Yesterday, the St. Louis Public Library system kicked off their Pageturners reading club, which runs until August 7th. Sign up at any SLPL branch and get a bookmark to record all of the books and magazines you read or listen to between now and August 7th. Turn the bookmark in when you get to 10 and you’ll receive a “roll-up blanket” and be entered to win fabulous prizes. Everything is better when you get rewarded for doing it.
The stuff you read can be from anywhere, not just the library. You could get it from your favorite local book store, read it on your Kindle, borrow it from Grandma, or just buy it from any of our Amazon affiliate links below. If you are in the St. Louis metro area, but not within the city, check with your library and see if they have a program like SLPL. Did you know that a lot of libraries in the area have reciprocal agreements with each other?
Not a reader? Here’s why you should be. Too busy to read? Get over yourself. Quit complaining that you are too busy, you aren’t and no one wants to hear you try to justify your existence. Here are some authors that will get you through those 10 books before The Campaign comes out.
Anything by James Rollins: Did you like The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown? I bet you love most of the stuff by Rollins. The name on the jacket is actually the pen name of James Czajkowski, a Veterinarian who attended Mizzou before setting up a practice in California. I suggest the first book you pick up by him should be Amazonia. He has five other action adventure novels as well that all paint scenes and adventures that would easily make better movies than 85% of what comes to theaters now. Recently, he has started a series of books centered around the Sigma Force, which is a team of scientists with ridiculous military training as best as I can put it. While they aren’t as cool to me as his first books, I still make it a point to read them.
Speaking of Dan Brown: You may have read Da Vinci Code or Angels & Demons, but do yourself a favor and pick up Digital Fortress and Deception Point.
Anything by James Patterson: If you couldn’t tell, I’m not exactly an expert on the traditional literary classics. That might be why I appreciate James Patterson. I would suggest anything featuring Alex Cross, the D.C. detective played by Morgan Freeman in the Kiss The Girls movie. Cross has been the main character in 20 Patterson books since 1993. One of the reasons Patterson has 102 books to his name is because he co-authors a lot of books. These books aren’t deep in really any way, but they are fun quick reads. Check out Step On A Crack, or Private.
Everything by Vince Flynn: Vince Flynn has authored 12 books centered on Mitch Rapp, a man that every proud American should pray is fighting for our country while we sleep. I just finished American Assassin, which tells the story of how Rapp went from stud NCAA lacrosse talent to defending America against its craziest enemies. While Term Limits isn’t a Rapp book, it may be Vince Flynn’s best work.
Everything by Lee Child: I actually met Lee Child when he came to speak at the Schlafly library branch in the CWE in 2010. By “met”, I apparently stood next to him in the crowded room before he spoke. His creation, Jack Reacher, is an ex-military cop who is now essentially a drifter. All of his books have seen their movie options snapped up. Tom Cruise will play Reacher in the adaptation of One Shot, currently shooting.
Randy Santel currently resides in Overland Park, Kansas, but he has made a name for himself here in St. Louis. He had already capped off a hat trick of St. Louis food challenges by conquering challenges at Crown Candy, Pointer’s Pizza, and Surf Dogs Grill when he returned to Crown Candy recently with Tim Ezell from Fox 2. He had previously downed the shakes in 4 minutes and 50 seconds,
This time around, he shattered the previous record for the challenge.
Did you hear that time? 2 minutes and 29 seconds. That doesn’t mean anything to you? Adam Richman of Man vs Food fame couldn’t handle the 120 ounces of milkshake in 30 minutes. Randy flipped his hat around, pressed play on the iPod and did work on this challenge that over 1,000 people have tried and under 50 have completed.
For the Pointersauraus Challenge at Pointer’s, Randy, or “Atlas” as he uses in the videos, brings along a sidekick to help eat the 28″ monster pizza. They become one of 16 teams to complete the challenge. Randy then asks what’s for dessert before accepting the $500 check that each winning team receives.
The third challenge in this little hat trick is one that is a favorite of mine. When I worked in Chesterfield, I found this awesome hot dog and hamburger place called Surf Dogs in Chesterfield Valley. I ate there so much right after they opened, I probably paid a month of their rent. The owner, Brian, couldn’t help but talk to me. It was like I bought a friend. One day, we ended up talking about the need for a food challenge at Surf Dogs. Originally, Surf Dogs had 10 different dogs on their menu. Each one had different toppings, ranging from the typical in chili, cheese, and slaw to 1,000 Island dressing and sauerkraut. The unnaturally green relish from Chicago is also available. My picture is actually still on the wall as the 10th member of the “Hang 10″ club, which means I ate all 10 dogs, just not in one sitting. It was more like a week.
We decided that if someone could eat all 10 in a set amount of time, they deserve an award. We brainstormed, and the “Big Kahuna Challenge” was born. Eat the original 10 dogs in under 30 minutes and you win. Prior to “Atlas” sitting down in the challenge chair, the record for all 10 dogs was 10 minutes and 55 seconds. Randy demolished that record by swallowing his last bite at the 5:54 mark.
A new challenge was born that day. Mr. Surf Dog decided that if Randy could eat all 14 specialty dogs that were currently on their menu in under 42 minutes, he would get to design and name the 15th dog on the menu. His time for all 14 dogs? 10 minutes and 15 seconds. I recently tried his creation, “Randy Santel’s Atlas Dog”. It is nothing short of amazing. Watch the end of the video to see it.
Hi, I’m Mike and I am a coffee-holic. Mine was a learned behavior that started back in 1994. I was fresh out of college and trying to find my way in the world. And, while that trip has never ended I did manage to land a job in the real estate business. I went to work selling residential real estate for Re/Max where the average working age was just under needing to have retired ten years ago. My biggest contribution to the bottom line was skewing the age range as to make our office a bit more youthful. It was awesome and it was where I consumed my first cup of coffee unawesomeness.
Are you kidding me?
I recall thinking that the smell off Folgers Coffee was over the top. I could not wait to get my first sip of this liquid gold. As you can imagine, I nearly spit the sip of patent leather dirt monster back into the cup. It was awful. It was a travesty of Greek proportion. Nasty. Disgusting. And, all other applicable adjectives. It took me back to that dreadful night at my buddies house where I knocked back and quickly gave back my first beer. I think I lead with a machismo, “this is really good stuff.” And, ended with, “god, I promise – never again – just take away the pain.”
Acquired Taste
Fast forward and of course I am happy to report that coffee and great craft beer are things that I really enjoy. Beer in moderation and coffee in excess and yes I consider myself a snob. I would not dream of tossing back a cup of Folgers, Maxwell House, Budweiser or Coors and I know the difference between and Arabica and Robusta bean. My favorite roasters are Starbucks followed very closely by illy and Caribou. And, up to now I have always been frustrated that I can not keep a good cup hot enough long enough to enjoy it to the end.
I ran across these little gems a couple of weeks ago and I was instantly sold. Sold for two reasons – Dave and Dave are two guys just trying to change their little piece of the world. And, their product is genius. I can only do justice to their story by letting them tell it – vid
To sum it up – they are worthy.
Click on our amazon affiliate link above to try them out yourself!
Photo courtesy of Joulies.com
Brought to you by Mills Properties
This has bothered me for a while but I thought maybe I was overreacting. I am pretty sure I am not. I understand that traditionally golf is a man’s sport. I have played for a little over 10 years sparingly but more consistently over the last year. I have often felt uncomfortable on courses because I am not a seasoned golfer. I am very careful not to slow the game down or bother anyone which are common male complaints of women golfers. I think golf is the hardest sport for women to really get involved in. I should note here that it is not only the men that create a barrier for new women golfers. Seasoned women golfers can also make things difficult.
A recent article in Golf Digest really confirmed my thoughts about how differently women are treated in the sport. Here are my complaints/observations in regards to the barrier to entry:
1. It starts with gear. I am really over the color pink. I am not sure if any other women golfers feel this way, but it looks like the womens section has been hosed down with pepto bismol (line from Steel Magnolias but applies here too). I have noticed so frequently that I took some pictures a few months ago to back myself up. I for one do not want a pink bag, pink shorts, pink top, grandma hats, or - believe it or not – a pink sparkly ball to play with. They wonder why women get a bad reputation – give us some serious equipment, please.
2. Treatment in stores. Golf Galaxy is the worst although I think they generally dislike all women and males who are not scratch golfers – that is just my opinion. Every time I go there to test a club I feel like I have to prove that I am good enough to even be trying a club in their store. I have learned that Golfsmith is a much more women-friendly, laid back store so I recommend going there instead. Disclaimer – they still have an overwhelming supply of pink but I think that is unavoidable.
3. On the course. I am often filled with anxiety when my husband and I go out to play as a twosome because we will mostly likely have to be paired with other golfers. It has come to the point that I actually feel like we shouldn’t golf unless we have 4 people. We have gotten blown off by male golfers completely or they will start without us and act like they didn’t know they were paired with us. Or, they will politely tell the workers ‘no’ and then we have to wait. It is hard for me not to take it personally and it really hurts my confidence when playing. Lastly, especially when you are paired with 2 other male golfers, they always forget to stop at the women’s tee box. I understand if it happens once but that is generally not the case.
I still love golf and won’t stop because of the items listed above but I feel like it shouldn’t be so hard. Golf is a fantastic game and I think more women would play if it were encouraged a little more. First step…anyone want to help me start a line of women’s golf gear without the color pink?
I do not hide my love for Amazon, finding books, buying massive amounts of books and general shopping. I buy so much from Amazon that I have had a Prime Membership for several years. Just in case you don’t know; with a Prime Membership you pay $79.00 per year and get free 2 day shipping on anything with the blue Prime logo and reduced cost on overnight shipping. Type just about anything in the search bar on Amazon and you will find it: I’ve bought parts for my vacuum cleaner, a new shelf for my fridge, clothes, games, coffee grinder, Cardinals themed UNO game, and food. There is so much and each time more and more stuff is eligible for Prime shipping.
Now to the crux of what has become so over the top amazing about a website that I am already totally in love with. FREE streaming of 17,000 titles of movies and t.v. shows!!! That’s right, they recently struck a deal with Discovery Networks to add more titles. Let’s do the math: you are a broke college student and you have a roommate. That comes out to $39.50 per person for a year of free t.v. or $3.29 per month. Take that Netflix and cable and U-verse. Plus, you don’t have to deal with getting those annoying letters about how you’ve illegally downloaded content.
Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the limitations. You can’t watch as much as you can on Netflix yet, etc, etc. I just know that the Prime Membership was already worth the money and so this is just a really awesome bonus.
P.S. If you’re into that kind of thing you can also “borrow” a bunch of books for your Kindlefor free with Amazon Prime.
Brought to you by: Mills Apartments
Photos courtesy of: Amazon.com & reallynatural.com
Purchase Amazon Prime Membership or other Amazon products by clicking on the affiliate links.
Ok, starting over….attempted this post explaining how the average person doesn’t need Microsoft Word or Excel and it got to the point that I was adding a mini dictionary to the bottom of the post explaining all the crazy terms.
Main thing, it used to be a given that if you wanted to type a letter or paper you would use Microsoft Word, if you wanted to create a spreadsheet you would use Excel. So when you go out and buy your new laptop or you decide not to use Windows you have to go and shell out big bucks to install these programs on your new computer…..or so you thought.
I’m becoming a huge fan of open source FREE software, I’m not really going to get into what that is, just know that if you know where to look for it and use it you can save some cash…and who doesn’t want that? You can also find different ways to do things that are the easier and more user-friendly.
Enter LibreOffice! This is totally free software that you can download and it takes up very little space on your computer leaving plenty of room for movies, music or whatever you load your computer down with. Text Document replaces Word, Spreadsheet replaces Excel, Presentation replaces PowerPoint……you get the picture. And notice how the name says exactly what you are going to do…a good sign that it’s going to be easy to use.
I tried out Text Document and I can say it functions so much like Word that I hardly noticed a difference. It’s like moving from one version of Word to another…just a few things to learn. The menu bars are really similar.
THE ABOSOLUTE BEST PART is document compatibility. This means that you can type something in Word and open it in LibreOffice. You can type something in LibreOffice and open it in Word! That’s right and it’s easy, again it’s like the conversion between different versions of Word. The only thing I would say, and this took me just a second to figure out, is that if you intend to open it in Word or you believe your recipient is going to open it in Word you need to “save as” and then change the document type…easy peasy.
Have fun and feel liberated. Just because they are everywhere does not mean your only option is to shell out bucks to use them!
, and food. There is so much and each time more and more stuff is eligible for Prime shipping.
for free with Amazon Prime.
