FeeFiFoto Blog

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Adding Feedburner to your blog

Purely by ADD-induced accident, I came upon a video tutorial by Denise Wakeman at Build A Better Blog explaining clearly (and at a relatively leisurely clip, which I greatly appreciated) how to add Feedburner to my blog.  For any readers who know even less about building and promoting a blog than I do (hi Mom!), it's a click by click guide to checking all the right boxes so that readers and fans of your blog can show their appreciation for your blog on Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us and others.

This type of information and blog-tweaking is indispensable when you're blogging to promote your business, as I'll continue doing for FeeFiFoto in the next year.  The importance of rising above the static of millions of bloggers to make it easy for your readers to learn who you are and what you can do for them can't be underestimated.

So, thanks to Denise Wakeman for inching me ever closer to Blogging Square One, and to everyone else: do what the links say and nobody gets hurt -- Stumble me, Digg me, del.icio.us me (if that's possible), and have a nice day.

What's your newest, favorite blog feature?

Visit FeeFiFoto: we put your photos on almost anything.  Really -- almost anything!

Remember my giveaway on January 15: Mommy Has To Stay In Bed is available online at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble, but you don't have to let your fingers do the walking any further than the comment section of this post, because I have two copies of this delightful book to give away to two lucky winners.  Just leave me a comment about why you'd love this book, or who you'd give it to, and I'll draw two names on January 15, 2008.

Useful Information

Here at FeeFiFoto Blog we aim to educate our readers.  Today's useful piece of information is:

Puppies like yarn.

Thank you for your support.

Visit FeeFiFoto and personalize gifts with your puppy's photo.

Anybody Want To Buy A Blog?

How much does Technorati think your blog is worth?

Because apparently mine is worth precisely $27,097.92, and new siding is expensive.

My blog is worth $27,097.92.
How much is your blog worth?

Thanks Dane Carlson, for the ego boost.  Anyone know how to work this thing?

I've changed the date of my giveaway to January 15:
Mommy Has To Stay In Bed is available online at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble, but you don't have to let your fingers do the walking any further than the comment section of this post, because I have two copies of this delightful book to give away to two lucky winners.  Just leave me a comment about why you'd love this book, or who you'd give it to, and I'll draw two names on January 15, 2008.

Cleo on "Webkinz"

I've changed the date of my giveaway to January 15:
Mommy Has To Stay In Bed is available online at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble, but you don't have to let your fingers do the walking any further than the comment section of this post, because I have two copies of this delightful book to give away to two lucky winners.  Just leave me a comment about why you'd love this book, or who you'd give it to, and I'll draw two names on January 15, 2008.

About the picture: Webkinz Poodypooch (left) and Hope (right).

A Webkinz is a plush toy. They come with a code. Then, you go to www.webkinz.com. When you get there, you click adopt a pet. Then, Ms.Birdy, who works at the adoption center, guides you through the rest. On Webkinz, you can buy things, sell things, play things, make money, and make friends.The collars on my Webkinz don't  come with the Webkinz.The collars are bracelets I bought. You can even send objects to friends through kinz-post. On  Christmas,I tried to get on my Webkinz to see what SantaKinz had left me. It was sooooo busy,I had to try five times to get on Webkinz.Well,I guess that is how popular Webkinz are getting!

Check out FeeFiFoto, where you can personalize a stuffed animal with your favorite picture.

Holiday Season Preparations -- For 2008 (Yes, Already)

Planning for Holiday Season 2008

I've changed the date of my giveaway to January 15:
Mommy Has To Stay In Bed is available online at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble, but you don't have to let your fingers do the walking any further than the comment section of this post, because I have two copies of this delightful book to give away to two lucky winners.  Just leave me a comment about why you'd love this book, or who you'd give it to, and I'll draw two names on January 15, 2008.

I admire Trent at The Simple Dollar.  His thoughts make a lot of sense -- even though his advice is rarely new to me, seeing it gathered together ignites a bright light of recognition.  I spend so much time staring at my feet to make sure I don't trip and embarrass myself that I often lose sight of any big picture:

"The Day After: Six Ways to Deal With the Post-Christmas Money Blues - And Plan Ahead for Next Year

Think carefully about what went right - and what went wrong - this year. There were likely some gifts you gave that were great bargains and others that were overpriced duds. What can you learn from that? What sorts of gifts are really great bargains for the people on your list? ...

Do your incidental shopping for next Christmas in the next week or so. The week after Christmas is the best time to buy wrapping paper, ribbons, cards, tags, and so on for next Christmas. Pick them up at 50% off (or better) right now, then toss them into storage for eleven months...

Make your Christmas list now for next year. Make a list of everyone you plan on buying gifts for next Christmas, then start keeping an eye out for gifts right now. For example, I have next year’s list largely ready to go, along with gift ideas for many of the people. This enables me to spend the entire year finding huge bargains on great gifts. I just simply look for the items on sale over the next twelve months ..."

Thanks also to Jason Blanton posting at Blogging Tips for these useful reminders to monitor goals once they've been made (duh):

"Write down precise goals"

(Check -- I'm doing that here)

"Use smaller goals to achieve larger goals"

(Small bites are easier to swallow)

"Keep it in front of you"

(Here it is, staring me in the face -- how could I possibly ignore or forget?)

Cheers For Maureen Dowd

I've changed the date of my giveaway to January 15:
Mommy Has To Stay In Bed is available online at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble, but you don't have to let your fingers do the walking any further than the comment section of this post, because I have two copies of this delightful book to give away to two lucky winners.  Just leave me a comment about why you'd love this book, or who you'd give it to, and I'll draw two names on January 15, 2008.

Maureen Dowd digs below the surface to reveal truth in a manner that seems focused and effortless.  This comes from Wednesday's New York Times:

"When consumerism curdles, it’s tempting to become an emotional Marxist about Christmas.

Not Karl. Groucho.

“Now the melancholy days have come,” Groucho Marx wrote to pal and fellow comic Fred Allen on Dec. 23, 1953. “The department stores call it Christmas. Other than for children and elderly shut-ins, the thing has developed to such ridiculous proportions ... Some of the recipients are so ungrateful.

“For example, yesterday I gave the man who cleans my swimming pool $5. This morning I found two dead fish floating in the drink... For Christmas, I bought the cook a cookbook. She promptly fried it, and we had it for dinner last night. It was the first decent meal we had in three weeks. From now on I am going to buy all my food at the bookstore.”

I found Groucho’s grouchy letter in Caroline Kennedy’s “A Family Christmas,” a selection of songs, poetry, prose, letters and a list of the questions most frequently asked of Macy’s Santa.

...

As I read her book, it struck me that everyone must have a holiday tale they could write up and paste into the back of “A Family Christmas.”

Mine would be about Trigger.

When I was little, I got one of those wooden horses that bounced on springs for Christmas. I loved him and rode him every day.

One morning, I came down to the porch and the horse was gone. My mom explained that a poor woman and her son had walked by, and the little boy had stopped and stared longingly at the horse.

...

When she told me that she had given my horse to another child — a stranger — I was crushed. Whenever we fought for the next 16 years, I reminded her of her perfidy.

On my 21st birthday, I came home to find a bouncing horse with a handwritten sign in its mouth. “Hi. I’m back!” It was signed: “Trigger.”

I brought the horse of a different era to live with me, as a rebuke about how long it took me to appreciate one of my mom’s favorite sayings: “Don’t cry over things that can’t cry over you.”

Her lesson was lovely: that materialism and narcissism can only smother life — and Christmas — if you let them."

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Random Quizzes

I've changed the date of my giveaway to January 15:
Mommy Has To Stay In Bed is available online at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble, but you don't have to let your fingers do the walking any further than the comment section of this post, because I have two copies of this delightful book to give away to two lucky winners.  Just leave me a comment about why you'd love this book, or who you'd give it to, and I'll draw two names on January 15, 2008.

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 100% Punctuation: 100% Spelling: 100% Vocabulary: 100%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

Yay me!  I talk English good.

Your Preppy Name Is...

Remington Newell Moreau the Second But most people know you as Tip

What's Your Preppy Name?

Actually, this is Robespierre's.

Mommy Has To Stay In Bed -- Book Review And Giveaway

"I should write a book."  How many times have we muttered those words?  While coping with the frustrations of infertility I swore someday I'd put the entire grisly but frequently hilarious experience down on paper (like the time FedEx mistakenly delivered the cryfrozen sperm vials to my house instead of the doctor's office.  On the hottest day of the year.  As half a dozen fishin', huntin', beer chuggin' workmen milled around all day.  "Kin ah help yew with that heavy box, lady?"  "No thanks -- I'll drag it inside myself."  And why does something approximately the size of a stick of gum have to be shipped in a box approximately the size and heft of a microwave anyway?  But I digress.)  In any case, once the kids come along, who has time to write things down any more?

I received a copy of a book called Mommy Has To Stay In Bed recently from Annette Rivlin-Gutman.  When Annette was pregnant with her second child and confined to bed rest, she searched for appropriate reading material to help explain to her toddler daughter why mommy couldn't get up and play, take her to the park or share in adventures, and found -- nothing.  So Annette wrote her own book.  This charming paper back book with its warm watercolor illustrations uses gentle rhyme to tell the story of a mother and her small child who can't engage in their customary fun and vigorous pastimes: 

"My Mommy is in bed.
She can't get up and go.
It's not that she doesn't want to,
but the doctor says 'no.'"

The mother comes up with creative and comforting ways to pass the time that feel nearly as familiar as their previous rambunctious exploits:

"We dream of far off places
and talk about when I'm grown.
We pretend to live like princesses
and imagine the bed is our throne."

The book fearlessly voices the child's apprehensions in a way that leaves the subject open for discussion:

"Sometimes I get so angry,
I just want to shout,
"I don't like having Mom in bed
day in and day out."

Mommy tells me to scream,
hit a pillow, have a cry.
If I'm angry, she understands
and accepts the reasons why."

One of the best qualities of this book is the universality of its message, which is not restricted to children whose mothers are confined to bedrest due to pregnancy complications.  Never does Annette mention the reason for the confinement, which could just as easily be caused by an injury or illness.

Mommy Has To Stay In Bed is available online at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble, but you don't have to let your fingers do the walking any further than the comment section of this post, because I have two copies of this delightful book to give away to two lucky winners.  Just leave me a comment about why you'd love this book, or who you'd give it to, and I'll draw two names on January 15, 2008.

Robespierre On The Wii

Cleopatra and I have the Wii. We got it as a reward for my Black Belt 1st Degree. Although we only have Wii Sports and Dance Dance Revolution The Hottest Party, we have a lot of fun with two games. We were even able to teach our mom how to play Dance Dance Revolution. On the Mii/character channel, we have about 20 people.

Here is a piece of advice: do not download the internet connection because it makes the graphics become worse and it messes up the Wii other ways as well.

Another piece of advice: a good tennis player is as tall and as skinny as possible. A good baseball player is as short and as big as possible.

Also, Put The Pieces For The Wii  Away Or Else Your Parents Might Ground You AND The Wii For A While.

Wordless Wednesday: Dream Big

Oops -- Must Have Gotten The Zip Code Wrong

Enough with the catalogs already!  Enough with the real estate agents dying to sell my house and help me buy a new one.  Enough with the offers to trim my trees, resurface my driveway, clean my teeth or find me a date for Saturday night.  Check out Not Always Right.  I thought I was the only person who did this:

"Why Asking Why Is A Bad Idea ...

Me: “Okay, and if you could just sign the top line of this receipt copy for the return, you’ll be all set.”

Customer: “Wait, this isn’t my correct address. This address printed on this receipt is not mine.”

Me: “Yes ma’am, I realize that. However, our cash registers make us enter address and telephone information whenever anyone does a return or exchange. It’s for fraud prevention, etc. However, whenever I request a customer’s address, they panic, clutch their purse to their chest and hiss, ‘Why would you need to know that?’ Or they shout, ‘I’m not getting on any more [g** d***] mailing lists!’ or they are conspiracy theorists who are convinced that I’m an agent of the government monitoring their spending habits through my DOS-based cash register. Or they think I want to come and hang out with them after I get off work. And it really doesn’t matter how many times I try to explain that it’s a fraud prevention requirement and that I’m neither immediately passing it on to Big Brother nor to my drug dealer named Tito. So I make up addresses because I don’t particularly want to have these conversations anymore.”

Customer, after a long pause: “Yes, that’s a very good plan you’ve come up with.” *scampers away from me*"

Admit It -- This Hits Home, Even A Little

The 12 Pains of Christmas | Funny Jokes at JibJab

Thanks for the huge giggle, But I Digress

He Was Cute At First, But Before Too Long He Got Kind Of Annoying

Slacker Mommy laments pressure to possess the latest whatever:

"Snuggle-Kins Musical Moves Stroller is now in stock at Fisher-Price for the low price of $20 and $5.95 shipping!

One of last year's hot toys was this. It could be bought for nearly double the price on Ebay and now this year my Target couldn't seem to sell the one they had on their shelf until a week ago.

I find this whole auction phenomena quite intriguing. Fisher Price has a Snuggle-Kins Musical Stroller that is sold out everywhere but parents/grandparents are paying as much as $120 for this $20 stroller on Ebay. You heard me right. A $20 stroller that will probably fall apart before the credit card bill arrives. So who really wants this stroller? The parents or the toddler?"

I remember people standing in line and breaking bones over Cabbage Patch dolls and pink Power Rangers.  I even remember Wayne Walker.  My mother, Schpilkes, would have pummeled old ladies and Sunday School teachers to get her hands on the newest Beanie Babies, ostensibly for her precious grandchildren.  She still keeps her stash in a drawer, which the kids may look at and carefully arrange, but not otherwise touch, play with, sneeze on or for that matter think about, without her permission. 

I never participated in most of the looniness, not due to an elevated Scrooginess quotient, but primarily because the timing wasn't right -- I just didn't have access to appropriately aged children. 

Dogs Rule, Cats ...

From Frost Fire Zoo.

Thirteen Ways To Show Your Kids You Love Them

Attend School Programs, Functions, Games, Recitals

My mother, Shpilkes, complained vigorously about attending our events; nevertheless she came to everything, enduring school plays, choir concerts, college and law school graduations, (but no athletics because the only competitive event for which we qualified was to see who was the klutziest).

I've attended events not only for my kids but also for my sister's, and observed that just as the annual play or concert begins to wear thin the kids achieve a new level of competence and excitement that keeps me coming back.  As grandparents, Shpilkes and The Man From D.A.D. attend five times more kid events than they used to; my father would happily attend a showing of cotton balls glued on construction paper if any of his grandchildren had had a hand in it.  Last weekend they flew halfway across the country, to Napa, California, to attend my niece's art school final show; TMF D.A.D kvelled (Yiddish for "bragged") to me for thirty minutes over the phone about my niece's forty foot long installation of airbrushed vellum, as well as the projects of 39 other high school art students he'd never even met before (he's an equal opportunity kveller).

Wordless Wednesday

Things have to get better, don't they?

Tackle It Tuesday

My Tackle for this Tuesday is to turn this:

into this:

Done!

Hero Is Such An Overused Word

Alexis Goggins, a seven-year-old girl, threw herself in front of her mother to protect her from a gunman on December 1.  During a six-hour surgery doctors inserted pins in her right arm, removed her right eye and wired her jaw shut.

Read about Alexis here and here and here.

The Alexis Goggins Hero Fund has been created to help pay for this special girl's care.  Send checks to: Campbell Elementary School in care of the Alexis Goggins Hero Fund, 2301 E Alexandrine St, Detroit, MI 48207.

I did.

Giving

Staci Schoff, A Mommy With An Attitude, laments the Scrooginess she feels when she contemplates that her kids don't need anything more for Christmas than an effective lesson on the necessity of giving back:

"This time of year people call me Scrooge, because when they ask me what my kids need for Christmas I always answer that they need someone to come and haul away three-quarters of the useless junk they already have. But it annoys me to be compared to Scrooge, because the spirit of giving at Christmas is about giving to people who actually need something (which I am all for), not about giving a bunch of crap to my spoiled kids.

I asked J to help me pick out gifts for a child we sponsor, showing him a catalog with things like vaccines, wells, mosquito netting, map puzzles, jump ropes and backpacks. He looked unimpressed by the selection and said, “How about if we give her some Star Wars DVDs instead?”

“That’s not a good choice,” I said, “because she doesn’t even have a TV to watch them on.”

“Well,“ his eyes leapt out of their sockets, “I think we should send her a TV then!”

So I explained that people don’t need TVs. “People need love, healthy food, clean water, medicine, shelter from the elements and peace,” I said, “That’s all anybody needs.”

...

Have It, But Don't Eat It

Look at these adorable confections, and not a single calorie in the bunch, although there's a lot of fiber.  They're lavender sachets crocheted by Norma Lynn Hood of San Jose, California.  Not only does she do gorgeous work, she gives all the profits to charity, most notably animal protection groups.  I think I need to locate some of these for Cleo, whose nickname around our house is "Cupcake."  It's a lot less extravagant than the Steuben crystal cupcake, which I also want for her, but to merit that she'll have to do something really special like win a Nobel prize or make her bed every day for a year.

Thanks for the reference, Oh Joy!  You're right -- they are absolutely "squeezable."  Thanks also to Cat Seto.