A few more puppy pictures to enjoy – they can have fun with anything!



Category Archives: Brain Bits
Kurio “family” tablets
One of the companies at BlogHer2013 Sweet Suite – Toy Book was Kurio World. They make an entire line of family-friendly (for want of a better term) tablets very reasonably priced (the one pictured sells for $99.99 at Walmart). Here’s a link to their site, where you can see just how easy it is to set parental controls for up to 8 people (manage apps, time spent and filter online sites).
A true story about parental controls from when FirstBorn was much younger: We were at the library and FirstBorn went to check something on a computer. He used a quick check computer that didn’t require log-in and since they’re a maximum of 15 minutes use (hey, they didn’t even have a chair, in case you missed the point of short time use!). Suddenly he comes running up to me, panicked, and says to look at the screen – porno pop-ups! He was terrified that the library would blame him and kept insisting he hadn’t done anything! I immediately called staff over and they shut down the computer. Turns out that they were supposed to wipe clean each computer every night and make sure the filters were in place for the next day. Somebody forgot…oops.
So if you want to make sure that little precious doesn’t get scarred by the adult-only section of Amazon (yes, it exists), and you’re tired of having no battery life left in your own tablet and/or phone because there are 15 open games, then you need these products. I’m not selling them, but here’s the link to the Kurio company site, where you can watch a very short vid explaining all the settings available for each profile and how easy it is to set up. And for the same price as the cheapo tablets I see all over? A no-brainer, especially with the holidays rearing their ugly and expensive heads.
However, if Kurio wants to send me any of their tablets, I’d be thrilled to remove Angry Birds from my phone...stupid pigs.
why i love FirstBorn
Swag Box from The Big Toy Book’s Sweet Suite 2013

Imagine getting this giant box of toys delivered by UPS!! Heck, there’re so many gizmos and gadgets in there I don’t know where or what to begin with. The one thing that jumped out at me is the Crayola toothpaste! At first I thought it was a box of Crayola markers because it’s the same size box, but whoa – I’m keeping these for myself! The rest? Maybe a giveaway…
This event was the Big Toy Book’s Sweet Suite which I posted about earlier this week – the one that showed me crashing a Goddess-built race car, cool little kids furniture – – you know, I have to post more pictures, now that I think of it because the sheer volume was overwhelming.
Goddess in a can – check those grocery shelves!
In stores now – canned Goddess! One variety only: tough and salty. Luckily there’s plenty of me to go around… This was from the Cans Get You Cooking booth at BlogHer2013 – the can unscrews with freebie coupons inside. A cool idea; makes you really remember them.
And on a side note, practically every can came through the flood. Yes, they had to be washed in soap/bleach water and the labels carefully sponged off, so put those cans on the bottom shelves in your basement stockpiles and sleep better at night.
My date with Mr. Darcy
Eat your hearts out, people! Seriously, I met up with Jill (after spending one full hour trying to find the underground parking lot at McCormick Place where my car was parked – they have way too many building there now – and it set me back $21). I drove up to the Sheraton and got here about 7 (remember the time, it’s important and may result in a quiz later). Jill had about 150 pounds of “stuff” sitting around here from a quick trip around the Exhibit Hall – I can’t wait until tomorrow for my share! There was a White Cloud party scheduled for the same time as the movie screening (Austenland). It featured the White Cloud princess in a dress made of toilet paper, fog drifting out of the rooms; I think it was a cocktail party of sorts. Well, we headed over to the movie, which started15 minutes late. When it was over, I headed back down to the self-parking section of the garage and pulled my ticket out and inserted it into the machine in the garage lobby: $31! Mind you, we’re talking less than three hours! Then, when I got in the car and drove up to the gate, the machine tried to charge me another $33! Total parking BS, as I see it. But the movie was funny and the characters very likable. Got a couple of t-shirts and a calendar. Did you know movies now have color and sound (yes, it’s been a while).
So off to bed, etc. so I can up early tomorrow, park in the CLOSE LOT and, if required, make many trips to and from the garage with my “STUFF.” ’cause Stuff is good. and I have a large SUV…
BlogHer20130 – MomSelect
Quick picture of some of the loot: Hidden Valley has a new line of dipping sauces – woman said to take all I wanted. Seriously? Lady, this is not something you say to an extreme couponer! Unfortunately, I was hampered by distance, since everything at BlogHer2013 is in a different location. I’ve spent most of the past two days walking and cabbing it – I have yet to even get my Expo badge for Exhibition Hall and it ends tomorrow. Sad.
Oh, here’s something funny: Muller yogurt was there, offering coupons for free yogurt. I only took a few (really!) because of all the cases currently residing in my refrigerator and freezer. Oh, and also because they expire this year. Seriously, dudes, give us some longer dates here, you’re killing me!
Dark picture, but if you want to know more, just ask.
Quick pix – Groupon
First stop was a tour of Groupon headquarters – they’re in Chicago, you know! It’s a pretty weird place, a converted warehouse building (I think it used to be Monkey Wards). It’s a wear whatever you damned well please kind of office with lots of strange “things” around: Here I am with the cat

Here is Lauren, our new affiliate person. She was the one I browbeat into issuing the invites! She’s standing in this area with a fake bear, hollow tree trunk, etc. told you it was strange!

Here’s some annoying person who always seems to get in my pictures! Well, she’s kinda fun to have around, so I’ll keep her! She’s sitting on this swing set (a bunch of them around a fake tree).
Here’s the Groupon team responsible for finding and providing our great deals locally.
A few of them were able to take us out to lunch, where we ate and discussed what we like and what we dislike. Lots of changes ahead for Groupon – good ones! I might be offering some truly unique (read weird!) Groupons in the near future! hope, hope, hope!
Then on to the MomSelect.
BlogHer2013 – Day 2 – enjoy it with me!
While I’ll be posting sporadically over the next two days, you can always see just what I’m seeing – in real time- by checking out deranged.me’s Flickr feed. Those photos get downloaded immediately, so you’ll see hours earlier than any post! In fact, I usually shoot waaaay more than I ever use, so enjoy! You can always browse the photostream, since they’re set for public viewing.
Greetings from BlogHer2013 – Day 1
Flickr was down last night for maintenance, so no pictures were loaded – here’s a couple from yesterday’s parties. The first one was Toy Book, a two-level madhouse of both small and large toy companies. I ended up spending 2 1/2 hours there and it wasn’t until Rachel got a text asking where I was that I realized I was supposed to be SocialLuxe with Jill! The little robots were like an updated Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots – this time you use electronic controllers and each time you hit the head the light changes color – turns red and game over. The MegaBlocks people made us build our own Hot Wheels racers and then race them – mine kept flipping over and crashing…must have been a defective one…



SocielLuxe is, for want of a better term, a pampering party. The main sponsor was Cottonelle (remember my Fed-ex delivery?), who provided not only manicures, massages and henna tattoos, but also large swag bags containing the items shown here – we lugged the case of toilet paper back to my car and then walked to Pioneer Court for a snacky meal of mini-hamburgers, chicken wings, drinks and probably other stuff but we got there so late that that part was pretty much over. It was hosted by Womensforum and Escalate Network and we spent about an hour+ snacking and talking with Escalate people. It’s great to be able to finally meet the people with whom you interact on an almost-daily basis.

Carmex is regularly-priced at $1.69 at all the Walgreens around me – in downtown Chicago it’s not! Yes, the sale price of 5/$5 remains the same, but for someone picking up one or two items, yikes! And the high tax is 9.25%. Seriously! Tax would be the deal killer!

Resolution for next year’s convention is to make sure I schedule about 18 hours for each party – otherwise you just can’t do all, see all and meet all – and that’s the purpose of this whole convention, to meet and develop relationships with companies. but we never turn down free stuff…







