Today is my 32nd birthday and luckily, I haven’t any regrets.

A little tootin’ of the horn here, but today it was announced that the site I created, Girls Guide to City Life is a finalist in the “blog” catagory for the 9th Annual SXSW Interactive Web Awards! This is my second nomination (the last one was in 2003) and I’m so thrilled and excited.

If you’re going to be at SXSW this year, let me know as I’ll be there from the 11-14th.

Alsom if you have a moment, please check out Girls Guide to City Life and then vote for it for a People’s Choice for the 2006 SXSW Web Awards. It’d make me happier than a pony named pepper.

Girls Guide to City Life has launched, The Gallery has opened for business and back by popular demand, the very effective tutorial "French Lesson" by The Mittens.

I’m going to party like it’s my birthday.

This year marks my 10th anniversary as having a web site. Oh the dish I could tell, the strange way I’ve grown with it and changed it and expanded to having far too many sites (with a couple more to come). It’s been strange to have a site for so long, to chronicle life and stories before “blog” was a word.

The main goal of having a site, however, has not changed. It’s to be of use; of sharing information, stories or ideas that perhaps someone else would like to know. It’s been less about me and more about things going on around me.

That’s why I generally do not have comments expect for posts in which others can share information that’s a benefit to people outside of just myself. Sharing is a good thing if it’s more than about bowel movements.

Sometimes I’m a rock star at this and sometimes I am very dull indeed and cannot stand to look at my own site. But, it’s always nice to have the option, I suppose.

So, a little celebrating is in order, I think. After all, this is the longest I’ve ever done one thing consistantly.

Taking a huge leap – just up and moving next week, looking for a place, putting our boxes in storage, relying on the kindness of friends to let us sleep in their beds and just knowing that whatever happens, we can deal. This has nothing to do with bravery or strength as people often think. It only has to do with not wanting to settle when one knows they can do more. There isn’t anything harder than doing nothing and the feelings that come with it.

Today at 7AM I leave for the SXSW Festival in Austin Texas. Why? A site I created is up for a Web Award on Sunday night and I’ve always had a hankering to see ten gallon hats in action.

I left this morning at 8AM and drove for an hour to set and just now got home at 4:17AM. That, my friends, is what happens when you work on a movie set. However, I’m not complaining as I’m so in-love with what I get to do there. Besides, the whole creative process just facsinates me and gives me so much eye/ear candy that long days don’t seem that long at all.

In other news, the Another Girl at Play web site which I created last year was nominated for a web award at the SXSW festival in March. This is impressive to me because the site makes no money. I know very basic code and our compitition is NIKE. Who says fancy is better?

Taking some much needed time off from here until November. Instead, I’ll be watching leaves fall, carving pumpkins and working like mad on my travel portfolio, work articles and other websites.

In the meantime, you can drop me a postcard to let me know what the outside world is doing, send a good book my way or help give me energy by feeding me pumpkin chocolates.