Here's a new one for me: I'm going to participate in a blog challenge! Gwen Bell has issued the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge.  I figure that this is a good way to get in the habit of daily blog posts. The bonus is that I'll be part of a a bigger community sharing this experience while reflecting on a pretty amazing year.

Day 1: What was your best trip of 2009?

That's an easy one: Our three-day drive from Austin to Orlando!

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We closed on the sale of our house on the Thursday afternoon before Labor Day weekend, while our three cats waited in the car (totally stuffed with stuff, air conditioner running, of course). After taking care of a few final errands on Friday morning, we headed east. Gary drove his Elantra, and I piloted the Kittiemobile, AKA my minivan fitted with a pet kennel. We both had headsets for our cell phones. Thank heavens for unlimited mobile-to-mobile time!

First overnight stop was just east of Lake Charles, Lousiana, where my van's front left tire died. After getting a new tire at the Wal-Mart auto center Saturday morning, we continued on to the panhandle of Florida. We spent a quiet night at a very nice pet-friendly hotel near Crestview, then drove the rest of the way to Orlando.

The most fun: Carting three cats in and out of three different hotels! At first they didn't like going into the kennel in the van. By the time we got to Florida, they dove right into the kennel each morning and quietly went along for the ride. Truly a miracle!

So that's our best trip of 2009. I've been thinking about destinations for 2010 travel, and so far it looks cruise ships will be involved.

Following along with Gwen Bell's the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, the official question for today is:

Day 3: The Article That Blew You Away!

One of my favorite Twitterers (or is that Twits?) is Smashing Magazine. When a link to one of their articles pops up, I figure I might as well refresh my beverage and plan on a few minutes of break time because I'm going to need the time to digest it. One day in March, the topic was Backgrounds in Web Design: Examples and Best Practices.

This was a topic that I had been pondering. My background is in print publications. I've got a flair for design. But I found myself stuck using rectangles with borders for most of my web themes. I had hit a wall with CSS and kept spinning my wheels.

As I scanned the page, most designs seems well outside my skill set. So I looked more closely, read the descriptions and visited every single site. Then I bookmarked the article. Next I sketched out a new design for my Disney World guide web site and began figuring out how to apply backgrounds to accomplish a vision that that had been percolating for months.

In the end, I learned much about CCS and Drupal theming ... and moved much closer to my vision. That's the design I've implemented so far, which got a nice thumbs-up from my knows-all-things-trendy daughter. I created all the background graphics from scratch, thank you very much.

And thank you, Smashing Magazine, for the inspiration and guidance!

Following along with Gwen Bell's the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge, the official question for today is:

Day 5: A night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world?

I've decided that my favorite restaurant moment was technically an evening out. That means the night out that rocked my world this year was the night we spent waiting for the shuttle launch.

Gary and I had been in Orlando for almost two weeks. We were in town, doing a trial run of sorts, to see what it was like to live here before we sold the house and loaded up all our wordly possessions. Gary's a big space fan, so when we figured out that a shuttle launch was planned we started plotting how to watch. The launch was planned for early Saturday morning. We decided to drive to Titusville on Friday evening and scope out possible viewing areas across the bay from the launch pad. Our plan was to go back to the hotel in Orlando, then drive over early Saturday morning and go to our selected spot.

As we ate dinner, we noticed that many tourists were already claiming their viewing spots. Hmmmm, would there be any good spaces left by the morning? I bravely suggested sleeping in the car at a park somewhere. Gary was equipped with web page printouts. Did I mention what a space program fan he is? We drove north and found the No. 1 recommendation -- Space View Park. Just as the sun was setting, we pulled into the parking lot and noticed that a small camp was already forming on the boardwalk. Gary chatted with some other tourists, who advised getting supplies at the drug store across the street.

We tramped across the street and returned with two lawn chairs, bug spray, snacks and bottled water. We were even equipped with beach towels to use as blankets, although the temperature was still a bit steamy. We picked a spot on the edge of the boardwalk and set up camp.

The launch was still almost eight hours away, but time didn't seem to matter. We were part of the space nut crowd -- kids ran and played, parents chatted and shared adult beverages, men who still carried childhood dreams of being astronauts discussed the too-soon end of the shuttle program, amateur photographers shared techniques for taking time exposures of the shuttle across the bay. As conversations grew quiet, I tried shutting my eyes for some rest. A while later -- not sure how long -- I looked around to see that dozens more had joined the camp-out. With no planning, no official organizing committee, no one in charge, Space View Park had turned into our own community.

Around midnight, just as most of the kids had run out of steam and crawled into their sleeping bags, the murmuring turned into rumors -- the launch has been scrapped! No! I opened my smart phone and searched the web for news. Rats! It was true. Something about fuel pressure problems... no launch that day.

Some of our neighbors immediately picked up their gear and quiety carried their kids back to their cars. We didn't want to leave. It was a perfect night out. An adventure that we didn't want to end. A dream that couldn't end just yet. I sat in my lawn chair just a few more minutes, memorizing every detail. Then we gathered our supplies, loaded the car and drove back to our hotel.

We had to go back to Austin before that mission launched later that month. A little more than four months later, I watched my first shuttle launch from the street in front of our apartment. We still hope to see a launch so close that we feel the ground rattle... but no matter what, nothing will ever match that unplanned, wonderfully adventurous night out at Space View Park.