How do I love thee, Mr. Bates Downton Abbey? Let me count the ways… another day. Until then, enjoy this wonderful bit of Downton fun.

To learn more about BBC Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day, click here.

For Writers ~ @ Bob Mayer’s Blog, Mayer’s Reflections on the Value of Bestseller Lists vs. The Long Tail. The key to success in digital publishing is not the immediate success and the bestseller list.  It’s the long tail,… Clickety, click.

For Writers ~ @ Girlfriends Book Club, Guest post: Alexandra Sokoloff by Brenda Janowitz. Talkin’ Love Story Elements. Always find something interesting at GBC. Click, click, click.

For Comma Lovers Everywhere ~ @ Behler Blog, The Oxford Comma…’Nuf said. This made my week and filled me with glee. Click on over.

For Food Lovers ~ @ Inspired Taste, Joanne’s 46 Superbowl Recipes. Small bites, dips, sweets, drinks. Have mercy! Love this site. What are you waiting for? Also, big giveaways all month. Click, man, click.

TGIF, baby!

Gone for 5 days.

I’d like to say it was a horror, but it wasn’t.

I’d like to say it was 14 inches of snow, followed by an ice storm, followed by power outages — Hello, PNW! — but it wasn’t.

I’d like to say it was 5 days on a private island soaking up sun, surf and umbrella drinks with the man of my dreams, but it wasn’t.

The truth is I was just….

… writing.

… doing professional reading in current thinking on indie publishing, traditional publishing, social media, blogging.

… combing through a whole lotta years of paperwork looking for some information I needed. Mercy!

… encouraging the G-Pup up and down the stairs, inside and outside, as she heals from a torn nail after slipping on the ice. Poor baby!

… going to Matinee-land to see The Iron Lady — Meryl Streep is a force of nature and my favorite female actor.

… going to Matinee-land to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which was most excellent, even though I got lost a time or two. I need to see that again.

… exercising. Help me, Rhonda!

… living my sucky, sugar-free life. 14 days and counting. Wahoo. I couldn’t even work up enough of a wahoo to put an exclamation point after it. Told ya. Sucky.

That’s it in a nutshell.

Just living.

Everyday America.

Canadaland, too.

I saw them. Yup, I did. But only in bits and pieces, because smack in the middle of the Golden Globes was Downton Abbey, and Downton Drama trumps Golden Globes any day. I was delighted to see that they won a Golden Globe for Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

I had to go online this morning to get a good glimpse at all the gowns and tuxes. There were some beautiful gowns worn last night. Didn’t you think? I loved Emma Stone in Lanvin, and Nicole Kidman in Versace. But I absolutely adored Kate Winslet in Jenny Packham.

Moving on.

Okay. I can’t wait to see The Artist.

Now, I’m moving on.

I saw this cookie at my Second Cup yesterday. Isn’t it just as cute as can be? I love the Canadian Maple Leaf on it.

The barista gave me the look when I told her I was buying the cookie to take a picture of it, that I wasn’t actually going to eat it. Of course, I might have given me the look, too. I had cookie monster written all over my face.

But I know, and y’all know that I’m in M&M rehab, so I’m not eating sugar. No. I. Am. Not. And that’s going really well for me.

I gave the cookie to Mr. G, honey. He’s not in any kind of rehab, refined sugar or otherwise.

I might have inhaled some cookie scent before I handed it over.

Our winter weather is being held hostage in the PNW right now. They’re getting inches and inches of our snow, and we’re getting their 45 Faren temps with rain and fog and darksome and graysome.

I had to beetle to the first floor and light a fire in the fireplace and make a big pot of soup and bread and stare at the fire while I worked. It was the only thing that made sense to my weather-fogged brain.

Now, we’re in a wind warning.

I’m thinking Mama Weather might be in M&M rehab.

Might.

I’d like to say, Houston, we have snow! But since I don’t live in Cordova, Alaska, currently buried in ZOMG 20 feet of it, the best I can say is snow on the ground.

We’ll just pause here to give a shout out to the Alaska National Guard, who are currently digging out the folk of Cordova.

It’s movie weekend at Hacienda Elen. We’ll be checking out the latest MI — Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

I could spend all day watching Tom Cruise run in a suit. It should be a little thrill-fest. Can’t wait.

Still on my To See list is: The Artist, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and War Horse.

You? What are you waiting to see? Have you seen any of these? Did you like them?

For Writers ~ @ Girlfriends Book Club, How To Wait for Your Agent To Call, by Cindy Jones. Click on over.

For Penny Pinchers ~ @ Myndi Shafer, Myndi’s HAPPY HOUSFRAU: Detergent Solutions. Myndi’s blog is new to me, but I love her already. And I mean “penny pincher” in the best way. Clickety, click.

For Bloggers Everywhere ~ @ Kristen Lamb’s Blog, Lamb’s Here There Be Big Trolls – How to Spot Them & What to Do. What’s a blog troll? How you identify them. What to do about them. Kristen never disappoints. Click, click, click.

TGIF, baby!

The first blog post I ever wrote was October 14, 2007 on WordPress dot com at Could Be A Blog.

Because I’ve been feeling all nostalgic and sentimental, here is that first post in its entirety.

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I’ve been thinking about The Kiss, like we think about The One. All week long, It’s In His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song, a 1964 hit single by Betty Everett) has been going through my head. Others have recorded it since then, Aretha Franklin comes to mind, but I’m humming Betty. Okay. Sometimes, I’m actually belting it out. Sorry, sweetie. We all know I’m tuneless.

“If you wanna know, if he loves you so,…” One look at these couples and you think, oh yeah, it’s definitely in the kiss — from the sweet caress, to the playful buss, to the smooch, to the full clinch, tongue-dueling lip-lock that’ll set off sparklers in your brain like the 4th of July.

In the movie, French Kiss, to distract Kate (Meg Ryan) from her fear of flying, Luc (Kevin Kline) starts a dialog with Kate about the first time. For Luc, this was at age 12 with Magda, a putain or prostitute. He said, “To kiss a prostitute, it costs more. It has always been.” Kate nods. “…You could probably disconnect from everything else, but a kiss…All I mean is a kiss is where the romance is.” Evidently, Luc thought so, too, because he told Kate that the next day he stole 50 francs from his brother, “…and I went back and I kissed Magda for half an hour.”

Faith Hill, in her 1998 hit single, calls it “unstoppable,” “unsinkable,” This Kiss.

We’ve all read heroes who can deliver on the kiss. Boy, have we ever! The Morelli Kiss flashes through my brain. You know, the one in Hot Six where Stephanie’s “undies floated to the floor.” (Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, http://www.evanovich.com). I know. All you Plum fans are thinking, “Wait! What about the Ranger Kiss?” Sorry. So many kisses, so little column.

How about you? Have you got a favorite story hero who delivers on the kiss? And, is the romance really in the kiss?

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How I did sweat over that first post. I look at it today and would do some things differently. Still, it remains one of my favorites.

Happy Hump Day!