Feel the bloggy love. Really, FEEL it!

The thing I love most about blogging is YOU.

This amazing, ever-expanding community full of wonderful people...coming together despite the miles, building strong friendships without meeting in person, and changing the world for the better together. I can't imagine what my life would be like without all of you.

To that end, I'd like to share a few things with you:

Have you heard about Lotus (aka Sarcastic Mom...that's her rack to the right by the way), the mold that was infesting her home, and the landlord who refused to do anything about it despite the fact her family was getting sick? Bloggers to the rescue! Angie from A Whole Lot of Nothing, Dawn at KaiserAlex and Victoria at VDog and Little Man have teamed up and provided the interwebs a few different ways to help Lotus and her family get some cash together to help them get out of that mold pit and into a new home. Wanna help? Click the link below (or if you're feeling randy you can click on that aforementioned rack ---------->).



I also suggest visiting the sites of these amazing women who are banning together to help a fellow blogger...I know I am. It's what it's all about.

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On a more personal level...

Jill at Caffeine Court was kind enough to bestow upon me her Slammin' Post Award for one of my pee stories (I am soooooooo highbrow): "One more time when I really, really had to pee."



I'd like to hand it over to Marjorie at 280 Main Street for her touching post Random Kindness. Her kindness, warmth, and humor ooze out of her every post; this one is no exception.

I'd also like to extend it to Sarcasta-Mom at The Adventures of Sarcasta-Mom for her oh, so perfect post about being broke. Not frugal...broke. As I know all too well, there's a distinction and she not only explains the difference, but offers up some tips on dealing with it.

"Slammin' Post" doesn't do this post from Casey at Moosh In Indy justice. This is one of the most gut-wrenching and yet inspirational things I've ever read. It's haunted me since I first read it back in November. It starts with this, "I overdosed on prescription medication when I was seven months pregnant.

On purpose."

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The love continues...HRH at June Cleaver Nirvana awarded me this:




How awesome is that? I'm extending this bloggy love to one of the most beautiful (inside and out) bloggers I know and am honored to call 'friend.' Loralee from Loralee's Looney Tunes...I puffy pink heart you big time!

I'm also sending it to Domestic Chicky...for a lot of reasons including the fact that her blog is always a fun read and the fact that she loves Eddie Izzard (whom I've met and is super nice. And hot).

And Jennifer from Playgroups are No Place for Children for a consistently hilarious and touching blog. Plus, she's genuine and loyal. You just have to love her.

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And yet more love: Liz at Pink Lemonade of Life was kind enough to send this one over:



Now, I'm just blushing. Robin from Around the Island, this one's for you. I can't read her blog without feeling a little better about the world, knowing there are people like her in it.

Mrs. Flinger gets one as well. If you don't read her, you should. She's funny and insightful and super nice and she looks great first thing in the morning, too!

And last, but MOST definitely not least, Mrs. Incredible from In the Fast Lane because her writing is super and entertaining and I after reading her posts I sometimes wish I were her. Or at least, that I'd written what she did.

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Now, time for a meme!

J over at Take a Walk on the Childside, a loooooooooontime online friend from my pre-blogging days and a big part of the reason I started blogging, has tagged me for a meme.

So here are the rules for this little one.

1. Grab the nearest book of 123 pages or more.
2. Open it to page 123.
3. Find the first 5 sentences and write them down.
4. Then invite 5 friends to do the same.

"No, precisely no!" He leaned forward of their coffee cups, his voice low and fervent. "What could be rarer, more precious, more compelling than unmasking these hacks for what they are? Than an instrument to trumpet that the emperor has no clothes, and the grand vizier has not clothes, and the empress is starkers, to-do you get my point? Debunk the lot of them."

Oddly, that paragraph speaks to the title, which is The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud. I just started it and am really enjoying it.

And in the spirit of bloggy love, consider yourself tagged! Unless you don't want to, then you aren't tagged!

So, what is that widget over there, anywho???

Telling It Like It Is has tagged me! It's meme that is connected to Entrecard, a social networking site that has a really unique and fun twist...when you join Entrecard, you create your own virtual business card. So as you cruise around visiting blogs, you can drop your card to say, "Hi!" with a quick click. You can also promote your own blog by placing your widget on their blog by using Entrecard credits; they are easily accumulated as you do what you do anyway...visiting your fave blogs.

Anyway, back to the meme...

Best Value By Widget Meme Rules:

* Link back to this post so people will know where the Meme came from and who tagged you. (No, I did not make up these rules).
* Link to each of the blogs listed on your Best Value By Widget stats page. Once you’ve linked to them, send them a message to let them know they have been tagged. (Of course, if they use Google Alerts or something like it, this step may not even be necessary).
* Go through each of the blogs you link to and stumble, digg, sphinn, zoom, or any other means to help bring them traffic. It is also recommended to favorite them on Technorati.
* Visit each of the sites listed in the meme, and offer up some social media love taps.
* If only half of these rules are followed, it will still help bring well-deserved traffic to these blogs.

Here are my best value widgets:

Table for Five
Looking towards Heaven (Karla is a special bloggy buddy of mine; I was thrilled to place my first Entrecard widget on her blog!)
Stream of Conciousness of a Wife and Mom
Posh Mama
Comfort Joy Designs

I'm super selective about whose blog I advertise on...these blogs are ALL worth checking out, to say the lease. And when you see someone advertising on my Entrecard widget, rest assured that I have thoroughly screened them before approving their ad. I reject far more than I approve...I'm a beyotch that way.

On beer and knee socks

My fellow Cal blogger Shannon at Zokai tagged me for a seven things meme. As I've had a bit of writer's block since I moved, I'm happy for the fodder!

Here you go, seven amazingly interesting things about MOI:

1.) After studying French for over eight years, I was thrilled to be in France actually testing my skills. I had no problems all over the country, and even spoke French in other countries to get around, but one evening my friend and I stopped into a little out of the way pub for a beer. I bellied up and ordered; the ornery bartender responded by exclaiming in French, "What? We have no tickets here! Why come to a bar for a ticket?" The French for beer is bière, which isn't dissimilar sounding to the French for ticket, billet. The guy was just being a jerk; my accent was fine. No matter how much I begged for mercy he kept waving his white towel at me, pretending to be perplexed. Eventually some of the other older gentlemen at the bar said, "C'mon Pierre (yup, Pierre), stop it. Give her a beer." He stopped his act and way overcharged us.

2.) I lived with a few other guys before I met my husband (with whom I did not live before we married) ...the exact number depends upon how you define "lived with."

3.) As a follow up...every single guy I dated seriously was left-handed and played the guitar. Weird.

4.) I don't like talking on the phone.

5.) I get a stomach ache when I'm tired.

6.) I have many memories of being in preschool wanting desperately to be a "big girl" and go to kindergarten. I would watch the kids walking past my home on their way to school and I just couldn't wait to be one of them. I especially thought the girls were super cool when the pulled up their knee socks. When I was finally in kingergarten, I often made a big deal about stopping and pulling up my knee socks. I felt so proud and grown-up.


7.) When I was working on my second bachelors, I waited at a bar that served 32 ounce beers in huge glass mugs. I used to be able to carry five of these in each hand; it became a thing for people to get their picture taken with me. The St. Pauli girl only has SIX, the wuss.

Consider yourself tagged!

A Meme 4 you

InTheFastLane tagged me with this fun meme and since I am so bogged down with this move and chairing my daughter's preschool auction and have thus I have sucked at getting any of those posts I am working on done, this is a welcome diversion indeed can you tell how overwhelmed I am please send help.

4 Jobs I have had:
Pharmacist's Assistant in high school
Mail Room Assistant in an insurance company for the summer I lived in SoCal (summer between freshman and sophomore years in college)
Bartender while working on my second bachelors degree
Kelly temp (for two weeks...and the office in which I was placed is where I met my husband)

4 Movies I love to watch over and over:
Valley Girl (who doesn't love Nic Cage in this movie?)
Daddy Day Care (with my kids...they love it and I always laugh, "I'm your daddy. I'm not your daddy! I'm your baby's daddy! I'm not your baby's daddy! I'm gonna be. I mean, I'm ahhh...")
I can't think
of any others


4 Places I have lived:
All around the Metro Detroit area
Westchester County, NY
St. Thomas, USVI (well, only for one glorious month the year I spent traveling prior to medical school)(see below)
SoCal (see above) and now NorCal

4 TV shows I enjoy watching:
30 Rock (because Tina Fey is my idol)
The Office (what can I say? I'm cool)
How I Met Your Mother (great hook...who's their Momma?)
Rules of Engagement (flipping hys.ter.i.cal.)

4 Places I have been:
Backpacking in Europe for several months when I was 27
US and British Virgin Islands (many times, I don't know the exact number...how fancy am I? I had a good friend who lived there so I visited often in my foot-loose twenties)
Ireland (twice, for a total of five weeks...the second time was for a wedding a few years ago. They are now divorced.)
Mountain biking in Corvallis, Montana

4 Websites I visit daily:
cre8Buzz
Twitter
Blogger!
My Google calendar (eeer...well, I should)


4 Favorite Foods:
Burritos (wrap anything in a tortilla, throw in some jalapeños, and I'm happy)
Spinach, mushroom and feta quiche
Any stew with lentils, spinach, tomatoes, and potatoes (*drool*)
French onion chip dip and chips (chips optional, I'm fine with just a spoon)

4 Places I would rather be:
USVI or BVI
Corfu, Greece
A private Tuscan villa
Avignon, France (Sur le Pont!)

4 People I am tagging:
Sarcastamom
Annie
Fussy
slackermommy

The telephone game

I'm not usually good at following through on meme's but this one is fun. Thanks Treadmillista!

Remember when we were kids and at every opportunity, some adult would have us play that silly Telephone game? You know… the one where the lead person comes up with a sentence or statement, whispers it into the ear of the next person in line, and the sentence is passed from person to person until it reaches the end of the line. The last person then repeats the sentence out loud, the first person announces what it actually was, and everyone gets to laugh about how goofy it got by being passed from ear to ear and being altered because of mispronunciations and hearing ability.

Of course I realize that the game was simply a means for adults to keep us in line while we were waiting for something or killing time. Haven’t we even now as adults, tried to use it on our own kids?

Being the silly kind of fracas that I am, I’ve decided to create an internet version of the game, and use it as an opportunity for link-getting. Everyone wants links, and yet lots of people I know, prefer to get their links in a non-obvious kind of way. We’ve all done the “copy this list and create a post and you’ll get links” type of tag…at least once, but most of us don’t want to fill our blogs with those posts. It may get links, but eventually will chase readers away.

This is a fun way to give your readers something entertaining to read and get a few links too.



Instructions:
If you’ve been tagged, check the last entry on the list. Copy this entire post, add your name and link to the end of the list, copy the sentence in the previous person’s entry and change ONE word in it to try and change the meaning of the sentence for your entry. Name and link only ONE person to tag and then post the whole thing as a new entry in your own blog. Please make sure to transfer all the links to your post otherwise you aren’t providing fair linkage to the people before you. Although this will take longer to get around, by tagging only one person you will avoid making mass enemies by having to tag many people, and it will also guarantee only one true version of the game is circulating out there. Fracas, the creator, will attempt to keep tabs on the game and periodically report on it.
Please try not to tag someone you see is already on the list. If you’re on the list, have been tagged again by someone who didn’t pay attention to the instructions and you don’t want to do another turn, please leave a comment at this post over at Fracas, and Fracas will take your turn for you in order to keep the list going.

1. Fracas - http://fracas.wordpress.com/
writes:Never continue dating anyone who is rude to the waiter.

2. Mark @ Blogitude - http://www.blogitude.com/
writes:Never continue dating anyone who is nude to the waiter.

3. Wiggy - @ http://damewigginsoflee.wordpress.com/
Forever continue dating anyone who is nude to the waiter.

4. Froggy @ The Road Less Traveled - http://froglette79.wordpress.com/
Forever continue dating anyone who is nude under the waiter.

5. InTheFastLane@ That's Life - http://thatslifev2.blogspot.com/
Forever continue dating anyone who is nude under the water.

6. Treadmillista @ Just Treadmilling Around - http://treadmillinginplace.blogspot.com/
Forever continue dating everyone who is nude under the water

7. Christine @ http://watchmenowatchme.blogspot.com/
Forever continue watching everyone who is nude under the water

I tag...Candace @ http://notthatidontlovemykids.blogspot.com/

(*Ahem*) Me Me Me Meeeeeeeeeee!

The lovely and erudite Blog Antagonist has tagged me for an eight things meme. I love her, you should too.

The eight things meme goes as follows: enlighten us with eight newish things about yourselves, tag eight people to do the same. DONE!

Here I go:

1.) I used to don a bikini at a moment's notice. My only concern was that I didn't fill out the top as much as I would have liked. Now I actually have nightmares (literally, NIGHTMARES) that my post-baby abdomen is exposed in public.

2.) I've lost exact count, but my best estimate is that I've had 37 roommates; the male:female ration is close to 50:50.

3.) I procrastinate. A lot. I have been known to use a bathroom knowing it didn't have toilet paper because I figured I'd deal with that problem later.

4.) If my husband and I heading somewhere in a car, I always drive. Unless we will be:

5.) Driving on curvy mountain cliffs WITHOUT GUARDRAILS while on the outside lane (hugging the inside wall is fine for me). My hands are sweaty just thinking about it. I never want to go to South Lake Tahoe again, or to Yosemite for this reason. A mere six inches of shoulder being all that stands between me and plunging headlong into certain death just isn't comfortable.

6.) When my dad died, he was homeless. He lived out of his car, and died in the gutter next to which he was parked.

7.) I owe more in student loans that many do for their mortgages. It's insane and makes my stomach hurt.

8.) My husband and I have the same first name (well, we both go by Chris, but I am Christine and he is Christopher). I ended up taking his last name when we married (I had wanted him to take mine, but he won the coin toss), so now we have the same name. This is more convenient than you'd expect.

I tag: Stephanie, CM , A Child's Smile, My Minivan is Faster Than Yours, treadmillista, Jennifer, Krisco, Jennifer aka Binky Bitch, moosh in indy. What? That's nine? I didn't realize.

Like a virgin, tagged for the very first time

My first meme, "7 Things About Me." Thanks Treadmillista for the tap on my virtual shoulder. Essentially I'm supposed to tell you 7 things you don't know about me. Since this is a babyblog, you don't know too much about me yet anyway, so this is an easy one.

1.) I hate clutter but love saving. My closets are packed full of things I have shoved in them in an attempt to declutter my rooms. The rooms are now fine and I am working on making it possible to open my closet doors without stuff tumbling down like some bad sitcom.

2.) I like to think of myself as an extrovert but the plain fact is that I refuel myself by being ALONE.

3.) As a pre-teen in New York, I used to sit for hours at a time in my mom's Vega and listen to Robert Klein on am radio while chatting on her CB with other teens. That was my seventies version of MySpace.

4.) An anagram of my maiden name is I became a thin rich actress. Still waiting.

5.) I can easily pass up sweets of most any kind, but put a lump of French Onion Chip Dip in front of me and I will eat it with a spoon.

6.) I vote pretty much the same way now as I did in college...socially liberal, fiscally conservative.

7.) In my twenties three friends and I used to call ourselves the Fearsome Foursome...we traveled together, partied together, lived together intermittently, moved across the country (or out of the country at times) from each other but still called one another in the middle of the night when heartbroken or just too drunk; we even took a death-defying helicopter ride together in the Caribbean with a daredevil pilot. Now in our forties, I'm not in touch with them like I wish I were, but I know that if I needed to I could call them in the middle of the night and they'd forgive me for waking their spouses and kids. I love and miss you guys.

Hmmm...who to tag? Miss M and PDX Mama and YOU, the lurker who wants to be asked. That's right, I mean you.