How a Free Tool Can Actually Bankrupt You.

WARNING: You should read this post at your own risk. I can not and will not be held responsible for your wallet flying open and money that comes flying out of it because of my pointing you in the direction of Kaboodle.

See, Kaboodle is this VERY nifty tool for shopping online. You are browsing the internet, looking at all the cool things that you want/need/must have and it never fails, always find more when you don't have any money!

Kaboodle to the rescue! Now when you are flat broke and want to browse you can! Just add your stuff to Kaboodle. Then when you have saved up the nickels and dimes (incedentally, are you finding that nickels and dimes are all you have left after filling up the gas tank lately?) you can browse your Kaboodle and find someone else to take your money!

Spending your money just got easier courtesy of Kaboodle. Don't you feel richer for knowing this? In the metaphorical sense of course since in reality Kaboodle is going to make you poorer... I'm just sayin'.

Anywho. go forth and find the decorations for your dream house, photography equipment for you aspiring photogs, digi designs for you digital divas and let's fill those Kaboodles! You can organize by topic and create wishlists... the possibilities are endless.

And all of you lucky Firefox users can add sweet little browser buttons that allow you to add to your Kaboodle with the click of one button. You lucky thing!

But don't blame me okay? I mean, you would have eventually spent that money on something right? Even if it was something as mundane as groceries, or toilet paper....

Movies and something I had not considered...

So, The Dark Knight opened this last weekend and had record breaking ticket sales.

I immediately know why, even if Hollywood couldn't figure it out. Duh, there's not been a movie as hyped as this one all year. Also, one of the lead actors (Heath Ledger) sadly passed away earlier this year. Add to that the lack af many good movies and VOILA! you have a record breaker on your hands.

But then....Party Boy asked me a pointed question. If The Dark Knight had been released on Memorial Day weekend or July 4th weekend, which have historically been the release dates of the huge summer blockbusters, would it have been as big?

Hmmmmm. I don't think so. There was too much competition those weekends. Iron Man on Memorial Day and Hancock on the 4th. I think it might have split the take, you know?

Personally? It kills me that they didn't release it one of those weekends, you know, when I could have actually GONE???

Yeah, I wanna see The Dark Knight. We are so getting a babysitter soon. Real soon. I will see The Dark Knight in theaters... I will.

A Word About Mine

A word about my one little word.

It seems to be working. We are over halfway through the year and while I still have days that I must make myself refocus on being joyful it does come easier.

Joyfully...

Environmental Frustration

Occasionally I decide that we need to do more - reduce our carbon footprint, recycle more, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera... (hee hee).

Only, when I do try to do more I get lambasted by environmentalists. And it always leaves me mentally scratching my head, because no matter what I do, it never seems to be enough for anyone else.

Case in point - cloth diapers. I love them. I primarily decided to use cloth because I wanted the money savings. As a SAHM, I evaluated, do I have more money or more time? While both seem to be in short supply on most days, I tend to run towards the end of the more time spectrum, so washing an extra load of diapers seemed a small price to pay as opposed to spending thousands on disposables. And, have no fear, I don't care what kinds of diapers everyone else uses...my environmental concern ends with what I do (or don't do, as the case may be) to be green.

So, I am all happy because I will save some significant moolah in the grocery budget this next couple of years only to be criticized (on a cloth diaper message board with a seriously environmental bent that I obviously missed) for my choices. Apparently buying "regular" pre-folds and covers isn't enough. You have to buy the mega-expensive natural fiber, unbleached, preferably hand-crafted by a WAHM diapers. Then I got lectured on how I was negating any environmental good I was doing by choosing cloth because I was washing them and using SO MUCH WATER. Even the fact that I own a front-loading, environmentally friendly washer wasn't good enough.

Whoops. Now I start backing away. Uh-oh, how am I planning on drying said diapers? Well, I'll use the dryer. I'll tell you what, that revelation nearly sent the uber-greenies off the deep end. All of that energy wasted. Now I am starting to feel like my carbon footprint is probably bigger than anyone else in town.

And yet, I dare not use the evil disposable. All of that water and energy wasted! And the landfill pollution! Sigh.

But then I decided to quit listening and get back to what worked for me. I'm not using any more water than I was before Junior, so that's good. And the energy bill has remained much the same. Also good. Plus, mot putting tons of disposables in the landfill is a good thing, right?

The lesson I learned? For me environmentalism has be all about increments. Little bits at a time. We bought energy saving appliances when replacing the old ones from the great cheese dip disaster of 2007. We bought CFL light bulbs. Little things that will add up. And in time we'll get greener and greener.

For now, that has to be enough and it is for me.

And before anyone even brings it up...no, I do not believe it is environmentally irresponsible to have kids in the first place. Anyone with questions on that needs to visit Books and Bairns. And know this... Angi will take you on here too if I beg enough....

Confessions of an Avoidant Personality

Have you ever had a hobby or activity that you really enjoy? And then suddenly life gets in the way and you wind up missing some serious time with said hobby? And then getting back into it is hard and so you don't and the next thing you know it's almost embarassing to get back to it? Yeah, that's me.

Sorry for the huge lag in posts. Really.

See, I got really busy when Junior started getting seriously mobile and it was hard to have a coherent thought, much less put it on paper (so to speak) between pulling him off the curtains and monitoring where all of the cords in the house were and making sure they didn't get unplugged and eaten... sigh.

Compound that with a lack of baby schedule and well, there's very little time in the day.

Happily Junior is still mobile and now is on a rough routine. This leaves me a little more time. Whew.

So, I've been avoiding my blog. Because I was embarrassed. But I am back now, although I can not promise daily posts, unless somehow this blog goes viral and I start getting a check for my work here, in which case I will happily post every HOUR!

A Webkinz Tale of Woe....Almost

Let this tale of woe serve as a warning to all of you in Webkinz World!

MOTS (Mouth of the South) discovered that she could change her Webkinz password at will. So she did. Whenever she felt like it she changed her password. I had to make a hard and fast rule that she could NOT change Hollywood's password. She was disappointed, but she complied.

While I was in the kitchen I hear from the computer, "Mommy, I changed my password again!" I asked what she had changed it to and she told me that to make it easier to remember that she had made her password the same as her screen name. Oops!

I explained what a bad idea that was and asked her to change it back. She came in a little later to tell me that she had changed it to a new password! I just shook my head and told her that I didn't think it was a good idea to change password's unless you have to. She smiled and headed off to play.

A couple of hours later I hear a wail from the computer and much gnashing of teeth. Uh-oh.

"Mommy, I typed in my new password but it won't work!"

So I tried on my computer. No luck. Should be a simple fix for this, right? Yeah.

Webkinz has a plan for just this kind of thing. You just enter your screen name and the code from one of your animals. Simple, right? For a family that leaves the code tags where they belong maybe. But not this family.

So, I had the unhappy task of explaining to MOTS that she may have just lost her account and that very likely she would have to create a new account when she got a new Webkinz. This was especially heartbreaking since to get one she would either have to spend her own money or wait until Christmas! The horror! The tears! The wailing!

And then, what to my wondering eyes should appear but one lonely Kinz Tag. On the floor. Under a bag. But! Would this tag allow access to MOTS account, or was it a tag from Hollywood's account? The suspense.

We tried and, much to MOTS delight, were granted access to her account. I kindly fixed her password and we all learned an important lesson. Never change your password unless you have to.

And the Webkinz all lived happily ever after.

P.S. Please disregard my advice to never change your password if in fact your local IT guy has advised you otherwise. Thanks!

P.P.S. Webkinz World is the online world where you can play games and do things with the e-version of your real life stuffed animals! It's fun and only slightly addicting. You don't even know how close I have come to buying my own Webkinz. The shame.

Shades of Blue

I love blue. All shades of blue. I don't know why I am so drawn to the color blue, but I am. Party Boy even has blue eyes. :)

Here's a blue paper pack for you all. Moonlight Sonata.

Enjoy.