At long last, Bloglines has rolled out their Publisher Tools, which allow you to do nifty things like claim your feeds. Essentially, you go to your account page and start the claim process, which gives you a couple of HTML comments that you need to insert into your site to make sure that you control the feed. The Bloglines verifies that you do indeed control it. Unfortunately they don't really tell you how to do it, so it takes a bit of trial and error.
The second week's challenge involves Abraham Lincoln. At 22, he struck out on his own by canoeing down the Sangamon River and taking a flatboat job up and down the Illinois and Mississippi. Reportedly handy with an ax, he would later be nicknamed the "rail splitter". This leads directly to this week's challenge.
Every once in a while we find ourselves hankering for some good old cajun food, and there just aren't too many places around Charlotte where you can find it. We've been to the Cajun Queen in Pineville before, and we've been very happy with the results there. So we figured we would visit their other location, as it's actually closer to home. We had the shrimp and grits and the chicken and crawfish, diane style, and we weren't unhappy with the results.
During the summer you need to get an ice cream now and again, and it seems like the trusty old ice cream shoppe just doesn't cut it any more. Heck, there aren't too many of them left. So what are you to do? Head down to the newest fad and create your own! Well, you don't get to actually create it, but you do get to choose the ingredients. Start with a base of ice cream, then pick out your fixin's and some helpful soul will mix them all up on a chilled marble slam (hence the name), creating your own unique blend, just for you.
Still a combination of headache and body ache, so one more pill before bed tonight.
This is another restaurant in a strip mall, but this one is different. As you walk through the entrance, it's a bit puzzling, as there doesn't seem to be anywhere to sit - but then you are led through the doors that open into a large almost warehouse-like space that has been converted to look like a Mexican cantina. The server then greets you warmly and delivers toasty warm tortilla chips and salsa.
I still had a headache today, but it's better. Unfortunately my arms are just aching. Mostly in my forearms but my upper arms are bothering me too. So just one pill tonight before bed.
Another night, another couple of pills before bed.
When I'm in the mood for Chinese, I don't usually think of strip malls. But Chen-Fu will make you rethink that in almost every case. Sure, you can find some decent take-out places in strip malls, but those are typically so bare that you don't want to sit down and actually enjoy the meal. Here you'll take the time to sit down, and although your plate and utensils are plastic, it's actually worth doing so.
I can't seem to get rid of these headaches, but at least they're only coming at night. So before bed, I'm taking a couple of pills to allow me to drift to sleep. Thus far, it's working and I'm managing to get a bit of sleep.
The first challenge takes you to the Inside Passage, a shipping lane from Washington to Alaska. During the revolution, the British explorers described mystic totem poles in the Land of the Golden Spruce. Your task is to find the Golden Spruce and find the puzzle piece that exists there. Though you don't get a whole lot of detail here, you don't really need much either. Just know that this is the starting point for your adventure in the Treasure Hunters Challenge.
