Kristen and I take in the sights of Chicago courtesy of Safety First and 360 PR. No really! We were like, totally out on the town and there just happened to be a giant logo floating in the sky. And um…a curtain. Behind it all. And some strings.

One of the great things about BlogHer is the chance to connect with incredible women I might otherwise never meet. So I thought (somewhat inspired by David Wescott’s new series of posts about online female role models) it would be fun to introduce you to some of the women who I don’t think I’ve really talked about on Mom-101.

And also introduce you to some great fruits.

Carol from NYCityMama is one of the sweetest, most authentic people you could ever ask to meet. I get to see her a lot at press events in New York City because in a total bizarre concidence, she does in fact live in New York City. Which is so weird because it’s in her blog name and all. Seriously, randomness like that happens all the time and if you read the Celestine Prophesy and got through more than the first three pages after about 16 attempts like I did, you would know just what I mean.
[photo credit]

The starfruit is native to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India, although I ate it in the Dominican Republic last year. It doesn’t actually look like a star because stars are generally spherical.

MomtrolFreak, aka Laura, asked one of the first questions in my panel about brands and blogs that was so awesome, I should have jumped right off the stage and handed my microphone to her. Here she is (at left) with Shelly who I don’t know but I’m sure is also lovely. She may not in fact be lesser-known since she won a Social Luxe Lounge award for guilty pleasure blog, but for some reason @momtrolfreak doesn’t yet have 4 million twitter followers, which is beyond me.
[photo credit]

This is a prickly pear which actually tastes more like watermelon than cactus or pear and looks like it would be a bitch to get out of my kids’ clothes.
(photo credit)

Alma calls herself MarketingMommy and I’m only bummed I didn’t get to hang out with her more – although we did get our fill of togetherness around the pathetic $5 blackjack table when we spoke at a conference in Vegas earlier this year. She is both an insightful blogger, and a great friend because she doesn’t rat you out when you order blue cheese dressing with your french fries.
[photo credit]

This is a Quince which is particularly good as a paste served with manchego cheese, when you’re entertaining pretentious foodie friends and want to impress them. If you are entertaining botanist friends and want to impress them, call it a Cydonia Oblonga–and then just serve chips or something.

Here’s Sam, aka Tempting Mama, doubling-fisting cocktails at the wonderful Nikon sponsored party while having her hair made all the more tempting. (She could also use some love and support on her blog right now so…)I would have joined her in the chairbut I’ll be honest, I saw the curling iron and ran away. Also, I had to go take blurry pictures of Carson Kressley, which are blurry in part because I don’t own a Nikon.

Nikon, if you don’t give me a free camera right now I’m going to tell the whole world about my crappy photography skills. That’ll show you!

This is a citrangequat which actually, until now, I thought was a part of the female anatomy. Turns out this is not at all the case as you can see from the leaves. It’s part orange, part kumquat, part citronella candle or something like that.

In yet another terrible photo, this is Josette from Halushki, one of my beloved roommates (the other being Christina of Fairly Oddmother), who is here wielding two free kiwis, thus covering both blogger and fruit all in one photo.

And they said it couldn’t be done.