Postcards From Oblivion

Of course you are. If you’re an animal lover, here’s your chance to feed some furry friends for free (Holy alliteration!) while showing off your prose prowess in 50 words or less.

My dog-loving friend, Kim, from The Sky is Falling wrote a post about this contest recently, and I wanted to jump on the bandwagon while there’s still time. The deadline is midnight on St. Patty’s day (Saturday), so sharpen your quills and pen a poem (or a rap!) for the pooches. I swear my poem isn’t laced with this much alliteration.

Here’s the link to Freekibble with all the contest details.

My entry:

Today I’m linking up with Missy from Literal Mom as she celebrates the first anniversary of her blog. She’s actually joined up with a passel of peeps who are celebrating their blogoversaries, so they’re all linking up as a big bloggy group. Feel free to join in!

Five Ways the Blogging Community Improves Life

1. Like an onion for your brain, but without the smelly hands or onion breath.

Much like Shrek views himself as an onion with many layers, I view the world of blogging as a monster-sized onion with a gazillion layers. Each time I read a new blog, I discover an entirely new group of blogs through that blog. It’s like wandering through some kind of crazy castle littered with millions of doors leading to someone else’s thoughts. Then there’s a small door behind that one that you have to duck a little bit to get through that takes you to yet another place you never knew was there, but now you want to go there every day and read their thoughts.

Some of these thoughts are highly entertaining–there is a never-ending supply of the funneh in blogland. Some make me want to be a better person. Some make me realize how grateful I am for everything I have. Others still make me wish I could form a thought even half as gracefully as they do. They can sometimes produce tears. Except these tears can’t be avoided by holding a slice of bread in your mouth as you cut,* er–read. And that’s okay.

2. Interacting in a non-awkward way with other people who consider themselves to be socially awkward.

Well, that was an awkward description. I always do a mental high-five when I read the blog of someone who describes herself as socially awkward. Invariably, these people often sound like someone with whom I’d love to hang out. And not be awkward together. Because two awkward people cancel each other out, right?

3. Fewer visits to the therapist.

Am I right about this? But even if we do go (and we learned in the blogosphere that it’s pretty normal), we sometimes have an inward giggle while thinking about something another blogger said about a trip to her therapist.

James Lipton--star interviewer turned therapist!

4. People helping people.

I’m still blown away by the kindess of strangers I witness with regularity online. In community groups, participants regularly reach out and help someone they only know as an avatar. Well-established bloggers promoting others just getting their start (I’m looking at you, Empress) or offering advice and kind words (like Take 2 Mommy and Literal Mom) are commonplace, and it’s heartwarming.

Beautiful human beings like Jenny The Bloggess, Glennon from Momastery, and many others facilitate financial and emotional support for people who wouldn’t have found it if not for their ties to the blogging community. Makes me want to do a little happy dance and high-five the universe.

5. Edumacation.

Sure, some things you can never unlearn, like all the horrific punctuation people use and regrettable crafts, but the blogging world is rife with tutorials, recipes, parenting advice, fashion advice, and much more. Note to self: Figure out a way to get college credit for this stuff.

I’ve learned so much from this blogging adventure and “met” many wonderful people in the process. Joining the blogging community was like opening a window for me–one where the view is lovely, the breeze is refreshing, and I can wave to friendly neighbors as they pass by. Sometimes we even meet by the fence and chat.

It has definitely improved my life, and I hope that in some teeny way, I sparked a happy thought or smile for those who’ve brushed sleeves with me on the road to their personal blogging adventure.

If you’d like to link up (and possibly win fab prizes while doing so) visit Literal Mom here!

*One of dozens of recommended remedies to prevent tears while cutting onions. Yeah. Didn’t work for me, either.

Sure it does. Much like the thank you note I’m going to send out to my girlfriend today for the Christmas gift she gave me. We did celebrate Christmas late, so it seems like it should be okay to be a wee bit late on the thank you. I figure better late than never.

I’m more than a wee bit late on this, though. Missy over at Literal Mom was gracious enough to pass along an award to me in LATE DECEMBER, and I’m just now getting around to responding to it. truth be told, it was so long ago that I only remembered it because my blog buddy, Bonnie, posted about an award she received, and it tickled my memory feelers. By the way, if you want to read a hilarious story about a dead cat in a freezer, Bonnie’s your blogger.

Here’s the award  the wonderful Missy bestowed upon me *ahem* in December:

That’s what I say to my mom when she comes to visit and I press my nose to something she brought from her house. It’s not meant as an insult, but more of an olfactory observation. Everyone’s house has a certain smell to it. What kind of smell it is differs from home to home.

I dated a guy in high school whose mom was a clean freak. Every corner of their house reeked of Lysol. I guess you at least knew it was clean. I once looked at a house for sale that smelled like a giant mothball. Stepping across the threshold of that house felt like being slammed directly in the snoot by a wrecking ball made of a million mothballs. I don’t think the house ever sold. No big mystery there.

The oh-so-lovely Jennifer over at Take2Mommy wrote about house scents last Friday, and I felt compelled to talk about my house.

And its smell.

Er, scent.

Smell would imply that it’s less than pleasing to your nose holes.

Which it isn’t.

I hope.

[Sidebar: For about three days after I cook fish, Mr. Wombat comes home from work declaring the place stinks of fish. At that point, I no longer smell it. Perhaps I should take that as a directive to get out of the house more. Or find a better way to clear the fishy air.]

I run around like a Supermarket Sweep contestant prior to entertaining guests (I’ll also note for the record that people don’t come over very often for this reason). My daily clutter level would make Martha Stewart’s blonde bob spin, so prepping for visitors is no small task around here.

Much like Jennifer, one thing I worry about is the smell of my house. We all know our house has a smell scent, but unless it’s something pungent like last night’s chicken dinner scraps brewing in the kitchen trash, we don’t really know what everyone else smells when they walk through our front door.

At Chez Wombat, Schmoopy sleeps fairly near the front door. The wall-to-wall carpeting surrounding her orthopedic old lady bed is her own personal towel on which she can roll and writhe to rid her fur of any moisture or mud collected during her outdoor rolling and writhing exercises. It’s also quite effective at ridding her fur of extra fur.

I vacuum this area thoroughly in an attempt to eliminate any dog hair or evidence of the great outdoors. Sometimes I sprinkle baking soda on it first and let it sit. After I vacuum, I feel the need to cover up the smell of “dog fur that’s been in the vacuum cleaner bag for far too long.” If you own a dog and a vacuum, you and your nose are familiar with this smell that fills the air as soon as you press the “on” button.

This is definitely not the smell you wish visitors to identify as your “house scent.”

Enter the freshening routine.

Even if it’s tundra cold out, I always try to get a little fresh air in here. Then I light the candle under my scented oil burner and let it work in a couple rooms for a few minutes each. I use mandarin orange oil, since it’s such a sweet, fresh smell. Sometimes we’ll even put a little grapefruit or orange rind down the disposal to disperse even more citrusy goodness into the air. I try to use natural smells to freshen up the house. I know someone who used to simmer cinnamon sticks and spices on the stove and it smelled wonderful!

Sometimes your house scent tags along with you like the kid brother you were always trying to shake. After cooking something like fish, bacon, or sausage, I fear that everyone standing near me in line can smell it, too. These lingering odors call for extra airing out and freshening. Pronto.

Maybe you enjoy smelling like it, but haven't cooked bacon today.

The only thing worse than having a doggy smell problem or bacon-infused home is the unfortunate (albeit adorable) combination of the two:

Source

What about you? Do you do anything special to enhance the scent of your abode?

My Dear Wombat buddies,

As you may have noticed, I have a new blog theme. I’d been wanting this space to look at bit more postcardy, and a friend helped me to make it so. I thought this was fab. That’s not to say there aren’t some elements I’d like to tinker with, but I’m not all that adept at theme tinkering, so there it is.

This brings us to the poll.

Image via Athens Learning

Since I’m generally a people pleaser, I’d like to know what you think of the new design. Not so much “Gee, purple really isn’t your color” or “You do realize horses and dogs can’t read, right?”  More along the lines of one comment a reader left expressing her lack of love for the postcard format itself, forcing you to click on the title to read the full article (FYI–in Google reader, the full post appears).

Do you have a moment to share your thoughts? I’d sure appreciate it.

Merky buckets,

The Wombat

(I can’t even figure out how to make my signature a fancy font. Techie FAIL.)

But I don’t. I iz not a techie. So here’s a link about it instead.