For years TheAmberShow.com has been owned by some guy in Utah.  It’s been a giant, ugly, blinking “Coming Soon!” sign, but of course nothing ever came.  I tried to contact the Who Is number a bunch of times to see about buying it and never heard back.

It expired eventually and when wasn’t renewed back in June, I sat on my hands as the few companies it filtered through tried to sell it to me for a hundred bucks, fifty bucks…

Finally, it went up for sale at the open market price, $10, and Rob snapped it up for me one day when I’d all but forgotten about it.

Go ahead, type it into your browser.  You’ll get redirected to TheAmberShow.net!  After years and years, it’s MINE BITCHES!

Happy weekend indeed!

p.s. Where’s Earl?  It’s 1:30 pm and still looking gorgeous. I was honestly hoping for a gigantic rain storm so I could hunker down with some movies, popcorn, and beer. Should it start pouring, hurricane party at my house, ok?  I’ll make cookies, too.

Did you know there is free* kayaking on the East River? I didn’t! It’s courtesy of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse. We stumbled across it on Sunday. I didn’t go – I’m not into unexpectedly getting my rear end sopping wet – but I’ll be back in a swimsuit. Matt, Nicole, Tracy, Jackie and Rob tried it out, though.

Even more fun, we came at the tail end when the volunteers were packing up for the day and they needed help paddling all the gear back to storage, so everyone got extra long rides.

And extra especially fun, we ran into Sarah Cooley who was one of the volunteers.

Go check it out! (They’re in the Brooklyn Bridge Park on Sundays, but Saturdays they’re over at Pier 1 in the new Brooklyn Bridge Park extension).

*They accept donations

BlogHer was… a lot. It was wonderful, and I’ll likely go again, but I was totally unprepared for the way it drained me.  I’m introverted after all; shit’s hard, yo!

Rob swung by in the middle of it all and I took the opportunity to bury my face in his neck for a moment to regroup.  He’s better than coffee, that one.

The swag!  MY GOD THE SWAG!  It was not only plentiful, it was amazing.  There are mixed feelings about all the sponsors; I say bring them on.  They keep the cost of tickets down for everyone, making it less exclusive.  This is a good thing.

Highlights include Spanx, a Pur water filter, Play-Doh, Weebles (they really DO wobble but don’t fall down!), and a meat thermometer.  I even played mommy blogger and brought home something for “my kids” – Matty and Tino got stuffed animals and Leeloo got a mousepad.  She likes to use it for an elbow pillow.  It’s weird, but whatever – if it makes her happy, I’m happy, too.

Awesome shit that happened, and pictures:

Lindsay Ferrier walked by me, and I was going to go say hello but she got caught in a conversation.  Maggie, sensing I might wuss out, pulled a “Have You Met Ted?” adding, “She won’t shut up about how much she loves your blog!”

I got to tell Lindsay how fabulous she made my wardrobe.  I’m not a total glamor girl (yet!), but her blog has really helped make my 28th year more polished.  It’s filled with good shopping tips and sale alerts for normal people who shop normal stores – Ann Taylor Loft yes, Gucci no. And she’s totally hot!

Holly introduced me to Yuvonne, and I did this, in this order: squeal, hug her, and then introduce myself awkwardly.  I’ve been reading her blog for-EV-er, and she was one of the handful of people that inspired me to start my own blog back in 2004 (omg.)

Miss Britt is awesome.  “She’s a firecracker!” I said to her husband.  He shook his head.  “More like a grenade.”

A grenade of awesome.

*ker-pow!*

I HUGGED CECILY!  She’s so… gritty!  She opens up about her life in a way few of us would dare to do, and it’s inspiring.

I met the Bloggess.  A lot of people were excited to meet her, none so much as Michael, a reader who recognized her walking down the street.  It was really adorable.

Here is the Jennifer from the Baptist Wine Club holding some balloons at the Kirtsy party.  Sassy foot pop!

Here are Cindy and Elizabeth at the Kirtsy party. They recognized me as “the lady that went flying with Maggie Mason.”  I want that on a tee shirt now.

Here are a group of fancy blogger ladies, and one keeping it real.  This photo makes me laugh.

Here is Gabby Blair (Design Mom) painting on someone’s arm. She wore a full length Dashiki as a dress, and I thought to myself, “Rock on, mom of 6 looking funky!” We should all be as cool.

Here are bloggers in full-on KISS makeup. Sometimes weird things happen at BlogHer.

Here is Melissa, Single Gal in the City, painting at a party.

Here are Holly and Maggie in a cab. Our driver got really mad at another driver and threw a water bottle out of the window screaming obscenities and we were all a little scared when I snapped this.

Here are the ladies from Southern Fried Snark. Despite their name, they are friendly.

Here is me and Heather B (No Pasa Nada). I like her.

Here is Laid Off Dad. He totally held his own in a room full of chicks.

Here is me and Danielle Henderson (Knotty Yarn).  Miss Britt initially mistook her for me, which is totally understandable if you mainly know me via my Twitter icon.  Danielle is a stunning six foot something, though.

I’m totally using this photo to show people “my cute sister”.

This boring tee shirt rocked my world.

1. My haircut is amazing. I called Rob walking home from the salon and lamented about dropping a good piece of change on a haircut, only to come out looking like a poodle. Once I styled it my way, though, it rocked my world.

Wahoo for my hair.

2. My necklace is also amazing. It is my new favorite thing.  (I was shooting my self-pic into a mirror – I know what way the globe goes!)

3. I went to buy new tee shirts, nothing unusual, and could not figure out what the heck was wrong with them. They fit before, and now they were… baggy and lumpy and odd. It turns out nothing is wrong with the tee shirts, and nothing is wrong with me. I’m just a size smaller.  Do you know how rad it is to buy smaller sized shirts?!

Holy cow.

On Sunday I’m helping my gal Pam host an early morning stroll. “Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge” is on her Life List, and since “Help someone with a Life List item” is on MY Life List, we’ll be high-5ing for both of us at the end.

We even have coffee and bagel sponsors: ListPlantIt and one of their affiliates Simply Organized.

All of the details are here on Pam’s blog.

I’m terribly excited about BlogHer, and it’s not just the sessions – in fact it’s not the sessions at all… I don’t know what the sessions ARE yet! It’s the people, and the hugging, and the drinking, and the gabbing at night, and the sharing of ideas… all that good stuff that comes when internet people get together.

The best part is I don’t have to get on a plane, a fact I used for justification to do a little bit of shopping for some new clothes (I needed them!) and some new jewelery (which I didn’t, but, my gosh, the necklace I bought literally made my heart start beating faster when I saw it. Now I’m all over the mail carrier like a terrier. Also, I am excited that my “thing” is necklaces. Not earrings or rings or bracelets. I am a necklace person. It is cool to have a “thing”.)

My hair is cut (by a PRO – I learned my lesson!) and my face is facialed (at home; I love a DIY skin brightening). I am all set to rock.

Bring on the fun!

P.S. If you are in town and want to hook up, you’re best off texting me or calling me rather than sending a Twitter DM. 4242-AMBER-8 is my Google voice number.

For the past 2 years I have visited a beautiful mound of earth that I have come to call “the hill.” Each time I have come to the hill a new story is told to me as if the hill is my stage and the locals are the actors in this daily play.

This is another one of those “of course” art projects – simple to the point of being almost too obvious; brilliant.  I love it so much.

By Paul Octavious (visit to see the whole series)

via

I got special pencils for my birthday!

This is a screen shot of my recent blog traffic.  It looks like that stupid show is back for another season.  I’m sure it is really, really disappointing to Google “The Amber Show” and come here to find out I’m not two blond, fake-boobied bimbos.  Sorry, yall.  But I do have big boobs!  I just grew them myself.

***

I’m off to SxSW!  Come find me and say hello if you’ll be there.  I’ll be the one CELEBRATING MY BIRTHDAY!  Woo!

It’s a shame “bust out of a paper wall” was never on my life list.  May I suggest you add it to yours?  It is way fun.

Thanks, Dennis, for the photo.

2 horses by Mrs. French

This week all my links are about pictures!

This Flickr set called Corporate Headshots made me laugh!

I was inspired this week by Chookooloonks. Karen has a brand-spanking-new life list and added a project to it called 1000 faces in which, obvs, she is going to take 1000 portraits.  “Brilliant!” I thought, so I started one, too. I’m hoping to finish before I’m 30, but no pressure. You can see my progress at 1000Clicks.tumblr.com

Gothamist rounded up some of the city’s finest snow people.

Sometimes artistic backgrounds for desktops can be over-busy, but here are some super minimal ones from SimpleDesktops.com. It is wonderfully curated.

17 images you won’t believe aren’t photoshopped.

Happy weekend!