I’m in Chicago until Saturday evening to attend eBay Live and exhibit our Dummies eBay books with the editor. My colleague who handles this program and attends this yearly show is nearing her maternity leave and cannot be here so I am filling in. It should be interesting. My “normal” conferences are usually those from Microsoft (Tech Ed, PDC, Dev Connections) and more technical conferences on Linux and databases. I’m sure I’ll do fine. I have bought and sold on eBay - at least I have that in common with the attendees!
One thing that is a bit “weird” to me now…long exhibit hours. Three days and each day is 7 hours or so. Microsoft shows are usually 4 days but shorter daily hours. I actually prefer the 4th day if each day is shorter. I’m sure my feet will kill by Friday.
Then on Saturday, after the exhibits close at 4 pm, I am heading off to catch a train to Aurora, IL to visit Husband’s brother and family. Husband is even driving up Saturday morning with A and Z so that we can enjoy a day with the cousins 
It is rare that we have “alone time” with Husband’s brother, his wife, and their two sons without the grandparents. In fact, A is convinced that his cousins live at Grandma’s house. I think that this will be good for all of the boys to have the chance to see each other in different surroundings.
Regardless, it is nice to have the opportunity to get in a visit post-conference. I flew up to Chicago today from Indy and will drive home from Aurora with Husband and boys in our family minivan (very cool!). Perfect!
I did get the hearing tests last week and saw the ENT (Ears, Nose, and Throat) doctor on Friday. Though my hearing is classified as “normal,” it is not very promising. The average of the tests gives you a number…20 and under is “normal” and 20 and above is hearing loss. I am at 20 right now. The doctor is a bit concerned because for a 35 year old, I should not be at 20. But he did say that he doesn’t know how rapidly I’ve ended up at 20. So I am going to “live with it” - this new lack of hearing - and have another round of tests in a year to see if there is significant loss. In the meantime, he wants to work on other factors - like my allergies and sinus issues. He put me back on nasal steroids and I am going to have allergy testing done on 7/11 - the day before I leave for a family vacation with the in-laws - YAY!
At least I am putting this out on the table and seeing a doctor. And you would have loved my husband telling ENT doctor…”Doctor, she is deafer than her 84 year old grandma.” Thanks Honey.
This morning was the last time that I would drop A off in his 2 year old room at day care. He moves on Monday to the next “stage” of his life at day care - the 3 year old room. It is hard when A moves to a new room. He goes from being the Big Dog to being “the little one” again. A is extremely social and alot of his friends are in the 3 year old room already so that is not really a worry. I think it is just the change that gets to me. Alex is all about his schedule and any change to it is noted by him and harped upon for hours (sometimes days). But, I know that this is a good thing for A and he is getting to be a big and bigger boy!
I am sure he will do fine. I hope that I do fine on Monday too!
I’ve had various discussions this week about the importance of customer reviews on our books at a site such as Amazon.com and how these influence buying decisions. I am squarely (not even vaguely) in the camp that customer reviews can make or break your product here.
Recently, I was in search of a clock for my soon-to-be 3 year old son A. He has been asking for a clock for his room. We continue to talk about time with him and he wants a clock of his own. Great! So I go to Amazon.com in search of a fun yet functional clock for A’s room. His favs are Disney (Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Peter Pan, Cars) or Animals (all kinds of zoo and home animals) so I really try to center the focus of my search on this and Amazon’s great search functions allow me to really drill down into their offerings. I find and am quite happy with a Lightning McQueen clock - that is until I read the 3 one or two star reviews of the product. All of the reviews basically said the same thing: 1. The $12.99 + shipping product is cheaply made and is really worth about $3.99 and 2. The photo on the catalog page makes the clock look bigger than it is…Whether the right decision or not, I immediately left the catalog page without purchasing the clock. I am all about VALUE right now so me spending over $15 on something that should be $5 was not appealing. I ended up finding a suitable Mater clock at disneyshopping.com that looks good and I’m looking forward to giving it to A for his birthday!
How many times do you go to a product page and read the reviews first before deciding to buy??? And is it crucial to your decision. If a product has a mix of reviews, I really try to see what are the complaints centered on - sometimes it is really just personal opinion (I hate this book because the picture on the cover is ugly) but sometimes it can be important to me. I removed many items from my first baby registry, most notably the bathtub that I scanned in-store. I removed it after going home and reading the online customer reviews because people had their babies get hurt in it and it seemed that there was a design issue that the manufacturer did not anticipate - the babies could slide out of the baby tub! But I’d say that over 70% of my yearly purchases are affected by customer reviews - either at a site like Amazon.com or a consumer electronics site. It is important for me to know other thoughts before I put forth money.
So my continued effort this year for books that my editors publish is to send our books out for review - to key industry influencers, professional friends of the author, product managers, etc. There is the occassional bad review (and I’ve hit into this), but 9 out of 10 books that I send out generate a positive review from a reader and I ask them - or beg them - to post their thoughts for others to see. It really does make a difference!
Last week I thought I was just getting some bad allergies. For reasons that I don’t want to really go into, I have been avoiding antihistemines this spring. Not an easy thing to do when you have year round allergies and a constant stuffy nose. But last week, I could see the white cottonwood flyaways in the air and (really gross) mounting up in the grass. My voice was raspy, my nose was stuffy and I was sneezing alot! Then over the weekend, it just got worse and I got to the point on Saturday morning that I absolutely had to take my Zyrtec. That night, though, I became more sore - sore throat, sore muscles, sore everything - and I wonder if it is possible for allergies to get so bad that you get a cold???? Lots of people have said this to me today and I wonder if it is possible…or do you just form a sinus and lung infection from the allergies????
Anyway, to make matters even worse, my clogged sinuses have made my already depleted hearing worse. Today at work was truly annoying trying to hear people talking. The last year has been really bad on my hearing and I have finally decided to go and get my hearing checked out by A’s ENT doctor after a not-so-nice incident at the Tampa Bay Airport security checkpoint where I could not hear what the TSA guy was saying and so wrongly decided to follow his hand gestures…well, I very nearly ended up in the back room for a full body search. So on Monday I am going to a doctor’s office as a patient (very weird when you have a toddler and an infant!) - with my hubby to hold my hand - and have a doctor check out the inner workings of my sinuses and ears to figure out what is up with it. I swear - if I need a hearing aid…I might just crawl into bed and cry. My 83 year old grandma JUST got a hearing aid 2 years ago so I was hoping to go another 45 years without one. If my mother were here, she would be telling me that I destroyed my hearing (my brother too) listening to the earphones on my walkman…remember when we had walkmans!!! Unfortunately for mom, I’d simply claim not to hear her (again) and move her onto another topic.
So this week I will continue to take Zyrtec and Mucinex to clear out my congestion…and wait for my doctor appt. If it is anything like getting my eyes check in March, I will walk out of there “fixed.”
