Whew! How did it go, everybody? New avatars, new votes, new spaces on the grid. There was a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on, but we got through it together, holding hands, reading on our laptops in bed side by side.

Virgins!

Eight virgins to celebrate my birthday on March 8. Wait, I don’t meant that as it sounds, but the numerology of it all got me excited. Thanks, you guys, for jumping right in and doing it up with us in style: the reading, the commenting, the voting. Please come back next week. I’m already attached.

Editor’s Choice by Erica M

Yeah write virgin Kristin at This Unique Weblog won me over with a post about her dad that has so many wonderfully moving parts, it’s hard for me to pinpoint my favorite thing about the man she calls Papi. I happen to have that same kind of dad, although I doubt if he’d lovingly carry my drunk and vomiting brown butt into the house while whispering sweet understandings—that job is now reserved for Q. Congrats, Kristin, on the win the first time linking up with us. What a well-told, lovely story.

Lurker’s favorite by Flood G

Flood chose Stacey at Confessions of a Super Mommy’s post “Circles”. Flood explains:

[frame_box]Stacey writes of male-bonding over cars and watches her history connect to her present through her son. I can feel the tension of a little girl wanting to be with the men, trying to understand their way of being. Stacey’s final line is so touching and sets the tone for a story that never ends.[/frame_box]

Congrats, Stacey, on the win. Thanks for coming back this week for your second visit to the grid.

Lurker’s favorite by Q

Q kept vacillating between two posts this week and, at the last second, decided on Deborah’s of MannaHatta Mamma post on allowing her preteen son Liam have his own Facebook page. Q thought Deborah’s post was a good, fun read that stayed with him as he was reading and rereading the other 55 posts. The introduction grabbed his attention and he empathized with a parent’s dilemma of letting a kid loose on the Internet with certain restrictions. Congrats, Deb, on the win.

Popular vote winner

Mayor Gia not only grabbed her readers’ attention, but grabbed the lead in the popular vote and never looked back. She gave us a humorous, illustrated post about her visit with a very nosy doctor who, as Flood says, was interviewing Gia for one of those death panels we’ve heard about. Congrats, Gia, on your second yeah write win.

Comment karma

Stacey of Confessions of a Super Mommy wins twice this week, this time for comment karma as she left thoughtful replies throughout the yeah write community, and certainly for carefully reminding me on the Mom Rocks Meals post that both my toddler and my preteen tend to drive me the craziest on those days I may not be giving them the most nutritious meals. Thanks, Stacey, for the quick and educational tip.

Random drawing winner

For this and the next four weeks, I’ll choose a random winner from those of you who leave a comment asking to be entered for a new WordPress theme. This post is not sponsored by Elegant Themes, and each prize offered here on yeah write or when it was lovelinks has either been freely donated by its owner, will be freely donated by its owner or has been paid for from my household budget. I guess I have to say that for some official reason, so there’s full disclosure. Lemme also say: the prize this week is a .zip file of the theme and the winner is responsible for its installation and related costs. You will be on your own at two in the morning trying to move your sidebar six squidgets to the left, but it’ll be awesome once you finally figure it out, trust me.

And the winner according to random.org is: Miranda from Becoming My Ideal! Miranda has yet to link up with yeah write, but she heard the call for comments, and left one as her chance to win. It paid off. Congrats, Miranda. Please visit Elegant Themes, choose your theme wisely, then email me your choice.

Points from the grid

Please give me the weekend to tally everyone’s points toward the design elements you’re earning with your writing over the next few weeks. A very big thanks to Laverne from the blogging duo Laverne & Shirley at Kindred Adventures for putting together the public spreadsheet that will be available on Google Docs for everyone to keep track of their cumulative points. For now, please visit this post for how to calculate your points from this week until Laverne and I swoop in and save you from mathin’ and stuff.

Win-Win

The thumbnails are now sorted in the grid from most yellow star votes to the least. In the case of a tie, like if four blogs all got seven votes each, the thumbnails are additionally sorted by page views. Do not be discouraged if your blog has landed near the bottom of the grid; it is always a tight race. The fun lies in getting better exposure for your blog and in the spirit of competition as incentive to improve your writing and blogging skills. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.

Thanks again, everybody, for linking up, for reading, for voting. And for making yeah write the most welcoming spot on the Interwebs for writers who blog and bloggers who write.

A brief Q & A on writing a clear narrative on Saturday, point subtotals on Monday, yeah write #47 opening on Tuesday. Wow, you sound really busy.