Theodora & Amanda tagged me and I want them to keep liking me so I’m obliging and doing it.
Rules
Post these rules
You must post 11 random things about yourself.
Answer the questions set for you in their post.
Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
Go to their blog and tell them that you’ve tagged them.
No stuff in the tagging section about “you are tagged if you are reading this”. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.
Random Facts
{one} I can’t straighten my arms or legs.
{two} All alarm clocks, microwaves, timers, etc., must be set to a number ending in 3 or 7. This includes forcing the husband to do the same when he sets an alarm for both of us to get up.
{three} I can’t nap. I’m really, really wishing this one would change these days.
{four} I’d much rather get up early than go to bed late.
{five} I haven’t seen the majority of most popular classic movies. Think Star Wars, Rocky,
{six} Arnold Schwarzenegger is my second {third?} cousin by marriage.
{seven} I don’t like chocolate. I only eat it when necessary, such as when it surrounds the caramel-y, cookie-y insides of a Twix bar. Or in pancakes.
{eight} I can’t do long division. I moved up math classes in 5th grade before the class I was in covered it and I’ve never learned since. Somehow I made it through Calculus 2 without it. Don’t tell my teachers.
{nine} I’m the best procrastinator in the world. I’ll tell you more about that later.
{ten} I’ve been known to injure myself walking into walls and doorways…
{eleven} I don’t like my food to touch unless it’s supposed to. I would be happy if all meals were served on children’s plates with built in dividers. Until then, I will shameless balance my plate as needed with my silverware so things don’t run into each other.
Questions {A Combo from Theodora & Amanda}
[one] What book do you think everyone should read but no way in hell would you share your own copy? The Cider House Rules
[two] If you could get a degree in ANYTHING (without having to worry about silly things like finding a job in that field), would you get a degree in? Dolphin therapy
[three] If you had twenty-four free hours and unlimited funds in your own city/town, how would you spend them? Take a trip somewhere else. I kid, I kid. I’d eat somewhere fancy I can’t afford, drink over-priced beers at my favorite wine bar {yes I said beer at the wine bar}, go to hot yoga, and run a marathon. As in, organize, not actually run. Maybe run too. It’d be free and it’d go all through downtown.
[four] Which celebrity could you actually see yourself being friends with? Ryan Reynolds. What, you don’t see that happening?
[five] If you’re not married–where would your dream honeymoon be? If you are married and could do your honeymoon over again, where would you go? Somewhere with one of those huts that have a floor that opens directly into tropical waters.
[six] If you had to live in one season for the rest of your life, which season would it be? Spring. With a close second of Fall. Winter & summer I can do without. Except for wakeboarding and playing in the snow…
[seven] Did you play sports in high school? Field hockey, track, drill team. Dance.
[eight] What’s your favorite drink at Starbucks? Tall skinny soy cinnamon dolce latte. Can I have one now please?
[nine] FAVORITE WILL FERRELL MOVIE. Just one? No way. Zoolander. Anchorman. Old School. Talladega Nights. Pretty much anything but Step Brothers. I love lamp.
[ten] Runners: what’s your dream race? Non-runners: what’s your fitness dream? A Ragnar-type relay. Or any mud-run/obstacle course race.
[eleven] The last song you listened to. Citizen Cope’s Let the Drummer Kick. I’m assuming the monotonous song on the baby swing doesn’t count.
My Questions
1. If you could get paid to do anything in the world without worrying about being realistic, what would you do? I supposed normal people would refer to this as a dream job.
2. You can only live one place for the rest of your life and it can’t be anywhere you’ve lived before. Where would it be?
3. If you were a celebrity, what would you be famous for?
4. Can you recite the Greek alphabet?
5. If you got to be on any game show you wanted, which one would it be?
6. Roller blades or skates?
7. What’s your biggest fear?
8. If you could name yourself, what name would you chose?
9. Would you rather go the Olympics or the Oscars?
10. Favorite thing to order in a restaurant.
11. You’re the pilot on a plane. You can fly it anywhere you want. Where would you go?
Strangely enough, the holiday season means things are slowing down a little bit around here. Extra-curriculars are wrapping up, evening activities are winding down, and work is slowing up for the week. That means there was actually a fair amount of cooking going on around here. Well maybe not cooking…dinners prepared at home at least.
For starters, this Pomegranate Pear Walnut Salad has been on rotation for more than a few meals this week, along side a surprisingly delicious pear & grilled red onion vegan grilled cheese sandwich.
My favorite vegan lasagna {tofu & fake cheese free!} made it to the table this week a few times too. {What is it about Italian that makes it so.much.better after it’s been frozen and reheated?}
Even though it’s not quite winter weather yet, I’m pretending it is and gearing up for the coming cold evenings with this hearty kale soup.
And I’d be lying if I said decadent desserts and drinks weren’t on my mind this holiday season.
Last but not least, I finally started decorating for Christmas. Hey, at least I was finished all my shopping early this year.
Instead of trying pitifully to come up with something or blabbering on incessantly about who knows what, I’m just going to skip that nonsense and share one of my online favorites: Super Full Feeds Google Reader.
There was some buzz about this on Twitter yesterday that made me realize not everyone knows about it. Imagine that, me, being one of the cool kids that knows about something before everyone else on the planet. I’ll bask in the feeling for a minute.
Ok, done.
Here it is:
First of all, you need to be using Google Reader to care about this. If you don’t, then continue on your way.
{Google Reader is a way to organize your blog reading all in one place using RSS; it lets you know what’s new without having to visit a million different sites. They’re called feeds.}
Do you ever come across a feed that’s about 5 sentences and then it says “click to read more”? Superbly annoying. It usually results in me deleting the blog from my reader. But sometimes it’s stuff I really want to read, so in a rare instance I groan and grumble and click on over anyways.
Well guess what? You don’t have to. Enter Super Google Reader. It adds on a couple options that will make your blog reading life so much easier.
First, install the Super Full Feeds Google Reader extension. {That’s the Chrome version- if you use a different browser, search “super google reader + your browser”. I’ve seen a couple other version but I haven’t used them.}
Now that it’s installed…
You find a feed that’s truncated but you want to read more. {I used Two Peas and Their Pod as my example…one of maybe 2 feeds I keep even though they’re truncated.}
Click “Readable”.
Look! Everything’s there!
But wait, it gets better. Click the “Link” option.
It looks exactly like it was meant to- and I haven’t even left my reader.
{You can also go to “Settings”, “Reader Settings”,“Super”, “Default to Readable Content” so you don’t have to click it every time. It’s a little slower to load than normal, but not that much, and it saves you a click.}
You may be thinking to yourself, “Hey, people truncate their feeds for a reason- they want you to click over to their site so it counts as a pageview.” True. But usually truncated feeds get deleted from people’s readers and then you’re not reading anyways.
So Super Google Reader is awesome even if it’s not for a truncated feed. Websites were designed to look a certain way for a reason and much of that is lost in a reader. Now it’s not.
Wait. It still gets better. Ready?
You can comment inside reader.
No clicking. No scrolling. No load time. It’s just there. Waiting for you. Fabulous.
That alone is enough for me.
Now if you’re a blogger, not just a reader, you’re probably thinking “well this sucks for pageviews”. But does it? It’s likely to increase engagement, and what’s more important? I think both.
And I’m not sure about this one, but I see ads. Maybe it counts for an impression? Who knows, you’ll have to ask the Google gods on that one…
For other ways to make Google reader a more enjoyable experience check out these posts:
It’s Raining Babies – find out what happened when I went home for Thanksgiving.
Interested in giving a Lollihop gift subscription for the holidays this year? Use the code SIDEOFSNEAKERS20 for 20% off– but it’s only for the first 50 users & in order to time it right for the holidays, book today by 4pm PST!
This weekend is the Healthy Living Summit – a gathering of health, food, and fitness lovers {and a lot of people that like to post pictures of those things on the internet}. This is the first time I’ve ever been to the same conference twice. It’s a lot of fun knowing what to expect, and it’s exciting to see what’s going to be different. Here’s how last year went down:
I met a fabulous group of roommates. We were totally meant to room together.
I learned some things about a giant chip company. Yup, I hung out at a Frito Lay plant at a healthy living conference. Some of it was good. Some of it was bad. Some of it was ugly.
If you didn’t believe in the power of social media before, or you were losing faith in kindness and charitable giving, you were wrong.
$23,210 came from winning bids on auction items, and another $3,222 came from straight monetary donations. It’s so impressive it blows me away. I’m so proud to be a part of community that has both the thought and power to do something this amazing.
If you didn’t get a chance to bid, or you didn’t win an item, don’t worry- you haven’t missed your chance! Stayed tuned for “After the Act” details on how to buy items at a set price.
Now on to significantly less important things. Like taunting you with beach pictures.
Imagine my surprise when the temperature increased about 20 degrees on the drive home. It was actually cooler at the beach than it was in the middle of the state. Thank goodness the ridiculous heat wave hadn’t yet reached the coast, because it was certainly hot enough for me to be hiding in the shade all day, every day.
We stayed right in the middle of two beaches: Oak Island and Caswell Beach. So much in the middle that the beach was zoned as Caswell Beach and the condo was officially in Oak Island. They were a dune and a parking lot apart.
Either way it was a quiet, un-crowded beach that was so safe everyone left their awnings and beach chairs out in the sand every night. Let me tell you what a difference it makes to lug all your stuff to the beach day after day when you don’t have to carry a chair or giant tent!
I spent most of my days curled up under the awning with one of my 13 books {shame on me, I only made it through 8} and periodically running into the progressively rougher & rougher waves when I couldn’t stand the heat. Or had to pee. You know.
After the husband talking about going fishing every single day of the trip, we finally made it over to the pier for some night fishing on the last evening of our vacation. Of course we chose to stay by the pier with the NC record for largest tiger shark catch. Oh my.
It’s not as easy as it looks to tie hooks to a clear line in the windy darkness, but eventually everything was all set up.
There was a lot of sitting…and only one fish caught. I really don’t relate to the appeal of fishing for fun…
As much as I love vacation and the beach, I’m happy to be home. Technology was not my friend on the trip {my family will likely tell you this doesn’t surprise them in the least} so I have lots of catching up to do!
Posts were sparse on the trip, but here’s what you missed:
There’s also some fun things coming up over the next week or so:
– An insanely delicious {yet messy} treat. Hint: Lesson learned- don’t attempt to make caramel during the hottest week on record.
– A HUGE bike ride. Please everyone cross your fingers that the forecasted 98 degrees for Friday and Saturday is extremely wrong. I’m thinking 70 sounds good…but I’ll take something in the 80s.
– Some fun news that I will now make you wait in suspense for, because that’s really the only way to make it fun.
– Surely I’m forgetting something…
What exciting things do you have going on this week?
I kid, I kid. I’d eat somewhere fancy I can’t afford, drink over-priced beers at my favorite wine bar {yes I said beer at the wine bar}, go to hot yoga, and run a marathon. As in, organize, not actually run. Maybe run too. It’d be free and it’d go all through downtown. 
