Who are all these people anyways???

So, a blogger walks into a side bar and says "Give me a link!"

That's pretty lame humor, but I wanted to talk about blogrolls and sidebar links to other blogs.

(And this is funny...I am posting this directly to my blog with the newly de-glitched Picasa to Blogspot interface, and my cursor is staying on the right, and is filling in going to the left, like if I was writing in Hebrew. Yo, Google Crew, I'm not Jewish, OK?

Helloooo???)

Well, I guess I'll just have to cope with it for this post.

And yes, I did already try to change the justification setting

One of my favorite past times is link surfing. By that I mean finding a blog on a subject I am interested in (such as cats or millinery...) by going to "Search all blogs", or just clicking on the "Next blog" link after mine posts.

Or even just by checking out the "Blog of the Week" or "Blogs of Note."

If I like what I see, I then start clicking on the sidebar links to that blog writer's recommended blogs.

It's sort of like going to a party at a friend's house, and meeting the rest of her friends at last.

Great fun!

Now if I like a site, I try to remember it. Sometimes I even write down the site's address. Of course I usually lose the little piece of paper I write that information down on, then have to try to figure out some key word that might get me back there.

If I am really lucky, I type in the URL, and then it just shows up in the drop down menu on my address bar.

Sweet!

Some sites I check everyday. I should set up an RSS feed so I would be notified when there is something new, but usually I can click through my favorites pretty quick without doing that.

Plus most of my favorites are sidebar links on the sites that are MY side bar links.

Which brings me back to the original question:

Who are all these people on my sidebar anyway???

Let's find out.

Autumn Cottage Diarist is a woman perhaps a tad older than myself who lives in England and has the most gorgeous garden, adorable village, charming friends, and in general is like someone in a Rosemunde Pilcher novel. I read her infrequent posting and wallow in her former postings when ever I want a quick trip to England without the long flight.

I found her site when I first started reading blogs and have no idea how I got to her site.

Her side links go to other interesting women who tackle late midlife women's issues, religious issues, and various gardening, crafting etc. adventure.

Those side links will eventually lead you to "As Time Goes By", a HUGE blog specific to aging issues that is (horrifyingly) often submitted by folks my age.

A great stopping place to grab some pointers on the years ahead from those already living the challenges and blessings of later years.

Time really will go by if you stop there, so I don't have it in my sidebar.

Too tempting. I get too little done each day as it is without going there each morning.

Dressaday was selected as a blog of the week about a year ago.

I was clicking through a list of the selected blogs and went absolutely crazy over her.

Her being Erin McKean, as I later learned.

She is the editor of the New American Oxford Dictionary (wowzah!), is married, has a six year old son, lives in Chicago, and LOVES dresses and roller skating.

When I first started reading her blog I was just FLOORED at her command of the English language, and just drooled over her writing style, as well as the daily dress.

When I found out about the dictionary thing...well, NO WONDER she writes so well!

DUH!

She is so personable, actually responds to emails personally, and her readership is enormous.

In two words: Erin ROCKS!

Her side bar links are pretty thirty-something in tone.

DO NOT MISS reading Threadbared, especially the comments, and be thankful that Erin loved You Knit WHAT??? so much that she kept it as a side link even after the site writers hung up their keyboard.

Fourfiftythree is a lovely blog I found by hitting "Next Blog." Dawn writes a very brief post every "dawn", and it is a lovely way to put a cheery note in your mind while you savor your morning cup of coffee. She's in New York area, and has sons in the Air Force, a mother with Alzheimer's, and is a pastor's daughter.

Her blog roll includes children's book illustrators (nice to know they have days that entail dealing with car and kid issues too...), various homeschooling moms, her own daughter's blog, and in general a nice circle of beautiful crafty minded blogs that usually make me want to try something new cooking or crafting wise.

(Which I probably would be doing more often if I wasn't so dumb and happy just reading about what others are doing... )

Dawn occasionally pops over to my blog and leaves a sentence or two as well.

She usually invites you over for coffee...maybe someday that could happen for real!

Hatsbykatrika is single handedly responsible for both my being a milliner and a blogger.

Katrika is the childhood nickname for my friend Kate, who was my millinery instructor in Houston before she left to go live in Switzerland with her attorney husband.

She decided to write a book about her European adventures "one page at a time" via blogging.

I was impressed.

She said it was easy.

(I trust her, when she says something is easy, it is easy, if she says it's kind of hard, it is kind of hard. I like people who know the difference!)

So far, Kate is the only blogger on my sidebar that I actually have met.

Itsgoodtobeme is written by a woman I actually know a little too well...she's my daughter. She writes about her life as an oncology and bone marrow transplant nurse.

She has never held back about anything important to her, and her blog is a look inside a world most of us will never (pray God..) have to deal with.

(Disclaimer: I am not responsible for, nor do I necessarily endorse everything she says. Even thought I pretty much egged her into writing a blog because I have been so taken by the expressiveness and humor of other blogging nurses. She is a fabulous nurse and I love her to pieces!)

There aren't any side bars on her site, but if you like hers, I will suggest these:

OcnRN

and

Nurseblog

Finally, I have recently added Whatmattersmost.

I could call this link "Seven degrees of Separation", the theory that everyone on the planet knows everyone else through seven connections. The "I knew a guy who knew a guy who knew...thing.

Lovella is hammering out her blog from BC Canada, another country, just like Texas. (You might have to be a Texan to get that joke...)

How did we link? Well, my mom suggested I go to a Bible study that was being held on the beach near my house. I went, and later a guy, Rich, who had been at that study ran into me at a book store. He remembered me, and introduced me to his roommate Scott. Scott later became my boyfriend, and in the room next to his room was a guy named Brad. Brad's roommate was Dennis. Dennis met Del, who was in school with Bernie, and brought Bernie along to a Bible study in Brad's room.

Later on I married Bernie, and Brad married Chris. Brad had a son named Josh, who went to England and met a girl named Heidi, who was from Canada.

They got married on the beach where I originally went to the Bible study, and where both my parents and Bernie and I had our first dates.

Heidi started a blog, Chris let me know (Chris RARELY reads my blog or Heidi's either for that matter..) and after I made a few smart alex remarks about Josh on Heidi's blog, I surfed over to Heidi's mile long collection of links (mostly about EVERYONE'S new babies, by the way...) and somewhere along the line I came across Lovella's post about an enormous egg her husband had brought in to her one morning.

I asked Chris to ask Heidi who Lovella was. Answer: Heidi's Aunt Flo's friend.

OK...have we got that all clear now?

Good.

I don't want to repeat myself.

Now it feels like we're old friends, separated only by a half a continent.

I'd add more links, but for now I think my little group is a manageable jumping off point for exploring blogdom.

And who ARE all those people in the picture at the top of this post?

The guy in the middle is my grandfather. The seated folks are his folks, my great grand parents.

The other people are his siblings, in a picture taken around 1900, either in Germany or Salt Lake City.

I'm glad I'm a link to all of them too.