Stephanie O'Dea has compiled a list of gift ideas that might help you get some shopping done and help bloggers at the same time. Check out her list, there's something for everyone.

As we in the United States approach the Thanksgiving holiday we are mindful of opportunities to express our gratitude for those blessings in our lives big or small. Some among us give thanks for the one thing we all have in common which is both basic and all-encompassing: We are alive.

Has Robert Downey, Jr. yelled "Booyah! at you and thanked you for inviting him over yet? If not, you are probably among those who haven't tried out Esquire Magazine's new augmented reality issue. Augmented reality - a technique for adding layers of digital information to real-world objects -- is just one of the advanced digital technologies magazine publishers are embracing in a bid to get readers and advertisers excited about print again.

What's an hCard, you ask? It's a digital version of a business card. You put it on your blog or website and it provides your name, your contact information and other information you want people to know. Because it's digital, it can be exported from your web page to an address book and synched to a mobile phone. Google and Yahoo! both index information in hCards, so it gives you some search engine clout as well as providing portable contact information to your blog's users.

That's right, hang up the damn phone! You're hurtling in 2 tons of machine down the street, weaving in and out of your lane, slowing down, speeding up, cutting people off. And you, backing out of your driveway, cutting me off (and fortunately not running over a child): I'm sorry, but I just don't get what is so damned important than you have to be yakking on the phone right after you got into your car. Couldn't you make the call, then drive? Oh, you weren't talking, you were texting? What are you, stupid? You're a hazard. A menace!

It's being called a "landmark decision." A federal judge ruled November 18 in favor of New Orleans residents and one business, the plaintiffs, and against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a Hurricane Katrina flooding lawsuit. U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr, decided that the Corps failed to maintain the levees that breached during Katrina, flooding St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The case involved six plaintiffs, two of which are in the same household, and the court awarded $720,000 in compensation to the remaining four.

Not long after I graduated from college, I worked at a government agency. One of my co-workers was in the middle of a bitter divorce. Prior to the divorce, he stayed home caring for his two young sons. Once his wife left him, however, she filed for custody of the children. At the time, he did not contest the filing, as he did not want to upset his kids any more than they already were. However, he was clearly heartbroken and missed nurturing his children.

Don't fret if you're not part of the adoption/loss/infertility community because this year, our annual list has been expanded to include everyone in the blogosphere.

Harry & Sally. Rhett & Scarlett. Lancelot & Guinevere. Lucy & Ricky. Johnny & Baby. Name famous romantic couples and since 2007, Marlboro Man and The Pioneer Woman deserve a spot in the Top Ten.

The L Word ended on Showtime in March. For people like me who don't have Showtime, the final season is just now coming out on DVD. We are finally getting to see season 6 and watch how the series ended.

It's day 29. Does your computer know when your period starts? My iPod just warned me that I'm about to be incredibly cranky. Using my past blog posts as a guide, by searching for key words like "horrible cramps" and "PMS", I found some details of my last few periods to set up the background data. For years I've found myself blogging in the middle of the night while crying and complaining. Then some commenter, usually my sister, will go "Your life sucks? You mean just like how it did right about this time last month?" How embarrassing that it always hits me as a giant surprise.

I visited a friend in London this past weekend. While I was there, I ate lots and lots of yummy chocolate and cheese and baked goods. I basked in the idea that national health care was a given. Even more, the UK National Health Service doesn't rob women of their reproductive rights by allowing religion to dictate what health services are covered; except for in Northern Ireland, termination (abortion) services are covered. After a horrible week in the US, where Democrats sold out women and allowed religious lobbies to impose their beliefs on my health, I thought about defecting. London is perfect! Well, except that even in the UK, women are told that you need set aside your own preferences and needs if you want to get and keep a man.