For anyone else who may be a more meticulous housekeeper, lovelinks #40 might have been a bit of an overwhelm. I am happy to report that although my kitchen appears to be in the middle of a remodel (it’s not) and I haven’t spoken to my children since Monday, I managed to stay on top of this week’s big 50 lovelinks without burning down my house. I’ll pick up a bit and start a load of laundry after a nap.

Virgins!

We wouldn’t have made it to 50 without you guys and the bloggers who sent you here. Thank you for your enthusiasm and for jumping right in with tweets, comments and Facebook GOTV posts. Did you have a good time? There were four lovelinks virgins who finished in the top five, and that is unheard of around here. I’d love for you to come back next week.

Editor’s choice

Trish at Contemplating Happiness has been linking up with lovelinks since it started and has never placed in the competition. She’s a good writer and a good person who’s missing only a social networking presence. Her basic Blogger design has also probably worked against her when voting time comes around. This week is finally her week even with twice the normal competition. I loved her post on evolving language and how families adopt their own intimate vocabularies. I’m officially beginning a local campaign to bring back “makin’ it in the bathtub” to mean discussing illicit activity. Congrats, Trish, on the win. Please add photos to your posts; that will help those of us who are visual learners process your posts a little easier. Thanks for being so faithful.

Lurker’s favorite by Flood G

Lovelinks virgin John Pseudonymous from Twinfamy got Flood’s vote with his funny story of walking through his suburban nabe juggling two babies, a dog and a perfectly good stroller that went unused. I like how John P linked up without knowing exactly what was going on (as did the other virgins—sorry about that) then figured most of it out while having fun with it all. Congrats, John!

Lurker’s favorite by my husband Q

Hey, look! We have a surprise guest writer who’s gone all judgey this week. Man, 50 blogs is a lot, and there were so many good ones. I asked my man to stop what he was doing in his office at work and choose his favorite. We had a giddy lovers’ moment right there in chat when he was more than happy to help. He reads most of the entries each week anyway and loves him some Ado at The Momalog. It was a natural fit for him to be there for us in the 11th hour.

Q chose the glazed doughnut muffins over at Sugar-n-Spice. He liked how Megan made the glazed muffins look so good in photos and how she answered every single one of her comments. I can’t be sure, but I think he propositioned me while printing out the recipe. Congrats, Megan, on your first time win.

Popular vote winner

JJ at Dude of the House has a very large group of supporters who voted him to the top of the top of lovelinks, if there is such a place. The lovely and touching post about the first anniversary of losing his mom to breast cancer spoke to many readers, and the votes just did not stop coming in for him until the competition was over. His mother had encouraged him to start writing before she died, and the post was a wonderful tribute to her believing in her son’s dreams. Congrats, JJ. Thanks for joining us this week.

Comment karma

Usually, comment karma goes to a commenter who left a comment or a series of comments (or tweets) on someone else’s entry. This week, though, I had to give it to Alyssa at Near Normalcy for calmly and delicately correcting her own mother in her own comment stream. With my mom, I would have yelled at her in my brain then picked up the phone in confusion over a very minor issue. I loved Alyssa’s response. Side note: Alyssa’s mom happens to be lovelinks #38 editor’s choice Cynthia from Commonplace Crazy. What a good relationship.

Random prize winners

Blogging Bash: Deborah Quinn of MannaHatta Mamma

Turntable Kitchen pairings box: Lindsay at You Are Here

Deborah and Lindsay, yay and congrats! Please contact me for details and further arrangements.

Win-Win

The thumbnails are 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 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 lovelinks the most welcoming spot on the Interwebs.

Lovelinks #41 opens Tuesday.