Some of our "new" favorite blogs

Edna: You know, I'm a big fan of bloggers. Being one myself, I know how hard it is to constantly come up with new and interesting content. It's also hard to find new and interesting blogs, but thank goodness there's no end to the creative and talented people out there in the Interwebs.

Here's one of my new favorites: No Pattern Required. I love the concept, it's all about "mid-century" and "vintage/retro." Now, in my day the kind of things she talks about were called "futuristic" and "space age" but I'll let the young lady have her fun. One of my favorite recent posts was where she picked a recipe from an old cookbook and tried it out on her husband. I gather she does this quite a bit, but this one was just hilarious, especially her husband's reaction after his first bite. Dear, you are a much braver cook than I am.

Margie, do you have a new favorite blog you want to talk about?

Margie: You just hold your horses, sister. First, you're not a real blogger because you're boring. I'm the one who finds the interesting content. Secondly, I have no doubt she's a braver cook than you and I expect she doesn't burn everything either.

Yes, I do have a blog I like. It's called Vixen Vintage. The fashions and the pictures remind me of my own vixen days. I was quite the fun lady as you well know. The gentlemen found me to be most enticing.

Edna: Oh, and I think we ALL know what "fun lady" is a euphemism for, you floozy. I will leave you your delusions about the reasons for your popularity since they keep you occupied and out of my hair for the most part.

I like that Vixen Vintage blog, too. You have to admire a modern girl who loves all things vintage. People had so much more style in the old days, and things were obviously much better constructed back then since they're still around. Today's junk breaks or rips as soon as you use it once.

I guess we're on a vintage kick, since another of my new favorite blogs is The Archive Digger. It's actually a nice mix of old and "new" news, if you will. Which I guess is a theme with our blogs today: modern folks with one foot in the past.

Margie: Well, that's better than having one foot in the grave, sister. People can look at us and see how well constructed we are for sure.

Edna: Hmm. I think "well constructed" is yet another euphemism for something, but I agree that the good things seem to stand the test of time.

You guessed it!

Dear readers,

The results are in from our recent "Guess Our Ages" contest and we have our winners! Grampy at Grampy and You correctly guessed Beth's age, and RNSANE (i.e., Carmen at Carmen's Chronicles) was the closest to guessing Jane's correct age. Congratulations to you both, and thanks to everyone who participated!

We have to say, we were a bit surprised at the range of ages guessed. Apparently we're good enough at acting like crabby octogenarians that our correct ages aren't easily pinpointed. While we're not going to disclose our real ages to anyone but the winners, we will admit that we are both MUCH younger than Margie and Edna.

Both Grampy and Carmen will have the opportunity to pick the subject of their choice for the ladies to blog about. Keep checking back, we're sure you won't want to miss what they come up with!

The Friendship Blog Award

Many thanks to our good friends, Silly Willy and Fluffy, for presenting us with the Friendship Blog Award!

As always, we're touched and honored when our fellow bloggers choose to give us an award, especially one that represents friendship as this one does. Thank you so much!

Love, Margie and Edna

Fun Friday: Rise and Shine

Margie: Friends, I'd like to share one of my pet peeves with you today and I'm sure some of you can relate. You see, there is not much that makes me madder than somebody laying piled up in the bed while I try to clean this house. It's just pure laziness and Mama didn't teach us to be like that.

Never fear, friends, I have found the remedy for those lazy folk. The next time you need to get somebody out of the bed, you go turn on this video and watch them shake that booty. Lawsy, it worked for me this morning.

Edna came a charging out of her bedroom bellowing like a stuck hog. If you've never seen Edna first thing of a morning then count yourself lucky. She looks like a haint from that Supernatural show.

Go ahead. Turn up the volume now. Rise and shine!

What a blessing it is to have friends.

Edna: Margie, we'd best get to cleaning up the house, we've got company coming this week! My lands, this will be such a party on Wednesday, I'm so excited. Do we know yet who's coming?

Margie: I'm making a list now, Edna. I already have the names of all the single men.

Margie: I'm not cleaning until you show me you're going to do some work too. I've already asked Cousin T to help us.

Edna: That poor boy, one of these days we really should think about paying him for all the work he does. And don't you start with me about doing housework, you know I do the bulk of the cleaning around here! That's why I'm asking for some help now, you ninny. We've got a lot of folks coming and not a lot of time, so get to Swiffering!

I think we should invite all of our Jericho friends, don't you? People like Debby and kricka, and definitely briarpatch and kmac. And of course, April and Jennie! My lands, I'm leaving folks out, aren't I? Who else are we inviting?

Margie: Edna, you're a lying liar. You lay around all day and try to pretend you're rich. Swiffer yourself.

You forgot Miss Lidian and Mr. The Hawg, Edna. We can invite Taylor Blue because she likes to gossip and we like to hear it. Maybe we could invite Jenn Cooks and she could make all the food.

Edna: It would be a poor hostess indeed who makes their guests cook! Margie, you're just trying to get out of work and I won't have it. Any guests that come will be treated like royalty, if I have anything to say about it.

Oh, Margie, we forgot about Silly Willy and Fluffy, Rich at Copywrite Ink, Miss Amy Vernon, and hawksdomain! They have to come too, along with Maitri and Fashiona and RollerKaty and glor!e... Goodness gracious, but we do know a lot of people. How are we going to send out invitations without neglecting anyone or hurting their feelings?

Margie: Lord a mercy, Edna, we're old ladies. If anybody says we forgot them then we'll just say we had some Senior moments. They'll be fine then.

Edna: Margie, being elderly is no excuse for bad manners. Besides, the last time you used that "senior moment" excuse was in court when you were trying to avoid that indecent exposure charge. It didn't work then, either. I know, let's just make it an open invitation right here on our blog and say everyone is invited. That way, no one will feel left out. How does that sound?

Margie: Edna, that sounds fine. You could really make my day if you say you can't attend. Lying liar.

Edna: Well, you can kiss my grits, because I'm going to be there with bells on. The rest of our friends will be too, so you'd best go put your party face on. You might want to start now, I know it will take you at least a day to make yourself presentable.

As for the rest of you, please come to our blog anniversary party on Wednesday, we'll be celebrating in style!

Thank you, EC droppers!

Margie and Edna would like to thank our top five Entrecard droppers for the month of October. Thank you very much, fellow bloggers!

Please take a moment to visit each of the blogs below, you'll be glad that you did.

The Ad Master

Kitchen Retro

Online Games

1 Blog & 2 Sides

30somethingandsearching

The Kitchen Sink Post

Edna: Margie, take a look at these messages from some of our fellow bloggers. We've been tagged to do a book tag, and we've won a few more awards. Let's blog about that today!

Margie: That's wonderful, Edna. I love all our fellow bloggers. They are such thoughtful folks.

Edna: Aren't they? We got tagged by Cactus Jack Splash and his owner to do the book tag. My goodness Margie, he surely is a handsome horse! Well-spoken, too.

These are the rules of the book tag:

• Grab the nearest book.
• Open the book to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the text of the next two to five sentences.
• Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual one. Pick the Closest.
• Tag five people to do the same. (We opted not to do this.)

Edna: Now, here's the book I have closest to hand: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). I know that must seem like heavy reading for such a sweet old lady, but let me tell you folks: something is wrong with that doggone sister of mine, and I aim to find out what!

Here's the fifth through seventh sentences on page 56: "The most common associated feature of Expressive Language Disorder in younger children is Phonological Disorder. There may also be a disturbance in fluency and language formulation involving an abnormally rapid rate and erratic rhythm of speech and disturbances in language structure ("cluttering"). When Expressive Language Disorder is acquired, additional speech difficulties are also common and may include motor articulation problems, phonological errors, slow speech, syllable repetitions, and monotonous intonation and stress patterns."

Well shoot, that won't help me find out what's wrong with Margie. I'd best keep reading, there's got to be something in here about "Pain-in-the-tushie disorder."

What book are you reading, Margie?

Margie: I'm reading Jack Knife, Edna. It's all about time travelers trying to stop Jack the Ripper. I must say, though, that page 56 is a short page and the only sentence doesn't have much to do with the book.

Edna: That surely sounds interesting, and that's not something I often say when I'm talking about you. Why don't you still share what's on page 56 with our readers? You've got me curious, too.

Margie: "He tipped the corner of the certificate into the candle's flame. The paper caught, and he let it burn to within an inch of his fingers before he dropped it into the empty chamber pot."

Edna: Now I'm intrigued; you take good care of that book, I want to read it next.

We also got a whole heap of awards recently. I am so happy that people love us so much, but we just can't choose anyone to pass this along to. It seems unfair since there are so many bloggers that we love.

Maitri from Magic and Moments at Dragonfly Cottage and Lidian from Kitchen Retro each gave us the "I heart your blog" award.

Sweet Maitri also gave us the Butterfly Award and the My Favorite Blog award.

Angie from In Pursuit of Fulfillment gave us the Uber-Amazing Blog award.

Thank you very much, ladies!

The Special Tea Award

Over the course of our relatively short blogging career, we've had a number of people come visit us here at the Basement. Many people leave comments, and we thank you all, since we always love to hear what our readers have to say. But there are some individuals who are unfailingly kind, humorous, and enthusiastic when commenting on our blog. To honor them, we have come up with this:

We are giving this award to the following bloggers: Maitri, glor!e, Lidian, and Mr. The Hawg. They are talented bloggers in their own right, and are just really nice people. We think that it's always a good thing to recognize kindness as well as excellence, and we hope they appreciate this award.

Unlike most blogging awards, there are no rules with this one. It does not need to be passed along (unless the recipient wants to), nor is it necessary to link back to us or even post it on your blog. We just want you to lift a virtual cup of special tea, think fun thoughts, and enjoy your award.

Please know that this is not a one-time-only award. We'll be giving this award out periodically in the future, since there are other people we'd like to honor for their support and good humor. So keep watching, you might see your name on the next awards list!