…and Blue Sky

Happy Friday, everyone! We have a 70 degree weekend ahead here, so I’m pretty excited! I’m definitely a solar powered human.

Here’s what I’m loving this week:

1. I GOT MY INTERNET BACK THIS MORNING. I’ve been internetless at home for like 6 weeks, so I’ve been spending like 6 hours at the library EVERY DAY to get work done. I’m used to working a billion hours a day, but oh man, sitting still in the (admittedly comfy) library chair with no snacks or coffee felt like a thousand hours. But I FINALLY switched to a new internet provider this week, spent several days frustrated that my new service wouldn’t work, and then this morning got the outside electric box thingy (technical term) replaced by the tech guy, so I HAVE INTERNETS. It’s so pretty. And I can finally work bra-less again. I’m so happy.

2. I finally updated iOS and while I feel personally victimized by the new clown emoji, there are a lot of other new and updated ones that make me really happy:

3. I have a new writing gig that I’m really enjoying! I get to write about hotels, which is totally my jam since a) I’m a travel nerd and b) I worked front desk and concierge for so many years. I’ve already added at least half a dozen to my “Ooh, I need to stay here” list.

4. I found this list of 201 Questions to Ask Siri that’s a lot of fun. Asking her to beatbox has always been my favorite.

5. Afternoon walks at the lake are back, thanks to temp finally being warm enough to do so without wanting to die. I’ve been wanting to hit up some local hiking trails – maybe this weekend since it’s supposed to be nice! But the lake is like 5 minutes from my house and thus super convenient to stop by for a quick afternoon break when I need to get out from behind the laptop screen.

Probably not the most riveting list of favs to read about since it’s mostly life stuff instead of the usual “Hey look at this thing I found that you are going to love, too!”, but c’est la vie!

Did you catch my Show Us Your Books post of book reviews earlier this week?

Go forth and have an awesome weekend!

Happy First Friday Favorites of February! I started this post LAST Friday (aka the actual first Fri of Feb) but then got sucked into a work project and never finished it. Oops!

1. I’m supposed to FINALLY get internet back at my house on Tuesday (Talk about Valentine’s Day romance!!), so I’ll be back to blogging more frequently. I’m so used to working 24/7 that trying to fit everything I need to do online into the 6 hours the library is open most days has been insane.

2. I was kinda into the almond butter Nature Valley biscuits, but now they have a Cocoa Almond Butter flavor, and I’m 100% addicted. I dip them in my morning coffee (the bottled Starbucks Vanilla Latte) and it’s amazeballs.

3. I was browsing UpWork for writing gigs this week, and spotted this amazing job listing:

I want to be friends with whoever posted this.

4. You would think that the joke of the Trump Draws Twitter account would get old now that they’re on their 27th post, but…. nope. Still hilarious.

dinosar pic.twitter.com/R629EU9WDh

— Trump Draws (@TrumpDraws) February 1, 2017

easy d pic.twitter.com/BX2nzpRnaF

— Trump Draws (@TrumpDraws) February 8, 2017

pickel pic.twitter.com/y8PPCaI955

— Trump Draws (@TrumpDraws) February 9, 2017

Also lovng the ALT POTUS 45 account. Ths is the world want to live in.

DAY 19: Haven’t melted down over a clothing store. Told McConnell that he’s fucking worthless. Sent Bill to Smoothie King for a peach drink.

— Alt-POTUS 45 (@IfHillaryHad) February 8, 2017

5. MyPoints now has nCrave just like Swagbucks! It’s such an easy way to earn points, and the awesome thing is that while Swagbucks takes a few days to send you gift cards when you redeem your points, MyPoints sends them *immediately*. SO HANDY. I needed to get gas lats night, so I redeemed $5 worth of points for a Walmart gift card from my phone, added it to my Walmart app, and then transferred it to a physical gift card so I could get the 2 cents off per gallon at their gas station. (Pretty sure it just took me longer to type out that whole process than to actually DO it.) They have search & earn like Swagbucks does, too.

TLDR: Yay for nCrave on MyPoints! If you don’t have an account with them yet, signing up via my link makes you a super cool person. I highly recommend bookmarking the site on your phone’s browser and doing surveys while you’re stuck in line at TargetStarbucks or something. You get 5 points if you attempt a survey and don’t qualify, so trying a few while you’re waiting to order your latte adds up fast!

If you are reading this post, you have officially survived 2016. Congrats! I’ve been internet-less at home the past couple of weeks, so this s my first Friday Favs of the new year! So much to catch up on.

1. The Astro Poets Twitter account has only been around for a couple of weeks and has already made me literally LOL several times.

2. This collection of some of the great Florida news stories of 2016. One of my favs:

3. This cold pressed apple juice caught my eye while I was grocery shopping entirely because t had a giant coupon hanging around it. I gave it a try and OMG. Apple juice that actually tastes like apples? Revolutionary idea. So good.

4. Instead of commenting on the you-know-what of you-know-who today, I’m instead going to point you towards he incredible graphic novel trilogy “March“, which is about the extraordinary life and civil rights activism of congressman John Lewis.

5. This gif:

Happy Friday!

I started to type “This week has been nuts!” as the first sentence of this post, but then I realize that I could open almost any Friday post from all of 2016 that way. Just over a week to go until we’ve survived this crazy-go-nuts year! (Knock on wood!) And yes, I am seriously considering designing “I Survived 2016!” t-shirts.

This one little Friday Favs post has been half finished for WEEKS. I’ve been so busy working on other projects that blog posts haven’t gotten much of my time. Giving myself a high five for finally actually finishing it!

Here’s what I’m digging this week!

1. I can’t believe I forgot to mention the Gilmore Girls revival in my last Friday favs! I watched all 4 episodes the day they came out, and definitely hope they do another “season”. I don’t want to post spoilers, but I’ll just say that THAT SONG near the end of the last one killed me. The episode it’s originally in from Season 4 is my fav, so for it to return in that way was everything.

Also, shout-out to the return of Robert, aka my dear handsome amazing-haired friend Nick. Check out his Instagram for some fun behind-the-scenes Life & Death Brigade stuff, but you might wanna know in advance that he’s also a photographer, so there are also a lot of semi-naked ladies on there. He’s got a tough life.

The #LDB and the man who conceived of us taking advantage of some strange light through the trees. #gilmoregirlsrevival #behindthescenes #danielpalladino

A photo posted by Nick Holmes | Photographer (@narcissusholmes) on Nov 25, 2016 at 3:36pm PST

He also recently published a book of poetry, since jut being handsome and talented didn’t already do enough for his ego. (Kidding. Mostly. 😉 )

2. I found these leggings on clearance for 40 CENTS this week! Um, yes please!

3. I’ve been craving a nice long soak in a big bathtub, but I only have a shower. The other night I decided to just use the bathroom sink and soak my feet in nice warm water with Epsom salts and it’s my new favorite way to end the day before I head to bed.

4. My cats got a box full of Muse cat food courtesy of Chewy.com, and they’re super into it!  They tried the Natural Salmon Recipe this time, and probably would have happily eaten the whole 24-pk of cans in one night if only they had the thumb to open them. I love that Muse cat foods always look like actual *food*, vs mush.

And, as always, the cats were excited about the box that the food came in!

Captain Kitten commandeered this box immediately.

5. I found my favorite new story of the whole year: Two Sex Shop Employees Fought Off A Robber By Pelting Him With Dildos

I need Amy to be my new BFF because this is totally how I deal with life’s problems, too:

Best. News story.