Why I Love...

I freely admit that I am not the most creative person. I often rely on other people's ideas to at least inspire me, if not guide me. This blog is exhibit A. I often sit down and think about posting, but I am not sure what to write about. I also often read other people's blogs and think to myself, "What a great idea. I should do that..." And then sometimes I do. I am quick, however, to give that other person the credit for the idea.

Take Julie, for example. Julie is the inspiration for this post. A few weeks ago, Julie began a weekly post entitled "Why I Love" where she talks about the reasons that she loves a certain thing in her life. I have enjoyed reading her posts about why she loves Weight Watchers Online, her daughter Lily, and couponing. She even inspired me to do a little investigating into couponing myself. So, I decided that I would steal her idea. (Hope that you don't mind, Julie!) So, here you go. Here are just a few of the reasons why I love:

iGoogle

A while back, I was visiting my friend Emily. We were checking our email and looking at a few blogs when I noticed her computer and asked her what iGoogle was. My life has not been the same since.

(OK, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but seriously, it's great!)

iGoogle is a personalized homepage that you can create with any number of different applications (or Gadgets). I have made iGoogle my homepage. My page contains my email, a Google reader that feeds any updates of the blogs that I regularly read, Twitter, a calendar, CNN.com headlines, the local weather, a ToDo list, a Scripture verse of the day, and a couple of other random things. (Including a "How to" for the day, just for fun. Today's "How to" includes tips for traveling in Patagonia and steps for publishing a children's book. Because you just never know...) Using iGoogle, I can quickly see if I have any new email, if there are any new blog posts that I want to read, or if anyone has tweeted anything particularly interesting - all at one glance. The Google Reader particularly saves me time. Since I have become quite the blogging junkie, it allows me to quickly see when someone has updated their blog, rather than actually loading the page to check to see if there is an update. I can then read the post right from the Reader without going to the actual website. I love it! The CNN headlines help me to know a little bit about what is happening in the world since I don't watch much TV. (And when I do, it's almost never the news...)

So, those are just a few reasons why I love iGoogle.

I'll do my best to make this a weekly thing. And I would love for you to comment about some of the random things that you love, too.

(Except you, Julie...I'll just keep reading yours on the blog :-)