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Lorraine is gone for the summer and I am going to miss her terribly during this hiatus; even though I am also excited that she's on such a creative high that needs to be taken care of NOW. It's the kind of rushes a lot of us creatives get in fits and spurts --and it makes us jelous when others find the key to turning it into a test of endurance. I'd love to have one of those long distance writing moments over my kabillion writing sprints, anytime.

Yet, Lorraine's hiatus got me thinking again of how long I have been at this thing here called culturekitchen.

I went through my records and found out that I got the domain back on December 21st of 2000. Once I put a little page up with the name while I contended with breastfeeding and terrible twos tantrums.

Sometime in the Spring of 2001 I already had put some stuff up --I was working on a couple of website projects at the time and so did it during ebbs of my consulting flow. This, by the way, while I also accepted a job as a technical writer --and yes, I was still breastfeeding.

2001 proved to be a banner year for us here in more ways than one. I quite my job because the cost of going back to work in hard money was far greater than my staying at home with the kids. My body also had not healed from the multiple injuries and ruptures I suffered while giving birth to my little one.

2000 had proven good to us in terms of art funding. Napier had gotten funding from Creative Capital as well as grants from the Jerome Foundation, NYFA, NYSCA, and other sources as well as privite collectors comissions --not the least in part to the great advice we got from Kathy Brew, the woman who used her position at the Lower Manhattan Culture Council to bring digital and netart to the attention of the New York art scene.

Then the world changed on September 11, 2001.

On September 10, 2001 Napier and I had made the decision to keep our oldest at home and not join the pre-school crowds. We declared to our friends that we were going to homeschool and ironically, I was planning for that week a trip to the top of Tower #2, to show the kids the view from up there and start our learning at home by learning at home through the map of New York City.

That morning of September 11 I had changed my mind. I was running late with something and said, "we can go on Wednesday to the World Trade Center". After all, I had never been up there myself and was excited to use our kids homeschooling to learn more about the New York City I had come to love and hate.

I never go to be on that rooftop.

The shock of September 11 lingered with the smell of burnt flesh and debris that lingered for the following 6 months. Also, as I wrote on a post here years later, The Empire State Building remained dark until the end of that year ---turning it into an unfolding bedtime story of loss and mourning for my children; who were waiting to see when the ESB would cheer up and light up again.

I actually wrote a few short stories during this period but did not publish them on the net. Coding an HTML page for a story became cumbersome --especially after a commissioned website I created for a museum. That 'little project' ended up having over 250 static web pages of text and images and, well, it scarred me for life. There had to be a better way to publish fast and furiously on the net --especially something better than the awfully designed abomination that had been branded Blogger and that was created by a scrappy little company called Pyra (which, btw, has gone down in history as the first big web 2.0 purchase by Google).

In 2002 I looked high and low and experimented with a lot of stuff until I hit pay dirt with a still at that time evolving web 'widget' called MovableType. It was hard as nails to install and grock knows I complained about it, but it got me going. Then the Summer came and with it the BlackOut of 2002 and my ire and contempt for Rudy Giuliani and anything Republican knew no depths.

The spurts and mostly ebbing of my writing all of a sudden found in Giuliani's ineptitude a reason to blog almost non-stop. The flow of my blogging was unleashed.

It will be seven years on December 21st that I celebrate culturekitchen as my homebase on the web.

I have seen many people come and go here at my home. Joy Garnett, Christian Crumlish, Jeff Langstraat, Morgaine Swainn, Tara Parks, Norbizness --they are some of the people that come to mind. Even Pops, who has not been a contributor but who is the "veteran" reader I have had for all these years ... they all have made the site great. And it's all there in archives left behind but not forgotten.

Then I look at the people we have here, David (Mole333), Leo, Michael, CAliberal, Moiv, Margaret Bassett, Nez (Unapologetic Mexican), Sylvia --and the many more who are coming-- and ... wow ... I have to say that I have been lucky to have such an amazing flow of brain power and talent.

It makes me greatful for the seven years of creative ebbs and flows I have been able to archive through this, my home, my culturekitchen.

It calls out for a party. A party with a lot of food and mojitos.

Don't you think?