H54F!

Since I missed last week's H54F post, this week's will encompass both weeks ;)

1.) I spent last weekend at home with my parents in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. It had been ... way too long ... since I had been home just to chill. For the most part, the four-day weekend was a success. Here is a picture of my handsome daddy driving my car. He's so wonderful. He cleaned the car on the inside, on the outside, vacuumed and even did the windows. After cleaning the car, daddy said, "Well, if I learned anything about you by cleaning the car, it's that you don't litter."

2.) This necklace was made using a kit purchased from Fab.com. It's very interesting, and I'm happy because I learned a new technique — it's made from a canvas ribbon and rubber washers and modeled after an Anni Albers creation. Albers is very interesting if you've never heard of her, and honestly, I hadn't.

3.) My cat-nephew, Izzy, just looks so stately in this picture. He's such a pretty cat :)

4.) There's nothing quite like a late-night bowl of cereal. I only wish eating that late at night meant not being hungry the next morning — especially when there's no time for breakfast.

5.) A question to ponder: what makes this ketchup so fancy, anyway?

Visit Lauren at From My Grey Desk to see more High Five for Friday posts!

Draft day makes me a "woo" girl

One of the most exciting days of the year (for the past five years) has been our draft day for fantasy football.

My hubby got me hooked on this way of life shortly after we were married, and since then, sports has become a near obsession of mine.

For those who don't know, Fantasy Football is played in "leagues" with family or friends, and draft day is the day you all choose your teams. Basically, all of the players in the National Football League are fair game. It's like you put them all in a glass jar and take turns picking them out to form a "fantasy" team.

This year, my QB is Matt Ryan from the Atlanta Falcons, and my star running back is Arian Foster from the Houston Texans. I also have players from the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers, etc. The "fantasy" part comes in (because it's not real life, yes, but also...) because you get to combine players from different teams to form your own team.

When the NFL season starts next Wednesday, we'll face off against another member of our league and continue as such each week until the playoffs begin.

By this point, you're either interested, which means you should find out more and maybe even play in a league of your own (comment below if you have questions), or you're bored.

Either way, here is a screenshot of my team for this year. Feel free to critique or ask questions!

Woooooo! Let's play (or watch) some football!

**For those of you wondering about the woo girl reference, I point you toward this clip of How I Met Your Mother:

And if you're wondering, a woo can be elicited by fantasy football draft night. ;) **

A trip to the land of no Internet

Hello, lovelies!

Just leaving a note to say that tomorrow after work, I'm heading to the land of no Internet — also known as going to visit my parents.

Unless I steal away to McDonalds or Wendy's for free wi-fi. I probably won't see you again until the end of the weekend. Have a glorious rest of the week and a fantabulous weekend!

Saving a Sunday afternoon

My husband begins his second year of law school tomorrow, so of course, a trip to the bookstore was in order. I volunteered to go with him to put off doing laundry for a few hours and to make the afternoon a little more interesting than simply going to get really thick, expensive books.

One reason I'm glad I decided not to apply to law school.

Despite feeling old when I realized that the newbies on UK's campus this year are nine years younger than me, the walk near campus was beautiful.

And we discovered a great little place to have lunch, The Local Taco.

 The southern-fried tacos — fried chicken, honey lime mayo, lettuce and tomatoes, with black beans. I would eat another one right now.

The drive back home was fun, too. Pretty clouds, farms and some GenX radio.

I hope you enjoyed your Sunday afternoon!

Up and at 'em

In the middle of dinner last night, I giggled aloud, prompting my husband to ask what the giggle was about.

"I'm just excited to get to sleep in tomorrow," I said with a smile.

It's now 8:27 a.m. and I'm awake. For no reason.

Someone might get growled at today.

Happy weekend, and I hope you're all still asleep :)

High Five for Friday!

Hello, friends!

It's late, and again, I've worked far too many hours this week, but there's still time for a H54F:

1. On Saturday, we were out of cereal, so I had a mini Butterfinger for breakfast.

2. Saturday night, the hubby and I took in a couple of flicks at a drive-in. The night was perfect with an awesome clear sky so we got to see the Perseids meteor shower, too.

3. Though the lighting in my bathroom is terrible, Wednesday was a good hair day.

4. This photo just does not do justice to the beautiful farm country I was at for work on Thursday night. You're driving in the middle of nowhere down a back road, and then it just opens up to this beautiful farm. I also got to hang out with some elected officials. Well, not hang out with, but photograph.

5. More jewelry making! I'll ruin the surprise if she ever sees this, but the top pair was made for a friend of mine whose birthday is next week. I actually planned ahead and made these in enough time to ship them to Texas. The bottom pair was an experiment. I found a beautiful pair of earrings on Etsy and tried to mimic them, but failed a little bit. Still, for my first try at wire-wrapping, it's not terrible.

Visit Lauren at From My Grey Desk Blog for more H54F posts!

A Liebster Blog Award!

Woohoo! Val from The Daily Distraction nominated me for a Liebster Blog Award today!

The Liebster is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers and it's meant to be a nice, welcoming way to get to know each other in this lovely little blogging community.

So here are the rules:

1. Each person must list 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the 11 questions that the tagger has set for you plus you MUST create a set of 11 new questions for the people you will nominate.

3. Choose up to 11 bloggers linking them to your post.

4. Go to their page and inform them of the nomination.

5. Absolutely No tag backs.

6. Remember to only tag bloggers with less than 200 followers.

The 11 things about me:

1. I'm a journalist and have been living life according to AP Style for nearly a decade.

2. I am terribly afraid of bugs — bees, wasps, flies, spiders, grasshoppers, gnats. I dislike them all.

3. I am nearly inseparable from my iPhone.

4. I work too much (for example, I was at the office by 7 a.m. today and didn't leave until 8:30 p.m.).

5. I can be extremely paranoid.

6. I don't do things I'm not immediately good at — for example, I never learned to ride a bike or whistle because I couldn't do it the first few times.

7. Some days I have quarter-life crises and wonder if I'm a disappointment or should be doing more with my life.

8. My husband and I agree that we're both too selfish to have kids just yet.

9. If my husband is out of town, I typically sleep in the living room, on the couch, with the front door in my line of vision ... you know, just in case.

10. Friends is my favorite TV show, and I've seen each episode at least eight times each. Some episodes (like Season 7's The One with the Engagement Picture) I've seen a bajillion times already, but I could still turn them on and laugh at every joke.

11. I love surveys, and upon seeing how this award nomination and subsequent blog post contain survey qualities, I interrupted my dinner (Taco Bell) to immediately dig in!

The 11 questions Val sent me:

1)  Besides blogs, what website(s) do you check daily? Facebook and weather.com

2)  How long did it take you to tell your friends and family about your blog? Ha, most of them probably still don't know. I took the leap of faith of posting the URL to my Facebook page a few months ago.

3)  What inspires you to blog the most? Other blogs I read and the desire to write more for fun (I'm the editor of weekly newspaper, so I write and edit for work a lot).

4)  What is the best birthday present you've ever received? Two years ago, my husband bought me tickets to go watch the Cincinnati Bengals play the Miami Dolphins in Cincinnati. It was my first (and only) NFL game, so I was super excited.

5)  What food could you not possibly live without? Potatoes — baked, fried, mashed.

6)  What is your go-to piece of clothing in your closet right now? A grayish-tan cardigan I found at the Banana Republic Factory Store about five months ago.

7)  What blogger inspires you right now? There are about four I follow on a regular basis: Kate, Lauren, Val and Katie. Katie is a personal friend of mine, and I've followed her blog since she first found out she was pregnant. My "niece" CeCe is now almost 2! Katie is hilariously candid and I suggest checking out her blog even if you're not a momma or a momma-to-be.

8)  What is your favorite word? Absolutely.

9)  What country are you dying to visit? Any other country — seriously, I've never been outside the U.S.

10)  If you could have any job, what would it be? Well, isn't this the $100 million question. Up until I was 17, I thought I was going to be discovered and become a famous pop singer. I'd still take that career. Either that or a book editor. I enjoy making red marks on black and white pages all day.

11)  What is your favorite ride at Disneyland? I've never been to Disneyland, and only visited Disney World for the first time a few months ago. I'm not much of a "rides" person, but I did enjoy Splash Mountain.

Questions for the people I nominate:

1. What's your biggest pet peeve?

2. Be honest — do you frequently confuse "your" and "you're"?

3. What is your favorite book?

4. Are you Team Jennifer or Team Angelina?

5. What is your biggest motivation to blog?

6. What did you do on your last real vacation?

7. Which are you more likely to paint — toes or fingernails — and why?

8. What is your favorite color and why is it your favorite?

9. How much sleep do you average each night?

10. What would you do if you had an entire Saturday morning to yourself?

11. If you could go back to school (or to college for the first time), what would you study?

And ... the blogs I nominate:

Random Thoughts of an Anxious Mind

Soggy Fruit

Because I'm not smart enough to find the number of followers on some of the blogs I read, I nominate the following, as long as they qualify.

My New Heartbeat

I need to read more...

Thanks, Val, for the nomination! It's been fun :)

High Five for Friday!

So, I started this post last night, thinking to myself I'll put this together tonight and schedule it to post tomorrow because I know I won't have time to write it tomorrow. Of course, I got distracted and did not get anywhere. And most days, I'd get discouraged and say just forget it at 8:47 p.m. Really, I mean, how much of Friday is left?

But, today I will post anyway. Though Friday has not been great to me, I am glad it is here because it's the weekend! So, here are my highlights from the week:

1. Duck-bill clips - I finally invested in some duck-bill clips to set my voluminous, bouncy curls. I would show you the finished product, but this picture is more fun.

2. Frenergy! - So, I made up a word. My husband and I had friends over last weekend, so this picture represents a late night and a need for an extra boost of energy the next morning.

3. Baseball - Following the doubleshot energy drink, we took in a Cincinnati Reds game for a good friend's birthday. The Reds lost, but we had a great time and pretty great seats.

4. Home cooking - I regret I have no picture to share, but Wednesday, my beautiful, wonderful mother-in-law cooked a scrumptious dinner for the family. We had fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, corn, fried cabbage, cornbread, tomatoes, cucumbers and onion and all sorts of yumminess. Oh yeah! And I can't forget the peach cobbler. I'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds just looking at the food, and another 50 by eating it. But it was delicious!

5. A lunch-time fiesta - As I mentioned above, today was not nice to me. To make up for it, I ordered a Mexican meal for carryout. My burrito al carbon was great, but I was also reminded how kind it is of restaurants to include chips and salsa with to-go orders. :)

For more H54F posts, or to join the link party, visit www.frommygreydeskblog.com!

Work is hard

So, remember how I took a day off on Friday. Well, that seems like forever ago.
After a jam-packed weekend with friends and two very long days at work, I'm as exhausted as ever.
To spare you the details, let's just say that Monday's work day was about 12 hours long, and after approximately four hours of sleep, Tuesday — the production day for my newspaper — started at 4:30 a.m. My work day was 13.5 hours long, and at 10 p.m. with 8 percent battery life (for me and my computer), I'm going to bed :)
Have a good night — and remember, we're that much closer to Friday!

High Five for Friday!

I am unbelievably excited about my first High Five for Friday post! (For many, many more H54F posts, visit From My Grey Desk!) But here are five highlights from my week:

1.) Making the most of a terrible storm and losing power during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. With rain, hail and tons of lightning outside, my hubby, his dad and his sister passed the time with some blackjack.

2. Having time to experiment and make some new earrings.

3. So, this adorable puppy isn't mine, but how cute is she?! I work at a newspaper and we're hosting a pet contest to raise money for our Newspaper in Education program. The upside (in addition to putting newspapers in classrooms)? Seeing all the cute pets, of course!

4. I won something!! As I've already posted, thanks to a giveaway at The Daily Distraction, I am a proud owner of these beautiful Elisabeth Ashlie earrings.

5. And (drumroll, please) the reason I've been able to post today is that I took the day off work and slept in until after 10 a.m.! Woohoo! And, for the record, those brown eyes do belong to my puppy, whom I love very much.

Woohoo!

I just wanted to take a second and give a proper shout out to The Daily Distraction blog for hosting an amazing giveaway — that I just happened to win! I never win anything. And yes, I'm aware that everyone who wins something says they never win anything, but with me it's true. ;)

My beautiful Elisabeth Ashlie earrings came in the mail today, and I can't wait to wear them tomorrow.

My thumb is hiding the URL. It's etsy.com/shop/elisabethashlie