Can't Keep Up On My Television Viewing

I can't even use the hectic holiday season as my excuse, but I haven't been able to keep up on those other Desperate Housewives on network television, never mind Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice or Dirty Sexy Money. When I visit other people's blogs, I'm amazed at the number of shows my friends Mariuca and LadyJava seem to keep up on every week. Then there are the shows I can't even get started on... I bought the box set of Sex and the City last year to get ready for the movie premiere, and I haven't watched episode one. I have friends who like Prison Break and other shows about jail, but really, if I needed a daily dose of criminals or an Alaska Inmate Locator I needn't go any further than the Internet to see today's news about the criminal charges against the Governor of Illinois!

The Spirit of BEAR-iuca

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Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a powerful Genie Princess named Mariuca who was known throughout the land as the friendliest, most popular blogger in the blogosphere kingdom. Adored and admired by international visitors and commentators from around the world, the Genie Princess travels the blogosphere on her magical flying carpet, always looking for ways to share her good fortune with others. Over the past two years of blogging, Mariuca has met so many new people, from all walks of life and all over the world, each one bringing a little of their culture and lifestyle when they visit and comment on Mariuca’s two sites. So on her 2nd Blog Anniversary, Mariuca wanted to celebrate with all of her international blogosphere buddies by hosting bear-naming contests at Wishing On A Falling Star and Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery and to pass her two lucky, cuddly teddy bears along to the winners who came up with the best names.

On the opposite side of the world, from the moment Roxy (the prolific Roxiticus Desperate Housewives blogger) and her sweet daughters London and Maddie saw the teddy in his personalized t-shirt and blue muffler at Wishing On A Falling Star, they knew that he needed to come to live with their family in Mendham, NJ. The three New Jersey girls named him immediately and burst into a wonderful song for BEAR-iuca:

BEAR-iuca, BEAR-iuca, amazing teddy cheer
BEAR-iuca, BEAR-iuca, we’d love you to come live here!

Mariuca received 16 possible names for the Mariuca Teddy Bear, making it hard for the Genie Princess to choose just one…then Alakazam! A bolt of lightning delivered the perfect way to share BEAR-iuca’s good fortune to bloggers around the globe. While the soft, stuffed, cuddly BEAR-iuca is on his way to live with Roxy, London, Maddie and Rex in the Roxiticus Valley, the Spirit of BEAR-iuca is racing through the blogosphere to bring happiness, holiday cheer, and beary best wishes to everyone who welcomes him into their online home and passes along the BEAR-iuca good luck charm to ten friends.

Please play along with us by following a few important rules:

1. Add your site(s) to the list once you have received the Spirit of BEAR-iuca badge of teddy bear cheer.
2. Pass along the Spirit of BEAR-iuca and his cheery badge to as many people as you like.
3. Leave a comment HERE once you’ve passed on the Spirit of BEAR-iuca.
4. Once Roxy and the Genie Princess have visited your site to make sure your links are complete and proper, you will then be added to the Master List.

To ensure everyone receives equal link benefit, please UPDATE your list regularly!

BEAR-iuca LOVES 1. Mariuca 2. Roxiticus Desperate Housewives 3. Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery 4. Roxy’s Best Of... 5. Bay Head Blog 6. Roxiticus Best Blogs 7. Emila's Illustrated Blog 8. Metz - Empty Streets 9. The Spirit of Blogging 10. Speedcat Hollydale Page 11. Snapshot 12. purplefrogcat 13. Turn-u-Off 14. Simple Life 15. A Little Girl Talk 16. Life in the Lapadula House 17. Spicybugz World 18. The Mom With Brownies 19. Our High School Homeschool 20. Our Five Dangerous Boys 21. The Big Dog 22. LadyJava's Lounge 23. Moments of My Life 24. Life is too short to be ordinary 25. A Great Pleasure 26. Time Goes By 27. Life According To Me 28. Laketrees 29. This is a miracle 30. Porcelain Doll 31. Moms...CheckNyo 32. Wonderful Things In Life 33. Sweet Nothings 34. Hot Shit Form Here 35. Not Just a Mom Site 36. The Life of a Mom 37. Wiehanne Lounge 38. The Painted Veil 39. My Crossroads 40. Little Mermaid 41. LOVE's Haven 42. Also Mommy 43. The Journey 44. Comedy Plus 45. Making sense...(somehow) 46. The Modern Mom 47. Stay At Home Mom 48. Picture Clusters 49. Maiylah's Snippets 50. Sweety tots 51. My Discoveries 52. A Life to Remember 53. Rekha 54. Crissy's Haven 55. Crissy's Library 56. Crissy's Zone 57. Shopping Blog 58. Crafts and cooking 59. Asian Mutt International 60. A Simple Life 61. I AM KCAT 62. A Girl For All Status 63. Berry Blog 64. Carnation 65. Pinaymama's Diary 66. Life's sweets and spices 67. The Callalily Space 68. Butchay 69. Blessings in Life 70. Pinay Mommy Online 71. The Ruby Posts 72. Day Break 73. R...E...B...E...L?!? 74. VDAY CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 75. Just the Tip of the Iceberg 76. Honeysweet Learning Center 77. Vsk8shop 78. A Diva's Hammer 79. Arlene - Joys in Life 80. Listening..Learning..Living 81. Mommy's Little Corner 82. Living one day at a time 83. Momhood Moments 84. SUPER INFO THAILAND 85. Life Ramblings 86. Samantha Ysabelle 87. Kikamz' Just About Anything 88. SigneSays 89. Normz 90. YOU Next!

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I’m sharing the Spirit of BEAR-iuca with BerryVox, Matt, Henson, and YOU! Come join the Spirit of BEAR-iuca and share your teddy bear good luck stories with us. Copy the complete post, including the BEAR-iuca photo badge and hyperlinks, and be sure to UPDATE your list of links regularly to ensure that all participants enjoy BEAR-iuca’s worldwide linky love. Add your own story, song or video about BEAR-iuca to personalize your post. BEAR-iuca is looking forward to a warm welcome into your blogging home.

What's Your Weirdest Secret Santa Gift?

It's been ten years since I've been in an office large enough to justify a Secret Santa gift exchange, but I can still remember some of the weird gifts my colleagues and I received. One year, at my first investment banking job, a stalker in a white lab coat from our IT department had me as his Secret Santa. My stalker took great pleasure in providing creepy clues leading up to the big day of the gift exchange, and grinned with glee as I unwrapped, of all things, some sort of duck horn or bird call. He later revealed that it had something to do with my move to the suburbs and my purported interest in bird watching. I guess I should be glad he didn't give me night vision goggles, binoculars, or one of those 5.11 Tactical Knives.

What's the weirdest Secret Santa gift you've ever received?

Music Monday: Just Another Manic Monday

There are still three hours left to Monday here in the Roxiticus Valley, and I'd like to end my Music Monday Trifecta with an old fave from the Bangles, fittingly named "Manic Monday." Enjoy!

Six o'clock already
I was just in the middle of a dream
I was kissin' Valentino
By a crystal blue Italian stream
But I can't be late
'Cause then I guess I just won't get paid
These are the days
When you wish your bed was already made

It's just another manic Monday
I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my fun day
My I don't have to runday
It's just another manic Monday

Have to catch an early train
Got to be to work by nine
And if I had an air-o-plane
I still couldn't make it on time
'Cause it takes me so long
Just to figure out what I'm gonna wear
Blame it on the train
But the boss is already there

All of the nights
Why did my lover have to pick last night
To get down
Doesn't it matter
That I have to feed the both of us
Employment's down
He tells me in his bedroom voice
C'mon honey, let's go make some noise
Time it goes so fast
When you're having fun



I'm also trying out a new web thingy called Smallaa... please drop by and vote for my post. Smallaa pays $10,000 each week for the most popular post. If I win the ten thousand bucks this week, I bet we Music Monday participants, EntreCard droppers, and BlogExplosion Battle of the Blogs voters could coordinate an effort for each of us to have a turn at the big win.

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted.

Black Friday Promotion from Nikon Sport Optics

As I've mentioned over on my Roxiticus Desperate Housewives blog, Rex is back in our kitchen today for our second Thanksgiving feast. We've got a 22 pound turkey and a nice group of twelve getting together for dinner this afternoon.

If you're done with Thanksgiving and have moved on to your holiday shopping, let me tell you about a Black Friday (and Saturday) Promotion from Nikon Sport Optics, NikonProGear and NikonHunting.com. The Nikon BDC Slam Hunter's Package contains:

• ProStaff 3-9x40 Riflescope with BDC Reticle
• Silent Technology Rangefinder Case
• Mastering a Long-range shot with BDC DVD
• $50 NikonProGear Gift Card

All these come together in a great package, saving you $144.90 on high quality hunting equipment.

For tranquil birdwatchers, as well as hunters, who may be looking for high-quality, rugged binoculars, Nikon Sport Optics has something for you – for a limited time only, get an extra $20 off on Nikon Action Extreme ATB 10x50 Binoculars. Just for the Black Friday Promotion, Nikon and NikonProGear.com are expanding the Gift Card Promotion ($25 and $50 value) to include all of the following products – Nikon Monarch Binoculars, Trailblazer Binoculars, Nikon Action 10x50 Binoculars and ANY Nikon ATB Binoculars. Now's your chance to surprise the hunter in your life with special holiday prices on ProStaff Riflescopes, Nikon Monarch Rifle Scopes, Buckmasters and Omega Riflescopes!

I'm leaving you now to bake a pumpkin chocolate cake...whether you're headed out to the mall or shopping online, happy hunting!

Roxy's Trifecta This Week on Lady Java's Music Monday?

One of my new favorite things that I've been doing for the past couple of weeks is participating in Music Monday over at Lady Java's Lounge. It's been a great way to find out what some of my fellow bloggers are listening around the world. The Mister Linky program that LJ is using for Music Monday makes it easy to hop around from one blog to the next, checking out tunes all around the blogosphere. The first time I participated over on Roxiticus Desperate Housewives with my fave work-out song, Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie." Then, last week, I was so excited about it that I put a country song on Roxiticus Desperate Housewives and a Beach Boys classic over on my Bay Head Blog. This coming Monday, with the long Thanksgiving weekend to prepare, I'm thinking about a Trifecta...three songs on three blogs.

Turbocharge Your Blog, but Don't Forget Your Car!

I just dashed off a note (scroll down one post) to remind everyone that my good blogosphere buddy LadyJava can turbocharge your blog with a snazzy Blog Make Over. However, as winter sets in here in the Roxiticus Valley, it's easy to snuggle up with our blogs or those other Desperate Housewives on network TV while we neglect our cars. I know my little red Celica convertible is just shivering out in the garage for the winter. One of my neighbors just souped up her ride with a Volkswagen turbocharger and now she's like the Little Old Lady from Pasadena, go granny go granny go granny go. I may wait until the Spring to supercharge my ride, but I've gotta keep up with the Britts down the street!