Thinking About…

(graphic found here)
I’ve been cleaning up the old blog a bit lately. Still need to find a few missing friends for my blogroll, I think. Interesting to me to look at it, and see how few of these people actually come here and comment anymore. I don’t know if they’re too busy to comment, but still read, or if they don’t read my blog anymore, or if they read me on a reader, or what. I thought of taking a few off for that reason, figuring that blogging is sort of a reciprocal thing, a community. Then I thought, no, I’m not in it for comments, I’m in it because I love to come here and write, and I love to go and read what you all have written. So I won’t pull anyone that doesn’t know I exist. Not that they’d notice.

I used to keep my book reviews on my sidebar, but that got lost when I updated my theme. I didn’t even update to a new theme, just updated to a more recent version. But anyway, the sidebar was getting unwieldy, so I decided to make a whole new page for my book reviews. There’s a tab there at the top, and if you’re interested in seeing what I’ve read, and if you might be interested in reading some of the same books or not, that’s where you’ll find the easiest access. Of course, you could also just select the ‘books’ category, but then you’d have to page through all of the book blog posts, so this is a lot easier.

Then more recently, I’ve noticed that I’ve been coming here to find recipes, rather than hunting around in my cupboard or trying to squeeze in to the closet behind the carpet cleaner, vacuum cleaner, and paper towels to find a recipe. I can no longer remember which cookbooks were destroyed by our leaky bathtub, and as I find more recipes online, I have a file full of printed webpages, which is not the least bit organized, so finding a recipe can be a pain in the butt. So I decided to make a page here on my blog, where I can find all of my old recipes in one handy place. Good thinking, no?

Not sure what other changes I’ll be making. I’m kinda fed up with this admin side of it. Maybe I’ll take a break, now that it’s not looking quite so crappy.

My good friend Dorothy over at Autumn’s Mom Saves the World has declared me a Kick Ass Blogger! Thanks, Honey!  Now, of course, I’m supposed to designate 5 more Kick Ass Bloggers.  Hmmm.

I’m going to go all out and say that every blogger over on my blogroll deserves this title.  They all kick ass, often daily. Sometimes more than that even.  They make me think, make me laugh, sometimes make me cry.  I am not up to the challenge of choosing from amongst them.  Instead, I’m going to declare a few people kick ass bloggers that I haven’t gotten around to putting on my blogroll yet, for reasons that have nothing to do with liking their blogs, and everything to do with my own sloth.  Check them out, when you get a minute.

Suebob, from Red Stapler.  I went to her blog from a comment on another blog, and I really like her writing.  There’s something to the adage that misery loves company, too.  Suebob lost her sister just over a year ago, and spends part of each day missing the hell out of her.  Of course, that’s not all that her blog is about…she also writes about politics, prejudice against fat people, laundry soap, wedding showers, and so much more.  It’s a random type of blog, which clearly is my favorite type of all.

Jessica, from Daughter of Opinion.  Jessica used to be on my blogroll, but I took her off awhile ago.  Not because I tired of her writing, but because she wasn’t writing.  I kind of figured she was done with this bloggy thing, and pulled the plug.  She’s back, and her posts are as heartfelt and touching as always.  I’ll get around to updating my blogroll at some point, and she’ll have a place on it.

Simon, from Simon Says, if for no other reason than this post. I sincerely wish that we lived on the same continent at least, because he sure as hell knows where to go for some gorgeous dinners, and Ted and I would love to follow him and his wife around and enjoy as well.  Though we wouldn’t eat at his house, because for some reason, a french fry sandwich just doesn’t do it for me.

Remiman, from Under the Microscope.  Seems to be the kind of writer who truly thinks things through, and to me, that kicks ass.  Not that I always think things through, but it’s good to get those juices flowing once in awhile.

Metrodad.  I am hot and cold on this blog, but not for any standard blog-disliking reasons.  I like what he has to say, and how he says it.  He’s funny and honest, and amongst all of the mommyblogs I read, it’s nice to get a daddyblog in there once in awhile.  But my envy quotient goes through the roof when I see 80 – 100 comments on a single post, when I average between 8 – 15 on good days.  Sigh.  Still, don’t hate him because he’s popular.

Check them out, and tell them J sent you!

Oh crap, I’m so excited today, I might pee myself. You see, one of my favorite blogs over there on my sidebar, Riley’s Ramblings, belongs to Jess Riley, whose first novel is being released TODAY! And I’ve been there for a bit of her journey, as her editor changed publishing houses, nearly putting the kibosh on the whole project; the name was changed from “Driving with Larry Resnick” to “Driving Sideways”…which is better, actually, because I am a supremo dork, and got Larry Resnick mixed up in my mind with John Rzeznik from the Goo Goo Dolls, which may have been an interesting novel, but surely not the one Ms. Riley had in mind. That whole rock star thing might have been distracting.

Anyway, I’m putting the non-fiction book I’ve been reading (“Why Do I Love These People”) on hold for a bit, and running down to the local bookstore, and picking this up TODAY. Watch this space for a review soonish, because if the book is half as good as her blog, it will be fabulous.

Here’s the summary, from Amazon.com:

Leigh Fielding wants a life. Seriously. Having spent the past five years on dialysis, she has one simple wish: to make it to her thirtieth birthday. Now, thanks to the generosity of the late Larry Resnick and his transplanted kidney, it looks like her wish may come true.

With her newfound vitality (and Larry’s kidney) in tow, Leigh hits the road for an excursion that will carry her from Wisconsin to California, with a few stops in between: Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, the Rockies, Las Vegas–and a memorable visit to thank Larry’s family for the second chance.

Yet Leigh’s itinerary takes a sudden detour when she picks up a seventeen-year-old hitchhiker, Denise, a runaway with a bunch of stories and a couple of secrets. Add a long-lost mother, a loaded gun, an RV full of swingers, and Hall and Oates’s Greatest Hits to the mix, and Driving Sideways becomes a hilarious and original journey of friendship, hope, and discovery.

Intrigued? (Hall and Oats?) I totally am. Yay Jess! Keep on with your bad self!

As a special giftie to my readers, if you’re so inclined, here’s Aimee Mann’s Driving Sideways. (click to listen!)