Bi-weekly Drawing to start on April 1st!! (Please read!!)

In an effort to get more people to sign up as followers, I have been searching for ideas and found an article that suggested giving items away. I thought that was a great idea! So, I'm going to assign numbers to each of my followers a number and draw a number every two weeks. Then I'll post the name of the winner on my blog for the person to contact me for their prize. However, I am also trying to get my current followers to check back more often for new info, therefore if I haven't heard from the winner before the next drawing, I'll draw a new name for that prize. Also, if someone signs up as a follower and sends me a message that one of my followers recommended they check out my blog, I'll add an extra slip in the drawing for the person who referred my blog! I'll do that for each person who is referred and all of the slips will stay in the drawing until the end of the year. You will be able to win more than one and you definitely want to have as many slips in the drawing as possible for the end of the year drawing because I plan to do something special for that one!!

Toll has finally been paid!

While in Houston last week, I went out of my way to drive on a toll road so that I could pay for the car behind me! In the days of EZ tags, this turned out to be a much more challenging than I thought! There was no one behind me at first, but I asked the toll booth worker if I could go ahead an pay for the next car that came and she said sure. Just as we were driving away, another car pulled up. I hope they had a nice surprise!!

Drove across Lake Pontchartrain!

I looked everywhere for information about taking a train across Lake Pontchartrain, but couldn't find anything current about it. As far as I can tell, they don't do it anymore, so I drove across it on the causeway instead. It's kind of a strange feeling to be driving on a road and get to a point where all you can see around you is water in all directions!

One more bonus first - a ghost tour!

I have always been fascinated by ghost stories and we discovered that one of the plantations that we visited, Myrtles Plantation, is one of the most haunted places in the country! We signed up for a ghost tour for our last night in Louisiana. The plantation is beautiful and has a very interesting history and a great restaurant, but we didn't get to see anything supernatural. Bummer!

Yum!! Beignets at the original Cafe du Monde!!

I couldn't wait to try a beignet because I've heard they are so good!! I agree that they're good, but I was expecting them to be a little lighter and fluffier, maybe like a raised doughnut. But I would probably describe them as right in between a raised and a cake doughnut cut in a square with no hole. They were surprisingly filling! So, I liked them, but am not totally in love with them. Which is probably a good thing since I would have to make them myself if I wanted them very often. And, since I'm trying to lose weight, they wouldn't be something I should eat very often!

First attempt to pay a toll for someone was a bust!

Actually, it was two attempts!! The first time, I got in the cash only lane and someone with a tag got behind me!! Argh!! A couple of days later, I went back the same way only to discover that no toll was required going that direction! So, I'll have to keep looking for toll roads for awhile longer!!

Palm Reading in New Orleans

My daughter and I went to Yesteryears on Bourbon Street where we both had our palms and tarot cards read. It was very interesting! The lady who did our readings, Dawn Taylor, was terrific!! She took lots of time to talk with us and was very down to earth. She also read us like a book!! We were totally surprised at how spot on what she said was. Thankfully, we didn't get any bad news!!

Sleeping in a Canopied 4-poster Bed Tonight!!

The bed is beautiful, although not exactly what I had in mind. It is a 4-poster bed, but the canopy just goes over the head of the bed. I'm going to count it as accomplishing an item on my list because I did a lot of research to find a hotel that I could afford to stay in that offered canopied beds. There was another room that had a full canopy that I was hoping to get, but no such luck. This bed is very comfy though! And I still want to sleep in a bed with a full canopy, so I'll keep my eyes out for an opportunity! Again, pics will come at the end of the trip!

Overtip - check!

Taylor and I had a really nice waitress at lunch today. Her name is Hannah and she took the time to answer our questions and give us directions to a couple of places we wanted to go. She just pulled up and chair, and when I couldn't find my phone to look something up on the internet, she pulled out hers and looked up the information for us. I've been wanting to overtip someone who really deserved it and she sure did! She also showed us a pic of her that she had just taken with Liv Tyler this morning because she's in town filming a movie. Pretty cool day for Hannah! I wish I could have afforded a huge tip, but I did give her almost $20, which is quite a bit more than the $5 that I would usually leave. I'll be adding her pic when I get home, too, because it's another one that is on my daughter's camera. Thankfully, my camera appears to be working again and hopefully it will continue to do so!!

A couple of bonus firsts!!

My daughter, Taylor, and I are on our first trip that is just the two of us and we're having a blast! We're spending a couple of days in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. I have been planning to do some of the items on my list on this trip, but then I realized that the trip itself is a first because she and I have always had someone accompany us on our trips. Also, we have never ordered room service before, so we did that last night! (See pics of my excited daughter!) We're also staying in our first suite tonight. I'll have to add pics of that when we get back from our trip because my camera started giving me trouble this afternoon and my daughter didn't bring the cord to hook her camera up to the computer.

Working on Family Tree

I joined ancestry.com today and started setting up my family tree. I've been a little lazy about getting it started - I think because it sounds like such a major undertaking to do it the way I want to. To go back as far as I am able to go is going to take a lot of time and work, but I find it really interesting. The new TV show "Who Do You Think You Are?" that started last night inspired me to finally get moving on this project. Thankfully, my grandmother had some information that she had already put together, so I picked that up from her tonight and will spend some time going through it tomorrow. I've never really had a clear picture of my background, so I'm hoping I can learn a lot.

Technorati

I'm attempting to learn more about ways to increase traffic to my blog and one way that is to post a claim with Technorati. Since I'm so new to all of this, I just have to keep trying until I get it right because most web sites like Technorati seem to expect people to know what they are doing by the time they reach the point of using them. That's definitely not the case for me!

Anyway, I received a message that I need to include this code - HJA5K3G9XJY9 - in one of my posts in order to be able to have my claim accepted by them, so I'm giving it a shot!