I've never been to a clothing swap before. Some Boston-area fatshionistas are having one in a few weeks (June 8) and I would love to go, but I'm totally intimidated. I thought it might be easier, and more fun, to get all of my friends together for a swap. I don't want to leave anyone out who's up for fashion and fun, but I know a fair number of you have worn or currently wear something in the 14/16 - 22/24 size range, so I thought we could start there. I'd love to expand the size range or even include maternity clothes if there's enough interest.

Basically, everyone brings a few articles of clothing or accessories that are in good condition but just don't work for them anymore. Everything gets sorted by size, type, or color and we take turns trying things that aren't new, but are new to us. At the end of the day, what isn't swapped gets donated to charity or hauled back home.

How about June 21 or 22? Jon will be out, so we could have full run of my place. I could haul my things down to the Worcester area if someone there would like to host from a more central location. It could be like a girls' night in, with drinks and snacks. What do you guys think?

What are your favorite parenting and pregnancy Web sites?

Before you ask, no, I'm not pregnant. Gillian and I are putting together a list of sites we'd like to talk to for a new project a work, and we're looking for sites for parents. Not so much shopping, but sites with great communities and advice content.

Today's Five on Friday is ready to roll.

For your holiday pleasure, this week's Five on Friday is up a day early.

Just a reminder that the Five on Friday is up and that it even has an LJ feed: five_on_friday

For those who love zombies or at least knitted objects.

It's up, even if it's not pretty: http://friday.criminalgrace.com

I just heard back from the Jim at eNom. While no one has received a response from CyberPixels and their phone numbers are still returning "number temporarily unavailable," they're still technically in business because they're still performing registration transactions. I've been referred to the customer care department. They sent me an e-mail as well, telling me I need to create an account with them and send "a copy of your purchase confirmation, corporate letterhead and Photo ID." Then, once they establish that I'm the actual owner of the domain it will cost me $29.95 to transfer it and extend the domain by a year.

*sigh*

At least I'll have my domain back shortly. What I would really like is to head up to Ice Cream Grade and let the folks at CP have a piece of my mind. And a few pieces of my fists while I'm at it. Now I wish I had more documentation of their poor business practices than my recollection of the support calls I made.

This is also in my site, so that mean's you'll probably see it again once my domain is up again. But since it's still down, I'll copy it here so I don't feel all left out.

1. Do you have a theme song? Never really thought about it. If I had to choose, I'd say No Cheap Thrill by Suzanne Vega. It contains the lyrics that inspired the name for this site.

2. What music do you play when you're angry? Fiona Apple, early Ani Difranco, Poe, Lucinda Williams, NIN
Sad?Ani's Reckoning, Ben Harper, Beck's Sea Change, Peter Salett, Elliot Smith, more Fiona Apple
Mellow? Suzanne Vega, India Arie, Nickel Creek, Pearl Jam, late Beatles
Happy? Phish, Cake, Counting Crows, assorted Bluegrass artists, early Beatles
Gosh. I'm dating myself terribly with some of these...

3. What was the last song you listened to? Inidgo Girls - Jonas & Ezekiel

4. What was the last song or album you purchased? The last song I got from iTunes is We're All in This Together by Old Crow Medicine Show and the last actual album I bought is the soundtrack to the Phantom of the Opera movie.

5. Do you sing along to songs when you're alone? Hecks yeah. I even do it when other people are around. I love singing harmony on bluegrass songs and riffing over instrumental solos, but I tend to limit those more adventurous things to my alone time.

<rant>
The phone number for my delinquent web host is "temporarily unavailable." This is all too convenient for them and their avoidance of my very major problem. I feel so screwed over right now. And there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. I have already contacted eNom, the registrar, and since the domain is locked by CyberPixels there's nothing they can do for me. They were kind enough to give me the non-toll-free number on file for CyberPixels, but that is also returning a message of "temporarily unavailable." After more than a week of this I'm not sure which I want to do more: scream or cry.
</rant>

I am so mad right now that I want to break things. My domain has still not been renewed, despite a call to have it done on Tuesday. I called again yesterday and they told me that it would only take a couple hours. STILL NOT DONE. I called again today and got no response.

My site has been OK for the last 48 hours or so. But it obviously doesn't like the Five on Friday because it stopped responding when I wrote the following post. Rather than lose it, I'll post it here until I can move it back to my real journal.

Healthy Living

1. What is your definition of 'healthy eating'? According to your definition, do you eat healthy? A balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and lean meat is what I consider healthy eating. There's room in there for indulgences like chocolate and potato chips, as long as they're in moderation, like everything else. I'd say I fit that bill 80% of the time. I'm not as consistent with fresh fruits and veggies as I would like and when something tastes really good (be it strawberries or chinese food) I tend to eat beyond the point of satisfaction.

2. Do you exercise on a regular basis? What is your favorite form of exercise? Least favorite? I don't anymore. I used to go to the gym three times a week and do yoga or Tae Bo twice a week. And I walked more. It's hard to get back into a regular routine though. I think I'd have to say that weight-lifting is one of my favorite forms of exercise, closely followed by yoga. I hate running just for the sake of running. Even at the peak of my fitness a couple years ago when I could leg press more than 500 pounds and ride a stationary cycle for an hour I was never comfortable running more than a mile. It's probably all in my head, but I blame the overabundance of fast-twitch muscle fibers I inherited.

3. Do you take vitamin supplements? I should, but I don't. I can never remember to take them.

4. Can you tell that your body is getting older? If so, how? I'm too young to feel old. But I do, particularly in my hips. They're still incredibly flexible, but they ache and crack more than they ever used to.

5. Would you call yourself healthy? Honestly? No, not anymore. It's amazing how much your health can change in two years. It's hard to get back into those healthy habits I gave up when I rejoined the working world. And my health has suffered for it. I'm working on it again, partly because I have incentive. If I get to spend the rest of my life with Jon, I want that life to be as long (and healthy) as possible.

I am not happy with my hosting service right now. My site has essentially been inaccessible since Monday night. No e-mail. No posting. No uploading cute kitty photos.

When it wasn't resolved after 24 hours, I submitted a helpdesk ticket inquiring about the cause of the interruption in service and why it was giving me a DNS error rather than a server error. They wrote back with the explanation that the server did not reboot properly after a few tries so they were reinstalling the OS. She actually spelled that one out for me, as if someone who's asking about DNS problems doesn't know what an OS is. Ugh.

Anyway, they assured me that "no client data such as e-mails, files, folders, settings, mySQL databases, etc. is being touched or disturbed" and that it would be back up around 3am. It finally came back around 11am this morning. But imagine my surprise when I load up my homepage and see only the posts from March 4. And no new e-mail since March 4. It appears the stellar sys admins restored the server with the wrong back-up files. Right day, wrong month. So I created another ticket asking how I could get the missing data and if they used the wrong backup files. I specifically made sure to use a few technical words so that they might give me some real information instead of the dumbed-down version.

Downtime happens. It's mostly an annoyance. It's the way they're handling this that bothers me.

I was born and raised in Michigan, so I certainly hope I can identify with the signs ( in this meme )

But then again, I have lived in Massachusetts for the last six years. ( I wonder how much of a Masshole I am... )

The top 100 grossing films of all time. Movies I have seen are in bold and movies I have only seen bits of are in italics.

( Roll 'em )

* bold those books you've read
* italicise started-but-never-finished
* add three of your own
* post to your livejournal

( Behind the cut... )

Just in case you missed it, I'm doing a little survey about lip balm and bath stuff to help me figure out what kinds to make. You can take it here.