cheese and raisins (not local, yes org.), and slices of apples from our recent Pick Your Own adventure (not organic, yet they’re local).

The main dish was swiss chard, of the most beautiful colors, pork sausage, and home made oven baked & broiled french fries. The fries came out quite delicious. I don’t know what kind of potatoes they were, but they were white, crisp and sweet, tasting a lot like sweet potatoes.

(”Here, sweetie, look at this beautiful, colorful swiss chard that we’re having for dinner,” said I, which roughly translates to “Look at this exotic and highly poisonous weed which, incidentally, tastes like rotten garbage” judging by the facial expression on my four-year-old’s face.)

And the very best part? WHOOPIE PIES for dessert. YUM! (I have no idea what is in these, nor do I know what the nutritional facts are… but the Amish lady brings them every thursday, and I’m not going to ask.)

One way that I try to balance my home life with what I loosely term my work life is to only “work” when I have childcare arranged: when my kids are at school, or camp, or sometimes with a babysitter. On rare occasion, I work after they’ve gone to bed, but I’m only motivated to that when I have a hard deadline ahead of me. Otherwise, my motto is: there’s always tomorrow — or, there’s always the next day if someone turns out to be sick, or if there’s a school holiday, or whatever.

Knowing that my kids are off living their own fascinating lives, learning stuff that I wouldn’t know to teach them, making pals that I didn’t introduce them to, and having a generally good time gives me the mental freedom to forget they exist for a while. I sit down at the computer, or go to an appointment and really don’t even think much about my kids while I’m working. I think this helps me appreciate them more once we’re together again. Having separate time from them on a regular and on-going basis gives me something to talk to them about, and I enjoy that. I like telling them that I fixed someone’s computer or finished a website project, and I like hearing from them about their fun-filled days.

So while I’m working, I’m very focused on getting things done. I am lucky in my business to have inherited a number of good systems which my husband put into practice first. This made it relatively easy for me to pick up and take over the business from him shortly after the birth of our second child. For example, I learned how to create invoices on the accounting software package we use, and how to enter purchases, balance bank accounts, even process employee payroll (although I’ve since fired all the employees, so that’s one less task for me to do!).

The package we use is called MYOB which stands for Mind Your Own Business and it’s got its annoyances but it gets the job done. I am able to calculate, on a quarterly basis, how much sales tax I’ve collected and thereby I am able to submit my sales tax to the state when it is due. I can see who owes me and how much, and generate statements to send them with letters on letterhead, nagging them that we don’t provide services for free, for pete’s sake.

In spite of a few bums who don’t seem to pay their hosting charges in a timely manner, our clients are a pretty decent and loyal bunch. This is another thing that I did not establish, but inherited directly from Drob’s work before me. Having a decent base of clients to work with seems to present a good foundation to keep me as busy as I care to be. Word of mouth is our absolute best way to get new customers, and with roughly 200 mostly satisfied clients, we get a fair amount of referrals. So, that’s a big bonus for keeping this business afloat.

So, some of the time that I’m “working” I am sitting there getting the financial records fucked straightened up, paying bills, filing taxes, generating invoices and processing payments. Drob set up a system by which our recurring charges (web hosting, for example) are downloadable, and I import those records into MYOB so that I can bill clients for the hosting services. This I do about every two weeks, making a very satisfying stack of invoices that I shove into windowed envelopes and mail off.

Oh happy day- because when you send mail, you get mail! I love it that checks arrive for the business, shoved right through my mail slot. These I collect and carefully mark the invoices paid in MYOB, and then I stamp them and take them to the bank, about once a week or so. I also get bills, and enter them into MYOB and hopefully try to pay them on time.

So all this bookkeeping stuff is important but extremely boring. Still it has got to be done. The only part that is really fun is stamping the back of checks. I have this fun self-inking stamp and I just the springy way it feels as I mark each check For Deposit Only, blah blah blah. Oh, and I also have an ENTERED stamp, which comes with its own little pad. I take some pleasure in banging that down on bills as I move them from one pile to the next.

Coming up next…. Part 2 of What I do When I have Childcare will be: Fixing Stuff. My #1 Freelance Gig.

EDITED TO ADD: I should mention that I also goof off some while the kids are at school, including naps with ornery cats, blogging, gardening, and the occasional attempt at keeping the household messes at bay.  I didn’t mention that at first, because this post was supposed to be about what I do when I am so-called working. Having re-read this post, I realized it sounded like I was saying that the whole time my kids are off in their wonderlands of childhood, I am some kind of execu-zombie, bringing home the bacon.  NOT QUITE SO.

I just finally finished a project that began in August 2006.  This project should never have taken this long to be fully launched, but there were a number of stops along the way — many of which had nothing to do with me.  For example, the client moved, had an ailing parent to care for, and was out of touch for several months of the this time. Then, there was some foot dragging on my part, and the fact that I didn’t do any freelance work on much of anything from June to August this year.

I had little motivation to really polish this project off, other than my own guilt (a terrible motivator), because the client had insisted on paying in full for the website up front.  So all this time has passed and during this period, I’ve had many moments of doubt (as I always do) that I’d ever complete the project.  I even fantasized about sending the client his money back, with a contrite little note about how even though I’d invested tons of time and effort in his project, that I’d changed my mind and was going to just let it go.  This was sheer fantasy, of course, built on my own insecurity about the project.

Insecurity is rarely rational, I’ve noticed, but that’s a topic for a whole ‘nother post… (coming soon, if I can muster the courage.)

But after all the wrist wringing, the nail nibbling, the constant kvetching and lost sleep, I finally just shook hands with the happy client and sent him on his way to go ahead and start using and promoting the website I developed for him.

Hallelujah!!!!

I rarely blog about my freelance work, thinking that perhaps it’s not very interesting. But since today’s a big occasion, I had to share my excitement.  I am curious to know if any of my (five? six?) readers would like to hear more about this side of my life.  How I manage to run a tiny business on the side while managing the fun part rest of my life. What kinds of responsibilities are involved in doing this work, things like that.  Sounds dull to me, so I may not write much on this topic but I’m always happy to get a reality check.

So: tell me… is this A) too dull to blog about or B) of enough interest to warrant further posts or C) your comment here.

Thanks for the feedback, internet pals!

Oh what a week for being proud! Please forgive me for being such a bragger. I can’t help it sometimes.

Don’t tell A, but C is my favorite child ahem, seven-year-old, today.

In the car, on our way back from an idyllic family outing: apple picking and pumpkin picking, at an orchard with a bouncy castle, spooky haunted house, and hayrides, followed by ice cream for dinner (apples for dessert?!), C came out with this sudden inspiration.

C: Mom, for a really long time, like, since I was six and a half, or something, I have been trying to think of the right word to describe you.

D: Oh, and did you finally think of it?

C: Yes….

Me: Well, what is it?

C: Hippie.  You are definitely my Hippie Mom.

Wow, she figured it out all on her own….