In a few days, on Sunday to be exact, I will celebrate my first annual 39th birthday. This is a big milestone, no? Well, maybe it isn't since I plan to celebrate the same birthday every year from here on out.

So I'd like to entertain a little reversal here, and have a little contest. No answering questions, no donations to charities, just leave a comment telling me about a favorite birthday present you've received. I'll pick one at random on Sunday, November 4th and put together a little surprise package for the winner. See, as much as I love receiving surprises.. I adore putting together surprises for others. If the winner is a knitter or spinner, perhaps you'll get a nice fibery surprise in the mail. If you're not, maybe an Amazon or iTunes gift certificate... I have lots of ideas!

And here, I'll get you started. What is my favorite birthday present? Cassidy! She was born just a few months shy of my 30th birthday, and I had always wanted a baby before I turned 30 (weird.. I know!) But besides all of that, Richard and I were both surprised, since we had always thought our path to parenthood would be a difficult one. We were looking at facing lengthy and heartbreaking fertility cycles.. then there it was.. a positive pregnancy test, all on our own. And after a rocky first trimester, when we were expecting the worst to happen every day, despite bed rest and progesterone supplements, we were truly blessed... just in time to fulfill my 30th birthday wish.

Now, go, and tell me all about your favorite birthday present! As you can tell, it doesn't have to be a "thing", it can be "the perfect day", a great meal... anything.

P.S. Scorpios Rule!

..and not enough time to do it all.

Kris, Roger and Owen arrive tonight (YAY!) But the house needs some cleaning (BOO!) I thought I'd have time to do it late this afternoon, but theres no way. Good thing they love us and won't mind. And my mom and grandmother arrive late tomorrow morning to bring Alex back from his week vacation with Aunt Jill. They'll stay for the afternoon, then head back to PA with Cassidy, where she'll spend the last two weeks of her summer vacation hanging out with Grandma, Grammy, and the rest of the fam.

Grocery shopping was mostly done last night.. though I still need to finish the other two legs of the weekly trip (we typically hit three different stores to complete our weekly needs. Wegmans - Green Hills - Aldi, for the staple foods.)

Still need to finish packing Cassidy's bags.

Lots of blogging assignments and I'm not sure how I'll fit them in to my busy weekend.

Lots of pictures to transfer to the PC. And I still need to blog about the wonderful gifts Isabella sent for the kids in my sockapalooza package.

Pay a few bills.. I hate Fridays sometimes.

Try to find an hour to work on the Deatheater Illusion Scarf so my mom can take that back for my brother (yeah right!) I tried last night, but Richard put Hostel on. I tried to knit through it, but it got to a point where I just had to throw down the knitting and leave the room. Blech! Even from another room, I had to block my ears every once in a while * shudder*

Now I'm off to ingest some caffeine and start picking up the house.

I've really got nuthin' today. Theres not even any knitting I can show you (I did a considerable amount of work on the super double secret contract project last night - socks on hold until I get a good amount done on this)

So how about I spread around some more linky love?

• A new to me blog that I Stumbled Upon, Confessions Of A Pioneer Woman. I also LOVE her cooking blog, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Her pictures are breathtaking.
• Running The Numbers, An American Self Portrait. Statistic Art. I can't explain it, you must see it.
• Proppian Fairy Tale Generator. Click buttons to define elements of the fairy tale you seek, Click generate, BadaBing!
• Top Secret Recipes. I like this one too. But I received some alarming news there. Apparently Spatini Spaghetti sauce mix was discontinued by the company in December 2006. No wonder I haven't been able to find it! This was the "secret" to my meatloaf.. (not a secret anymore huh?) Everyone loves my meatloaf.. this is a bummer for sure.
• shoes.com .. just as good as zappos. And easier to browse in my opinion (occasionally zappos just ticks me off with their search results) I'm particularly smitten with these.
• ImpeachBush.org. Do I need to say more? No, I didn't think so.
• Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. Are you counting down too? With as much necessary knitting I have going on this month, how am I going to fit this in too? I'm not one of those people who can wait to read it "later". I usually come home from the bookstore at 1AM and stay up all night reading. Maybe I should buy the audio book instead? Naaaaah! Another reason why I always talk about needing more time and less sleep.

Now I need to go get ready for Connor's teacher's arrival. We've had a full week's vacation from therapy and sessions. Time to get back in the groove!

Today was the day. After scanning some reviews to see what made Transformers The Movie a PG-13, we decided to let Richard take them.

Honestly, I can't wait to hear all about it when they come home. I know the boys will be talking non-stop for the next week. I mean, they've already been talking non-stop about it, without having seen it. But then again, this is nothing new for our boys. As I've said, Transformers are part of their genetic makeup. It will also be interesting to see what Cassidy has to say about it. She may insist its a "boy movie", but she can rattle off autobot and decepticon names just as quickly and easily as Alex and Dylan.

Theres a basket of clothes that need folding. A few dishes that need washing. A baby sweater that needs knitting. But all I feel like doing is listening to music and surfing the web (I'm completely sucked into The Frames radio on Pandora.com right now.) Since Connor is napping, and the house is eerily free of chaos.. I'm just going to call this my day off!

And because I can't (until the 20th), go see this. If for nothing else, go for the music.. its amazing

BlueGal posted about this today, and I'm not sure how this one flew under my radar.

More musical goodness.. swoon.

The soundtrack will probably be the first thing I load on my new iPod.. Its that good.

I've spent a lot of time in the last week researching SEO, mostly because I wanted to monetize my blog a little. I'm proud to currently have a Google Page Rank of 3, without out doing anything special (I've got to be doing something right, right?) But I want at least a 5. Unfortunately something also used to calculate a web site's popularity is Alexa, and my Alexa score needs work. The problem with Alexa is that it relies on the use of the Alexa toolbar, which is only available for Windows IE users. I have managed to drop it by 200k in a week, but it needs lots more work. So anyway, if you want to see how your blog or web site ranks, you can play with iwebtools to find out all sorts of information.

Another fun web thingie I came across is StumbleUpon. You create an account, download the toolbar and start stumbling! Based on the information you provide (what categories of blogs and sites you like) it will randomly take you around the web. You can favorite sites you like by clicking the thumbs up. I can easily get lost doing this for hours.

Lastly, some link love..

Commercial sites from my sidebar history:

• Zappos. I don't know a woman on the web, who can't get lost on this site for hours.
• Transformers, The Movie. Richard has been an obsessed fan since he was a kid. Its been passed down to Alex, Dylan and Connor. So much so, its likely that Optimus Prime was among their first words.

Blogs/sites new and old to me:

• Our friend, Laura, who finally figured out to burn a feed!
• MamaBlogga. How-tos and hints for mama bloggers. And a fun to read writing contest.
• The Drunken Housewife. I've been reading this one a long time. The adventures of Lola and Iris make me crack up every time!
• Ravelry. I don't know a single knitter around who hasn't heard of, already gotten an invite or is still waiting for theirs. An ingenious idea and another great place to get "lost in".

More later. Time to referee small children.

A day late, and a dollar short (aint that the truth!)

But anyway, yesterday was my three year blogiversary. I intended to post to celebrate, but the day got away from me (A girl scouts outing, a sick kid, a cooking marathon in the kitchen including baba ganouj, chocolate chip pumpkin bars, and Carole's chicken tomato stroganoff. I know - weird combos, but I had some cravings)

Anyway, its been three years.

Heres to many more!

What a week (in more ways than one!)

I have plenty to post about this past week, a rant, some knitting, holiday happenings.. but I wanted to get this out right away.

See, chances are you tried to come here all week.. and got a server not found error? And the rest of you came here and wondered where the hell I was all week, right? Well, a router went wonky from what I'm told, and half of the country couldn't resolve the dns or ip, or something or other. Many days went by with one company saying "its not us" and the other company saying "nope not us either". But finally... YAY... we're working again!