First of all, check out the left sidebar.  I have added the Top Commenter plug-in widget.

Basically, this is a little tool that tracks who has left comments and adds their link to my sidebar automatically.   I love this because I have always hesitated doing the whole blogroll thing for one reason or another.

Why?

Well, mostly because I feel all “mean girls” deciding who makes the cut and who doesn’t.  And I’m no Regina George.

I guess this is just my way of saying thanks for taking the time to stop and leave me some comment love.  You are so fetch!   And for those of  you who just like to lurk, don’t worry.  I have your blog url listed in a separate place that I like to lovingly call the Bloggy Burn Book.  Just kidding.  I would never do anything like that.

And if you haven’t seen Mean Girls (why the heck not–it is a GREAT movie) , you have absolutely no idea what I’m even talking about, do you?

Moving on…

On the right sidebar, you’ll notice a little box that says “Jen’s Shared Items”.  I added this a few months ago but I’m not sure if anyone even noticed.   This is just a sampling of the many blogs that I read on a regular basis.  When I read I post that I find particularly amusing or inspiring, I will hit share and it goes to this page, as well as this handy dandy little box.  Check it out if you haven’t already.

Now, just for fun I am adding a new page to the top of my blog.  I’m calling it The Daily Crush.

Friday Eye Candy is a lot of fun but there are so many times throughout the week that I find myself swooning over some random hottie so I thought why not share the love and document it here.

Will it be updated everyday?  Probably not.  I’m fickle, but I’m not that fickle.  Check back regularly to see who is on my radar.

You may be surprised by first choice….click here to find out who it is.

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I tuned into President Bush’s speech on the financial crisis last night.  I have to give him credit for helping me to understand the whole thing a little better, but I kind of got the impression that this was something that I should have already been worried about.  Well as much as I try, I can’t seem to will myself to be overly concerned.   Am I being ignorant or naive?  Are you worried about it? Should I be worried about it?  Make me worry, damn it.

Ok, enough of that.  With all the doom and gloom surrounding us, I thought I would make a list of the things that I’m happy about right now.  I thought I’d share my list since it may be helpful to others to take their minds off the proverbial falling sky.

Disclaimer:  My friends and family do make me happy, but since I don’t post many personal pictures,  I thought I would share some universal things that we can all relate to and improve our moods.

1.  This blogger met Ryan Gosling.  While I wish it was me instead of her, I’m glad to read that he was super nice.  I left this comment on her post:

Can I just tell you how happy I am for you (ok and a little jealous too). I think more than that I’m just really glad to hear that Ryan is a nice guy. It is hard to continue to have sexual fantasies about a jerk, so thanks for keeping the dream alive.

2.  My friend just gave me New Moon (the second book in the Twilight saga).  I just love knowing that it is in my possession and that in a few short days I will be reading it.  There is a sense of calm that I can’t explain knowing that Edward Cullen is on my nightstand right now.  For the last time, I do realize that he is a vampire.  That doesn’t take away from his perfection. 

3.  I received an email with a bunch of funny pictures.  While I usually hate forwards there were a couple that made me smile.  First there was this one:

4.  And then this one:

Can you just imagine driving down the street and seeing either of these things? 

5.  Have you heard the Gavin Rossdale song “Love Remains the Same”?  I just love it!  Apparently, this is not a new song but my awful local pop music radio station has just discovered it.  Therefore, I’m just now discovering it since I’m a slave to what the djs decide I must listen to.  I’m so not a musical hipster.  

For some reason this song reminds me of Twilight and Edward Cullen.  Not sure why.

6.  It’s almost October.  I love October.  How can you not love October?   The weather is perfect, the leaves are changing colors (well, at least it is here, not sure about where you live).  

It is also my birthday month, and yes I do celebrate (or at least try to celebrate) the entire month.  I call it the Month-long Birthday Extravaganza.  It drives my husband crazy.  Plus, all the fall decorations, mums, and pumpkins.  I think October is God’s way of making the transition into winter bearable.  Have I mentioned my absolute disdain for winter yet?  Oh, don’t worry.  I’m sure you will hear all about it in the upcoming months. 

Ok, I’m getting off track from my positive post.  The last reason October is so wonderful is that my neighborhood goes all out for Halloween.  Now, normally I’m not a huge fan of my neighborhood, but Halloween makes up for it.  These people are Halloween freaks, which is kind of fun.  There are all sorts of decorations, smoke machines, and kids line the streets trick or treating.  It is a HUGE deal here.  (While your religious beliefs may not support this “evil” holiday, you must at least concur that any excuse for the consumption of chocolate is never a bad thing).  October rocks!

7.  Fall tv is BACK!!  That means new episodes of 30 Rock! 

8.  And Grey’s Anatomy which means lots of McSteamy and McDreamy:

(Note to Shonda Rhimes–Please just let Meredith and Derek be happy for a few episodes before finding yet another way to destroy their love.  If I have to watch one more mopey Meredith episode, I’m going to try to drown myself too.)

9.  And the last (but definitely not least) show that I’m super excited about is THE OFFICE.  It is BACK!!!!!!  TONIGHT!!!!  Alleluia!  Oh how I’ve missed my Office.  

 10.  Another thing that made me smile recently is this blog award from My Friend Amy.

While I love any award, I was especially excited to be getting this one from Amy. I love Amy and her blog, as I’ve mentioned before.  Also, this award is super cute.  It reminds me of my binder from middle/high school with the I love so and so, crossed out, so and so, crossed out, so and so.  I was very fickle with my declarations of love.

11.  Since I don’t want to seem greedy by keeping this award all to myself, I’d like to pass it on to a few blogs that I love and always brighten my mood.  While there are many really great blogs that I could give this to, but I want to pick a few out of my blogroll that aren’t as well known. 

The first is Three Boys One Mommy.  She calls herself the Super Commenter and I have to say that she is right.  They all crack me up.  Her blog is a riot too.  You should definitely check it out!  

12.  I’ve recently discovered Even the Nice Ones.  Have you ever had the experience of clicking on a blog and just reading a few paragraphs it was like love at first site/sight.  This is exactly what happened with this blog.   The fact that she calls her husband “Not Matt Damon” is just icing on the cake.

13.  Lastly, I have been reading Memarie Lane for awhile now.  I have to say that I always take something from her posts (whether it is something funny or thought-provoking.)  She is a fantastic writer!  For example, if you want more reasons to smile about our impending doom, click here. 

What has been making you smile lately?  Did I manage to take your mind off the financial crisis for a little bit?  Is your mind even on the crisis? 

To see more Thursday 13 lists, go here.

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I’m doing this because it is a part of my goal for the Looking Fine by 2009 Challenge.  The first two bloggers to take the plunge and join me in this challenge by posting about it on their blog are Jen at Momma Blogs Alot and Becks at Little Miss Pearsonality.  Please take a minute to go over and cheer them on. 

You’ll notice their links are on my sidebar under the banner.  I hope to add to this list daily, so please let me know if you put your post up.  How is everyone doing with their goals?  I’m doing well with the diet, sleep and water, but can’t seem to wrap my mind around the exercise part.  I keep thinking, oh I would work out if I belonged to a gym.  Or, I’d work out if I had elliptical machine.  Or, I’d work out if I could find a dvd that was really fun.  Excuses, excuses, excuses.  I just need to DO IT!!!  If I could burn calories by making excuses I’d look like Jennifer Aniston by now.

For the first time ever, I’m guest posting over at someone else’s blog.  Let me tell you, I nearly had a stroke trying to figure out something to write about that wouldn’t be about Ryan Gosling boring.  The most pressure came from the fact that the blogger who asked me to write a post was none other than McMommy herself.  She is one of my favorite bloggers of all time (by all time I mean the past 2 years that I’ve been reading blogs).  I pretty much love every post she does. 

I stressed about it for days, but then I remembered that you should always write about what you know and what you are most passionate about.  I didn’t think McMommy’s readers would appreciate my love of Gosling.  I know about Disney World, but again, not exactly McMommy material (although she used to work for Disney–how awesome is that!!).  I could write about how much I love my family, but again, nobody wants to read that. They’d just end up hating me for being a big ole bragger.

What else am I obsessed with?  It finally hit me–  Blogging!

My guest post is all about the trouble you can get into when you start blogging.  If you are a non-blogger, you will not understand any of this.

So, click on over to read The Stages of Blog Addiction.  Oh, but before you go, leave a comment here or else I’ll get the shakes.  You wouldn’t want to be responsible for that, now would you?

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I though I’d remind you of a couple of fun-filled events going on here and around the blogosphere this week.

Here’s the scoop:

Monday (tomorrow), August 11–Make a Difference Monday 

Write about a cause you feel passionate about or something you did this week to make the world a better place.

If you would like to participate but aren’t sure what to write about, may I suggest you check out Goodies for Mom and their Blogging for Blood Cancer Week.  Throughout the week, post on your blogs about the importance of the LLS mission, share your personal stories of those you have come to know who have been affected by blood cancer, or share some of the stories you read on the Friends of Heroes site during the week that have touched your hearts

By the way, I’m thinking of making Make a Difference Monday a monthly feature, rather than every week.  I have enough trouble trying to remember to switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer, let alone figure out how to save the world every week.  I’m just thinking making it monthly might be more doable for everyone.  What do you think?  Good or bad idea? 

Tuesday, August 12th–Movie Madness Carnival

Get your popcorn ready!  We are talking about the movies.  

Write a movie-related post and come back here to link up.  It could be a review, a list of your favorite movies in a genre, a video clip of your favorite movie scenes, etc..  

Come back here on Tuesday to link up! 

Other fun events going on in BlogLand:

It’s a Bloggy Dinner Party!  Auds at Barking Mad came up with this really fun idea.  The idea is simple. 

You create a post that describes which ten bloggers you would like to come to your dinner party.  Of course the idea is to invite people you you think would be intriguing, funny and interesting to share a meal with.  

This will be going on the entire month of August.  Head on over to Barking Mad for more details. 

Have I forgotten anything?   Do you have a fun blog event planned?  If so feel free to email me or leave a comment.

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It’s actually better than an Emmy.  This is the Arte y Pico  blogging award and it was bestowed upon me by Chickie Momma (by the way if you are not reading her, head on over on over to check her out.  She’s got a great sense of humor, a little dry like mine, and I enjoy reading her ecletic assortment of posts.) 

I have no idea what Arte y Pico means so I clicked on the link to find out and it was in some other language.  I’m thinking Spanish, but since its been 15 years since I’ve been to Spanish class and I can barely remember any spoken language on the trips that I’ve taken to Mexico the last couple of years because of too many Tequila Boom Booms (Best. Shooter. Ever.), it is really just an educated guess.  

The rules for this award are:

1. Chose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity,design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name of and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.
4. The award winner and one who has given the prize has to show the link of  Arte Y Pico blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. To show these rules.

I would like to give the following blogs this award:

1. Becks at Little Miss Pearsonality
2. Melanie at SmellyAnn
3. World’s Greatest Mommy at World’s Greatest Mommy
4. McMommy at McMommy
5. Jenny at Runningamuck

Congratulations on your award, ladies! 

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She asked us to bring our favorite dish and post the recipe on our blog, and the first thing that I thought of was my Mango Black Bean Salsa recipe  (it isn’t actually mine since I got it from a friend who probably got it from some recipe website, but whatever).  It is so good and pretty easy to make (if you don’t mind cutting things up). 

This is a great recipe for the summer months because it is light and refreshing.  I think it is pretty healthy too, but we can forgive that since it tastes so darn good.  Oh and it tastes great with a Margarita.  Doesn’t everything??!!

Mango Black Bean Salsa
 
1 fresh mango peeled and chopped
1 large tomato – chopped
1 red bell pepper – chopped (or yellow, green or orange)
1/4 C. finely chopped red onion
1 can black beans – rinsed & drained
 
Combine all ingredients.  Add to mixture below.
 
1 TBSP rasberry wine vinegar
1 TBSP olive oil
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
Juice of 1/2 – 1 lime to taste
chopped cilantro to taste
 
If preparing in advance, chill in fridge before adding oil/vinegar mixture.  Add mixture about 1 hour prior to serving.
 
Serve w/ “scoops”.  Also works on chicken or fish.

Go get your party shoes on and head over to McMommy’s.  Here are mine.  I’m not modeling them because I need a serious pedicure, but you can get the idea.  These are my black patent leather peep-toe pumps.  They look cuter in person. 

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So if you want to play with us on Thursday……here’s what you’ll need to do:

• On Thursday, write a post with your favorite party dish recipe. Come to McMommy’s blog to link up (with Mr. Linky). It can be whatever you want….an appetizer, a dessert, a fun drink, etc. You can grab a delicious dish badge at her website that you can use on your blog, too!
• Why not include a picture of your fun party shoes in your post?

Head on over to McMommy’s place tomorrow and let’s have some fun!!

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