I was going to write about something else until I read my friend Mark's blog post today about 9/11. Why ignore something I, and probably a lot of other people, are thinking about? I can't believe it happened eight years ago. What a different time it was, and what a different person I was.

The first major incident of the day happened while I was trying to stay awake in an early morning Structural Geology class. (Note to geology professors everywhere: if the class is before 10 am, please keep the showing of rock photo slides in a dark room to a minimum...otherwise even nerds like me drift off.) I got out of class and that particular day, my parents were stopping by my college on their way to some sort of business conference. Since I grew up about five hours drive away, this was not a regular occurence.

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They say you don't know what you have until it's gone, and boy, is that true. Especially when it comes to cute and functional footwear.

At the end of the sailing expedition this past weekend, I was walking down the ladder to get onto the dingy when my flip flop flopped off into Somes Sound. My friend motored over to rescue it but ran it over in the process. It disappeared into the dark waters. I hobbled onshore with my one shoe.

"I hope they weren't expensive." he said.

Now as a personal finance blogger and otherwise practical person, I don't have $100 flip flops. Maybe if I lived somewhere where it didn't snow nine months of the year, I'd invest,  but otherwise, I like my summer shoes like I like my entertainment: cheap and fun.

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I can't tell you how many conference calls I've been in on in the last week. Sometimes it feels like I'm spending a lot more time checking on things than actually doing things. Conference calls are to small business owners, however, what meetings are to employees: necessary evils that are actually, if done right, more productive than participants think initially. Here's what else happened this week:

I talked with a web design company about subcontracting, and they are going to go for it.
This week, there's even more evidence that you should do a good job no matter where you work or what you do.

So I work at an inn part time. My internet savy (and much more detail-oriented) friends pointed out to me that the home page of the inn's website said "Check out our spring packages!" in August. Gulp.

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It was a quiet night for Too Cute Tuesday as in it was just me crafting tonight. That said, I still had a great time making tonight's craft: seashell Christmas lights à la Martha Stewart.

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So I have a business acquaintance who happens to have a sailboat. I've wanted to go on a boat all summer so a few weeks ago, I felt bold and messaged him on Facebook. I told him I'd wanted to go on a boat all summer and asked if he'd mind taking me sailing sometime. I offered to bring lunch and/or snacks and otherwise earn my keep.

He said sure and asked me when my next day off was.

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One of my readers recently asked me why I haven't written about food lately. Good question.

Truth is, I've been eating like a confirmed bachelor. I've been eating lots of quick foods, skipping breakfast in favor of coffee, and once even caught myself eating a jumbo marshmallow while standing by the kitchen sink. What is going on here?

I love food, and I love to eat healthy but I got busy and fell off the wagon as of late. As a result, I've been cooking way less and foraging way more. Eating small amounts and exercising is keeping me trim but I am not liking this lifestyle. So not me!

It's definitely back on the eating-real-meals bandwagon for me and I couldn't think of a better way to get back into it than kale.

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Last week, I was slammed with the classic terrible summer cold. I am feeling better now but it did make me miss having sick days just a little bit...

Here are some interesting things I've read:

Pay What You Want Taxi @ Boston Gal's Open Wallet
'Freakonomics' originally found that pay-as-you-go systems were actually profitable and here's  another example of that.

Sold! @ Rural Runway
I am often guilty for forgetting about eBay. Boy am I happy when I remember though. Just last week, I scored a fantastic brand new Anne Klein silk dress for $40. A fellow Maine blogger, the gal at Rural Runway talks fashion and how to sell it for fun and profit on eBay. Great tips.

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Ideally, we all want feedback. We just want it to be good most of the time.

Sometimes though, a business has to be able to listen to honest negative feedback and step back from what they are doing to improve. And that is what I learned, or perhaps more accurately re-learned, this week.

I got honest feedback about my video, and I'll have to reshoot portions of it. This is discouraging but good.

I pushed through and mostly finished the video for my site, or so I thought.

Something about it though didn't seem quite right. So I emailed it to one of my most critical but kind friends. He called me half an hour later.

After some small talk, I asked, "So how was it?"

Pause. "You aren't going to like this." he warned, taking in a deep breath.

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Christy, last week's birthday girl, requested we do a special tie dye Too Cute Tuesday. "I'm going to tie dye everything!" she proclaimed. This we had to see!

Well, that and we enjoy those more passive crafts on occasion...

Materials
Rit Dye (by the way, if you are stuck on how to do your tie dying, check out their website)
Bucket
Hot water
Light colored items
Skewer (for poking)
Elastics (for designing)

Cocktail of the Night: Lemon drop martinis (mix plus lemon vodka, shaken to fantasticness)

1. Realize that you have nothing white you want to tie dye right before Too Cute Tuesday. Show up at Craft Central and figure other people will have things they want to tie dye.

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I've been following the DC Goodwill Fashion blog for over a year. I'm what we'd call in the online world a 'lurker' on this blog, meaning I never leave comments but totally read and enjoy it. Here's a few reasons why this blog is a great marketing tool.

Genius Idea #1: The blog has a consistent (and actually interesting) voice.

The DC Goodwill Fashionista Em Hall (the blog's author) is someone you want to be friends with. She's fun, upbeat, and intelligent. Corporate blogs can feel stuffy, but this one never does.

Here is how Em explains the DC Goodwill Fashion blog (from an interview with Righteous (re)Style):

"The DC Goodwill Fashion Blog is all about vintage and contemporary fashion with a Goodwill twist. The blog emphasizes mixing high and low, old and new in attempt to help every reader discover his or her own personal style. And, at the end of the day, all money raised through the blog and shopgoodwill.com help to support Goodwill’s mission of training and employment for people with disadvantages and disabilities. In that way, one can look good and do good."

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