Public Service Announcement 1.06: Blogger Reply Emails

You know how when you get an email notification of a comment on a Blogger post the from email address sometimes says "noreply" instead of the person's actual email address? Don't you hate that? I mean, wouldn't it be nice if you could just click reply on that email and let the person that left the comment know just how funny they are? You can, if the commenter takes a moment and sets up their email address in their Blogger Profile.

I am hereby ordering all of you fellow Blogger users to do the following steps so that I can start replying to you directly when the mood hits me:

1. Log into Blogger.
2. Click Edit Profile directly below your profile picture.
3. In the Privacy section, place a check mark in the Show My Email Address check box.
4. In the Identity section, type your email address.
5. Click Save Profile.

It'll only take a few seconds and it won't hurt at all. Promise.

Also, if you're concerned about getting spam because of these steps, you need not worry. Blogger doesn't post your actual email address in your profile, it just provides a link. Spambots can't see your information.

Why are you still here? Go fix your email already! Thank you!

Crimes Against Humanity

I have bestowed the magic that is a Starbucks hot chocolate upon Alexis exactly twice in her life. The last time, she drank approximately a teaspoon of it then used the rest to make like an erupting volcano. As a result, I have cut her off. So today when we were in the drive-thru at Starbucks and she began to insist that she wanted "choco milk," I ignored her. But as we made our way to the window, she grew more insistent and, more importantly, more polite. I kind of felt bad that we hadn't ordered her something. Not bad enough to ask to change the order, mind you, but bad. As we were about to pull away, she unleashed the most pleasantly polite request of all time, "Mommy, choco milk, please!" so I hurriedly asked the barista for a kids' size cup. No liquid, just the cup. I quickly poured her leftover white milk from lunch into the cup and handed to her. She took a sip and asked, "What dis?" I told her the truth and explained that it was milk then watched as she chugged a big ol' cup of milk so fast, I feared she was going to make herself sick. Obviously, presentation is everything and I need to keep a Starbucks cup handy.

I should have known that there would be a payback for my actions. After all, passing off cruddy 2% milk as Starbucks magic should be a crime punishable by several years in prison. My payback? An even worse crime. Earlier this evening, I watched Alexis commit the worst atrocity that you can possibly imagine. I'm pretty sure there's a law strictly forbidding her actions. If there isn't, there should be.

She insisted that I share my Girl Scout cookies with her then

proceeded to open up that Do-si-do

and lick the peanut butter out of the middle.

She didn't eat the cookie, just the peanut butter.

I can't even look at her. Abusing a Girl Scout cookie? Wrong on so many levels.

Public Service Announcement 1.05: Collapsing Your Archive

I've had a few emails and comments in the past few weeks asking for more Blogger tips, so I'm going to post a couple more things this weekend. Not to worry, though, there will be an Alexis-centric post at some point. It's not like I can go more than a few minutes without talking about her, you know.

Deb asked me how to change a blog archive to a drop-down list. I don't know when it happened, but you can now do that through standard Blogger functionality (at one time, you had to download an add-on to do it). Here are the steps:

1. Log into blogger.
2. Go to Layout.
3. Find Blog Archive in your sidebar. Click the Edit link.
4. Change the style to Dropdown Menu.
5. Change other options as desired.
6. Click Save Changes.

Not so tough, right?