Any Austinites out there?

We are pretty much all settled in to the apartment, and everything is fabulous. We've hung out with awesome people, signed up for some community activities, namely a dachshund(!!!) hike, and the job hunt is well underway. I've also made plans to reconnect with some other people in the area

Being in an apartment again is so good for the dogs. Potty training is easier, which seems crazy, but it really does help us get them on a schedule. We might change up their feeding habits some to get them on a more regular schedule. They're still loving the trail, and we love seeing other people and dogs while we're out. Pictures will come just as soon as I can find my card reader.

Meanwhile, I have been hankering for some sort of blogger meet-up. If I have any Austin lurkers here, please let yourself be known! Either leave a comment or email me at thespottedottoman at gmail dot com. There is talk of a dog meet up too, so maybe we can have a people gathering, then a dog one.

And if you're not in Austin? Well, get here! We will have lots of fun, I promise.

There will be some changes to the site pretty soon. I am planning to switch over to a self-hosted site--things should move over just fine, but I'll need some time to get everything looking the way I like it.

So, please, if you're an Austin blogger, or if you know of any, get in touch.

Also, wish me luck with the blog transfer, and please share any tips if you've made the Blogger-->Wordpress move.

And last but not least, happy Friday! My MIL is coming for the day, and we can't wait to have a great time ending a great week.

Guest Post! Ramble Ramble rambles with pictures!

Todays guest post is brought to you by
Ginger from Ramble Ramble.
This is all part of the 20 Something Bloggers "Blog Swap 3".
Don't forget to go check out my post over on her site.

Hi everyone, I'm Ginger! Elizabeth and I have swapped homes for the day, thanks to the 20 Something Blogger Great Blog Swap the Third. But wait don't run off looking for her just yet! I promised her I'd take good care of the joint while she's looking after my abode, and you've got to give me a chance to prove I'm a good guest.

Anywho, as I was saying – I’m Ginger from Ramble Ramble. Elizabeth and I decided we'd share 10 photos that describe our lives, which totally feeds into my need for photos in a blog post. Woohoo!

So who am I?

This is me. I'm constantly amazed at how different I look at 29 than I did at 19. And also, how much I look exactly the same.

I live in San Diego, California. My husband and I moved to San Diego in 2007 after 3 years of living in New York. I'm originally from Texas, with 7 years in Arizona, so I'm not so much a snow/cold weather person. I much prefer this.

We have a cat, Bailey, who also goes by the names Monster, Kitten Pants, Puppy, and Catlog. He's a whiny, spoiled, frustrating animal, but it's easy to forget that when he curls up in the crook of my arm at night. And of course, we have more photos of him than anything else!

A little over 2 years ago, I married my best friend N.C. We've been together for 8 years (egads I can't believe it's been that long!). He's definitely influenced me, in both good and completely random ways, but I like to think I've rubbed off on him too.

N.C. is an artist, illustrator and all around creative type. I work as his publicist, manager, and anything else that will help to grow his business. We spend a lot of time on art...most weekends, many weeknights and countless conversations, shopping trips, and arguments over who gets the computer.

I work for a book publisher, doing marketing. I haven't been too happy at work lately for a lot of reasons, so I keep myself sane with the random collection of things on my desk that DO make me happy.

We're pretty boring folks, outside of the art thing. This is a typical Saturday morning...me curled up on the couch with a blanket, N.C. playing video games and the kitty in my lap. Sometimes I'll have a book (that bookshelf over in the corner is one of 3 sets of shelves we have full of books, plus there are 2 or 3 book boxes that have never gotten unpacked thanks entirely to the lack of other bookshelf room). Oh, and most of the time our coffee table is where it's supposed to go, but the night before this we had pulled out the sofa bed to watch movies. See, I told you, boring.

As much as I don't miss living in New York, my time there did shape me differently forever. I became a more open minded person there, more willing to see the differences of other people.

Yeah, I could do without large portions of those differences (particularly those that involve not believing in deodorant on a subway), but I have to admit that the city affected me.

I'd love to put forth photos of my friends and family, but well to be honest, we just got a new computer and none of those old photos have been transferred over. Those folks are the glue that holds me together, next to my husband. In their absence...another picture of N.C.!

Because we spend so much time on my husband's career, I felt like I needed an outlet for me. That's where both blogging and photography came in. I wanted a way to put my voice out there, and so far, I'm totally stoked about it. I've only been shooting for a few months, (and I've just got a fancy point and shoot), but sometimes I get on the brink of a great shot. So my last photo I'm going to share with you is one of the favorites I've captured recently...because photography is growing into a big part of my life. (Plus I love my macro setting!)

Well, I hope you guys have enjoyed getting to know me. I had fun introducing myself! Now, don't forget to go read Elizabeth back at my place!

How to know who is reading your blog: Analytics answers

Hi everyone! I know this post is supposed to be the blog swap post, but I thought I would answer some questions I got about analytics from a few posts ago. Don't worry--the blog swap post is on its way.

There are many, many programs out there, but I choose to use a combination of Stat Counter and Google Analytics. Google is much more general, but if you just want to know where your readers come from, that's a great place to start.

Stat Counter, on the other hand, will show you cities and IP addresses. If you've had any other correspondence with a visitor, or if you know anything about their general location, you can see exactly when and how many times they visit your site. It is also pretty interesting to see which links get clicked over others. Sometimes the city category is too broad--I mean, how many readers could possibly be from the Boston metropolitan area? It seems like half of my readers hail from there, so there would be no way to track who is who, and that's just fine!

It's just nice to have some sort of gauge for how many hits the site gets. If you know someone is from a more obscure area, or you only have one or two readers from somewhere, it is pretty easy to infer who it is. I rarely check in on this, but when I do, I usually get a couple of chuckles about what is getting hit.

Like I have said before, I have the analytics program mostly for fun, but I peek in on it every now and then to see what's getting the most response. I like using other people's blog rolls for reading suggestions, but I never usually have the patience to click through all of them, so I was surprised when I saw that a certain someone was doing a pretty thorough job over a period of a couple of days on mine. But hey! That's why it's there--I hope you found tons of blogs to enjoy, because I definitely love reading them all.

Boss Sanders recently let me know that Woopra is now available for Macs, so I might give that one a shot. It has some pretty awesome features that the others don't, and best of all? It's free.

That's pretty much the extent of my knowledge about analytics programs. Do you know of any better ones? And for you fellow bloggers, why do you use analytics?

Come back later to check out the official blog swap! It's going to be good!

A picture a day, or today, anyway

I was finally able to upload the picture of Radish helping us move. Here she is, bravely defending a box--I was so proud of her. I thought she would have all kinds of anxious making issues, but she actually did really well. We ended up leaving her and Adley on our shaded back patio for a lot of the day while everyone was helping us pack up.

Adley and Radish are both thrilled with the new apartment, as far as I can tell. They love being taken on potty walks instead of being let out into the yard--it is better for us too. The city life is new to them. All the cars, people, and other dogs provide constant stimulation, which really exhausts them and makes them our sweet little nap/lap dogs.

That's just an update for those of you who have been asking about their transition. I'll soon be writing a more detailed update on moving with dogs at Who's Your Dachshund, which, by the way, has had an amazing makeover!

In other big news for tomorrow, I am swapping blogs for the day with Ginger from Ramble Ramble. We have some pretty exciting things planned for tomorrow, so be sure to check back here and at her site tomorrow.

A wonderful whirlwind

My blog has been pretty quiet this week, but my life has been nothing but motion. I have loved every minute of it, and I feel like I am finally reclaiming some of myself.

I've been in a bit of a rut since I got ill over the summer--there was just something I could not shake off, and when I would push myself to go even further, I would have a few days of exhaustion. I think that is more or less done with, and I am ready to charge out again. We have found our dream apartment, and the pups love it. We have easy access to a lake and numerous trails. One thing I love about Austin is how health oriented the people seem to be. Seeing people out running all the time inspires me to do the same.

Our families seem to be very happy that we stayed fairly close to them. We are too--it is so wonderful to be able to pop over for holidays and birthdays without committing to a long flight. Oh, and by the way? 60 degrees is cold! What were we thinking when we were planning of months and months of even colder weather?! So far Austin is absolutely perfect. We have wonderful friends here, and I have cousins I adore who live here also. Our families were amazing when it came to loading and unloading the furniture--I seriously don't know what we would have done without Eric's and my parents, and my brother and sister. What lifesavers!

We found out that the house was closing within a weeks time, so we had a very short amount of time to pack up and leave, and find a new home. We actually had reserved a place in Boston, but that got canceled at the last minute after some very serious concerns about graduate school. We did not want to take a chance on losing our Texas residency, because that would affect our waiver. Also, who could leave Texas after driving through Taco Cabana?

I don't think we could have found a better apartment for us. We are in a location where we can get to pretty much anything we could ever need fairly easily. We love the Austin airport, so taking off from there on our travels will certainly be a pleasure. Best of all, we have someone we know and love who is willing to watch the pups for us if we ever need to go away for a bit.

Things are falling into place bit by bit. The biggest thing left is to apply for jobs, but I am sure that will come together before long. Right now we are just relishing being in a new city and loving life as we scheme and dream. We are joining different meet ups, and looking into a Unitarian program, and I am so excited to meet new people and be exposed to new ideas. I am going to seriously consider grad school in the next two years, and I am so very thrilled about that. I love school, reading, and even researching, as ridiculous as that may seem.

I am having a lot of fun switching over our address on everything, and sending new address cards to family. I found the most adorable Crane cards a few years ago, and I have kept them on hand for an occasion like this. I would have used them when we moved into our first place, but we had just had the wedding, so our address was on the thank you notes.

That's about it on my front. How have you all been? I am trying to keep up with the reader, but we don't technically have internet access yet, so everything is being done on the iPhone. I was going to put up a picture of Radish enjoying the moving process, but the internet is kind of loaded down. It will come soon!

So, please do tell me all of the happy news in your life, or at least link me to some of your recent favorite posts from your blogs. I can't wait to catch up!