A NEW WEBSITE! LightheartedLearning.com

I know it's absurd, but I feel like running around distributing politically incorrect chocolate cigars to complete strangers. (Bwhahahaha....My chance to give candy to strangers!)





Absurd or not, there's a real sense of joy (and relief) at having a website up and running. I should probably knock wood as I type that.  For those of you who are not familiar with the Yiddish verbal equivalent of knocking wood ---no, not spitting, if that were a verbal equivalent it would have to be the cartoon exclamation of TsuTsu-- I'm speaking of the expression, KENOHORA...which one uses to ward off the evil eye. E.g. Look your souffle is so puffy and high. Kenohora!  (The omission of kenohora would mean that once the complimentary statement left the speaker's lips---the souffle would be doomed.) Upon re-reading that last example, I'm not so sure that souffle and Yiddish create a collocative concept. Excuse me while I step over to another browser window to check. [time passes]

Okay--we're good. There were plenty of hits for "Jewish souffle" (However the souffles shown were all pretty flat...guess somebody forgot his or her kenohoras...)

Embryonic Elephant

But back to the website. The gestation process has been what one would expect-- not in elephant terms, of course--but in terms of the average pregnancy.




Proof of Reasoning
Elephant from start to finish: 22 months.
Website from start to finish: 9 months

Ryan Sebring

Thank goodness I worked with a VERY patient and gifted web designer, Ryan Sebring (Sebring Creative). It's probably been at least three years since I said to him, over some chocolate rugelach, "Oh, you do web design? I'd really like to get a lighthearted learning site up and running."  He should have started running...and screaming from the room. But instead, in June of 2012, we found ourselves talking about banners and sub-banners; assets and anchors, and the scroll of death. (We did try to avoid the latter.) Ryan really had no idea what he was getting into, but he was an excellent sport throughout my crazy travel schedule and various changes of heart (and design.) 



Of course,  Ryan wasn't the only patient person during this process. My best friend and LOML, Gary, endured my numerous interruptions to a) solicit advice, b) ask for help, and c) whine.  What do you think my beloved replied when I said, "The hummingbird looks a little snarky. Could you fix his eye?"?  He fixed the eye of course, and then turned his own heavenward and sighed deeply.  
 

Hummingbird, less snarky

And speaking of eyes; my daughter's took on catching every inconsistency in phrasing, punctuation, and spacing. Emily made my life SO much easier at a time when 3,8 and 5; i and l and (.) and (,) look pretty much identical to moi. And then Ed, (best B.I.L. ever), did a round of edits that ameliorated the typos and cut and paste ghosts that can haunt an educational website forever!


Setting a March deadline was probably the best thing we could have done...it  has to be done when you set a deadline. (Or so my editors have always said.) The deadline meant that when I fly away to TESOL in mid-March I will not have to look at my shoes and make snuffling noises in response to the website question. (Nor, since the conference is in Dallas, will I have to hear, "Well, bless your heart, you'll get it done some day." )

This year for TESOL, I've set a goal of having business cards with the website address and my email and no typos. (Not like the year when, much to my chagrin, I discovered I had printed out cards with an extra digit in my phone number. Of course, I'm sure I appeared very editorial as I scrawled the delete mark each time I handed out a card. But I digress....)

I have a new website. You can find it here: lightheartedlearning.com (kenohora)  Do drop by! (And for those of you already here and reading this on the site...WELCOME!)