Blogmania…Whoo-hoo!!!!

Posted on April 29, 2010 by laina

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WELCOME To BLOGMANIA !
My Blog is 51 of 123 We have amazing participation in this event!

You’ve arrived at exactly the right time to explore lots of new blogs, all of which, ARE GIVING AWAY A VERY SPECIAL BLOGMANIA GIVEAWAY (For One Day Only – April 30th) .
We’ve done all the work for you. No hunting or surfing. Each blog will have a number and each new blog link will have a number. These numbers will allow you to keep track of which blogs you’ve visited and how many are left to visit. Why not take a moment to make a list of blog numbers 1-123 and check off the blogs as you go.
I know you’ll want to visit as many blogs today as you can. So, if you see something that interests you on any of our participating blogs, why not bookmark that site. Later, when you have more time, you can discover all its fabulous treasures.
CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!MY GIVEAWAY and RULES: Check out my blog and join my feed and/or fan page and/or comment on a blog post (you get one entry for each activity) and be entered to win a copy of my new book Stilettos & Scoundrels, and a $10 Target giftcard. Winner will be announced on my blog Monday May 3rd, 2010!!

Check out these other blogs or go to the Blogmania widget to the right for a full listing!

(Blog- 1 – HOST OF BLOGMANIA Between The Pages
(Blog -2 – CO-HOST OF BLOGMANIA) The Black Sheep Dances
(Blog-43 – CO-HOST OF BLOGMANIA) Books, Books Everywhere
(Blog-14) Living Green in a Colorful World
(Blog-31) A Dash of Nutmeg
(Blog-50) Books and Needlepoint
(Blog-69) Book Faery
(Blog-97) Paranormal Haven
(Blog-85) Past The Print
(Blog-62) Celia Yeary’s Blog
(Blog-74) Midwestern Gone Idahoan

L is for LEIOTRICHOUS

Posted on April 28, 2010 by laina

LEIOTRICHOUS/laɪˈɒtrɪkəs/Help with IPA

Having straight hair.

Don’t expect to find this word turning up in your newspaper any day soon, as it is now rare to the point of complete disuse. It comes from Greek leios, smooth, plus trikhos, hair.

That it exists at all is due to the French naturalist Baron Jean Baptise Genevieve Marcellin Bory de Saint-Vincent, who travelled the world at the beginning of the nineteenth century studying plants. He also made a stab at classifying peoples into races. He is now hardly remembered, but in a once-influential book Homo: essai zoologique sur le genre humain, published in Paris in 1827, he attempted to classify humans with straight and wavy hair into the Leiotrichi and those with woolly or tufted hair into the Ulotrichi, with many sub-groups below these headings.

His classification was seriously studied for several decades, being quoted — for example — by both Thomas Henry Huxley and Charles Darwin. The adjective ulotrichous (Greek oulos, woolly), from his other main category is also rare, but the related lissotrichous, smooth-haired, is still to be found in the vocabulary of some specialists, especially zoologists; this comes from Greek lissos, which also means smooth. A third category is that of wavy-haired or cymotrichous people (from Greek kuma, wave). These last three adjectives have been used to classify types of hair, for example in forensic identification.

And here I thought straight hair started with a Rachel from friends trend.

Laina

Foursquare Fun

Posted on April 28, 2010 by laina

I like nothing better in the morning than to go to my favorite breakfast place, Sunrise Cafe, and as a Foursquare addict I always have to check in. I probably go to Sunrise on an average of twice a week. However, I am still not the mayor. This Rusty guy is. So today I asked on of the waitresses who this Rusty character was. Funny thing…he was at the table right across from me. He leaned over and said “who are you?” I replied “I’m Laina and I am going to knock you out as mayor.” The person he was eating with just looked at us and we busted out laughing. We then had to explain how Foursquare worked. I got to meet someone and have a lot of fun with it.

Social media has brought me some really great new friends!!

Laina

On Saturday we beat MS!

Posted on April 27, 2010 by laina

The support and turnout for the MS walk on Saturday in downtown Indy was tremendous. I saw so many friends and families walking for loved ones it was moving. Even the impending rain couldn’t stop folks.

I am looking forward to seeing the slogan Orange is the new pink to raise awareness on how we can fight this disease.

Laina

How to get crap done.

Posted on April 23, 2010 by laina

I by no means profess to know how to get crap done. I am the master of the never-ending to do list that I spend more time adding stuff to than I actually spend doing anything on it. So today when my BFF Chris came across an article on Richard’s Brain Dump about how we do poorly at managing our time and many of us have self induced ADD. I identified with that right off. I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to procrastinate because I don’t want to do something and I just play on Facebook or check my Twitter account. Then I complain later I am behind and I’m overwhelmed and WHY? Because I spent 3 hours on seeing what my friends were all doing.

Richard had a lot of good points and one way to overcome this self induced craziness is to use the Pomodoro technique which basically has you manage tasks in 25 minute chunks where you just focus on that one task. What a novel concept. So 1980′s but shocker…it work’s (I actually tried it).

So let’s rebel against the time drains and the great procrastination thingys and say no more! get your crap done.
Laina

K is for KATZENJAMMER

Posted on April 22, 2010 by laina

KATZENJAMMER

A hangover; anxiety or jitters; a discordant clamour.

In the sense of a hangover, this word was known in the US from the middle 1840s. It was taken from a well-established German word (it turns up in at least one work by Goethe, for example) which derives from Katzen, cats, plus Jammer, wailing or distress. In German it could also mean the unhappiness or depression that follows intoxication and so developed in American English a more general sense of what one might call a case of the willies.

Let’s have fun this weekend folks but don’t have to much fun that you have katzenjammer.
Laina

Support Multiple Sclerosis this week

Posted on April 20, 2010 by laina

This Saturday downtown Indy will be the MS walk and everyone needs to show their support for Orange is the new Pink and my friend Terri Kyle who has MS as does her daughter Michelle. Please donate to her walk link.

Walk details: The event is on the lawn at IUPUI.
walk MS: Indianapolis
IUPUI: University Library Lawn located in downtown Indianapolis at Blackford and New York Streets
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Check-in starts at 7:30 a.m. and the Walk kicks off at 9:30 a.m. with the option of 1 or 3 mile walks. Parking is available in the Sports Complex Parking Garage and lot 86. Accessible parking is available across from the Library Lawn in lot 85. $4 per car.

There will be 3 tents set up on the lawn, and Orange is the new Pink will be in the middle one.

Please stop by, say hi, and have a great time at this very important cause.
Laina

Ready for the week ahead

Posted on April 19, 2010 by laina

: Image by Shreyans Bhansali via Flickr

Saturday was an awesome day. Enjoyed the kids during the day and then went to watch the Naptown Roller Girls in their final home bout and had a very successful book signing. Having a good weekend sure makes for a better start on the week. It always seem like there is so much going on that it can be hard to plan but this week I was able to get myself prepared and I feel good! Whoo-hoo!

The Business book will be delivered to the editors for the final time this week and then I can start working more on the next Presley Thurman book. I don’t want to lose the momentum I have from the first one.
One an interesting note did you all know that there was a Hello Kitty wine.

I love wine as much as the next person but a wine branding after a character my 4 year-old daughter loves. Isn’t that a little much?
Your thoughts?
Laina