Linkety Dinkety Doo: No, really, I'm clicking on spreadsheets and professional development sites

Knock off work early, kittens. And if you can't pry yourself from your cubicles and mama duties, then at least distract yourself with a little of the linky goodness that's kept me from giving my full attention to anything this week. Happy holiday weekend!

• This is crazy and compelling. I vote for the "before" pic. 
• This site may just entice me to stop IMing thank you notes.
• This is an amazing idea. That I will get started on. Next year.
• This is funny. And this is even funnier.
• This speaks to my inner sixth grade teacher.
• This speaks to my inner sixth grade grrrl.
• This speaks to my inner sixth grade boy.
• This would be so perfect for me. If only I was much younger, hipper and could get my ass in a skinny jean and my hair to do that side-swipey thing.
• Happiness doesn't come in a shoe. But if it did, it would smirk just like this.

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If I had a million dollars (yes, of course, the next bit's about buying shoes)

I got married eleven years ago. This weekend. My plan, once I realized I would spend another anniversary married, was to spend a big night out on the town with my grrrls. I envisioned a dinner party using the unopened wedding china or seeing Dirty Dancing on stage or getting very fancy, a little crazy and laughing as much as possible as a counter to any remnants of grief.

Instead, I am honoring what I need this weekend and spending my time with my boy. We will carve pumpkins. We will lay around in our pajamas. We will be open to whims that involve ice cream or steak kabobs. And I will quiet my mind.

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You may want to mark this day on your calendars

I was driving through my neighborhood today when I looked over and saw a woman pushing a baby in a stroller. It wasn't an extraordinary picture. I live across the street from a school, a block from a park and in a residential area where many parents sling and stroll and walk side by side with their little ones.

The wind must have blown as this woman walked past with her baby so that an oak tree stretched from the sidewalk to the street left a puddle of leaves on the grass as she passed.  I saw her through a curtain of yellow and gold and barely-visible green.

I remembered pushing the stroller that held a very new Lil E, all swaddled in hand-knit blankets and sweet little caps. I remembered singing to him as we walked and walked through the neighborhood we lived in then. Sometimes I walked to pass the time, sometimes I walked to calm his cries, sometimes I walked just so I could leave the apartment and feel a part of the world for a few moments. The early days were exhilarating and amazing and sometimes, exhausting and isolating. I remembered that too.

As I turned the corner and dodged puddles and watched leaves from more oak trees slide down my windshield, I thought of what I dreamed of on those walks four falls ago.

(More revelations after the jump.)

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