Archives for January 2011

Perhaps We Were Unknowingly On The Front End Of A Trend

11 January 2011 by

Well, I’m sitting here watching Auburn and Oregon in the National Championship game, and there’s about five minutes left, which I figure is plenty of time for me to crank out a blog post and distract myself from the end of the game. Because THE NERVES, OH MY WORD, THE NERVES. I realize that I don’t really have a dog in the fight, of course, but it’s the National Championship game and sort of a big deal and one of the teams will be heartbroken at the end and oh my goodness why didn’t I just save my nervous system the anguish and watch “The Bachelor” instead?

Come to think of it, “The Bachelor” would have been certain anguish, too. Just an entirely different variety.

*****

Now it’s about 20 minutes after I started this post, and my plan didn’t work. The end of the game got so crazy that I had no choice but to stand up and pace. There’s not a doubt in my mind that if Mississippi State ever finds itself in a similar national title situation, I would not be able to handle it. I would vacuum myself straight to the emergency room, where I would admit myself and push my vacuum to the side of the examination table and then lie there quietly until Sister texted me to tell me the score of the game and that it was all going to be okay. That’s the only way I’d survive it.

And speaking of hospitals and sports (there’s a transition, huh?), have I ever told y’all the story about when I was watching State in the SEC basketball tournament championship the Sunday after Alex was born? I was still in the hospital, and the little guy was all of two days old, and the Bulldogs were playing the Kentucky Wildcats. I was still hooked up to some IVs and monitors and whathaveyou, so I was fairly limited in terms of my motion while watching the game. I couldn’t pace, couldn’t vacuum (obviously), couldn’t obsessively wash and fold clothes – I just had to lie there and watch and occasionally cheer. But do you know that I got so riled up just lying there that I set off the alarm on the blood pressure monitor at least three different times? OH YES I DID.

What can I say? MAMA HAS SOME ISSUES.

Anyway, I didn’t hit that level of interest and/or stress watching tonight’s National Championship game, but I did very much enjoy that the outcome was settled in the final few seconds. I always get nervous when a game comes down to a field goal – my codependency sets in and I become VERY CONCERNED for the field goal kicker and start to think about all the regret he’ll have to live with if he doesn’t make the kick and how all the other players will try to act like it’s no big deal, you couldn’t help it, you didn’t mean to miss the kick, but way deep down the other players will resent the kicker like crazy because THAT’S HIS ONLY JOB. TO KICK THE BALL THROUGH THE UPRIGHTS. HE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE TO LEARN THE PLAYS.

See? I might need to find a hobby. So that I can stop worrying about potential outcomes in hypothetical football-related scenarios.

I have to say, though, that tonight I didn’t really think about the Auburn kicker as much as I normally would. He’s been reliable all season, so I felt like he’d hold up well under the pressure. And really, the thing that captured my interest the most when it was all said and done was not the post-kick celebration – it was something that Cam Newton did right before he ran onto the field to celebrate Auburn’s victory.

HE USED HIS TOWEL AS A CAPELET.

It delighted and confused me all at the same time. Some of you may remember that we recently had a Capelet Experience of our own, so I was really sort of tickled (albeit puzzled) that Cam would go with the capelet option on what was certainly the most memorable football victory of his life. Because it wasn’t like he just happened to be holding a towel and hung it around his neck for the sake of convenience. He took the time to shake it out. To place it. To make sure it was just like he wanted it.

I have no idea why, of course. But I wondered if maybe at some point in his early teenage years Cam had dreamed about what it might be like to win a National Championship, and maybe somewhere in that mental picture he oh-so-casually had a towel draped across his shoulders in a devil-may-care but distinctively capelet-esque fashion. I know that when I was 13 or 14 I used to picture how I might look when I finally had a driver’s license and was hanging out after Sunday night church with my car keys in one hand and my purse in the other, chatting all grown-up like with my friends and HOLDING MY OWN KEYCHAIN WITH MY VERY OWN CAR KEYS, and as a result of all that daydreaming I’m sure I eventually adopted some of those behaviors when I had my real-live license and my real-live keys.

Perhaps the same can be said of Cam and his towel capelet.

Regardless, Cam clearly had some goals for this football season. And tonight? Well, I’m pretty sure that the last of his dreams for this season came true.

SEC Championship? Check.

Heisman Trophy? Check.

National Championship? Check.

Rockin’ the post-game towel capelet? OH, CHECK IT.

Congratulations, Auburn!

And rock on, SEC.

Filed Under: Rambling

WINTER WEATHER EVENT ’11

9 January 2011 by

OH, people. We are in the throes of a WINTER WEATHER EVENT here in north central Alabama. So far that means that we’ve gotten about 1/4 inch of freezing rain and a light dusting of snow. But listen – that 1/4 inch of freezing rain is a big deal here. Roads are closed, and our driveway is so slick right now that if I got a good running start at the top of it, I could set some personal best times sledding down it. Not that we keep official records for sledding down our driveway, of course. Though we would certainly entertain the possibility if there were some shiny medals involved.

The mere prospect of winter weather in Alabama just brings me untold delight. I mean, we (and by “we,” I mean EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO LIVES IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY) just lose our dadgum minds. Friday afternoon I went to the grocery store so that I could round up all the essentials, and while I’m not positive, I’m fairly certain that a good two-thirds of the people in this area converged on the grocery store at the exact same time. It was like grocery shopping at Thanksgiving, only the sense of urgency was MUCH! GREATER! Because I’ll tell you what: if we’re going to be trapped in our house for two days while we shelter ourselves from the elements, then by diggity we’re going to have a family-size bag of Doritos, an assortment of Pringles and a 24-pack of Diet Coke.

HOW DO YOU THINK THE PIONEERS SURVIVED ALL THOSE HARSH WINTERS?

After I secured all the necessary foodstuffs, we settled in for one of the nicest, most relaxing weekends I can remember. Saturday we ate lunch at Chuy’s (I have a deep and abiding fondness for their oven roasted chicken chili rellenos), ran a few errands, then came home and built a fire and rested. Just hung out. DELIGHTFUL. I made a big pot of Melanie’s tortilla soup for supper, and it was, in a word, DELICIOUS. Even D liked it, and he does not typically regard soup as a meal. He sees it as more of an appetizer. Or maybe even a hot beverage. But he was a fan of this particular tortilla soup recipe, so I’ll definitely fix it again. In this house it’s critical to seize any and all soup-making opportunities, you know.

Today after church we ran by the store ONE MORE TIME. I felt like it would be good to have some ground beef so that if we lost power I could pull a Ma Ingalls and cook some meat in a cast iron skillet over the fire (AS I SO OFTEN DO), and we’ve been home ever since. Right now I have a big pot of black beans on the stove (in addition to the sledding records, I’m apparently trying to set some cooking records, too), and as soon as I publish this post, I’m going to turn off the stove, climb under the covers and listen to the freezing rain hit the leaves outside the window.

(Aaaaaand suddenly I sound like I’m smack-dab in the middle of a Mitford novel.)

(Maybe Father Tim will brave the elements and show up at our front door tomorrow morning to help us find our missing cat.)

(The fact that we don’t actually have a cat or a priest named Father Tim is completely inconsequential.)

So that’s pretty much it from our neck of the woods. Sleet, snow, soup and crazy.

Mighty big fun indeed.

Filed Under: Rambling

Not In My Future: Web Development

6 January 2011 by

For the last four or five months I’ve been thinking about doing a re-design for the blog. And if that last sentence makes you think that I’m the one who’s going to be doing the re-designing, BE YE NOT FOOLED. WordPress scares the fire out of me in that regard, mainly because there have been several times when my attempts at code editing have resulted in my right sidebar moving to the center and my posts starting so far down the page that the sheer volume of scrolling would cause a carpal-tunnel flare-up.

Not to mention that time when I made Melanie’s blog blow up.

Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details – mainly because I don’t understand them – but as part of the process of trying to figure out what I want design-wise, this afternoon I uploaded a new WordPress theme to some folders that control some things, and as a result of the uploading my shoulder blades feel like they’re made of cinder blocks. Quite frankly I’m just not cut out for activities that require instructional videos. I do feel a sense of accomplishment when I get to the end of the instructions and realize that THE PROCESS DID NOT BEAT ME, but still. It stresses me out. And it’s taken three hours for my nerves to return to normal after that whole file-uploading thing.

(Maybe I need to dial it back a notch or eight on the caffeine.)

(Also: I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but sometimes I have a tendency to overdramatize when I’m required to do tech-related tasks.)

(That’s only because – as Rachel Zoe would say – tech-related tasks are LITERALLY A NIGHTMARE.)

The good news is that auto correct on Melanie’s phone saved the afternoon. Mel and I were texting about my bloggy woes, and she mentioned that it’s tough to know how to handle the techy stuff when you don’t know everything about WordPress. Only her phone auto corrected “WordPress.”

Which is why I got a text that said something along the lines of “It’s tough when you don’t know everything about worrywart.”

So Mel tried to fix the mistake, but her auto correct beat her to it, and then I got another message that said, “It’s tough when you don’t know everything about Witchweed.”

Why, yes. Yes, it is.

By the way, if you happen to have any ideas for things / features / bells / whistles that would make this here blog easier to navigate or more functional on your end, feel free to chime in with your suggestions in the comments. I have a good-sized list of things I’d like to change, but I’m sure there’s stuff I’ve missed or haven’t noticed.

And if you need to find me, I’ll be huddled up under a blanket watching Bravo. It’s my gift to myself. And to my shoulders.

Have a great weekend, y’all!
_____________________________________________________

Earlier today I posted a new BlackBerry Style giveaway. I’m giving away two phones, and you can find all the details right over here.

Filed Under: Rambling

Blackberry Style Giveaway

6 January 2011 by

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and BlackBerry.

I’ll be the first person to admit that I was initially reluctant to jump onto the whole smartphone bandwagon. I just didn’t get it, mainly because up until about 2 1/2 years ago, I barely even texted. I just didn’t have the patience to use the keypad on my little flip phone to hammer out an assortment of letters, and as a result of that I texted approximately four times a year. Usually when I needed to say something profound like “Ok” or “Thx.”

But a couple of summers ago, my husband bought me my first Blackberry. I don’t want to overstate it, but it was pretty much love at first sight. The full keyboard completely won me over, and I made a not-so-gradual progression from Reluctant Texter to Texting Machine. In fact, my Blackberry is the very reason why we now have an unlimited texting plan on our phones. Because ever since I’ve had a full-fledged keyboard at my disposal, I LURVE the texting. I love my Blackberry. My husband even upgraded me to a trackball-free model since I gave the first trackball such a workout. I’m an official, devoted Blackberry fan.

I have to say, though, that if there’s one thing I’ve missed since I made the switch to Blackberry, it’s the flip phone option. I used to love ending a call and closing my phone with authorit-TAY. I liked the assurance of knowing that when that flip phone was closed, there wasn’t going to be any pocket dialing, purse dialing or accidental dialing. I’ve even remarked to my husband at time or two that my perfect phone would be a flip phone with a full keyboard, something with all the functionality of a Blackberry and the practicality of a flip. But since there was no such smartphone animal, I’ve been happily content to use my Blackberry Bold.

However.

A few weeks ago I got an email asking if I’d be interested in trying a Blackberry Style for a few months. At first I was sort of non-committal because I didn’t see any need to try a new Blackberry model, but then I read a little bit more of the email. And I saw the part about how the Style is a BLACKBERRY FLIP PHONE. And then I executed a very awkward hitchkick right there in my kitchen because I am deeply mature and not at all TICKLED TO DEATH when my gadget-related dreams come true.

The Style arrived at my doorstep last week, and I’ve had the best time playing around with it. If you’ve ever owned a Blackberry, knowing how to use the Style will be completely intuitive. If you haven’t owned a Blackberry, you’ll be surprised by how quickly you figure out how to use it. It took me less than five minutes to set up my email, Twitter and Facebook on the phone, and I have to say that I think the interface for setting up screen preferences, notifications, etc. is the most streamlined yet (one small exception: the selection of ring tones is pretty scarce, so you have to use the Blackberry app store if you want anything other than the ten or so ring tones that are already on the phone). The menus are specific without being overwhelming, and I appreciate that all of the options have been grouped into easily understandable categories (as opposed to seeing a list with 25 different areas you can customize).

In addition to all of that, there are a couple of things about the Style that I really love: 1) It’s incredibly comfortable to hold when talking on the phone. Because it’s more rectangular and less square, it fits better into the palm of my hand. 2) In terms of using call waiting and three-way calling, the Style is a dream. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to switch from one call to another and accidentally hung up on someone. With the Style there are four options on your screen for the duration of a call (flash, add a participant, mute and speaker), and all you have to do is scroll to one of those options and click. Super, super simple.

In terms of what could be improved, I have a few nit-picky suggestions. I wish the keyboard was just a smidge wider, but that’s something that I know I’ll adjust to over time. I also wish the keyboard was a little bit more raised – it’s not as easy to differentiate between the individual keys as it is on my Bold. If there’s a way to customize the external screen I haven’t figured it out yet (apart from selecting different kinds of clocks), but I think I’d really like that option if it were available (being able to put pictures or text there would be great). And while I don’t know if there’s any such product yet, a colorful skin for the phone would be great. I have a turquoise rubber phone cover for my Bold, and in addition to making it a lot easier to hold the phone, it also makes it super-easy to find the phone in my purse. I’ve had to do some fishing around for the Style, mainly because it’s just not as easy to see when it’s tucked away.

Because the Style is so sleek, you can’t flip it open from the bottom – you have to grab it on the sides and then flip. From a design standpoint I get this, though – one of the reasons one of my former flip phones broke at the hinge was because I would flip it open so forcefully, and that’s impossible to do with the Style. You have to hold it securely in at least one hand (two works even better) before you can flip it open, and that’s not a bad thing in terms of minimizing wear and tear on the phone.

As much as I’ve loved my Blackberry Bold, the Style definitely gives it a run for the money. The flip feature is something that I’ve really, really missed, and being able to have a flip with a full keyboard just delights me. And even though the screen on the Style isn’t quite as wide as what I’m used to, it’s a mighty small trade-off in the long run. The Style sounds great, is easy to use and offers all the conveniences of a smartphone (calendar, GPS, mp3 player, 5 MP camera, etc.) in a tiny little package. Plus, you get to end your calls with authori-TAY by flipping it closed.

Surely I’m not the only person who loves that feature.

Here’s the best part: I get to give away two (TWO!) Blackberry Styles so that two of you lucky people can head into 2011 all organized and sassy and dare I say flippy (hooray for the flip!). The phones will come with a month of Sprint service, and at the end of that time you can transfer the phones to your own Sprint plan (these particular phones don’t work on any other network). If you’d like to enter to win, just leave a comment that answers the following question: what kind of cell phone user are you? Are you totally dependent on it – to the point where you’ve contemplated wearing it on a chain around your neck? Do you use it sporadically throughout the day and keep it tucked away in your purse most of the time? Or would you be hard-pressed to know where to even find your cell phone – and if you found it, it might not even be charged?

This giveaway will run from 1/6/11 until 1/18/11.

Good luck, everybody – and Happy Blackberrying!

Visit the Official site

Visit the Exclusive Offers section for even more chances to win!

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry
methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment
on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on
this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about
an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.

Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.

You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be
selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

Filed Under: BlogHer Reviews

A List Is The Only Thing That Will Do

4 January 2011 by

1. Earlier today I posted a new $100 Visa gift card giveaway as part of a Reebok Share Your Story campaign. Just follow the link to enter.

2. Remember the painting I showed you Monday? The one that puts a huge smile on my face every single time I walk past it?

Well, the artist’s name is Linda Dunn, and she has a website. Her story is so touching, and you can see samples of her work on the site (most of the bigger pieces are on pages 6, 7 and 8 of the gallery).

3. Some of y’all know that I can be a little obsessive in my quest to find the absolute best drugstore mascara. I daresay that I’m relentless in that quest. And I’m happy to tell you that there’s a great new option on the shelves. I bought it last week after seeing some commercials for it, and I love it. The brush is really unique, and because the brush doesn’t hold a ton of mascara, fine eyelashes (like mine) don’t get all clumpy on the first coat. Keep in mind that I’m after length and definition, not volume, so if you like a volumizing mascara, this one probably won’t be your best option.

(not an affiliate link, by the way)

(just happily sharing my crazy)

4. I shared this on Twitter yesterday, so forgive the redundancy if you saw it there, but yesterday I made the most exciting discovery.

It’s a Sharpie pen…WITH A GRIP.

WITH A GRIP!!!

It’s much more substantial than the original Sharpie pen, and oh, I do enjoy it. In fact, I’ve been making up reasons to write ever since I bought them. Plus, the desk calendar that I use has glossy paper, and these pens are PERFECTION on glossy paper. If you happen to be into that sort of thing, of course.

(not an affiliate link, by the way)

(just happily sharing my crazy)

5. I don’t actually have a fifth thing to tell you about. But I like odd-numbered lists. So how about a random picture from my phone?

So. Sometimes we cover up our dog with a nice fluffy towel.

There you have it.

Clearly my work here is done.

Filed Under: Rambling

Worth Watching

4 January 2011 by

For the last few days there’s been a conference in Atlanta called Passion. It’s for young people from 18-25, and what I love about Passion is that it’s not a pep rally. It’s not about getting people all hyped up for Jesus and then turning them loose with nothing but a bunch of happy post-conference feelings that can never, ever sustain them. The platform speakers – Louie Giglio, Beth Moore, Francis Chan, Andy Stanley, John Piper – have poured out words of substance and truth to the 22,000 in attendance (not to mention the tens of thousands of people online). There are even more Gospel-driven leaders who are leading break-out sessions and community groups.

I’m telling you: that solid teaching is critical when you’re 18-25. It’s critical for all of us, for that matter. Last night Melanie and I were texting about what we’d seen and heard as we’ve watched online for the last few days, and I told her how encouraged I’d been to see those young people sit and soak up wisdom from people who are 20 or 30 years ahead of them in their faith journeys. I know it might sound strange, but listening to Andy Stanley, for example, preach yesterday about Jacob and Esau ministered to some of the regrets I have from my own walk through the 18-25 minefield. And John Piper’s message last night was one of the most beautiful, tender presentations of the Gospel I have ever heard.

The sessions aren’t available online indefinitely, but you can still see the last few sessions on the Passion 2011 website. Andy Stanley teaches in session 4, and John Piper is session 5. I think the link will land you on a page with a welcome video, and you can click through from there to find the links to the sessions.

Hope you’re having a great Tuesday!

Filed Under: Faith
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