Trying To Find My Way Home

Tags

Blog, Karen McFarland, Rio Grande, South Texas, Static in the Airwaves, Tim L O'Brien

Some of you may have noticed my blog has been MIA since Christmas.  Some even sent messages of concern, which was very kind of you.  I wish I had a terrific story to explain my disappearance, but I don’t.  I wasn’t attacked by wild hogs or kidnapped by the Mexican drug cartels.  I’ve been in God’s Country – South Texas along the Rio Grande – for two of the past three weeks.  I had three blogs written that I intended to post the last week of 2011, but those plans were thwarted when the new internet device failed to provide service to the compound where I was staying.  I enjoyed writing them, but they are dated so there is no need to publish them now.

Like that evil step-mom or obnoxious mother-in-law, I couldn’t stay gone forever.  In fact, Karen McFarland, one of my favorite bloggers, found my secret hiding spot and has brought me back to the blogosphere world today.  I’m glad to be back.  I have a pocket full of blog ideas to write in the future.

Karen asked me several weeks ago to be a guest blogger on her site.  This was a first for me, but with it came the formidable task of writing something that would uphold to her standards.  She has had several previous guest bloggers, and the list is quite impressive with many published authors lending their words to her blog page.  Why she asked me I have no idea, but it was truly an honor to do so.

So for further proof that I am still alive and writing, please click on the following link to check out my first guest blog.  I hope you enjoy the blog and further enjoy reading Karen’s blogs.

Click on this link to read my guest blog at:  Karen McFarland’s Blog – Expressions From the Heart.

No date has been set for my welcome back party, but I have plenty of beer on ice.  Hope you enjoy today’s post.

Saturday in the Park – A Stroll Through the Blogosphere 12/17/11

Tags

Anne R Allen, Blogosphere, Blogs, Jenny Hansen, Jessica O'Neal, Karen McFarland, Mashup, Natalie Hartford, Saturday Stroll Through The Park, Static in the Airwaves, Tim L O'Brien

Welcome to my Saturday stroll through the park, a collection of blogs from the past week that created static in my airwaves.  My mashup is a buffet of sorts from some of the best blogs and most talented bloggers I follow.  I know you still have a lot of Christmas shopping to take care of today, so I will keep this one short!

Does your husband spend more time in “the library” on the throne than he does in the kitchen or taking out the trash?  Still looking for the perfect Christmas gift for his hobby?  You must read Natalie Hartfords’s For the golfer in your life: the potty putter (yes…you read that correctly)

Ok.  I’m guilty of this, as well.  For another funny blog please read Jenny Hansen’s Blog More Cowbell – My Brother is a “Bag Whore”

Does your wife claim that women are born to shop?  Mine does!  My daughters think so, as well.  I’ve got news for them.  Read Jessica O’Neal’s  Myth or Reality: A Woman Who Doesn’t Like to Shop

The suspicious death of famed actress Natalie Woods has been back in the news recently.  You can’t go the Christmas season without watching Miracle of 34th Street and not admire the talents of a very young Woods as she plays Susan Walker in the film.   Karen McFarland takes a look back at Natalie Woods in her blog, Splendour in the Grass 

For two great and informative blogs about blogging check out Anne R. Allen’s How To Blog: A Beginner’s Guide for Authors and How Not To Blog: Beginning Blogging for Authors II.

There you have it.  I read so many great blogs this week that there is not way possible to include them all here.  I hope you enjoy these articles as much as I did.  Click on their links.  I’m sure you will find, just as I did, that there are some truly talented writers out in the great blogosphere.

I hope you are nowhere near a mall today, and are able to spend a nice Saturday at home relaxing.  Leave the long lines and pushing and shoving in the stores to the suckers that haven’t finished their shopping!  Happy Saturday in the Park…

Saturday in the Park – A Stroll Through the Blogosphere

Tags

Debra Kristi, Jenny Hansen, Jessica O'Neal, Karen McFarland, Mashup, Myndi Shafer, Sheila Seabrook, Static in the Airwaves, Tameri Etherton, Tim L O'Brien, Writers in the Storm

Welcome to my first attempt at a Mashup.  This is my Saturday stroll through the park, a collection of blogs from the past week that created static in my airwaves.  My mashup is a buffet of sorts from some of the best blogs and most talented bloggers I follow:

Writers In The Storm – This site not only has the coolest picture on any blog I read, but a way cool and always a wonderful place to stop and read. The blog – Deserted Island Books – is what the title suggests.  If you were stranded on a deserted island, what ten books would you take with you?  Fun to think about, and harder to choose than you would think.  Can you choose ten?

Jenny Hansen’s Blog – Cowbell You Need More Of It – If you’re looking for laughs this is THE spot to visit.  Jenny is the Richard Pryor of bloggers.  She is consistently funny, her mind tends to veer to the gutter, but in a fun way.  Her blog this week 10 Creative Ways To Express Your “Inner F-Bomb” was one of my favorites. And, if reading only one of Jenny’s blogs has you begging for more, then get your fix with Can A Cup O’ Joe Make Your Man A ‘Ho’?  Follow the exploits of Married Maurice, a really great tool.

Another talented and creative blogger I love to read is Myndi Shafer – Blogging Barefoot.  For a quick giggle you have to check out Shopping For Idiots a hilarious shopping mall prank. Perfect for the Christmas season.

Have you ever eaten something only to find out later what it actually was?  In the talented Jessica O’Neal blog site she writes about that very thing, and you will not believe what she actually ate!  To find out more you need to read the hilarious (Mis) Adventures in Eating.  

Looking to make your next e-harmony video?  Do you love cats?  You need to watch the video in Tameri Etherton’s Blog – A Cup of Tea and Sorcery, because, well, this girl really loves cats!  Good stuff!

Looking for a great holiday baking idea?  Have you ever tried Poppycock?  No, that isn’t something from Jenny Hansen’s blog! but a recipe provided by Sheila Seabrook.  To read her warm recollections of her father and how to make this delicious sounding Christmas gift follow the recipe on her blog here.

When you were a child, did you ever promise not to grow up and be like your parents, only to find out, you did just that?  For an insightful look at this check out Debra Kristi’s Blog Sparks in the Fireand read her blog My Father I Am?

On a more serious note, you really need to stop by and visit Karen McFarland’s blog.  We all know how poor the economy is right now and our sympathies go out to all those without this Christmas season.  In a scene that is somewhat reminiscent to the mass exodus of Okies headed to California during the Dust Bowl days described in John Steinbeck’s novel, read what is going on in Williston, North Dakota.  You won’t believe the sacrifices people are making in order to earn a paycheck in her blog My Address is the Walmart Parking Lot.

There you have it, a sampling of the best of the best out there in the blogosphere.  I hope you click the links and read from these very talented writers.  If you like it well enough, and I think you will, click their follow icons and you won’t miss another blog!

Happy Saturday in the Park everybody.  I hope you are nowhere near a mall right now!