Back to the drawing... tablet?

What do you all use to post with? Just your desktop and/or laptop? I bought a Kindle Fire hoping I could read blogs and comment through there, but I haven't been able to find a decent app to use to post with. I know I have one on my iPhone, and I ordered an iPad 3 so I can use it on there.. Once the damn thing finally gets to me.

Soooo I was just curious, what do you all use? Have you found good apps for both reading blogs and writing on your own?

Source

Speaking of apps that don't help me, have you all tried the Draw Something app? It's basically Pictionary. My niece told me to download it. She was all excited because she wanted me to play and she's addicted to it. I mean, for those who have been around here for a while, you know I can't freakin' draw! And I'm supposed to do this on an iPhone with my finger no less. Okay...

Needless to say, I downloaded it... Tried to do about 3 or 4 different things... And deleted the app. Maybe I can fake my way through the game on an iPad.. with a stylus? I doubt it...*sigh*

So what games have made you feel incompetent or that they are smarter than you? And don't forget to tell me how you roll with your blog.. Tablet? Apps? I figure the simplest thing is going to help me get back to blogging on a regular basis.

Happy 100th to The Zodiac Zoo Crew!

Source

So it's official! You Animals have been stuck with me for 100 blog posts. Well, you might not have been here that long, but there are that many for you to take your happy ass back to read. Aren't you thrilled? I am sitting at 95 followers, so I'm hoping that will jump over 100 soon.

In honor of the 100th post, I think I'm going to give you some links to a few of my favorite posts. Personally, I'm going to take it easy on this Monday and enjoy reading YOUR blogs since I've done so much hard work for 100 posts. What? You don't think that was hard? It's very taxing on my brain, ya know! Even though I try to kill off the weak brain cells when I can... I am so behind in my Reader anyway, that this will give me an excuse to take it easy today because I absolutely love reading everyone's posts.

So here are a few I enjoyed writing, and I think others enjoyed reading...

My Mom stories always seem to be a big hit. My mother is a trip and a half, so feel free to look back on these: Reindeer Games for Mom, Up on the Rooftop.. with Mom, Mom's Adventures on Noah's Ark. I think I have one or two more of those yet to write so stick around.

These were pretty popular posts as far as views go... My Dentist is Hot!, Then and Now, A Jackass tried to ruin the Christmas Parade. 


I think that's enough reading material for you. And look, no animal posts. Well, not really. Hmmmm... When I first started writing you all recommended me because of my animal posts. Is it a good or bad thing I moved away from that?? Something to think about for the next 100!

Thanks for sticking with me and making me feel like what I had to say was pretty good reading, folks. I am truly thankful for each and every one of you who take the time to read my blog since I know there are so many other places in cyberspace you could be right now.

Source

Come join the shout-out party, and find out your new name!

Now for the moment you have all been waiting for... You will officially be named, my wonderful followers, by the end of this blog post. So I have until then to make up my mind for sure, right? Good, because I am still debating between a couple of things, and I don't know how to handle it.

I figured I would go ahead and pimp out... I mean, give a shout-out to everyone who participated in the contest and/or decided to steal my fancy new button. Since your responses and suggestions were so great, I'm putting them all here for everyone's enjoyment. Feel free to comment and give us all a link to your blog even if I didn't link you up here so you can join in on finding some new blogging friends.

Cinderita from The Adventures of Cinderita: Fellow bullshitters (She was worried that was wrong? Not with this crew!)

Amy from This House Gets Crazy at Three O'Clock: Little Lovelies (She did the wonderful drawings on my site, by the way!)

Vicki from Glitter Frog: Bullettes (get it? like bullets but... shit, never mind, she says)

Abby from Abby Has Issues: We could be "calve-aleers" or "bullies" or something with horny in it...

Alessandra from The Life and Times of A. Nighbert: How about Tauries? You know like the Tories only better... Hey, how about Boveeners?

Oilfield Trash from Make Daddy a Sammich: I would say bullshitters but you don't have a dirty mouth. So how about Ballsy Bulls? (Ha! He doesn't think I have a dirty mouth. Tell that to my momma.)

Amber from Amber LaShell Rants and other blogs: Hmmm, maybe Talkers? Is that stupid? I was thinking Bailey Bugs, you know after your dog..but that might be just cause I was looking at a picture when I thought of it. LOL (I thought they were both cute and NOT stupid, by the way! And she did the new design for my blog.)


Yvonne from Writing my life away!: How about "Talkative Readers"?

J.Day from The Ramblings of Charlie Brown: Oh man! I was gonna say "bullshitters"! LOL Oh well, if we stick with the cow thing... um, your "herd"?

ib from The Habitual Hobbit: Krissy's Kurmudgeon's  - A curmudgeon is defined as one that dislikes humanities absurdities. But, see what I did? I replaced the (C) with a (K) to fit better with Krissy, cause it's fu... ahh, forget it. I'm suck. (You most definitely aren't suck, and I SERIOUSLY considered this.)

The Adorkable Ditz from The Adorkable Ditz' Missteps: Taurites, Cow Pies, ChatterCows, Literate Bulls...

lyndylou from The Giggle Fest: How about My Little Taureans?

Don (who doesn't write a blog but should and gives many of us mad blog love and encouragement): Name your followers "Beautiful Babes and Horny Jerks." LOL (Virtual hugs and kisses being sent your way at your request, Don.)


becca from My Life: I like the name Scoobies, or bullpen.

AbsolutelyPrimed from Over Developed, Under Exposed: Hmmmm... Bull Chasers? Running with the Bull?

The Tame One from Thoughts of an Oxymoron: Taureans! Well, except I'm a Scorp, but still. Either way, I'm your bullshitter baby. ;-) (And I love that you are, girl!)


John from Full-On Forward: Total BSFrom... or BuckOff.. How about Matadorians, or Bullfighters..

Emily from Shut Up and Smile: hmmmmm how about your pitbulls. I know it's a dog.. but I think it sounds cool. (So did I!)


Canadian Blogger Girl: Still sticking with your Zodiacs for the name of ur peeps. (She is in the process of moving, but you'll love her when she comes back if you don't already follow her.)


Kat from Tapetum Lucidum: Well naturally you know that I like Rita's "The Bullshitters." ;-) Members of the Bull Pen? Since a Taurus=Bull, Pen=writing, and it's... I'm overexplaining, aren't I? I'm so sleeeeepyyy... (I thought that explanation made it so much cooler!)


Patty from Patty Punker: Toros!

Now, before I reveal the winner that I have not listed yet, I want you all to know I LOVED all of your suggestions. It was very hard for me to choose, and I honestly needed the extra day to make up my mind on a couple of things. But I won't stall anymore... The winner came from...

Average Girl from It's an Average Life (and other great blogs!): THE ZODIAC ZOO CREW

I absolutely fell in love with that one as soon as I read it! Though it incorporates what CBG suggested with the Zodiacs, I think expanding it to The Zodiac Zoo Crew means I will actually call you my Animals for short. I hope you all like it because you are stuck with it now. I thought you all being Animals was kind of fitting since many people give me praise on their blogs for being such an animal lover, and you all know I love you all to pieces!

So there ya go, my Animals. (AG, let me know what website you want your $25 gift certificate from, and I'll be sending it your way.) Thanks so much for all of the help, everyone! And for those who didn't participate, don't forget to give us your link in the comments so others can find you, too.

Update: Since AG is a woman after my own heart, she has chosen for me to donate the money instead to my local shelter. Because she was so generous to give up her shopping trip so readily for something I hold dear, I've chosen to double it. We just saved some puppies and kittens, people!

'Cuz I'm a tease like that.. But sometimes I just give it away.

Want a taste of what is to come? Check out my new button! I dare ya to display it on your blog. Ain't it purty??? I'll have to come up with a giveaway to go with the launching. Oh, what should it be?

Let's make it a competition. Come up with a name I should call my followers. Whoever comes up with the best one will get a $25 gift card to your favorite website. So send everyone this way! You have to be a follower to enter the giveaway and display my button on your blog. (If you have one.. I don't want to exclude my friends who don't blog but enjoy that I do.)

*Evil laugh going on with my cocktails!* I love making my _________(s) work for me. What are you people? Well, besides awesome for having the good taste to follow me.

To add a little something extra, let me know if you tweet this, blog about it, send this out on Facebook, or whatever, and I'll pimp you out! Just leave a comment letting me know so I can go see it.

Update: Someone who shall remain nameless (yes YOU Vicki, ya froggy woman) told me that my button was ginormous. It's not when you post in on the side. See, look to the right. The right is -------> that way. :)

Ready to branch out!

I am working on getting my dot com set up and running, and hopefully, I'm going to link it here so no one will have to worry about bookmarking the new site (unless you want to, of course). However, I need some help with a Taurus or Bull that's original and/or other such artwork. Anyone know of someone who is good at graphic art or are any of you? I want my site to be something that is just for me and the Talkative Taurus followers (especially after I figure out what to call you all!).

Source

On the same note, what templates do you all find that are easiest to use and most varied in options?  Anyone who can help with something that is maybe a cartoon-like image of me and Bailey or something similar would be great, too! Ideas? I know a lot of you have such awesome sites, that I'm sure you can give me some helpful hints.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I had a productive weekend which included mainly cleaning house. I still didn't get everything done that I wanted to, but I'm getting there.

I'm Irresistible! .. Wait, is she laughing at me?

Lyndylou over at The Giggle Fest gave me an award this week which totally brought my New Year in with a bang! Since she likes to giggle, I'm thinking she was being ironic by giving me this award?

But I guess I just make her laugh with my mom stories, and she loved my Then and Now post last week. Isn't the award yummy?! I forgive her for giving me sweets since she didn't know I was trying to be healthy before she gave me this award, but hey, it has strawberries. So it can't be too bad for me, right? RIGHT? I thought so, and I'm sure Dr. Oz would agree. I'll have that dessert with my wine and it will be even healthier. Thank you so much, lyndylou! I love it.

So I guess there are a couple of rules to this award. I have to tell you of 5 guilty pleasures and pass it on to 3 bloggers. Now you know with my new healthy living thing, this is going to make me think of things I really shouldn't have, but it's not all about food! I'm sure there are other guilty pleasures I have. I just have to think of them. Surely they'll come to me... Right?.. Here goes...

Guilty Pleasures
1. The sweetest sound in the world is a baby's laugh. As most of you know, I'm single with no children of my own (except the furry kind) so I live through all of my nieces and nephews. Hearing any one of the babies laugh just brings a joy to me that I can never explain. I can even be in a grocery store or something and hear a baby laugh, and no matter what kind of mood I'm in it will make me smile.

2. Watching sports is another love of mine. Watching my Steelers or Penguins (especially those two, though I have other loves) win a Championship is one of the greatest feelings in my life. Luckily, they've given me a lot to celebrate in my lifetime. Now if I can just get the Pirates to sell to Mark Cuban, maybe we can get them to win again!

3. Puppy breath! What is it about puppy breath? I just want to eat them up and hug them to pieces. I am seriously thinking about getting another puppy since the cat thing didn't work out with Bailey. I'm still trying to decide.

4. Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate! You knew I had to throw a food in there, and chocolate is the bestest food ever! I usually limit myself to chocolate ice cream being in the house when I have a craving, but I could pretty much hurt myself on anything that involves chocolate.

Okay, this lady has to be on crack!

5. Reading has to be in my top 5. Curling up on the couch in cozy pajamas, under a blanket, on a rainy day is one of the best ways to spend time. With my Kindle now, it's even nicer because I don't even have to have a free hand to hold the book or turn pages. All I have to have is a free finger to hit the button. Heaven!

 Image from here.

So now who do I pass this gem off to? 

1. Barb over at This and That (As I Bounce Thru' Life) because she is such a sweet person and always has a kind word to say in comments to people. She is also a fellow South Carolinian (well, she lives here anyway) which is what first caught my attention about her. I love her so go check her out! I'm sure she's probably gotten this award before, but she came to mind first.

2. The Tame One over at Thoughts of an Oxymoron because she makes me laugh and I can't resist her blog. The things she says on her blog and in comments makes me feel like I've found a kindred spirit. I hope that doesn't scare the bejeezus out of her. She will make you laugh even if you aren't as crazy as we are.

3. Jimmy over at Jimmy's Opinion because he is such a family man and always has encouraging words to say to everyone. He'll warm your heart and always makes you feel like there's someone out there who cares about what you have to say.

Okay, enough mushiness. I love the award, lyndylou! Those guilty pleasures used up all of my brain power for the day. I wonder if that burned calories? I lost 3 pounds, by the way. Yay, me! Not bad in two days...   

Jumble Love and Piss Brownies.. You heard me right!

Jumble Mash gave me an award! Isn't it cool? I absolutely love it, and since I love it when people think what I have to say is funny, that makes it all the more better! Yes, I said "more better" but I just got an award, so did you expect me to be coherent? Really! Anyway... Thank you, Jumble Mash! I am so tickled you found me (or I found you.. however it happened) because you have done so much for me and my little blog. You rock, woman! All of you other people, go follow her if you aren't already. You will not regret it, and the fact that she points out funny blogs should show you that she is one funny chica.

So there are a few rules to this award, but they are pretty simple.

1. Thank the person who gave you the award. (Check, check! Done it twice now.Once here and once there.) 

2. Tell a funny story to accept the award.. or at least tell a joke. (Oh the pressure!)

3. Only pass on to ONE other blogger. (Only ONE???? Holy crap! Do you know how hard it is to limit a Taurus???)

4. Now stand up and do a happy dance. (Check, check! Doing that for the second time now, and no, you can't have video of it! It's not a pretty sight. Trust me.) 

Funny story.. Funny story.. Come to me, dammit! I got nothin'. 

(Several minutes later... ) Don't you just want to smack that blinking cursor at times like these? Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to make that cursor blink, anyway?

(Still later... ) Oh, yeah! I was telling a friend about this story on Facebook the other day, and I've been meaning to blog about it, so here goes. 

I used to be the President of the Board for the Booster Club for a local minor league hockey team. We raised money to provide things for the hockey players because most of them basically came to town with clothes, their hockey equipment, and not much else, especially the single ones. Plus, we had parties and things for them. Anyway, we had this guy in the front office who used to fight us every chance he got on things we wanted to do. He really was the only obstacle we had at the time, and he was an arrogant ass. He would tell us we could do something only to wait until we had spent money on said project before changing his mind. Like I said.. He was an ASS!

Now we used to tailgate before and after hockey games on the weekends, because you know southerners will tailgate for anything. Everyone had their specialties that they made and contributed to the food pile, and one of our friends made the most awesome brownies you have EVER had. I think they had some kind of cream cheese icing on them. You know anything with cream cheese is good, because I'm pretty sure it was made by God himself.

So as the night was winding down, I forget for sure, but I think it was my friend Misty who was trying to give away the last of the food. She accidentally flipped the last "awesome brownie" onto the pavement in the parking lot. Five second rule, right? It was immediately scooped up and put back into the pan. Misty and I end up getting into a conversation about how many drunk guys had probably pissed in the parking lot, so there was NO WAY either of us were going to eat it. But we hated to waste it.

Right about this time, up walks the asshole asking if there were any of those brownies left. How perfect! We didn't waste any time handing it over with a smile. We got a hysterical laugh out of how we made him eat the piss brownie, whether there was really piss on it or not. Of course, he thought we were a couple of Simpletons (and I proudly wear that name now thanks to Simple Dude, so note the capital S!) who couldn't help but giggle about his awesomeness as he was walking away. Little did he know. It was our little private victory for all the anguish he had put us through. Well, it wasn't so private since we pretty much told anyone who would listen what we had done. 

Now, who do I give this wonderful gem of an award to? Honestly, I think I'll pay the Jumble Love forward to the Simple Dude, since I already gave him some blog love anyway. Go visit him if you haven't already. He makes me laugh, and I love anyone who makes me literally laugh out loud. 

Post-It Note Tuesday

I thought I would attempt what Sam does over on A Redhead Named Sam for little tidbits that cross my mind.

So, if you want to do the same, go to this site to make them. It's so easy, you won't believe it. And let me know so I can go check them out when you post them.

It's Friday... Glad Facebook is back!

So for once I wasn't caught up in an issue with Facebook being down. What the hell? I actually wasn't on it yesterday because I had some other issues which I won't bore you with. They have a movie coming out (or it is out... who knows when you don't have a theater in the town you live in), and they help promotions of it by screwing up? Typical! I'm glad it's back up today, and it better be okay tonight. How most of my friends survived without it yesterday is beyond me. The horror!

So how do you like my new look? I HAD to use that bull when I found it. I guess I need to harrass someone about how to design this thing better. If you haven't ever seen her blog before, you should check out Kristine at Wait in the Van. She is hilarious! She has an "ask the van" section that I guess I'm going to have to raid for help with this sucker. If you all know of some other humorous type blogs, let me know about them.

I have been reading blogs more lately than I've been writing in this one because I've been getting ideas and seeing what people are following. Of course, mostly it's all about me, so come to terms with that and you'll be fine. If not, just suffer in silence please.

Football season is here so prepare to hear me vent and/or brag on my teams on occasion. I am a huge Steelers fan, and in college it's pretty much Penn State and THE USC. Let's be clear from the start that anytime I mention USC, it is the first USC. The one that has been in this country the longest and is not named after a condom. The real USC would be the University of South Carolina, no matter what those crazy people in Cali think. Just so you know... Now let's hope my boys don't get slaughtered by Auburn tomorrow after I just set them up on that pedestal. But if you see me ranting about the Gamecocks or hear me hollering GO COCKS, you know I'm not talking dirty to ya.

I found out this week that my great-nephew received some "Aunt" clothing from an Aunt on the other side of his family. I was not thrilled with that. Don't they all know I'm the professional aunt, and now have the title of Great Aunt?! If there is "Aunt" merchandise to be purchased, that is my job dammit! At least I can still say I bought him his first one.

To clarify something I mentioned earlier, no I don't have a movie theater in my town, just like I don't have a Walmart. See why the internet is my link to the outside world? Mom jokes that I have to "come to the big city" on occasion just to go shopping. The town they live in is 45 minutes from me, so I am usually making the trip with a list in hand. Try seeing how easy it is to only go to the grocery store and Dollar General for things and see how long you last. It's peachy, I'm telling you.

Ways to make life easier...

Have a created a blogging monster by starting this? Hey, at least the stuff I'm searching for are ways to make my life easier. I found this guy's website while looking at Google Reader. He has a lot of helpful hints about organizing your life and things to make it easier. I scan almost everything at work because I hate having piles of papers if I can avoid it. So why don't I do that at home? A friend of mine gave me the website to use to make PDF's at home, but I'll have to check and let you know what that is if you need it so you don't have to buy Adobe Acrobat. But this guy has some great ideas here and on links coming from this page.

http://simpleorganizedlife.com/using-dropbox-to-manage-files-on-multiple-computers/

Anyway, you know all of those cards you have to carry around to save money at stores. There's an app for that! The only thing I can see that this won't help me with is that I have to use the actual card at the gas station when I redeem my gas perks from Bi-Lo. But other than that, I love the idea!

http://keyringapp.com/

Here are some other ideas he had for iPhone things to help you get organized, too.

http://simpleorganizedlife.com/iphone-apps-that-help-you-get-and-stay-organized/

But you might want to check out his site. He's got a lot of great ideas, and not just about organizing your things.

P.S. See my post from this evening for the link for us to both get more storage space on Dropbox and the link for the website for free PDF software.