Have you ever had this feeling that your mind is cluttered by the clutter around you?

This is how I woke up this morning, and this is how I solved the problem.

What are the things that help you stay focused and productive?

Today March 8th marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

In Russia this was an annual celebration that girls and women all looked forward to. I remember St. Petersburg, the city I was born in, had the aroma of the Mimosa, the only affordable flower in March in the Soviet Union.

All men fought their way to buy a bunch, so they can present it to their wives, mothers, and daughters.

One hundred years ago, on the very first International Women's day, a woman's place was on the farm or in the home. Women were defined by the man they married.  

Now women, can do absolutely anything and so much more.

We've come along way from then. Last night, I got all teary when Kathryn Bigelow won the first ever female best director award at the Oscars

Here’s to hoping we go even further in the next 100 years.

Happy Women’s Day Girlfriends!

Name this ride

Greb Boser, a SEO expert, coined the term "link juice." In a matter of no time the term has gone "viral" on the Internet and became part of the SEO lexicon.

There are many companies that provide Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services that try to increase your page rank through cross-linking. The process is time consuming, costly, and unfortunately nondeterministic. SEO companies do not guarantee anything, and they refuse to work on results.

This always pissed me off, when some SEO "expert" is willing to take 10K in payment but not willing to guarantee a result? After endless discussions, I never got a clear answer.

Link juice in a nutshell:

The more links you have from well-ranked sites, the greater your visibility is on organic search engine results.

We at Fabulously40 rank well on Google with a pagerank of 6 at the time of this writing. We want to share some of our pagerank love with our fabulous members. By placing our widget on your blog or site, we will automatically hotlink back to your site on our link-partners page. Meaning, we will push some of our hard-earned link juice toward your site, helping your site achieve greater search engine visibility.

Now how's that for Fab40 being that much more fabulous?

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All of the pets in the contest were absolutely adorable, and I wish each and everyone of them would win, but we need to stick to the rules.

With 158 votes and three adorable dogs that Judy/Termagsea  calls Maggie (boxer) my little gorgeous Princess.   Chester (chocolate LH Dachshund) is my little handsome Drama King.   Chelsea (black LH Dachshund and the baby), is my little dainty beauty.

Judy is the winner of this month’s contest!

Congratulations Judy, your 100 dollars check will be mailed to you this week!

Ladies,

Get ready to enter our next contest for the cutest baby picture. The baby could be you, your child, niece/nephew, god-daughter or family friend.  

Start digging for those pics - I know you have them laying around somewhere in the garage. I know I do!

Look for the announcement in your message box for when the contests begins.

Unfortunately women increasingly have difficulty looking into mirrors, especially as they approach middle age.  Familiar face in the mirror shows wrinkles, age spots and gray hairs as proof of many years of life.  No amount of makeup or hair-dye can hide the truth to the knowing eyes.  The old adage, "youth is beauty," is no pleasant reminder that most things (especially people, even more especially women) are considered most beautiful in young adulthood.  Just think about it, the majority of the cosmetic industry is focused on selling women products that promise to restore their looks of years past; the fountain of youth is now aisle 8 at Target stores everywhere.  

But not all eyes look upon older women with criticism and disinterest.  In fact, it is the age and life-experience of such women that draws younger men to them.  The pull is magnetic; to the young man, an older woman embodies knowledge and sophistication.  The desperate attempts of younger women to magnify their sex appeal do not compare with the ease and visible self-assurance of older women.

Older women are unburdened with societal and media-driven pressures that younger women can't escape.  There is no push to be thin, blonde and makeup-covered, all while maintaining as natural appearance as possible.  For older women, keeping up with such standards was a chore they may have tended to years ago, but haven't given thought to in years.  After all, youth is beauty, right?

It is this relaxed quality that makes older women so enticing; they are comfortable in their skins.  They have lived life for enough years to know that life is too short to be wasted on such trivial things as vanity and appearance.  This is the heart of the magnetic allure; a young man can sense the wisdom and appreciate the beauty that grows with age.  

After all, many of the qualities that make women beautiful don't disappear with age.  Smooth skin, fine bone structures and body language all withstand the tests of time.  But perhaps the most active element involved with a December/May romance is the imagination of the young man.  When his fantasies meet his admiration and intrigue, a powerful crush forms.  

However, the fact that the young man can fantasize about a romantic connection doesn't entitle him to his own version of The Graduate or Harold and Maude.  Hollywood may be able to play out such relationships on screen, but manifesting such in real life is much less likely.

While decades of togetherness can take quite a toll on any marriage, the temptation of an affair with a younger man comes at a very steep price.  It is a well-known fact that the hearts of young men are attracted to forbidden, romantic love.  However, their interests are fickle and change too frequently to be relied upon.  

While she and he can both fantasize about a passionate romance where age knows no boundaries, the affair will never materialize.  Even if the flame burns low and blue in her marriage, the older woman will not abandon her life for one based on a hopelessly romantic, lustful dream of a younger man.  After all, she has lived too many years to be fooled into thinking the trade is a fair one; ironically, it is this calm rationality that keeps the young man so intrigued.  Thus, the vicious circle is perpetuated.