I am not wearing a lampshade right now

Susan and Janice over at 5 Minutes for Mom are hosting The Ultimate Blog Party 2010 this week. It's a wonderful opportunity to increase readership... if only I could make myself write often enough for there to be something to read here. And, just as wonderful, as part of the party, they and their friends are giving away oodles of prizes. If you've gotten here any other way, make sure you go check them out!

There are, of course, a couple of things you have to do if you want to win any of those prizes (I'm paraphrasing here, so go see their blog for the honest-to-goodness details): You need to visit and comment on at least 20 of the blogs participating in the party; and you need to tell them what you'd like to win! If you're a reader only, you can tell them in a comment on their Ultimate Blog Party post, but if you blog, the place to do it is in a Party Post on your blog.

Guess what? This is my Party Post!

So, she said, virtually sitting on their virtual knees (and we are all so glad this is virtual, especially 'cause Susan and Janice look from their pix like they are as slender as spun glass!), here's what I'd like for Christmas Blog Party this year:

Given that I'm a newbie at this game, and I really wish my blog were prettier, my top three choices are blog designs. Probably my top pick is the Level 3 Blog Design Package from Mary Hess Designs. Mary's designs seem to have the balance of clean lines and whimsy I'm looking for. However, The Girl Creative sounds like she'd be quite willing to find me a happy medium between her scrappy and modern designs, so her Deluxe Blog Design would be equally pleasing. I'm thinking the Custom Blogger Design being offered by Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates would be great, too, since Lisa offers some sweet looking freebies on that site as well as offering premades on her other site, Premades for a Purpose.

There are other interesting blog design prizes at USC numbers 5, 10, 14, 15, and 16. Other choices I'd be perfectly happy with are USC 37 (Lindt – *sigh*), and, since I like to read, the books and gift certificates found at US numbers 41, 43, 31, 52, 73, 74, 87, and 112 or at USC numbers 7, 8, 25, 36, 37, 40, and 44.

So, presuming you're not either of my followers and are just peeking in from the party, I should let you know what you've stumbled into. Weight Watchers has me a fair bit under 300 lbs these days, and I have nice meds that keep me sane most of the time, but with just a little artistic license, I really am a 300-lb Crazy Lady. As the header suggests, I am also a hockey mom of girls, and my house... well, let's not talk about my house. I'm Roman Catholic, and my girls go to Catholic school just to make their Mommy crazy. (My husband, aka "Mr. Sane," also teaches at a Catholic school.) I'm also a third-generation Clevelander who knows nothing of what it's like to live more than a couple of miles from the shores of Lake Erie. And I necessarily try to take this all with a dose of humor, though I'm not above the occasional rant. (Hey, what's a soap box for?) I used to be a technical writer and editor; I hope you'll find this more amusing than a treatise on when to choose welds over rivets.

But enough about me.... Go party!