Thank you!

After leaving my last post up for a week, I am taking it down, as I do not want it floating out there for any longer. I appreciate all of your comments and emails. Some of you gave me some interesting things to look into and I was touched by the thoughts and well-wishes. Despite my lack of posting, I do still have some readers, and they are AWESOME ones. Thank you!

Looks can be deceiving

While it APPEARS that I have once again fallen COMPLETELY off the planet, I am in fact still around, though I am finding myself with NO TIME WHATSOEVER to post anything here and/or read and comment anywhere else. So once again, I will regale you with tales of coming attractions. Keep in mind my tendency to fall off the planet, however, and don't hold your breath on the aggressive execution [BOOYAH!] of said coming attractions. (The booyah will only make sense to you facebookers who are my friends. And then only if you read my wall. It will make sense to the rest of you after I post the story of my grandmother's memorial weekend, which is one of the coming attractions I will list below.) Since I am starting to get ahead of myself in the parentheses, let me go ahead and list coming attractions now. Some of them have been listed before in previous posts like this one, but as they haven't been done yet, they are still coming. So I give you, in no particular order, the COMING ATTRACTIONS:

• November notes
  
• December digest
  
• The first part of January before I started posting again... something (yeah, I'm still working on this one)
  
• Buncha books, issue 8
  
• Bumcha books, issue 9 - the James Patterson edition
  
• Buncha books, issue 10 (yes there are THAT many in the queue)
  
• My grandmother's memorial weekend trip
  
• Another thing or two that I had thought of before that now I can't remember
  
• Another look-alike thing where I say something about the American Idol contestant Danny something-or-other looking like Robert Downey, Jr. Oh, scratch that since now I've already said it.
  

Now that you're all BREATHLESS WITH ANTICIPATION, I will depart until next time. Except for one thing...

Becky, you might have noticed you never received the book you won. Let me point out the obvious: The US postal service, which for the most part does a pretty decent job, sometimes SCREWS UP. It seems that sometime between October and now (which, WTF? it's MARCH), the package was destroyed, except for CONVENIENTLY the portion of the wrapping containing the delivery and return addresses and the postage (what is up with THAT?), which they returned to me with an apology form letter. So Becky, I feel bad. I owe you a book. No winner on my blog should end up empty-handed. So here's what I'm going to do:

I mooched a book called The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond from Bookmooch. After three months of not receiving it (you know what THAT'S like), I mooched it again from another person. Both copies showed up within a day of one another last week. I will be sending you one of the copies. I hope that's OK. I'm sorry the original prize didn't make it.

Prayer for a broken blog

My blog is broken. The individual pages show up okay, but the main page only has the sidebars and no main body. Why? Please oh blog gods, magically fix this with no effort whatsoever on my part. Thank you.

What should I read next?

Every time I finish a book, I then face the dilemma of choosing my next read from a towering pile (actually THREE towering piles) of books I've acquired but not yet read. It's a really hard decision for me because I want to read them ALL. So I've decided to add a new and EXCITING little number here. YOU, yes YOU, get to decide which book I read next. Each time I finish a book, I will grab 3-5 books from my piles and put a poll over to the right, where you can vote on my next read. Since I review the books I read here, you can essentially have me test read the books for you if you think they are ones in which you might be interested.

So anyway, last night I finished Plum Island by Nelson DeMille. This morning I selected for your decision-making pleasure, the following: The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst, Step on a Crack by James Patterson and either Brimstone by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child OR The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

I need some info on the Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child book (I'm looking at YOU Shauna, if you still come by here that is, I know it's been a while since I've been around). You might remember that I read a Preston/Child book a while back entitled The Book of the Dead (reviewed here) that turned out to be the seventh (I think) book in a series revolving around FBI Agent Pendergast. Being the anal retentive individual that I am, I prefer to read series books in order, even when they stand alone perfectly well. Since I also happen to buy most, if not all, of my books from bargain tables and library sales, or get them from Bookmooch, I don't happen to have all of the previous six to choose from, but I do now have two of them (assuming both of them come before The Book of the Dead), and I might as well read them in order. So Shauna or anyone else who might know, which of the two Preston/Child books here comes first?

Okay, now go VOTE. Because I'm drinking my coffee, but I have nothing to read while I am doing so. In the future, I will have to put these polls up the day before I'll finish a book, so there's one on deck. I guess today I'll just clean the house or something, maybe put away Christmas decorations, until the poll time is up. This time, I'm only going to give 12 hours of voting time, since I'm needing a decision NOW, but in the future I'll give 24 hours. Now VOTE!!!

Where to begin?

My mother left this morning, and so now that all the holidays and birthdays are done for a while, I am going to try to have a more consistent presence here and in your comment sections (yes, I mean YOURS). And by a more consistent presence I mean that I will do better than my recent 4 month absence, but don't expect miracles. There aren't as many or as long naps happening around here and I'm trying (only SLIGHTLY successfully) to keep on top of the clutter, which is tough around here with four kids who have apparently NEVER heard of putting anything away, so I will probably still be an erratic poster and commenter, but give me credit for trying.

Who else has yet to finish putting away holiday decorations? Anyone? Bueller? Just me then? OK, how 'bout individual piles of Christmas or Hanukkah (2 Ks, 1 N, NOT 2 Ns, 1 K like I always try first) loot scattered about the living room? Also just me? OK then moving on...

I'm trying to figure out how to cover the months I missed, and I'm not sure how to begin. I read A LOT, so I have quite a few reviews to write for at least the books I can remember reading. The others will just fall through the cracks. Maybe I'll do a brief overview for each month, then additional posts for any events or happenings that need more detail, then I'll tackle the book reviews a few at a time while I get back into what will likely be an erratic yet more often posting schedule. So if I can get back here later today, I will give you "September Synopsis." Otherwise, look for it next week sometime. I'd say Monday, but then I'd have a deadline, and OH THE PRESSURE...

Helllllloooooooo - o - o - o - o

So. It's been a while, hasn't it? Is anyone still out there? Since I switched to a new blog back in what... July?... and then about two months later completely fell off the face of the blogosphere, only popping up to toast Jess and Torsten and to leave a total of about 5 comments scattered about, I'd be surprised if anyone is still hanging around. BUT, I take comfort in the fact that I and many others were too lazy to remove Tess's old blog or the mysteriously absent Flibberty from our readers so that when the two of them popped up again a few days ago after approximately the same length of absence, they still had readers.

A lot has happened (mainly with my kids, not me) during the past few months, but I'll get into that in a future post that I promise will happen pre-July. I need to upload some pictures and whatnot to illustrate, and my mother is arriving on Saturday, so it may be mid-January. I'll TRY to post some little things before then, but the big what's-been-happenings will show up then. In the meantime, if you're going to the Outback Bowl tomorrow, my oldest daughter (let's see what do I call her here... oh yes, Meg) will be playing alto saxophone on the field at halftime. OK, there will also be other kids from her marching band and some other high school marching bands, but I'm sure if you look closely, you'll see her.

Also, can you guess what one of the kids' gifts was this year?

Unexpected and unintentional hiatus

It seems that for the last week I have been unable to write, post, read and/or comment on my blog or anyone else's. Things are completely nutty here schedule-wise, and there doesn't seem to be a break in it for about another week-and-a-half to two weeks. So, while I will TRY to do a little blog hopping, success in that endeavor is unlikely. I'll be back soon - with so much going on, I have a lot to post, just no time to post it.

Some old stuff

I've been meaning to do another Buncha Books post, because the number of books I've read and not reviewed is becoming overwhelming. Doing one of those posts after so much time has passed takes a while (I really should review as I go and set up a once-a-month Buncha Books issue thing.), so I've decided to transfer a couple more posts from my old blog here over the next few days. One is a post that was really difficult for me to write, as it is about a time when one of my children faced a potentially deadly disease. Since the illness is rare, I think it's important to get information out there when possible, so I have decided to re-post it despite it's lack of entertainment value. I will also, when I am done with my Buncha Books post, be adding a link in the sidebar to the Kawasaki Disease Foundation's website like I had up at my old blog. The other posts I'll transfer to fill out the time haven't yet been decided upon, but they'll probably involve some of the random info about me (because it is OH SO INTERESTING) and a fun meme or two.

Sending the wrong message

I seem to be sending the wrong message with my last post. I am NOT UPSET IN THE LEAST. I was surprised at first and registered a brief moment of panicky concern, but then I realized that that reaction was uncalled for and that having a reader (if (s)he does become a regular) close by could be fun. Do none of you READ THROUGH TO THE END??? (By the way, kettle, you're black.) Note to self: make writing more interesting. People are drifting away in the middle.

How should I look at this?

Yesterday, I was visited here by someone who works (it was a company ISP, but that doesn't rule out living in the town as well) in the town WHERE I LIVE, which is NOT a huge town. Now, my first reaction was mini-freak out. Does this person know me? Will this person recognize my kids at the grocery store or the Target? Do we go to the same restaurants? Could this be one of my kids' friends' mothers? What is the potential anonymity compromise here? But then I thought, "so what?" I have no family here, and those are the only ones that I'm really wanting to keep unaware of this place. Not that there is anything INCRIMINATING, but just because I present more of a friends persona here than a family persona. There is the protecting my kids issue, of course, in that while I do post pictures of my kids, I do not give any specific location-identifiers such as a school name or mascot. Most likely this person is just another mom and is completely non-threatening. Whoever it is got here from Swistle rather than a search and appears to be gainfully employed at an insurance company with the word "Mutual" in it's name. So I'm going to assume everything's cool, especially since I know where he/she works. :) If you live in a relatively small town where, even if it's a big city suburb and is pretty built-up, lots of people know one another and it's not unusual to run into people you know on a regular basis, what would your reaction be if one day you checked your statistics and saw a visit from your town? Oh, and if you're looking at this and thinking, "I think she's talking about ME," email me. Maybe we can grab lunch sometime. That is, if you don't mind a toddler with unpredictable behavior tagging along.

Lurky week

I'm back from vacation and ALMOST done with all the dirty vacation laundry, so I am starting to tackle the over 200 posts in my reader. I started reading and left a couple comments, then realized that due to the sheer number of posts, I will probably have to mostly lurk this week while I catch up, so forgive me the lack of commenting on your hilarious and/or touching posts this week. I will be announcing the winners of my mega-contest soon, so stay tuned. Also, in response to a question from susiewearsthepants: Thanks for asking; feel free to link. That goes for anyone who is wondering. Thanks!

Transfer complete

Whew! I have done all the transferring I'm going to do this week. This time around I transferred posts having to do with food and a reading challenge I did. I also transferred birth stories [ sorry, shamelessly sassy, don't read them ;) ]. A couple posts that may have been linked to from the ones I transferred got transferred as well, while a couple others just aren't worth the bother. I DID NOT get my perspective photos over, which I still want to do, so look for those next week or later.

Also, I still need Ecchs to contact me. Thanks!

Apology

I want to apologize to anyone who has my old blog still in their reader and saw a bunch of posts pop up. I reposted some empty posts today. You can ignore them and delete that blog from your reader. I posted my absolutely final post there today. I am still working on my transfer for this week. Hopefully I'll have them posted today sometime.

Transfer announcement

As many of you know, I recently moved to this blog from one that was no longer anonymous and am in the process of transferring posts from my old blog. This week I am going to be transferring posts with recipes and/or food. Also, I think I'll go ahead and bring over that post with the photos where I was playing with perspective; they were fun. So, once again, this is your heads-up: Don't panic if you suddenly see that I have published a large number of new posts, most will actually be old posts.

Also, I still do not have contact information for Ecchs, who won my Pay it Forward contest. Please, if you are Ecchs or if you know Ecchs, put us in touch with one another. Thank you!

Posting recaps

Last Friday I moved some posts over from my old blog. I will do that again at some point, but I'll give a warning the day before. Anyway, it was interesting to go back and read some of what I had written before, especially before the majority of my readers found me. Mostly what I transferred were book reviews, because I wanted them here before I posted a new issue of Buncha Books, but I also transferred my own Appendix A of The Bible, as well as some look-alike posts, so if you haven't seen any of those, take a look (search on the label: look-alike). Once I stumbled across a picture of a man who looked EXACTLY like Al Gore. Seriously. The resemblance was so uncanny that I had to post a side-by-side comparison. You can't argue with that, now, can you?

Moving over some old posts and Disney

I was going to do a new issue of Buncha Books today, but I've decided to do that next week so that I can first transfer over the old issues. I think that those are some of the posts that I want to keep. So either today or tomorrow I'll be transferring several old posts from my old blog to here. Since I may do this transferring thing from time to time, until I have everything transferred over that I want to keep, I'll give a heads-up so that those of you who have this blog in your readers don't think I'm trying to overwhelm you. I'm going to leave the old dates on the posts, so that they won't come in ahead of the new stuff on the blog (though they'll look like they're ahead of the new stuff in your reader (I think?)). So this is your heads-up for the book review stuff.

In other news, on Tuesday I got a call that the talent agency was submitting Beth for a big national television ad for Disney. They wanted to make sure we'd be available for not only the audition dates, but also for the callback and filming dates. Yesterday they called back to tell me that the auditions are today, and oh, by the way, she takes ballet, right? Um, no. She doesn't. They needed little girls that took ballet. Apparently part of this ad is a dream where little girls are at a birthday party and they are transported into the ballerina birthday cake and into Disney World or something along those lines. Another part is little boys swimming. So when you see that ad (which is being shot in July, so sometime after that), that's the one Beth missed out on because she doesn't take ballet. Sadly, I think that part of the filming was going to be done at Disney World in Orlando, and Beth has recently been harassing bugging sweetly inquiring as to when our family might embark on a trip there. So it would have been a great one to try for. On the bright side, I'm home instead of on the train to NYC, which gets seriously OLD after you done it a few times.

I'm lifting the search restrictions here. I originally didn't allow search engines to crawl this blog. But if I don't allow Disney to find this blog, how will they find this to know to give our family a free trip, which I will then sing praises of right here in this very forum? Either that or I can question their PC-ness. I mean, why not have little boy ballet dancers and little girl swimmers? Huh, Disney? What's up with the gender stereotypes? Sexist much? That would be like me awarding a PINK toy to Saly just because her soon-to-be-born baby is a girl. But *I'M* not a HUGE corporation taking over the WORLD one toddler at a time. By the way, a little heads-up for you Disney: watch out for Oprah. She's some serious competition in the whole world-taking-over thing.