My absolute hands-down, favorite thing about BlogHer conferences is the Voices of the Year ceremony. This year was amazing -- every single one of the presenters seemed to also be a theater person, because there wasn't a disappointing presentation in the mix. Not everyone who was honored got to present, however (including yours truly), so I was thrilled in the year someone liked one of my posts that the powers that be decided to partner with Open Road to present the entire kit and kaboodle as an ebook on Kindle and iTunes.

Who doesn't love a good blogger anthology? (cough)

So, anyway, the actual pub date is October 30, but if you're interested, you can preorder it now. Go crazy, Ma!

I need to overhaul this blog. It's grown so cluttered. Everyone tells me I should migrate off Typepad to something else, and I really like Squarespace, which I used to build The Writers Place's new website, but the thought of spending all that time recreating something (not to mention I have zero funds for such an endeavor) is completely too intimidating. So I'm going to be hacking away here a little bit to see if I can dust off the spiderwebs.

When I started blogging, I knew about Internet publishing from a words perspective, but nothing about the technical aspects. When I started working at BlogHer, I realized I needed to teach myself HTML. Then I started hacking all sorts of stuff on this blog in my sidebars to the point I'm not sure if any of the original code even exists anymore. It's the same approach I take with gardening: Stick some stuff in there and see if it grows into things it's not supposed to. If so, rip it out and start over.

Last weekend, I ripped out everything but two cherry tomato plants, because it's going to frost soon and I can't stand to wake up to the little frozen wilted bodies of flowers and vegetable plants. My vegetable plants die young and beautiful. 

So if there are any categories you wish were beefed up or navigation you wish existed, let me know in the comments. I'm going to be updating best of, but I don't know which posts to put there. Any suggestions are appreciated! Stay tuned.

I've got a bit of gallows humor when it comes to sudden and unexpected unemployment these days (my husband lost his job last week). I talked to Big Bird this morning to see how he was doing with Mitt Romney's threat to defund PBS, especially after he brought up Big Bird by name.

Me: How are you doing, buddy?

Big Bird: It's like it was personal! (sounds of sobbing, beak blowing and nest gnashing)

The Yellow One was too distraught to talk via phone, but he did email me this pictorial later this afternoon.

BIG BIRD'S

FIVE STAGES OF GRIEF

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STAGE ONE: DENIAL AND ISOLATION

This can't happen! I've been to the White House! A REPUBLICAN WHITE HOUSE.

See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

STAGE TWO: ANGER

But I was on the Walk of Fame, bitches!

By Benmckune at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

STAGE THREE: BARGAINING

I could totally make a fresh start in publishing. What a thriving industry!

Creative Commons License by Pop Culture Geek on Flickr

STAGE FOUR: DEPRESSION

Fuck. It just hasn't been the same since the late Seventies.

Creative Commons License by Evelyn Giggles on Flickr

STAGE FIVE: ACCEPTANCE

I'd better go vote for Barack Obama.

Creative Commons License from Poster Boy NYC on Flickr

Rock the vote, America.

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Do you have insomnia? Does your kid? Check out my review of the NightWave Sleep Assistant on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!

So the Arens family had some craptastic bad luck at the end of last week. And some really good luck at the beginning of this week, but the good luck isn't really good enough to offset the bad luck, it's just nice. And I don't really think it's time to talk about either one of these things that are all my mind can wrap itself around.

We could use prayers, mojo, fairy dust, vibes and whatever else you can throw at us right now.