One of my new work duties is hosting Twitter chats every couple of weeks. Mom, Twitter is where you talk back and forth to other people in 140 characters or less. Next week’s lesson will be on hashtags.

Yesterday’s #BlogHerTalks chat was about hair. We talked about natural hair, colored hair, over-treated hair, shrimp gumbo, shrimp scampi, and cocktail shrimp. Wait…

Although I’m a woman, and I have hair, I didn’t have much to offer style-wise to the conversation, because my hair mostly looks like this:

Don’t be jealous.

The fact is, I have very fine, thin hair, so I don’t like to over-treat it. Plus, I work from home so I don’t have a need to impress people with my locks. Thank goodness.

But, occasionally I like to put some effort into it. With summer coming, I know my hair will be in a pony-tail more than ever. Can you say hot-flashes? So I searched for a way to make my plain-Jane-pony a little less boring and I found this.

I followed the advice and styled my hair in about three minutes (see aforementioned fine, thin description…I can practically fit all of my tresses in a curling iron at one time).

What do you think? I mean, besides the fact that I need a dye job.

Other bloggers are choosing their favorite hairstyle tutorial videos and asking for your opinions on which you love most. Each week, BlogHer is giving away prizes to 3 lucky winners: one grand prize viewer will receive a $250 Visa gift card and two more folks will each receive a $100 Visa gift card! Visit the Prizes and Promotions page on BlogHer.com for more info!

Hair Sweepstakes Official Rules.

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As you may recall, my husband and I make our own wine. Well, he mostly makes it and I mostly drink it. I can’t act like I do much of the work.

The problem with wine making is that it takes time. You want a glass of sweet blackberry in June? Tough. You’re going to have to wait until fall.

This means in order to fill in the gaps, we also buy a lot of wine. We both like sweet whites, and I throw in a red now and then to keep things interesting. Once or twice a year, we attend wine tastings to expand our palates and find new wines we might not have tried otherwise.

Our palates like to stay informed. Just sayin’.

This is why I jumped at the chance to sample Chateau Ste. Michelle Indian Wells Cabernet and Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Riesling, both from the Columbia Valley wine region. BlogHer gave me money to buy two bottles. I bought four. My palate? It approves.

I bought four bottles, because I was trying to figure out what I would define as my “chateau” which was part of the assignment. It was for research!

Believe it or not, it took me awhile to decide. Sure, a beach in Hawaii would be ideal, but it’s not realistic. If I’m going to have a chateau, I want to be able to get to it once in a while. Nothing makes wine taste better than sipping it in a relaxing place.

If I had a nice bathtub, that would be a good sanctuary, but our tub is little and when I put my head back I see the paint peeling off the ceiling. My bed and a really good book are nice too, though there are always clothes lying around and dust on my nightstand.

That’s why there is nothing I enjoy more than sitting on my patio with friends and enjoying a glass of wine. It’s outside; dirt is to be expected, toys are meant to be strewn, kids are free to roughhouse and yell at each other. I don’t even mind if the dog poops!

Me + A Glass Of Wine + Friends and Family + My Patio – My To Do List = My Chateau Where is yours?

Share what makes up YOUR Chateau in the comments, for example: Me + A glass of wine + _______ – _______ = My Chateau, and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card!

Also visit the Chateau Ste. Michelle Facebook app where you can make a visual which represents your Chateau.

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

“b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the

following unique term in your tweet message: “”#SweepstakesEntry””; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post”

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents (except residents of California, Colorado, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Utah )age 21 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 9/5/12 – 9/30/12

Be sure to visit the sponsor’s brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

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Who couldn’t use a $1000 SpaFinder gift certificate? Yes, I said $1000. Read on, my friends, read on.

When I used to work in a school kitchen I had to wear a baseball hat every day. There is nothing worse than hair in your chicken and noodles and keeping a cap on my head, along with a tight rubber-band around my ponytail, prevented the students from walking away with a tray full of hair. You’re welcome, kids. You know you miss me.

The only problem with this hair-do was that when I took my hair down each afternoon, quite a few strands would come right out of my head; and those that were left behind starting tearing and became short, frizzy stubs. I have super fine hair and the slightest breeze causes my hair to rip away from my scalp.

Since my job change I have been using a lot of different products in an attempt to repair my hair. I’ve tried expensive (Note to self: When the pharmacist tells you not to try a conditioner because it will leave your hair a tangled mess, listen to her) and I’ve tried stuff that sounded fancy. What I didn’t try is my tried and true bath and shower product; Dove.

Maybe it’s because I never thought of Dove for hair before, but if it’s all I use to take care of my skin then why shouldn’t I try it on my hair?

So, try it I did. And, you know what? Dove Damage Therapy Conditioner works really well. The bottle says lots of important stuff like patented Micro Moisture Serum and Fiber Actives, but what stood out to me were Intensive Repair and Prevents Split Ends and Breakage. See that? Prevents breakage. Now we’re talking.

What is your biggest hair care concern? Is it too dry, too oily, do you have split-ends or heat-damaged hair, or like me, fine and prone to breakage?

Enter to win a $1,000 Spafinder gift certificate!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY

COMMENTS TO THIS POST ARE NOT SWEEPSTAKES ENTRIES. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR ENTRY METHODS FOR THIS SWEEPSTAKES.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Follow this link, and provide your email address and your response to the Promotion prompt

b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that Tweet.

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that post.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. Winners will have 72 hours to claim the prize, or an alternative winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 9/4/2012 – 9/30/2012

Be sure to visit Dove^®Hair.com to get a coupon for $1.50 off Dove Hair Therapy products.

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Back in 1979, when I was eight years old, my cousins and I piled into my aunt’s station wagon with a cooler full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a half-dozen flavors of Faygo. It wasn’t our first trip to Kings Island, also known as the largest amusement park in the Midwest, but it was the first time we were going to ride THE BEAST–the longest, and arguably to this day, one of the best wooden roller coasters in the world.

I remember the anticipation lasting for the entire drive and during our ride on the “warm-up” coaster called The Racer. By the time we were finally in line for The Beast, our excitement was almost unbearable. We were terrified, we were giddy, our emotions were up and down like…well, like a roller coaster. The mood of everyone in line was positively electric.

And, that ride lived up to every bit of our expectations.

For over four minutes, we were sent screeching along the wooden track, hurled into the woods, thrown around deep banks and into underground tunnels. The fact that we were moving at a speed of 65 miles per hour on the track you see in this picture, made the ride all the more exciting. That’s not steel, folks.

It was a thrill-ride like no other. And, thirty-three years later, it still is.

Now, I take my own kids to Kings Island and this year my son was finally tall enough to ride some of the bigger coasters, including The Beast. Kings Island has an amazing area for young kids (and I’m not just saying that; Camp Snoopy has been rated the “Best Kids Area in the World” for 11 consecutive years by Amusement Today), but my son is ten years old and has been mentally preparing to move on to the big rides for at least three years.

But that didn’t mean there wasn’t fear in the air when he finally got in line for The Beast.

Don’t let him fool you. He loved it.

Not only did my little 48-incher ride The Beast, but also Vortex, which contains two vertical loops, one corkscrew, one boomerang turn, and a 360-degree helix. He rode that one three times. We were extra grateful for the wristband which identified that he had been measured at Guest Services, so we didn’t have to wait for them to check his height on every ride.

Then there was Drop Tower .

That’s my daughter sitting in unlucky seat #13 and our friends, on either side, who were brave enough to ride 315 feet up, only to be dropped down the tower at 67 miles per hour. I took pictures. With my feet on the ground

Fortunately, Kings Island has a rating system in place to help any visitor choose their park adventure, grading rides on a scale from Low Thrills (1) to Aggressive Thrills (5), so if you think that rides like Drop Tower (5) seem too adventurous, you can ride Scrambler (3) or take a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower (2).

I love that Kings Island has been bringing me decade upon decade of fun and laughter. I love that my kids can experience and appreciate the same things I did when I was their age. I love that despite the generational gap, my teenage daughter and I both speak the same language when we’re on a roller coaster. But mostly, I just love The Beast.

And, I’m pretty sure I always will.

Are you a Aggressive Thrills rider or a Aggressive Thrills photographer when you go to amusement parks?

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