TheMommyBlog

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 Me, Me, Me, Other people who write, Bad Mood Dude, BlogHer, Giveaways, News

The Momversation blog had a post that really hit home with me today, partially because although I’ve dropped off the BlogHer and Other Major Social Groups RADAR in the last few years due to overwhelm, I’m constantly inundated with PR requests, and partially because I am really starting to get irritated with the state of things.

Too many people are getting into blogging as if it were some sort of Amway. It’s not something to jump into while it’s hot so you can collect freebies and get paid to parrot. Blogging is something else entirely. What some people are doing now is the online equivalent of infomercials, hundreds of thousands of mini-Roncos. If all those products truly worked miracles, don’t you think we’d be able to get them at Target? The source becomes distrusted, worthless. And the rest of us are dragged down by association.

I’m thrilled about the Blog With Integrity movement and was on it in a hot second, but in truth I’m a little sad that we need it. I hate that people ask what I rake in (nearly nothing) and what PR folks send to me (you just would not believe it) and wonder how they can get in on it. I want to say, “Plastics” and go refill my drink.

Here’s the gist of the post and my response:

The “mommy blogger” backlash hit the front page of CNN.com today, as the PR Blackout Challenge and Blog With Integrity campaigns hit the mainstream media.  If you’re not aware, some mommy bloggers are under fire for taking money and/or free merchandise for recommending products and services.  It’s causing some people to question the ethics and truthfulness of the moms who are blogging today.  But according to the CNN article, some mom bloggers might just be overwhelmed with offers…

I just love how they slapped a screenshot of my site on the front page. Just hope people associate me with the Integrity group, not the Gimme group. I’ve worked too hard for too long to let anything external affect the moral stand I take on reviews. I will not take money, period, and if you send me something, there is no guarantee I will get past the note in the box. It’s so much work just looking at it, and the small percentage of items I do mention only make it here if those things have become part of my daily life.

In fairness, when there is something really cool offered as a giveaway, I’m on it. I don’t endorse anything, just report and reward. I have some great gift cards on my desk I’ve got to give away, and even that is making me hesitate because of all the hoopla. I’m not compromising integrity when I give things away, but it is still doing something I wouldn’t have spontaneously done on my own, and that is the crux of the biscuit. It’s my acid test. Even the legit stuff makes me jumpy. Too many people are doing things for the wrong reason (and calling their sites every possible variation on “The Mommy Blog” but that is a whole other rant). We’re all being spattered with the mud. It’s not a nice feeling.

Anyway. My comment:

I totally didn’t connect the blackout with all the PR requests in my inbox, that’s how scattered and overwhelmed I am. Nice! Now I’m just glad there’s a reason I can ignore them for a week.

I have literally stacks of things, mostly books, next to my desk that have been sent to me, and they are jamming up my life like you wouldn’t believe. Have to state a bit more strongly that I do not guarantee anything in the least, and the only stuff that gets mentioned is the stuff that thrills me and then only in the context of my life, writing as I normally do.

I’m sorry we’ve become saturated with gimme bloggers, and I get too many requests for help “getting started” or “succeeding” to hope that it will die down soon. Those of us who have been doing this forever with no anticipation of readership much less free stuff sort of feel like the guys who made it to Cooperstown before everyone started using steroids. The measurements are all off and the wacky surges have made the old numbers meaningless.

Then again I could be full of shit.

That last bit is what we should all keep in mind—that there is the distinct possibility that we are talking out of our nether regions. But at least I will be totally up front about it.

Sunday, August 09, 2009 Me, Me, Me

Him:  hi lovely
Me:  hi. Just checking in to see if I’m still poor… yep.
Him:  oh sweetheart
Me:  I know - sorry - only so many times you can talk about the same thing. i was going to sit with a beer and a movie
Him:  good idea
Me:  get through today - Dylan starts tutoring tomorrow and the kids are back.
Him:  watch a comedy or sci fi
Me:  so not the one about the end of the world?
Him: well, only if schadenfreude would make you feel better
Me:  that concept doesn’t apply when you all live on the same planet
Him: um, yes, my drugs have me on a different planet at the moment
Me: jealous
Him:heee
Me: I’m trying to stock up before insurance ends at the end of the month and see my doc
Him: bring your kids to Scotland permanently. At least the health care is free.
Me:  yes so we’ve been discussing here in the US.
Him:  it may be shit but you at least get seen to.
Me: everyone is convinced that you all are hiding some horrific aspect that would justify our fears of becoming a socialist state.
Him:  yes, we all have brain implants that make us worship Baal.
Me:  Baal here is cheaper on reflection
Him:  heh
Me: buy a bull now and then
Him:  yes
Me: go halfsies
Him: *bags the pizzle*

Saturday, August 08, 2009 Me, Me, Me, Bad Mood Dude, Family

Most of this discussion has been happening over on FaceBook because Twitter hangs when I tweet (there’s a sentence I’ve never contemplated) and it was too exasperating to write about here. I’m waiting for you all to get Mindy Fatigue and just move on to someone cheerier already.

So. Cash for Clunkers. Brilliant program. I went to my neighbor’s for coffee yesterday and flew right by her house because I was looking for the familiar Explorer in the driveway. I saw a new car and never made the connection. Turns out she was able to take advantage of the government program that lets you trade in an old car and offers incentives to buy a new car that gets 4 mpg better ($3,500) or 10 or more mpg better ($4,500). She showed me a flyer that just floored me. According to the math, I could have a brand new Jeep Patriot for just under nine thousand with all the trade in offers.

SCORE.

NOT.

I went straight to a dealership where the salesman was very low on inventory and even lower on information and social skills. He said I’d have to look up my own shit, and get back to him. I see him going places.

Then I went back to the office where my soon-to-be-ex-boss (Sorry, babe, but I’m going to milk that one for a while, although in fairness it was a solid business decision I supported) and I scoured the internet for info and participating dealerships.

Bottom line: your car is already rated for gas consumption according to the database on Cars.gov. It doesn’t matter what your particular car gets; it’s all in the specs. Pick your make, model, year, and trim and they will serve up city, highway, and combined MPG ratings. The combined one is the one they look at. You have to be getting 18 MPG or fewer to qualify.

My 1998 Volvo S7, bottom of the line, with balding, exploding tires, a trunk full of spilled gasoline, a bionic-class undercarriage from all the work done on it over the years ($7,500 in the last two years alone), which is worth about a thousand bucks if I’m lucky, DOES NOT QUALIFY BECAUSE I ALREADY GET 21 MPG. OH, FUCK ME AND THE HORSE I RODE IN ON.

So I posted it on FB.

Figures. My P.O.S., 12-year-old Volvo that’s worth maybe a thousand bucks soaking wet, smells of fuel and is dying, doesn’t get shitty enough gas mileage to qualify for the federal Cash for Clunkers Program. God, if you have it in for me, why not just come out and say it?

Replies varied.

“That Cash-for-Clunkers program is ridiculous! So, if you bought a car that wasted gas years ago (not that I have a problem w/people who bought what they bought) the Government is going to reward you now, but for those who bought higher mileage cars then too bad - your SOL!! What a joke.”

And my favorite: “isn’t the thing registered as a historical monument in your neighborhood?”

The two things I need most on this planet are a reliable computer because all of my income is generated online, and a reliable car because I’m a single mom with three school-aged children. Neither one seems attainable at the moment. Neither does the mortgage, after this next payment. I am actually looking at apartments or two-bedroom condos. The next move may be to sell the house and share a room with my daughter until I can actually support my family.

Wish I could put that all on an Amazon wishlist while some wealthy Good Samaritan cruised around randomly granting some of those wishes. It’s going to be a long month/quarter/year.

Friday, August 07, 2009 Me, Me, Me

I have a Google alert set for “Melinda Roberts.” So what? I bet you do too. Anyway, there are a LOT of other Melinda Roberts-folk out there, and don’t even get me started on Mindy. Why, Leona Helmsley, why did you have to have that as a pseudonym? Why must I be reminded of you so often?

While we’re on the subject, why are there so many women out there calling their blogs “The Mommy Blog?” Putting an extra “e” in “The” for the URL really doesn’t add enough originality and verve. I didn’t think to snap up all the URLs with double letters, misspellings, etc., though I did buy theoriginalmommyblog.com, .net, and .org. because I felt like it, and hate that there are so many people co-opting that name and Mommy Confidential. Nothing like looking at your own brand and thinking, “Played. Over it. Shark: jumped.”

ANYWAY.

I am sure those other Melindas are annoyed with me, if I’m even on their radar. One Melinda’s research interests “include the structure of consequentialism, the nonidentity problem, expected value and risk, the repugnant conclusion, wrongful life and wrongful disability, abortion, the new reproductive technologies—including human reproductive cloning and supernumerary pregnancy—and other issues bearing on the obligations we have in respect of people who don’t yet but will exist.  Also, problems of collective harm, the two-envelope problem, the relation between moral theory and the law and the problem of indeterminacy in the law,” whatever that means. I mean, really. Show off. I went to college, and even taught archery.

Another is in the Peace Corps or something, and has summited some awesome peak or performed some other feat of stunning physical and ecological importance every other week. Whatever that means. I didn’t take rock-climbing.

The other day, the first Melinda (Melinda A., let’s call her) popped up in my alerts again. I always smile when I see her name, and wonder how she enjoys being the OTHER Melinda Roberts that comes up in Amazon’s Book Search. Let’s see, am I looking for the eminent scholar and author? Or the gal who taught her sons how to do armpit farts?

Either way, I was pretty sure this citation did not refer to me but sent it to a friend to be sure: “Epistemic Normativity Workshop at Fordham · Welcome Melinda Roberts! Roberts and Wasserman on Harming Future Persons · Fictionalism Conference at Manchester · Sydney Workshop on Evolution, Emotions and Metaethics.”

Me: Hey, look, I’m on the Epistemology lecture circuit, it appears.

Him: I particularly enjoyed your article: “Can It Ever Have Been Better Never to Have Existed At All?  Person-Based Consequentialism and a New Repugnant Conclusion.”

Me: AHAHAHAHAHHAHA *fart*

Thursday, August 06, 2009 Me, Me, Me, Family, News

Lots of exciting stuff on the web today and tomorrow:

• Interview featuring Yours Truly on ABC.com: “Moms Get Real” on Bedtime Battles (featured yesterday on ABC’s Good Morning America online.
• Forbes Woman: Moms Connect On The Internet by Meghan Casserly, 08.06.09: Have parenting message boards and mommy blogs co-opted the park bench? Or are they virtual roots to a network of real-life friends and neighbors?
• Tomorrow: an interview also at ABC.com on Jon & Kate and the aftermath of the divorce announcement and new format.
• Upcoming: some back-to-school tips that may or may not be mother-approved, but will get me through the day. Sponsored, but oh so much latitude. Use as directed. Results may vary.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Me, Me, Me, BlogHer, Giveaways, Fellow Parenting Authors

This post from The Social Path is timely — fifteen hundred women (and a few gutsy men) will descend upon the BlogHer Conference in Chicago July 23-25. PR companies are highly focused and determined to reach this audience, and at the same time, scared shitless about screwing it up. As usual, I left a lengthy comment and cross-posted it here to get your reactions.

This is the week blogger outreach goes on trial.

In just a few days, an estimated 1,500 women will gather in Chicago for BlogHer, the mega-conference for women of the Web. And while there are sure to be countless topics for discussion, you can expect one to eclipse all others:

How should bloggers — most notably mom bloggers — be compensated by marketers?

This is a topic that has sparked heated debate for months (if not years), but it’s sure to come to a head this week as some of the largest brands and most influential Web personalities meet at the social media Mecca that is BlogHer. (Not to mention pending government regulations on how bloggers and marketers can work together.)

…In an Advertising Age video posted today, BlogHer Co-Founder Elisa Camahort Page outlines her blog network’s rules on disclosure and separating your “real blog” from your “review blog” — guidelines that some high-profile writers have criticized as being onerous and micromanaged.

You can expect some of these policies — along with a litany of other real-world dilemmas — to be hot-button issues throughout many of the BlogHer panels.

Oh, now I REALLY wish I were going to BlogHer, if only for this reason. I can’t afford to go, alas, because I am not paid to blog. Sound familiar?

I’ve been around a long time — started in 2002 (and was there stuffing binders in Elisa’s apartment for the very first BlogHer conference) — and am often approached for giveaways, reviews, and mentions, though I don’t really have a “review” blog. Generally, if it is something I do use, would use, have discovered I love using, or think my readers would love, I’ll talk about it in the context of my own family life. Or I’ll mention it in the Site of the Day section.

I know that PR companies go to a lot of trouble and expense to reach out to us, and that it is not always rewarding. It’s tough to contact hundreds of bloggers and get the name right in each personalized email (I’m being serious), tough to strike the right tone, tough to decide whether to inform the blogger of your product’s existence with an offer to sample it, or to ask for action on the blogger’s part.

If I receive the “info” type of email, I’ll look at the product and feature it if I think it’s awesome. If it’s not something I’d use or is a little outside my demographic, I may just delete the email. Or, I might flag the email with good intentions but never quite get around to doing something about it.

Some companies just send me things ranging from a press kit or a panty liner (that was yesterday) to an HD Flip cam or custom bicycle. Sometimes I don’t even know who sent it or why (flip cam two days ago). Sometimes I really don’t know what to do with something (a metal lunchbox from The Pork Board).

Occasionally, I am genuinely astonished at the request. One company asked me to take shipment of an appliance, test it, send results to a lab to demonstrate efficacy, blog about it in detail, and then SHIP IT BACK when I was done. I called up the contact person and asked if that was really the pitch. Who on earth would take an appliance, do a whole lot of scientific analysis, ship the thing back, and be grateful for the opportunity? The contact broke up laughing, saying that personally she was with me, but that her company won’t authorize a giveaway of that size, and understood when I declined to put that much effort into unpaid work. We parted on good terms, and I hope she let the client know that their strategy was of the kind that we bloggers tell each other about when swapping stories, and they do NOT want to be on the “Can-you-believe-this-BS?” circuit.

Many things sit in the Pile of Goods next to my desk, which sits next to the Pile of Books sent to me for review or mention (that backlog is about fifty. When am I going to read and talk about fifty books?) I don’t get paid for all that time, and since blogging is a labor of love, I have to spend my time at my paying job, because like many bloggers, I have a family to feed. In my case, I’m a single mom of three, which makes me a great PR target, but also guarantees that my time is at a premium. The irony.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you should curb your outreach; when the product is something a friend might use, I’ll give it away and let that person’s word of mouth campaign suffice. They are usually so excited to receive something useful for free that they tell everyone they run into, and that is fantastic real life buzz and promotion that simply can’t be bought.

Believe me, I stress out about it. Notice that I’m typing this at 3:48 a.m.? I feel bad for the unanswered contacts. I feel bad for the products that come that have no chance whatsoever of a mention. I hope that folks understand, and say so on my contact page so that everyone knows ahead of time that I’m crazed and busy, but open to new ideas and products. By the way, that’s your target demographic in a nutshell. Whee!

There are times when I do the math and wish that some of the cash that went into the effort could have come to me, but then again I have a policy of not taking money for reviews. Advertisers who purchase space in my sidebars can say what they like, and I will continue doing my thing in the body. There is a definite demarcation between the two, and they do not mix. The Site of the Day is a compromise but still subject to my personal preference.

I’ll offer advice if you like, and will happily vet any outreach strategy, and will happily accept a consulting fee but not be part of the outreach. That seems to be the stance with the most ethical integrity. I can help craft it or I can review it, but not both. And there’s a very good chance that many excellent PR efforts will fail at my doorstep simply because I have no idea what to do with the product, or simply do not have the time to devote to pro bono advertising for businesses.

I’m interested in hearing others’ opinions on this, and on the video suggesting setting up a “review” blog apart from the original. Going over to view it now, but I think I can safely say that I would not be inclined to do that. A blog is enough work; why double it when you can just accept advertising in the sidebars that doesn’t influence content? I just don’t see the ROI there. What am I missing? What would you do?

Monday, July 20, 2009 Me, Me, Me, Family

So. Been sort of not-around-lately. Lots happening, starting with being single this summer for the first time in… since 1993, I guess. Watching lots of movies and catching upon reading. Also? Trying to get a grip on my work projects and trying to optimize and organize my shizzle.

Trouble is, now that there is some nice consulting work to do, I needed some PC functionality, so I picked up one of those $300 netbooks to hook up to a big monitor, and that seems to take care of that. Until I needed to install drivers and remembered that netbooks don’t have DVD drives. Fun day, that one.

I also need to get all my web design/hosting/coding projects organized and cross-cataloged both here and online, and am having a bit of trouble storing things. I have plenty of external storage, but the way the internal disks are set up it’s hard to allocate to the particular backup drives I have. Dumb, I know. So I got one big mother to take care of everything. Now I’ve spent all the money I can spend on work equipment, plus a little more. And the big mother won’t format. Jesus wept.

Anyone want to guess how old my computer is? 2003? Ring a bell? I’m still using Office for Mac 2004. And several of my native programs—oh, the odd one like Mail, iCal, Pages, that sort—are misbehaving. I can’t read mail sent to more than one recipient. That’s gotta be my favorite. Anytime I try to add more than one recipient on the same line, I get interminable repeating characters. That’s a scream, too. And best of all, iLife and iWork are crashing, or suddenly FLIPPING HORIZONTALLY. What the hell? What… crap. Not even going to go there.

I need a new computer. There’s no getting around it. Now that every penny of my income is generated through this machine, the quirks and limitations are really getting in the way of my productivity and ability to calmly and rationally solve minor (or major) hardware/software problems. Anytime I ask advice from someone, they say, wait, you can go another year, or that machine is designed to be infinitely upgradable, or some shit that doesn’t end in YOU ARE SO TOTALLY RIGHT, YOU NEED A NEW MACHINE, STAT.

Well, it’s not WORKING. I don’t want to add hair plugs to a dead horse’s mane, okay?

It would be so much simpler and cleaner and sane to just find two grand to buy an iMac that runs Office from some recent year. Is that too much to ask? One web site project would pay for it. But I’m having trouble getting to the point where I’m all organized and set up with reliable software that runs lickity-split on my current hardware. Anyone know how annoying it is to right-click on a link and wait one to two seconds for the menu to pop up? Jesus H. Ebeneezer Christ in a side-cart eating a powdered donut.

I’m not done yet.

I really don’t enjoy working with the TV three feet over my left shoulder. Kids are out of school for ten weeks, dude, how much more of this can I take? They aren’t going to camp, are climbing the walls, and I’m now trying to squeeze productivity into the days they are at Dad’s or the wee hours. We’re embarking on a two-week custody marathon because of various scheduling compromises, so I don’t know that I’ll even be alive at the end of that carnival.

With an simple all in one, I could run to my room and put it on a card table. Hell, I could put it on the kitchen table, or a play table. I don’t care. I just don’t want to be humming along to Barbie Princess Tales or Sonic anymore. Please, for the love of God, don’t make me listen anymore.

On that note, it’s probably time to take inventory of the kids. I think one is here, another is still at a friend’s and the third is with Daddy. I’m reasonably sure I don’t have to feed that last one, but the suspense is killing me on the other two. Time to make a phone call and stick my head out in the garage and declare the end of Wii Time.

Did I mention I’ve given up alcohol as part of my new slimming-down program? Well, I did. Maybe unwisely. There’s a photo from the In-Stock Conference panel on self-publishing in the extended entry, for those asking for slim Mindy shots. You can’t really tell, though, because that dress is too big and when I smile my head is huge. But it’s all I’ve got for now.

Saturday, July 18, 2009 Me, Me, Me, Other people who write, Family

I seem to have omitted something from my updates: I have work!!

I signed a consulting contract with a product marketing and management firm, the 280 Group, last month. A CONTRACT. Which means they have to pay me. I love that! I now have, between my several gigs, enough to pay the mortgage every month, plus groceries. Or bills. But not both. But, it’s only 20 hours a week, so I can still work my corner to make up the difference.

I can’t tell you how relieved I am, overjoyed, to be productive and valued and paid for my talents. All these years of tinkering and dabbling have finally translated into marketable and much-needed skills. I just needed someone to see that, and then to pimp me out to others who need it even more.

Off to speak at the In-Stock Conference in SF today. Just needed to drag out the box of clothes-that-used-to-fit-me for something presentable. I’ve lost seventeen pounds since June, and I ain’t stopping there.

Thank you, everyone, for your support, encouragement, inappropriate suggestions, donations, and much-needed comic relief. I love you, man. And you. In the back. Yes, you.

Sunday, July 05, 2009 Me, Me, Me, Momversation, Entertainment

Boy, am I glad they chose a screen shot of Karen because she is totally gorgeous and articulate. But twenty minutes? I don’t remember a Momversation ever being that long. Our stints on CNN Prime Time and Oprah, yes, but online? Nope.

“Momversation” on Blip.tv is relatively long-form, with 20-minute shows.

By BRIAN STELTER
Published: July 5, 2009

When motion pictures were invented at the end of the 19th century, most films were shorter than a minute, because of the limitations of technology. A little more than a hundred years later when Web videos were introduced, they were also cut short, but for social as well as technical reasons.

Two years ago, David Wain broke the first episode of “Wainy Days” into three parts for the Web.

Video creators, by and large, thought their audiences were impatient. A three-minute-long comedy skit? Shrink it to 90 seconds. Slow Internet connections made for tedious viewing, and there were few ads to cover high delivery costs. And so it became the first commandment of online video: Keep it short.

Read more…

Friday, June 26, 2009 Me, Me, Me

I’d have to say it’s the little love notes I find on my screen when I log in every morning:

Oh there you are you dirty cow you

Yes, I’m here. Stop that. *snort*

Friday, June 12, 2009 Me, Me, Me

Man, my heart is going like a trip-hammer. Half a block from here I was nearly sandwiched between a parked car and a truck trying to get into my lane without looking. SCREEE!

I had just been thinking that my car is embarrassingly dirty (that was going to be one of the first Camp Roberts activities: Car Wash!) and that it’s really not enough to just clean my windshield, there’s a point when it’s a matter of hygiene, and then I nearly threw up my lunch when this guy lurched into me. I managed to drop back and avoid damaging both sides of my car and wondered, is this the automotive equivalent of being in an accident and not wearing clean underwear?

Friday, June 12, 2009 Me, Me, Me

I’m legally changing my name to Midny. Or Minfy. I cannot, cannot, cannot type that correctly—at speed—the first time, ever.

Friday, April 03, 2009 Me, Me, Me, News

CBS came by to interview me about the FTC (never saw THAT coming, did you? Any of you. Admit it.) and their potential ruling to make bloggers responsible for what they pitch. REALLY? Well, then. Those with integrity have nothing to worry about!

Simon’s a doll. I must have yammered for thirty minutes and he was so patient. Loved the camera man - almost had to duck to get into the house.

Feds May Make Bloggers Liable In Reviews

The Federal Trade Commission is thinking about changing the law so bloggers who exaggerate the benefits or flaws of a product could be liable or sued. Simon Perez reports.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 Me, Me, Me, Other places I write

I’ve been playing around with Wordpress themes for about a hundredy years now, and made some cute birthday themes people could use as an alternative to paper or evite. They are totally free, did I mention that? It’s in Beta, so don’t kill me if something goes wonky. You get what you pay for.

Show me the Wonderbelly Designs Free Wordpress Birthday Themes!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 Me, Me, Me, Family, Momversation

You would not believe the shenanigans going on in my daughter’s room. (Btw, that sounds SO WRONG.) The Oprah Winfrey Show sent me a studio-in-a-suitcase for me to set up and use on my appearance tomorrow. The show is filmed in sweet home Chicago, so subtract two hours for the time difference, one hour on standby, and one hour to get up and eat and get gussied up… looks like I’ll be up at the crack of Hell. Five a.m.

I just realized that we spent a lot of time talking about the lighting, and I was all, “Oh don’t worry, this side of the house gets all the morning sun, so we’re good.” Nice move, Swifty, the time change makes it even darker at six o’clock now, and judging by how it looks out there now, at seven, all I’ll have is the glint off the frosty grass.

I’m a little nervous filming in a different room after months of perfecting a setup in my living room for momversation.com, but in a stroke of genius seven years ago we installed the only DSL jack behind my daughter’s bed. In all fairness, it was an office then, but still. I never had a problem with it because I have a wireless network, but I need to be plugged in for Oprah. So I cleaned off her dresser and made sure none of her treasures are visible in the background, and police-taped the room until the kids go to dad’s tonight.

The topic is “Real Moms Confess” and there will be several moms Skyping in with me, some on the set, and we’ve also sent in taped bits that on reflection might be really funny for the audience at home, and still funny for me, but what was I thinking when I told the story of the nurses digging in the trash for evidence of amniotic fluid when I went into labor with my son?

Anyway, tune in tomorrow! I’m so excited I could pee. In fact, I think I will! And then the kids need to be dragged out of bed for the extra-early, Spring-Forward School Run.