Why I Pinterest

2 posts ago I explained why I don't do Facebook.  Today I'll tell you why I do embrace Pinterest.  If you're looking for a blog entry to justify why you don't Pinterest, look no further than my dear friend More Lucy.  She explains why she stays away from this particular area of the interweb.  And she's a much better writer than I am.  Please don't leave me for her.  

Here's the deal.  I like to cook.  (I do not like to clean-up.)  I like to do crafty things.  (I don't always finish them.)  I like to look at pretty things.  Over and over again.  I have bookmarks, and folders, and folders within folders of things I've been saving.  And I look at them every so often.  And sometimes I feel inspired and I make them.  So Pinterest for me, seemed like a pretty way for me to organize all my bookmarks into boards that were easy to see and keep track of.  Like file folders in my home.  You see, my home is never Martha Stewart clean.  It never will be.  I'm a realist.  However, if you need to find something in my home paper related, I'm 99.9% sure you can open my file cabinet, find the appropriately labeled green hanging folder, then the related manila folder within that folder to find what you need.  On Pinterest, if I want to find a recipe that I've pinned (ie bookmarked to Pinterest), I just go to that board and find my recipe.  Makes me happy.

Now, do I have any aspiration that I will ever make 98% of the crafts I've pinned?  No.  Do I think I'll ever organize my house the way 98% of the organizational tips I've pinned would have me do it.  No.  But I will probably cook 50% of the recipes or some version of them.  Right now I am not too into doing these because I'm trying to eat food in my house rather than buying new food.  But I did take this recipe the other night as an inspirational starting point to use up some quinoa and carrots I had.  However, I was craving pizza so I dipped mine in pizza sauce.

Oh, and the best part...more boards!  Once I started making recipes, I created a board of things I've cooked and liked.  If I didn't like them they were deleted from the board.  Case in point, some shrimp marinade that everyone claimed was amazing and was so bland I felt bad for the shrimp that they met their maker soaking in it.  But if I did like them and would consider making them again, they get repinned to the board of winners!  Then I can easily find them again.  And I can make notes either in the pin or the comments on what I changed (if anything.)

So, that concludes why I Pinterest, even though my house will never look like this and I will never have this bathroom.  But still, a girl can dream, right?

P.S. If you want to follow me on Pinterest and see what crazy things I'm thinking of cooking or how I plan to remodel the house (haha) you can find me here.

Why the Internet Drives Me Crazy (Part 2)

For Part 1 you can read this post.  Again, my blog, my views, my right to rant.

Here's the deal.  I don't like people.  I mean, I do like people, but having to interact with people when I can do something online just seems stupid.  Case in point: all the national pizza places have apps.  Guess which app gets used the 3rd most on my phone?  Yep, you got it.  Why make a phone call when I can do it all on my phone and not have to a) listen to horrible music, b) be greeted with a "thank you for calling XYZ pizza, can you hold {click}" (um, maybe I can't?), and c) I don't have to repeat my order, make sure they got it right, blah,blah, blah, because I type it in and I get an email verifying what I have ordered.  Makes sense to me.

So, here's my current pet peeve.  I'm researching the best way to move me and my belongings across this great country we live in.  Movers,  booked.  Car moving.... I want to scream!  I have submitted my information through several services on the WWW and guess what?  They required me to give them my phone number.  And now they WILL NOT LEAVE ME ALONE.  Guess what!?!?!  This is why I don't like people.  This is why I could never be in sales.  You don't want my product.  Ok.  Someone else will.  That is my philosophy.  So companies, if you want me to do business with you, the reason I used the internet and not a phone is because I don't want to talk to you until we need to work out the nuts and bolts of this move.  So please, for the love of all that is good in this world, leave me alone.  I told you yesterday, I told you today, and I'll tell you again tomorrow.  When I'm ready to talk to you, you'll know it.

Why I Don't Facebook

One thing that really annoys my friends is that I'm not on Facebook.  Stop it friends, you know it annoys you because you have to email me photos.  Oh, and I expect personal updates on your lives.  Yep.  I make you email me, and call me, and text me when things are happening in your life.  So yeah, I'm that annoying person who doesn't let you just put in on your Timeline (what the heck is that anyways?) and let me read it in real time.  Oh, you don't want to be that type of friend who gives me actual updates on your life?  Well, then chances are you weren't really a "friend" to begin with.  

That is one of the top reasons I quit Facebook. Relationships felt too superficial. I was also tired of that onslaught of requests to friend people I went to high school with (did we ever talk?) or to friend people I met at a wedding/party/social event.  Work people, yeah I won't friend you.  There's a balance there that must be kept and if I have to spend all day with you, I don't need you reading my snark on the interweb after hours.  As I started deleting these so-called friends from my friend list, Facebook in their infinite wisdom would suggest to the person that we should be friends and they would resubmit a request (or 2 or 3) that I would decline.  Then Facebook made one of their brilliant security changes that ended up making one of my albums I had marked private to public.  I missed that one.  Then some less than stellar human being stole my pictures and put them on her own wall, claiming my niece as part of her family.  Yeah, that was my breaking point.  So I deactivated my account.  It was almost 2 years ago when I pulled the plug.  Have I missed it?  Occasionally because there are some people who fall into the real friend category who refuse to email me pictures.  I still love them, I just wouldn't recognize their children.  :-)  But I don't miss the drama, I don't miss the time it sucked out of my day, and I don't miss how everything revolved around it.  Because really, is Facebook what it is really about?  I don't think so.  I have friends who rely on Facebook because they have moved around a lot and have several good friends interspersed throughout the world they keep in touch with.  I don't judge you if it works for you and it is your lifeline to keep in contact with people who are special to you.  It just wasn't for me.  

Now that I am not on Facebook, I have scheduled phone calls with AW, she emails me pictures and monologues about her travels and inner thoughts (rather than  brief note on my wall or a truncated Facebook message.) SS and I talk regularly. My friend TH posts pictures of her newly adopted little one on Twitter or her blog so I can keep up with his progress.  She gives me more grief than others because I make her do this extra step, but she rolls with it.  DW, yeah, I email her annoying questions until she writes a blog update for me to read about her kiddos.  P.S. come October wait until you see her oldest in the most beautiful princess dress preceding me down the aisle!  All those other people (I think I was hovering around +/- 200 when I pulled the plug) just weren't that important.  

I've noticed a trend now where people are starting to question if Facebook is healthy for their lives as well.  The following two articles made it across my computer screen yesterday, and while I didn't delete Facebook for all the reasons they did, or go to the effort to make sure their account was wiped as clean as the one guy did, they put their reasons into a much more articulate form than I ever could.  So, if you want more articulated thoughts on why I say no to this online tool, you can check out these articles as well.

http://tentblogger.com/bye-facebook/

http://dsonsblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/why-im-logging-off-facebookfor-good.html

P.S. Occasionally I say I'm going to create a super-secret-no-one-can-find-me-I-have-to-find-you account, but let's face it.  It's probably not going to happen because Facebook will change a setting, then everyone will find me, and then what was the point.  I'm also not going to create one with my dog's name so I can have one people can't find.  I know a girl who did that.  Works for her, not for me.  Sorry, I don't want my identity tied to that of my canine.  

P.P.S. Proctor & Gamble, Nestle, Kimberly-Clark, etc....I don't "like" any of your products enough to need you stalking my life either just so I can have a coupon.  Sorry, go back to the old form of providing coupons and stay out of my personal life.  

Living in Harmony -- A Book Review

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Living in Harmony Harvest House Publishers (August 1, 2012) by Mary Ellis

Let me start off by saying I really enjoyed this book!  I have always enjoyed Amish fiction, but this book took a new twist on it that push it to the top of the list of my favorite Amish books.  I enjoyed how Mary Ellis made it very realistic to the current environment an Amish person might experience and placed a lot more emphasis on actual thoughts and inner battles that a young person would have rather than making it all sugar coated and predictable.  Not to say the book isn't predictable, but I enjoyed the various twists and turns more than the normal cookie cutter approach.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Living in Harmony is the first book in bestselling author Mary Ellis's New Beginnings series. It's about fresh starts and love...and how faith in God and His perfect plan for our lives provides us with the peace and joy we desire.

Amy King--young, engaged, and Amish--faces difficult challenges in her life when she suddenly loses both of her parents in a house fire. Her fiancé, John Detweiler, persuades her and her sister Nora to leave Lancaster County and make a new beginning with him in Harmony, Maine, where he has relatives who can help the women in their time of need.

John's brother Thomas and sister-in-law Sally readily open their home to the three newcomers. Wise beyond his years, Thomas, a minister in the district, refuses to marry Amy and John upon their arrival, suggesting instead a period of adjustment and counseling.

During this time Amy discovers an aunt who was shunned. She wishes to reconnect with her, but this puts a strain on her relationship with John.

Can John and Amy find a way to live in happily in Harmony before making a lifetime commitment to one another?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Living in Harmony, go HERE.

Mt. Rainier and the Gondola Ride

It's quite the big deal around these parts of the Pacific Northwest when the sky around Mount Rainier (14,411') is clear and she makes her grand debut.  Last week I told the future Mr. that if it were pretty on Saturday we should drive down to Crystal Mountain Resort and ride the gondola to the top to see the mountain even closer.  My dear friend Abi is visiting from the Charleston area and I thought it would be a fun day trip.  It turned out even  better than I could have imagined.  If you're ever in this area and the day is crystal clear, I suggest this for an outing.

Getting ready to board the gondola for the ride up.

 As you step off the gondola, this is the view you are greeted with.  They have chairs, but the gentleman in the lower right corner brought his own.  He sat there the whole time we were there.  Breathtaking views for an afternoon sit.

The view looking back down at Crystal Mountain Resort.  The gondola path is on the right.

 While there, you can dine at Summit House Restaurant.  We were lucky enough to score a table on the patio and this was our view.  This is the highest restaurant in Washington State.  The food was very good.  Abi got a homemade ginger-ale and it was amazing!

 After lunch we hiked to the top of Grubstake Point (6877') and I got this shot of Mt. Rainier peaking out between the trees.  P.S. and by hiked, I mean it was about a 30' hike up to this point, but is was a higher elevation than the Summit House (6872').

And if you're on top of a mountain looking over at another pretty mountain, you might as well have some fun with the 'rock' you wear every day.  :-)

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Take me out to the crowds. 

Seriously, it's one of the few times I like crowded places.

Buy me some take-out Chinese food and garlic fries.

Love me some bbq pork, duck, and fries topped with so much garlic the apple slices at the end are so refreshing.

Picture some yummy food here...I was too hungry to consider taking a picture.

I don't care if I never get back

Really, I could do this every day.  Except I'd need a more comfortable seat.

For it's root, root, root for the home team

The Mariners are the team to cheer for out here.  I'll always be a Braves fan at heart.

If they don't win it's a shame (They won!)

We missed the perfect game by a few days, but I'll always remember where I was when I heard the news.  Cake tasting...yum!

For it's 1, 2, 3 strikes you're out at the old ball game.

After the game, the kids (future nephews) got to run around the bases.  A highlight for them!

The Weather

So, yeah, it's come down to me having to talk about the weather to have blog material.  Just kidding!  However, I do want to address the weather I've experienced for the last week.  90 degrees.  Seattle (I mean Renton) what the heck?  I thought we had an agreement.  I love you in your upper 70s... and even into your lower 80s.  But twice this month you've been over 90.  Enough!  Let's just hang out in the upper 70s and lower 80s and be friends.  OK?  On a high note, at least the future Mr. put in air conditioning a couple of years ago so we have it better than some.