At long last, I completed the website update, the creation of the first ERI Newsletter, and the creation of the Advent prayer resource. I am very grateful to the many people around the world who are collaborating on the Advent initiative. My own coding skills have developed dramatically in the last few weeks. When I came back from my travels in Oceania and earlier in Geneva and the Philippines, I discovered that much of what I had learned in 2005 had evaporated through some window in my brain. I had to relearn much of the HTML and CSS coding. I am now resolved to write a little code each week in revising the website.

For those who are technically minded, I use Rapidweaver to construct the pages. I use TextWrangler (the poor person's BBEdit) to write the HTML. I have to admit that I am still on the search for a really good HTML editor for Mac OS, one that emulates the user-friendly features of Taco (which I also use, but I suspect that it is not XHTML compliant).

My real discovery is actually a journey back to the future: using a stripped down word processor called WriteRoom. It presents black writing on a green screen. It's intuition is that it is easier to write if there are no distracting menus or other stimuli on the screen. One can edit on the full screen, which on the Apple 20-inch, is a real joy, no more eye-strain.

So the workflow is: text in Write Room, converted to HTML in Text Wrangler, and inserted into an HTML box in the editing screen of Rapidweaver. Lots of work! But it is worth it. Now I am taking a day off (well sort of)!