Trying to keep busy

The heat this summer

It’s been so hot this summer that I’m having a hard time keeping busy, I just want to read, which is why I haven’t posted anything in a while.

This is what my roses looked like in May. The bushes in my little rose garden were just loaded with blossoms, now with the drought and the heat there are no more blossoms. The bushes still look healthy, no black spot so far the year. Hopefully, next year they’ll be blooming again.

Our little vegetable garden is also surviving. We’re carefully watering the plants 2-3 times a day. There are finally tomatoes on each of the tomato plants, but none yet on the squash.

Projects I’m Working On

I went to the Mitchell Park Domes here in Milwaukee, WI, and took a lot of pictures which I’m trying to turn into a photo blog entry. I’m going to try to visit more places in and around Milwaukee and post about them. It’s going to be a type of hometown tourist blog, separate from this one. I think this will help develop my factual writing skills.

I’m also working on an article about a trend in manufacturing hiring. There are more and more companies that are only using contract workers sent by contract agencies instead of hiring someone out right. I’m researching the pros and cons of this practice.

I’ve sort of put my novel to the side and I’m now working on some short stories. A couple of the short stories are connected to the novel (it’s a thriller). The others are just stories that pop into my head. I don’t know if I want to enter any into contests or just post them online somewhere. I recently learn of a website called http://www.scribd.com/ where you can post stories and get reviews, etc.

Job Hunting Stuff

Well, I’m taking a course from LinkedInfluence.com where I’m learning how to use LinkedIn.com to my advantage. Did you know that the more connections you have the better. And that using the right keywords correctly will help people find you? I didn’t. If you’d like to connect to me you can at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mary-m-russell/1b/293/647 . I’ve been working hard on getting my profile to be the best it can be. Still need some recommendations though, but I feel funny asking people for them. Someone suggested writing recommendations for my friends and former co-workers and hope that they would return the favor. I’m thinking about it.

Well, that’s it for now. I tried to add a twitter button but couldn’t figure out how to. You can find me on twitter @MaryM59.