Mi Vida Ocupada: My Busy Life!

Google Friend Connect

I have been seeing the Google Friend Connect Widget on many blogs lately, but I mistakenly thought it was ONLY for blogs powered through Google (Blogger).  I discovered today that I could get my very own Google Friend Connect Widget to put on my site too!
If you like reading my blog, please consider joining my Friend Connect.  It is an easy way for others to find your blog too!  You can find the widget in the right sidebar>>>>>>

Move Over, Facebook

My new love is Flickr.

Although I still think Facebook is one of the greatest inventions on the web, I am kind of bored with it. (Remember, I was trying to convince you all to sign up 3-07) Plus I can't ever access it from work.  Anyway, like I said, my new love is Flickr.  I have had an account there for a few years and have used it to browse for particular photos (remember my post about cool things you can do with Flickr?) but never really started exploring its full capabilities until recently.  I think the Groups feature is pretty awesome and I love that you can upload photos to a pool.  Great way to share common stuff!

I have been really into the photography thing since I started my Daily Photo Blog a few weeks ago (come check it out now if you haven't already!)  Even though I like to think I have always kept my eye open for a good photo opportunity, I am scouting out different possibilities for photos at times and in places where I might not otherwise have looked.  Its a lot of fun! I am even exploring the manual settings on my camera and trying to learn real photography settings.  My Canon G9 is not a SLR but it is still an awesome camera with many of the same features as a SLR. 

So that's my story for the evening.  If you want to add me as a contact on Flickr, I am sweetsauer.  I would love to add you too!

Photo Blog Unveiled....

Here is the link to my new Daily Photo Blog!  Today is Day 1 :)
Check it out if you'd like and make sure to subscribe if you'd like to keep up with my daily photos.
Thanks for looking ;)

Live Inauguration Streaming.....

Here is the link to watch the Inauguration LIVE.
Many of us have been waiting a long time to watch this moment in History!
http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/video/video-2009-obama.cfm

New Subscription Tools!

If you would like to be updated regularly when I post new entries to this blog, I have added two new tools to make it easier.  Direct your attention to the right sidebar >>>>>

• The first tool is the  "subscribe in reader" button.  When you click this, it allows you to add the feed to whichever feed reader you prefer (I use Google Reader). 
• The second tool is the e-mail subscription box.  If you would like new posts from this blog to be sent to your e-mail, just enter your e-mail address in the box, and then click the confirmation link that will immediately be sent to your inbox.  Once you do this, new posts will be sent directly to your e-mail.

I am using Feedburner for these services.  If you're a blogger, you might want to check it out.  It will automatically update and transfer any current feeds you have for your blog so that your readers will continue to receive updates without interruption ( I wasn't sure what would happen when I transferred my feed to Feedreader, hence the "test" of the last post.  It worked perfectly and I have already received the e-mail with my latest post).  The service makes it much more convenient for your readers to receive your latest posts and also allows you to keep track of how many subscribers you have.  This is a great thing for those of you who have photography or other business blogs!

Do you like Funny Videos???

If you like Funny Videos, I recommend that you check out the site Funny Video Search.  Not only are there funny videos on the site, but also commentary to go with them.  The site was created and maintained by my brother Jeff.  Here are some of the categories on the site:

• Adult Swim
• Animal Humor
• Awards Ceremonies
• B Movies
• Celebrities
• College Humor
• Commercials
• Flight of the Conchords
• Funny or Die
• Jimmy Kimmel Live
• Main Stream
• Music Videos
• Physical Humor
• Political Humor
• Practical Jokes
• public access
• Public Service Announcements
• Saturday Night Live
• The Office
• The Onion
• Tracy Morgan
• Unintentional Comedy
• viral videos
• Will Ferrell
• You Tube

If you like the site then be sure to spread the word to others who like funny videos.  Thanks!

If you won the lottery........

If you won the lottery, what would you do with your money??
Would you initiate Random Acts of Kindness to share the wealth???
That is exactly what a Real Lottery Winner is doing.
I recently found the site of a very generous blogger who has indeed won a lottery (of an unspecified amount) and is blogging about the experience.  He claims he never had anything to blog about before winning the lottery...but now he does! Since the blog is new, Real Lottery Winner is featuring an e-mail subscription to his posts and once 500 people subscribe to the e-mail, he is giving away TWO brand-new Macbook Pros!!  So far there are only 100 subscribers and  since I think everyone should own a Macbook Pro, I am encouraging all of my readers to go subscribe to his e-mail feed and maybe you could be one of the winners!!! To sign up, simply submit your e-mail in the box on the upper right portion of his site.

I think this is so cool and generous!

*If any of you win either of the Macbook Pros or anything else he is giving away, don't forget who sent you ;)

Fun sites that work with Flickr Images

Wanted to share a couple of fun sites that allow you to work with Flickr Images.  These sites are all a lot of fun!

1. FlickrStorm- This website is a search engine for Flickr that comes up with a thumbnail mosaic of popular images for your search term.   Click on any image and it takes you directly to that photo on Flickr.  Here is one I did using the word "barn".

2. Multicolr Search Lab- This is another Flickr search engine, but it searches for images based on custom color combos.  Just pick the colors you want (up to 10) and it matches photos to your colors.  Here are some examples I did

 

  

3. Stumble Upon Earth Album- This site works between Google Maps and Flickr- Just click anywhere on the map and you will see the most popular images highlighting that place.  Here is one I did on Egypt

4. Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker- This site pulls photos that are saved as your favorites on Flickr and then you can make various-sized mosaics, and they even give links to the photo credits! (Yes, I have a variety of favorites saved on Flickr, as evidenced by this eclectic mosaic!)

1. J-Juice, 2. Space?, 3. West Hawaii Sunset-Dec 2007, 4. Magma Blast and Electric Lightning Bolt Within a Lava Plume ~ Island of Hawaii, 5. Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii, 6. Diamond Head, Oahu, Hawaii, 7. Hawaii Sea Turtle, 8. White Hibiscus of Hawaii, 9. sunset at lake Vänern, 10. minneapolis skyline, 11. pink flower petals, 12. pink flower 1, 13. Watchful Bear, 14. Mom with comfy Twins, 15. IMG_1071-01, 16. PolarBear.jpg

Google Chrome Browser.....

Did you know that Google just launched its  own Internet Browser??? Its called Chrome.  It is not yet available for Mac, but if you use Windows, you can download it already.....
It seems kind of cool......(and I love all Google stuff) so if you decide to download it, let me know what you think!!!!!!
PS I already know that some of you are still reluctant (or stuck somewhere in the Dark Ages) and haven't even switched over to Firefox yet!!!

Birthday Data....

Visited this site to get some interesting data about the day I was born ( 2/11/77).  Thought it was interesting enough to post!

• Your date of conception was on or about 21 May 1976 which was a Friday. (I was born a month early, so I was actually conceived at the end of June)
• You were born on a Friday under the astrological sign Aquarius.

•  Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 1/31/1976 and ending 2/17/1977. You were born in the Chinese year of the Dragon. ( I didn't know this! I always thought I was a snake!)
  
• Your Native American Zodiac sign is Otter; your plant is Fern.
• You were born in the Egyptian month of Parmuthy, the fourth month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).
• Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 23 Shevat 5737. 
  
• The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.18.3.11.1 which is 12 baktun 18 katun 3 tun 11 uinal 1 kin
• The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Friday, 21 Safar 1397 (1397-2-21).
• The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 10 April 1977.
•  As of 5/28/2008 9:40:08 AM EDT You are 31 years old. You are 375 months old. You are 1,633 weeks old. You are 11,429 days old. You are 274,305 hours old. You are 16,458,340 minutes old. You are 987,500,408 seconds old.

• Celebrities who share your birthday: Kelly Rowland (1981) Matt Lawrence (1980) Brandy (1979) Mike Shinoda (1977) Jennifer Aniston (1969) Sheryl Crow (1963) Segio Mendes (1941) Bobby 'Boris' Pickett (1940) Burt Reynolds (1936) Tina Louise (1934) Leslie Nielsen (1926) Eva Gabor (1921) Sidney Sheldon (1917) Thomas Alva Edison (1847)

• Top songs of 1977: You Light Up My Life by Debby Boone Best of My Love by Emotions I Just Want to Be Your Everything by Andy Gibb How Deep Is Your Love by Bee Gees Evergreen (from 'A Star Is Born') by Barbra Streisand Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder Torn Between Two Lovers by Mary MacGregor Rich Girl by Daryl Hall & John Oates Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band by Meco Got to Give It Up by Marvin Gaye
• Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 4.47318982387476 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)
•  Your lucky day is Saturday. Your lucky number is 4 & 8.
• Your ruling planet(s) is Saturn & Uranus. Your lucky dates are 1st, 10th, 19th, 28th. Your opposition sign is Leo. Your opposition number(s) is 1.
•  Today is not one of your lucky days!
• There are 259 days till your next birthday on which your cake will have 32 candles. Those 32 candles produce 32 BTUs, or 8,064 calories of heat (that's only 8.0640 food Calories!) . You can boil 3.66 US ounces of water with that many candles.
• In 1977 there were approximately 3.1 million births in the US. In 1977 the US population was approximately 203,302,031 people, 57.4 persons per square mile.
• In 1977 in the US there were approximately 2,152,662 marriages (10.1%) and 1,036,000 divorces (4.9%)
• In 1977 in the US there were approximately 1,921,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000) In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds. In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.
• Your birthstone is Amethyst-  Amethyst is used to increase spiritually Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources) Bloodstone, Onyx, Moonstone
• Your birth tree is Cedar, the Confidence Of rare beauty, knows how to adapt, likes luxury, of good health not in the least shy, tends to look down on others, self-confident, determined, impatient, wants to impress others, many talents, industrious, healthy, optimism, waiting for the one true love, able to make quick decisions.
• There are 211 days till Christmas 2008!
• The moon's phase on the day you were born was in its last quarter.

Awesome links from CoolCatTeacher

I recently came across a teacher blog that often has cool links, etc.  A few days ago, the blogger behind the CoolCatTeacherBlog celebrated a birthday and put together this great list of cool internet services to check out.  It looks like there are some great links, so I wanted to share.

1. Songbird - This is THE cool opensource alternative to iTunes and it is connected with Skreemr, the music search engine.
2. Timebridge - This scheduling system plugs into google calendar or outlook and lets you invite people to a meeting, select four time alternatives, and then it books the meeting time that everyone can attend and puts it on your calendar. It reminds them and it rocks!!
3. Get Atomic Learning Free for 3 months --
4. Diigo - This cool tool has transformed my bookmarking, blogging, sharing, and twittering. Install it, set it up to send to your delicious account.  
   
   To get the most out of it, you definitely should use firefox and install the cute little bookmarklets.  This is a definite tool for those writing papers!
5. Zoho Notebook -- This notebooking service completely and utterly rocks! Zohonotebook gives you the ability to EMBED video and web pages as well as snag notes from many places. It is an amazing tool! (Check out some of the pages I demoed in a workshop a while back.)
6. Google Forms - Google spreadsheets has a cute little tool hidden in the Share tab, the ability to create a form.  We're using this for the Horizon Project managers to submit their weekly reports. It is so fast and easy and a great way to pull information into a spreadsheet. I even have my national honor society students entering their service time for me into the spreadsheet.
7. Firefox - If you're still stuck in Internet Explorer, you simply must try firefox. Give yourself a present! The plug ins are incredible. My favorites are: the diigo plug in, technorati tag plug in,
8. Twitter - Again, try this one.  Some say they don't "have time for twitter" or don't "get it."  Just sign up, add me as a friend, and then go in and see whose talking to me, add some who sound interesting and then reply to their messages by saying @theirID -- so to reply to me, you'd say @coolcatteacher -- You may just find yourself conversing daily with some of your heroes.
9. Hulu.com - I've been beta testing this beauty which lets you watch all kinds of TV shows.  Now, you can watch too!
10. Mogulus - Do you want your own 24/7 TV station? You can do it here. Schedule things to play. Merge videos from other places on the Net. Very cool.
    
    
11. AFI Screen Nation - The Amazing American Film Institute has a new site where your students may upload video and be evaluated by REAL producers, actors, and directors in Hollywood. Their curriculum is totally amazing and I use the videos that come with my united streaming account to teach digital film & movie making.  I love the AFI digital storytelling curriculum and highly recommend it.
12. Toondoo - Make cartoons.  This continues to be one of my perennial favorites for cartoons.
13. Ning (for VIDEO sharing) - I LOVE Ning in the classroom and just found a super cool new feature. If you upload video to ning, it automatically converts it to the most compressed, appropriate version for the web. You may then embed the video anywhere else. This is solving a lot of our access problems for the horizon project b/c schools just unblock the Ning and have access to all of the movies!
14. Intel Mashmaker - This lets you mash together all different types of websites and I am enjoying working with it. There will be some things I share soon. This is supposed to be a lot like Microsoft PopFly, which I've not tested yet.
15. Skype - This is another MUST have APP.  If you haven't tried it yet, get over there and take a look.
16. Classtools.net - Embeddable graphic organizers of every kind for your wiki or blog.  I Adore this site and use it all the time in my classroom.
17. Wikispaces -- This is my stable, well supported, wiki darling.  One look at the horizon project wiki will tell you why.
18. Gmail - With the most robust spam filter anywhere, the ability to filter like a fiend, make folders, and import all accounts into one place, this account is a dream come true. Even if you use another service, you can enable pop on that account, set up a gmail and pull all of your accounts into one. And if you use firefox, they have a better gmail firefox extension from lifehacker that is a must install!.
19. Gcast - I'm really enjoying podcasting from my cell phone -- just a lot of fun!
20. FriendFeed - A cool little service that I'm really beginning to enjoy to help me follow just a few people.
21. Technorati Watchlist - A must use for bloggers watching those responding to their work and just to follow the things you want to know more about.  The RSS from the search for your blog belongs in your RSS reader.
22. PhotoBucket - THE place I put my private photos.  I like Flickr, but somtimes I just want to make a really cool flash page for my website or do something neat with photos, and photobucket has more robust tools for my photos than I've found other places.
23. Big Huge Labs for Flickr -- This has some amazingly hilarious Motivational Poster makers and just about everything you can imagine for your photos. Make monster posters, make labels, make anything. If you have photos, this is THE place to PLAY!
24. Feedburner is a must use for any serious blogger or school Webmaster. You can burn the feed to feedburner, which will let you move your feed from place to place without losing readers! You may also use Feedblitz to e-mail your blog posts to anyone who is "afraid" of RSS.  Feedburner has so many other features that serious bloggers will appreciate.
25. Statcounter - This is my favorite place to track links, traffic, and more.  Just a very reliable, accurate site.
26. Google Reader -- My RSS reader of choice for linear, sequential RSS reading (down the page aggregation), Google Reader now lets you download google Gears and read your RSS offline!!!!
27. Netvibes - For single page aggregation, I use netvibes as my RSS reader although my home page starts up with iGoogle, I go to netvibes. Their new Ginger version allows you to publish your pages and share with others. I teach my students this handy RSS reader for their Personal Learning Networks.
28. EdTechTalk - Although I co-host a show here, I always get pumped when I listen to these shows.  Do yourself a favor and take a listen.
29. Creative Commons Searching -   This is THE place to look for images, graphics, and audio.  It is a must use for students!
30. 4Info.net - I get the weather texted to my phone each morning. Every time a Georgia Tech football or basketball game ends, I'm texted the score. You can have stock tickers, rss reminders and more texted to your phone. It is amazingly cool.
31. Newsmap - When I want to take time to read the news, this is what I use. I adore NewsMap. I teach my students to use it to get abreast of what is happening in the world. If you have 1 minute to read the news, go here.
32. Classroom 2.0 Live Conversations - Steve Hargadon is hosting these amazing sessions. Simply excellent. Another place to "get pumped" and have some great ideas.
33. Cool Cat Teacher Wiki - All my presentations, handouts, archives, and STUFF are there. I love to get out sometimes and when I do, I want to capture it.
34. Slideshare - I LOVE this slidesharing site.  It is very useful.
35. VoiceThread - If I could pick ONE tool for elementary ed, this is it, hands down.

Tales of an Inner-City Teacher

Hola amigos!!

I wanted to let you guys know about another side-project blog that I have taken up......

http://urbanteachertales.blogspot.com/
I have always been reluctant to write about my job on my personal blog for many reasons, but I feel that I have a lot of things to say or share.  I am thinking about writing a book someday about my experiences and this new blog is a way for me to start writing it all out!  I am keeping my exact details anonymous (location, district, etc) on that blog so that my identity isn't public, but I would love to have all of my friends read it .....please go check it out! And don't forget to add to your Feed Readers!

Photoshop Disasters.

Omg....check out this blog!
Photoshop Disasters.
They post photos of magazine covers, etc that are the victims of some really bad Photoshop Skills!!

An example.... How about 3-armed Beyonce? LOL

New Reviews on Twin Cities Restaurant Blog.....

I spent some time last week trying to catch up on restaurant reviews for my Twin Cities Restaurant Blog.  Its been just over a year now since I launched the site and I am up to about 60 reviews/restaurant profiles!!  It has been a lot of fun, but also a lot of work.  I am NOT a food critic (some have asked!), just giving information and impressions of the restaurants I visit. (I think the most popular feature is the photos of the food!)
I have never advertised the blog other than sending a brief e-mail to my friends when I launched it and a few mentionings on this blog.  Despite that, I am getting nearly 100 hits a day just from search engines.  Its becoming much more popular as the reviews continue to grow.
Please go check it out, subscribe and comment!!
Oh, and the restaurant review blog now has a profile on Facebook.  Be my friend!
Muchas gracias, amigos.
xoxoxooxoxoxoxox

My So-Called Life.....

Anyone remember the show from the mid 90's: My So-Called Life with Claire Danes and Jared Leto????!!!

ABC.com now has some of the old episodes available to watch online!

Fun stuff! Jared was so dreamy back then.....I still love his music even though he isn't as hot as he used to be.  He is one hell of a musician though....... 30 Seconds to Mars is still one of my favorite bands!

Just thought I'd share for those of you who loved this show back then like I did!

New look for Twin Cities Restaurant Blog....

Its been literally months since I have written any restaurant reviews for the Twin Cities Restaurant Blog, but I decided it needed a new look for 2008.

Even though I haven't added any reviews recently, the TCRB is still receiving a ton of hits from various search engines.
Hopefully the site will grow even bigger this year and maybe I will even start to reap the rewards!
Go check it out!

Jeff's European Adventures.....

Many of you who have followed my blog over the years know that my younger brother Jeff is also a blogger.  In fact, he has actually been blogging for longer than anyone I know (like 6 years now), but his posts have been sporadic over the past year or so because he isn't sure if it is worth it to write so much if he doesn't have an audience.
I know some of you have read several of his blog posts in the past and have wished he would write more often, so I wanted to point out that he recently went to Europe and has written several posts about his adventures.

Go read his blog and leave him some comments, he isn't feeling as loved as he should after spending so many hours writing about his trip!! Feel free to tell him I sent you there, or that you are a friend or dotcomrade of mine.  As soon as he sees this post, he will be expecting you.  Don't disappoint....I can guarantee you won't be disappointed with his stories! He is a funny clever guy and also SINGLE, good looking and extremely successful.  Badly in need of a girlfriend to spoil. LOL

Jeff has also initiated a rating system for each of his posts, please show him how much you enjoy his posts so that he keeps writing!!  And don't forget to add him to your Bloglines or Google Reader subscriptions!

http://www.jeffsauer.com/blog/

Happy Friday ya'll!

 

Firefox and Google Reader!!

Firefox!!!!
I am all about it after recently switching from my long-time friend, Internet Explorer.  It seems faster all-around...and who doesn't love that? I was easily able to import all of my bookmarks from IE, which makes life soooooooo much easier!
Two months ago I also switched from Bloglines to Google Reader (by Nicole's recommendation) and I love it sooooooooooo much better!  (Of course I am a Google addict...gmail, videos, maps, images....all of it!) You can create folders and organize the blogs you read to make things so much easier and more organized.  I have folders for books, photography, photoshop-related, funny mommies, food and holidays, Thoughts for Thursday girls, Hollywood, Scrapjazz girls, cool scrapping chicks, scrap challenges, video, etc.  Its great to have them organized like that.  And there is no wait time....when someone posts, it shows up in Google reader within minutes, unlike bloglines that takes 30-60 minutes sometimes!!  I recommend that those of you use Bloglines make the switch....and you can easily export and import all your subscriptions from bloglines to google reader, so no worries!
One awesome thing about Firefox is that there is a "subscribe" icon (its an orange symbol) right on the address bar if the page/site you are currently visiting has a feed.  If you are on a blog you enjoy, just click that orange button and it automatically adds it to whichever RSS feeder you set it to (mine is obviously google reader).
I have found that some pages/sites appear or are formatted a little different when using Firefox than Internet explorer, but I am going to get the hang of it. 

So who uses Firefox and who is going to jump on the bandwagon and give it a try??
What about Google Reader?  or Gmail for that matter? I LOVE it.  Let me know if you want an invite, or you can set one up when you create an account for Google reader.

What other fabulous things should I know about Firefox for those of you tried-and-true users??

Still Motion Blog....too cool!!!

I wanted to share the coolest blog I have seen in a long time!

Still Motion Blog

These video montages are so amazingly emotional.  Wow!!!!

I'll be back later with more ;)

Add youself!

I saw this on Nicole's blog and had to steal it! Just click below the map where it says "Sign Guestbook" and then add a pic of yourself and your location.  I hope to see many of you :)

Busy couple of days!

So, its been a busy couple of days, despite that I haven't felt that good ever since last Sunday when I ate too many grilled meats and spent the day in the hot, hot sun.  I have temporarily sworn off most solid meats since then....just kind of grosses me out.   I've definitely OD'd on BBQ and I don't know if I'll even be able to eat it again until next summer.  Seriously!

Went out with Lanee and Rog on Wednesday night.  They are just so cute and are some of my dearest friends.  Love these guys, they are always willing to be spontaneous with us and I hang with 'em often.

I plan to write a review for the restaurant we went to, Rudy's Red Eye Grill, as soon as I can get to it.  ETA: Here is my review of Rudy's. We have been to quite a few new places or places I haven't reviewed yet and I am lagging behind a little bit.  Go check out Twin Cities Restaurant Blog and read some of the newer ones I have on the site.  I'd even love to get a comment or two....so far I think I have a total of five comments.  thats pretty pathetic, I have to say.  So show some love!  J/k, but for the record, most of my traffic is generated from search engines, as TCRB is often #1 in the search findings.  This is especially true for the restaurants who do not have their own websites.  I need to start hitting up these restaurants for a free meal for that cheap advertising!  Does anyone here use Google Adsense on their blogs/sites?

Here are Lanee and I posing with one of the Lucy Statues that are displayed around St Paul (Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Linus statues are also all over town).  This one is outside Rudy's.

 

You remember how sweet I thought my cats were yesterday?!  Well I vacuumed my sofa for the 2nd time this week and told them all they are NOT allowed on my sofa anymore, because I am sick to death of having to vacuum every other day.  So this is what I see an hour later...

Little shits, they listen real well, don't they?!

local signage.

Does anyone know what kind of plant is pictured here? I saw it earlier when I was out to lunch so I thought I'd take a little pic of it.(Turned out kind of cool).  Many of the suburbs around here have signs such as these as you enter the city limits.  Is it like that where any of you live also? Just curious...

I have all sorts of things to blog about, but I am kind of lazy at the moment. How about a couple of pictures?

A few recent ones of the kitties...

Phoenix and Isis snuggling in the desk chair (they're always snuggling, but this is the first time i've seen them in this spot!)

Phoenix sunbathing in front of the patio door, as he does every morning

I also wanted to give a shout-out to my SIL Michelle who just started a blog.  I made this cute little banner for it. 

Right now I am reading a book that intriques and scares the crap outta me all at the same time. Its called Decipher by Stel Pavlou  Its too complex of a story to describe, but you can read the reviews by clicking the link above.  I know its fiction but talk of the end of the world and these catastrophic events that might cause it seem like they could be very real. I also do not doubt that ancient civilations knew much more about these things than we do.  I do not normally read this type of book, but I can't find myself putting it down. Gotta get it finished in time for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this Saturday!

Peace out, peoples.

New Facebook Features.....

Okay, if you haven't jumped on the Facebook bandwagon, I dare you to go do it NOW!!!!

They have added some new features within the past few days that are pretty sweet!

*iLike which allows you to keep track of which concerts you are attending and also alerts you of when your favorite artists are on tour (and also alerts you as to who else is attending that concert)

*Slideshows of your uploaded photo albums (from Rockyou)

*Widgets (choose from a variety of music, media, video, games, humor and clocks)

*Marketplace to buy/sell items (similar to e-bay, Craigslist)

*Event planning (similar to e-vite)

*Birthday reminders

*Groups to join for common interests

Its very easy to find friends who are already on Facebook, just type in your e-mail and the password and it will do it for you :)

Hope to see you there!

Facebook got a facelift.....

I haven't had a ton of time to really explore it all yet, but so far I am loving the changes!!  It is now much easier to see all the photos that your friends add and easier to navigate.

Too bad my school district just blocked Facebook on our network, so I can no longer access it at lunch or after work :(

So happy to see many of my Scrapjazz friends have recently joined too! 

Waiting for the rest of you......go register if you haven't already!

www.facebook.com

See the USA.....

Do any of you remember this post last October when I told you guys about the Hometown Invasion Tour? I have faithfully been following Bugsy's (aka Justin Sailor) journey as he makes his way around the country, staying with various hosts and visiting Small Town America.  He has thus far made it to over 25 states and is about half-way home.  This week he made it to Tennessee and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he was staying with Krystyn, one of my blogging buddies who had heard about his adventures from my original post!!  How cool is that??  Bugs even gave me a shout-out in this post on his blog!!

I have visited 21 states (those in red) in my lifetime and would love to see all 50.  Anyone want to host me?? Its obvious which sections I need to see!

Pathetically, I have only been to two other countries outside the U.S.: The Bahamas and Mexico...but I have been to Mexico 20 times!

Any Wefflers?

I know I've gotten at least two people to confess that I got them hooked on Weffriddles.  Any one else care to 'fess up? I have worked my way up to level 39 with just a few minutes I have here and there...its like a drug.  I love the challenge and sense of accomplishment after figuring out a difficult level.  Very clever computer puzzles!

My Side Project...Twin Cities Restaurant Blog

About a month ago I mentioned that I had started a blog for reviewing restaurants around the Twin Cities (Mpls/St Paul and surrounding suburbs).  A perfect project for someone who likes to eat out often. LOL. I started looking around about six months ago to see if there was any other blogs around the Cities that specifically featured restaurants and found NOTHING, which made it an even better idea. 

I have only been working on the site for about a month now, so I am a little short on reviews for now, but I guess it is about time that I debut this baby!   Twin Cities Restaurant Blog.  The site has not yet been perfected....under the category links you will see that I have location and cuisine all jumbled together.  I am hoping to figure out a way to get them separated, but my Typepad template doesn't allow it for now, so I have to tweak the codes a bit.

Check it out and let me know what you think!  Feel free to leave comments, bookmark the site, or pass the link on to others who might be interested.  I am also looking for others to help write reviews, all you need to do is follow the format that I use.

I plan to have dining cards made with the logo/website info to leave at the restaurants after I eat there.  It is FREE advertising for the restaurants, so I am hoping that eventually I might get a free meal here or there.

Hope you enjoy! Even if you don't live anywhere near the Twin Cities, you can still take a look at some of the cool restaurants our city has to offer :)

Weffriddles

So....... awhile back I heard about a riddle/puzzle website called Weffriddles.  Being that I love solving riddles and most types of puzzles, I thought this was a site I would love.  The riddles are set up in levels and you must first accomplish one level before moving on to another level.  Each level becomes increasingly difficult.  I went to the opening screen and this is what I saw, a list of the rules. (I know this extremely hard to read and I don't expect you to, I just wanted you to see what it looked like!)

Great, I've read the rules, now I how do I get to level one?  There was a link at the bottom that says "Weffriddles forums" so I went there to figure out how to get to level 1.  I discovered that the rules screen was actually level 1 and I hadn't even realized.  So I read all the extra "clues" that some of the people who had already passed that level gave, and I tried all sorts of stuff, but none of the answers I tried led me anywhere!!  I gave up after about 5 minutes because I didn't really have time that day to sit and figure it out.  I went back to the site yesterday and tried working on that puzzle for 45 minutes before I actually figured it out.  It was much easier than I realized, I just had not been doing the right thing.  Once I realized the format, I was able to breeze through levels 2-9 in less than 30 minutes.  I showed the site to a friend later last night and although she had not done any of the previous levels, together we solved levels 12 & 13, but became very stumped on 14.  I was too tired to think anymore and went to bed.  The challenge was not too much for me, as I was back at it first thing this morning!!  I am now on level 16 and looking forward to continuing with the challenges.

This site is fun, but is also very challenging.  Knowledge of computer skills is a very good thing if you're going to try this game.  Each time you pass a level, there is a deep sense of accomplishment! I recommend giving it a try when you have some time.  It is encouraged that you read the forums for additinal hints (no spoilers, though!) and take notes for each level that you pass...it may help you solve future riddles.

Good luck.  If you start banging your head against the computer after spending 45 minutes on level 1 like I did, please feel free to e-mail me and I will help you out with that first one!

Jeff, you will probably be a super-genius at this game! 

Check out Facebook!

I have a new obsession: Facebook.com 

For those of you who are not "in the know", Facebook is an online social-networking service.  It is similar to MySpace, but not nearly as flashy and MUCH more secure.  You cannot look at a person's profile unless you both confirm that you know each other or that you want to be "friends".  I love it because you can start your own "groups" and invite specific people to be a part of that group.  You can also upload pictures to these groups, its a nice way for many people to share them all in one spot. Each group has a message board as well.  I have recently reconnected with several of my cousins on both sides of the family, which I think is pretty cool!  I sent out an invitation to many of my friends, but so far there are only a  few who have taken the plunge, so I thought I would tell everyone about it here.  I am hoping that more friends from high school and college join so I can keep up with them a little better....even though I have this blog, I can't think of any of my real-life friends who blog (besides Michelle).  It isn't fair that ya'll know so much about me without it being reciprocated!  Ha ha. Okay...so everybody better go create a FREE membership  now!! LOL.  Once you sign up, do a search for me and then add me to your friends.  If I like you enough (kidding!), I will confirm it and we can start chatting :)

A few cool sites to share....

Blogshares.   I know mentioned this site before about 6 months ago, but if you haven't heard of it, I thought I'd tell ya'll about Blogshares.  It is a fantasy stock market for blogs.  If you are a blogger who uses Blogger.com, chances are that your blog is already indexed...it may even be worth something if others have purchased shares :) If you have a blog through typepad or another service, you must register your blog. 

Once you sign up to play the game, you are given a certain amount of $ to start buying shares of various blogs.  Each blog is given a value based on incoming and outgoing links and has 5000 shares available.  The price of the stock goes up (or down) every time shares are bought or sold.  Most shares start at$0 .75 or something like that. If you were lucky (or rich enough), you could own shares in Mi Vida Ocupada, but all of my stock is sold.  I had purchased almost all of my own shares over time and then I accidentally sold them all a few weeks ago, majorly raising the price of my stock.  Each share in my blog is now worth $1,128.28.  Ridiculous!!   I am not too serious about this game because I don't know how to do anything other than buy/sell shares, but it is fun!!  Give it a try :)

eXTReMe Tracking.  Get the stats on who visits your blog and where they are from!  I just signed up for it less than 24 hrs ago, but I already know how many unique visitors have been here today.  I am very curious to know who my visitors are from the Czech Republic, Germany, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Lebanon, and Iran?  Hi!

Another feature is that it keeps track of what browsers people are using when they visit.  For example, 44.83% of you are still using Internet Explorer 6!! I highly recommend upgrading to IE7 like 37.93% of the visitors to this site.  And 24% of visitors are here between 1-3pm.  Pretty neat, huh?

How Many of Me? This site uses U.S Census Bureau statistics on first and last names that are in common use in the USA.  Type in your first and last name and find out how many other people in the country statistically have the same name as you.  According to the statistics, there are 4 other people named Kristi Sauer.  8 people named Kristen Sauer.  It is really weird to know there are others with my name out there!!  Dopplegangers. LOL.  I have typed in several names of people I know and had fun playing around, but  some uncommon names are not listed at all, so I am not sure how accurate this really is. (PS I first saw this on Sarah's blog a few months ago but never got around to sharing it here)

Hopefully that provided some additional entertainment for those of you who are at work right now. lol! 

Hey Animal lovers!

For those of you who really like watching and learning about animals, you have to check out the San Diego Zoo's website!

This site has all sorts of cool information...

Did you know that a group of porcupines is called a prickle? 

Have you ever heard of a Frugivore? It is an animal that only eats fruit!

So many cool things that my students and I were learning about this morning.  I found this SDZ scavenger hunt for us to do, so we took a virtual field trip to the zoo and we had a lot of fun learning!

Check out any of the live cameras to see the pandas, polar bears, elephants and apes.

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Other stuff of importance:

**Got my hair cut & foiled last night.  Bye-bye to the blond.  Got more layers too, have no idea what to do with my hair now!!! Yikes, going to take a few hair experiments before I decide I like it and post a pic for ya'll

**Read an excellent post this morning at www.trueprincestories.com about how offensive the "N" word is and yet how commonly it is used with our younger culture.  The word has always really bothered me and it bothers me more now because I don't think a lot of kids really understand the connotations of the word.  Read it and tell Hucky what you think! He is a former body-guard to Prince

**Have any of you ever heard of Weblo.com ? Full explanation here. 

Short version: Basically, it is a virtual copy of the real world.  It is the latest rage because people can purchase domain names, properties, cities, and even countries.  They are cyber copies - or virtual versions - of any real estate from the real world. At Weblo.com, all of these assets are for sale and you may buy, sell or auction them.  You can even manage celebrities!  I just set up a profile last night and deposited $25 into my account to get started.  I am now managing both Oscar de La Hoya's and Lenny Kravitz's celebrity fan sites.(They need a lot of work!)   Too bad someone else got Prince!   I am also the new mayor of Hugo, MN (my town of residence).  This would be pretty sweet to buy stuff now and sit on it until it the whole idea takes off!  I could actually make real money on it someday! What domain names should I try to buy? Go check it out!!

**A Congratulations to my friend Leah who got engaged last weekend!!

**Happy Birthday to Mr. Daniel Boone today!!!!!!! (My cousin in AZ)

The New www.sweetsauer.com

After a week-long attempt, I am happy to announce that I have successfully merged my typepad blog with the domain name www.sweetsauer.com.  You can get to this blog with that address, sweetsauer.com (no www), as well as at sweetsauer.typepad.com.    You might want to update your bookmarks or links if you link to this blog, but you do not have to...the old way still works.

I bought the domain name back in January of 2004 and it took me until March of '05 to launch my site.  I was great about updating it until I discovered blogging a few months later.  Typepad was so much easier to use and I loved the concept of stacked posts.  At that point, the sweetsauer.com site fell to the back-burner. 

If any of you have a domain name and a Typepad blog (not sure if you can map a domain through blogger or not?), it is pretty easy to set up domain mapping.  Just a thought :)

Hey- Did any of you notice the little butterfly icon next to my url in the address bar? If not, push Ctrl + F5 now to clear your image cache.  Or bookmark me to your favorites :)   I got directions for how to make it here at Typepad.  I created the image in Photoshop and then went to this website to turn it into a .ico file.  Pretty easy to do and I always like new, fun ways to personalize this blog.

Another feature that I have added to the sidebar is a Google Search, specifically for this site.  That way you can search for a specific topic, post, etc without having to read through the Archives.  Give it a whirl and let me know how it works!  ****Please note that this site was just indexed with Google and it may take a couple of days before the search works correctly!****

Hometown Invasion Tour- I wish I had thought of this first!!!!!

Who has heard about the HownTown Invasion Tour??????   I highly suggest you click on the link, but to make a long story short, there is a recent college grad named Justin Sailor from MI, who decided that he was going to take a year off to travel before starting his career.  His goal was to visit all 50 states, staying with a host family at each stop to save money.  He has recently made his dream a reality and has a blog highlighting all of his stops.  I think this is such a cool, cool idea!! If only I had thought of it first!! LOL.  I actually heard about the story in my local newspaper after Justin made his way to White Bear Lake last week.  He even visited our new elemtary school in Hugo!    I plan to follow him as he makes his way around the country.  So far his route has been (MI, WI, IA, MN, SD, ND) He has a link on his blog where people can leave suggestions of places for him to visit, and he is also still looking for host families.  Check out his site!!!!! He is also an aspiring photographer has pics from each of his stops:)

Other stuff:

Spent most of the weekend scrappin and taking it easy. Had a nice time at Sarah's with Shannon, Gina and Gina's daughter Kayla on Saturday morning .  I love that a few of my friends like to scrap now too! They don't obsess about it like the rest of us do(LOL) but they have fun :)

Finished Lanee's book....I think I did 34 pages.  New world record for me!!  I had not planned to do that much, but Lanee kept handing me cute pics and I couldn't say no! LOL.  I plan to give them the album on Thursday at the Groom's dinner.  That way they will have it to set out at the wedding.  I will post a slideshow of the layouts sometime shortly after that!

Thinking about getting a referral to a ears, throat, nose doc.  I am sick of my sinus problems, think I need a specialist.  My left ear is all out of whack now too. 

Ordered some books from Amazon.  Thanks for the recommendations, Rolana and Ashley.  Can't wait to get new books, I have been in withdrawal!

Went to a kick-ass rock show the other night at the Rock Nightclub.  Got to see Ra, a really awesome band!  The stupid lights were in my eyes all night and the music was deafening, but it rocked.

This reminds me...Happy Birthday, Alexandra!!!  Birthday love to you soon! Muah!!!

Have a great week everyone!!

Been Busy & Discovered Google Earth

Just got on my computer for the first time in almost 3 days!

Too tired to post all my fabulous pics from the past couple of days, but we'll start with a few from Georgia's (Jeff & Toni's little girl) 4th birthday party on Saturday afternoon...

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And here is one from Sunday afternoon.  My parents had our family up to the lake, along with my mom's cousin Vicki, her husband Eric, and their three girls, Nicolet, Gabriella and Isabelle.  Here are the girls with Annika!

I just discovered the coolest Program in the WORLD.......Google Earth!!!  For those of you who do not know about it, it is a virtual 3-D earth that is composed of pictures taken from a satellite.  You can pinpoint any location in the World (by giving an address or city and state or country) and zoom down to that location to see an aerial view.  I found my house, my parents', family in AZ, the schools I work at, etc. It gives you the exact coordinates of each location and you can "mark" specific locations so that you can go back and find them at a later time. The only drawbacks I have found is that you can't zoom super close to any spot without losing some resolution, and the pictures were taken like 2-3 years ago, so it does not show what the earth looks like currently.  New Orleans looks pre-Katrina.  Also, you can print or e-mail images, but you cannot save them as jpg files, which is  a bummer.  I was about to show ya'll the view of my neighborhood!  It is overall a very cool program!  Here you can download it for free as a program.  Try it out and let me know what you think and where you travel to.......so far I have seen the pyramids in Egypt, The Statue of Liberty,  Paris France and Barcelona Spain.  It is also great for directions and other points of Interest.  Have fun!

Hola Amigos

Hi! You think I would have so much time to update this blog at the moment, but I am really just lazy!

Thanks to everyone who commented on the album I made for Kara....I worked really hard of it and am proud of the way it turned out! And I think it is safe to say that Kara *loved* it!!

Here are a couple of pictures from her shower on Sunday afternoon.  We had a really nice time!

Leah, Mary, Mandie, Me and Kara.....

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I started a new book yesterday called The Rome Affair by Laura Caldwell.  This is one of the books that Kristin Harmel (who wrote How to Sleep with a Movie Star) recommended for her book club this summer.  Whoa! It is a psychological thriller about a young married couple and the wife's crazy best friend.   I found myself up until like 3am last night reading it about half-way through. Can't wait to see what happens next!

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I also tried to get caught up on the blogs I read last night and came across a very interesting link on Kristi Conte's website.....Blogshares.  It is an Fantasy Stockmarket for Weblogs!  What does that mean, exactly? I am still trying to figure it out, but this is the gist.  Anyone who has a blog can make it "public" and people can buy and sell shares for different blogs.  5000 shares per blog! Popular blogs can be worth a pretty penny, because each share is worth more money.  Each person gets $500 to start with and can buy/trade available stock.  Although I have no idea what I am doing, it sounds pretty fun!!  Anyone with a blog should get in on this action!!  One thing I have found though, is that that website is kind of hard to navigate.  Try it and tell me what you think!!  Anyone already have their blog listed with blogshares???

I guess that is all for now...gotta go run some errands!

The MySpace Craze....

Have you heard about MySpace.com yet?  If not, where have YOU been?? For those of you NOT in "the know", MySpace is a FREE online service that allows you to meet and network with  "friends".  You can post pictures, "pimp your page" with various html codes, and keep blogs.  You can send messages, leave comments and post bulletins.

I personally have not spent much time on Myspace, even though I do have my own Myspace Page, because it is SLOW and has a bunch of annoying ads...hence it being "free".  But it still can be very cool....

Just last night I got a message from someone I went to college with and haven't seen in about 7-8 years!!  I had listed my colleges in my profile and she saw me.  It was such a nice surprise to hear from her!  A similar incident happened a few weeks ago when a friend from high school found me the same way.

So what have you got to lose?  Go sign up now and add me as your Friend!

PB Loco: The best Peanut butter in the world!

I made a discovery out at the Mall of America on Saturday that just might change my life, if not the world....as long as you like peanut butter! There is a new company based here in the Twin Cities that makes blended, flavored peanut butter.  The store is called PB Loco and they make the best peanut butter you will ever have in your life!!! Move over Jiffy, Skippy, Peter Pan.....you've got NOTHING on PB Loco's White Chocolate Raspberry PB or the Jungle Banana PB. OMG!!!!  They had free samples at the store at MOA and one tiny spoonful and I had to buy a jar of each! They use real ingredients to get the best flavor combinations.  I couldn't believe that no one had thought of this before, it is so effin good!

The only PB Loco other than the one here at the Mall of America is in Scottsdale, AZ.  Don't worry, the great news is that you can buy it online!!!!!  Oh, I love the internet :)  Click the link above to see all the yummy flavors they offer. Order it and enjoy...you'll be thanking me!

Ooooh, just think how good it would be drizzled on vanilla or chocolate ice cream....heavenly!

What were they thinking??

Have any of you seen those specials on MTV or VH1 where they show celebrities wearing just hideous outfits???  Or every fashion mag has a section about fashion No-Nos.  I found a funny link on Lindsay Thom's blog  called Go Fug Yourself dedicated to celebrity fashion crises'.  The commentary of the authors is pretty funny, check it out! 

I'm Becoming a Blog Junkie!

It seems these days that everyone is keeping a Blog... I have been adding fun Blogs I have come across to my list every day...and many of these people I do not even know!! I hope no one minds...I certainly want other people to read mine, friends and strangers alike.  It won't take long to get to know me if you stay tuned...

What I think is so cool is that you really get to hear the author's voice coming through and people have so many interesting things to say...and anything goes!

My Blog up to this point has been mostly about what happens in my busy life.  That is the personal stuff that my friends like to read. I think I might expand on that so that I start documenting my thoughts and feelings on various subjects as well.  Lists seem to be extremely hot, as are links to other funny and interesting things, sites, people, etc.  I have been thinking up many topics that would be fun to write and read about, so that will also be coming soon!

I have also noticed that everyone has really cool photographic banners at the top of their pages....I will have to find a cool picture to work with...I have no idea where to begin!!  I know that I can count on Nicole or Jessica for some help...these girls are both amazing photographers and also pros at Photoshop!!

*** Addition to original post***

I have just come across two very cool sites Arrow in Time and Ten Years of My Life . 

In Arrow in Time, a family takes a picture of themselves every year on the exact same day.  You can see the changes over the past 27 years.

In Ten Years of My Life, the author is taking one single picture every day of his life for the next ten years.

What a COOOOOOL idea!!! I know scrapbooking is kind of like that, and so are blogs, but to put it in sequential order, without any words also shows you where the time goes....

I might have to try that some time.  My camera is in my purse 24/7 anyway :)

Two Cool Blogs to Look At

I find it very fun to "Blog surf" from time-to-time when the opportunity arises.... I have several that you can read by clicking the links under "Blogs I read"

I wanted to point out two in particular that are fun to look at:

The first one is Blue Ridge Blog.  This woman lives in the mountains and must be a professional photographer because her wildlife photos are absolutely stunning!  She has the most beautiful views from her home and I love visiting her blog to see the new pictures that she posts.

The second one I just discovered is Post Secret.  This guy has random, anonymous people e-mail him with their secrets and then he makes creative post cards displaying these secrets and posts them on his blog.

Thought I would share if anyone is interested in looking!

I would also love to hear about other cool BLOGS that other people read...feel free to post a link in my COMMENTS!

My Website is launched!!

I finally launched my website!!! Yay! I have been working on it here and there for the last two months, but I finally got my guestbook working with the help of my bro Jeffrey...thank GOD I have him to help me with all this technical stuff! LOL

On a tastier note.....
I have become addicted to green salsa ever since my trip to Mexico a a few weeks ago.... I am finding all sorts of yummy Mexican things to eat it with...such as my lunch...nachos with black beans, dipped in green salsa. Yummm!