Super Bowl Sunday's Iron Man 3 Sneak Peek

My kids and I go to several movies throughout the year, but there are a handful that we really look forward to. This Super Bowl Sunday, February 3rd, there will be a sneak peek into the new Iron Man 3 movie. If you're happy and you know it clap your hands! While we have to wait until it hits theaters, May 3rd, here's a little teaser for Sunday's big game spot.  My girls and I are big Robert Downey, Jr. fans. :) I'm excited, are you?


Disclosure: I was provided with the information to share and was not compensated in any way for this post.  All opinions are my own.

Zapped! (or How to Scare Your Husband)

I am like the Ellen (Degeneres) of my house. I'm good at scaring my family: mostly my husband.  He's quite easy to scare, and I think the fact that I'm a bit stealth-like helps out. I also like to amuse myself with dumb stuff like scaring him. I have hid in our master bedroom closet, right next to the mirror dresser in the bedroom, various places, and sometimes I don't hide at all. I just get super quiet and say something really quick and abrupt when he least expects it, but one of my favorite scare tactics happened most recently.

I purchased a 10th doctor sonic screwdriver from Think Geek right before Christmas, because 1. it was on sale for around $18 and 2. free standard shipping at for the holidays. Had I had more money, I probably would have gone to town buying various Doctor Who stuff. But, I digress.

About 3 weeks ago, I finally put the batteries into the sonic screwdriver (you know, because of all things, you need a tiny screwdriver to put batteries into the sonic screwdriver XD).  I took it upstairs and waved the sonic screwdriver around my girls.  They didn't get scared.  Mini-Me actually asked to see it and started playing with it a bit. :) 

I go downstairs, and I get it into my head that I should wave the sonic around my husband who is sitting at his desk.  He heard and saw me come down, but when I whipped out the sonic screwdriver, pushed the button to turn on the light and buzzing effects, he cowered and his office chair almost scooted to the wall with him in it.  I was DYING.  I thought it was the funniest thing ever. (Okay, so maybe not the funniest thing ever, but it's pretty funny to see a 6'5", 250 lb., almost 50-year-old, man cower from a toy).  

In his defense, it was making a 'zapping' noise.  If any of you have seen Doctor Who, you know what I'm talking about.  He said that he didn't know what it was and was trying not to get zapped. Also, what does that say about me if he thinks I'm trying to zap him with something? *shrugs* Sheesh, you would think someone would love getting a little sonic.

I wish I had thought to videotape it, but of course I though of it only AFTER the fact. Maybe next time. ;)

Here's a little video to show you the 'zapper'. Yes, that is me talking with the hideous young-sounding voice(and yes, I intentionally wore my 10th doctor tee).

Day 2 of 30 Challenges for 30 Days: Photo-a-Day, Day 1 of 30-Minute Walk

Today's theme for Fat Mum Slim's Photo-A-Day is "new".  I didn't really have anything new, well, anything that I haven't taken a photo of already, so I took a photo of some Ferrero Rocher chocolate hazelnut candies.  Hubs brought them home to me yesterday.  He always seems to bring me lots of junk food when he knows I'm trying to lose weight. Actually, he brings home lots of junk food all the time, but the ones specifically for me are always bought right when I start my whole weight loss thing again.

Luckily for me, after trying just one yesterday (since I never had these particular things before), I'm not really fond of them. That means I won't eat them.  Yay, for me!  There are some truffles on the top shelf of the pantry that call out to me, but I think after having about six to eight of them a couple of days ago, I think I'm okay without giving into it.  They're too sweet, and I can't handle a lot of sweet.

My second 30 Challenges for 30 Days that I started was the 30-minute walk.  I didn't walk outside, instead I started back on my Leslie Sansone's Walk Away Your Waistline DVD. It comes with a 'walking band', but since I hadn't done it in so long, I opted to go without it this time around.

At first, I was only going to do the 1 mile (since it's broken down into 1 mile segments).  Then I decided I'd just add one the last part along with the cool down.  I thought, "What the hell, I'll just go back and do the second mile, too."  So I got three miles worth of walking plus cool-down in 48 minutes.

Let's see if I can keep my momentum up. I've been pretty good with my caloric intake.  Not always picking the best foods but not going crazy.  Can't quite give up the soda for 30 days yet, but I did go all of yesterday without one. :)

So here's the 30 Challenges for 30 Days tally:

Photo-A-Day-2 days
30-Minute Walk-1 day

Disclosure: I have linked the DVD I used for exercise in case anyone was interested in it.  I was not given a copy or compensated in any way.  I bought this DVD a few years ago, and it's really great for those who don't feel comfortable exercising outside of the home.

Day 1 of 30 Challenges for 30 Days: Photo-a-Day

Today is day one of the challenges I chose from 30 Challenges for 30 Days.  I've decided not to start them all at the same time, because that could get too overwhelming. I did, however, start the photo-a-day challenge by using Fat Mum Slim's Photo-a-Day list. I'm going to try to keep to the list, but the best I have ever done is go two weeks.  Whether I follow her list or not, I'm just going to make sure I take one photo everyday. I'll be posting the photos on either Instagram under SimplyCiara or Flickr: SimplyCiaraPhotos. We'll see how it goes. ;)

I'm taking on the 30 Challenges for 30 Days

Yesterday, while I was on Twitter, ShutterCal had posted a link to an article on High Existence called 30 Challenges for 30 Days.  It starts off with the '30 days to form a habit', then goes on to suggest 30 different challenges that you can try for 30 days.  You don't have to do them all.  You can choose one and keep track of it for 30 days, or as one of the challenges suggests, you can pick a few to combine.  That's what I'm going to do. I will document it here on my blog.

Here are the ones that I've chosen:

#3 Take a picture everyday (Hard)-and boy, do I know how hard it is, because I have tried the 365-day challenge, and even Fat Mum Slim's monthly photo-a-day challenge, and have yet to complete one.  I love photography, I love taking pictures, I've just never been good at follow-through.

#5 Take a 30-minute walk each day (Easy)-ha, for me, easier said than done.  As a person who is hypothyroid, I often lack energy.  You need to exercise for energy, but you need energy to exercise. Double-edged sword you see, nonetheless, I am determined to do this one. I am a little less than four years from being 50 years old, and I want to be proof that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks haha :)

#9 Write a 500,000 novel in 30 days (Hard) I know many do the NaNoWriMo, but I think I'm going to do a variation of this.  Maybe I'm going to write one new thing a day, whether a poem, a story, or whatever.  I'm not quite sure yet, but I'll work on it.

#11 Watch a documentary each day (Easy) To be honest, sometimes documentaries are hard for me to watch.  They have to really be engrossing.  BUT, I'm always on a quest to learn something new everyday, and I think this is a good way to start.

#13 Study a topic you'd like to master each day (Hard) and #21 Practice a random skill everyday Again, I'll probably due a variations of this.  I'll find a way to combine it. What I would like to do is something art related whether it's drawing, painting, etc.   I'd also like to teach myself how to play an instrument.  Would be cool if I could teach myself to sing, but I've resigned myself to the fact that I sound like a kid no matter what I do. I also can't carry a note to save my LIFE. My son and daughters were all blessed with some talent, I'm the unlucky one. :/

#16 Read a new article on High Existence each day (Easy) I just found this site, and I like what I've seen so far.  This is how I got the list, remember? :)

#17 Pick one bad habit and ditch it for 30 days (Hard) Oh, yes, this is hard, very hard.  I know, I've tried it several times with my soda addiction.  In the words of Whitesnake, "Here I go again on my own."

#20 Think of an achievement you'd like to accomplish over the next 30 years, a year each day (Very Hard) I think about this kind of stuff all the time.  Of course, I have not accomplished any of these things, because my thoughts become 'next year' every year.  I'm sure you know what I mean.

#22 Take the stairs every chance you get. (Easy) I usually do this, but there's not a lot of places around here with stairs.  I do have a two-story house though. :)

#23 Keep a journal (Intermediate) I think I can do this.  I used to keep a diary that documented my crushes, how my mom pissed me off when she wouldn't let me go for a drive with a guy friend and other people, and other trivial stuff that seem so important in my teenage life.

There are a couple of other things on the list that I won't do daily, but I will incorporate them into my life somehow when the chance arises. So, do you think you can do any of these things for 30 days?  I'd love to hear about it.

Wordless Wednesday (or maybe not so much)

Untitled, a photo by simplyciaraphotos on Flickr.

Testing out the Flicker app. Works pretty good for posting onto blogs and such. It may be my new alternative to Instagram.

Blog Down, but Not Out for the Count

I knew my domain renewal was coming up, but I decided to put it off until the end of November.  By the time I remembered, I didn't have the funds, so it expired and my site was down for a couple of weeks.  I renewed the domain, but my site wasn't back up.  It was like that for 3 or 4 days.  I emailed every source I could think of to try and get it back up.  I even just casually put out there on Twitter, for anyone who could help, if there was a way to fix it.  Google was no help, but thanks to GoDaddy seeing my tweet from a few days ago, I managed to get the site going again.

Apparently, if you get a domain through Blogger, that's hosted on GoDaddy, you let it expire, it seems to revert back to default settings.  I also discovered that Blogger won't let you host a blog on a naked domain (as in no: www. or whatever in front). I had to do all this redirecting, and by help from GoDaddy, and sheer luck on my part, I got it sorted.

Now if you type in my old URL, ciarasramblingsandwhatnot.com, you'll be redirected to www.ciarasramblingsandwhatnot.com.  Same craptastic blog, just a little something added to the web address.