I have a lot of them. Maybe I'm just a picky person, but some things...man! They really get me.

- Word verification. If you comment on blogs, you've probably run into it. The random, pesky, nonsensical jumble of letters that must be typed in before you leave a comment. It's so annoying! I usually leave many comments at once, and it just takes so much more time. Especially when the letters aren't legible, which makes you type them incorrectly. Then you get, "The letters you entered don't match the letters in the picture". Gah. Drives me nuts! 

Now, I know the purpose of it - to prevent computer generated spam comments. But I beg you to try taking word verification off your blog. I did so about six months ago and I haven't had a single problem with spam. 

If you'd like to take it off, go to your dashboard (assuming you use Blogger) > settings > comments. Then scroll about three fourths of the way down until you see "Show word verification for comments?" and select no. 

- One long paragraph in blog posts. Break up your paragraphs frequently - it's so much easier to read. When reading one huge block of text, I get lost somewhere in the middle and can't find where I left off...very confusing.

- Comments at the top of the post. Sometimes bloggers have the link to write a comment right under the title of the post...but that means after you read the post you have to scroll back up. Comments belong at the bottom ;)

- Misused apostrophes. This is a grammar issue rather than a blogging one, but it still bugs me nonetheless. I can't stand it when people add an "apostrophe s" when they're talking about something in the plural. 

Let me give an example if that confused you. "I got new shoes today." Shoes is in the plural, which would me that it's correctly written there. But very often the apostrophe gets misused and instead "I got new shoe's today" is written. 

The apostrophe is only used when your talking in the possessive. "The shoe's colors" for example. It would be the colors of the shoe, so that's right. Alright, getting off my grammar soapbox...I always make fun of my dad for being so picky about grammar (I call him the Grammar Nazi ;)) but I suppose I'm not much better. What can I say? Like father, like son daughter.

- Music that turns on automatically. I very often have several blogs open at once, and then read through them one by one. If, say, two or three of them have automatically playing music, it clashes and is just not nice at all. Not to mention, my own music is usually playing. Ugh.

I could go on but I'll spare you...these are some of the things that would turn me off from a blog, though!

What are your blogging pet peeves?

-carlotta 

It's seriously the best. Though it may be boring to some, to me, it's perfect. Topped with frozen raspberries, whipped cream, Oreos, fresh strawberries, or just plain, it's the ultimate summer treat. Oh, who am I kidding. It's the ultimate anytime treat. Yes, I've been known to frequently eat ice cream in the winter. Yum.

With the heat index being 105 outside right now, I suppose it's not surprising that I'm blogging about this delicious dessert ;)

What is your favorite kind of ice cream?

-carlotta

(Nashville part one)

I'm not trying to be ungrateful of what I have right now, but I keep on wishing I could go back to last week. (Almost) All my friends were with me, it was full of laughing, amazing teaching...it's crazy how much I miss it. I still remember the schedule - right now I would be in an in-depth session, a class that we took for one hour, three of the five days (I went to one about celebrities). 

But since recreating that experience is not an option, I can only wait until next year - and look at pictures. 

We went to a store that mainly sold boots and cowboy hats. I lived the first nine years of my life on a farm, with horses, goats, dogs and lots and lots of cats (over nineteen at one point!), and the smell of leather and boot polish brought back so many wonderful, happy memories. I wanted to bottle the scent and bring back with me.

We stopped at the famous Ryman Auditorium - where the Grand Old Opry got its start. Is that usher's music suit not the coolest thing?!

That apartment building doesn't look very special, does it? The resident of the top floor is Taylor Swift! The driver of the bus we took the tour on said he'd seen her a few times walking around the area. 

You knew I couldn't resist...I'm total flower junky. Remember? 

One thing I loved about Nashville was how historic the buildings downtown are - many of them are from the 1800s. I know that's not nearly as old as most buildings in Europe (The church in the town where my grandparents live was built in the 1300s!), it's still pretty impressive. Nashville recuperated so quickly from the flood that devastated the city in May. Some buildings were eight feet underwater - but there was almost no evidence that something so terrible had happened.

The capital. Call me uneducated, but I had forgotten that Nashville is the capital of Tennessee...their building is truly magnificent.

Have you been to Nashville? Or maybe Tennesssee? 

Just think of the fun you'll have on my blog this time next year...more conference/sightseeing recaps! Of course, it'll be in a different location then, but still. Yipee! ;)

-carlotta

I'm sorry I didn't get this up earlier...I honestly forgot. ;)

<div align="center"><a href="http://pastors-girl.blogspot.com"><img alt="Happiness Is..." src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1064/4732886685_1331802b43_m.jpg" /></a></div>

To play along, just write a post with two things that made you happy this week (with a link to me), the come back here and link up! Also, feel free to grab the button.

Happiness is...

...gorgeous summer skies. I don't know what it is, but they seem to be more brilliant, more dramatic this time of year.

...a wonderful trip to Nashville. You knew it was coming, didn't you? I promise I'll (try to) shut up about it after I put up "part two" of my visit. You're probably relieved. 

(Can you spot me in the picture? Yep...that's me on the far right in the green. I'm not sure why I look so sullen...I was in Nashville!)

What has made you happy this week? Link up (or, if you don't have a blog, let me know in the comments) and have fun!

-carlotta

PS I may be closing down the linky on Happiness Is - at least for a couple weeks. I'm not sure if it's worth it for just 2 or 3 people. I will leave it open if I get more link ups, but if I stays the same...I don't know.