text: Flotsam of the Mind: Tour Around Blogland: Meet My Friends
  Tour Around Blogland: Meet My Friends
  Prepare yourself. You'll learn a little bit about me today, but more importantly, I'm going to introduce you to two people you need to meet.
  Lisa at My So Called Glamorous Life nominated me to participate in a Tour Around Blogland. If you haven't visited Lisa's blog, please do. Like me, she writes about the everyday. Unlike me, she writes some very thought-provoking and eye-opening pieces about important issues, especially race. Her blog is an example of why I love the Internet: I've learned a first-hand perspective different than my own.
  As part of this Tour Around Blogland, I'm going to answer a few assigned questions about my writing. If you are a regular here, you may have heard parts of this before. Feel free to skip ahead. Just don't click away, because there's some good stuff coming up.
  As far as writing goes, this is it. I don't aspire to anything more. I am, however, working nearly every day on my photography. I've set up a Facebook page under the name Sea Green Photography and have been posting regularly there. That's why you've seen less about photography here than you used to.
  Since I don't think I fit in a particular genre, this is a tough one. I frequently write about parenthood, but I'm not a "mommy blogger" companies would want to woo. You will never see me endorse a product or even place ads on my blog. I write about my experiences because I like to, not because I hope to make money at it.
  I also write about photography, but I don't think my photography posts are like photography blogs I've seen. For one thing, I'm rather irreverent. You'll never see me quoting poetry with my images.
  This is a personal blog only. It's pretty much whatever is floating around in my head. I guess that makes me my own genre.
  I started this blog because my mental machinery needed oiling. I could no longer easily write a cogent sentence. I think the blog has served its initial purpose.
  Now I write to process things I'm thinking about and to create a community with those who take the time to read what I write.
  I'd hardly say I have a process. An idea usually comes to me when I'm driving alone or in the shower--anytime I'm alone with my own thoughts. I let it percolate, think if I have a good story to go with it, and as soon as I get the chance, I sit down and write at the computer. I edit as I go, then edit some more. I'm too impatient to set it aside, so you usually see a post as soon as it is done.
  Now for the fun part. I'd like to introduce you to two friends of mine (it's supposed to be three for the Tour of Blogland, but these two are each worth one and a half, I swear). These are not new friends I met through blogging, but people I've known a long time who also happen to write a couple of my favorite blogs. These women have very different personalities and very different blogs. I hope you'll follow them regularly.
  Cristin at Just Adventures
  I have known Cristin since law school, when she took the Law Review Managing Editor reins from me. I lost touch with her a few times over the years, only to find she'd had at least one major life-altering experience in the interim, many self-initiated. She's that type of person. I love that she now has a blog, Just Adventures, to chronicle the crazy and amazing stuff she does. You also can follow her posts on the Just Adventures Facebook page.
  CZ (who goes by several other names as well) is not normal. If you think about what most other people are doing, CZ is probably doing something very different than that -- but not in any sort of illegal or immoral way (usually). She's a successful lawyer who is improbably happy/satisfied and yet that very satisfaction is what's driven her to abandon law -- for the third time (the first time she joined the Peace Corps and moved to Ukraine; the second time she decided that riding her bike a LOT would be a better idea). She thinks the third time will be the charm. The third time has her working to pursue a Doctorate in Occupational Therapy. Why? Because she didn't like being labeled a "medical miracle" after she managed to live through a life-threatening bike accident that caused her to undergo emergency brain surgery. She doesn't believe in miracles (mainly because she doesn't believe in God). She's bound and determined that she will scientifically demonstrate new ways to help others recover from brain injuries. So that's what she's doing, when she isn't riding her bike, or eating bacon, or tasting beers. She loves things that start with "B" and that's what you'll find on her blog -- mostly.
  Karen at Dogs Don't Eat Pizza
  I've known Karen even longer than I've known Cristin. Karen and I met in college, then worked together at our first grown-up lawyer job. Hers is the only wedding in which I've ever been a bridesmaid. I like to take credit for introducing her to her husband, although that's probably fudging the truth a bit. Someday I'm going to visit her, if only so I can take a less blurry photo of her than the one she provided.
  Karen blogs at Dogs Don't Eat Pizza, which isn't about pizza although her dogs do pop up a lot. Dogs Don't Eat Pizza is a DIY and home blog, and Karen has great ideas. She just moved into a new house, and I can't wait to see what she does with it. You also can follow her at the Dogs Don't Eat Pizza Facebook page.
  My name is Karen and I'm a DIY'er, upcycler, wanna-be-designer, gardener, cook, mother, wife, and dog rescuer. I have four children – two with two legs and two with four legs. I blog at Dogs Don't Eat Pizza (www.dogsdonteatpizza.com).
  How did I come up with the name of my blog? With two relatively little kids and a husband whose favorite food is pepperoni pizza, we eat pizza a lot in this house. Our yellow lab, Bear, always thinks she should get some (our other dog never was fed people-food in his former life before we adopted him, so he's clueless about people-food. He's also not the brightest bulb on the porch.). So, about once a week, I have to say, "No, Bear. Dogs don't eat pizza." It's become such an integral part of my life that I thought it'd be a good title for a blog about what's going on in my life. That, and it's more mysterious than "Bear, get out of the dishwasher."
  I started this blog with the idea that it would just be my musings about my life. What it has happily turned into is a blog about DIY projects, home decor, interior design, and other projects I'm working on to improve our home and garden. I throw in a few personal, non-DIY posts for good measure every now and then, too.
  Please click over and check out Just Adventures and Dogs Don't Eat Pizza. Don't read only their most recent posts. Click around a bit to get a feel for them. I think you'll like what you see.
  If you begin following Karen and Cristin, you can see their responses to the Tour of Blogland questions next Monday, when they will introduce you to three of their favorite blogs (or two, two is also good).