Link love Saturday: Canadian grrls

Here's this week's instalment of completely gratuitous links to people I've read for a long time or new ones I am in love with, and the reasons why.

First! Old buddy Louise in PEI has a great bouncy tune up. Check it out! Guaranteed to make a blue-sky day even more joyous, I'm serious! http://www.jeezlouise.net/archives/2007/03/31/are-you-looking-for-the-best-video-and-song-for-today/ .

I've often relied on Louise for some of the best shared tunes around. Her taste in music rocks. I can't get enough of this song! It's so cute! Go see and deplete her bandwidth totally!


Second! Grrls! More Canadian grrls!

Two ladies have struck me recently for their slightly snarky and intelligent writing style:

That Grrl in Toronto; I hardly know her yet. But her website is funky/adorable -- a real dichotomy, semi-cute and semi-hardcore. Doodles of herself are very expressive, witty, yet a bit dark. She's got more than one blog with more than a ton of topics. Very smart. Also: an inquisitive photographer who looks for details the rest of us could easily miss. And we agree that we love books, even if they are slightly shoddy paperbacks of dubious quality.

Weirdgrrl (here, or Limes with Orange in my sidebar) is a gentle cutiepie who has been helpful when I didn't even ask for help. She lives in Calgary. I wonder if she knows Chunks. If not, I have to introduce them. (Note to self, check this out.) Her self-description: "1 part shy intellectual, 1 part edgy chick, 1 part sophisticated woman, 1 part mental patient."

What's not to love?!

Cranky for a cause

There is this cranky lady I've mentioned before, and she fits into the category of "blogs I've been reading for a long time." In this case, I think, about five years, maybe more.

I have a couple of things to confess to Tess.

1) Back when BeerMary was marathon-blogging for an animal shelter, I pledged some money, but I never paid it. I felt horrible later, and BeerMary blacklisted me from her site.

I was just broke. My intentions were good, but I had no money.

I remember I logged in to check on her progress during her marathon and cheered her on.

But I never made good on my $20 pledge at that time.

To that end I give my next available $25 to one of Tess's causes, the Kansas Humane Society.

The lady loves animals. But because she never posts any pictures, I shall take the liberty here:



We call them Shit Tsus, but they are actually Shih Tzus.

Semantics. They are PUPPIES! Who can resist?

2) My second confession to Tess is that I was unfeeling in an entry to which I actually solicited her feedback. Sometime last year, I wrote "Worse! I sound like I'm in a same-sex marriage!" Maybe she didn't see it before I realized my mistake and revised my post. Maybe she did. Bottom line is, that was a stupid thing to write, in this day and age.

In my defense, and if you could see what I might be married to, uh.... just smother me now with a pillow, please.

Lastly, here is all the tribute you need to read Cranky Chick:

(…) She has more common sense than all 5 of her siblings have, rolled into one! She may not have children of her own, but the wisdom she possesses can be appreciated by ANYONE who has a desire to: - Live and Let Live; - Be a contributor to our society & not just a 'taker'; - Value our rights as individuals, all the while preserving the rights of our fellow man through respect & consideration; - Be a devoted daughter, friend, sister, aunt, mother;- Teach our children right from wrong; -Treat others with fairness, through compassion & unselfishness; - Appreciate the beauty that this world has to offer; - Look for the good in others; - Take your responsibilities seriously.

Salut, Cranky Chick. Straight shooter, no punches pulled, ex-paramedic, a lady with definite views: I have loved reading you all these years.

She asked for it.

Today's link love goes to Kat, because, because, because I have been reading her blog for, let me think, 5 years now?

I don't remember now where I found her link; that was back in the day when I was just discovering blogs and had started my own. I do remember perusing quite a bit of her stuff before emailing her to ask which blogs on her roll she would recommend as good reading.

She replied. She was hesitant to recommend anyone to a complete stranger because she had a troll on her site. I wrote back that I understood (although I had no idea what a troll was!) and gave her a quick summary of me and my life and single-mom status.

It took time to build up trust with Kat.

Metal-head, rocker chick, party girl who didn't drink, verging on Goth who swears by black fashion, and with a mouth as foul as the garbage can down by the darkest harbour, Kat has raised two fine, smart boys on her own with her head firmly on her shoulders - in spite of a painful, debilitating case of scoliosis that made walking, errands, and household chores a challenge.

There was something very compelling about Kat. I admit there were periods (a few days, maybe) when I was insanely jealous of her because of her loyal readership. The girl could post about the dirty dishes in the sink and get, like, 8 comments within an hour. I thought - what does this girl have that I don't?

Took me a couple of years to figure it out: Kat is addictive.

Haha! It's true! First of all, she is drop-dead gorgeous. Beautiful bone structure, insane mane of hair, great eyes. Second, she's a trooper who's fought every step of the way to make her life better.

When she finally got her back surgery, about .... 11 months ago, was it? -- she got all kinds of metal pins and rods and screws in her body, and it straightened her out. Her back, but maybe not so much her attitude. Heh.

She cusses just a wee bit less now, maybe because she does a lot of PPP stuff these days.

But through everything, she has remained the same honest, straight-forward, no-bullshit (yet tolerant to a certain point) person I knew way back when, except that now she lives with less pain and a little more money and, this I know for sure, my respect.

Love you, girl. Stole your picture. Ha!

Stay tuned next week for Link Love Saturday. It could be you! Lucky, lucky you!