Well I'll admit, one of the toys I did NOT want to see in this house was Elmo. In any form.
That little red monster with his OBNOXIOUS voice and severe case of overmernchandisingitis drives me crazy on levels matched only by Disney crap, because the only thing more overmerchandizsed than Elmo is ANYTHING barfed up by Disney Corp. They even got to 'Cars'... it's terrible, though I'll admit monster has a "Tow Mater" plushie also.
Anyway, we went to the candy store to drop off a hoodie that Auntie Roo forgot, and while we were browsing the bins of sugary goodies (so tempting), she handed him a little five dollar Elmo doll with a purple shirt that says "Hugs and Kisses".
Something about that doll was a bigger hit than even his toy cars. He wouldn't put it down for love, money, or candy. He wouldn't even trade it for a big stuffed puppy, and he LOVES stuffed puppies.
It was a highly calculated move by a manipulative Sales-Auntie, and we ended up leaving with it. He wouldn't even leave him in the car to run errands at Wal-Mart. Nope, that Elmo doll HAD to come with us, only briefly surrendered to a purse ride in temporary favor of some brand new fuzzy footie PJ's. After we got home, I dug him out of the purse and handed him back, where he was received with hugs and kisses, and fed (soggy) cocopuffs while I got the rest of the groceries in from the car. They're currently taking a nap together.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
A date with two cute guys
Originally I was going to go out to the Craftman's Faire with Auntie Roo and Grandma S, but for various reasons decided that it would make for a better day to go out with my boys instead.
"Daddy" decided on our destinations, and one of our first stops was to go to a Fish Hatchery and feed the fish. They had three kinds of trout and Atlantic Salmon, all of whom boiled the water every time you threw food in. ((They had little quarter vending machines from which you could buy fish food pellets. MiniMonster did attempt to sample them, he concluded that he wasn't half as impressed with them as the fish were.))He did like walking along the edges of the pool though, since they had some spots where you could get closer to the water, and get a really good look. Some of the fish were almost as big as he was, which is hard to get a good perspective on from the photos, but you'll have to trust me on this one.
MiniMonster was REALLY amazed, and we had to keep a hand on him because he tried to climb up on the edge, and left alone probably would have tried to get in the water with the fish. ((It looked like it was about knee deep at best.)) But we didn't let that fly. We also drove around the mountains, took some gorgeous shots of the views, then went out to a set of outlet stores and spoiled ourselves a bit.
Gender Neutral does not HAVE to mean "looks like ass", people.
On the plus side, it did have us walk away with a coupon to use in September. Maybe they'll have some nice winter gear that will be useful, and since it works online, we can browse from home and order in. *thumbs up*
Friday, August 5, 2011
Hot Stuff, Baby!
Amazingly we had no tears or yelling, but we did have one HELL of an insane grin, followed by a big chug of drink.
That was some hot stuff, Baby!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
You know it's kinda funny, I don't remember car dealers being so... pushy, when I was growing up. I can't remember either of my parents ever getting called and asked if they want to upgrade to a newer model before the last couple years.
I just got that call.
Granted we have kind of been considering getting a larger vehicle, but we don't really know what kind yet.
So yeah I was just a little... well not confused. Just a little surprised. Generally I don't expect to get a call from a dealer unless there's an actual problem, and that problem is not: HEY CAN WE SELL YOU A NEW CAR??
I'll tell my husband about it but I was careful not to tell them exactly when he'd be home or when they could call back.
I just got that call.
Granted we have kind of been considering getting a larger vehicle, but we don't really know what kind yet.
So yeah I was just a little... well not confused. Just a little surprised. Generally I don't expect to get a call from a dealer unless there's an actual problem, and that problem is not: HEY CAN WE SELL YOU A NEW CAR??
I'll tell my husband about it but I was careful not to tell them exactly when he'd be home or when they could call back.
Friday, July 29, 2011
The Return of the Full Keyboard
Well, as of this afternoon, I am the proud owner of a nice, shiny new laptop. Using the iPad for my computer and internet needs was all very fine and good, but you can really tell that it wasn't really designed for heavy net use. It ate everything I typed if I had to change windows and hadn't hit 'post', it didn't like to scroll down, wouldn't copy unless you had a 'live' window to type in, which made it pretty much impossible to copy paste some things...
I mean don't get me wrong, in a pinch it works great, but overall it's much more effective for a quick browse than say, trying to type a blog post or the like. Also now I kinda have to retrain myself that I no longer have to change typing screens to get symbols or numbers. And tabs... oh how I missed tabs.
I have no idea if the iPad 2 has any better functionality, but I think if I can, I'll stick to using a "real" computer for heavy use. No that doesn't mean I have anything against Mac, no I still like Mac computers, that's just not the kind we have.
No photos of MiniMonster today, but I can actually look at them again now, which also doesn't hurt. Oh and I knitted a cupcake hat for a friend of mine and her daughter. I still have to finish sewing on the button-sprinkles, but I'll take a nice picture when it's done and share it. It came out pretty cute!
I mean don't get me wrong, in a pinch it works great, but overall it's much more effective for a quick browse than say, trying to type a blog post or the like. Also now I kinda have to retrain myself that I no longer have to change typing screens to get symbols or numbers. And tabs... oh how I missed tabs.
I have no idea if the iPad 2 has any better functionality, but I think if I can, I'll stick to using a "real" computer for heavy use. No that doesn't mean I have anything against Mac, no I still like Mac computers, that's just not the kind we have.
No photos of MiniMonster today, but I can actually look at them again now, which also doesn't hurt. Oh and I knitted a cupcake hat for a friend of mine and her daughter. I still have to finish sewing on the button-sprinkles, but I'll take a nice picture when it's done and share it. It came out pretty cute!
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Panic culture
You're all going to have to forgive me because I'm feeling a bit philosophical today.
(please forgive me, I'll change 'revelry' to 'Ravelry' later. Still using a very uncooperative iPad which thinks it knows what I want to say. Mostly it just points at the dictionary and picks the most bizarre fit it can find.)
I kind of feel as though we're living in a 'Panic Culture', maybe we've let our fascination with horror films permeate everything else in our lives, but we seem to love to panic, and we let others, like the press, play on this.
For example, Grandma S sent me an article on the spread of Giant Hogsweed, a nasty invasive plant that makes poison ivy look like a nice soak in a hot tub. It wasn't a bad article overall, the problem was that they were deliberately... I can't think of the word I'm looking for. They show boated. They showed a blurry photo of the flower of the plant which without context looks almost exactly like a nice harmless Queen Annes Lace, and only at the very bottom of the article did they cough up their sleeve and admit that these deceptive and lacy bloom spreads are the size of umbrellas. They also went out of their way not to mention the actual habitat that this invader prefers, the scale of the plant overall, or other details like the rhubarb red stalks, or even show the distinctive and huge leaves, all of which in combination make this plant resemble Queen Annes Lace only as closely as two random people with the same hair color might look alike.
While it's a horrible plant and should be handled by people who know what they're doing, a little extra information would gave pointed out just how EASY this nasty customer would be to see coming. It's almost less of a plant and more of a kaiju.
We see similar articles almost daily, if not hourly, where pertiant information that would change the entire context of a discussion is entirely ignored just to add to the sensationalism of the tale, and I think at this point the press isn't alone in this.
I had to cringe reading some discussions on revelry, since there was a young mother concerned that her almost three year old wasn't a big talker. Instead of doing legwork MANY of the suggestions that popped up heavily implied at being a delayed talker CLEARLY implied that the child MUST be autistic. This just not only isn't a given it's a horrible thing to imply, without verification, to a worried parent. It's almost tantamount to saying 'that sneeze is an major indicator for incurable pneumonia'.
As parents don't we have enough to worry about without modern updates to Old Wives Tales?
(please forgive me, I'll change 'revelry' to 'Ravelry' later. Still using a very uncooperative iPad which thinks it knows what I want to say. Mostly it just points at the dictionary and picks the most bizarre fit it can find.)
I kind of feel as though we're living in a 'Panic Culture', maybe we've let our fascination with horror films permeate everything else in our lives, but we seem to love to panic, and we let others, like the press, play on this.
For example, Grandma S sent me an article on the spread of Giant Hogsweed, a nasty invasive plant that makes poison ivy look like a nice soak in a hot tub. It wasn't a bad article overall, the problem was that they were deliberately... I can't think of the word I'm looking for. They show boated. They showed a blurry photo of the flower of the plant which without context looks almost exactly like a nice harmless Queen Annes Lace, and only at the very bottom of the article did they cough up their sleeve and admit that these deceptive and lacy bloom spreads are the size of umbrellas. They also went out of their way not to mention the actual habitat that this invader prefers, the scale of the plant overall, or other details like the rhubarb red stalks, or even show the distinctive and huge leaves, all of which in combination make this plant resemble Queen Annes Lace only as closely as two random people with the same hair color might look alike.
While it's a horrible plant and should be handled by people who know what they're doing, a little extra information would gave pointed out just how EASY this nasty customer would be to see coming. It's almost less of a plant and more of a kaiju.
We see similar articles almost daily, if not hourly, where pertiant information that would change the entire context of a discussion is entirely ignored just to add to the sensationalism of the tale, and I think at this point the press isn't alone in this.
I had to cringe reading some discussions on revelry, since there was a young mother concerned that her almost three year old wasn't a big talker. Instead of doing legwork MANY of the suggestions that popped up heavily implied at being a delayed talker CLEARLY implied that the child MUST be autistic. This just not only isn't a given it's a horrible thing to imply, without verification, to a worried parent. It's almost tantamount to saying 'that sneeze is an major indicator for incurable pneumonia'.
As parents don't we have enough to worry about without modern updates to Old Wives Tales?
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
It can't do that, Dave....
So for those of yup who may have been wondering if I was devoured by a pack of raptors or sonething, I can safely say I haven't been.
The reason I've been totally AWOL isn't because of raptors, wild dogs or the bubonic plague, it's because of the damn laptop. For reasons we can only guess at... Well... I think we have a particularly reasonable guess... The charger port on the lap top no longer functions. At all.
We're going to have to go get a whole new lap top, and we haven't done so yet, so I am posting using an iPad, which while lovely for browsing, does get a bit awkward in the typing department. Especially since it really likes to autocorrect me, and I don't always notice when it's done so, leading to interesting substitutions.
We finally have our new queen sized bed and an awesome new mattress, which is awesome. Unfortunately, after the super delays, they followed up by being short the pieces that attach the head and foot board, so the bed is mostly complete, but not all the way.
MiniMonster as a result ended up accidentally dismounting between the bed and the wall, and needed a rescue. I've barked ankles and hamstrings on the handles for the storage drawers, but I'm getting used to them being there, and it Gives us some extra space.
We also finally got to repaint the bedroom, so it's no longer blue. Thank heavens!
MiniMonster is growing like a weed! He can, and does, handle his own spoon and eat yogurt, making happy sounds the whole time, and he needs another shopping trip for shirts that don't take a major war to get on over his head. This makes me nervous of the sweater I'm making for him, but if he can't wear it, I'll save it for NomNom.
He still doesn't use a lot of words, but he's getting a lot better at communicating, and arching him at all makes it pretty obvious that his small vocabulary doesn't indicate a small brain, and he's probably driving his Grandpa P nuts. Grandpa P tends to treat him sort of like a slow minded family pet. This is really annoying, but understandable in a way if you consider that he grew up in a situation where as a father figure he really didn't interact with his children much until they were older, so MiniMonster might as well be an alien life form for all my father understands him.
MiniMonster notices very much how he's being treated, and refuses to say hello to Grandpa P, though he gleefully says hi to Grandma S and her dog. He tends to be similarly recalcitrant with Nana J, who, I've noticed, is reluctant to surrender the idea that he can, and wants to, do things for himself, and tends toward putting him in situations where he has no control, like pushing his stroller through high grass, (I did check him for ticks), or panicking and taking away a plastic spoon (unbroken) which she'd earlier given him to play with, which left him both bored and stuck, and resultantly furious.
Must be kinda frustrating to be in those shoes, trying to convince the huge people around you to respect your mind. No wonder toddlers go through the terrible twos trying to remind people of this.
The reason I've been totally AWOL isn't because of raptors, wild dogs or the bubonic plague, it's because of the damn laptop. For reasons we can only guess at... Well... I think we have a particularly reasonable guess... The charger port on the lap top no longer functions. At all.
We're going to have to go get a whole new lap top, and we haven't done so yet, so I am posting using an iPad, which while lovely for browsing, does get a bit awkward in the typing department. Especially since it really likes to autocorrect me, and I don't always notice when it's done so, leading to interesting substitutions.
We finally have our new queen sized bed and an awesome new mattress, which is awesome. Unfortunately, after the super delays, they followed up by being short the pieces that attach the head and foot board, so the bed is mostly complete, but not all the way.
MiniMonster as a result ended up accidentally dismounting between the bed and the wall, and needed a rescue. I've barked ankles and hamstrings on the handles for the storage drawers, but I'm getting used to them being there, and it Gives us some extra space.
We also finally got to repaint the bedroom, so it's no longer blue. Thank heavens!
MiniMonster is growing like a weed! He can, and does, handle his own spoon and eat yogurt, making happy sounds the whole time, and he needs another shopping trip for shirts that don't take a major war to get on over his head. This makes me nervous of the sweater I'm making for him, but if he can't wear it, I'll save it for NomNom.
He still doesn't use a lot of words, but he's getting a lot better at communicating, and arching him at all makes it pretty obvious that his small vocabulary doesn't indicate a small brain, and he's probably driving his Grandpa P nuts. Grandpa P tends to treat him sort of like a slow minded family pet. This is really annoying, but understandable in a way if you consider that he grew up in a situation where as a father figure he really didn't interact with his children much until they were older, so MiniMonster might as well be an alien life form for all my father understands him.
MiniMonster notices very much how he's being treated, and refuses to say hello to Grandpa P, though he gleefully says hi to Grandma S and her dog. He tends to be similarly recalcitrant with Nana J, who, I've noticed, is reluctant to surrender the idea that he can, and wants to, do things for himself, and tends toward putting him in situations where he has no control, like pushing his stroller through high grass, (I did check him for ticks), or panicking and taking away a plastic spoon (unbroken) which she'd earlier given him to play with, which left him both bored and stuck, and resultantly furious.
Must be kinda frustrating to be in those shoes, trying to convince the huge people around you to respect your mind. No wonder toddlers go through the terrible twos trying to remind people of this.
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