Introducing … Chirping Monkeys

No, you didn’t read it wrong. And no, I did not start a garage band in my spare time. But I did help nudge the birth of a blogger. Chirping Monkeys is the brainchild of Most Excellent Friend Chele, sometimes known as MonkeyGirl. You’ve seen me post about her and if you read my posts’ comments, you’ve no doubt seen her there, too.

Apparently, she’s been coveting This D*mn House (the blog, not the house – she has a perfectly wonderful house, complete with inground pool) as I learned in her initial post. And based on her most recent post, she could qualify for Houseblogger status! Like me, she had to warm up to the idea of hitting publish once she’d started the blog, and then to even telling anyone of its existence.

Unlike me, she didn’t wait almost a year to do it! She “officially launched” today. (I felt particularly honored because she sent me an email on my birthday almost two weeks ago to tell me that she’d started it. Does that mean I’m its godmother?)

She’s a talented and creative gal, afflicted with the same adult ADD that often sends me bouncing like a pinball. And, she's a camera-slingin’ stepmama who just got her Nikon (BabyNik) returned to its holster. So I’m looking forward to seeing some interesting imagery along with the amusing commentary. (And you know you are, too. How can you not visit a site with a name like Chirping Monkeys?)

You see, MonkeyGirl and I go back, waaay back. (Or at least as far back as a couple of 29-year-olds can. Ha!) She is one of my Circle of Eight from high school. And while we were always close as kids, and then through college, I think we’ve grown much closer as adults. (Or at least for two women who try to pass as adults on a daily basis. I think we both have two 17-year-olds living just below the surface who never fail to leap into action when we’re together. It seems to be something about that particular circle that brings it out in all of us.)

So close that I was maid of honor for her and Mr. MonkeyGirl’s nuptials a few years ago. So close that we now jokingly refer to our collective sensibilities as “the brain” since we so frequently share thoughts and build on one another’s ideas. (Some of this communal brain has been extended to our scrapbooking contingent. You can always tell who controls it by the sheer volume of pages they complete or by the creativity present within the pages.) It’s a soul sistah-hood.

In early 1998, she introduced me to scrapbooking. It’s an interest we share that brought along some excellent side benefits: more wonderful new friends and a stream of pictures and stories that can keep me laughing for days.

So 10 years later, I've attempted to return the favor with something I hope will have a similar effect. Welcome to the Blogosphere, my friend!

Props to OPB & the People Who Love Them

For a person that a year ago had all but abandoned her own, it's been other people's blogs -- or the OPB -- that have fed what is now an addiction for me.

Previously, I alluded to finding a "whole new world" of individuals through This D*mn House. Early on, that included Ann at Velvet Lava. Ann has a blogful of mouth-watering goodies. Her posts are littered with eye-popping dessert photos and to-die-for recipes, all part of her love affair with chocolate. She also has an acerbic wit and a sense of humor that parallel my own.

I "met" Ann at YorkieTalk last year. (She has two darling fur babies, one of whom has the best name in dogdom.) I was delighted to find that there was indeed a fellow blogger among my YT pals. I am not a cook or baker by any stretch of the imagination, but I love to eat, so I am always awestruck by Ann's concoctions -- when I'm not wallowing in the cuteness of Wylie and Marcel Verdel Purcell, whom I still maintain has the best name in dogdom.

I stumbled upon Vicki at Not So SAHM very recently and quite by accident. I found her, by all things, through a search I did on self-propelled lawnmowers, having recently "inherited" one of my own. I laughed at her account of mowing the lawn. I laughed even harder when I read one of the comments left by one of her regulars: I’ve mowed the lawn twice in the 9 years I’ve been married ... Ours had that self-propel thing on it, too… it self-propelled me right into the side of a car the first time I used it. (Boy, could I relate to that! My first experience nearly took my shoulder of out its socket while simultaneously hurling me down the driveway.) While I neither stay at home or am a mom, I'm vicariously enjoying the wholesome adventures of Vicki and her two young daughters, particularly the vivacious toddler that is Ashlyn. You just never know what is going to happen next! I also like to peek in on whatever Vicki is creating for her online business SewPetit. I marvel at her talents because I struggle with simple buttons and hems.

Very, very recently, I got my first issue of This Old House magazine and discovered HouseBlogs.net. That has brought me into contact with hundreds of other perpetual home renovators (read: crazy DIYers).Talk about some beautiful places. And some of the jobs people are doing put me to shame. I am so glad that some of them have found me, too. (I don't know who most of you are, just that you're coming from HouseBlogs.) But some folks have left me comments like Jennifer at Tiny Old House, C&C at Adventures on Willow, and Mike at Rural Renovators, so I'll try to keep up with their progress, too. There are a lot of others I'm following, so I'll be updating Sites I Like real soon.

The person to whom primary blogging credit/blame goes to though is my colleague, KayO. I've been reading her blog for years, a great source of inspiration when I started. I love reading about her travels, taking in her varied performance and book reviews, and just soaking up some of the ever eclectic Kayness. Hey, how many people do you know that can successfully combine Pan, Buddha, Krusty the Klown, and Jerry Garcia in their office, much less in a single blog post? I'm proud to say I know one.

But for all the OPBs, they'd be mere soliloquoys without the PWLT or People Who Love Them. Monkeygirl and CD, two regular commenters of mine, and two of the "Excellent Eight," my circle of high school friends, are very loyal followers. You couldn't ask for a better or more supportive audience. Love ya, ladies!

My friends have come to regard our individual friends outside the immediate circle as "bonus friends." That aptly describes how I feel about some of the OPB readers. Because some of the OPBs like KayO and Ann and Vicki have been so good to me, their peeps are visiting, too. Many of those visitors are bloggers as well.

And so the circle expands ...