BlogHer 2011 Day 1 OMG!!!

Pooh and I arrived at the San Diego Marriott Marquis around 4:30.  Look at our view:

Pooh tried on my conference badge:

Unfortunately only one of us could use the badge to get into the conference expo, so I took the badge from Pooh and headed over. 

I was overwhelmed. 

I was nervous. 

But once I got through the doors and started getting some free swag, I relaxed a little.  The representatives at the booths were so sweet and friendly. 

One of the first booths I visited was the Skinny Cow booth.  As a perpetual Weight Watcher, I've eaten a lot of Skinny Cow ice cream.  But they just launched a candy line, and I got a free sample!  Aaaand ... Skinny Cow was giving out free fake eyelashes (with professional application).  Here's me with the cow and my fake lashes:

Over at the Chuck E. Cheese booth, they were demonstrating their new Ticket Blaster.  Apparently kids get to go in the Ticket Blaster when they have their birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese.  Grabbing the tickets was surprisingly hard:

I got, like, 10 tickets, and 5 of them were stuck in my bra.

Next I got to meet three celebrities!

Scrubby, the Scrubbing Bubbles mascot:

Diane, the Pine-Sol Lady:

And Smurfette!

(CNN just showed Smurfette and friends ringing the opening bell on Wall St. this morning, so she's had a busy day.)

The people at the Lowe's booth gave out free wine!  I don't have any pictures of it, but I will promote Lowe's free monthly kids' craft program.  The crafts they make are totally cute.  Here's a schedule of the crafts at a Lowe's near you:

Click to enlarge.

And while I'm promoting products, look at this adorable "My Favorite Things" line from Yankee Candle, based on the song from The Sound of Music.  They have scents like "Raindrops on Roses" and "Blue Satin Sashes." 

Not included: "Schnitzel with Noodles"

At the booth for a company called New Media Strategies, they took these wacky photos of me:

On the way out I took pictures of two of the four U.S. landmark sculptures made of Twizzlers:

Back in my room, I took a self-portrait to document my fake eyelashes:

I had to take the eyelashes off after I took the photo.  But don't worry, Pooh is wearing them now:

And all that excitement was in the first four hours of BlogHer!  This thing is IN-SANE!

Wednesday Recap

After a nice cup of caffeinated coffee (which is rare in my parents' house), we took dogs Deacon and Lacey out for a very long walk through the hills overlooking the ocean.

Next I took a shower, yadda yadda yadda, and then for lunch we went to a place where they had fried deviled eggs.  Good.

Later that afternoon, I had a facial, courtesy of my parents.

When I got home, I realized Pooh had also been spending some time at the spa:

Relaxing after his honey body scrub

And then in the afternoon the babies came!  With their parents, of course.  Brian and Laurin brought one-month-old Sam, who is an adorable little peanut.  And Tyler and Kasumi brought two-month-old Sydney, who is so alert and spunky, and looked darling in her little tutu.

Here's Pooh with his new cousins, whose faces have been obscured to protect their anonymity:

We passed the evening talking babies and testing out each other's pens.  We got takeout for dinner.  (I had Baja Fresh.)  And, don't worry, as the doting aunt I took many, many more photos.  

After the babies left, I was pretty tired from a long and exciting day.  But, let me tell you, I am loving sleeping by myself and spreading out all over the bed.  And I'm loving getting up in the morning and deciding to go back to sleep, which never happens at home.  

Well, actually I'm not sleeping entirely alone.  Pooh's here in the sofa bed with me:

He's pretty quiet, though.

This morning we're headed to an art festival and lunch in Laguna.  Then I'm driving to San Diego for BlogHer '11, and the insanity begins! 

Penned In

WARNING: This is an entire post about pens.  If you are the kind of person who doesn't care about pens, and generally doesn't see the difference between a Mont Blanc fountain pen and the cheap ballpoint they have on a chain at the bank, you might want to skip this post and come back later today.  I'll have more pictures of Bangy-Nose Pooh then.  

So, late summer is my favorite time of the year to shop at Target.  Oh, sure, I like the Christmas displays in December (okay, more like November) and the summer displays in May.  But late summer, late summer is the best, because that's when they take the school supplies out.

I have no special fondness for the actual back-to-school process.  For the first 26 years of my life I adhered to the academic calendar, first as a student and then as a teacher, so the glimpse of the first back-to-school sale always gave me a bit of a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.  And even now that I'm not attending school in any kind of capacity, the end of summer does always feel a little bit sad.

But the actual back-to-school sales?  They now give me pure joy!  And why?   Because, I'll admit it, I love office supplies.  And in late July/early August, you can get all kinds of office supplies for super cheap.

Pens are my favorite.  I think I like pens best because, ultimately, pens are the basic tool of the writer.  I mean, obviously now most writing is done on computers, but somehow pens seem to signal writing in its purest, most raw form.

I eagerly awaited back-to-school time so I could get a new pen case at Target.  This is the new pen case I carry around in my purse, with its contents:

Yes, I have all these pens in my purse all the time.

These first two are gel pens manufactured by The Write Dudes, which seems to be the primary line of pens that Target is carrying for back-to-school this year.  I kind of think these particular pens are better suited to tween girls who love fairies:

These others are also from The Write Dudes.  They kind of suck.

This next pen was a giveaway at my gym.  Not surprisingly, I love getting free pens.  I hope I get some free pens at BlogHer.  I always get unreasonably excited about free pens at various booths and tables, which the representatives at the booths/tables misconstrue as interest in their particular company or cause.  Like, at the gym on Old People Day or whatever it was called, I got all excited about a free pen from an Alzheimer's care facility.  "Do you know somebody who needs help with Alzheimer's?" the lady asked enthusiastically.  "No," I said, "I just really like pens."

The pen in this picture was also from the gym, but it's not the Alzheimer's one.  I got it at Member Appreciation Day, at which rude gym manager Montie (woman) once again made me feel unappreciated.  See, a few years ago on Member Appreciation Day she reprimanded me for letting Nathan have half an energy bar, because "those snacks are for adults only."  Two years later at Member Appreciation Day, she told me I could take either a keychain or a pen, but not both.  Both were really nice, though, and I think that my with my three years of membership, four sessions of personal training, multiple fees for swim lessons, and three annual daycare passes, I've given the gym enough money to warrant both a keychain and a pen.  So I took the keychain and then grabbed this pen later when she wasn't looking:

It writes really well.

These are actually Bic pencils, the kind I used exclusively in high school:

And my beloved Hi-Tec C pens from Tokyo Pen Shop:

My sister-in-law commented on how I write about these pens so often.  So I gave her one. 

In talking to my dad about my various pens, he said, "Oh no, you inherited the pen gene, too."  See, my dad and my brother have very definite opinions about pens.  My brother is even a pen collector.

So, my dad gave me his favorite type of pen, which is the Pilot Varsity:

My dad also gave me this little black Sharpie pen.  I didn't even know Sharpie made regular writing pens.  Here it is posed with its fat Sharpie cousin, which I always carry around in my purse.  I learned once at a Weight Watchers meeting that it's useful to calculate the points in a food before you buy it, then write those point values right on the package at the grocery store (assuming you're going to buy it). 

At my middle school you'd get in trouble if you were packing a Sharpie.  

Finally, here's my floating brain pen that I got at the Museum of Science and Industry:

Thanks for joining me on a tour of my pen case!

From the Desert to the Beach

The most important thing about my drive from my in-laws' house in the desert to my dad/stepmom's house at the beach was that I stopped at Del Taco again. And I'm planning a third trip before I leave. Most people insist upon eating at In-N-Out when they visit the West Coast. I prefer Del Taco.

[Ducking]

Also, I blew through a toll during the drive. I went through the FastTrak lane and I didn't have the transponder. I assume they took a picture of my license plate, and that the rental car company will be calling me about it.

In case you were wondering what my rental car looks like:

It's a Chevy Aveo.  You might think it's a really fun car to drive, but it doesn't have much pick-up.  It was struggling to go up some of the hills in the high desert.  I, meanwhile, was struggling to go down some of the hills in the high desert.  It turns out that living in a flat prairie state for the past 7 years has given me a pretty low comfort level with driving downhill.  Downhill, curvy, and fast is an especially scary combination for me. 

But I made it to my parents' house at the beach safely:

Yay!

Although my parents live a hell of a lot closer to the beach than I do, they don't live right on the beach.  They do have a nice ocean view from their backyard, although you can't see the ocean too well in this photo with Bangy-Nose Pooh:

Whew!  It's bright and sunny at the beach!  Bangy-Nose Pooh needs to put on his sunglasses:

Bangy-Nose Pooh also enjoyed the statues of himself and his friend Piglet in my parents' backyard:

As for me, I'm going to be treated to a delicious Italian dinner tonight.  It will feature goat cheese pizza and caramel pudding, but not together.  (Almost as good as Del Taco!)  Tomorrow, after another gourmet lunch, my parents are sending me for a massage and facial.  All perfect to de-stress before the stress-fest that is BlogHer San Diego.  (Note sarcasm.  But, you know, not really.) 

There Goes the Sun

Last day of swim lessons

This has nothing to do with the trip I'm currently on, but I forgot to tell you the BEST THING that happened the day I left.  It was Nathan's last day of swimming lessons, and his report card said he could MOVE UP TO THE NEXT LEVEL next year!!!

You might be thinking I'm telling you this because I'm bragging about how awesome a swimmer my kid is.  And while I am a former competitive swimmer and would love to see my son be successful aquatically, that's not why I'm excited about my kid moving up.

I'm excited because I won't have to sit in the sun anymore. 

See, for two years Nathan has been in the class called "Splash."  The only place for a parent to sit and possibly see the class, which seems like something I should do if I want to be an involved, supportive parent, is a bench directly in the sun.  At the particular time of the class, the sun's rays are pointing directly at that bench.  You wouldn't think it would be that bad, but it is.  That heat is brutal. 

So, next year I won't have to sit on the Bench of Fire to watch my kid in his Level 1 swim class.  I'll be able to sit on a lounge chair in the shade.  Hallelujah. 

Bangy-Nose Pooh Visits the High Desert

Some background info on Bangy-Nose Pooh:

When Nathan was about one year old, Bill and I discovered that Nathan's special stuffed animal was Winnie the Pooh.  To make life a little easier for ourselves, we went out and bought a second Pooh from Target, which is where the first Pooh also came from.  What we didn't realize was that the two Poohs were slightly different.  We didn't actually spot the difference until Nathan started referring to one Pooh as Squishy-Nose Pooh and one Pooh as Bangy-Nose Pooh.  Squishy-Nose Pooh has a soft cloth nose, whereas Bangy-Nose Pooh has a hard plastic nose, suitable for banging against the side of your bed when you don't feel like going to sleep.

Although Nathan tries to be diplomatic and say he loves the two Poohs equally, we know Squishy-Nose Pooh is his favorite.  Here he is recently watching TV with his beloved Squishy-Nose and his Smurf:

Since Bangy-Nose Pooh is the less-necessary Pooh, Nathan offered to let me take him on my trip to California, to keep me company.  I hesitated, because I didn't want to create some sort of a Pooh crisis that Bill would have to deal with in my absence, and plus I'm a grown adult and don't really need a stuffed animal taking up precious suitcase space.  But Nathan insisted that Bangy-Nose Pooh loves to travel, and so I should take him.  I became excited about the idea of taking funny pictures of Bangy-Nose Pooh on his West Coast adventures. 

On my first morning at my in-laws' house in the California High Desert, we spotted a very large bird perched in one of the trees.  We speculated that it was an owl, which would have made for a cooler picture because Pooh has a friend Owl, and then all I'd have to do was stop into the San Diego Zoo and take pictures of him with his other friends Tigger and Piglet. 

But my father-in-law said it was a hawk of some sort.  And it's hard to see it in the picture, so I put in an arrow pointing to it.  I like how the picture kind of gives you an idea of the general environs of my in-laws' new place.  It's very desert-y.

 

As I've said before, the cool thing about California is that you can get from the mountains to the desert to the beach in a matter of a couple of hours.  In fact, I spent the day in a rather moutainous region at my in-laws' lakeside country club.  And tomorrow Pooh and I are off to visit my dad and stepmom near the beach.  Look forward to a seaside picture of Pooh soon.  

WINNER! Blue Sky Home Organization Products!

Random.org picked a number and it was:

 

Comment #2 was from my cousin Lisa!  I know it kind of looks like I rigged it to pick somebody I know, but, let's face it, I'm a little-known blogger and most of my comments come from people I know.  And besides, Lisa is only my second cousin.  I think second cousins should be allowed to enter a blog contest, since they're allowed to get married in some states.  

Thanks to all who entered my giveaway, and remember, you can get Blue Sky products at your friendly neighborhood Target!  

P.S. If you still want a chance to win Blue Sky products, a number of other blogs are hosting giveaways.  Here's a link to the Google search results for "Blue Sky giveaway."