For those who don’t follow me on twitter, here’s the news:

I just found out my site had been hacked and was listed in google as having malware on it. To make sure it’s safe, I have taken it down and put in a fresh installation of WordPress. It should be safe now and I’m working on getting google to review it and clear it as such.

I’ll slowly be adding back the old posts from a backup if I can make sure they’re not affected by the malware. Until I get everything up and running again it’ll be bare bones around here. If you want to stay up to date you can keep up with me on twitter: @kateodotorg

Ahh, let me tell you, the view right here is lovely. I am kicked back on my couch with a little dog beside me, watching me type on my pretty new laptop. I love this new machine.

I have gotten a bit behind in my blog reading and commenting lately, having spent the past week and weekend up to my eyebrows in grading and other projects. When that happens I often wind up reading blog posts via Google Reader on my phone at bedtime. What this means is that I am not able to comment as easily — the combination of being in a feed reader and on a phone makes it very unlikely that I’ll make the effort to post a comment. I don’t like this. As I’ve mentioned before, I really think blog comments are the best and I love chatting back and forth with people on the internets, both here and on their blogs.

So last night I wound up bookmarking a bunch of recent posts on the phone, then syncing it to my laptop so I could go back and comment on them when I was at my desk. But then, see, I had a better idea! I thought I would share the links here and send you guys over to read (and maybe you can leave a comment, if you are so inclined). I was even thinking maybe I could make this a regular feature and share interesting posts from my Google Reader every week or two, but then I realized that is actually already a function built into Google Reader. You can share posts with your Google Reader Friends. I don’t do that though. (Because honestly I have enough social media connections and I prefer to just have Google Reader be the place where I go read blogs and not another friend- and connection-making kind of place. It’s strictly a reading-based place in my mind.)

Which was all my long-winded explanation of this: I am not sharing these posts in Google Reader or on Facebook or on Twitter or on Tumblr. Oh no. I am sharing them here! So you’d better like it! And I won’t take any guff! (I don’t know why I am suddenly getting all defensive about this.)

Without further ado, then, here are some great blog posts from around the internet that I think you just might like. Stop by and check them out and say hello to these awesome bloggers:

Kath from KERF (one of my favorite food blogs) on her food philosophy. What she eats, doesn’t eat, and why. Enjoy the lovely food photos as well!

Chrissy from The New Me recently participated in an adventure race! If you don’t know what those are, I highly suggest reading her recap of the event. It sounds both slightly scary and super fun.

Holly from Holly Would if She Could recently posted about popular music and I was just giggling throughout the whole thing. I can tell you that I am right there with her when it comes to that new Rihanna song — yikes!

Matt from No Meat Athlete on his decision to go from vegetarian to vegan and on his first vegan grocery shopping trip. If you ever wonder what motivates us crazy vegans to do what we do, or wondered how exactly we do it, check out these two posts.

Speaking of vegan stuff, please read this really thoughtful post from Gena (of Choosing Raw, but guest blogging at JL Goes Vegan) on the ethics of veganism. She explains it all and doesn’t do so in a manipulative or overly preachy manner. I love this post.

Caitlin from Heathy Tipping Point blogged this week about the emotional side of sports injury. Let me just say that (with my nagging hip flexor keeping me from running yet again), I have been going through almost every one of these emotions lately, too.

SarahLena from The Anvil Tree wrote about the life and work lessons learned from working in restaurants and I think she is spot on. I worked in lots of restaurants back in the day and I think it really changed me for the better — I learned new skills, gained confidence, understood the idea of work better, and the list goes on. When I hear from my students that they don’t have jobs outside of school, I feel kind of sorry for them.

Ashley from Redonkulous Runner is on the topic of being gritty. Go read it and see! I am in complete agreement.

And lastly, Slynnro has got the perfect new idiomatic expression for you to use regarding bitchy coworkers, passive-aggressive Facebook friends, and drunks at the bar. You’ll have to read it to find out.

And now, have you read anything good on a blog this week? I’ll take links if you’ve got ‘em.

I’ve been doing a little sprucing around the blog.  If you look to the links at the top of the page, you’ll notice I added one called “Faves,” which will take you to a list of my favorite posts I’ve written since the start of kateo.org. The “Photos” link will take you directly to my flickr photostream in case you want to see more than just the pictures I am displaying in the sidebar.  I also revised my “About” page a bit, but if you’re reading this then you probably know all about me already!

Please let me know if you notice any broken links, formatting that seems off, or any other glitches.  And, oh yeah, Happy New Year to the nicest, coolest people on the whole entire internet. (Yes, I mean you.)

Hi All! Just a quick post on this holiday weekend to announce the results of the CSN Stores contest. Thanks to everyone who entered. I wish I could give you each a gift certificate, but as you know there can be only one winner! I used a random number generator, which pulled this out of its metaphorical hat:

That means congratulations are in order for The Slow Learner, who can now never complain again about not winning drawings. Way to go, dude! Enjoy your shopping! (I have emailed you the gift code, so check your inbox.)

Back to your regular programming soon. Until then, I hope everyone is making the most of the weekend.

I have a bunch of quick updates for you guys so I thought I’d just do a little round-up over here. First of all, I am kind of excited because I have been asked to review a retail site. CSN Stores (home of cheap bedroom furniture, among countless other sites) has asked me to check them out. In addition to doing a review, if I like what I learn I might also be  doing a giveaway here at some point, so I will definitely keep you guys posted because I suspect you will be interested!

In health and fitness blogging news, I have been busy at the Bodies in Motivation site. You can read about my upcoming half marathon or about my trip to the doctor in a quest to get a discount on my health insurance. Have you ever wondered how many pounds of me is made up of water or fat? The answers await you.

If you are sick of hearing about me, though, may I recommend checking out the healthy living blogs site? You can even search a huge list of blogs by location to find bloggers near you. Awesome.

And speaking of other bloggers! I desperately need to update my links list to reflect the blogs I am reading now. I have found a lot of new ones recently and (sadly) several of the old favorites on that list are now defunct. If I don’t already link to you, let me know if you have a blog and I can add you to my list!

Was that all? I feel like I am forgetting something. Don’t you hate that feeling? Like standing in my office asking myself “What did I come in here for?” Do you know what I came in here for?