TOMS Poll: The Votes Are In!

The TOMS shoes poll is officially closed and you guys officially ROCK! Thanks to all of you who participated in voting, I had a lot of fun with this!

33 of you voted and it was super fun to make little personal bets on which color would come out on top. Both stole the lead a couple of times—But, of course, there can only be one winner, and that winner is…

Drum roll please!

RED!

Red beat black 19 to 14. Not too shabby, Black. You were only 5 votes shy of tying things up.

So tonight I get ordered my fabulous red TOMS! I’m so excited! This is officially my first pair of TOMS, and on top of being a really great cause, I’ve also heard so many good things about these shoes.

I hope they get here fast!

And as soon as they do, I’ll post pictures for you guys.

Thanks again for participating, and I hope you had as much fun with it as I did!

Look! I'm ordering them! Excite!

About to check out!

Success! They are ordered!
And no, I wasn't going to let you see my address. ;)

Riding In Cars With Dogs

Okay, only one dog. My dog. Tucker. And he loves car rides. A lot.

Today he got to go on two. They were kind of short, but he was still pretty enthused about it. Personally, I think it's thanks in part to the fact that his doting mother—me—bought him a new Halloween-themed doggie sweater last night.

And he looks pretty darn cute in it, I must say.

Observe.

Yes sir, he is stylin'.

I was doing some grocery shopping and just happened upon this cute little Halloween sweater. And I have this compulsion, not only when it comes to buying things in general, but also when it comes to buying things for my dog. Especially for him to wear.

And it was only eight dollars...

Since Halloween is, I think, a pretty fun holiday, I decided that was a good enough excuse to buy it.

The best part is, Tucker likes it! He's pretty patient with me when it comes to dressing him. And I don't go completely overboard—he just has a couple of sweaters. And a jersey. But his hair is pretty short, and I like to keep my apartment kind of cold, so actually he enjoys being a little snug. When I put this one on him he went straight back to playing, and when I took it off he was kind of bummed about it.

But anyway. He wore it all day today, even during our car ride!

He can always tell when we're going to cruise around because I grab his leash and my keys.

Tuck's ready to go.

We didn't take a super long car ride today—I just needed to give a friend a lift. But I know Tucker loves going, and I like having a car buddy, so away we went.

I think Tucker was excited to show off his new duds.

My little backseat driver.

One of Tucker's favorite things to do in the car is stick his head out of the window. Since he's a Boston, and his eyes are a bit buggier than some other breeds, I don't let him stick his head out if we're going too fast. But just around town seems alright. He totally loves smellin' the smells. I totally love watching him be all excited and happy in the car.

He gets so into it, it kind of wears him out. He's usually ready for a little nap when we get back.

Today was no exception.

Tucker recharges his batteries.

That was pretty much my day. Yes, it was a delightful Saturday. I didn't do...anything productive at all.

I really enjoyed it. And I know Tucker did, too!

NaNoWriMo Website Relaunch!

It's October 1st! Which means only one more month until NaNoWriMo officially begins this year! I'm super excited. November is totally one of my favorite months of the year, just because of NaNoWriMo.

In case you haven't heard and are wondering what the heck this crazy person is talking about, allow me to explain.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Which is the month of November. What's the purpose? To write a novel in 30 days! Crazy? Yes. Super fun? Double yes!

The object is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. If you're like me, you'll fall behind and spend several nights burning the midnight oil, sucking down coffee like it's your lifeblood, cursing your main characters for being difficult, and lamenting the lack of zing in your plot.

But the basic challenge is to get your idea out there, down on paper or typed up—editing comes later.

It's completely free to join, there are no penalties if you don't reach the goal of 50,000 words. Even if you only write a thousand words, that's still a thousand more than you had before you started!

Today is the day that NaNoWriMo.org officially relaunched, prepped and ready for 2010! I've already visited the store and found several nifty things I want to buy.

Here's my official participant badge!

And incidentally, if any of you guys are WriMos, too, and would like to add me as a Writing Buddy, feel free to do so!

I've already got some ideas floating around for my novel this year, and I'm pretty excited for November to roll in so I can get started on it! It'll be a challenge to fit in 50,000 words in 30 days while still keeping up with my classes, homework, and the like. But it's so worth it, and it's a great chance to work on my writing. And really, it's just a cool personal challenge. Sometimes it really is hard to keep from writing and rewriting and rewriting instead of just getting the whole thing out there. I'm still working on training myself to do that. If you don't get the idea down in the first place, there's nothing to edit at all–that's for sure!

So, think you want to participate this year? Go check out the website! Sign up!

Curious about what exactly is new and/or improved on the site? Check this link for a look at a list of new features!

Here's a few of the things I already want to buy! But please, go, check out all of the goodies in the store for yourself!

NaNoWriMo Tote Bag. It will be mine.

Official Noveling Pen.
I have a million pens.
I will have this one as well.

This is on a shirt. It makes me want some orange juice. 

I love hoodies. I love NaNoWriMo.
Therefore, I love this.