7 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me

Filed Under Books R Me, Melodee's Musings

I was tagged by Janet Barclay to post 7 things you probably don’t know about me. It was a tough assignment since I’m not a very exciting person, but I finally came up with some “fun facts”:

  1. I have a fantastic son, Chad Reuter, and a wonderful daughter-in-law, Heidi Normandin. They moved to Denver in July so I’m looking forward to visiting them in March! Chad is a Senior NFL Draft Scout for NFLDraftScout.com. (He loves his football.)
  2. Like Janet, I have always been a voracious reader. I can remember reading Little House on the Prairie books over and over when I was young. Of course I watched the TV series over and over also. :-) Nowadays I read books about business, science, science fiction, the brain, “how-to”s, self-helpers, and some fiction (Janet Evanovich rocks!). I’ve got stacks of books lying around the house waiting to be read.
  3. That leads into the fact that I’m a wannabe writer. I’m going to try to get rid of the “wannabe” part by creating my own series of e-books about Virtual Assistance. They should start being available in January, hopefully.
  4. I am a neutrino geek. If you’ve never heard of neutrinos, they are the coolest subatomic particles you’ve never seen! There are billions of them flying through your body right now, but they’re so small they almost never hit ordinary matter. Don’t worry, I’ll be posting more about neutrinos later. (Bet you can’t wait :-) )
  5. I’m addicted to Spider Solitaire. The Deluxe Mac version. (Well worth the $15.) You don’t even have to move the cards to where you want them to go – you just click the card and it moves itself! My best time for a one suit game is 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Beat that :-)
  6. I have the complete set of Upstairs, Downstairs DVDs. My favorite PBS series of all time.
  7. I’m a Trekker from way back. I’ve even been to a few Star Trek conventions. I didn’t wear a costume or anything. Well, just a Star Fleet Academy T-shirt and some Bajoran earrings.

Well, that’s my list. Now I’m going to tag Rachel Rasmussen, Jessica Maes, and Rita Cartwright. Are you gals up for the challenge?

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I Love Having a Virtual Assistant!

Filed Under Virtual Assistance

Yes, I know, I AM a Virtual Assistant. But that doesn’t mean that I have the time, expertise, or inclination to do everything myself. Just like my clients, I need to choose those tasks that I enjoy, know I can do well and have the time for, and then allow someone else do the rest for me.

And don’t think hiring a VA was easy for me! As most VAs I know, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. AND maybe I do enjoy being in control of just about everything (I can imagine my son nodding his head).

To be honest, it took me months to even realize that hiring a VA was an option! I’m so used to just doing what needs to be done…Damn the torpedos! Full steam ahead! But once I started writing my e-book series on becoming a VA, I realized that I needed help or it would never get done.

So, with the help of Rachel Rasmussen of Rescue Desk Virtual Assistant Services, I will be launching the first two e-books in the series in January. It will be unlike any other “How to Become a VA” series that you’ve ever seen and I’m extremely excited about bringing it to you. I’ll keep you updated on the release date!

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The Butt Wiggle Diet is a Success!

Filed Under Miscellaneous

Since starting the Butt Wiggle Weight Loss Program, I have lost a total of 10 pounds!

OK – it wasn’t completely because of the Butt Wiggle Diet, but that did help :-)

Mainly, it was due to a site called FitDay (not an affiliate). It has the most awesome software for inspiring nerdy individuals such as myself to

You can use the software for free on the Internet, or you can do what I did and pay a measly $30 to download it on your computer. It has a ton of foods and activities already part of the program, or you can easily add your own.

What I love the most, though, are all of the reports and charts and graphs they provide! Being a very visual person, it helps to see a line on a graph depicting my weight loss goal and another line showing where I actually am at the moment. That’s a real incentive to me!

Then, for accountability, I’ve asked Tara, my massage therapist, to monitor my progress since I see her once a month. I print off the overview from the past month so she can see what progress I have (or have not) made. She gives me great exercise and stretching tips which I’m incorporating into the plan also.

If you’re a victim of VAST and want a cleverly nerdy way to get back in shape, try FitDay.

And don’t forget to wiggle your butt! :-)

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Announcing StS Scientific

Filed Under Bioinformatics, Virtual Biotech Professional

I have a split personality. On one hand, I’m an easy-going Virtual Assistant that helps my clients with the usual business tasks and projects to help their businesses grow. On the other hand, I’m a tenacious Virtual Biotechnology Professional, waist-deep in DNA sequences, teasing out the secrets of the genome into the light of day. Put them together, and you’ve got a versatile, kick-butt problem-solver with scads of skills!

Sorry. I got a little carried away.

But I really do enjoy working with my biotech clients – doing sequence analysis and GEO submission, working with CRISPRs, and writing perl scripts. But it has been difficult marketing my Virtual Assistant services to non-scientific clients, and my Virtual Biotech Professional services to my science-based clients within one company – even though there’s a lot of overlap between the two.

That’s why I’ve created StS Scientific – a Division of Short-term Solutions.

Actually, it makes me giggle…to create a spin-off of what is essentially a one person business. But I’ve never been the type to say “that’s how we’ve always done it”. How about “let’s do something new!” :-)

I might start an StS Scientific blog some day, but for now you will be seeing some posts about the wonderful world of biotechnology right here. And if you know of anyone with a biotech company or start-up who is looking for a versatile, kick-butt biotech professional, send them over to StS Scientific!

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