I am almost finished (almost almost almost – so tantalizingly close) with this latest clump of deadlines and I’m really looking forward to settling back into the blogging life again.

In the meantime, though, I wanted to introduce you to my sister Dawn’s new blog. I take great pride in it, because she finally succumbed after years and years of persuasion (read: nagging) on my part – Dawn’s a real food lover, and lives the most amazing foodie life deep in the heart of Toronto. She has tons to write about, and I know she’ll just love her new cyberhome, Banana Views.

Have you ever noticed that sisters can so often surprise and delight one? And that’s what Dawn’s done this time around – she’s surprised me and delighted me, because as it turns out, Banana Views doesn’t focus just on wonderful food and city life; she’s also been posting about life as a Chinese Canadian.

It’s funny – all these years and I’d never read anything my sister’s written. And so another wonderful discovery I’ve made is that she’s a superb writer. Funny and quirky, too. Just the kind of writing I love to read. Here’s a quick sampling:

Red, White and Yellow. This is Dawn’s inaugural post, where she explains, with a good dollop of humor, what her blog is all about. Once you read it, you’ll understand why she named her blog “Banana Views”.

Dinner with Richard. I may be biased, but I think Dawn’s food writing gives Ruth Reichl a run for her money. And she has such a knack for meeting interesting people who quickly become fellow foodie friends.

Breakfast of Chinese Champions. Dawn whips this up for breakfast, but around here, whenever Ward’s teaching classes (aka “Are we having pizza, going out for dinner or having eggs on rice” night among my kids), I’ll often serve this dish. It’s easy, filling and delicious. And yes, even the extremely picky eater in our family will eat this. But no, I’ve never made it with quail eggs …

Hangover Remedy # 1. Dawn does a lot of socializing – she’s usually booked through to the next year when it comes to parties and get-togethers; her life is a whirlwind of social activity. Including the occasional night of too many bottles. This post talks deliciously about one of her favorite hangover remedies, and I bet it’s one most of us haven’t tried before.

Can Two Wongs Make a Right? And this, her latest post, gives you a very good idea of the delights to come.

I’m really looking forward to reading my sister’s blogging thoughts this coming year!

Update:  A few people in the comments section and on Twitter have pointed out to me that I neglected to add information about where exactly my husband and children did come from. I’ve remedied this oversight on my part.

So, yesterday, I was procrastinating (what else is new?), and came across this post at Problogger. I decided then and there (I’m impulsive that way) to revamp my Disclosure and Privacy Policy.

What did I do? I added a new section entitled “The Nitty Gritty” (the rest is legalese that I borrowed from Wordpress.com and, I might add, very good reading for those nights when you have insomnia).

After all, what was more important? Getting a good start on all the deadlines lying in wait for me between now and January 11, or working on my much-needed (well, maybe not so much, since I’m in Canada and the FTC’s reach isn’t quite that long yet) disclosure policy?

(There are reasons why I will fight for the Procrastination Crown. Like, maybe because I work very hard to earn it …?)

Here’s the new part of my disclosure policy. Can you tell I had a really good time writing it?

THE NITTY-GRITTY

In a nutshell:

1. Stuff that gets sent to me. I often get products for review here at MsBookish (usually books but hey, I’m hopeful for other things).

Rest assured, you’ll always know where I got whatever it is I happen to be blogging about, whether it’s from a third party like a publicist, publisher, manufacturer or author, or my mom, or a long-lost great-great-grand-uncle*, or out of my own pocket (in which case, I’ll probably also tell you where I bought it, why I bought it, my experiences buying it and whether I received adequate customer service while buying it.  Consider yourself warned.)

*but only if he puts me in his will

Note: I talk a bit about my husband and my children in my posts. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never disclosed where I got them from, so I will do so here. For the record, neither my husband nor any of my children were provided to me by a publicist, publisher, manufacturer or author. Not that I regret this, of course, but it does mean they’re nonreturnable.

As for where my children did come from, I’m sorry to say, but if you don’t know the answer to that one, you’re probably too young to be reading this blog. And my husband? Why, I found my blue-eyed boy doing his stuff inside a martial arts dojo, of course; before he met me, he virtually lived inside the dojo 24/7. So, as you can see, I was a Very Good Thing to have happened to him.

2. The content of my posts. I do not write nice, glowy things about a book or product because some third-party sent me that book or product to review. I write nice, glowy things about stuff because I happen to like the stuff I’m writing about. I will also occasionally write bad, non-glowy things about stuff, too, if I don’t happen to like the stuff I’m writing about. On the whole, I tend to be nice and glowy when I’m writing. That’s just a personality thing; I always call that glass half-full.

3. Paying the bills (aka I wish). Scattered throughout my posts are links to a number of online book stores. Occasionally, I might have links to other stores. If I can, I create an affiliate link. What this means is that, if you click on the link and decide to buy the product I’m talking about, or any other product in that particular store, I earn a small amount  in the form of a commission. When I say “a small amount”, I mean “a small amount” – Amazon, for example, pays pennies for each book purchase (well, okay, maybe sometimes a dime) – but if you’re in a shopping frame of mind, please feel free to support MsBookish.com and click through one of my links before you go on a shopping spree. Pennies do, after all, add up. Very slowly, mind you, but slow is better than not at all, in my opinion.

4. Advertising or sponsorship. These are clearly marked. If you look, you will see them. Rest assured, they are never hidden (because, you know, it would be rather pointless from the perspective of the advertiser or sponsor if I hid the ads …). Some of my ads are affiliate links, in which case, see point 3 above.

And by the way, if you’re an advertiser or sponsor and would like to place an ad on MsBookish.com, please let me know. I’d REALLY love to hear from you.

5. When you make a comment. You’ll notice, when you make a comment on any post at MsBookish.com, that you need to enter a valid email address. (And if you haven’t been making comments, why not? I love reading my comments, and I try to reply to them, too. So stop reading this, go make a comment, then come back to finish reading. Everything should still be here when you get back.)

For the record, I do not collect your email address for any nefarious purpose – in other words, I don’t put them into a list to sell to some internet marketer for big bucks.

However, if I happen to reply to your comment personally, you WILL get a brief email telling you what I just said and inviting you back to add another comment if you so wish. And if you win one of my giveaways, I WILL use your email address to contact you; thankfully, you will NOT get a long distance call from me at 2:00 am (aka as the time for cheap long distance calls) informing you that you have just won something. (I can hear your sigh of relief all the way here.)

Which is why you need to enter a valid email, by the way, and not your phone number.

Please note: none of the nitty-gritty above is in any way a substitute for the full legalese, which is set out in all its glory below.

If you really, really want to read the rest of the legalese, you can see my Disclosure and Privacy Policy in full here. I personally would bookmark it for those nights of insomnia, but then again, that’s just me.