We were all very excited here at Mommybloggers to interview Lisa Stone. Our only problem would be to keep the interview short enough that it could be read in under two hours. Thankfully, Jenn got a bad case of laryngitis and lost her voice, rendering her unable to continue the week-long interview process. (Sometimes we need these little helpers to keep her line and on task.) Without further ado, we give you the incomparable Lisa Stone.

Mommybloggers: Lisa, some readers may be confused as to the reason we are featuring a blogger that is not known as a mommyblogger because the blogs you are known for (BlogHer and Legal Blog Watch) are not blogs that would be typically found under the mommyblogger umbrella; however, you are a mom who blogs. Here, that qualifies you! But, I do have to ask, do you ever want to just bust out on one of your other blogs and get personal? Talk snot, preteen angst and fatigue? (Feel free to bust out here! We are all about that!)

Lisa: This is going to sound like a complete cop-out, but I worked so hard as a journalist to compartmentalize my personal life and my professional life that busting out for me is blogging that I even have kids! And the post where I admitted that my partner, Chris Carfi, and I had a tense moment over the last of the apple butter? Ooo, now that's practically opening up a vein.

Mommybloggers: What would you name your mommy blog if you had you started one?

Lisa: Lego stigmata. Since my son was two, he has been obsessed with Legos. Ob-sessed. Loves them. Now he's nine, his five-year-old stepbrother is five, and our home is regularly covered with the things. Let's just say I've stepped on a few.

Mommybloggers: The mommyblogger panel at BlogHer came together rather randomly. At the time that it was set up, did you foresee that it would grow as it did?

Lisa: I hoped it would. You all just took it and ran with it. What a discussion! Thank you again. The quality and the passion of that session shouldn't surprise anyone who's ever spoken with a mother. Motherhood has always been a flash point for women. I'm sure there are cave drawings somewhere by a woman who was trying to pottytrain a toddler and get laid in the same week. Give us a village well, a back fence, a kitchen counter or a rolled-down car window, and we will talk about our kids. The joy of having our own printing presses (which is what blogs really are), is that now we can tell it like it really is.

Mommybloggers: Are you willing to take the blame for getting the three of us together? I mean, seeing as if someone decides to sue for mental anguish that we have caused, we need to point the finger somewhere.

Lisa: Absolutely! As long as you point your finger at my BlogHer co-founders, Elisa Camahort and Jory Des Jardins too. They're further proof that you don't have to be a mom yourself to care about women and their children.

Mommybloggers: Were you surprised at the venom towards mommyblogging as a genre? What about the distain towards the term mommyblogger? What do you personally think of the term mommyblogger?

Lisa: Sadly, no, I was not surprised. Because I was the target of plenty of venom and disdain myself when I had the audacity to suggest a conference for women bloggers. Perhaps this disdain toward the word "mommy" is why so many women I know struggle ferociously with their identities when they become mothers. I mean, what kind of a reward is this -- we struggle through a pregnancy, survive birth (moment of silence please), embrace motherhood, which is the scariest and mind-blowing thing I've ever done, and we get put down for it? That's the root issue -- ambivalence over what "mommy" represents. Well, I love "mommy." Because to me it isn't a disembodied word anymore. It's who I am. It's carved in my heart. And in my stretchmarks. I just wish I could convince my nine-year-old to be less cool and call me "mommy" again every once in awhile...

Mommybloggers: Lately, the business world is sitting up and taking notice of moms who blog - marketing to moms isn't new, but is using mommybloggers to get the word out seems to be big right now. Do you see that as the new way to go in marketing or just fad? Do you think our opinions really influence?

Lisa: Yes ma'am! Mommybloggers are weaving some of the Web's best stories by and about women -- women who, let's not forget, control 80 percent of household spending. That's right, from the family car to the computer (you geeks, you) to the Legos (sigh) to the Pampers.

Let's look at another medium as an example: Right now, the top revenue-generating news and entertainment shows on television are by moms for moms. Look at NBC's The Today Show starring Katie Couric: By a mom for moms, and the top-rated morning news show for ten straight years. How about Oprah, a daily conversation by the-mother-of-us-all for moms. There's ABC's The View, which is a coffee klatch of moms, mugs included. Don't forget ABC's Desperate Housewives, the made-up moms (take that any way you like). Hell, ABC's World News Tonight just put an anchormom, Elizabeth Vargas, in Peter Jennings' old chair, for heaven's sake!

This is great news for mommybloggers because all these famous shows are in a money-making medium (television) where the numbers are dropping. Their problem is that us viewers now use the Internet more than we watch TV or read magazines. Instead of watching other people talk, we're getting our own word out. That used to mean message boards, the best place to hold online conversations. But now that we have our own personal printing presses -- blogs! -- better watch out. And the world is watching. This is why I've often thought that Dooce is more than a brilliant blogger. She's a metaphor for what's happening to the media and the value of what mommybloggers are writing--to advertisers as well as to readers. She's the Saturday keynote speaker at the SXSW conference. That says a great deal.

Mommybloggers: Can we talk BlogHer for a minute? Wow. I mean, really. Wow. When you envisioned BlogHer, did you have any idea it would become as big, as influencial or as groundbreaking as it has become? Why do you think it was embraced and celebrated as it was?

Lisa: I think BlogHer worked for three reasons.

First, I think our timing was right. There was a huge groundswell of frustration last winter, after national thought leaders and the mainstream media (of which I am an active part) hit a particularly low point in their discussion of women. By low point, I'm referring to Harvard president Lawrence Summers' comments on the female brain, to Kevin Drumm's column in The Washington Monthly , asking where all the women bloggers are, to Susan Estrich's flame of Michael Kinsley, editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times, about how few women write for that page. And the day to day coverage of the blogging phenom was even worse. If your name wasn't Wonkette, you didn't exist as a woman blogger, despite the fact that a Pew Internet survey ( 1.05) reported that 43 percent of bloggers are women.

Second, the women bloggers in question showed up at BlogHer. We showed up and walked our talk. We didn't sit at home and whine that we weren't being allowed to play. We did something about it--and for us mommies, that something included getting the kids taken care of, too. And you, Jenny and Meghan not only showed up, you lead a panel! Elisa Camahort gave a great interview to the San Francisco Chronicle that ran the day of the conference, in which she said, "This is a conference the community built." Brilliant woman.

Third, the conference was designed to celebrate the participants -- not the organizers or celebrity speakers or the sponsors. Most conferences I've attended exist to make money or celebrate a few people. This conference was designed to give the community the reins and that infused everything, from the way the sessions were conducted (many by attendees) to how we approached sponsors. We are looking forward to doing more of that at BlogHer '06.

Now, I'd also like to add what I think BlogHer has to improve: First, don't get me started on the wireless last year. We're fixing it. !#%! And I promise never, ever again to agree to play someone else's music videos at the beginning of the day. Oh, the number of complaints about Shania Twain!

Even more seriously, our biggest next steps with BlogHer '06 will be developing a framework for this amazing group of women to do what they want to do next year: More of everything. Women asked for a two day conference, so we're developing a curriculum of classes on day one of the conference and recruiting the best possible discussion leaders and noted participants as possible for day two. We're launching a Web site where all of this can begin asap, not to mention creating a safe space for rideshares, roomshares and karaoke night. Consider yourselves warned!

Mommybloggers: Tell us about law blogging--blawging. It is obviously a very different world than the world of mommyblogging. What draws you to it? What is the biggest downside to it? Who would you like to see guest post on law.com?

Lisa: I am fascinated by our system of government, that's why I became a reporter. And the brain in that system is the law. Until you or someone who love has had their lives changed by a legal conundrum, it's hard to appreciate how it molds our everyday lives. Which is why my only disappointment with the experience is with myself: I don't have a law degree. But I do so enjoy writing about people who do. And I think there's value in a consumer and political perspective on the law. There are tons of women I'd like to see guest post on Law.com -- too long to list here! But if there's a mommy blawgger who's reading this post and is interested, I'd love to hear from you!

Mommybloggers: One of the things that draws people to you is your openness and warmth. I happen to know that when you heard the story of one woman who was going through a bad time and felt that she just couldn't face attending BlogHer, you personally called her to reassure her that if nothing else, you would be there and would embrace her attendance. Have you always embraced the idea of women supporting women or have you seen the need arise more often lately and have just stepped up to fill that gap?

Lisa: What a compliment! Thank you. I blame my younger sisters and mother, our ringleader. It's all their fault. I think I've been focused on conversations with women since I was eighteen months old and my first sister was born. We moved nine times through five states by the time I was nine years old. By that time they were my best and only friends, and I've never given them up. Their brilliance, and the support of my father and brother, is what gave me the boost I needed in 1997 to turn my back on mainstream media (for the first time) and go to Women.com as the senior producer of Women's Wire, one of the first Web sites for women online. At that time, early geek pundits were saying women would never go online. Horseshit, I thought. At the time, my marriage had just ended, I was single-parenting a one-year-old baby and I lived for my stolen minutes online. Pushed me right over the edge into content not just about women, but by women, for women. As we know, there's a huge difference.

Mommybloggers: You are high profile and have the ear of many bloggers covering all genres.That being said, do you ever just want to throw off your diplomatic hat and scream when you see venom spewed online or between different blogging genres?

Lisa: Oh, sure. Sometimes I do! But it's amazing how, when I cool off and surf around, I find that the object of my concern has hoisted themselves by their own petard. That's the value of a community conversation. That means when and if I need to stomp onto a soapbox, I--and BlogHer--have a much better chance of being taken seriously. I just wish I had more time to blog on BlogHer and on Surfette. That's a major goal for 2006.

Mommybloggers: You have been a single mom. What is the biggest challenge you've faced as a single mom?

Lisa: Yes, I was on my own for eight years, from the time my son was one until this spring, when we moved in with my beau and his kids, Brady-bunch style. My biggest challenge as a single parent? Loneliness. Specifically, the loneliness and guilt of parenting without a partner. That's so much worse than okay-it's-my-200th-Saturday-without-a-date-loneliness, which I also had at that time! It's amazing how much the triangle of two parents and child supports the parent as well as the child. I experience that every night now. Alone, I worried every time I had to discipline my son or help him, teach him something or ask a friend to watch him during a work dinner. I was pulled, hard, between the massive number of hours I needed to work to support my son in the San Francisco Bay Area, and my precious boy who was so small, and then not so small, and trying to figure out his relationship with his father. No matter how much love and family and friends you surround your child with, if Mommy is weepy inside, the world is never completely right.

Mommybloggers: We happen to know that you are in a terrific relationship now with an amazing man . If we asked him what your biggest pet peeve is, what would he say? Your biggest joy in life? Your worst habit?

Lisa: Yes I am! My biggest pet peeve? Clean socks. Dang things multiply in the drier. I hate to match them. Hate it. I'd rather pull a Marie Antoinette, throw them away and buy new ones. Of course, that would involve getting off the couch...

My biggest joy in life? My family.

My worst habit? Getting mushy about my family. I could drop and give you 20 snotty tissues with runny mascara right now.

Mommybloggers: SURPRISE, Lisa. We actually went to Chris to ask him how he would answer these questions. We thought it would be fun to see what he said. After getting his brilliant responses, we have to confess that we just may have a crush on him, too. And we demand you bring him to BlogHer '06. (We're just saying.) This is how he responded to us:

Pet peeve: Well, it may be more of a, hmmm, let's call it an "ongoing negotiation," but would have to say our Sisyphean effort to find a mutally-acceptable volume for music in the house and car.

Defaults:

Lisa...Rational volume

Chris...Let's see if I can make my eardrums bleed! That'd be cool!!!

Biggest joy: The kids

Worst habit: This has to be the worst habit. Ever. :-)

Mommybloggers: What is one thing you would want mommybloggers and those who read Mommybloggers to know about you that they may not know? You have their ear (so to speak).

Lisa: I think my comment above about loving the word mommy and it being carved on my heart and stretchmarks is the one. That, and a huge high-five to all of the daddies who made it possible for so many mommies to attend BlogHer' 05. Please do it again in BlogHer '06!

Mommybloggers: And here are the questions we subject all of our featured bloggers to (With apologies to Bernard Pivot and Inside the Actors Studio):

1. What is your favorite parent related word?

Mommy

2. What is your least favorite parent related word?

Significant other

3. What is your favorite creative censored curse word used around children?

F-word

4. What is your favorite hiding place within your home when you need to get away from it all?

My car.

5. What hiding place have you been found in too often and can no longer use?

My bed.

6. If Oprah exists, what would you like to hear her say when you arrive at the Oprah Winfrey show when she features the Mommybloggers?

Today, "Mommyblogging as a Radical Act"! Hear from these (fill in the blank) women on how they are changing the world -- of their homes and maybe even yours -- when they turn on their computers every day!

Mommybloggers: Lisa, we cannot tell you enough how much we appreciate all you (and BlogHer) have done for us. You are an inspiration to women who want to take things to the next level. Thank you for being a part of this and letting us feature you here at Mommybloggers.com! We adore you and it has been our honor to feature you.