Part of Your (Blog) World

I'm so excited to finally be tagged! Secretly, I have wanted someone to tag me for a while, so thanks Meredith for making my day!

Here are the rules:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open to page 56.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences, along with these rules.

5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual book. Pick the CLOSEST!

6. Tag five (or more) other people to do the same.

I have a number of reading materials around me, so I let Dixie pick which one I should use:

Here's the pick: The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs. It's about a man's experience in reading the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica. He organizes his book through highlights of actual entries. Page 56 lands me in the Ds (and contains a bit of an ironic entry for me).

Descartes, René (the 5th sentence on the page is the last line of this entry)

"And if that's not enough of a good thing, consider this: Descartes liked to stay in bed till 11 A.M.—good ammunition the next time anyone gives me flak about sleeping late.

Deseret News
"I always thought the name of Utah's major newspaper was some sort of weird misspelling of the word 'desert.' But no, Deseret is the 'land of the honeybee,' according to the Book of Mormon. I guess I should have figured they would have caught a typo in the masthead after 154 years."


I know some people don't like to do tags, so don't feel like you have to do it. But since I wanted to do a one so much, I thought I'd pass it along in case someone feels similarly: Brittany, Tammy, Alvin, Ariel, and Heidi.

Image from barnesandnoble.com.

I went to Las Vegas and came back with a disease.

Influenza, that is. According to my doctor, "classic flu" comes on very quickly. And since I'm such a classic girl, I went from fine to bedridden in 4 short hours the day after I came back. Having spent a week in bed, here are my thoughts from the experience:

1. I can keep everything I need on my bed and bedside table. This includes food, medication, thermometer, tissues, beverages, etc. If some sort of bizarre flood came and I had to use my bed as a raft, I'd be prepared.
2. I knew I was in trouble when the doctor a.) came in wearing a face mask and b.) made me wear one to leave the office.
3. Fevers are stupid.

Everyone likes swag, right?

Las Vegas is all about conventions. This week, there are two main conventions going on: the Consumer Electronics Show and the Adult Expo. Yes, the latter is exactly what you think it is. (They don't call it "Sin City" for nothing.) As a result, I try to make it very clear which convention I am with when people ask. (I'm with the Consumer Electronics Show. And if you wondered, we need to talk more).

Tonight's picture displays the merger of these two conventions, as seen in a leather jacket I saw at CES today:


It definitely made me laugh. And point it out to the person I was with. And take a picture. And then tell my cohort that I took a picture.

I've seen freebie pens, notepads, clocks, etc. from pharmaceuticals, but this takes it to a new level.

Swag: Promotional items, especially when given for free, considered as a group. Source: Dictionary.com.

Sin City

Today's blog post is coming at you from Sin City (a.k.a. Las Vegas). I'm here on a business trip. My flights were fine (I had a layover in Charlotte), though a little long. Two women got into an argument on the plane 5 minutes after takeoff, so that livened things up. (PS – If you're going to get into a high-volume fight about kicking the back of someone's chair, try to wait until you're good and into the trip – not 5 minutes into a 5-hour flight. Save some for later. PPS – The flight attendant broke it up. No one was harmed.)

Here's the view from my hotel room, followed by a shot of me in said room.


I'm staying in the Palazzo (part of the Venetian) and have a view of Trump's Hotel and Treasure Island, as you can see. Donald's place is pretty quiet, but Treasure Island fires a cannon and sets off fires about once an hour. Exciting!

Aside: To say that today has been an emotional roller coaster would probably be an understatement. Special thanks to the poor people who had to listen to me talk about it. I couldn't get through days like this without you :)

*For any readers who were wondering if I got this daily post in before midnight, I technically did. While it's 1:45 am at home, it's only 10:45 pm here. Ta-da!

Art on the Wall

I'd like to thank Dixie for coming up with the title of this post ;)

Tonight I'll spotlight one of my paintings. (Not that I created it; it's part of a series by Kirk Adams.) And since it's right beside me on the wall, it's the perfect candidate for a blog post.

3 Generations

I almost forgot my picture post for the day. Since this is the first picture that popups in my pictures folder on the computer, this will be it for today ;) Here are three generations of women in my family. I'm the kid, seen here with my mom and her mother (my grandmother).

Today's View

Today wasn't very bloggable. (Then Courtney, why are you blogging? Well, I've made a commitment to the 7-day picturethon, and I'm keeping it.)

I spent all day working at my computer, this evening working on a freelance project, and now this is my last thing to do tonight. So I leave you with a shot of my blog: