Follow-Up Friday - Leap Year Edition

It's February 29th. Not something we get to say all that often, is it? Leap Year...making this a unique year indeed, different, special. So, maybe it was this extra day in the week, maybe it was the magic of leap year in the air, maybe it was something else altogether, but it was a special week for me personally as well.


Here at Candid Karina I started the week with the theme of Wooden for Saturday's Photo Hunt. It was a great theme for me as it reminded me of my neglected pencil sharpener collection. I shared three in that post, I will share more in the future, now that I've dug it out, I'm looking forward to showing you all my treasures.


Fun Monday this week was all about our blog names, and our favorite dish/recipe. I had a lot of fun photographing my meal as I cooked it, and think I may have to do this more often in the future. Hey, maybe I'll start a cooking blog, and call it Cooking Karina as Pamela suggested. The possibilities are endless. (Kidding, I really don't cook often enough for a whole blog). I got some grief from Frigga for using pre-minced garlic. I know, I know, but with my schedule cooking at all during the week is nearly impossible, so I've learned to have "shortcuts" on hand. As it was, I didn't eat until 8:30PM that night...I know, I know...shame on me. Oh, and Jannis wanted to know what the wine was, and I'm happy to oblige and tell you because I have been experimenting with wines, buying new brands everytime I go to the liquor store. That evening it was a glass of "yellow tail" Pinot Grigio. Not bad stuff.


On Tuesday I was sort of at a loss for words. To put it simply, I was blessed to play a very small role in an event that quite possibly has made a very large impact in someone's life. In the process, my own soul was touched, deeply, and a small change has begun within me. If I'm being overly vague it is because the details are unimportant, it was the emotional and spiritual experience that mattered, and will stay with me. I don't speak of religion too much here on the blog (or in my life in general) and I have my issues and my doubts about organized religion that I deal with, but I will tell anyone that I am a highly spiritual person who sees God's work in all the small things daily. What happened on Sunday, and continued to happen as the week progressed, was that I witnessed an example of God's presence in a much larger way. It left me awed and amazed. Also, about my picture of the roses, since I got some comments on them, those gorgeous roses were my father's Valentine's Day gift to my mother. The picture was one of a series I took while messing around with some of the settings on my digital camera, and then with the photo editing software I have. I was thrilled with how it came out, so I'm glad you all enjoyed them as well. And Swampy, I did notice how much they looked like yours as well.


And the last two days I've been recapping American Idol. The guys on Wednesday and the girls on Thursday. Last night's results show was full of surprises for me. Let's start with the guys. First off was Jason Yeager...he was one of my picks to go home, so no surprise there. And then we're down to the last guy to be voted off and it's between Luke Menard and Robbie Carrico. I wasn't overly impressed with either guys' performance, but I had picked Luke as my other guy to go home. I was wrong. I didn't expect Robbie to win it all, but I aslo didn't expect him to go home this early. But overall, no huge surprises with the boys. So, it's on to the girls. Here's where the surprises came in for me. First girl voted off is Alexandrea Lushington. Now, by no means is she one of my favorites, and I didn't think she did all that well this week, but I was surprised to see her go before some of my other picks...namely Kristi Lee Cook and Amanda Overmeyer. Still, no surprise was bigger than the next girl voted off. Especially when they pull up Kady Malloy and Alaina Whitaker. Kady was terrible this week, Alaina wasn't great, but by far has a much much better voice. And yet, she's out. Such is American Idol. Oh, the fun begins, doesn't it?


Now, onto some business I need to take care of. Quite a while ago I posted a question to my dear readers about how to create a "photolink". You may have noticed that I've been using them, so obviously, I received an answer. I owe a great big thank you to Sognatrice, who emailed me privately with instructions on how to do this in my sidebars (which I had been struggling with for months). With her instructions I was able to do it, and can now make some additions to my sidebars I've been meaning to do. I wn't post those instructions here, because it might get too complicated, but if you need them, please let me know and I'll be happy to Pay It Forward and teach you what I've been taught. But I also owe a bit thank you to Qualcosa di Bello, because unbeknownst to her, she left me a comment that totally taught me how to make a photo a link within a post in a SIMPLE, SIMPLE SIMPLE way that I'd never even thought of. Sometimes it's the simplest solutions. Her comment, in case you are wondering, was this: "how to link from a photo in a post (highlight it and hit the link button, just like words)". DUH, why didn't I think of that? So, thank you very much to both of you. By the way, if you do nothing else, click on the link at the beginning of this paragraph for some eye candy ladies. You will not be sorry.


And that's it for this week's Follow-Up Friday. Coming up next week? Tomorrow's Photo Hunter theme is "party", stay tuned for some photos from my Christmas party, I had a blast with my girls and have yet to show you all photos. Fun Monday this week is going to be A WHOLE LOT of fun, you don't want to miss it. I have the first of my winning blogger tributes to be posted on Tuesday...and I'm growing bored with my blog look, and am also slightly unhappy with my blog format in general, so there may be some changes (and possibly a whole new additional blog) premiering soon as well.


Y'all come back now, ya hear?