The Best Kid's Cartoon EVER

Is Peep and the Big Wide World.

Check out the theme song. I guarantee it will make you smile.

Go to the library and check out a DVD...even if you don't have any kids. If you have kids, sit down with them and watch an episode. It's friggin' hilarious stuff, my friends. You gotta chuckle at a purple duck in a sailor's hat.

Oh yeah, almost forgot....they are educational too. Bonus.

Dora has officially been de-throned. Yippee!!!

What are you waiting for?! Just watch one now.

Bear-onomics 201

UPDATE on The Great Bear Debate 2007:

I found out that the bears cost $10 apiece. (this was more than I expected...for the size/quality of the bear, I was thinking more like $3 -$5...but I suppose there was the charitable component at work).

I also found out that there were 40 bears for sale. I'm not great at math, but that looks like $400 to buy all the bears. I also found out that the Bear-ophile Daddy won 3 "free week of daycare" prizes hidden in the bears' pots. If I take an average amount for daycare at our place, it's probably around $180.

So $180 * 3 weeks = $540. So Bear Lovin' Poppa got an $140 discount on daycare, a charitable deduction on his taxes (minus the $3-5 cost per bear), and 40 bears to give away to family and friends for St. Paddy's Day.

So, as much as it pains me, I have to go with option a) Savvy businessman.

Bastard.

Bear-onomics*

Our daycare is doing a fund raising drive for charity. Yesterday, when I went to pick up Goofy Junior, there was a table by the front door filled with St. Patrick's Day-themed, little stuffed bears, each with a little black pot with a paper in it. Being a diligent reader of the daycare newsletter (fun reading, y'all), I knew that in one of those pots was a FREE WEEK OF DAYCARE. Not a small prize for us working parents!

I didn't have my wallet with me, so I inquired, "how long will the bears be on sale?". "All week" was the answer.

So, I traipsed into daycare this afternoon, wallet in hand, ready to claim my bear. I had promised one to Goofy Junior the previous day, when he saw the aforementioned Table o' Bears.

But, when I entered the building....an empty table greeted me. No bears. No signs. Where the #&*% were the bears?! I asked Daycare Worker #1....no idea. I asked Daycare Worker #2...and she had the answer.

Some dad had done the math. He multiplied the price of the bears, times the cost of each bear, and compared that with the cost of one week of daycare. And....

The bastard bought all the bears. All of them. Every last fucking bear.

I think my jaw hit the floor....and I was immediately conflicted by two emotions:

a) Shock. He bought all the bears?! What about MY bear? How would I explain to GJ that some cheap dork bought all the bears?

then...

b) Jealousy. Why didn't *I* think of this? I could have gotten a cheaper week of daycare. Dammit.

Then I thought further...The dude actually helped the daycare achieve their goal...they DID sell all the bears. And they did get the donation for charity.

But...what about us "late parents" who didn't have their wallet on Monday? We have money burning a hole in our pockets for a bear. We want a bear dammit!

If you've read the book, "Freakonomics", this is a lot like the after-hours daycare scenario. A daycare had a problem with parents picking up late, so they decided to start charging for late pickups. They decided to charge $3 for a late pickups. Late pickups promptly went up. Yes, up!

As any parent reading this could tell you, well, DUH!...it's well worth $3 to have someone you trust watch your kid for an extra 15-30 minutes, while you run errands, work a bit more, pick up some milk at the store, etc. They grossly underestimated the value of that extra time!

...or that extra bear, if you take the analogy back to my story above.

So, Innernets, chime in!

Was the Bear-Buying Dad:
a) A savvy businessmen who knew a good opportunity when he saw it
b) A selfish dude who stole other kids' opportunity to bring home a bear
c) A bear-loving freak

*All apologies to the way-more-smarter-than-I authors of Freakonomics.

We've got to move it, move it...

Moving. Ugh. That should be the content of this post. But I will elaborate, because I wanna.

We headed to closing Thursday afternoon. After circling the block several times in search of the title company, I called and realized they gave us the wrong address. Fortunately, real address was fairly close to wrong address.

Signed piles of documents. Got to the Big Boy document (HUD-1). Numbers were wrong. Not in our favor, of course. Much calling and emailing ensued. Finally numbers were right. In our favor. Lady assisting us asked if I was an Accountant. "You are very detailed," she said. * I wondered how many people just sign the docs and don't actually READ them. Scary.

Left closing table. Went to This Old House (TOH) and loaded up some things to bring to This New House (TNH). Also grabbed Goofy Junior, so he could feel like he was "Moving" and not "Being Moved".**

Dropped off stuff at TNH, went to dinner.

Went back to TOH, put Junior to bed. Then the fun started. Packing, packing, packing. Moving boxes into the garage. Separating what Movers got to move versus what we got to move. In the end, there was way too much stuff for us to move. Making mental note for next time we move. Ow, my aching back.

Anyway. Next morning 5:00am: Up and at 'em! Much disconnecting: TV, stereo, computer, fridge, washer, dryer, sanity.

Movers showed up at 8:15am. At 9:00am, one mover somehow tripped, and in the process broke his ankle and our entertainment center. Let the fun begin!

We gave Broken Mover an icepack and waited for Replacement for Broken Mover. For the rest of the day, many jokes were made between the other movers regarding Broken Mover. "Ouch, I think I broke my ankle" was the joke of the day. I suppose you have to have tough skin to be mover.

Then we are at TNH, with all our Stuff. Ridiculous amounts of Stuff. Still packed. Staring at us, waiting. We collapsed in a heap of sweaty, tired Goofiness. 10 minutes later, Grammy and Grampy Goofy showed up. Bearing more Stuff. AAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!

After my nervous breakdown, we made some coffee and had cake.

The End

* Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

** NOTE: This is a BIG DEAL to a toddler. They want to know The Plan. If they don't know The Plan, much whining and crying may occur. And yeah, it's a PITA sometimes, but always worth to include him.

Cake Mania...Redux

So after installing the "Cake Mania" trial program on both my laptop and desktop, and playing the full (but not nearly long enough to satisfy) one hour, I am now "Cake Mania"-less. Cold turkey. No shivering and sweating yet, but close.

I want the colorful little characters to visit my bakery. I want to guess what they will order and make a cake BEFORE they order it. I want to upgrade my slow loafers to the speedier "Cloud Walker" versions. I want to speed around and make, frost and deliver their cake to them. I want to see the little delivery guy character pump his animated fist in the air after I gift him his cake.

Ah, the joys of being a computer game addict.

I thought I had figured out how to beat the system. I would just keep playing. SURELY, the game would not crap out in the middle of a round, right? If I could keep all 5 of my lives (I'll depart with modesty for a sec and tell you that it was pretty easy to do), I could just leave the game up and keep playing. FYI - this works for Bookworm.

But, alas, half-way into the round with the vampires, THE BLACK SCREEN OF THE TRIAL ENDING BADNESS appeared.

After I was finished cursing like a sailor, I tried to hack it. Maybe I could uninstall and reinstall. Maybe change my system date. FYI - these techniques work on some other trial programs, but you didn't hear that here. (wink)

I was stumped. I was cake-less. Customer-less. Oven-less and frosting-less. No air-pumping delivery man. Big bummer.

Oh yeah, I guess I could pay the 20 bucks for the real version, but that's like cheating right? ;-)