Ten on Tuesday 11/8/11

I'm back for my second week of Ten on Tuesday, hosted by Chelsea at Roots and Rings. This is a lot of fun, so please check out her blog, read other people's answers to these questions, and consider joining in!

1. What’s your favorite television show for each day of the week?
Sunday – The Walking Dead
Monday – nothing until Pretty Little Liars returns in January
Tuesday – Ringer
Wednesday – American Horror Story
Thursday – The Vampire Diaries
Friday – Supernatural
Saturday – nothing

2. How many times do you wear your jeans before you watch them?
I can't remember the last time I wore jeans.

3. What is your favorite pasta shape?
I'm partial to the small shells.

4. Do you read newspapers?
Not anymore. The ink gives me a massive headache, so I get the news online and on television.

5. Do you sleep in socks?
Yes, most of the time, although it's a clean pair.

6. Favorite genre of movies?
Horror or thriller.

7. How do you feel about wrestling?
I'm not a fan.

8. Should men pluck their eyebrows?
Most men shouldn't bother unless they actually want to.

9. Do you have dimples?
No.

10. Do you like to camp?
No way. I've never been an outdoorsy person.

Ten on Tuesday 11/1/11

I just found out about Ten on Tuesday, so I'm going to give it a try. It's sponsored by Chelsea at Roots and Rings.

1. What is your favorite month?
Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's October; the air feels great, it gets dark earlier, and the leaves are gorgeous. Halloween, complete with spooky music, scary movies, and candy, is a bonus.

2. What is the best candy to get while trick or treating?
The important thing is for the candy to be small instead of full-size bars. That way, I can have two or three small pieces of different kinds.

3. What kind of pen do you use?
I like Pilot pens.

4. You go to a new Italian restaurant, what is your go-to order?
That depends on what I'm in the mood for. It would be either fettucine alfredo or some type of pasta with diced tomato, basil, and garlic.

5. If you could choose to have any celebrity’s hair, who’s would you choose?
I don't pay much attention to celebrity hair unless I think it looks awful.

6. What’s your favorite board game?
It's been a long time since I've played a board game. I'm not sure I actually have a favorite at this point.

7. Do you know how to play poker?
Nope.

8. What do you think about Old Navy commercials?
I'm not crazy about them.

9. What hurts worse- a stubbed toe or a paper cut?
Normally, I'd say a paper cut is more painful. However, I stubbed my toe a few weeks ago, and when it still hurt two weeks later, I finally had to concede that I'd managed to break it.

10. What’s your favorite kind of pie?
Are you kidding me? I can't pick just one. Some of my favorites are chocolate cream, fresh peach, fresh blueberry, and deep-dish peach.

Wednesday Hodgepodge 10/26/11

This is my first entry in the Wednesday Hodgepodge, hosted by Joyce From This Side of the Pond. Joyce provides the questions, and I provide the answers. Let's see how it goes, and when you leave this post, please check out the Wednesday Hodgepodge posts from other bloggers and consider joining in the fun.

1. What gives you goosebumps?

It's rare, but sometimes I hear a beautiful song performed in a way that gives me chills or goosebumps.

2. Halloween-are you a lover or a hater? Okay, that sounds harsh...Halloween-yay or nay?

I've always liked Halloween. It comes around at the perfect time of year, when the air is crisp and cool. There are also plenty of fun things associated with it, such as bats, spooky music, scary movies, costumes, and candy.

3. Can you respect someone you do not trust, and can you trust someone you do not respect?

Probably not.

4. Apples or oranges? Yes, you have to choose.

Apples are much more versatile, but oranges win the prize for taste and smell. I hate to peel them, and they have to be juicy and seedless, but if I have to choose, oranges win.

5. What is something you wish was in your town? (shop, restaurant, attraction, etc)

Ooh, that's a great question. Our Don Pablo's restaurant closed down a few years ago, and I really wish we could get it back.

6. What non-food item is in your refrigerator or freezer?

There's a bottle of fish oil supplements in the refrigerator. They probably expired long ago; I should check on that.

7. Are you at all superstitious?

Not really. I might eventually think of something I'm superstitious about, but I'm definitely not so superstitious that it affects me very much.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I think One Life to Live's Victor should have changed his name when he found out who he really was. Yes, I know he did what the writers had him do, so the writers should have had him change his name. Just about anything would have been better than being named after Victor Lord. I'm just saying.

Zombies!

Zombies are popular now, and they even have a few special days devoted to them. In fact, this past Saturday was World Zombie Day.

If you're into AMC's The Walking Dead, you probably already know this, but just in case you don't, this is important. The show returns this Sunday, October 16, at 9pm Eastern. The season premiere will be a 90-minute episode.

Speaking of zombie shows, the CW really should have picked up Awakening. I simply don't believe it would have had worse ratings than H8R, which has already been canned. I really wanted to see Awakening, despite the fact that I have plenty of other shows to watch.

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This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.

Youtube

I don't watch TV online and rarely even watch videos on the computer, but there are a few exceptions. There's just something about animal videos, and these are some of the cutest I've seen.

I started to search for yawning puppies, especially Frenchies, and found this photo. Now I'm off to look for some Youtube videos of French bulldogs, which are so incredibly adorable. With any luck, I'll even find some videos of yawning Frenchie puppies.

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This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.

X-Rite's Online Color Test

Have you taken X-Rite's online color test yet? It's actually called the FM100 Hue Test. I took it a year or so ago, and it was very challenging. I don't remember exactly how it turned out, so I might give it another try.

To take this test, you have to move little squares of color around and try to put them in the correct order. It's not as easy as it sounds.

X-Rite is the industry leader in color science and technology. The company is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and has locations in Mexico, Spain, and France, to name just a few.

If you're interested in taking the test, make sure you give yourself plenty of time. Let me know how you do!

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This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.

Waah!

Yesterday morning, I managed to bang the heck out of my toe. Actually, I think two toes are involved, but since I'm afraid to touch them, I can't be certain. In any case, the front of my foot hit the piece of exercise equipment I had recently begun using faithfully every day. Do you think I've been able to use it since then?

No.

I can barely get around on my lame toe(s). I'm not going to try to put on my shoes, and I really don't want to exercise in my sock feet--not that I think my toe(s) would appreciate it even if I did want to. I don't know how long it will be until I can get back to my exercise plan. And here I was building up my stamina, gradually increasing the length of each exercise session.

Waaah!

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This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.

Vampires on TV

If there's a TV show about vampires, chances are very good that I've seen it. In fact, many of my all-time favorite shows were about vampires.

Here are my favorite TV vamps:

Caleb Morley (played by Michael Easton on Port Charles)

Damon Salvatore (played by Ian Somerhalder on The Vampire Diaries)

Spike (played by James Marsters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel)

Recently, I started wondering which actors had portrayed Count Dracula, the most famous (or infamous) vampire of all time, on television. We all know that he's often been depicted in movies, but he's also been on TV plenty of times. Since I was curious about it, I decided to do a little research. Satisfying my curiosity was so time consuming that I figured I'd go ahead and write an article about my findings. I get paid for page views, so please feel free to check it out if you're also curious about TV Draculas.

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This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.

Urgent! Dogs in Danger!

Are you interested in adopting a dog? If so, please check Dogs in Danger. The dogs on this website have been placed on urgent status; they don't have much time left unless someone adopts them. Not all death-row dogs are listed; the listings depend on shelter participation.

There's more than one way to search the site. One option is to select a breed, type in your ZIP code, and choose a radius.

I always conduct my search by pulling up my state in the dropdown menu. That gives me all the listings from participating shelters in my state.

If you look on Petfinder, you'll see some pets designated as urgent. This usually means they've been there a long time and the shelter needs to make room for newcomers. Unfortunately, Petfinder doesn't have an "urgent" filter, but there are several ways to search, and if your search yields any urgent pets, they'll say "urgent," "emergency," or something similar.

While I'm on the subject of pets in dire straits, here is a page from some people looking for their dog. Ursula is a missing great dane/bullmastiff mix from Mayville, Michigan. Mayville is located in the Thumb, but Ursula could be anywhere by now. She disappeared in May, and her owners are desperate to find her. The page is public, so you don't need a Facebook account to be able to see it. If you think you've seen Ursula, please contact her owners with the information.

If you decide to adopt a pet, please don't forget to check for those with an urgent status. It could make all the difference in the world.

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This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.

Turkey

I like turkey and eat it pretty much all year. I like roast turkey with mashed potatoes, gravy, and cornbread dressing, but I also like to get turkey from the deli counter.

Even though I like deli turkey, I'm picky about it. It can't look all chopped and formed, and it should be smoked or flavored with honey or maple. I've cut back on it somewhat because of the nitrites and sodium but haven't given it up completely.

Deli turkey is the basis for some great sandwiches. There are many different combinations, but grilled smoked turkey and cheddar is one of my favorites.

If I roast a turkey, I might make a sandwich or two out of it, but mostly, I prefer to have it on my plate with all the trimmings.

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This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.

Super Soap Weekends

People are often surprised to learn that many of my favorite stars aren't movie actors. Most of them are primarily on television; in fact, quite a few of my favorites are soap stars.

For thirteen years, ABC Daytime stars participated in Super Soap Weekends. These huge fan events took place twice a year and alternated between Disney Land and Disney World. I never went, but I thought about it more than once. I really wanted to see Michael Easton, Thorsten Kaye, and the other Port Charles stars who normally attended the event. Then, in 2003, my favorite soap was cancelled, and its stars were no longer invited to participate unless they had moved to other ABC soaps.

Five years later, the final Super Soap Weekend was held. There have been other large fan events, though, with many of the same stars in attendance. Of course, with the obsolescence of ABC Daytime, there won't be many more opportunities such as those.

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This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.

Restraint

Restraint is a good thing. It's not always easy, and it can be downright hard at times. For example, I have a hard time using restraint when it comes to certain foods.

Sure, I can eat two potato chips or two mini candies. No problem. After all, the idea is to have something that will put a nice taste in my mouth, and more than two would be unnecessary. Why waste them when they could come in handy later?

The problem is using restraint when adding black pepper to food. It's funny, because I didn't even like pepper until I was well into adulthood. I could eat it if it was already in something, but I probably didn't add it to anything on my plate before I hit my thirties. My tastes changed, and I started using it.

I don't use pepper on everything, but I do like it. So does my husband, which is why I was surprised when his eyes widened one day as he watched me shake pepper onto my food.

I finally found out what his deal was. I had switched from buying regular fine black pepper to coarse ground pepper, and it's much stronger. I understand that it's possible to get too much, but I wasn't even close during the aforementioned incident. Now I have to be careful and use restraint when cooking, since I don't want to ruin his meal by overdoing the pepper.

Things sure have changed over the years. He used to marvel about how much salt I added to my food. Well, I cut back drastically on salt long ago. I guess it's pepper's turn now.

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This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.

Quotation Marks

While trying to decide on a topic for my first Alphabe-Thursday, I came up with a few possibilities. Then something interesting happened.

I came across The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks recently while trying to figure out why some people put quotation marks around the names of pets. The last paragraph of Marinka's comment is the reason it showed up in the search engine, and it's a good one.

All I can figure is that people who do this think it isn't the pet's real name. For example, Sir Barks-a-Lot of the Waggy Tail might be affectionately called "Waggy" or "Barkie," complete with quotation marks. I can understand this; I don't agree with it, but at least I understand it.

However, this theory breaks down when a pet already has a simple name, such as Jasper. Even if that's his whole name (other than the owner's last name), the same people who would use quotes for Sir Barks-a-Lot would also use them with Jasper.

Why use quotes with animals but not with people? If Ellie, Kenny, Angie, and Mike are pets, they'll often end up with quotation marks around their names. If they're people, that's unlikely to happen.

What Food Looks Like Dirty Socks?

Tyson has a new commercial out now for their chicken nuggets. Like its predecessor, it shows several "picky" kids talking about foods they don't like. My favorite is the little guy who says, "They just look like dirty socks."

What food looks like dirty socks? I've thought about this and haven't been able to come up with any answers. Maybe I'm not meant to; maybe there is no answer. It's always possible that the line was just supposed to be funny, and it certainly is. Who would want to eat something that looks like dirty socks? In any case, the little boy's delivery is priceless.

If you haven't seen the commercial yet, you can check it out here or watch for it on your TV screen.

Wheat: It's What's for Dinner

Years ago, the beef industry ran an ad campaign that said, "Beef: it's what's for dinner." I was recently going over my diet (and by "diet," I'm referring to the things I eat) and realized how much wheat I consume on a regular basis.

A lot of people believe that humans weren't meant to eat any grains whatsoever. I'm not going to get into that here, although I've begun reading The Primal Blueprint to see what it's about. In any case, I've suspected for a while that I'm sensitive to wheat, which makes my normal consumption appalling.

I like bread. I like pasta. I like cake, pie, brownies, and other baked goods. When I have eggs or meat, I like to make a sandwich. Even some cereals that aren't primarily wheat-based still contain wheat flour. It isn't easy to avoid, but I'm determined to cut back and see whether it makes a difference.

I just have no idea when that will be.

Blank Books

I've always been drawn to blank books--you know, the pretty journal-type books you see in bookstores. They come in a wide variety of colors and designs, and the ones intended for writing purposes usually have lined pages. I'm partial to the ones with fabric or cloth covers, which were the first ones I ever started buying. It was hard to choose just one, so I would think about possible uses and then buy at least two.

Blank books are good for many things. You can keep one as a type of diary or journal in which to write your thoughts as they come to you. You can have one to keep track of expenses, another for lists of books you have read or want to read, and another for article topics, to name just a few ideas. They're large enough to be useful but small enough to fit inside all but the smallest purses as well as tote bags, briefcases, backpacks, and diaper bags.

When trying to come up with a name for this blog, I rejected a few ideas before Ellie's Blank Book came to me. Thinking it over, it just seemed right.

Welcome to Ellie's Blank Book

I have several blogs, but each one is a niche blog devoted to its own particular subject. I needed one where I could be free to write about anything and participate in blog hops and blogging challenges that didn't fit in with any of my existing blogs. That's why I decided to start yet another one.

Ellie's Blank Book is my latest and most versatile blog. It will be for blogging challenges, blog hops, and other cool posts so I don't have to miss out or temporarily change the focus of the others. Although I can still do some of the challenges on the others, most of them will be here.

Testing

I've had quite a few problems with Blogger lately, and a quick search shows I'm far from the only one. Therefore, I decided to make a new blog to test out a few things. If this works, I can rename it later and use it instead of the one I originally intended to use.