Disclaimer: The product I am about to rave and gush over was given to me with no expectation that I blog about it. But really, how could I not? It just isn’t who I am!
On Thursday, the mail man gave me a sweet present: a new CamelBak water bottle.
If you recall, I once decided to go BPA free with the plastics I use. This meant a really difficult decision to throw away my precious CamelBak water bottle. I linked to a website I really respect when it comes to information about companies who are BPA free. And if you check out the comments on my post, you will notice they left me a very nice comment:
Great blogging research! We gave you a hat tip for the planned Camelbak transition of their Bite Valve bottle, which we hadn’t noticed ourselves.
I thanked them for the “hat tip” (link back to my post) and had a warm and fuzzy feeling for the rest of the day.
Then a few days later, I received an email from Jeremiah stating CamelBak wanted to send them some of the new BPA free water bottles and send me one. I was no longer warm and fuzzy, I was over the moon!
Of course I sent them my mailing address and of course I haunted my mailbox looking for something from CamelBak. And then on Friday, there it was.
It came with the bite valve I really like and has been my constant companion. I am better hydrated since first filling it up, and I feel great knowing I am not ingesting a chemical that could potentially harm my reproductive hormones.
And it helps that it is a product I really, really like.
I caught a cold from my son. He caught the cold from his father. It hasn’t been a great week. I actually had a fever yesterday. Today, I feel better and can breath through my nose again. And my energy is back, which helps when you are assisting your husband on a household project.
Usually when I get sick I crave spicy food. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but this time it was different. I tend to lean toward spicy food of the Latin variety. I want the jalapenos, the salsa, the fire to make me feel something again. And if possible, I want to be able to use the fire in my mouth as a path to make my nose work again.
This week I craved hot wings. Hot, saucy, buffalo wings. I decided the craving came from standing next to Buffalo Wild Wings twice this week while I waited for the bus. I never acted on the craving until today it got so bad I had to get in the car, head to the grocery store, and obtain some buffalo chicken strips.
My friend Drew made it to a Wing Off and was able to sample chicken wings until he was stuffed. Seeing his pictures just pushed me to grab the car keys and squelch the craving.
It helped, I did feel something and for a short while my nose was clearer. Sometimes, answering a craving is just the thing to feel better.
Ever since the writer’s strike ended and television started to go back to normal, we have been having a hard time getting our television routine. Or we just got so out of the habit of watching television and sticking to the internet to find our serial comedy/ drama/ family fun!
People who are still waiting for the next season of 24 can turn to the internet to get a quick fix: The Rookie: Day 3 Extraction. Jason Blaine, an American Counter Terrorism agent, is trying to rescue his boss. 24 viewers will notice the similar high-stakes, fast paced style of the webisodes found on YouTube.
Here’s the first one:
The six chapters (ranging from 4 and half to nine minutes long) and the behind the scenes stuff are pretty exciting (I’ve seen them all now and might have to start watching 24 soon). And the series is sponsored by Degree. In celebration of the webisodes, I have 4 sticks of Degree Men to give away. If you are interested in such a prize, please leave a comment. Comments will close Monday at noon. I’ll visit random.org and pick four winners.
Did you see the Docker’s Contest announced on The Tonight Show the other night? Yeah, me neither. I have a cold and getting to bed early has been one of the many ways I am fighting it.
But if you did see it, or saw it just right now, are you planning on entering the contest?
Dockers wants you to make your own 30 second commercial about them. It could be about their pants. Their very nice, Urban Chico pants. Or their sweet looking Iconic Khaki pants. And Dockers makes more than pants. They make shorts, skirts, sports coats, dresses, and shirts. Pick something and make a commercial!
The widget above is special for the Dockers contest. On the right you will see other submissions once submissions start rolling in. You can click on the start button and you can then download the necessary content, including approved music to use. If you want to use music. Do you want to use music? I would. Download it now! (The zip file also includes the legally approved logos, graphics, and images.)
Docker’s is looking for commercials to be submitted between now and May 29th. Dockers will then check them all out and pick five for anyone with internet access to vote on. The winner’s commercial will be aired on the June 13th episode of Jay Leno’s show. That’s it. A little fame and fortune (no cash value) for putting together 30 seconds of a television advertisement.
If you check out the videos above, check out the livemercial by John Malendez. He looks good in those pants. I’d let him be in a picture with me.
Let me know if you enter. I’ll want to vote for you.
Happy May! Since today is May 1st, that means NaBloPoMo: April Edition is over. I am very happy to report I was successful in posting every single day during the month of April and I was able to collect photographs of all 26 letters of the alphabet.
I have to admit, every day I posted a picture, I went and looked at the set and sang the alphabet to myself. I was so worried I was putting the letters out of order and I would look like a fool. But there they are.
And yet, I am not completely happy with it. The first problem I had was the letter C. I like the picture and it was a really cool sign, but since it didn’t really draw focus into just the letter C, I always knew I would redo the letter C.
Then, as I went out and started taking pictures, I was really drawn to the letters in my neighborhood. Most of the letters in my set were from within walking distance of my house. But I ruined the idea with the first letter. The “A” was from Sam’s Club and it is not within walking distance.
So today, I issue a do-over for the letter C.
And later, I have do-overs for A, E, and L. Then, my master plan will be complete.
Last week’s trip was great. Even though we have been to Dayton many times, it was fun seeing some new things like the Deeds Carillon and the playground.
There are lots of trips I would love to take in the future. Visiting my sister-in-law’s family is one, and seeing my dad is another. My SIL lives near New Orleans, Louisiana and my dad is currently stationed in Wichita Falls, Texas. I could make a car trip out of it if gas prices were to come down or I won the lottery (don’t see either happening anytime soon).
If I did drive, I could make a stop in Orange, Texas to see the W.H. Stark House. This is a house dripping with history. Built in 1894 (100 years before I graduated from high school!) by local philanthropists William Henry Stark and Miriam Stark.
Just looking at the pictures of the three story Victorian house makes me want to step up on the porch and settle in on a swing or rocking chair. Apparently the house was vacant from 1936 until 1971. And it took ten years to renovate it back to the days when the Starks were living there. I can barely imagine the work it took to renovate it, since we are in year ten of our own home renovation (and our house is nothing like the Stark house). And while we do live in a historic neighborhood, our house isn’t on the National Register of Historical Places, but the Stark house is.
And taking home tours are kind of fun. I enjoyed visiting historical homes in Charleston, marveling at the items “original to the house” (and giggling at tour guides who used the phrase over and over again). I can only imagine what an interesting time I would have on a tour of the Stark house. The pictures on the virtual tour are beautiful. Imagine seeing the beautiful sitting room and the prayer bench. Or the violin used by Mr. Stark.
I think seeing this house is a must for my future travel list.
If I counted backwards right this is for 10,000 photo.
And it was on this photo:
Ya’ll I passed 10,000 photos on flickr! And it was the back for Karen Bergquist, lead singer of Over the Rhine.
The very first picture I posted was this one:
It was the opening of the expansion of the Tennessee Aquarium. I had just discovered flickr and uploaded a bunch of pictures from the opening. Back then, I was still cropping and shrinking my pictures before posting them on the web.
When Yahoo! bought flickr and phased out their Yahoo! Photos, my two accounts merged, so you will see pictures before the one I posted above (early days of Fuller), but that one of local newscaster Todd Yakoubian was my first Flickr picture. (He apparently works in Arkansas now.)
I plan on posting a lot more pictures in the future… it will be interesting to see what my eye finds when I hit 20,000.
Docker’s is looking for commercials to be submitted between now and May 29th. Dockers will then check them all out and pick five for anyone with internet access to vote on. The winner’s commercial will be aired on the June 13th episode of Jay Leno’s show. That’s it. A little fame and fortune (no cash value) for putting together 30 seconds of a television advertisement. 
I am a lot of things, and I am finally figuring out what they are..
