Close to a month ago Sony flew me and about a dozen other bloggers out to southern California for a digital imaging ho-down. They put us up in a fabulous hotel, treated us to free food, spa treats, and best of all: free camera gear and great training.

To assuage my guilt over being given so much free stuff by The Man I would love nothing more than to tell you what a horrible trip it was, or how they completely don't "get" mom bloggers, or how it was like a time-share hard-sell. Or really anything other than what it was: fantastic.

If you've been reading here for any length of time you'll know I'm not a Squee Girl for companies. I don't give anything away for free to corporate giants. I'm not a corporate tool, massive or otherwise. However.

The only negative things I can think of about this event are 1) I wish everyone had had nametags because I'm terrible with names and 2) I wish you all had been able to be there. That's it. (Does this dilemma make my ass look fat?) Other than not blogging about it at all, my only choice is to give it to you straight. So here goes.

After an uneventful and quick flight, I rode in from the airport with Amy whom I'd never met before. It was a treat in itself to have a few minutes to chat with someone whose blog I really enjoy. I checked in to the hotel and was pleasantly surprised by how nice, small, and peaceful it was. I ate in the funky hotel bar restaurant that night, got a massage, and went to bed at an almost reasonable hour.

The next morning we gathered in a lovely conference room with a view of the ocean and met the other participants and folks from Sony. Piled in front of everyone's spot at the table were The Free Cameras, and amazingly no one just ripped the boxes open. I was secretly hoping someone would do that so I'd have an excuse to follow their lead, but no such luck.

I'm sure you're not interested in a minute-by-minute detailed cataloging of the events, so the short version is that patient and informed specialists on each camera were on hand to teach us how to get started using them. PLUS, the fabulous Me Ra Koh was there to get us going on the DSLR (aka big-fancy camera). Have you ever been intimidated by all the buttons and controls on a camera? Then get some of Me Ra's instructional DVDs… I'm just saying… She's sweet as pie, funny, smart, and able to teach you things like 'aperture' and 'shutter speed' without making your eyes glaze over.

We headed down to the beach for more experiments with our cameras, and then that night we all had dinner together — and in the process I lost my voice! Great food, much fun company, and all organized with ease by Sony and a great PR outfit called RocketXL.

I'm planning on reviewing the cameras themselves over on my review blog, but they are the Sony Alpha 300 DSLR, the HDR-SR10 video camera, and the DSC-T2 which is a cute little point-and-shoot that now lives in my purse. I haven't had a decent camera in years, which is surprising since I studied photography and I really enjoy it. But with 3 kids I just haven't had the time or money to invest in getting up to speed digitally, and lately most of my pictures have been from my iPhone!

What has mattered the most to me is that owning these new cameras has changed the way I blog. I don't use the point-and-shoot so much, but the DSLR goes just about everywhere with me, and I've started posting videos on my site too. It is a blast! Having these great tools gave me the final push to do something I've been considering for almost a year. I now post photos of my kids which include their face.

I have to tell you that when I get ANYthing from a corporation or business in my inbox, my initial reaction is skepticism. 95% of the time it is either spam or something stupid, so even though I knew I liked the folks at RocketXL I was still suspicious of this event. But even with my snark ready to roll at full-speed, I was disarmed by how genuine everyone involved was. It was truly a great surprise.

So, why did Sony bring us to Southern California? Easy: they wanted to show us how hard they have been working on making high-performance cameras which women will want to use. On the Alpha 300 for example, Sony doesn't hide common controls under seven layers of menus, instead they make them easy to find and activate. Think I'm saying women are too stupid to read a camera manual? No way, we're just too flipping busy. And Sony gets that. Want to know why I believe that Sony cares about what women want? Because these cameras really are all that and a bag of chips. I have been able to take some great shots of my kids, and guess what: it was not hard to do, and I still haven't read the manual.

What a beautiful letter. You're right WTM, this does make me feel better. "(By the way–Sony? You make a mean butthole camera monitor. Apparently my colon was viewed in high-def.)" I can't stop laughing. Frakking toddlers. (Wait, at what age do they stop being toddlers?) Sigh, I love brothers.

HBM still hasn't had her baby yet, but even during weeks of crappy pre-labor she can write a great post about her online circle of friends. BlogHer is going into the pay per post business?? I don't get it.

You're not invisible. I see you.

When we first got to the school, Eddie was pretty nervous. It turns out that on Wednesdays the 5th graders get to eat lunch in the Kindergarten yard while the Kinders are elsewhere. Eddie took one look at what he thought was a group of his gargantuan future classmates and almost swallowed his tongue! By the time the classroom tour started he was fine, but it was touch and go at the beginning.

He also got a kick out of me interviewing him on his school visit, and I hope you enjoy the video as well:

Oh Eddie, I know… You're the one who has always said you can't wait to be a grownup. You, my most kid-like kid. You crack me up! You'll get there soon enough, but for now please just try to enjoy the things that will never come again, like losing a tooth and being the center of your brothers' attention.

This afternoon we're going to visit where you'll go to Kindergarten, and I know it will make you feel like such a big kid, but honey, you're five. Please live that up :)

Way back when we only had one child I used to do things like make little movies about him. Those were the days. I present to you today "Walk It Off" featuring my oldest son Henry as a baby:

Why yes, I was deliriously sleep-deprived. Why do you ask?

When I was pregnant with my second child, so many people told me that having two kids was going to be so much harder than just one. Like I hadn't just assumed that from the beginning? Even being whacked out on pregnancy hormones I was able to understand that logic, and it took every ounce of my limited self control to refrain from kicking them in the shins. Really, who says that kind of thing to a crazy pregnant lady? But I digress…

Some lovely ladies are having their second kids and there's a fun shower going on for them: Her Bad Mother, Mrs. Chicky, and Mrs. Chicken.

So what's my favorite assvice I was given about having 2 kids? Well in addition to the above, I got a lot of strange comments, but instead I think I'm going to give assvice instead!

Live it up! Having more than one kid is so much fun! It can be tricky at first while you get used to the new regime, but it is so great when they're old enough to play together. Not having to be your child's preferred playmate all the time is wonderful.

So don't listen when people say things like "How do you do it?" or "Better you than me!" Having more than one kid is a blast.

—

Want to join in on the shower fun? Just get the details and then write your post by Sunday.

(If you're reading this in a feed reader, you'll have to come to the site to see these videos.)

Hey, has anyone noticed that I've started using my kids real names and photos on this site yet? Because I have.

And here's more fun:

"We are an army of educated mothers who have finally stood up and said pay attention, this is important work, this is hard, frustrating work and we're not going to sit around on our hands waiting for permission to do so. We have declared that our voices matter." Fuck yes. If you are any kind of mom who blogs, just go read this today. And as an aside, I am about one minute away from starting to post pictures of my kids on this site. Heather's exhilarating post is really helping me with my decision.

"Every time I get together with other bloggers I tell myself, THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!and thank my stars that I happened into this weird and all-consuming hobby that just happens to hook me up with really incredible women who strangely enough are a lot like me." I couldn't have said it better myself.

This mama loves this amazing adoption story. This is part 3 — are you keeping up? It is so very worth it.

I'm all for karma, but report him. That's an awful story.

I don't have a problem with PR folks emailing me, in fact sometimes it is quite nice. I have found some agencies who are amazing to work with, for example RocketXL (more on them soon). If you ever get anything from them in your inbox, you can assume they're not assholes. In fact, I've met 4 of them in person and they are even better than "not assholes." They're interesting, smart people who honestly want to build a relationship with you. I've also heard good things about the Graco bloggers, and there are many other good PR people out there. (In fact, I encourage you to leave more names in the comments so we can all start to recognize the good ones.)

That said, this note is to the dumbfucks who just can't manage to get it right.

Normally, I'd just click 'delete' and move on, but there's an issue that has been festering since September 2007. The flacks from an agency in New York just won't stop emailing me recipes. Evidently this is a food blog. Who knew?

I ignored and deleted their emails for a few months, but then on December 20, 2007 I politely asked them to stop sending me recipes. They said they would stop. I got my next recipe email from them on January 9, 2008. I just deleted all the recipe emails I got after that one, but then on March 28 I couldn't take it any longer and emailed again politely asking them to stop sending me recipes. Again, they said they would stop.

Then came May 2, 2008. The day the same person I spoke to a month ago sent me more recipes. And don't know why, but it just sent me completely over the edge, and I had to email her back.

I will now start marking all emails from [domain].com as spam since NONE of you over there can manage the simple task of NOT SENDING ME ANY MORE FUCKING RECIPES. Seriously people. What do you think I do with them? Gratefully republish them on my blog as I am too fucking stupid to think of anything to write on my own? Give you free advertising, see 'too fucking stupid' above?

I have sent so many people in your company, including you [flack], emails politely requesting that you stop spamming me with recipes. And yet. They keep coming. I am incredibly tired of you wasting my time on this crap.

Stop.

Erika

(For the record, I am not in the habit of cursing at strangers, but I felt it added a certain je ne sais quoi that might actually be remembered. And maybe they'll stop emailing me now. Bonus.)

Besides the fact that I cannot understand why someone would pay a PR company to spam bloggers (hello Money, may I introduce you to the Drain?), I cannot understand why it is so hard for them to stop emailing me this dreck. Do they think I have no choice but to take it? Do they not care what bloggers think of them? Do they imagine I'll eventually give in and post some of their recipes on my site? Do they imagine this is the way to run a successful business?

It is the accumulation of so many small incidents just like this one that has caused me to have a 'guilty until proven innocent' relationship with new PR people in my inbox. It's a shame too, because I'm open to genuine and interesting proposals, but when my openness gets repeatedly abused, I get hostile. And vocal. For now I've concealed the name of the company in this post, but they're on notice. If I get any more recipe spam from them, I might come back to do a little editing.

See how this works? Communicate with me in a genuine and respectful way, and that's how I'll treat you right back. Treat me like a number, or worse: a moron, and I won't have any qualms telling my friends how you operate. It's amazingly like real life that way.

I was fortunate to be at a book signing last night in Palo Alto where Maria Shriver answered some very interesting questions. I'm going to show them to you out of sequence, because my favorite came at the end. (I also have a bunch of photos of the event on Flickr.)

She was asked what it was like balancing work and family life when she has 4 kids and such a high-powered husband. While we're not all married to the Governor of California, she has some helpful advice for anyone trying to do the juggle.

She also gets asked to work with many, many worthwhile organizations, but she is only one person. How does she manage?

She was also asked about how she manages to incorporate mindfulness (a topic of her new book "Just Who Will You Be?") into her daily life.

It seems like everyone else in her family has run for President — is she planning on it?

And at the very end, a smart-ass blogger (is there any other kind?) asked her for advice for getting us all on Oprah.

Fingers crossed!