I actually tend not to be a huge fan of fireworks! The anxiety over the potential loud noises, and not knowing when they are going to go off, kind of ruins it for me**. So I hadn’t gone to see fireworks for awhile.
But Steven suggested going this Wednesday and I had a good time! The show was only thirty minutes long, there were no delays during the show, and there were not a lot of scary “booms.” Also, I did not get bitten up by mosquitoes in the dark. That is always a bonus!
*I use the PicFrame app on my phone to make grid photos like this. I just realized they do not have to be square (overall dimensions) on Wednesday. Then yesterday I realized there are even more options for the frame sizes and locations. Kim iPhone fail, for realizing this so late! Derp. **Good thing I was not in San Diego this Wednesday.
Did you keep a hand-written journal when you were growing up? If yes, do you still have them?
I sure did. But my journals were so embarrassing, and I was so stupid, I threw them all away, except for one. I kind of hated high school and don’t have any desire to remember it!
The journal I did keep was the travel journal from when my dad and I went to Spain in 2002 (with some of my Spanish class and my awesome Spanish teacher). I keep that one because I didn’t blog then, and it’s a really good reminder of all the fun stuff we did.
Up for the sunrise in Torremolinos
I loved Spain! We did one of those 10-day tours where you hit up a bunch of different cities. We saw so much! We didn’t make it to Barcelona on that trip, but I went there in 2006 when I lived in Rome. I hope I get to go to Spain with Steven someday!
Do you know how to type? How did you learn? Are you good at it?
Do they still teach typing to kids today? (what, when they are three or something?)
I never took a formal typing class. In high school, when it was offered, I was worried I would be bad at it, and not get an A, and ruin my straight-A record. So I never learned in a formal setting!
I think in my last two years of high school some of our essays were starting to be required to be typed, so I started typing more then, but really became proficient at it my first year of college. I am a fast typist, but definitely not the fastest! I don’t look at the keyboard when I type, and usually I am looking at a different screen (which Steven said is bad for my eyes… could that explain all those headaches?!??!!!).
It was funny when I lived in Rome and their keyboards were a little bit different! Recently, I saw a keyboard where you could have it set up QWERTY style or you could have all the letters in alphabetical order!
Do you like filling out surveys? Or do you usually skip them?
Last week I was telling Steven how fun I think filling out surveys is (I think I like the idea that someone cares about my opinion). Steven said he thinks that might be an odd trait. So of course, I said “I will ask my blog readers and they will prove you wrong!”
Then I thought about it. Anyone who answers the Friday Question probably has a tendency to like filling out surveys and answering things. Because you are already answering the silly questions I ask you. Humor me anyway.
I really like post-race surveys. But I will fill out the ones restaurants send me in email or even the ones the they say “keep your receipt and fill out the survey.” I answer them at work (except for when they are something I know NOTHING about), even when it’s not anonymous. Ha ha ha. When someone links to a random survey on Facebook and says “Help my friend by answering this survey for their dissertation!” I fill those out too.
Seriously though, the other day Steven and I were discussing mayo vs. miracle whip and how some people have a preference between the two. I do not recall ever having either growing up, and this is where I would like to pretend that my family reads my blog and ask them if we kept a jar of either in our house…?
We sure did! If my memory serves me correctly, my dad and his dad built it for us. And now it has apparently been engulfed by trees and other wildlife:
Ha ha. Thanks for the pictures, Dad.
My most vivid memory of the tree house is the day my accident-prone younger brother decided to jump from the landing to the ground (you can guess where this is going). I am sure if he told the story, that I had jumped already and he was following me, or I was encouraging him to jump, or I pushed him… but anyway, the conclusion is that he jumped and broke his arm.* My mom was gardening at the end of the driveway (which was far away for a kid) so I ran to tell her what happened. Fun times.
*He also jumped off of a three foot stage once and broke his leg.
What are your favorite apps? Which do you use the most and which do you use the least?
I am new to having a smart phone and haven’t downloaded a ton of apps, but there are some I use more than others – Camera, iTunes (for downloading podcasts straight to my phone), Facebook (even though it’s so buggy), TWC, Amazon, Starbucks, and Shazam.
I also have specific Photography and Running folders with some apps that I use a lot. For Photography, I mostly use Camera+ for its timer and some filters. I use Sketches 2 to draw on photos. In the Running Folder, I use Pace Calc to calculate pace (ha ha), Glympse to let Steven track me while I run, and LCFPD (Lake County Forest Preserves) to get info on all the trails I run.
I use my Reference folder a lot too – mostly Wikipedia and imdb.
There are some apps on the iPhone that I never use, but cannot delete, so I put them in a folder called “Crap I Don’t Use.”
Well, most boring blog post ever. But maybe you will tell me about some interesting apps that you like. Since I clearly need more ways to waste time!
Do you (did you) feed your pet table scraps? What kind of “human” foods do (did) they like to eat, if any?
Don’t worry, I think about things other than Data! It’s just that my sister made this video last weekend and I wanted to share it!
Data does not care for much human food except fish and popcorn (and not together). But the popcorn has to be just the way he likes it – perfectly oiled and salted. No dry popcorn for him! And he only likes the fluffy/poufy part of the popcorn. So we baby him and bite off that part for him to eat.
It’s funny to me that Data does not want milk or cheese or anything like that (we even tried to give him turkey once, when someone brought it to our house for Thanksgiving). Growing up, our cats went cray cray for string cheese. Data just seems to be happy eating the same thing every day, until he hears Steven get the pan out to make popcorn, then he goes cray cray!
Do you often subscribe to new comments/replies on blogs? Or do you manually go back to see if someone has responded to what you wrote?
I never remember to go back, so I subscribe to a lot of comments. I have been searching for years for a plug-in that does this for my blog, but to no avail. Despite ilaxSTUDIO being a wordpress blog, because it is self-hosted, that feature is not included.
BUT! I think I finally FINALLY FINALLY found a plug-in that will do this. So if you hit “Notify me of follow-up comments by email” before you submit your comment, you should get an email when someone else posts a comment.
If this is the truth, this will save me SO MUCH TIME in responding to comments. Because right now, I respond on my blog, then copy and paste that response in to an email.
Yeah.
Time consuming.
Also, this will let all of you interact with one another. A few times people have commented on other people’s comments… and there is no way for that person to see the response unless they come back to the blog.
So do me a favor and let me know (in a comment in this post) if you are going to check “Notify me of follow-up comments by email” and I will respond and you can let me know if it works. If you check this button, you will probably get an email confirming you are subscribing, which takes you to the wordpress subscription page, then you will get comment emails.
If I find out this does work, I will probably quit manually replying to comments via email. You will be able to subscribe if you want to see my reply/other people’s comments.
I also added a sidebar for email subscriptions. I think most people use Reader, or some other RSS aggregate, but someone was asking me about this awhile ago… maybe this is what they were looking for.
What jewelry do you keep on when you sleep/work out/do physical labor?
For everything, I take it all off, except for earrings – I will leave my diamond studs in. My hands get so swollen when I run, I have to take my rings off (I am always amazed when I see the elites wearing their rings!!!). Necklaces swinging around annoy me when I am running. Bracelets too. I thrash around so much when I sleep, I have to take my jewelry off too, so I don’t break a necklace, or hurt Steven by gouging him with my ring.
Hi! I'm Kim, a 34-year-old living in Chicagoland with my husband, Steven, and our cats, Khali, Apollo, and Starbuck. I work in the design industry (architecture), follow a vegan lifestyle, am addicted to running, and am an ACE certified personal trainer (working at Essential Fitness, LLC ("Efit"))! I write about a variety of topics, and consider this a "life" blog - a place I can share anything that's on my mind. Please visit the "About" page to get a better idea of who I am! :-)
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