I haven’t been around much lately, because the other day I woke up and realised that we are already more than halfway through the all-too-short summer, and our days of fun in the sun are numbered. So we’ve been trying to get outside as much as possible, and for some reason I find it too hard to read my laptop display in the full-on sunlight, like, there must be a technical solution to this someplace, or else how do high-priced lawyers with vacation homes in Cabo ever get anything done? Anyway, I’ve been forced to spend my time pushing the kids on the swingset or frolicking with them in the wading pool, which isn’t half bad. We all have farmer tans and we’ve been using the BBQ more than ever and the patio is FABULOUS.

I’d love for this time of year to last forever but I already feel it slipping away. Soon it’ll be September and the kids will be back in school, which will be fun for them but will make our days so much busier and more stressful. Then, next thing you know, we’ll be getting out jackets and mitts and long pants and boots, settling in for six months of winter. Sigh. Must. Go. Outside. Now.

In the few moments I have to steal away and use the computer, I haven’t been blogging or reading blogs much because I have an exciting new love. My sister FameThrowa’s company has been working on a new website that does link sharing. I think there are others like it out there — something called Delicious? Or maybe Digg? I don’t know, kids these days are into all kinds of stuff I don’t understand, because I am old and crotchety.

Anyway, FameThrowa’s site is now in beta so she fished around for people to get on it and get accounts and try it out, so Mrs Carl Sagan and I both signed up so we could share Etsy links. Because we already spend a good chunk of every day emailing back and forth with links to stuff on Etsy that we like, or have bought, or are thinking of buying, or would be thinking of buying except that shipping is too expensive. Now we can go on the website and post links all day long, and it’s even more addictive than just Etsy and emailing, because we can comment on each other’s links. Stuff like, “I love it, and I’m going to email your husband right away to tell him to get it for you for Christmas.”

And now we’ve invitied MyFriendJen and LuckySevens to join us in our Etsy-fest, and FameThrowa is in there herself viewing and commenting and shopping, and it’s a crazy free-for-all. I’m constantly checking to see if someone has posted a new link, or commented on a link, or else I’m surfing Etsy myself looking for new links. It’s a sickness. I have no room for blogging anymore, I MUST SHOP AT ETSY.

Also I am finding that the whole link-sharing thing is kind of bad for us in that we are constantly encouraging each other to actually buy stuff, instead of just window shopping. Every time Mrs Carl Sagan gets something, I need to get something too.

I think I need a little break. Time for a lemonade and some more frolicking in the pool.