…and I’m so thankful for his insanity! As you will read if you choose to click over, he bought me quite a Christmas present this year. It’s such a thoughtful, significant and personal gift that he even created a blog for it (we are both truly techno geeks … over the holiday break we realized that back in ‘99 – when we were getting married – we created a blog before we even knew what a blog was – it was such a great site I wish it was still up – we even won an “award” for it… but I digress).

I suggest starting here for the beginning of the “story” that will shape our 2008. I’m so excited, nervous – still in shock – and quite frankly, happy to have something besides work to focus on all the time (okay, yes, I have two children, three dogs, great friends and more than enough to do… but again, I digress).

Sometimes you need inspiration from an outside source and wow, if this isn’t inspiration I don’t know what is. If you have any interests in running, marathons, Ireland, adventure or heck, even marriage – and how to keep it interesting – perhaps you will find interest in our blog or following our next 10-11 months of training on Twitter - you can find us at @training4dublin.

Happy New Year – it’s certainly going to be an interesting one!

  I’m a huge fan of technology – obviously, it’s what I focus on for a living - but when it doesn’t work it’s maddening! I’m pretty busy between running an agency, managing a family with two young children and dealing with three (slightly-maddening) dogs. So when I need gifts I usually order them at the last minute and online. Not the most personal approach but hey, it’s better than forgetting!

So when I skipped the food and went online during my lunch break to order some last minute birthday gifts, I expected it to be quick and easy – food basket, flowers – done. Usually that works. For some reason, tech karma is not on my side today. The first site, 1800flowers.com, kept insisting that my credit card number was wrong – it wasn’t, I checked it about a zillion times. Okay fine, I don’t have time to talk to customer service so I quickly go over to Hallmark. I choose my gifts, add in the addresses and go to pay…and the site keeps crashing. Over and over again that annoying pop up tells me the operation has been aborted. Dreadful words, especially when you are trying to hurry.

So technology today actually slowed me down. It’s great when it works but when it doesn’t – you feel like ripping your hair out. I guess my late birthday gifts will be even more late than usual!

 Where do you buy gifts online? Have any great suggestions? Please share!