Virtual Cocktail Party - Second Annual Virtual Bloggers Conference

¡Hey there everyone! And thank you for coming to our virtual cocktail party. We're kicking off my second annual Virtual Bloggers Conference with a cocktail party tonight, and we had a little bit of bad news, and we're hoping she'll make it on time, but Heather Faye is traveling to a show and she got held up in traffic, so she's trying to make it to a place where she can perform for us. So if she comes on, we'll be blessed. If not, we're gonna have to make it up to everybody on another time. So right now I'm ready I'm ready to drink with everyone. This is my little shot of tuaca. If you've never had it, it's a wonderful thing. I just posted a picture of it. Cheers!

Cheers, Chef!

Cheers!

Cheers, Chefy!

Cheers!

Prost!

I'll acknowledge that I have woodchuck pear cider because I don't even like beer, but I like hard cider. There it is.

Yummy.

We'll have to get you doing "If a Woodchuck Could Chuck." And Mia, what do you have for your alcohol tonight? What are you drinking?

Well, I have it in my giant Bat Crap Crazy mug, but I am drinking the cheapest wine that I love. It's called Rex and Goliath, and it has a giant 47-pound rooster on the label. Love it. Chardonnay. Oh, and I also have Chimay, double fisting.

So in other words, your favorite wine has a big what on it?

That's right.

I think she said rooster. Rooster.

Starts with a C.

We're just going to let that one go.

A big cocktail on it.

Big cocktail, there you go. Close enough. Mackie, what do you got with us tonight? What are you drinking?

So I was on a Twitter party yesterday, Twitter chat yesterday with the winemaker of Montes. And he's here in California making wine, very, very much well-respected. So very excited to have spoken to him, Alberto Elkart. Anyway, so he sent me a couple of wines. One of them was this one. It's a Star Angel. It's a Pinot Noir, 2011. I haven't tasted it. I'm kind of just letting it breathe. So I'm going wine snobbish on you guys, sorry. Yeah, yeah, you are.

That's your—

But cheers.

So cheers.

It smells really good.

Yeah, I'm just inviting a few other people in here, see if we can have a real party today.

Yeah.

And Larry, my friend, thanks so much for coming by.

Chef, it's always a pleasure. I am drinking some local brew, it's called Stag. We have two beers here, Stag and Carib. This is a little fuller-bodied beer, and I am— I squeeze the lime in it and I put some simple syrup and some ice, because that's how we drink ice— our beer here, with ice.

Really?

So it's kind of a beer cocktail. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Larry, do you have to drink before the ice melts? Is that part of the challenge of it, or is it okay to have it watery?

It's okay, it's okay to have it, you know, Just melt and—

That is different.

Yeah, it is. Well, the beer never warms up, it's always cold. I squeeze the lime in it and I put some—

Somebody's got a player on.

And some ice, because that's how we drink our beer.

I think that might be you, Jeff, you might have a player running there in the background.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Larry, do you have to drink before the ice melts?

Do you have it on playing live?

There you go. Look at Larry.

While he sorts it out— I muted you.

No offense, though.

Before we get to Jeff, I want to point out one of my accessories. This is a very valuable accessory because I like to go camping, and if you have a bottle and you are camping, sometimes you tip it over. Just happens. So I take this and stick it in. So now I can tip it over all I want, nothing's gonna happen. But check this out, it also has little grooves. I don't know if you can see the grooves, but this allows me to twist off things for the twist-off. It's also got a metal billy bobber to flip it off. And so it does all these wonderful things. Get it at Bed Bath Beyond. There you go.

Is that thing a multi-purpose tool?

What's that?

Does that fit in a wine bottle as well?

Well, I think so. I don't know.

I don't drink wine that much, but I'm just asking. Hey, Jeff, if you want to unmute now. There we go.

I'm all good. I'm sorry about that.

That's okay.

It's after hours, so I'm like, I don't know what's going on.

I hear you.

I hear you.

Sorry.

Hey, nice hat there, Jeff. Nice hat.

That's right, man. That's our South by Southwest hat, buddy.

Hey, Jeff.

Hi.

Hey, how you doing?

Good. Didn't mean to mute you, but—

Yeah, good to meet you.

Oh, so we have some newbies here that haven't met each other. That's always a good thing.

Well, I've watched Larry a bunch of times, so—

Everybody watches.

I know, yeah. Thank you, thank you, Jeff. What's some of your work too? I think you've done for quite a few folks.

Well, thank you, yeah.

You're the bumper guy.

Yeah, that's me. I'm the bumper guy in more ways than one, but I am the bumper guy.

I think the more I drink, the more innuendos are just going to come flying through my head, so I'm going to turn off the mic.

That's fine.

That's my dog. That's my dog.

Sharon with asthema, Sharon.

No, just bumper guy, everybody sees Larry, you know, the whole thing.

So Chef, let me ask you. I know last year you had the first version of the bloggers conference, and this is the second year. What different— anything different this year?

Some different, not that many people back again. There's only a few that are returning for the second, not because I didn't like them, I just tried to change it up.

Right, right.

I have learned something from this year, very valuable, and I think next year's gonna be a whole different story definitely going to start earlier and I think we're going to accept panels next year. I'm going to have people present panels to me, just like in a real conference like you would. That will, I think, take a lot of the pressure off of me of having to find people. It might make it a little more interesting as well. It's a process and I added one more session on this year. —and I could have honestly, there were like 3 or 4 more topics I wanted to add on. I even thought of breaking them down to like half an hour or 45 minutes, and I just thought, this is crazy, I will just kill myself.

Because last year you alone conducted all this session. Yes.

Yeah, and Lisa went to Philadelphia for the weekend because she knew she wouldn't see me.

So Chef Dennis, for the people that are brand new, this is their first year, what is it that's going on? What are we doing here?

What are we doing here today? We are having a meet and greet. This is our virtual little drinking session, a cocktail party with a lot of the people that are presenting and just some of our friends. And I've just been inviting people in as I see them, and we're getting ready to kick off the conference because at any conference you go to, you always have a party the night before. Usually there's food. Unfortunately, you gotta bring your own to this, just like with the rest of the sessions.

But you know, we don't have to bring our own drinks?

Well, you had to do that too. At a normal conference, you'd also pay a little bit for it.

No kidding. I like the price for this conference, I have to say.

No pants required.

Unless Mia makes us do the "what you wearing underneath her?" I hope she doesn't do that tonight because What's on the bottom? There you go. What's on the bottom? There you go. Because, Larry, tell us. Wait, don't show us.

Maybe act it out, like sounds like, two syllables. What is on the bottom, Larry?

Starts with a B, ends with an R.

Butter? That's a good one. That's good, that's good, Maggie.

And you haven't started drinking yet?

I just sipped it. Well, actually, I started drinking at like 10 in the morning. That's Chef's fault right there. I took one for the team, but that was 10 AM. So this isn't so bad. It's actually— this is a very nice wine.

This is very elegant. I blame Chef for responsible for a lot of my drinking habits, just so you know. I know.

I make her drink, actually. There's a difference there. But I know Maggie's part of a regular feature on Good Day Google+ now, and she comes on every other week and talks about wines or drinks or whatever strikes her fancy. So far she's had wine on the first show, and this show was a nice cocktail that everyone really enjoyed. It was a skinny cocktail.

The sunrise, it's a skinny cocktail because I'm almost done with my skinny cocktails I've been filming. That's something for bloggers because, you know, a lot of bloggers are into being on camera, and I love it. You know, it's like, let's talk online, why not? And that's something that I keep on hearing over and over again at some of the conferences I've I've attended lately that, you know, this is the way of the future of— who's pinging me? I'm sorry.

I invited Christopher Vogelman in and he's just answering. He's indisposed. He has no pants on. Yeah, he has no pants on. But no, it's just a fun evening. And if you guys are drinking out there, please feel free to take a snapshot of what you're drinking and upload it to the comment stream and show us what you are drinking tonight. I just put mine up a little while ago.

That's a good point, Chef. I have to prepare another one.

Wow. Yeah, look at Larry. He's busting through it.

Uh-oh. This could be interesting.

I mean, I'm a lightweight. I want to see a loaded Larry. I think that'll be fun.

Wait, wait, wait. The Pirate's Pub, I used to get loaded, especially when those shows went from— sometimes it would be an hour, hour and a half. One time we did a 3-hour show. By the end of that show, I was lit.

Can I, can I, can I dish? Can I dish and tell? Larry, permission? Permission to speak, Pirate? I've seen Larry a couple times. Remember that one show, it was one of my shows, where we were filming, and I heard Larry start slurring his words, and it was towards the end, and I thought, oh no.

Oh, that was Larry. That was— yeah, yeah, yeah. That was when you made your Larryhito. That was the Larryhito, exactly. That was the Larryhito. And that was a public one.

The slurring live? Was that on a live broadcast? Because I thought—

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was my show.

It was like the green screen, but for real.

It kicked in towards the end. Yeah. Towards the end of the show.

Oh, Mike Alton is tuning in from Eva's hospital room. I'm glad she's doing better. Hey, Mike. Hey, Mike Alton. He's probably writing a blog post.

While he's there. He's a busy guy, he is.

Yes, I love me some Michael Alton. Cheers, brother. Here's to even feeling better. I'm excited to get that second baby going.

Well, all I know is we're doing a wine show Monday night, and nice, we have to drink 6 wines.

Did you see my face? I know.

Taking a shot for me, Lauren?

With 6 wines in half an hour?

Yeah, let me take a shot of that.

Okay, I'll talk so I'm right there so it's in the camera so you got a good shot of it because I don't have the camera. I don't have another camera ready.

Yeah, we've got 6 bottles. I'm gonna get my Greg and you're gonna get your Florida Greg to help, right?

Yes, yeah. Glad you didn't call me my Greg because that would have just been wrong.

That's why I said You're Florida Greg.

Florida Greg, and me is Greg. Okay, yeah, Carolyn Caperna is also coming over.

That's your Carolyn then too, how's that?

Absolutely, and Greg's Jen will be coming. That sounds like a horse now, Greg's Jen.

Kim is having rum with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Kim Boltman, Kim Boltman, she's having a—

What's that? Is he? Ooh, nice. I'm with this. I love her. What's Jeff C drinking? I am drinking tuaca. Oh no, Jeff—

that was Jeff C, not Chef E.

We're already starting to slur a little bit. Actually, somebody pinged me today and goes, asked something about Dennis, and I was like, who's Dennis? Oh, you mean Sheffy?

Oh, yeah. I'm just— I'm drinking— I'm in East Texas, so I'm drinking sweet tea out of a Mason jar.

Mason jar? Yeah. Does that Mason jar got a handle? It does. It's pretty slick, isn't it? Okay, hold it up there.

Hold it up there. Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah, I still have work to do, so I can't really get snockered right now.

So just regular tea. That's a nice big mason jar. It is.

Imagine that full of red nylon.

Take another drink, Maggie. I'm going to get a picture of you too. Cheese! Oh, you're so cute. I can't take it. Alright, there you go. So, Sheffy, who's returned from last year?

Actually, it's very few. Ronnie Benson, of course, the Hangout Helper. Hey. Hi. And Ryan Hanley is back. And Ryan's actually doing two. Yes. Joshua Berg is back. Cool. Martin Shervington is back. Martin. Martin. I think that's about it. Because we had some different topics last year and some different people. And we've moved around, and we've added some as— even as I started, I put a few more people in as I thought of them. Because this was kind of like a— I didn't forget about it, but it was with so much happening and everything going on with all the shows, it was a little harder this year to get everything together because I am a little bit busier.

And this is a very interesting weekend that you have the bloggers conference. It's Google's 3rd anniversary. Google+, Google+. Right. Tomorrow is their birthday. Yeah.

Happy birthday to Google+. So Chef, you picked a good weekend.

Everybody will be in a G+ mood.

And Monday is a social media day. Yes. Oh really? Yeah, I'm actually hearing Martin speak on Monday. It's a big social media day in San Diego.

Chefie and I are doing a little something for that, but I didn't realize Martin was too. That's awesome.

I'm not surprised. If any of you are around and want to jump in with us, please feel free on Monday. We'll ping you in. And any of you guys got to go too, we understand.

Please come on Monday because I don't know how Chef is going to form a sentence, to be honest with you.

Chefie, you're going to be having your show? On Monday?

We're going to be having 3 shows on Monday, Claire. Oh, jeez. Wow. Wow. Yeah. 16 8-hour days over a 4-day period.

Oh, man. Oh.

That's like those old-school programs where it was like the dance-a-thons where the first people were, like, laying on each other and they're still dancing after, like, 20 hours. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh my god. Yeah.

I'm going to be on so long, I might start doing, like, PBS or something.

Chef is doing what I was doing, you know, back in the day. Sometimes I would be doing 4 hangouts for the week.

HOAs. I remember those days.

It was the Pirates Pub, then it was the Caribbean Cooking Show, then Serena Bland and Stacy Frazier and then Daniel Fontaine. So sometimes it would be 4 shows a week.

You used to have some interesting shows on too. I remember you had an artist one time doing body painting, wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah, that was, um, he's still on Google Plus, Paul, what's Paul's last name? Paul Rostand, Paul Rostand, great body artist.

Yeah, you were pushing the envelope back then.

When did you start doing Hangouts, Larry?

Uh, 26th of February, 2012.

Wow. Wow, pioneer. You're an old-timer. We had, um—

I'm an old-timer. You are.

We have Matthew Rapoport on today, and I was calling him Old Man Hangout.

Yeah, Matt used to be doing a show every week.

Sometimes 2 shows a week. Yeah, like marathon ones.

Yeah, yeah, real, real marathon. And what's his name, Mr. McDermott? Dan McDermott. Dan McDermott, he has—

I mean, he's still doing it on Friday. He's still in the longest-running show. Exactly, longest-running show too, right? It's also the longest show.

Yes, 4 hours. It's been on longest and it's 4 hours. Is that how long it is? Something like that.

It's about 4 hours sometimes. Friday night too. I don't know if that's the best night, but that's the night.

Yeah, Friday night.

But he does not do it as an event, right? No, no, he just does it as just— he goes right to— does it? Yeah, I wanted to share it on my Friday things, but I think he just— he's straightforward.

Yeah, he is. I don't think I've seen him create an event for that show.

Is he still doing that with Pam Adler? That's who we met in San Diego. Oh, yeah. Pam Adler.

That was fun. Yeah. So am I the only one who's wondering, like, I guess he can hold it that long.

Because after an hour, I'm like, we're going to fall in the room. He gets up and leaves. He's got Alan Fistenberg helps him run it. Yeah.

I think we did a 4-hour show, and I was like, I got to go. 'cause we were drinking mimosas too. That's not a good recipe for a 4-hour show.

Just wear Depends. Just wear Depends.

That's what I do. Or those astronaut diapers like that crazy guy.

Yeah, you notice during my show I just kind of go—

and then I'm fine. That's why you raise your hand and say, "Mind if I go to the bathroom?" Sure. Yeah. Oh, that's in "May I Use the Bathroom?" and it goes, "Hey." That's a classic.

What is that? Something about scoundrels.

Dirty rotten scoundrels.

Dirty rotten scoundrels.

Yep. Here we go.

Christopher Vogelman says, "We are three chefs to the wind." I'm loving how everybody's picture shows up on the comments. I know I'm easily amused, but it's not funny. Oh, I like this one.

"Safely loaded" versus "very unloaded." Well, then he would have to have the adult diaper on if he was very unloaded. I'm kidding.

Well, since everybody's drinking, did any of the chefs— do you ever make your own alcohol? Because I mean, I used to make beer a long time ago.— but like your own wine, you guys do that kind of stuff? I did make a tequila.

You know, my dad owns an apple ranch in Mexico, and every year, the harvest, during the harvest time, we make apple wine. So when I was a kid, I remember, you know, going out there and everybody would have a little apple wine. And of course, little kids, this is Mexico, you know, it's like, here, have a little apple wine. It's like, woohoo! Yeah, here it's like the stick you in jail. Yeah, so it's cool.

Here's like anything goes. My grandmother used to make hibiscus wine, and that was, that was real good. And she had a bed of aloe vera, and she used to make aloe vera wine, which was very interesting. Tasted sort of— I wasn't too crazy about it, but the hibiscus wine was It was very good. Now I have a neighbor that's making hibiscus wine, so I, you know, buy a bottle from her every so often. Looks good. Is it good? Yeah, it's good. It's real good. She makes a really, really good—

Do they have to add spirits to that to make it wine, or does it ferment? It ferments.

It ferments. It ferments. She has it fermenting, I would say, a good 6 months. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.

Nice. I want to— does it surprise anyone that I want to own a vineyard?

No. Does it surprise anyone that I would come out to your vineyard? I would love to.

I want a wine label. Like, I've really looked into it. One day.

So, Dennis Littley Vineyard, and then with little drunkie cabins. Drunky cabins. Mama needs a drunky cabin. Like, let's just put me in her little drunky cabin. Okay.

Probably referred to as the Betty Ford Clinic. Drunky cabin.

You guys made wine out of apples. Did you ever do apple cider at all?

Hard apple cider? Oh yeah, apple cider. In fact, we have apple pay. P-A-Y is pay in Spanish. So we used to make apple pie. Yeah, yeah. Pies. What else do we make? Oh, it's not an apple butter, but it's like this apple jam thing that's fabulous. I don't even know how to describe how awesome that thing is with cheese and just— oh my goodness, I'm getting hungry. I'm getting salivating just thinking about it. But yeah.

People have Magda on a Food and Booze, I think, because she just loves food and booze as much as We do.

Have you ever had apple pie moonshine?

No. Want to send me some?

It is good. I mean, it tastes like apple pie, but it's moonshine, so you get— yeah, it's bad. Bad stuff for Mr. E.

It's like, what, 80% alcohol or something? Oh yeah.

I mean, it's— and the thing is, you can buy it legally now, at least in Texas. Really? But there's still the people who make apple pie moonshine. You know, they mix apple juice with it and put usually a cinnamon stick in it, and it's so good, but it is so potent, you know.

Alright, so Jeff, next year if we do South by Southwest, I will bring you some.

I will give you some apple pie moonshine. Okay. Yeah. Here we have a comment up from Sherry Kessinger, says her dad makes wine and has for years, some good batches and some not so good. He'll make it out of all kinds of things, apricots, raspberries, Yeah, you can actually make wine with anything, any fruits. I remember growing up where I lived, we had a real ethnic Italian area not that far away, and I had friends from there, and they would be making— they wouldn't give it to me, but they'd give it to my parents. "Oh, I'm making some Dego Red." That's what they referred to it as. Dego Red. Yeah, red wine that would like take the paint off the car. Wow.

So I have a question for you, Larry. Is hibiscus the same as jamaica? You know, Mexicans, there's an agua de jamaica. It's made out of a flower. And I was just curious if hibiscus is the same flower as that.

Maybe Maggie knows. Yeah, maybe Maggie, because hibiscus is hibiscus. Is it the same thing, Larry?

The answer is yes. Nice.

Are you sure? Are you just saying that?

Let me think about this. Yes. Okay, good.

I like how Agua Jamaica.

So are there medicinal wines in all those? Like the hibiscus and the aloe vera, did they have medicinal properties or were they just made—

Well, the aloe vera has medicinal properties. It's good for like when you get a sunburn or any kind of burns, right?

But I mean, I'm talking about the wine. When you make the wine, do they have medicinal?

Well, aloe vera is also good for thinning your blood. So if you drink it, it would tend to thin your blood. But you can't drink too much of it though, because it will really get your blood thin. And that, that's not good. So if you're Some of the older folks would just take the aloe vera, make little slits in it, and chop it up and put it in your food maybe twice a week. Because as you know, as you get older, your blood sort of coagulates, it gets, you know, thick. So that would kind of thin your blood, and they don't get strokes or heart disease, you know, kind of keeps your blood flowing.

I like any juicy rationalization to booze it up, so yeah, right there with you, sister. Right, I know, but I think that's where Sheffy was going, like, does it— is it better for you?

Yeah, well, in, in this raw state, I guess it's good, but with, with the alcohol, I Yeah, I guess it probably carries over some of the properties, Chef.

Just curious, you know, again, an excuse to drink is always a good thing.

So Chef, are you finding you're drinking more now that you've moved to a retirement world? Not really.

You know, I really don't drink very much at all. It's a rare occasion, and I keep a bottle of Tuaca and I keep a bottle of Limoncello in the freezer, and every now and then I'll get a bottle out and a couple shot glasses, and I ask Lisa, She'll drink wine or a beer just about every night, not many, but like 1 or 2 glasses.

Oh, you're telling on your wife. Look at you.

I buy it for her too.

I think that's what I call why you putting her business out on the interstate. Interstate? Yeah, that's what I say.

She's not here, and I know she's not watching it, so oh well. It's not recorded or anything. Yeah, it's not even recorded. I had a waitress that worked for me one time and I said, "Oh well." She goes, "That's what they say in Florida." Oh well. Really? She goes, "Yeah, people from Florida say oh well." So now when I say oh well, I'm in the right state. Yeah. Oh well. I have no idea what she meant, but still. But no, I don't drink. What I do find myself, now that I'm in Florida, is sleeping much later than I used to. I'm getting up at like 7:30 and 8 o'clock in the morning now. That's insane for me because I've always been a 6 AM, 6:30 person. It's so quiet here. It's like the dead. I guess everybody's so old. I don't know.

How are you adapting to the weather? This is like your first summer, isn't it, maybe?

No. I go outside and it's oh my God weather. As soon as I walk out the door, it's like, holy crap. And then I'm outside for 5 minutes and I go, it really isn't that bad. And the humidity, I know it's coming, I know it is, but so far— and the people are saying it's humid, I don't feel it because I don't sweat. I mean, in Jersey, I would walk outside and I would just start perspiring. It was just so ungodly humid and just sticky hot, ugly kind of hot. Here you bake Here I actually feel myself getting warm, like my skin's getting hot. I never felt that in New Jersey. I would just sweat profusely. It's a different kind of heat.

You're not feeling the humidity in Florida? Not yet.

I know it's got to be coming. I know August is going to rear its ugly head. The people right now are saying this is the most humid it's ever been in June, and I'm going, "This ain't humid." It's not humid. This is hot, but it's not humid. So, you know, maybe I'm adapting. I do get a chill when it drops below 80 every now and then, so I might be adapting too much. But you look at our weather thing, and it's 93, 94, 91, 92, 94, 93, and then 40%, 50%, 50% chance of rain. It's just like 40% and 60% every day, and we haven't gone below 90% in a couple weeks.

So let me ask you a question. What did you learn last year, Chef Dennis, from the blogger virtual convention or whatever this conference that you did that you're trying to take advantage of that and bring that out this year? In other words, what did you— did you learn something last year that you are now enacting this year? And if you didn't, it's okay.

You know, not really too much different. There really wasn't. It went exceptionally well, and I learned— you taught me a pattern, and I had a hard time remembering that pattern. But after that weekend, after doing it 6 times on Saturday and another 4 times on Sunday, I had it down cold and I could repeat it in my sleep. I always tell people, shut down your computer, walk away from it, don't just restart it, then come back, turn it on, and then it was copy and paste the YouTube URL, put it in. I had the commentary, I had it all down. It was a science and I could start a Hangout in 5 minutes. That's one thing it did teach me. Again, you drilled that into me enough times that I finally remembered it. Doesn't— it just seems second nature. But this year's conference is pretty much based the same way, same time frame. I thought about changing it up, but it works, so I wasn't gonna fix it kind of a thing. Although, as I got into it, I started thinking, you know, I could have done it this year. I started thinking I could have done it this way, I could have done it that way, I could have changed this. So I actually started a page already for 2015. To put down my ideas of what I'm going to change so I don't forget them because it will be May next year and I'll go, oh, I got to start this.

You scared me for a second. I thought you said you were going to run this as a page, but no, you're still doing— No, no, no.

Okay. Page bad. Mongo like candy, but page bad.

Is there one that you're looking forward to more than the other and why?

Looking forward to your show, right? Aren't you on? Maggie's not on one on this.

She's, uh, she's on my regular show. She might pop in if she's available to one of the sessions or so, uh, but, uh, and Larry as well, if you're around, if you want to pop into one. But no, you know, I love listening to the SEO guys because I learned through osmosis Other than that, I don't have a lot. I mean, I know sort of how it works, but if you ask me to really explain it— like somebody asked me to do something on SEO one time, and I said, are you sure you want me to do it? I said, I don't know. I said, here, I'll give you the names of people. I mean, I know a guy that knows SEO.

Yeah, I leave that to the experts. But thank you for the offer, Chef. Now Chef, let me ask you, I know since you've been on here it's been a constant drive for you to get your bloggers that's on Facebook over to the G-Side with the bloggers that you— the blogging conferences that you're doing, the one you did last year and the one you're doing this year. Have you seen any movement from that side over to here?

It's like beating a dead horse. The ones that are over there are staying there. And sometimes I'm almost thankful that they are, because they really don't understand the concept of Google+ and sharing and being positive and— Engaging. To the ones that are over there, it's like, how can I schedule this? What am I gonna get out of this? What's the best to my advantage? And we all want to succeed, but we don't necessarily need to do it over the backs of other people. Right. I'm not saying that they're all like that, but the mentality over there is it's more about what they can get out of everything, Dennis Littley, as opposed to what they can do to be more engaging and be happier. I don't want to live like that. It's that kind of rat race mentality. And God bless them, they're making money, which I'm not. So it's working for them, but is that the quality of life you want? Is that how you want your blog to be?

Right. I love that you're saying that, the be happy part, because that's really an element that a lot of people take out, but it's more like, whoo, ain't nobody got time for that.

Yeah, it's too much drama too. It's all about drama.

Yes, oh boy, is it ever. You and I, Chef, we're both food bloggers, we understand this. There's a lot of drama around here. Really? Oh yeah, quite a bit. In the blogging world just in general, I think, you know, it just happens.

Is that the comparison thing, Maggie, that it's like I'm better than you, or I don't like how, I don't like that ingredient you put in, I don't like how you presented it, like everybody's just kind busty because it seems like everybody here is more like, oh, check out what Maggie's doing, check out what Chef's doing, and they seem more accepting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like Chef said, it's all about sharing, and that's the new word for caring. And that's what everybody on here, you know, everybody here does that, and everybody shares and cares. And I think that started When Google+ started, the folks who came on here and really got it and spread that sort of mentality to the rest of the people who came on here, like Chef, Mark Chervinton, Ronnie, they just shared stuff. And that sort of trend just picked up.

Yeah, you don't have to think about really what's in it for you. Although we all want to be successful and we all would like to make some money, but it's not like I said something that we're going to walk over people to do or disregard engagement to do. That's the beauty of Google+. That's why I love it.

I'm totally with Chef. Whenever I think, what can I do with Chef? I'm like, how can I use him? How can I really milk Chef?

Anyway, I just invited Lori in. I don't know if she wants to pop in with us. I know, and she's got a background mug.

Maybe she'll do clinkies with me.

She might be in her jammies and not want to come on.

Listen, I got out of the gym and came here, and I said, forget it, I'm getting on at Sheffy and the Crew.

So yeah, Christopher says, uh, is the virtual a block on Comic-Con costumes and superheroes.

I love that idea. Oh, Chef, we got to think about this one.

I think that might be another conference we might have to have. But Rodney, do you have a superhero costume? Come and hang out, man. No.

Isn't the tiara enough?

We'll have to find some kind of effect to put on. So I'll work on that.

I think with giant HOA letters right across.

There you go, there's a hat.

Yeah, I have my miniature hats I love.

Yeah, Maggie, get your mini hat please.

Oh, you know what, let me show you my new hat. Hold on a sec.

I'm putting a pirate hat. Oh, I'm getting my Mickey.

I like it, I like it.

Argh!

I did a post and I took a screenshot of me with the pirate hat for the post for screenshots. My wife's in Philadelphia and she calls me and says, we've been together 14— because she can never remember, so she says 14/16 years— where have you been keeping that pirate hat? She thought it was real.

Oh, that's funny. Where'd that come from?

So tomorrow we have a pirate show.

Yeah, tomorrow's—

I'm doing food art. I'm doing pirate food art. But so here's my regular Mexican— you guys have seen this a million times, I'm sure. My little— ay, ay, ay, ay! But because it's the 4th, and I saw this hat— oh my god. Oh, stop it. Stop it. And I'm bicultural.

Bilingual. Let's hold it there.

You're bi anything else, we don't really need to know.

That's all right. That reminds me of Men on Film when you would put that little tiny hat on his head. Like, I love that. Get your little hat. Lazy.

He's got his pirate hat on. He wears that much better. Oh, I like Jeff's glasses.

Oh, where's that one? Oh, that's over. I used to— those are my— I call those my hipster kitty glasses. Hold on.

Oh yes, excellent.

I remember one show, Mia, you had it and they got really, really, really small.

Oh, that's from, um, remember the little moving GIF on that? It was with Craig Chamberlain. I gotta post that. Everything like, like really tiny. Yeah, here, look at this. I like it. Oh yeah, Maggie, I like that. I can't run anything. Maggie, you're looking at a chihuahua.

Yo quiero Taco Bell. Oh, there you go.

Oh my God, I love that.

Sparkly. I like sparkly. Thank you, everybody's sparkly. Oh, that's a good one, Maggie. I like that one.

Get your little hats on, Maggie.

That is so cute, Maggie. I love those.

I look like my dad in this picture. Actually, this is more my dad. I need a shave. Let me see if I can do it right.

That's better.

Look at Ronnie. This is what I look like at the beach right here.

That's great. Oh, I see. I love it.

There you go, Jeff.

Look at Jeff. Here's the beard. Beard it.

You come out of the water in a thong with this on, yeah, people run.

Thong? I wonder why.

Woo-hoo! That got a little—

That's got a buzz going. Have we been drinking?

Little bit.

No.

I have a little one. Hey, look at us, we're all just like— What's this background experimental stuff? Oh yeah, have you tried that, Sonia?

No. Roni's like the Satan diver.

I just went with random. Sorry, I was randomizing.

Oh. I like mine that I've actually almost like moved into the building with the background.

I see a theme.

Oh my God, you look like, like almost like a talk show host now or something. I'm thinking Joan Rivers-ish. Oh yeah, with the tiara and the big glasses, right?

I know. Hello, how are you? I just, I love that Maggie's comfortable with this facial hair.

I'm totally comfortable with this facial hair.

Hopefully at 60 I'll be as comfortable with my facial hair.

Forget the waxing, okay? Right.

I'll be like the lunch lady.

All that facial hair, man. I'm just thinking of Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz. Comedy land. Tiny hats and tiny bubbles.

I think this works with my little hat.

Oh, the monocle? I love that. I will say, any time I see that, it makes me think of Dustin Stout, because one of my first shows that I did, he came on and had the monocle on the whole time. And it just— it's like Mr. Peanut on crack. It was awesome.

Dustin Stout is Mr. Peanut on crack. That should be one of those memes.

This, yeah, I think a little thing on that. Does it have a little elastic, Maggie? Is that how it stays on?

Yeah, it has a little— it's like— well, no, yeah, but it would hurt.

Maggie, just put it under your nose. Just, just, just put it in there like this.

Yeah. Oh, that's cute.

That's just wrong.

Here you go. I like that one.

You're wearing that one tomorrow, right, Maggie?

I— it's a pirate show. I have to find a pirate hat.

Oh, the pirate hat.

Yeah, the pirate hat. I have to find something piratey for tomorrow.

What time's your show on tomorrow, you guys?

Uh, 12 noon, because there's a football game after.

Yeah, there's a football game, so yeah, that's why it's gonna be—

soccer, or do you mean football?

Football as in football.

Okay, I'm just checking. Okay, so soccer. Soccer. We just shut it down.

You don't say the S word when we talking World Cup.

Listen, I call those things games.

As far as they are matches, they are matches.

I know, that's why What I say.

If they play 90 minutes and score 1 point, I don't know.

If there's food and booze involved, maybe I'll watch it, but other than that, oh. Of course. But Greg, on the other hand—

Of course there's booze. Are you kidding me? Right.

Yeah, of course. You can't watch 90 minutes of soccer and not drink.

Exactly.

Somebody has to score.

It's like baseball. You can't watch a whole baseball game and not drink. Yep. It's part of the magic. They had a big, big turnout in Orlando for the last American game. I think they said there were about, what was it, 4,000 people gathered in the Orlando Center to watch the game on the big screens. And it was hot. It was hot outside. And with all those people squeezed in together, it must have even been a little warmer. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. But I think they hosted a World Cup here one time. They had a couple of the World Cup games in Orlando. And they're building a new soccer stadium actually too. Because we have a professional team now. Oh, okay. Nice. Orlando Lions. Orlando Lions. Of course they don't have a football team in Florida, so, ugh.

The Miami Dolphins are not there anymore?

Well, they're there, but they don't play very well. Tampa Bay, Miami, and Jacksonville are all kind of sad. Together they couldn't have a winning season. It's not right.

Florida has 3 teams and they're sad.

That's not good. Oh well, what are you going to do? It's only football. Here's Christopher desperately seeking food. We'll enjoy the hilarity in Replay City. He's going to go eat and leave us.

Here we go.

I don't always wear virtual hats and facial hair, but when I do, I hang out with Shannon.

There you go.

I think Kathy Oliver should come on.

Is she on? Let me invite her in.

Yeah, let's bring her on. Come on, girlfriend, get your shiny on over here. Get your sparkly going.

Yay! Bring her in. Come on in. Come on down. The Price is Right.

Hey, Chefie, who's the first up tomorrow?

Who's the first person? Tomorrow is actually Lori Lezour, Chanel Lacey, and Kathleen DeCosmo. Working with brands, and it's one of the— Ooh, I'm going to watch that one. Yeah, because they're all pretty good. Isabelle is amazing at getting some big companies working with her, national companies. Kathleen works with brands as a brand ambassador with a lot of brands, and Lori is just brilliant. So the things she does just really is amazing.

Yeah, and I love it because it's definitely a power trio. But it's just such a natural thing for them. They come from different worlds. You like how I have my double glasses, by the way? They come from different worlds, but yeah, those ladies are rocking it.

And then I think you're on next at 12, aren't you?

I am. I'm on with— wherever that is. I'm trying to point at Jeff C.

Ryan Hanley.

Jeff C. and Ryan Hanley. We had a fun little session today. I don't know if you guys saw our pictures.

Yeah, it was fun. You got my bobblehead.

I got your bobblehead, that's right.

I still think there should be a series of HOA hosts, bobblehead HOA hosts. That could be like Happy Meals at McDonald's or something.

Well, the first one would be Brian Hanley's little boy because he's definitely that little— what is he, like 6 months old? He's a little bobblehead. He was a hoot, wasn't he, Jeff? Yeah, he looked adorable. He was a good baby.

He was. He was very good.

Yeah, he's Ryan's little clone.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, because Jeff said tomorrow he's just going to go like—

Yeah, between me and Ryan, I'm just going to sit there and go— just put me on a loop. Boy, please.

Come on. Did Kathy say no?

She said no.

Oh, come on. She's a newbie.

She said there was a secret she couldn't tell anybody, except it's in the comments.

No pants? Nope. This is not Larry.

I usually have no shirt on.

That's actually the truth.

Things that make you go hmm.

OK, how about this?

What's the weirdest thing that's happened to you guys in a Hangout when you've been running it? That's what I want to know.

The strangest thing. That's a juicy question. Ronnie. Ronnie, let's start with Ronnie.

What's the strangest thing that's happened to you in a Hangout?

That you can talk about. That I can talk about? Yeah. It's not that strange, but getting kicked out, getting booted. By who? Booted you? No, by the system. Throwing me out. I had too many things going on. I pushed a button, and I'm gone. I know it's not that strange, but for me it was strange. I know. Mia, what is the strangest—

I don't have a boss either, but I will say I had somebody that I had just given so much information to. I'm like, everything we're supposed to have in a Hangout, and my guest showed up in a coffee shop on his cell phone on a public Wi-Fi. Oh my God. And I was like, wow, you couldn't have done the exact opposite more of what I asked for. And we made it through, but it was just so funny. I was like, oh dear. It went for a big oh dear.

Or oh well if you'd moved to Florida. Oh well.

Oh well, that's right, if you're Jeff Dennis and you moved to Florida.

Maggie.

I don't know. I've had some really good experiences. I'm trying to think. Maybe I haven't done as many as you guys have.

What's the most interesting thing that happened to you on a Hangout?

Oh, I guess my very first Hangout with Larry was pretty fun. Oh wait, Larry, can I— I don't know. I've got Larry here.

Non-disclosure agreement.

We have a non-disclosure agreement. Yeah, it's like an NDA. I can't disclose any more information.

All right, next. Larry, you've seen it all. What was the strangest thing that happened to you?

Well, I've had system kick me out. Oh, my sister was— I had her cooking on one of my shows. And my sister, she is very stubborn. Very hard-headed. People say she looks like me with hair. And she was— towards the end of the show, she got really upset about something, and she started to act up while the show was live, and I had guests in the Hangout. So I used the eject button and kicked her out. Oh my God. Kicked her out while the show was going on, kicked her out. And, and, you know, they have— when you kick them out, you have the option to ban, you know. So I banned her from the hangout. Oh no.

Oh, now talk about putting your sister's business out on the internet.

Yeah, yeah, but, but I mean, we've always been, you know, like, you know, sibling thingy. Well, we're always at war with each other.

We rival. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brother, sister, you love.

But, um, but is my only sister, and I love her to death.

Gotta love them when they're family. You gotta love it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's been since then been back on the show, and you know, everything is fine.

She didn't block—

you didn't block her for good and keep it just for that, just for that particular session, Ronnie, just for that Oh, that's good.

That's good. Jeff, what's the strangest thing that happened to you?

Um, well, it was my very first Hangout, and I'm nervous anyway, and it was right when you— right before I hit the button to start the live show. I mean, it was counting down that we start on the hour, and I had a plastic water bottle that I had just— I mean, it was a refillable one that you buy like at Walmart or whatever, and I bumped the side of my desk and it just The whole bottom came out and it was all in my lap, just water. And the show started and it was my first one anyway.

And I'm like, hello everyone, welcome.

You know, I looked like— and it was ice water too, so it was—

I saw Mia look like—

Drink it!

Right? So I just had to go on.

It was my first show and my voice might have been a little higher for that one.

The voice went up, huh?

Hey, welcome!

This is the Family Pictures Show!

I'm sexy and you're not!

I didn't have the tagline back then. I just did, you know, welcome. And so Yeah, it was— it was— you walked it. That's funny.

That's funny.

Well, the strangest thing that happened to me was when I was doing the cooking shows and the classes was I had two sisters in Holland, and two Holland sisters were living in Texas, and we were making buffalo chicken wings, and I'm looking at their wings through the camera going, "Damn, those are the biggest wings I've ever seen." I thought they were like Chernobyl wings. Well, we're making buffalo chicken wings, and they bought— even the ones that lived in Texas bought legs. Oh, I'm going, I can go all Gordon Ramsay on them, which would be interesting, or I can just take a deep breath and make buffalo chicken legs. So I took a deep breath and we made buffalo chicken legs that day.

Uh-huh. Seth, so you were going to teach them buffalo Wings, correct? They all bought legs.

Even the ones that have been living in Texas bought legs. It's got to be something in that Dutch language that just did not translate properly. So we just went on with it. Oh well. That's funny. So that's about it. So well, guys, we're wrapping up to an hour, so I thank you all for coming. Today, and we're really sorry Heather Faye couldn't make it, and we'll have to reschedule her for another show and have her sing because she really is amazing. And, but I hope you come to our conference tomorrow. If you can't make them, watch them on YouTube. And so I'm going to say goodbye to Ronnie.

Ronnie, thanks so much for showing today. It's my pleasure. Good to be with, with you for year number 2. Absolutely.

I'm looking forward to it. Wouldn't have one without you. And Mia, thank you so much, and it's good to have you on.

Thank you, Luis. And Ronnie just said number 2. Number 2. Number 2.

Well, you get free tools so we don't have to drink. Oops.

I'll drink anyway. You just did, so there you go. Thank you, great job.

Thank you so much for coming on tonight. Love seeing you, and thank you for being on my show and for all you do. Thank you. Thanks for having me. My pleasure. And Larry, my brother.

Great to see you.

Arrrgh! Have a little mead and enjoy your Caribbean life.

Yes, yes, yes, Chef.

Thank you.

Florida is about as close as I can get to it. We have to come down and see you.

Well, it's only 3.5 hours away. I know.

Gonna have to make it happen. Love to see you. Yes, sir. And Jeff, thanks so much for coming on and joining us. And I love that Wookiee shirt. Shirt, and I mentioned earlier, you're looking more and more like that Wookiee every day. So signing off from happy hour of the 2nd Annual Virtual Bloggers Conference is Chef Dennis Littley. Have a wonderful evening, guys. Take care. Thanks, everyone.