First of all - I would like to welcome those sleep texters coming to our site by way of all the various publications that ran the story from Yvonne Villarreal (by way of Columbia News Service).  A few months back we recieved an email about a blog post I wrote regarding “Sleep Texting” (Read: All Alone: Sleep Texting).  The email was basically asking if I would mind being interviewed about my sleep texting.  Of course being the person I am, the kind that will do anything in the world to help someone help others or at least bring attention to certain issues… I agreed to the interview.  Or maybe it was the slight opportunity to promote Double Danger?!?  Nah.. never.

The interview was simple  - I aced it.  haha  Really it was just about my habits, the occurance itself and all that mess.  So afterwards I thanked Yvonne and asked for a plug for the website if possible.  Marketing 101… you know.  Since doing the interview, I had honestly forgotten about it completely. 

This morning Anna sent me an email with the subject line…

Hitting the bigtime.

I didn’t even get a chance to read it until after lunch, thinking it was a forward of some kind.  Before I headed out for lunch I checked my email and saw an attachment and it was a scanned newspaper article from the Austin American-Statesman.  It looks like the paper syndicated the article (click here for scanned image) from Columbia News Service in it’s Life & Arts section.  You can read the digital article via the Columbia News Service on their website by clicking here.  I am wondering where else this article could have been syndicated - so if anyone is in a metro area and has yesterday’s paper, check it out and let me know.  Email me a scan if you can, or give me the paper name and I will check it out.  Would like to see it in each paper.  I know… it is dumb.  I want to put it in my scrapbook and draw happy faces around it.  Seriously.

I would like to thank Yvonne Villarreal for the plug and the awesome article.  Apparently this is a bigger issue than I thought.  Issue isn’t the right word here… topic?  I dunno.  It was funny to read a few other people doing the same thing.  We have seen a few people come to our site via searches… looking for “sleep texting” or “texting while asleep”… things like that.  So we figured other people had to be doing it.  Funny to know for sure.

Thanks to Anna also, for finding & sending in the article. 

Other marketing news…

Looks like our little site is getting bigger everyday.  We are seeing visits per day & unique searches going up & up.  Being the stat nuts that we are… we have seen this all double in the past month.  We like that.  Gardeners are coming for our great pictures, handy gardening how to(s) and of course our funny stories.  BBQ searches are going through the roof.  Summer is coming quickly and so everyone is trying to learn how to be the best barbequer they can be.  The ribs post is likely the biggest provider these days with people wanting to know how to BBQ pork ribs.  Double Danger has you covered. 

We have shifted focus this past month or so to being a blog/website about lots of different things… to being primarily about Gardening Tips & Barbeque Techniques.  I know some of you have seen this shift and some like it, some don’t.  I wish we could please every single person; however I do not think that is possible.  So we are going to continue to do the things we love, and everyone is surely capable of sticking around if they like it… or leaving if they do not.  We hope you stay.

Our RSS feed is heating up as well, with folks wanting to keep in the loop with Double Danger and what we have going on.  Summer is an exciting time for us and we hope to keep you up to date on everything… but you have to sign up!

Tags: Funny, Link'age by James
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I would be lying if I said we didn’t think about our garden this past weekend.  We were out of town and this was the first time leaving it alone.  We watered heavily the day we left, just to make sure nothing died of heat stroke - since it was 90-95 the week before. 

The good thing was the fact that Friday & Saturday it was supposed to be 90 or so again, so we knew it would help some of the plants still struggling from our strange weather patterns and of course the transplant process itself.

The bad thing… well Sunday morning when I woke up I checked the weather online in our area and it was 42 with light rain.  What!?!  It was 90 when we left… welcome to West Texas weather.  We had a 4-5 hour drive back, so we left early to make it back… don’t bring it up, Shala is still pissed at me about it.

Seriously… you better not bring it up. haha

When we got home, the weather had gotten just a tad better, it was probably 55-60 or so, with cloud cover.  We had caught a bit of rain in the morning it seemed, but for the most part everything seemed to be alive and well.  In fact, when we started walking through the garden we realized that everything seemed to have had a great time while we were away.  Lots of things changed, and so we snapped some pics to show off.  Enjoy.

If you want, check our our photo stream at flickr.  Be our friend if you want.  We won’t bite.  Hard.

This little guy (black diamond watermelon) has been above ground about a week.

Huskey Tomato producing now.  There is 3 tomatoes on there now, with several blooms.

These are the “World’s Smallest Tomatoes”, or at least that is what they say.  3 on this one as well.

The squash we planted from seed are really coming alive now.

These were not even above ground when we left… now they are 3-4 inches tall.

This Hibiscus is doing awesome, remember when we first took it’s picture?

Cucumber is doing awesome also, lots of sun, lots of water.

Tags: Gardening, Pictures by James
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Here we are, rejuvenated and all that.  Ready to get back on the grind and work our little butts off to try and catch up again.  We had a great time in Ruidoso, which isn’t a real surprise since we always tend to.  That is why we go!  Ruidoso offers an awesome retreat for West Texas folks, since it has mountains and cool weather. 

We stayed at the Black Bear Lodge, which is a bed & breakfast in the Upper Canyon.  The room was nice, HUGE bed and a two man… err two person jacuzzi tub in each room.  Oh yeah.  Overall we were pretty pleased with it, and would recommend anyone heading to Ruidoso to check it out.

While there we snapped a few pics and felt like we needed to share them with you guys… since you are nosey as hell, and thats why we like you.  So see below for a few pics from the weekend.

The bed that we both did not want to leave.  The picture does it little justice, you could lay on it sideways without your feet hanging off.

The tub.  Better than ours at home - barely.

I promise I was excited - I just don’t show it in pictures.

This is between Ruidoso & Roswell - seemed pretty at the time.  Kinda brown.

11 deer in one picture - right off one of the main roads.  Very cool.

Think that is Bambi, I don’t remember cinder blocks in the book though.

Tags: Personal, Pictures by James
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Shala & I are heading out this morning to Ruidoso, NM in hopes of losing ourselves in the mountains for a few days.  We find Ruidoso a very relaxing retreat - so we are pretty pumped about it.  We will be back at it on Monday - we just wanted everyone to know we were not just slackers… we are slackers on a mini-vacay.

The reason for the trip?

Saturday is our 5th wedding anniversary.

Pretty cool eh?  We think so.  We are going to be putting together an article on “Why 5 Years is Kind Of A Big Deal These Days” when we get back - so keep your eyes peeled for that one.

While we are gone - go check out some of the folks on our blog roll for a good read.  We trust you will.

Tags: Personal by James
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Yup the watermelon sprouts just broke the surface yesterday afternoon and so we snapped a few pics and had to share today.  We planted these a while back and Shala was wondering if we really had planted them or if in a crazed watermelon act of desperation - I ate them. 

I didn’t though.  The proof is in the pudding garden.

These are black diamond watermelons, which to me are some of the best.  They will get about 30-40 lbs and looking at them now… you wouldn’t believe it.  Crazy lil sprouts.

We will be putting together a “How to care for watermelons” post soon, so keep your eyes peeled.  In the meantime, just sign up for the Double Danger RSS Feed and when it gets finished you can check it out.  Enjoy the pics.

Tags: Gardening, Pictures by James
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