It is a cold and snowy day, perfect for sitting in front of the fireplace to catch up on blog reading.

Recently while looking for some blog help I discovered Blogging University on the WordPress site and that there would soon be a Blogging 101 course. Although I have been blogging for several years there is always more to be learned so I enrolled.  For instance,

I have never gotten into the habit of using tags but learned how helpful this can be in two instances:

1. I like reading other blogs related to travel and photography but have a difficult time finding them. When I do find a blog that I like, I follow it in the WordPress Reader. What I didn’t know is that I can search for blogs by entering a tag and then all the most recent blogposts about that subject will appear in the Reader.  For example, I am interested in reading about Austria and now that is in my list of tags on the Reader. I set another up called Manitou Springs but unfortunately there are few postings with that tag.
2. With the discovery that I couldn’t find much written about Manitou Springs I realized that I have several blogposts on that topic but with no tags. If I had tagged my posts people could read more about Manitou Springs and also see pictures of one of the the most beautiful little towns in America.

Now I have a new project for our next snow day. I will begin going back through my 500+ blogposts to add tags.  This course has been well worth it already and it’s not over yet.

Now don’t forget to tag your posts so I can find you!

Winter is not my favorite time. The good news is this will be our final winter spent in the cold.

Our house is for sale. For the time being, we are attempting to sell it ourselves. There hasn’t been too much activity other than realtors wanting to list it. The funny thing is that the only two people that looked at our house really wanted it but both had bad knees and eventually decided they needed something without stairs. We are hopeful that when the house buying season begins in the spring there will be more interest.

The straw that broke the camel’s back in making the decision to sell was two increases in our property tax (much higher appraisal + a mill levy increase) and having our house insurance cancelled for the fourth time.

The first time the insurance was cancelled was because company P doesn’t issue landlord policies which we needed when we left for a year in 2014 and rented our house out. We then obtained insurance through company A and they cancelled us two months later because their company decided not to write policies in this area so close to the mountains any longer. Third company P, lasted one year and they made the decision to get out of the home insurance business. Then in November we obtained company T who sent someone out to look at our house after the policy was issued. They cancelled us because of the for sale sign out front as they don’t insure houses that are for sale. We have until the 18th to find new insurance and there are not too many companies left that will even write policies in this area.

On the good news side, only 3 weeks and I will be warm again. For 11 whole days. My daughter and I are going on a Caribbean cruise! Although not free like the South Pacific and Hawaii cruises in 2014, Carnival sent an offer for less than 1/2 the normal price.