DESIGNIN' & CERTIFYIN'

Don't think I've forgotten about the birth story. It just got shoved on the back burner immediately after I posted that I was finally working on it. Irony thinks she so funny.

I signed on as a designer to do one of the 90 pieces for the BlogHer Voices of the Year Gala. After an email from one of the savvy organizers, I agreed to participate and was assigned one of BlogHer's selected blog posts and told to make a poster or whatever inspired by the post. I can't tell you what the post was or show you the design, as all of this is to remain a secret until BlogHer announces which posts were selected. But, in case you were wondering, that's what I've been working on this week instead of remembering and writing. I uploaded my piece tonight and did so with a sigh of relief.

In other news, my husband is home from his week geeking out at Apple Camp (which is what I've been calling his week-long training and certification to be a Apple Certified Somethingorother). Means he's the real deal and will soon embark on a whole new phase of our Apple Adventure. Apple now endorses my man as an independent Apple Wizard. One down, and there are more certifications to come and more tests required whenever Apple releases a new OS. (Leopards and Jaguars and Tigers, oh my! I wonder what animal will have the honor of being Snow Leopard's successor . . . )

I am an enthusiastic proponent of Apple's legendary user-friendliness, but let me tell you, that ostensibly easy surface is supported by a whole lotta complicated whatnot. I was helping to make his flashcards a couple weeks ago, and though I'd consider myself pretty computer savvy and all-around bright, I understood exactly none of what I was pasting on 3x5 cards. No, really: none. 200 cards and I couldn't answer a single question.

So let me say this, if you have to hire yourself an Apple dude to come work through something at your house or your office, do yourself a favor and make sure that they have passed the brutal tests to become a part of the Apple certified network (only 50% of the self-proclaimed Apple smarties out there have gone to the trouble to actually take the exams). It means that your dude absolutely knows the ins and outs of the complex procedures lurking beneath your beloved Mac's simple exterior. Apple says so.

He's home. He's bona fide. And I'm ever so pleased to have him back.