I've Moved!

Well sort of, not really exactly.

I'm still at http://vdogblog.com but now self-hosted on Wordpress (like a big girl! as Dawn said) thanks to a sweet St. Patricks's Day deal on Dreamhost and the loving friendship of Mrs. Flinger who made the transfer for me.

Not sure how all the feed settings are right now, but you should be able to remain subscribed through my feedburner feed.

VDog & Little Man will live on here in posterity, but make sure you come check out all my new nifty features at Wordpress! You know, when it's like, all set up and stuff. Still working out the kinks. Crackerness, you know.

Unlike most people, I actually really like Blogger and it's ease of use, but the inability to have the email address of all my commenters, lack of 'trackbacks' and a few other cool things finally outweighed my love of idiot-proof-ness here at Blogger.

Hasta la vista, baby!

I Went to BlissDom and All I Got Was Licked and Groped

And got stuck in an #elevator. But we'll cover that later.

I met got licked by famous people...

VDog & Redneck Mommy

Fell in love with this girl (and not because she groped me)...

VDog & Anissa

Met these lovely ladies...

The Caffeinatrix & Mother Bumper

Reconnected with my bloggy soulmate...

VDog & White Trash Mom

Had a sexy movie star photo taken of me...

Fell in love with another girl....

Shash & VDog

Was surgically attached to these two beeshes...

Mrs. Flinger & Dawn

Met a chick as crazy as I am...

VDog & Sugar Jones

Got confused by bathroom signs...

And got stuck in an elevator with 12 other women and sweated up against these walls...

And in true Cracker fashion, I need to hit publish before this post is actually done. Because if I don't, this thing is gonna come out like, three years too late.

More to come if I can muster it up.

I totally stole these pictures from Anissa and Shash. Because this Cracker "Photographer" didn't bring her camera. (WHAT?? I had to fly, like, A REALLY LONG WAY.) (GEEZ.)

**Ok i have to add more links later because I'm super late to a Dr. appt. WHEE! Check back later for more! k, luvs ya bye**

Love Is...In Your Bedroom

Or Kitchen for that matter (for the Cookie Sutra, people!! Geez!).

The winners of my Eden Fantasys 'adult store' giveaway and complimentary Cookie Sutra giveaway courtesy of the very lovely ZoeyJane are:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

515

Timestamp: 2009-01-30 15:54:44 UTC

Heather as the grand prize winner and my very own Rice Cracker, BusyDad!! Woot, woot!

If you didn't win and would still like to find a sexy or romantic gift, check out the gifts and kits for couples section! Or if you're more of a solo (or single) gal, check this out. Happy Valentine's Day everybody!
Now! Take 15% off your purchase with the code MOM691 thanks to Eden Fantasys! (Through 2/27/09!)

Love Is In The Air

As Mamas and parents we tend to let things slide when it comes to romance in the bedroom. It can be hard to feel sexy and in the mood when you're elbow deep in baby poop and puke for the majority of your day.

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, Eden Fantasys and I thought we would give away a little romance inducer to help one lucky winner get in the mood.

Behold, the Kama Sutra Earthly Delights Kit:

A little bit of everything to help get you in the mood and ready to maybe make another baby? Or maybe not. Ha.

The second place winner will receive a copy of Cookie Sutra courtesy of ZoeyJane of Mommy Is Moody, without whom this giveaway would not be possible. Thanks, ZJ!

What I like about Eden Fantasys is that it is a female friendly sex positive adult store that carries products from very sweet to very sexy. They didn't pay me to say that. ;)

To enter:

1) Leave a comment here stating why you could use a little romance in your life (keep it clean people!) [1 entry]

2) Twitter about the giveaway, with a link back to this post. Be sure to leave your Tweet's permalink in your comment (ask me how if you don't know). [1 entry]

3) Write a post about why you need to get your sexy back. Link back to this post and Eden Fantasys. Please let me know about your post as the 'link back' function does not always work properly. [2 entries]

Winner will be chosen by Random Number Generator.

Deadline is this Thursday, January 29, 11:59pm PST. Winner will be announced Friday, January 30.

Good luck everyone! I hope we all have very sexy Valentine's Days this year!

UPDATE: To include your Tweet's permalink, go to your profile and click on the time stamp of the specific tweet. It will then take you to the individual page for that tweet. Copy the address bar and paste into your comment here! Easy-peasy. Sort of. Let me know if you need help.

...But He Was Two Months Early

I still catch myself wanting to say that, 'but he was two months early,' twenty-one months later.  Is it an excuse? A reason? A justification? Do I feel the need to defend my son to others? (Or is that really just defending myself??)

Are they thinking that he's behind, or slow in some way?  It still stings a little, this whole preemie thing.  I almost never acknowledge Little Man's prematurity anymore.  But the feeling and knee-jerk reaction to do so is still there, ever present in my mind when the possibility of comparison comes up.

This is still hurting me. But it's not hurting my son.

*****

If you couldn't tell, VDog has been living too much in her head, and not enough on paper. Or blog. Whatever.

I know this is just a tiny tidbit, but it's all I've got for right now.

*****
Many, many heartfelt thanks to Miss for blogsitting for me.  She rawks, and you should all go tell her so. :D

Mah Bewbies Are Free! Mah Bewbies Are Free!

We finally weaned

Guess I won't be needing this

Nursing tank top now!

******

I guess I shouldn't say finally but well, sometimes it felt like that. Now that he is weaned, I sometimes wish I could still nurse him. Funny how that works.

I have this black Bravado nursing tank top that I never opened (because I'm a Cracker) to give away as part of National Breastfeeding Awareness Week and the final day of Bloggy Giveaways. It is a size 38D/E and I comfortably wore my blue one when I was a 38H/36G (though I was boobalicious).

Safety First!!

So, you know, Warrior and I being Crackers and all...sometimes we let things slip. For a while we had NO smoke detectors up because we thought the ones we had were broken.

So we bought a bunch of new ones. Only the old ones weren't broken. Huh. Strange.

So here we have a family four pack of wire-in smoke detectors (i.e., you have to have the electric wiring installed or install it for them to work), with a battery back up in case the power goes out.

All four for one lucky family, all part of Bloggy Giveaways. You're welcome.

There's still time to win a sling or one of TWO handbags!

Tell Me How This Happens

Last night Warrior (that's the husband if ya don't know) made us go to bed early. By early I mean 10:30pm, or 22:30 for you international peeps. I slept straight through to 6:45 this morning. WAY better than 5:40, for sure. I woke up exhausted.

Two nights ago, we stayed up until almost midnight, and woke up at 6:15am. I was less tired yesterday morning. How does that work? I don't get it. Catching up on sleep?

I don't know. All I know is that I needed extra coffee this morning. And I'm still not thinking straight.

So, to tear a page from Playgroupie's book, I give you some linky love.

My girl (well really she's Stefania's girl, I am just blessed to have met and hung with her on occasion) Bad Kitty has a new and totally awesome style venture called What a Bargain! It is awesometastic and a bit snarky, and completely loverly.

People are talking about the BlogHer New York Times article. And talking. Interesting discussions, and unfortunately a lot of asshatery from some (jealous?) men (who I don't want to link to (don't want them on my blog), but you can find it through the previous links).
Update: PBS is talking BlogHer, too! Thanks for the tip from Mr. Lady, who is featured in the article! Yay!

Backpacking Dad is going around with a heavy flyswatter and delivering Blogging Justice.

Yes, I have more to say about BlogHer, but we all needed a break, right? I'll hopefully get to it tomorrow soon. Next installment will be less about the pictures and more about the LURVE that was felt. Seriously folks, it was there. I guess some people didn't feel it, though, tis a shame.


*********

For today's Bloggy Giveaway, I have for you two very lovely and fuzzy handbags:

Leave a comment saying if you want the pink or the green. The green is larger, about 9x12" and the pink is smaller, around 6x10" (approximately). Both are cute and brand new. Outside pocket, interior zipper compartment in the middle.
This giveaway will be open until Friday night at 11:59pm Pacific Time.
Don't forget to enter for the ring sling!

My Child, He Breaks My Heart

Heartbreak is knowing your child will be born prematurely, cutting short your time for hoping and dreaming about your baby.

Heartbreak is accepting the fact that your child will be a preemie and that there is nothing you can do to change that fact.

Heartbreak is letting go of all your hopes and excitement for your baby and instead, replacing them with worry and grief.

Heartbreak is seeing your precious baby covered in wires and IV's at only a few hours old.

Heartbreak is watching your child struggle to breathe -- really struggle -- with his chest fitfully expanding and then collapsing.

Heartbreak is having your five month old child confused for a two month old.

You know how I squash that heartbreak? With moments like this:

********
Not to cheapen my post or anything...(heh)
*This is part of the http://www.bloggygiveaways.com week long celebration!*

Preemies are too small for Baby Bjorns - so ended up using a Mei Tai and a sling for my Little Man.

I have this beatiful handmade-by-a-Mama (NOT me, a professional sling maker, lol) ring sling to give away. Leave a comment that you want it and I will give it away on Friday.  Thank you to all of you leaving comments who don't want the sling -- I love you all!
The fabric looks like this, a really pretty neutral:

The Alltop/Kirtsy Party

UPDATED: Now with more words!! And a GIVEAWAY!! See below.

My precious Dawn, with MGM and HBM in the background


Liz


Laid-Off Dad


Kristen











Christine











Casey

So first Christine, Dawn and I get on a bus to go to Guy Kawasaki's house and we are surrounded by super famous mommy (and one daddy) bloggers. I impressed Dawn and Christine by "knowing" Liz, Kristen and Andrea and getting hugs from them and stuff. Yes, I am teh awesome. (HA!)

Then we take a long-ass bus ride thirty miles away, because the bus driver totally doesn't know where he's going, even though I was all, we're not headed in the right direction!! So yeah, it took us an hour and twenty minutes to go thirty miles. Yeah, we're special like that.

We finally arrive and the woman who I will find out two days later is White Trash Mom and her cohort Slacker Mom are acting all Cracker-ish and super cute, and we like, totally love them.

We mix and mingle and ogle the bigs-ups and talk to BOSSY and Greeblemonkey, and best of all MRS. FLINGER!! because she promised to lick us, and she ditched us and took the previous bus when she was supposed to come with us so we had to give her shit for that. (OMG, run-on much?) I can't remember the rest. And it wasn't the wine. I swear.

Then I ran into Eve, and was all, "ZOMG!! WTF are you doing here??" Cuz I like, totally knew her in a previous life.

It was getting towards eight and we wanted to make sure we headed back to thirty miles from Guy's house (he twitpic'd me! woot!) so that we could make the newbie and People's Parties. So we grabbed our swag bags (each bag was different, so I didn't get all of that stuff, just most of it) and hightailed it back to the bus. Luckily this time it only took slightly more than thirty minutes to reach our destination.

That concludes the first four hours of BlogHer08.
Next up: CARL!! Newbie party & People's Party.

GIVEAWAY!!! I have ONE picnik premium account to give away. Just leave a comment on this post by midnight PST Thursday and I will pick a winner at random. You must NOT have attended BlogHer to win. Cheers!

Just A Tease

Dawn and Carl (this one's for Angie)


Jennifer and Carl


Maria and I at Ruby Skye


Stefania and I know how to take a good picture


My boys came to get me! Yippee!

More photos and a wrap up (hopefully) tomorrow. Hope you all had a great weekend!

VDog Needs Your Help!

So you all know I'm going to BlogHer, right? I know, I know, lucky biatch. Don't worry, I'll name drop all of yous to the big-ups. If they'll actually talk to me, that is.

Here's the thing: we're supposed to have a one sentence description of our blogs at the ready, which will be repeated OVER and OVER, oh about a thousand times. And I have no clue what to say.

I NEED YOUR HELP!! You all know the blog. You know I'm a Cracker, that I take a lot of photos, and occasionally -- very occasionally -- write something brilliant. How do I describe all this?

Come up with one line (a run-on maybe?) about my blog and leave it in the comments. THERE WILL BE PRIZES!! The lines that I actually end up using will be awarded with some kind of small gift, directly from VDog (as yet to be determined; leave with your sentence what kind of stuff you like -- girly, food, coffee, personal note/picture from us, etc.). All participants will receive a thank you note and a VDog & Little Man business card (assuming I have some left over at the end of the weekend).

Thank you all SO much in advance! I lurves you all! I'll be twittering, plurking and hopefully blogging the experience, so stay tuned!

xoxoxoxo,
VDog

Before the Cut...

Some pre-haircut photos for your enjoyment (also taken with the "old" camera ~ a Sony CyberShot), and some business at the end.

Please, Mommy? Can I have the camera??


No?


Pweeettty Pweeeese??


C'mon, Mommy, PLEEEEEEASSSE??


Maybe just the camera case then?


FINE. FINE THEN.

Do you see that up there? It's mah own daht com! VDogBlog.com! w00t!

You won't have to do anything to update your feeds or links, it will all be automatically forwarded for you. I wanted it to be easier to remember and type, and hey! It rhymes!

I know that eventually the name of the blog may change since the Little Man won't always be a little man, and with the possibility of a sibling in the next few years, I'm not sure that "VDog, Little Man & Baby, too" has the same ring to it.

I have a new button! See that over on the top right? Somehow the bloggy gods decided that my humble little blog was good enough for Alltop.com. I am truly honored to be included in a group with such esteemed bloggers.

Third, a little linky love for my girl Janet ~ she had a hilarious Weekly Winners yesterday featuring the wacky but loveable Carl, who is coming to Casa de Cracker next!

The Shirt Heard 'Round the World Mommyblogosphere

So Dawn sent me this awesome Lightening Online t-shirt. It's kind of like the roaming gnome, only those of us who receive the shirt will be able to win some money in the end (instead of a Carribean vacation?).

I tried to get a good shot of the Little Man in it, but that didn't work out so well.

 

 

So I thought, hey, how about on mah bewbs??

 

Mmm, not so much.

But the DOG! YES! The dog, she wears it well.

 

So who wants it? Leave me a comment, and I'll pick a winner tomorrow.

“The Travelling T-Shirt has come from Lightening Online and is making it’s way around the world until December 1st when one lucky participant will be voted a winner and Lightening will gift that person a cash amount (determined by the total number of participants). For more information please visit the Travelling T-Shirt page.”

Again? Really?

CityMama tagged me for a meme, oh, forever ago? And since I'm such a *stellar* blogger, I'm just getting around to it. No hard feelings, I hope!

The rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Six Random Things About VDog:

1. I am obsessive about clean ears and Q-tips (NOT "cotton swabs"). Sometimes I check other people's ears to make sure they are clean. Sometimes I am disgusted by what I see.

2. Car alarms that honk when you arm them really annoy me. You know you can just make it flash your lights, right? Nice little "peep, peep" noises, like Toyota factory installed alarms are completely acceptable. Just don't honk at me, k?

3. I have arthritis in my big left toe. It hurts. I dropped a 4" binder on it about five years ago, and failed to go to the Doctor because I didn't think it was a "big deal." Oops.

4. I don't eat red meat and I have never tried Lamb.

5. I don't always wear my wedding ring. I forget sometimes. Oops.

6. (Holy crap moly! I'm already at #6!) I drive a Volvo station wagon with a "hippie box" (Thule) on top.

Now for the tags:

Karen

Madame Queen

Cathy

Christie

LVGurl (maybe this will give you a reason to post again ;) heh)

Lia

And one more for good luck: Al_Pal ;)

Have fun with it, ladies! (And no pressure if you don't want to do it. If you do, let me know and I'll replace the link to be the permalink.)

What's your favorite random fact about VDog? Disagree with my pet peeves? Let me know.... :D

Your Questions, Answered

In my last post, which was what, like a month ago?? Seemingly? I asked you to ask me some questions to well, ahem, spur me to *actually* post again.

Shall we get to it?

Megan asked, "How much did BOSSY talk about our day in New Orleans? How many times did she mention me total? And, um, what else did she say about me?"

I recall BOSSY mentioning New Orleans once, like, "When I was in New Orleans..." and it was very surreal because obviously everyone at the party KNEW she had been in New Orleans since we are BOSSY fans and had been following her road trip on her blog.

BOSSY was so sweet, talking like she needed to give back stories, when clearly we were all up to date.

I don't recall BOSSY mentioning you specifically, Megan, BUT I wasn't present for EVERY conversation as it was sort of a two room party -- the kitchen and the living room/dining room combo. So it's totally possible that she was talking you up in the kitchen while I was stuffing my face delicately eating in the dining room.

My sister, Al_Pal, totally called me out. ON MAH OWN BLAWG. What's up with THAT??

PS I notice you have exactly 100 less posts this year than last year. (Whee, numbers!) ;p
But you *could* still beat your 2007 record, especially if you do NaBloPoMo. I can see how Little Man sleeping less is a major change in your lifestyle though! :P

Ok, that is SO NOT COOL, Al_Pal. How can I live up to those expectations? ;) And it's about quality, not quantity, right? Also, I completely blame NaBloPoMo for killing my blogging spirit. I will NEVER do it again. I was totally crazy for thinking I could do it in my first six months of blogging.

I ended up hating blogging, my husband hated my blogging, it was just a commitment that went terribly, terribly wrong. Ugh.

She also says:
I want to hear about the BOSSY assessment of Casa de Cracker! :P BOSSY thought the house was super cool, and pointed out which pieces were from which stores and even knew the collection names. Yeah, like I said, she's That. Damn. Good.

The party: What were you drinking? Some pink bubbly wine girly drink which was completely fabulous and which I could only have two glasses of because now that I'm Mrs. Mom I have NO TOLERANCE. And I even had a designated driver (see: me driving home with BOSSY).

Cathy asked if someone at our party gave BOSSY some anti-aging water, which she waited to open until the Chicago party.

The only water I know about BOSSY having was the MetroMint water that LA blogger SueBob gave her. She had bottles of it in her car.

Deb asks, "YOU are the famous VDog?"

Um, thanks? I think? To steal a quote from Mighty Girl, I may be only "Famous Among Dozens." Like, two dozen. Max. Certainly running around the Internets and commenting as "VDog" is more memorable than "Victoria" but that's as far as my fame stretches. Don't be skeered of the moniker. I don't bite. :D

Manager Mom asks, "Are you on hiatus or something?"

Yes, yes I am. Thank you for giving my blogging break some street cred.

And as for the HAIR:

I went slightly lighter, to what my colorist called "honey." Not quite blonde, not truly brunette. It may get lighter with time as well. I think it looks pretty cool and DEFINITELY worth the money and time away from the kiddo (it was my four year wedding anniversary present from the Warrior; sweet, huh?).

If there's anything I didn't cover, please let me know. Now that Blogger lets you schedule posts, I just *may* be able to post every once in a while. But don't hold me to that.

Much love,
VDog