Watts Consulting

More than you ever wanted to know about Alabama native Joe Watts

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Cold Kitties

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It has been frigidly cold here in Birmingham, AL for the last few days. Down into the teens–and that may not seem too cold to some folks, but if you live in Alabama, it is extreme cold. We feed 4 outdoor cats that more or less came with the house–they are feral and won’t let anyone come near them, but they’ve come to depend on the food we provide. (Yes, we got them “fixed,” so no kittens!)

Two are always here and two others come and go with less frequency. I’ve seen the two that are always here (Callie and Blackie) and have seen the others, but not today. We got really worried about them so I went out and purchased a tiny outdoor dog house for them and put it under the deck. No one has dared venture into it, of course.

Our indoor cats find these outdoor interlopers boring and pay them no attention whatsoever. (The cat in the photo is Callie–she’s been enjoying the nicer weather we are having today by rolling around in the sun and basically saying, thank God I made it through, that sun feels great–time to eat!)

 

Newsletters, newsletters, newsletters

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One of my favorite project types is newsletters. They are fun to put together. They are interesting (usually) and also provide a steady source of work. I do a fair number of newsletters now:

Most of these newsletters are online only. A couple are print. I really enjoy working on both types. Print newsletters are great, because everybody gets exactly the same experience–if you choose a font, you can be sure that it will look the way you want. If you choose a layout, nothing will mess it up. Web newsletters are fun, too, though, because you can plug loads of information in, you can make them “clickable” so people can access even more info.

An Idea for Some Ongoing Content

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Well, I’ve had an idea on what to do with this blog–or a companion blog, actually. When in World War II, my dad wrote lots of letters home to my grandmother and others. They are collected in a box in the closet. They are filled with wonderful memories and funny comments (my favorite to date is his clever hints to send boxes of goodies–particularly boxes filled with CANDY–emphasis his).

I’m planning to start adding a letter a week until they are all cataloged in (maybe more than once a week, maybe less). I think this should be a pretty interesting job to tackle and will be interesting to more than just the immediate family. I love old letters from anyone. These are priceless.

It will be a little while before I can get started–the letters are still at home. But keep checking!

The Best of 2007

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Reflecting on 2007, I’m mostly just glad to see it gone. I’m looking forward to getting back to work after all the holidays and time down. 2007 has been a pretty crappy year. But I’ve done a bit of reflection and think I’ve come up with my two favorite memories from 2007.

1. Lunch with Mama, Margaret, Bill, William, Ann and Julia at the Bright Star Restaurant in Bessemer, AL. What a treat this was–and turned out to be more important to me than I can ever explain. Mama and Julia brought us a bouquet of daffodils. They were beautiful and smelled so good (yes, they did bother my allergies, but I enjoyed them anyway–and I can’t wait to see the blooms in our yard this or next year).

2. My birthday. I think this was certainly not my best birthday–not by a long shot. But, I’d built it up to be so dreadful that, when it came and Ann took the day off to be with me and we got out of the house, it was overall a pretty nice experience. We went to eat at Gilchrist in Mountain Brook (yummy classic lunch counter sandwiches). Then, we went to the zoo. I got to use my new camera to take loads of photos (see them here)

12:01! We Made It

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I would have never guessed 10 years ago that staying up till midnight would be so hard. But hey, we made it. Watched the Auburn/Clemson game, watched Shrek III and even watched some crazy person jump a motorcycle over a football field. But we managed to stay awake until midnight. Think we were just about as excited to toast that we were going to bed as we were that 2007 was finally gone, but hey, whatever.

I’m always rambling through my old photos. Anyone that wants to organize lots and lots of digital photos should look into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, as it allows you to categorize photos, tag them with keywords, sort them in so many different ways and edit them in some really cool ways. I took this photo several years ago, but thought I’d toss it out as I’ve always liked it for some reason.

Happy New Year!