Sunday's Satchel

I found this idea on Blogging Butter's wonderful blog: Sunday Satchel. I think she should use Mr. Linky and post a Sunday Satchel post each Sunday and encourage others to do the same and all link up on her blog. And I especially want to encourage Jennifer S (you know who you are) to participate because she always has the most exciting things in her Satchel.

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So... in case she does... here's my very first Sunday Satchel post. Looking forward to many more! (and if they fall on a "Helpful Hints" day, then I'll post both)
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The basic idea is to dump out your purse (Satchel) or man-purse (Tommy) and list everything that was in it...

Life Interrupted for Cheap Sr. Citizen

Guest Post by Ruth Morse

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I usually have an odd, quirky or downright strange money-saving idea or helpful hint to pass along. But not today. My series is interrupted this month and I'll have more tips to bring on my next post.
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We didn't save one red cent last week, and that's OK with me. Here's what happened:
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There was a bit of snow on Tuesday. Jim went out to do his usual shoveling. When he came in, he commented that he had tightness in his chest and was short of breath. Fast forward to the Emergency Room, where the nurses and doctors started ordering tests and hooking him up to all kinds of equipment, not necessarily in that order.
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Zip along to Wednesday. Jim had a heart cath and angioplasty. They found two arteries 95% blocked. One they opened with just the balloon. The larger one they opened up, then put a stent in...

Scott Stratten Put the Bliss in Blissdom

I've been asking lately . . .

Who Put the Bliss in Blissdom '11. . .

. . . quite, quite possibly Chris Mann and Crystal Bowersox put the bliss in Blisdom 2011. . .

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. . . and definitely the Freschetta Pizza and Blue Bunny Wedding Cake ice cream . . .
they would send anyone straight to Blissdom . . .
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I'm pretty sure the final answer, the absolute biggest Bliss-inducing part of Blissdom '11 . . . was . . .
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Scott Stratten from UnMarketing. 

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And, no, I don't have any photos.  I met him, I listened to him, I quoted him, I learned from him, but still . . . no photos.  Scott on Twitter.  Scott's epithet.  UnMarketing.com.  You can find plenty of photos on twitter with the hashtag #blissdom.  Especially some of Scott UnDancing at our Girls Night In.
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My take-aways from Scott:

• Be Awesome.  Write Awesome.  Awesome goes viral.  Nobody reads a post where you've said, “I don't have anything to say! But it's thursday, I have to blog!”  People don't spread "meh," they spread "awesome."
• Marketing is not a job, a task or a "to-do" item, everytime you talk to someone, you are marketing.
• Don't over SEO stuff. Don't write stuff that's good for SEO and not good for readers. Nobody says “this article stinks, but the headline is so SEO rich, I'm gonna tweet it.”
• When you ask the world to come, the world will come, including those on day-passes.  Learn to take criticism, how to react (one-to-one, not on twitter), don't use comment moderation to control.  For the day-passers, the complete jerks, use the delete key, for all else, deal with it, respond  reasonably, learn. The more you give your currency to trolls, the less you have to give to people who matter.
• Make it easily mobile.  Have a mobile-enabled site.  The best part?  Scott pronounces mobile "mo-bile."
• Only 1-3% of your readers will comment, don't be discouraged.
• Corporations don't help people, people help people.  People don't care about your business until they know you care about them.  Interact, Engage, Build.
• Twitter should be nearly 75% @ replies.

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And with that, I must go.  I have some tweeting to do.
Huge, enormous thanks to Scott Stratten, Brene Brown,  (more on her later, she deserves a post all her own) and all the glam ladies at the helm at Blissdom.
Leave a comment - what's your bliss?

My previous Who Put the Bliss in Blissdom

And another Who Put the Bliss in Blissdom

Runner Up Who Put the Bliss in Blissdom

Who Put the Bliss in Blissdom '11 . . .

. . . remains an on-going debate.Perhaps it was the fabulous Michelle Branch who put the bliss in Blissdom . . .

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. . . or maybe it was Mat Kearney singing "Breathe In, Breathe Out" 

that made you breathe in and breathe out rapidly . . .

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. . . or the magic fingers of Stacey Fisher in the GE suite that gave you pure bliss.....

A Walk in the Park Flashback

Before the cold spell. When Grampsy and I took Eva to the park one day. The same park where I took my kids when they were her age. I knew I was having some serious Flashbacks, something was tickling my memories.

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Eva:
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-Her mama:
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20 years cannot possibly have passed. It seems like yesterday.

Who Put the Bliss in Blissdom?

. . . i think i can tell you exactly who put the Bliss in Blissdom '11 . . .
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Samantha and Sharmaine put the Bliss in Blissdom '11.

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So I visited the GE room in between some of my sessions and Sharmaine (top right) gave me an incredible massage. Samantha and Sharmaine, Relache Spa at Gaylord Opryland, were dishing out free massages, courtesy of GE. They are currently my top runners for who put the bliss in Blissdom. Thanks, ladies!! You rock.
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While in the GE room, I got a tour of these intergalactic Jetsons-type GE Profile Front Load OvernighterWashers. GE will be giving these to one lucky winner this week. Why might you want one? They wash and dry all in one, You don't have to switch loads. And as my roomie pointed out, that means "I can wash and dry William's uniform at night while I sleep!" W
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So I threw my business card in the mix, maybe I'll be bringing these babies home with me.

Winner: Exactly WHO put the Bliss in Blissdom

My previous Who Put the Bliss in Blissdom

Runner Up Who Put the Bliss in Blissdom

Who Put the Bliss in Blissdom

Who Put the Bliss in Blissdom 2011?

Was it These Ladies?
Was it One Enchanted Evening?

Was it The Master himself?

Was it the inCourage Prayer Breakfast?

it's an ongoing debate, really,

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. . . and right now I'm leaning toward the sponsors,

not that my vote could be bought or anything . . .

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-. . . sponsors like Ketchum, specifically the awesome Maura Comerford . . .

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-. . .who's spending all day assembling white cardboard boxes for us (probably mostly writer tribe types) (!!) to doodle all over and address to people we love. Maura will then stuff our boxes full of cute and adorable mini boxes of Kleenex and mail our boxes, free of charge, to our pals, buddies, grammas. And mine, if you can't guess, with it's subliminal messaging, is going to a certain someone who, as you can see, rocks.
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. . . and sponsors like Hologic with MamaMemoirs whose spokesperson was kind enough to suggest it possible that I could be a new mom. I told her I am in fact young enough to know somebody who is going to be a new mom and she loaded me up with fun stuff to pass on to a certain some-somebody with the initials H. A. and her first name rhymes with Feather.
-. . . and sponsors like Nestle' Toll House who shoved cookies into my briefcase, reminding me to Bake Some Love, sugar, just go on home and bake you some love. The cookies are heart shaped with cute little Valentines messages on them. The best part? I can buy them pre-made in the refrigerator section, stick them on a pan, bake 'em and they come out all fancy and beautiful. So I can Bake Some Love in about 10 minutes.-. . . and sponsors like Jockey, who is sending me home with a fresh, new, clean pair of undies, that feel like I'm wearing nothing. Noth.Thing.  And now, I have to add, I won a $50 shopping spree from Jockey also.

-. . . and today, right about noon, it was Blue Bunny that was putting the Bliss in my Blissdom, as well as the little fuzzy blue bunny in my bag to take home to Eva. Blue Bunny let me try their brand new, top secret, yet to be released to the markets, mini-Champs! cones. And mine? Pictured here? Is the adult, classy, I'm-a-big-girl vanilla, but you can pay a kid to go with you and order the kids' one filled with birthday cake ice-cream, then snatch it from the kids and suck it down. I plan to do that later today, maybe I can rent one of Angela England's kids to set the pick for me.

On top of all, very sweet, we all got a Land's End tote to carry home all of our delicious goodies. I spoke with Molly Hawkins from Land's End and she admitted that she, personally, owns a lot more totes than a person could possibly use. The Land's End totes are absolutely irresistable. And very, very strong.
-I have to get back to my sampling, I mean my Blissdom Sponsors. But I have to tell you first that I received nothing in exchange for this post. After all the links I put in there, risking losing my own readers, and all the advertising I just did, I was not compensated for this post. I'm just one, huge, tremendously grateful, BLISSful chica.

Spread Your Message, Don't Disengage

One conference. Two outstanding keynote speakers with tremendous messages.
One's message quickly faded.
One's message created a stir, hit like a tsunami, as purposefully intended.
Why?

I humbly and lovingly would like to suggest why. 

Both speakers spoke the awesome.  Both speakers were quotable and very much quoted. Both speakers motivated, encouraged, loved, helped, taught and inspired.

One Stopped the Spread and one Encouraged the Spread.

One "gets" social media more than the other and this is a tremendous example for the rest of us.

When the magnificent Brene Brown first began to speak, she made one big mistake, probably out of fear, a fear that both she and Scott Stratten both addressed.  Brene Brown pulled out her Blackberry or similar electronic device, began tapping it furiously while speaking and showed us what we looked like to her.  She essentially criticized the crowd -- us -- for being on our electronic devices while she was speaking.  Using shame and guilt (two emotions she adamantly opposes in her entire keynote) in a passive aggressive style, she shut some of us down and effectively Stopped the Spread. 

Brown stopped a lot of the spread of her message, her name, her brand, and, personally, I think she did it out of fear.  Fear that we would play on our computers instead of listen to her, fear that she would lose her audience rather than increase her audience.  A critical misjudgment.

The closing keynote speaker, Scott Stratten from UnMarketing got up to speak and immediately encouraged us to dig out our electronic devices, the more, the merrier.  Why?  He knew we would tweet and then retweet his message, engage, increase his audience, spread his message, and, in some cases, particularly mine, even invite him home to dinner for stuffed shells.

Surely Stratten had a certain amount of fear that he'd be criticized, misquoted, misunderstood, mocked or possibly totally ignored while we checked our email instead of listening.

• He didn't let fear stop the climb.
• He engaged us.
• He encouraged the Spread.  (And it spread.  Check the stats.)

Somewhere In the World

Wayne Watson wrote and released this song when his and our children were very young. We've been inspired by Watson's music through the years and feel like we've raised our children in a godly home alongside Watson, who had a song for every stage of his children's growth.
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Now with 2 of our 3 children marrying this year, we've reached the fruition of this song and we begin to sing it and pray it for the next generation, as well as our youngest child, no longer a child.
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{{Tito, hand me a tissue}}
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Cinch Eating Plan: Stop Counting and Start Living

I jumped on the band wagon and am trying the cinch! diet because, my friend, it "can profoundly change the way you look and feel in just 30 days!" and I so need that.
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Well. That and the fact that it's by Cynthia Sass and she is outstanding in her field, and she is very personable and tweets with me, and I'll meet her Thursday face-to-face at a conference so she can sign my nook if one could sign nooks, but since I have a nook instead of a book, I'm kind of out of luck on that one.
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That and the fact that another one of Sass' diet plans The Flat Belly Diet was recommended by a friend who found it successful. So Sass comes highly recommended. And I really like saying Sass a lot.
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Cinch! is set up as a 30-day plan that eliminates processed foods and artifical additives in favor of wholesome, natural foods like in-season fruits and whole grains. I want it to be a lifestyle plan for me. I want to finally get rid of all the junk I eat and feed myself in a way that encourages energy and health. Is that a mid-life crisis?
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Cinch! is focused on nutrition, energy and taste. There's a scientific reason for everything and I don't have to learn it, just trust Ms. Sass. Besides healthy food, Cinch times your meals to regulate blood sugar & insulin levels & hunger hormones, to reset and rev up your metabolism and to keep you feeling energized. If you're like me and need structure, this is for you.

And best of all? Dark Chocolate. Cinch! includes a daily dose of dark chocolate.
-Cinch! has an optional 5 Day Fast Forward diet you can do prior to the 25 day plan. It is optional. I opted in. It's like boot camp. It is very restrictive and difficult to do, but will jumpstart your results, which I need to help me stay the course and fight the fight. The 5 Day Fast includes just five foods: spinach, almonds, raspberries, organic eggs and organic yogurt (or vegan friendly alternatives). This fast is rich in detoxifying and health-protecting nutrients which are filling and give your body, mind and taste buds a fresh start.
-So I'm doing the 5 Day Fast now. It's been very hard because I MISS other foods and am getting tired of these 5 foods. But I have to say that I am feeling really good, a lot better than normal, and I have tons of energy. I think the rumors about Popeye and Spinach are true!
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This is what I've been eating for breakfast for five days now:
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-I'm switching it up tomorrow and doing the spinach and raspberries in a smoothie and making the scrambled egg plain - just pure, scrambled egg bliss, sister, who knows how to party?!
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Gotta run, it's time for a yogurt/raspberry/almond smoothie. I'll keep you posted on whether it's a Cinch to use Cinch to Cinch your waist. PS -- I lost 6 lbs in 6 days so far. But now I'm at Blissdom and will most likely over eat.

Mike Thompson: Falling Out Of Love

Mike Thompson, a songwriter and musician based in Charleston, has produced his first cd "Falling Out of Love." I've always thought Mike's sound was folksy or folk rock, but this cd goes back to his country roots (Sin County Band) with a concentrated Country sound. Definitely 100% country. It even includes the mandatory sad song about killin' to save a woman ("Isolene") and the lonesome Cowboy's tears-in-his-beers song ("Holding This Guitar.")
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Mike admitted at the release that he called Carroll Brown (Producer) for some help, "This CD is too happy," Thompson told Brown, "I need a song about killin'."

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Mike's well known in the Charleston music scene and has won several Best Of and Male Vocalist awards. I've gone down to Charleston a few times just to hear Mike sing, but this time I only had to drive to Columbia for the cd release party at a yummy Irish place called "Puddlin' Duck." (Hint: Get the Irish Dip, Get the macaroni & cheese, Sheperd's Pie was good, not spectacular, Skip the boxtys)
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I've had Falling Out of Love playing in my car all week and I have to say, (don't hit me) I prefer Mike in person. The cd's great, but he's such a personable guy who puts on a great show, the house should be packed wherever he goes. He needs to keep on performing, but I imagine that's a hard life.
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You can hear and purchase downloads of Mike's cd at Digstation.com. Mike's got a facebook, too, looks like it's just starting out.

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My favorite song? Hit The Road.

Double Deuce: Marjorie vs Marjorie

We took the kids on a celebratory Ski Trip this past weekend
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and met up with my family along the way for some fun, family reunion style. Late one night, Mom dragged us down to the motel's game room and began to hustle us. For example, when the balls were still racked, she asked how we can hit them through that triangle thingy? And when she began to play, Dad gave her some advice as if she had never played before.
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As we realized we were being hustled, Marj took her namesake on in what has become the Great Marjorie Face Off of Twenty Eleven. Yeah. It was that big.
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Marjorie the Second took the first several shots, ending her run with a jawed ball, then Marjorie I took control of the count, alternating the draw, bank and feather shots, playing the bed like she was tickling ivory. She's got a sweet stroke.
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Single elimination resulted in a new mug at the table, Flash. I knew we were in trouble when I saw his face during the opening break shot:
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This was the ending scene as I left. Marj II was taking care of business.

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"You weenie. That's my grandaw you're hustling."-

Popinjay - Blue

With blue being our Popinjay this week, I was going to dig around for an old photo of my daughter when I dropped her off at Clemson for her first year of college. I had taken a telling photo of her on her new bed, staring off in a sad, droopy style, almost hugging herself. The picture screamed emotion, mainly a girl feeling rather blue.
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But on my way to the photo archives, I noticed this photo from last week and found it so. . .
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blue

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Wildwood, NJ The Jersey Shore

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The Jersey Shore, she ain't what she used to be.
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I spent my entire childhood going to the Jersey Shore for a weeklong family vacation every summer. A random variety of aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and neighbors would go with us each year. We'd spend all day long on the beach and all night on the boardwalk, pictured above. The 1970's Jersey boardwalk is something everyone should experience.

Flashing lights, the smell of pizza, popcorn, cotton candy and hoagies.
Carnies charming you into a game. Sounds of the tram beeping and the thump, thump, thump of bicycle tires on the boards.

The breeze, always a warm breeze. Invisible dogs, anybody remember them? One year everyone was walking their "invisible dogs."

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We always stayed at the Sea Edge Motel. The Wildwood beach was big and getting bigger each year. The walk from the motel down to the surf was long and hot, how well I remember that horrible walk, loaded down with chairs, umbrellas, coolers.

And one year when I was very small, I got lost. I had taken something to the trash can and had gotten turned about somehow. A couple lifeguards in a red jeep picked me up and drove me around until my frantic, wild-eyed mom saw me and flagged them down. I was leaning against the tailgate chugging an icy coke and thus began a very strong subconscious attraction to lifeguards.
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Wildwoodians will remember on that huge expanse of beach, as you lay roasting and toasting, the little guys would come by, papers slung over their back, yelling "Philadelphia. Daily News. Daily News. Here!" Over & Over & Over with a pause between words. We never once bought a paper.

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The Sea Edge was a lot of fun. We had several rooms blocked for family. After all day on the beach, we'd drag back in to shower and change, one at a time, taking turns swimming or playing shuffleboard while waiting.

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My cousin and BFF Julie went with us a few times. I can remember cousin Terry being there some, playing the carnival games on the boardwalk, flirting with the carnies. Aunt Becky one year came out on the balcony in a two-piece. Aunt Becky was the shyest, quietest person on the planet, I don't know who got her to wear that bikini for 5 minutes. She and Uncle Harold were usually there, he always wanting a hoagie at the nearest hoagie shop. Wheelocks went at least one time because I remember her cleaning - even vacuuming - the room before leaving, despite maid service. And one time we just got in the car and drove down for a spontaneous girls weekend - I think that was the Jones girls, mom, and someone else, maybe Barb? Looking back, it was an odd combination. I don't know how it came about.

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That, my friend, is what "The Jersey Shore" means. Good, old fashioned pure Americana. None of this 2010 Jersey Shore tv show trash. Things sure ain't what they used to be.

Blissdom 2011 Prayer Coffee

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Back by popular demand. . .
Robin's Prayer Coffee

at the Blissdom Conference.
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7 - 7:30 am Friday

at the {in}courage suite 5139, Cascades

Coffee will be available

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Last year, this was my favorite part of the conference.
The conference gets hectic and focused - focused on improving your blog, improving your skills, strategizing, learning, learning, learning!! & focused on meeting other women whose blogs and tweets we love.
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But the Prayer Coffee time. Ahhhh. It's so nice to come together and focus on our faith, to kind of reel us back in from the glitter and glamour and focus back in on the real purpose of life.
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If you're going to Blissdom, come join us Friday morning!

Wedding Traditions

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It was a sleepy weeknight when my future son-in-law pulled my husband aside to nervously request his daughter in marriage. After a long talk, the topics of which aren't within my reach, said future son-in-law then awkwardly approached me either to ask for my daughter's hand or to inform me of such, I don't remember.
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And thus I was launched into the MOB world. Mother Of the Bride.
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Besides all the work (and fun!) of planning a wedding, there is a whole etiquette mine field I found myself navigating, while my daughter was urging me keep the wedding to our taste, not the taste Emily Post dictated 100 years ago. For instance, did you know if the MOB wears a black dress it means she doesn't like the new in-laws? (Don't worry, Sandra, mine won't be black, you're the bomb, I like you, I really like you!)
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But still.

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I love the ancient traditions, curious manners and peculiar superstitions that govern the secret society of MOBs.

The Ritual Bath. The bride should have a ritual bath to cleanse her of all evil influences including thoughts of old boyfriends.
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The Handkerchief. Early farmers thought a bride's wedding day tears were lucky and brought rains for their crops. Others thought a crying bride meant that she'd never shed another tear about her marriage. (ha!)
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Getting to the Church. Walking has long been thought to be the best way for the bride to get to the church because there's more of a chance of finding lucky omens enroute, such as a rainbow, sunshine or a chimney sweep. (Seriously. If my daughter passes a chimney sweep while wearing a thousand dollar white dress, I wouldn't consider it lucky) However, there is a chance she could pass some bad omens, too, and those chances are considerably higher living where we do. Bad omens may include seeing a pig, hare, lizard, an open grave or passing a nun (that means you'll be dependent on charity). Yes, we have a nunnery not far from the bride's church.
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Bride on the left. This one I like. This one might be applicable since my daughter's marrying the super-hero Flash. The groom may have to defend his bride from would-be kidnappers, so she must stand to his left, leaving his sword-arm free. The "best" warrior in the tribe stands next to the groom to provide assistance should he require it.
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Sawhorsing. This is appropriate for our village. We set up a sawhorse, log and double handle saw. Bride and groom must saw the log apart while we cheer them on. When the log is cut, it means that they must work together in all of life's tasks. I like this one. I can afford a sawhorse; in fact, I think I have one laying around the barn.
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Kneeling. I come from German stock. Historically in Germany, the couple would kneel during the ceremony. The groom would then kneel on the bride's hem to show that he'll keep her in line. Then the bride could step on his foot as she stands to reassert her bad self.
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Oh my. So, so, so much to do. We gotta get cracking. I think, however, that with what we've found for the reception . . .

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. . . we might be setting some new traditions of our own.

Working Class with Ed Asner

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CMT is bringing Asner back. . .

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. . . and you don't want to miss it.

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Working Class premiers Friday, January 28, 8/7 c on CMT, followed by a second, all-new episode at 8:30.

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I just enjoyed a special viewing of January 28's premiere episode (via One2One Network) and I have to admit it was fun. I am going to really like this family sitcom. Think: Reba, Step by Step, Family Ties, Full House, Happy Days...

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Carli Mitchell (Melissa Peterman, formerly "Barbra Jean" on Reba) is a single mom who moves to an upscale suburb in hopes of finding "the good life" there. What she finds is cranky neighbor & co-worker, Hank Greziak (Asner) and a glorified deli job at the local grocery store where, she claims, customers feed their dogs better than she feeds her kids.
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Working Class

starts out strongly reminiscent of Reba, but builds speed and soon develops its own feel. This first episode establishes the characters including Asner with his bomb dropping humor, Carli's down-and-out charming brother Nick (Steve Kazee) who provides sloppy but lovable child care for Carli in exchange for room and board and Carli's boss Rob (Patrick Fabian) with whom her big mouth and up-front honesty gets her in a little trouble.

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The characters are lovable and rotate around Peterman in astrological fashion. Multiple guest stars will feature on the show during the season, including Reba, whose on-screen reunion with Peterman will air in February. Other guest stars will include David Faustino, Kathy Kinney, Martin Mull, John Schneider and many more.

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CMT's Working Class was probably made with a wink and a nod to TV Land's Hot in Cleveland, but it is an entirely different show and one I think you will love. Working Class Facebook. CMT Twitter.

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Full disclosure: The One2One Network provided a free pre-view download of the show for me for the purposes of this review. In no way does that affect my review. I received no monetary compensation, although I will be entered for a chance to win a gift card.

Beth Moore's Scripture Memory Plan 2011

Who's memorizing 24 verses with me, Beth Moore and a whole lotta Siestas this year?
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The 15th was the due date for verse #2. Go here to link up your verse.-

My verse:-
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If anyone has material posessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? I John 3:17 NIV
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Amazing, huh? Easy and HARD all in one. It's a doosie.

A CDO Diagnosis Can Loosen Your Tongue

Guest Writer: Ruth Morse

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FINALLY!

I finally know what is wrong with me, thanks to one of the 783 catalogs we've received lately. The catalog sold a tee shirt that fit me to, well, a TEE!
It declared:
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I have CDO!!

What's that?

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CDO is OCD with the letters in the right order.*

-*remember the alphabetical spices

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With this in mind, I now feel free to share various and sundry (what is a sundry? who uses "sundry" in language anymore? Someone with CDO, I guess) totally unrelated thoughts with all of you! Such as:
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~ Don't ever do a job that you don't want to do for the rest of your life. I learned this gem from an older lady sitting next to me in the beauty shop last month. Her theory: unless you want to mow the lawn for the rest of your life, never, ever learn how to mow the lawn in the first place. She claims to have started her marriage with this philosophy and it worked. Never did mow the lawn. Never did fix her husband breakfast. She had a whole long list of things she had decided were NOT in that job description! She also aplied this motto to the work place. Don't know how she got away with it there, but this lady had the gusto to enforce it.
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~ Why do manufacturers put ridiculous instructions in their owner's manual? You all read the owner's manual from cover to cover, right? That's normal, right? It's normal if you have even a touch of CDO. I'm thinking of brilliant gems like this one found with the new toaster: never use in a bathtub. You're kidding, right? Or this one: We bought a child's kitchen set last month as a Christmas gift. It was made entirely of plastic. Plastic stove, plastic sink, plastic pots, plastic pans, plastic utensils. The maker of kitchen set did NOT want to take a chance that you would ignore the owner's manual. Right on the box, in big, bold letters: Pots, pans and utensils are NOT to be used in a real oven.
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Here's a biggie that has really been bothering me ever since I noticed IT.
~ Why do the buttons on a drive-up ATM have Braille on them? Anybody got the answer to that one? Please share your thoughts.
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...and one more thing......
uh, I'll get back to you when I remember it.
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The Cheap Senior Citizen is a Guest Writer who occasionally shares helpful hints she has learned through her experience.
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Blissdom 2011: A Pampered Education

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Pampering AND a Wealth of Information in one place.
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I'm getting my bliss on!
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I won the ticket to the Blissdom '11 Conference in Nashville!! Huge, humongous, "gimantic" THANKS to Angela England for this Give-Away. Angela will be speaking at the conference. She is a speaker and a writer with with an excellent blog about writing, blogging and social media. She also writes on many other sites, including a very helpful community site she started, The Untrained Housewife.
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Tom and I took a long weekend jaunt to Nashville last year so I could attend the conference. It was incredible. The venue was outrageous - Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Conference Center. The entertainment was great, the sessions were great, the workshops were great. (Links are below to some sessions I particularly enjoyed.)
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Blissdom is pampering and sharing of knowledge, but also friendly people at the helm. Real people.
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Enroute last year, I was tweeting the whole way with other bloggers also enroute. Alli Worthington asked who was arriving soon and I responded that I was. We've never met, mind you. She squealed via twitter and said she wanted to find me and hug me upon arrival. We didn't meet up (however, I ran into Robin Dance and Liz Strauss, who invited me to sit down and chat with them as if we're peers when they TOWER over me), but alas, no Alli.....
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.... until maybe the third day in, I, wearing my VSliker name badge, flew into the ladies room between sessions. Two women were talking, one of which was Alli. I didn't want to interrupt, so I began to pass quietly. Alli stopped her conversation, told me she owed me a hug and then bear-hugged me. I was too stunned for words. She doesn't even know me, never met me, just remembered my name from twitter.
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That's the kind of people at the helm and that's the kind of conference it is.
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Sadly, I wasn't going to be able to go this year due to a lack of funding. But... now... with my free ticket.... I'm going! See you there?
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What did I learn last year?
(looking back, I see the vlogging classes helped me the most)

Blogging Basics
Blogging Basics II
Personal Branding
Vlogging I
Vlogging II
Vlogging III

Another Redneck Snowday in the South

More Redneck Snowdays in the South
Even More Redneck Snowdays in the South

Dakar 2011 Highlights

For those who hear me talk about the Dakar, but have no idea what it is...
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And the summary of just Stage 6. . .
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When the Stars are all in Alignment....

. . . or you've got good karma goin' on. . .

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It's when {sigh} everything lines up perfectly and for once, for just one moment, everything goes your way. -
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For that one, however brief, moment when something turns out exactly the way you want. The way you faintly hoped but knew not to expect. Yeah. That happened to me today.
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This photo was precisely what I wanted.

The Big Hill and the Wise Old Horse

Pictured: author on one of her first dirt bikes with brother in stroller
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What am I wearing? Bowling shoes? Were we that broke?

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There was a hill behind our neighborhood, the neighborhood my uncles built in a rural town in upstate New York. There was a cavernous shale pit at the opening to the hill where we would do extreme dirt biking and where Scott Roloson gouged my head with a piece of shale, scarring my naturally good looks. Well, OK, not that bad, but still....

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Anyway, the hill. The hill rose at the back of our neighborhood, had a long flat top to zip across, wound down through some woods and came out around the Van Fleet's neighborhood. We would ride dirt bikes and snowmobiles on this route, as well as our neighbors horses.

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With the horses, though, we usually had problems. Most often, flying across the flat top, everyone would go faster than I, arriving at the woods early.

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They'd wait and soon spot my horse coming over the hill, galloping full speed... with no rider.

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Those contrary ponies would always throw me off. And one time I remember as we descended the steep back hill, me and my saddle just slid right off the front of the horse's head. In reflection, I wonder why I wasn't trampled?
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But my favorite story from The Hill would have to be one in which my parents went out for a romantic ride. Mom saddled up Clara's horse, Jamie, a real old timer, and dad rode another. Mom recalls that they decided to race across the flat top, a little friendly competition. It was going so well, they decided to forego the break they usually took at the woods opening and just keep racing down into the woods. Jamie suddenly reared to a stop and went flat, shook mom off & sprawled out on the ground.

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Dad entered the woods to find mom circling the flattened horse and screaming "I've killed Jamie!!"

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Chaos ensued and then, after a brief rest in the shade, Jamie carefully stood up, much, much, much to mom's glee. She did not want to tell Clara she killed her horse. Mom and dad turned around toward home and mom walked Jamie all the way back home, worried he was hovering near death.

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Dragging back into the corral, mom told Clara's husband Cal what happened. Cal let out his famous belly laugh, laughed hilariously and said,

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"Jamie does that a lot when he doesn't want a rider!"

Brian Williams: Old School Newsman

David Letterman brought in the New Year with an interview with Brian Williams. I haven't been fond of David Letterman since I outgrew him shortly after my college days, but I do like to occasionally tivo the show and FF to the interviews.
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I love Brian Williams. He's like the old time reporters who just report. Just report the news like a professional and leave your personal opinions behind - old school news - I miss it. In fact, I don't watch news anymore, probably since Obama took office and I realized there's no turning back, our country is going down, and who needs to watch that every single night?
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So here's part of the interview with Brian Williams. Williams is a master when Letterman comments about John Boehner's weepy self, just days before Williams has to be with Boehner face-to-face. Letterman's trying to push an agenda and Williams stands with grace and charm, subtly reminding us Lettterman is dismissable.



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Here's more of the show below. The beginning is typical David Letterman Show Jr. High humor, but the good interview starts somewhere around 3:40.
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Dakar 2011: Stage Three Summary

My Dakar 2011 Stage Three Summary is at The Race Shop today. Sluggish day at the Dakar with a surprise Top 5 Contender & Casteau remains gun-shy while Ullevalsetter still scratches his head over the 450 with visions of his 690 dancing in his head.

Grass Dragging: Bringing You One Step Closer to the Darwin Awards

I suspect not many of my readers are too terribly familiar with the Darwin Awards and even less are familiar with Grass Dragging, so let me just go into it a little bit because I find it all curiouser and curiouser. The Darwin Awards honor those who improve the species by removing themselves from it. Nominees significantly improve the gene pool by eliminating themselves in an obviously stupid way.
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I grew up on snowmobiles and while we occassionally ended up dragging across the grass, we certainly never did it intentionally. Who knew a few years later, it would become an extreme sport? Back in the day, there was no such term, but I assure you Matt and I performed a few extreme sports of our own on the snowmobiles and dirt bikes and I have the scars to prove it.
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Snowmobiles, in my day, were not meant to leave the snow; hence, the name. Today you can find the young, the hearty, the future Darwin Award Recipients running their stripped down, tricked out snowmobiles across dirt, grass, sand and/or water, with the water ones not always returning. Of course they launch, you know, as in up-in-the-air, and now they are even attempting backflips. With quarter-ton vehicles. Back. Flips. Go to NHSA Grass Drags to read all about it.
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So, with jaw dropped open, I've been on high-alert for, oh, a few minutes for anything snowmobile related. On New Years Eve, X games champ Levi LaVallee planned to attempt to break the world record for longest snowmobile jump, a 300' launch. Read here a great interview about the preparation process. Alas, when I searched for results of this attempt, these are the headlines I read, in order, as I scrolled.

• Levi Lavallee Injured During Practice.
• Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. Cancelled.
• Levi Lavallee Released From Hospital.

So.... Red Bull: No Limits apparently does indeed have limits.
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Poor kid. But he beat the world record by 60'. It's just a matter of seeing if it gets verified and accepted and I'm sure that's the first thing he asked when he regained consciousness. But the good news: he doesn't qualify for the Darwin Awards. (yet)

Win a Ticket to Blissdom '11

Blissdom'11 is right around the corner and guess who isn't going? Me.
I'm heartbroken. I am incredibly disappointed that I'm not going this year.... unless.... wait..... unless I win a fab ticket from Heather Solos at Home Ec 101!
Click here to get the fab details on how to win your own ticket to Blissdom.
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But hurry, contest closes January. 5.
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The Blissdom Conference is a two day extravaganza of excellent sessions, networking, great friends, great food, great speakers and always great entertainment. This year, and last, it is held at the Gaylord Resort in Nashville, TN. The Gaylord is beautiful and very relaxing. In addition to the conference schedule, there are always a variety of mini-parties you can stumble upon and meet new friends or friends you've met on twitter and would like to meet in person.
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Dakar 2011: Stage One

My Dakar 2011 Stage One Report is up at The Race Shop. Check it out here.

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photo: Quinn Cody and Annie Seel

photo courtesy Quinn's Facebook

Popinjay: Humble

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Humble - having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc.

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It was in Europe where I learned of a humility that was not self-deprecating or that which breeds a martyr. A pure humility. An awestruck humility. The sheer age and history of Europe humbled me. The luxury of the architecture created in times of few and costly resources humbled me. The churches developed under the Baroque influence were amazing! The historical pride, knowledge and generosity of the people humbled me. This photo is, if I remember correctly, from Prague, where I literally hit the ground running. There was so much to explore in Prague! I left for Europe as a proud American (we are the world!!) and I returned very humble. We most certainly are not the world, nor do we know much about it.

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Popinjay...a little Michelle Pendergrass Magic
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My posts on Prague, Prague II, Germany, Vienna, and much more in the travel section.

Beth Moore's Scripture Memory Plan 2011

For the second time, that I'm aware of, Beth Moore has come up with an online plan to encourage women to memorize scripture. I participated in her first plan a couple of years ago, but I quit halfway through. Memorization is hard! My goal for 2011 is to complete her plan and go to her party next January to celebrate. Who wants to join me?

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"Just think," Beth told her co-workers, "what would happen if 6000+ women really did memorize 24 Scriptures in 2011?? What are the implications of that? What kind of repercussions might that have in our personal lives and our homes?"

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How To Participate:

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On the 1st and 15th of every month of 2011, you will find a post on Beth's blog where she will ask for your memory verse and give you hers. This will begin New Years Day. You are committing to 24 Scriptures in 12 months. Beth says NOT ONCE has she ever known anyone to get to the end of a Scripture memory commitment and say that it didn't make any real difference.

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You are to enter the verse you've chosen to memorize for that two week period within 24 hours of the post going up. Write your verse in a spiral index card book to keep them all together through the year.

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There are a few more tiny, minor details and some excellent advice and encouragement on Beth's original post.

Click here to read more and sign up for the project!
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New this year, you can buy this cute little Scripture Memory Team Spiral here or download the free pdf to make your own. You do not have to have this particular spiral, you can use one of your own.