My Ashley Ladd website is back up with a new design

My main Ashley Ladd website at www.ashleyladd.com has been down for a few weeks. That's because my main computer downstairs is my server and it died. Today, my wonderful son, Luke, gave us an entirely new computer. I said "gave". I didn't have to pay a penny. Well, not today. I think I paid for it all those years he was growing up destroying our computers and everything electrical and mechanical. Now he's a computer whiz (I'm not exaggerating - he's the IS director at his job). I've been needing to redesign my site so I gave it a face lift today. It's not the greatest in the world, but it matches at least. I'm on the list with an actual website designer to have my own custom made design done, but she's busy so that won't occur till June or July, so this is temporary. Don't be too hard on me. I'm self taught and since I have a day job and my second job of writing keeps me really busy on top of it, I don't get a lot of time to dabble in graphics or HTML. However, both are on my list of things to do before I die. There's a lot of things I want to do before my time is up. I want to travel the world, particularly to Germany (the homeland of my ancestors), Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, France, Japan, Hawaii, Montana, Alaska, Mexico. I want to see at least a few of my books on the national best seller list. I want to travel in a time machine and see beyond my years as well as explore history. I want to meet my ancestors and meet my grandchildren's grandchildren and their grandchildren. I'd like to have a maid to clean my house. I'd like to have a smart house. I'd like to travel to the moon and the stars. I'd like to be financially independent. I'd like to visit my dad and family several times a year. I'd like to own a second house in Ohio near my dad. I'd like to start a foundation to help animals, especially cats and dogs. I'd like to be able to donate a lot more to the charity where I work to help the poor. I'd like to invent some gadgets or something and start my own company so my heirs will be taken care of for life - and their children and so on. I'd like to trace my family tree all the way back to Adam. I'd like to be more sure of myself - not so shy. I'd like to find the fountain of youth. I'm sure I could go on and on. Some are doable, and obviously some aren't. But I've always been a dreamer.

A sticky love affair

I'm in love. Hopelessly, helplessly, head over heels. I'm addicted. I can't help myself. I'm obsessed. I can't stay away from the object of my obsession. We go everywhere together. We're never separated. If my husband knew about my affair, I'd be in big trouble. He'd kill me. So I'm a goner. I'm in love with my new Alpha Smart. It's soooo great, well, most of the time. I did lose a file yesterday. I must've hit the on and send button when I was carrying it. That's a few hours work lost. Oy! But that was my fault. I can't blame the Alpha Smart. I'll have to get a carry case. I took it to my daughter's softball tournament yesterday, knowing we'd be there several hours, knowing my laptop doesn't hold a charge for but a couple minutes (so I couldn't work on my edit anyway sans a real computer), hating to waste so much time. I was carrying several things and had my hands full and it never occurred to me that I'd accidentally turn it on AND delete a file. At least I'd uploaded all but one file to my computer or I'd be in a bigger bind. But I recovered. I was able to write a few thousand words. Everybody, the girls and the parents, were fascinated by my toy. If I had a distributorship, I'd be rich. I could sell so many. Everybody loved it and wants one. It's also light and didn't kill my shoulder like my lap top. By the way, my daughter's team won second place in the tournament. I don't really consider they lost the last game. Get this. In the championship game, they had only played 2 innings, had 28+ minutes left on the clock, and it was starting to get dark but not all the way dark yet, and the umpire called the game and awarded it to the other team. I couldn't believe it. From before the game started, the umpire kept walking over to the guy sitting next to us who he called his cousin, and couldn't stop talking about how hungry he was and how anxious he was to get out of there to eat pizza. I thought he was joking at first about wanting to get out of there fast. He obviously wasn't joking. I was so mad. I've never wanted to kill an ump before - well, my hubby who's an ump, but not in conjunction with his umpiring duties...