Your Décolleté and How to Care for It: http://bit.ly/ckTNFX. Don’t know about you, but mine is starting to look like naked chicken skin.
 

This book is illustrated by my niece-in-law. It’s about children who have asthma. http://bit.ly/bbsnIt She’s a talent.
 

This month’s book is: Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto. It was written by a good friend’s sister, and I’m beside myself to read it.
 

Longtime readers will remember when I had a chemical peel before my 40th birthday. (I’ve posted links to the pictures TOO many times. No need to traumatize anyone further.) Anyway, if I do say so, after the procedure, my skin looked fabulous and exfoliated and fresh as a nine-year-old’s butt. (I don’t think my skin [...]

This month’s book club book is Call Me Your Name.
 

Check out this site to find playgroups in your area, plan play events, have parent discussions, share photos and set up playdates. It’s a veritable social networking site for parents.
 

My brother and his styley wife, Jill, were on a home improvement show recently where their NYC deck was transformed into deliciousness. Check it out here. Try to make it to the end where you can enjoy the sounds of my broham’s nervous chuckling upon the deck reveal.
 

Starting at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 1, the first 1,500 people through the doors of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center will receive free admission. An IMAX® film can be purchased for $5 per film (also limited to first 1,500 guests to visit the Science Center on May 1.)
 

Know a SoCal mother who launched a small business in the last 12 months and is looking for a much needed way to spread the word?
 
Read about how to nominate her (or yourself!) here, here, or here to win space at a KidsFest double-sized booth with the fabulous organization HelpAMotherOut. KidsFest happens in Point [...]

I’m browsing this new site chock full of jewelry made entirely from found vintage buttons. Best of all and coolest? The shop owner is from my hometown of Buffalo Grove, Ill.
 
Gotta represent.
 

SELF Magazine is doing its Workout in the Park “outdoor health, fitness, and wellness festival” on Saturday, April 24th at Mission Bay Park. There’ll be exercise demos and “classes,” fashion tips, beauty makeovers and giveaways.
I really should check this out. Gotta get back on the exercise bandwagon that I disembarked about eight years [...]

I know I am. Here’s one I found out about recently: The City of Encinitas Summer Camps from June 21- August 27. Put on by the City of Encinitas Parks and Rec Department, the camp program has dozens of different camps from “Seaside Day Camp” and “Junior Lifeguards” to cooking camps. Costs run from $99- [...]

Please dear Lord, don’t feel you must, but I was nominated for something and if you’d like to cast a vote, you can by clicking the green arrow by San Diego Momma here.
 
Several other fantastic San Diego bloggers are nominees as well, so check out the list and vote for some of these wonderful writers!
 

This week’s Buy With Me deal is for DK Hair ($50 for $100 worth of hair services). DK Hair is in Hillcrest. So you know it’s gotta be edgy and cool. Like you, maybe?
 

This is Episode #2 from Mama Mary’s Crock Pot Talk. I will never get over the fact that I look like a diphead on camera. Still, the pot roast turned out “delicious-ish.”

This is a wonderful post on how and why.

If I were a rich girl, na na na na na na na na na na na na na na NA:
 
THIS would be my fashion Christmas to-do list. (After I donated to charities, funded a peacekeeping mission to every war-torn country in the world, and cured cancer.)
 

This site lets you personalize online cards with logos and links to your favorite charity. Kinda makes altruistic giving easier. (Which is all good in my book.)

Here’s a holiday boutique for you!
 

Remember that essential oil/holiday/zen party I was preparing for as part of the Corner Bakery catering challenge? Well, my decorated table turned out like this. Now you can vote for the best display. But let’s be honest: it’s not mine. So go ahead and vote for the best, you total traitorous harpies.
 
P.S. I know this [...]

Maryann from Tic Tac Dough won the holiday meal from Golden Share Foods!
 
I’m pretty sure she lives in my neck of the woods, too, so guess who’s coming by for ham?
 

The new single “We Fall” from former child soldier Emmanuel Jal is available for free download here. It’s lovely. Please pass this on or repost to help Emmanuel reach his goal of raising $250,000 and end his fast.

…Especially the leather cuffs.

If my mom were on Facebook, it would be a true Christmas miracle, but check this out anyway.

Treat your boots like a lady. My LA Stylist friend (aren’t I cool because my friends are?) (don’t answer that please), is doing a giveaway!
 

Care.com starts its “Free Weekend,” today (Nov. 6), where you can search for babysitters, nannies, etc., and also post jobs, get contact information, check references, review background info, and so on.
 
My wonderful longtime babysitter is now in her early ’20s and pretty much outta here, so I need to use this care.com dealio [...]

Check this out San Diego! (And surrounding areas!)
 
You can get ALL THAT FOOD for $27. Wha-? Ho-?. I am going to make my Thanksgiving dinner with their $36 holiday pack and I never even knew grocery co-ops existed until now! Why isn’t everybody doing this? I don’t get it.
 
Is the food grown by magical fairies? [...]

…As Etsy sees it.

Toasted Cheese’s fall edition. So much greatness here.

I can’t get enough of this song.

If you live in San Diego and want to hang out while raising money for breast cancer research, won’t you consider joining me here? Let me know if you will be there, so I can look for your boobs.

Scroll down a bit for the How To Class Up Your Halloween Party article.

As always, ignore the hair.
 

I get annoyed by articles like this. Not because there’s not a kernel of truth in them, but because the author is so in freaking love with her brain, she’s erased the heart. Also, just because this is your experience, don’t extrapolate general truisms for the rest of us.
 
p.s. Still pissy.
 

Sometimes, I get all sweaty from articles like this. This excitement dates back to my days of a soon-to-be-high-schooler when I would pore over Seventeen Magazine and plan my knickers-and-clogs back to school outfits.

My friend, Brian Papa, just developed this new website called CheerUpNation, and I have a feeling it’s going to be the daily pick-me-up I need. I think you’ll like it too. (Wait. Do you like cute kids and positive messages? That’s a pre-req.)
If so, check it out and say hello!
 
(Brian’s personal blog is here. [...]

I’m drooling over here.

I love me a good real life haunted house story!

Hey! Check out the cheap, used clothes I bought at the Goodwill! My friend San Diego Bargain Mama put me up on her site, even though I’m a thrift hussy. Isn’t that great? I also think she Photoshopped me to make me look thinner, which is super fantastic and in all ways appreciated.
 

It’s Drood. And it’s long. And God can only help me now. (I host June 11, and have not started reading this behemoth.)

I think I just mixed media metaphors. (And abused alliteration.) BUT, if you live in San Diego and like artsy, indie movies with such as John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph and Maggie Gylenhall, and such as free and such like, then leave a comment here and I will send you no-charge movie tickets for [...]

Please consider signing this petition to eliminate drive-through mastectomies. I remember when my mom had hers and I couldn’t imagine her being released within hours of the procedure like is happening to so many woman now.
 

So Mel and I are coordinating a national Mom’s Nite Out here in San Diego on Thursday, May 7 and it’s going to be so cool, you won’t believe it. There will be coolness and hawtness and more coolness and super awesomeness and all that and now we just need to find out who is [...]

As a rule, I’m generally against chicken’s rubbery bits, but if it’s smothered in cheese, it can’t be all bad, right?

I’m so guilty of this.

Extremely hysterical Twitter parody.

God knows I need one. Click here to enter!

You’ve GOT to click here and check out Jessica Bern’s hilarious webisodes. They’re Larry David, Ellen-before-the-talk-show, and your best sassy friend all rolled up into one. Seriously. No. Not seriously. Hilariously. I promise.

From March 22-28, 2009, restaurants all over San Diego will charge one dollar to bring you tap water. The good news is that this dollar will provide clean and safe drinking water for a child in Africa for 40 days, which is something I think most of us can afford to do.
 
If you live in [...]

This month? It’s Cellist of Sarajevo.

Here’s a list of posts by bloggers who participated in the mind-blowingly confusing blog carnival I wrote about last week:
 
Blognut wrote a pitch for a television series.
 
Cheri @ Blog This Mom! wrote a post describing a typical day in the life of her alternate self in a parallel universe.
 
G wrote about her favorite movie and [...]

Invalidate Prop 8! Please go over to Blog This Mom’s! blog and read about Cheri’s friends. They are one of many, many families and hundreds of reasons why Prop 8 is completely bogus.

Mmm, mmm, THIS is delicious goodness.

My bloggy friend Mommy Pie just unveiled her new social networking site, called Swap Mamas, and I wish I would have thought of it. Basically, if you have baby and kid items you no longer use, you can trade them at Swap Mamas…AND if you find something you CAN use, you get it! She’s got [...]

If you’re in San Diego (or anywhere in SoCal for that matter) and want to meet up socially with a few of us bloggers, e-mail me for deails! We will be meeting for dinner/drinks in the Del Mar area on Friday, January 30 at 6:30PM.
 

My husband is aces at picking gifts. He considers the personature of a person, which I guess could also be referred to as “personality,” if you weren’t given to making up words, and selects just the right thing. Sometimes he takes risks, too, and they usually pan out. This was a risk. I don’t typically [...]

The Rock got me this for Christmas, and I am beside myself with anticipation. Of course, I need to find a minute or a brain cell in order to read, but I’m looking forward to reclaiming my life as a reader. Also, if you haven’t read it yet, I Know This Much is True, also [...]

The winner is Da Goddess!
 
How would you like to win a $30 Children’s Place Gift Card?
 
Just leave a comment here and you are instantly entered. I will select a random winner on January 8 at 5PM.
 
And just so you know: I really do like the Children’s Place. I’m not being a tool even if they [...]

Still need to fill up your kids’ stockings? Let me help. Because I’m very solicitous and hospitable like that.
 
I’m giving away two Kookeys and two Tracksters, which are perfectly-sized for Christmas stockings. Unless you bought tiny stockings. Which in this economy, who could blame you. I hope you win these prizes then.
 

 
I have a [...]

I found a new friend in the Blogosphere (Shh. She doesn’t know yet). She’s a San Diego author who just (JUST! It comes out today!) had her middle grade mystery novel published. Her name is Barrie Summy, the book is I So Don’t Do Mysteries, and she is my new role model (Shh. She doesn’t [...]

This is hilarious.

I’ve got so many giveaways this week, you can’t even believe it. There’s a complete AVON skincare system, Kookeys (like Webkinz) and Tracksters (like vehicular Webkinz), a photo family storybook (like scrapbooking, but done for you), and well…this isn’t looking so up the gazooey anymore. Just please enter these giveaways. Because nothing is sadder than [...]

I love this website. It’s designed for grandparents, but it lists kids’ activities by city, and I use it to find stuff to do with my kids. I’m too lazy to look in the local paper for events, so this pretty much takes care of it for me.
They’ve also got an awesome holiday guide with [...]

…And discover some great new writing! Chuck Westbrook’s “Blog Project” is designed to support under-appreciated blogs and “help them find the audience they deserve.” Be a part of it here. I love this idea of reaching out to wonderful bloggers who want to connect with the community. Check it out and lend a comment.

Just finished The Keep in time for book club tomorrow. I’m still mulling it over. Can’t decide if I give it a thumbs up or down.

HP Photo Creations kiosk coupon for a “buy one, get one free” photo calendar here! (Just found out this was only good in California.) (Unlike Prop 8.) (Thanks KD)

I have awards to acknowledge! And I’m gonna! But meanwhile, thanks Ferd! And Eden! And Mama Rose! And Jennifer! And Dirt and Noise! Also, Memoirs of a Chaotic Mommy! And Cascia! In addition…Auds!
 
Thank you for thinking of me. Each of you are someone I’d hope to call “friend” in real life, and I’m very honored [...]

Saw Man on Wire and really enjoyed it. It’s like…let’s see…like a poem on wings buffeted by a dream. One man’s goal to tight rope walk between the Twin Towers in 1974 is chronicled with interviews and news footage. If you like to watch people live life fully and succulently, this is for you. The [...]

Regular PROMPTuesdayer and my good friend, Kristine, just launched her blog! Check it out!

I’d like to follow everyone I know on Twitter. But I can’t always find everyone I know. Because I’m pretty dense with bits and bytes. SO, if you Twitter, and I don’t follow you yet, and you are so inclined, and can I stop elongating this sentence now?, would you contact me with your Twitter [...]

Please read about Caylee from Bird on a Wire. Maybe someone knows where she is or has information about her disappearance. Thank you.

I love Joss Whedon. You should too.
http://www.drhorrible.
com/plan.html
Kizz at 117 Hudson turned me on to this, and for that, she’s my new blog stalkee.

Would you eat this obscene carrot? Or send it to Las Vegas?

How beautiful would it be to write your words, your truth, then be able to fully bring them to life through your voice, your eyes, your hands?
 
I’ve often longed to sing certain poems I’ve written and have the words leap, writhe, and bloom physically through me. Like, it’s one thing to write about sadness, and [...]

This month, we’re reading Third Angel by Alice Hoffman.
 
Another book by The Hoff I loved: Ice Queen.

I’m thinking of giving this a whirl — The Secret of Lost Things — by Sheridan* Hay. Has anyone read it? Is it like every other book telling of lost manuscripts and obsessed book sellers?
 
*Footnote: Sheridan is the fake name I give to Starbucks baristas and put on those required name badges you have to [...]

ROBIN FARNSWORTH WON (13th comment): Please e-mail me to claim prize! Congrats!
 
Contest time is up!
 
I’ll announce winner by Saturday evening!
 
I have one Kung Fu Panda computer game (for PC), three activity CDs (includes a dance video, photo/print projects, frames and cards, stickers, etc.) and a Kung Fu Panda soundtrack (Hans Zimmer) to give away.
 
Just leave [...]

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. Beautiful writing (sometimes bordering on contrived, but only sometimes), interesting characters, absorbing “larger” theme of cultural clashes.
 
Recommended…BUT please note there is not much plot resolution. So if this bothers you, you might want to skip it.
 

My friend Amanda debuted her site’s video podcast series today.
 
If you’re a soon-to-be- mom, have small kids or know someone who does, they’d love this first episode. And there’s more to come!
 
Check it out!
 

This scared me. Can you imagine?

Is it good or bad that in certain circles I’m known as the “gallbladder blog?”

“Nothing tastes as ‘chickeny’ as a chicken in the crockpot!”

Does anyone know of a good park in San Diego with slides and see saws (do they not make those anymore? are we THAT afraid of injury and liability these days?), clean bathrooms nearby and non-be-dog-pooped grass?
 
Would also like play structures appropriate for 2-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. Plus a wine drinking fountain.
 

Have you heard of Pandora? I love it. You type in one of your favorite artists and a super secretish algorithm populates an online radio station with kindred musical artists. It worked for me. I dug almost every song played. Found some new stuff too.

One of my favorite bloggers, Eden, is the editor of a cool literary e-magazine called Toasted Cheese and they’re having a writing contest going on NOW. Check it out HERE.

Read about Justin and why we want Nate Berkus to care.

Does this work for you?
Magic Trick.
i have a theory about it.

New Man vs. Wild this Friday! New Man vs. Wild this Friday!
I’m keeping vigil for 5 days from now. If a man pronounces “vitamin” like “vit-a-min,” “glacier” like “gla-seer,” and pees on himself to keep warm, I’m so into it.
p.s. My husband knows all about it.

I’m starting a new San Diego Momma tradition called “PROMPTuesdays.”
 
And it’s going to really lube up those writing muscles (just decided that “lube” really is the kind of word which should only be used in conjunction with “oil”)…BUT, you know what I’m saying, right?
 
Every Tuesday, I’ll issue a new writing prompt and let the talent [...]

Toots is obsessed with Scooby Doo and this morning looked up from her Doo coloring book to tell me she wants to be Daphne next Halloween.
 
“Great!” I say. That should be easy: mini skirt, boob inserts, bouffant wig. I should find that all in Party City’s “Appropriate for 5-Year-Olds” aisle.
 
Then Toots tells me that for [...]

Book club is reading Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky this month.

I just got an e-mail from a colleague which began, “Hi, hope all is in fine fettle.”
 
Is that a thing?
 
I haven’t Googled it yet, but I don’t think that’s a thing.
 

I can’t help it! I like the latest Mariah song.
 
It’s just so me.
 
I mean, don’t you just want to roll around in these lyrics?
 
If there’s a camera up in here
Then it’s gonna leave with me
When I do (I do)
If there’s a camera up in here
Then I’d best not catch this flick
On YouTube (YouTube)
‘Cause if you [...]

This month we’re reading Five Skies by Ron Carlson. I’ve heard good things. Word.

Trader Joe’s organic creamy tomato soup (in the box), add Trader’s Joe’s “soycatash” (corn and edamame) and TJ’s spelt. Bring to a low boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. Add cracked pepper and a RyKrisp.
 
Is good.
 

Just the fact that I’m drinking treated waste water is enough to send me over, then there’s this alarm-a-thon.

TED is an annual conference that challenges the world’s most influential thinkers to give the talk of their lives in just 18 minutes.
 
You’ve got to check this out.

This program works with your iPod to alert you when anyone in your music library is in town for a concert.
 
Very cool, unless your iPod is filled with one-hit wonders.

 
I loved reading about Captain Cook’s explorations in Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before (Tony Horwitz).
 
Although arrogant, he was gutsy.
Not that it got him anywhere in the end.
 

…than to open the e-mail titled “With Tremendous Force and Volume.”

Is there a software or technology out there which allows people in your general vicinity to see what you are doing/writing on your computer? Like a Google Earth but with computers? Where people can zone in on you and see your computer screen on theirs?
 
I hope not.
 

Thanks to my brother for this link.
It’s a poem from the New Yorker.
Here’s a poem my brother wrote.
I like it too.
 
p.s. To see my bro’s poem, go to this link, click on Scribble, then on the photo with the red-shaded lamp. You’ll be glad you did.

Yes, indeed.

Have you read the Memory of Running?
You should.
Then, please tell me who the author played in Sex and the City. It wasn’t the senator, right?

 
I disappoint myself when these types of videos get to me.
I know the message is worthwhile, I do. But it’s that they orchestrate the music, the photos, the words, to intentionally make you cry.
And then it becomes about the making-you-cry, and not about the making-you-think. (The fact that I’m bothered by that just highlights my [...]

Well, now that the writer’s strike is pretty much over, I find this hilarious video.
Maybe not as relevant, still as funny.

This could be what puts me over my allotted Internet time…

Answer by Sarah McLachlan is simply the most lovely song I’ve ever heard. Makes me cry every single time. I would play this at someone I love’s funeral.
(I just blew the vibe, didn’t I?)

The Thirteenth Tale is the kind of book that revives your love of reading. It’ll make you stay up all night, hurrying to the last page. Or, maybe you want to savor it. I don’t savor, I rush. I’m working on it. Still, the book almost made a savorer out of me.