Sometimes I when I really want some swagbucks but don't really need to search for anything, I start asking the swagbucks search engine questions. Like tonight I just asked if they wanted to give me any more swagbucks. And lo and behold, they did (even when I mispelled their name)! Such a deal!
While this whole egg balancing thing may be nothing new to some people, I just recently learned about it (or maybe I just started caring about it). According to Chinese legend, you can balance a raw egg on its end as a result some special gravitational pull that occurs during the equinox when the sun passes over the equator. Now, there are some skeptics out there and here's a little blurp from Urban Legends on About.com:With a few grains of salt
I'm not saying it can't be done — standing raw eggs on end, I mean — it certainly can, but the trick takes patience, eggs of just the right shape, a pinch of salt if all else fails, and — and this is the biggest "secret" of all, mind you — it works equally well no matter what day of the year you attempt it.
But I would just like you all to know that around 1:20 I was just messing around with the egg, getting my props ready and although I was not trying too hard, the egg did not want to balance itself. But then... at 1:32, I pretty much threw the egg up and it landed perfectly balanced on its buttush! Amazing, huh? Mom got one to balance also but when Courto came home around 4:30 she had no such luck. So perhaps there is something special about the gravitational pull at that minute that the sun passes over the equator...
Last Friday afternoon I headed out to begin my little spring break adventure in Michiana. As I drove north on U.S. 31, I pulled over to take a picture of this roadside restaurant signage. Not so sure if I'd like to stop and eat there...
I arrived at the Life Action Camp shortly after 5:00 attend a retreat that Carrie was speaking at. I ended up being able to stay in the new cottage with Carrie, Katie and Joy. The next day we had some delightful snacks during our session. These veggie fry/chips express pleasant time we had at the retreat.
Today I managed to complete one of the fastest and most successful parallel parking attempts in my entire driving career. Parallel parking is a very intimidating activity and I've tried to avoid it ever since I started driving. But in the last couple of months I have been entering situations where this is a required skill. I've noticed Niles has rather long parking spaces and their Main St. isn't too busy. So I thought I'd give my parallel parking skills a bit of practice. I was so proud of my speed and accuracy! You would appreciate it a lot more if you got to experience it with me, especially since my picture makes it look like there was no car behind me. But trust me - there is!
The last couple of days I have visited many of my favorite shops - multiple thrift stores and two antique malls. I am on a mission to find a little suitcase for my graphic design portfolio. And of course thrift stores and antique malls are a great place to go for this item. It's been a wonderful yet painful time visiting these superb shops. I have had to exercise some major self-control in a couple of ways. 1) Not allowing myself to get caught up looking at the entire store - focusing on the luggage section and baskets/knickknacks (which fortunately lets me cover a decent amount of ground) 2) Not buying all the exceptional items that catch my eye as I scope the space for suitcases. Displayed are some of the temptations I've come across. And mind you, these are only a few of the tantalizing items I came across. Just for a scintilla of clarification -the navy and red bag is a shoe carrier and the chair is a swivel chair that is quite comfy! The last picture is a bike basket that would probably be perfect for my J.C. Higgins cruiser.
I'm doing some research for a school project right now and I ran across this image. Apparently a professional card stacker (didn't even know there was such a thing) created an entire hotel out of plastic key cards. I didn't read much more but if you all would like to educate yourselves on toilets made out of plastic cards, you can visit this site. 
I am in my third year of BSF but today I joined my sixth group! Nealy has joined me for the second semester of John at Post Road Christian Church on the east side of Indy. The picture above is of Yummy's Grill which is right by the church. It's a pretty sweet looking place... sorry you can't really see that, this was all I could manage to get before the light turned green. I'm thinking we're going to have to try this place out sometime after class!
Last week we got a nice dumping of snow and I got to wear my sweet new boots while shoveling. They kept my feet nice, dry and toasty the whole time! I happened to have my new matching fleece on too. After Nealy and I finished shoveling the driveway I drug Courto into the cold to have a little photo shoot in honor of Sonya. Thanks Matt and Sonya for my new boots!
How many of you knew that today, January 6th was the Feast of the Epiphany?? I feel sorry to say that I am in my 23rd year of life and am just now learning of this holiday. I am in debt to my new 2010 planner that I purchased a couple days ago. I was having quite a frustrating time finding a planner that I liked until I remembered that I had a gift card for Barnes & Noble and thought that I just might find something there. I was thoroughly excited to find a nice selection of planners all at 50% off! As I was admiring my planner that evening I saw that today was the Feast of the Epiphany. I wondered how I have never even heard of this holiday and what it could be about. Nealy and I decided maybe you just have a big gathering and share epiphanies! This sounded pretty interesting to me, especially if we got to eat some good food to help stimulate the epiphanies. However, I didn't have too much faith in my speculations so I decided to do some research on this holiday. 
And here's what I've discovered: 
The King's cake is round to represent the circular route that the wise men took to avoid going back to Jerusalem. A plastic baby is hidden inside the cake because Mary and Joseph had to hide baby Jesus to protect Him from Herod. Whoever gets the piece with the baby in it is the one who brings the King's cake to next year's celebration.
