Back-to-School Means...

Hey there friends, it's been a while since I've taken a turn at this wonderful venue.  It's been quite the summer for us - each day a new surprise adventure, some good, some bad, some scary, some a total blessing.  I'll come out and say it: I consider summer over as of today. My youngest started high school.

For many of us, end of summer and beginning of fall doesn't much matter.  Our lives run on a regular schedule, January-December.  Once we were done with school, we became adjusted to a different calendar.

That's never been the case for me.  I went from being a student into immediately being a teacher into having kids and then they had a school schedule.  My life runs mid-August, then all around the year, with summer in between.

There are many rituals I enjoy about getting ready for a new school year to begin: buying school supplies, getting new clothes, getting a fresh haircut, and other preparations.  Egads there's more when you have a senior.  I had been warned repeatedly by my friends with older kids, but being me, Schedule Woman, I thought, "How much different can it be?"  I was wrong.  I'm adjusting.

What does "back-to-school" signify for you?  What's the school year like in your country?  What calendar does you life run by?  Do tell.

~Tina, feeling a bit blue, yet also excited because my son was so thrilled about going :-)

August’s Delicious Detour for Bloggers #atozchallenge #roadtrip

Teriyaki Chicken from Koja Grille. Photo by Nicole Ayers.

What’s a road trip without snacks, drinks and good food?! After all, they are the very basic necessities for a spontaneous picnic, or two. That is why today’s pit stop involves one of the most delicious scavenger hunting activities ever introduced to the A-to-Z Challenge Road Trip, to keep our engines running throughout August. I double dare all road trippers to complete the following tasks before my next Road Trip check-in:

1. Find and visit blogs named after food on the 2014 A-to-Z Challenge Signup List. 

It doesn't have to be a foodie blog with recipes or restaurant reviews per se. Just look for blogs that include food in their title such as Buttered Toast Rocks and you're good to go.

2. In 150 words or less, write a “(Blogging) Book Report” on your blog about one of the places you visited on the list. Make sure that your Blogging Book Report includes information about the following topics:

• The name and subject of the blog.
• Your favorite post on the blog.
• Whether you would visit the blog again in the future.

There are so many blogs on the A-to-Z Challenge list with fruits, nuts, baked desserts, cookies, bread or chocolate in the title (some even with the term “food”) that this is an easy way to get your road trip on while also having a writing prompt for your own blog. Plus, I’m sweetening the deal – send me a link to your “(Blogging) Book Report” post after it’s published and I’ll list your blog my Road Trip check-in next month.

Who’s in?

A-to-Z Challenge Co-Host Nicole Ayers brings the 411 on indie films at The Madlab Post. She recently ate a Mr. Goodbar for lunch and then washed it down with a Snickers; all after months without eating these types of candy, in favor of assorted cakes and pastries. 

Can we blog from Aardvark to Zebra?

Dylan at work

Some time last month my guinea pig Dylan announced he was going to do the A to Z Challenge next year.  He wouldn't be the first guinea pig, since Victor took part in 2012, doing the A to Z of guinea pig food.  Dylan hasn't come up with a theme yet, but I think if he does, he's going to need some help.

Victor made a lot of friends with other animals on the A to Z challenge that year.  There was Dreamweaver, The Mane Point, and Rob Bear, who comes out of hibernation around then to do his blog Chrome on the Range.  I don't think he kept up with them for very long, but time flies when you're a guinea pig.

Last year I noticed that my good friend and fellow A2Z minion Guilie Castillo has a second blog called Life In Dogs.  It's about dog rescues - which she does in Mexico, but also about cat rescues and any animal rescues at all.  She set up a linky for other pet bloggers on the A2Z which I thought was a wonderful way of getting special interest sites together.  If she does it again next year then I'll tell Dylan to sign up for it, as well as the main challenge, and the Theme Reveal, and all those other extras that go with being part of the A to Z Challenge in April.

Are there any Aardvarks or Zebras blogging out there who would like to get involved in the A2Z Pet Network?

*** 

Last week was a painful reminder for me of the good reasons for backing up your blog.  Mine was out of action (although readable by viewers) for nearly a week after a conflict in upgrades gave me no back office/dashboard access.  Faced with the prospect of rebuilding it, I looked for my last back up.  I can do a simple posts export which is the easiest way of keeping content - and in a useable format should I need to change hosts.

I last saved my posts on April 17th - presumably the date I had all my A2Z posts done for the month.  So if things had gone wrong then, all my posts were ready and scheduled.  It's a good reason to schedule posts anyway - you never know when the gremlins are going to hit you!

Given that I'll be away for a week at the end of March, I think I'll have to do most of my April posts before then.  Schedule, and back-up (or save off line).  It's the only way to get peace of mind.

Dylan had better start planning his posts now - then I can back up his blog too!

What about you?  Any interest in pet blogging?  Done a back-up lately?

Jemima Pett blogs at jemimapett.com, and is on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.  She has written the Princelings of the East series (whose characters are guinea pigs) and is working on a new scifi series, the first of which, The Perihelix, Viridian System #1, will be out in 2015.