All Over Albany

You're a very stylish girl, can't we start this stylishly?

AOA is looking for someone with a sharp eye for style to help us spot great deals, fierce fashion and other forms of all around retail awesomeness. No formal writing experience necessary, but we are looking for someone with voice and the ability to put subjects, verbs and objects in something approximating the correct order. The pay is more along the lines of H&M than LV.

Interested? Give us a shout: editors |at| alloveralbany |dot| com

original photo: Flickr user swanksalot, used under a CC license

Summer break

We're hoping for a few days like this.

The AOA editors are taking the week off to sip cool drinks, take lazy walks, and eat ice cream. Look for posts from a special guest editor all this week.

AOA will be back on its regular schedule July 14.

We're #2

Check it out: All Over Albany ranked second in the "Best Local Web Site" category of the TU's Best of the Capital Region Readers Poll. (The TU's own site was #1.)

Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote for us. We've had so much fun with AOA. It makes us happy to know that a few other people are enjoying it, too.

AOA's Capital Region Outdoor Dining Map

Zoom, click, chill out.

A few weeks back we desperately wanted to go someplace, get something to eat and sit outside. Alas, the weather was a little ahead of local dining establishments that day. But the hunt got us thinking.

And here's the result: AOA's Capital Regional Outdoor Dining Map. It's a listing (and map!) of places you can have a drink or get something to eat -- and sit outside at the same time. There are about 40 establishments on the list right now and we'd very much like to add more (along with pictures and descriptions). If you can think of a few not listed (we know we've missed a bunch), post about it in the comments and we'll add it.

Now all we need is the return of warm weather.

Shameless self promotion

We would love to say that we're above asking you to vote for us in the Times Union's Best of the Capital Region readers poll, but who are we kidding. So, vote for us! The "best local web site" category is all the way on the last page of the survey.

Of course, we only want you to vote for us if you really do think that we're the best local web site. We're actually on the fence about it ourselves. Right now we're leaning towards voting for Rob Madeo.

Racing to the tax day finish

Check out this screengrab from one of the stats packages AOA uses to track traffic to the site. This particular package (it's called Mint) provides snapshots of what's happened recently. Listed below are searches (mostly via Google) that brought people to AOA in the hour or so leading up to midnight yesterday. Notice anything that might have been on people's minds?

Meet the neighbors

We wanted to show you something we've been playing around with during the last week. We've been calling it The Neighborhood. It's basically a snapshot of what people are posting about on local blogs during the last day or two. You'll understand when you see it.

There are only a handful of blogs included right now, but we'd very much like to expand the list. We're trying to keep it to blogs that are both by people who live in the Capital Region AND post often about local stuff. If you know of a great blog like this, please post the url in the comments. And if you have any suggestions about how we could make this better, we'd love to hear that, too.

New to All Over Albany?

Yes, that's a deep-fried candy bar between the stylishly dressed woman and Rachael Ray.

Thanks for stopping by! Here's the nickel tour:

AOA is kind of like an ongoing cocktail party where the conversation always revolves around something about the Capital Region. New items are posted Monday through Friday. And the first thing up is usually a digest of local headlines, which we call Morning Blend.

Some of our most popular posts to date have been a comparison of supermarket prices, a spelling-challenged sign at the Colonie Sears and a our account of trying a deep-fried candy bar.

We love to eat, so there are usually two or three items each week about food. We also have a regular feature called Eat This, which points out a specific dish, snack or drink at a local eatery that we've found to be especially good.

Like to shop? Or just wish you knew where to find clothes with a little style here in the Capital Region? Aja Lownes helps us keep an eye out for all that is fierce.

And, yes, we admit to being a little obsessed with local-woman-turned-media-empire Rachael Ray. That's why we have Rachael Ray World Domination Watch.

One more quick thing: if you're looking to scan through the items on AOA in a fun way, we list all our items that have a place associated with them on a map. Just click on the map markers to find out what's up at that location.

That's just a sample of what goes on here at AOA. The fact of the matter is you can never really be sure what's going to turn up each day -- frankly, it's a surprise to us most days. We're just having a good time working on the site and we feel lucky that so many people have chosen to join in on the fun.

Questions, comments, concerns, shout-outs, or just have a tip about what's going on:

editors |at| alloveralbany |dot| com

Thanks!

BREAKING NEWS! TU finally runs out of people to interview!

Note to selves: never have picture taken again. Ever.

It's the only way to explain today's article about AOA in the TU.

And, yes, we really are that pale.

AOA Memo

We're not sure napping was in the job description

MEMO

To: all AOA editors, contributors, participants

Re: new office dog

His name is Otto. He's a collie. He enjoys chewing, napping and chasing people as if they were sheep.

His current project is making sure to take care of business outside. Otto will report directly to the editors.

Please welcome him aboard.