Year: 2014

Double giveaway!

/ Shane / 8 Comments

What’s better than a free giveaway? How about TWO free giveaways?

My good friend Alexis runs an amazing sewing business out of her home. She can make all kinds of things, but I’m telling you right now, this is your go to shop for homemade muppet merchandise. You heard that right, homemade muppet merchandise. If, for some reason, you’re not in the market for muppet merchandise, she can work with you to make pretty much anything you want (she’s that good!)

To celebrate our individual awesomenesses, Alexis and I are doing some cross-promotional giveaways.

Over on the ThreadAbell facebook page, I am giving away a free paperback of OOMPH: A Little Super Goes a Long Way, which contains my story “Random Play All and the League of Awesome”.

OOMPH is an anthology of the tremendous potential of trivial superpowers. From the promo copy:

Oomph: A Little Super Goes a Long Way explores what it takes to be a superhero with just a little bit of power, where heroes and heroines use their small gifts to great advantage.

Sometimes you don’t need a big lever to move the world.

Sounds amazing, right? Dare I say…super?

All you need to do to enter is to “like” the ThreadAbell facebook page and then leave a comment on the ThreadAbell facebook page about a favorite post from my blog (and there are SO many awesome posts to chose from!).

So easy, right?

But wait, there’s more!

Alexis is giving away a headband here on my blog. I can personally certify the awesomeness of her headbands, since she’s made some for Sara:

Sara ThreadAbell Headband

ThreadAbell Headband

(Note: this is just an example headband, impromptu selfie-style, not the headband that is up for grabs!)

All you need to do to enter is to “like” the ThreadAbell facebook page and then leave a comment on THIS BLOG POST telling me what your favorite item is from the ThreadAbell Etsy shop (and there are SO many awesome items to choose from!).

Just to re-iterate, comment HERE to win the headband, comment THERE to win the book. And in any case, like her page!

A winner for both drawings will be chosen randomly from the respective comments on Sunday, January 26th (6 p.m. Central time). For those entering the drawing for the headband, make sure to leave your email address in the comment form so I can contact you if you win.

(And, for those of you who don’t win, OOMPH is available in paperback, as well as for the Kindle or Nook. If you’ve already read the book, please leave a review on Amazon!)

The Bead Chain Experiement

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Alright you guys, this is cool.

It’s a little bit difficult to explain, but you know those little beads on a chain, like maybe you’d see as the cord of a lightbulb? It turns out they have some pretty crazy, almost supernatural looking, properties.

It’s easier to show than to try to explain, but once the beads get going, they continue to go until the jar is empty, shooting into the air as if they’re propelled, or almost like gravity has been reversed.

It’s definitely worth watching the video, which also includes slow motion footage.

Mind, blown.

The Little Goat

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The weekend before my birthday we were looking for a place to go out to eat. We don’t go out often, so when we do we usually try to make sure it’s somewhere we’ve been wanting to get to (in other words, we want to make sure it’s worth it and not waste our chance). We have other concerns as well; with two small kids we want something that’s casual and kid friendly, and probably not too expensive.

In this case, we settled on The Little Goat.

For those who are not local to Chicago, The Little Goat is sort of the little sister of chef Stephanie Izard‘s extremely popular Girl & the Goat (Stephanie Izard, you may know, was the winner of the 4th season of Top Chef). In Chicago, both restaurants are very well known.

I’ve never been to Girl & the Goat (and probably never will be), but I have to say that The Little Goat absolutely lived up to its reputation. Most likely because of the weather, but we were able to sit immediately, with no wait. It was exactly what we were looking for: absolutely casual, the kids were not out of place at all, and the food was amazing.

When you look at the menu, it doesn’t seem like anything special. Breakfast food, sandwiches, burgers. However, there really is something about a good chef, who can take something you’ve had a million times before and just make one little difference, like kimchi on a reuben, or just using really, really good bread, and suddenly it’s the best reuben you’ve ever had.

I tried the sloppy goat, the pork belly pancake, and (my favorite) the “Los Drowned” (a braised beef sandwich with au jus, but so much more than that). Even the smoked fries were amazing. One of the best parts of the meal was the “Little Goat” coffee, which is espresso with spices and steamed goat’s milk. I’ve seen it described as a “coffee/chai mashup” which was pretty accurate I think.

In other words, highly recommended, and I will definitely go back.

New Car Update

/ Shane / 3 Comments

So, we’ve had the new car for just over a month now, and I have to say that I’m liking it more and more the longer we have it.

The main thing I was worried about was whether or not we could fit (get it, because it’s a Fit?). A month in, I feel I can say relatively confidently that we fit in quite easily. With that one concern out of the way, I’m free to really enjoy the car.

It feels a lot more “peppy” than the Malibu was, especially around the neighborhood. Conversely, you feel every bump in a way that you never did with the Malibu (which can be rough this time of year). I’ve never had a hatchback before, and I have to say, I’m a convert. Definitely loving that part. Also loving the 37.6 mpg we got coming home from Wisconsin!

There are two very minor things that annoy me about the car. The first is that you can’t lock the doors until they’re all closed. This kind of seems like a good idea, until you have kids. I never realized it, but it turns out that I usually open all the necessary doors, lock the doors so I can put my keys away, and use my hands to carry things. If, instead, you have to keep your keys in your hand until the kids get out, you have to wait for about five hours or so before you can free your hands.

Second, if you unlock the doors but don’t open a door in time, they re-lock themselves. So by the time you load up and round up the kids and herd everybody in the right direction, you get to the car just in time to hear the doors lock. Again, not a good feature if kids are involved.

Okay, but back to the good things. I admit, I was a little worried with how it would be in the snow. But after pushing several cars out of the snow (including 4wd cars) and not having any trouble whatsoever, I realized there’s more than power when it comes to snow. It’s so much smaller and more maneuverable, that I was able to navigate around all the bad stuff.

And finally, the super best part about the car is the little “instantaneous mpg” bar. I cannot take my eyes off of it. It’s like driving and playing a video game at the same time, and very competitive between Sara and I. It makes me realize how NOT fuel efficiently I was driving the Malibu. I mean, on some level I knew how you could drive to get better fuel economy, but watching that meter has 100% changed the way I drive. “Quit your honking, I’m not going any faster. THE METER IS AT 40 MPG!”

I never really concluded the story of the Malibu. After the laughably low offer they gave me for the trade-in, I took it over to Carmax and sold it for >3 times what they offered me. It was so quick and painless for 3 times the money, that I feel a fool for not just going there originally. They were great with the kids too, they solemnly gave them papers to sign to sell the car. It was all very serious, and Oliver spent as long on his name as I’ve ever seen him. It was a beauty.

Anyway, long story short, very happy with the purchase (and very happy with Carmax). Here’s to 198,000 more miles!

Quote Monday usually goes commando

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Me: “Oliver, are you okay??”
Ollie: “Yeah. It sounded like I got killed.”

Me: “If there was ever a day to wear underwear, this is the day!”

I meant long underwear, but they’re not going to let me hear the end of it.

Sara: “You have to clean your room before you can tape your brother’s hands together.”

Unfortunately, that one isn’t out of context: it was really intended the way it sounds.

Me: “Ollie, do you know how to play soccer?”
Ollie: “Yeah. I even know how to play soccer on roller skates!”