While it feels like my blogosphere buddies Mariuca and LadyJava rang in the New Year days ago, we still have a little more than a half hour to make our resolutions and kiss 2008 goodbye. I’ve been posting my New Year’s resolutions over on Roxiticus Desperate Housewives, but it remains a work in process. I have a goal of fitness not fatness in 2009, to lose 20 pounds in 30 weeks. I’m also focused on better content for all of my blogs. Since my “real job” will require more of my time and I’m not willing to spend less time with my little girls, London and Maddie, the time I spend in the blogosphere will be shorter and I’d like to make it more productive. Instead of dropping lots and lots of EntreCards, I’ll be more discriminating about visiting and commenting on only my favorite blogs…. but I’ll also try harder to make my posts worth it to my loyal readers.
Whether you had a good year last year or a disappointing one, let’s all go into the New Year with the attitude that it will be better. Wishing you all joy, peace, health and happiness in 2009.
I recently received an e-mail from a local Mendham, NJ mom who has become a regular Roxiticus Desperate Housewives reader. She was writing to let me know about a huge blunder I had made in a recent post, which I quickly corrected, and hope I haven’t offended anyone in the meantime. She also wanted to participate in Roxy’s Blogosphere Buddies New Year’s Resolution Support Group, but wondered if a personal blog was a requirement. I’ll be posting more details soon… in fact, I may start a whole new blog with multiple contributors to share our New Year’s Resolutions in my Roxy’s Best Of… WordPress MU (multi-user) Community.
However, the question got me thinking about how I would go about it if I were to start my very first blog today. Would I use Google’s free Blogger/Blogspot service? Blogger has certainly been a great place for me to start, and remains the most user-friendly blogging service I’ve found. There’s a link at the top of Roxiticus Desperate Housewives to “Create Blog” and it’s easy to get started right away. While I now enjoy the freedom that my own URL and self-hosting offers Roxy’s Best Of…, WordPress is not the easiest system to work with and I’ve relied heavily on my awesome web designer, Lisa Sabin-Wilson (be sure to tell her Roxy sent ya), and her classic blogging book, WordPress for Dummies. Lisa’s new, updated version is coming out in early 2009… go ahead and pre-order it through my link.
In addition to Blogger or WordPress self-hosted options, I’ve recently discovered Today.com, a free blogging service that pays bloggers to write about their topic(s) of choice. Unlike sponsored post services that make some bloggers feel like cheap hookers, Today.com doesn’t ask you to write about advertisers. Instead, Today.com seems to have the objective of driving traffic to their site so that they can sell advertising. They pay $1.00 per hundred word post (one per day) for your first 30 days, then pay for the traffic you drive to your Today.com site. Therefore, Today.com doesn’t care what you write about, as long as it is interesting enough to get readers to visit and keep coming back for more. For example, I started a Today.com blog (http://desperatehousewives.today.com) about “what women want,” where I’m trying out a more personal writing style, a softer side of Roxy. My blogalific blogosphere buddy LadyJava started a new blog called Gossip Galore, and Jason Buckley added Bass Nation to his daily blogging responsibilities.
So if you think you might like to give Today.com a try, please click on my icon below and join. It’s free to join, and I’ll get five bucks for the referral, so I’ll be forever in your debt and we’ll all hope to have some fun blogging and make a few bucks along the way.
Rex, London, Maddie and I went out this evening to a friends’ holiday open house for families. It was great to see our friends, though we we shared the sad news that one of our favorite local restaurants, Pierre’s in Harding Township NJ, is closing after their last hurrah on New Year’s Eve. The kids all played together in the basement rec room, watching Prince Caspian (the Narnia series) on DVD and blowing up balloons to make animal shapes. The grownups mingled upstairs, with wine, cheese, delicious appetizers and chili. It was a simple holiday party, but a perfect fit with the rest of our relaxing holiday break activities, focused on lounging around the house. For example, the girls and I spent the earlier part of the day putting together a 300-piece jigsaw puzzle, while Rex caught up on the Sunday New York Times. Tomorrow we’re looking forward to more of the same… we’ll send out our New Year’s cards and maybe get started on a family time capsule project.
It’s Music Monday, and it’s almost another New Year’s Eve, a time when Roxy waxes nostalgic, looking back not only on the past year but past decades… the good and the bad, the best of times and the worst of times. I’ve posted my New Year’s Eve favorites from Guy Lombardo and Dan Fogelberg over on my Bay Head Blog and Roxiticus Desperate Housewives, and here on my women’s blog I’d like to share a mushy tune from Barry Manilow. If you’re here via Internet Explorer and can’t see the video, please try another browser such as Firefox.
Don’t look so sad, it’s not so bad you know.
It’s just another night, that’s all it is,
It’s not the first, it’s not the worst you know,
We’ve come through all the rest, we’ll get through this.
We’ve made mistakes, but we’ve made good friends too.
Remember all the nights we spent with them?
And all our plans, who says they can’t come true?
Tonight’s another chance to start again.
REFRAIN
It’s just another New Year’s Eve,
Another night like all the rest.
It’s just another New Year’s Eve,
Let’s make it the best.
It’s just another New Year’s Eve,
It’s just another Auld Lang Syne,
But when we’re through this New Year
You’ll see, we’ll be just fine.
We’re not alone, we’ve got the world you know.
And it won’t let us down, just wait and see.
And we’ll grow old, but think how wise we’ll grow.
There’s more you know, it’s only New Year’s Eve.
Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted.
I know this a blog about WOMEN, but today’s topic is “divorced dad holiday greetings.” I think this may be the first year I’ve received a few of them, and while I understand that divorce is just one more reality in the world today, the cards still make me feel sad. If you have friends that you only hear from once or twice a year, the holidays bring news from far and wide, and it can be good news (Melissa is pregnant!) or bad news. It starts with the return address on the envelope… a new address and just the dad’s name this year, instead of one of those cutesy labels with little caricatures of each of the family members. The photo shows the dad and the kids — skiing or boating or camping or playing soccer, whatever the weekend or summer vacation dictated. There’s a brief, cheerful holiday greeting hoping all is well, but no mention of what is missing in the picture.
Congratulations to my good friend, Melissa, who is pregnant (yippee!) and due in early May 2009. As I’ve posted over on my Roxiticus Desperate Housewives blog, Melissa has struggled for almost three years through lots of procedures and heartache to have a second child. Rex, London, Maddie and I celebrated Christmas with a delicious prime rib at my mom’s house yesterday, then headed over to Melissa’s parents house for our annual tradition of Christmas dessert with her family. Her almost three year old son has turned into a real little person, and London and Maddie really enjoyed playing with him and his new Hot Wheels from Santa. The big holiday news from Melissa is that she learned she’s going to have a girl! I am so excited for her, and look forward to sharing lots of London and Maddie’s girly-girl hand me downs.
The weather was so bad in the Roxiticus Valley that we almost didn’t make it to the annual Christmas pageant at Hilltop Presbyterian Church in Mendham, New Jersey. Even though the icy rain kept coming down, Rex packed us into the Suburban and we made it to church. Once we were safe indoors and the kids were up there singing Christmas songs, I was so happy to be at church for Christmas. The kids were dressed up as angels and shepherds and the three wise men, and as always, a little baby was on Mary’s lap and in the manger for as long as he would sit still. We sang along to “Joy to the World,” “Oh Come All Ye Faithful,” and “Go Tell It On the Mountain” and I was filled with the true meaning of Christmas… it always come back to me during the pageant at our church, and I am grateful to the children for allowing me to rediscover Christmas through their eyes and voices.
As the end of the year approaches, I tend to get introspective and look forward to a fresh start on my life’s objectives — health, diet, fitness, career, parenting, etc. — in the New Year 2009. Every year, I make a list of about ten key New Year’s Resolutions. Sometimes I stick to one or two objectives through completion, but exercise and diet goals tend to fall by the wayside by the end of January… one too many holiday cookies or champagne toasts perhaps.
I’ve often thought it would be helpful to commit to my resolutions with a group of friends, but as close as we Roxiticus Desperate Housewives are, we don’t seem to get together often enough to support each other’s fitness, weight loss, or other measurable objectives. So I’m thinking about putting together a group of blogosphere buddies in a New Year’s Resolution support group where we’ll keep after each other to stick to the goals we set up by midnight on December 31, 2008/2009. Whaddya think? Leave a comment here if you’re in!
Tonight my girls, Rex and I are snuggled up in the king size bed watching a Hanukkah basketball movie called “Full Court Miracle” on the Disney Channel. I’ve often wondered where London and Maddie got their pink ballerina gene, since I grew up as a tomboy and as a grown-up I still act more like a boy than a girl. However, much to my delight, the girls have recently expressed an interest in basketball; they like to watch basketball movies on TV and, in fact, they’ve signed up for the Mendham Patriots basketball clinics every Saturday from January into March… the perfect winter activity for a tomboy like their mom. When I was in elementary and middle school, I shot hoops in my backyard every day after school, and every year I would try out for the school basketball team. I didn’t even make the bench. Softball was my sport, and I pitched for two or three years on my middle school team, moving on to throw the javelin on the track team in high school. Anyway, I just wanted to let all of you know that my girls will be bringing their pink basketballs to the gym this winter, and joining me on the couch for the best of March Madness.
Strange short story to go with this week’s Music Monday pick on Roxy’s blog about WOMEN here at Today.com. I’ve been joking with Jason Buckley about our Today.com blogs… I didn’t think I’d draw a lot of my male audience over here to a blog about WOMEN, but he suggested that men were interested in things that women had that started with B and rhymed with doobies. Which caused me to think of a great song by the Waitresses called “I Know What Boys Like.” I was going to post that one, but then I realized that this is really the last Music Monday for Christmas music…so here we have “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses… which was really one of my holiday anthems of cynical hope back in my lonely single days before I met Rex.
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“Bah, humbug!” No, that’s too strong
‘Cause it is my favorite holiday
But all this year’s been a busy blur
Don’t think I have the energy
To add to my already mad rush
Just ’cause it’s ’tis the season.
The perfect gift for me would be
Completions and connections left from
Last year, ski shop,
Encounter, most interesting.
Had his number but never the time
Most of ‘81 passed along those lines.
So deck those halls, trim those trees
Raise up cups of Christmas cheer,
I just need to catch my breath,
Christmas by myself this year.
Calendar picture, frozen landscape,
Chilled this room for twenty-four days,
Evergreens, sparkling snow
Get this winter over with!
Flashback to springtime, saw him again,
Would’ve been good to go for lunch,
Couldn’t agree when we were both free,
We tried, we said we’d keep in touch.
Didn’t, of course, ’til summertime,
Out to the beach to his boat could I join him?
No, this time it was me,
Sunburn in the third degree.
Now the calendar’s just one page
And, of course, I am excited
Tonight’s the night, but I’ve set my mind
Not to do too much about it.
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
But I think I’ll miss this one this year.
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
But I think I’ll miss this one this year.
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
But I think I’ll miss this one this year.
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
But I think I’ll miss this one this year.
Hardly dashing through the snow
Cause I bundled up too tight
Last minute have-to-do’s
A few cards a few calls
‘Cause it’s r-s-v-p
No thanks, no party lights
It’s Christmas Eve, gonna relax
Turned down all of my invites.
Last fall I had a night to myself,
Same guy called, halloween party,
Waited all night for him to show,
This time his car wouldn’t go,
Forget it, it’s cold, it’s getting late,
Trudge on home to celebrate
In a quiet way, unwind
Doing Christmas right this time.
A&P has provided me
With the world’s smallest turkey
Already in the oven, nice and hot
Oh damn! Guess what I forgot?
So on with the boots, back out in the snow
To the only all-night grocery,
When what to my wondering eyes should appear
In the line is that guy I’ve been chasing all year!
“I’m spending this one alone,” he said.
“Need a break; this year’s been crazy.”
I said, “Me too, but why are you?
You mean you forgot cranberries too?”
Then suddenly we laughed and laughed
Caught on to what was happening
That Christmas magic’s brought this tale
To a very happy ending! ”
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
Couldn’t miss this one this year!
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
Couldn’t miss this one this year!
Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted.
. Lisa’s new, updated version is coming out in early 2009… go ahead and pre-order it through 
