Month: April 2004

Take a look at the most recent PBTeen (PotteryBarn) catalog cover:

The guy is “mixing drinks” (alcohol reference) behind a bar. The bar is labeled “chill” with a bottle that looks distinctly like a “beer.” The standing girl actually just looks like she is having a good time. The sitting girl is “beating her bongos” and is strategically placed so that she looks almost naked.

The poses are very intentional as the real catalog has slight differences than this online version and a forth person has either been photoshopped into the picture or was present for this alternative picture. The differences are very subtle so these exact poses are what the catalog wanted to present.

The party message and the necessity of “alcohol” or drugs to “chill” and “sex” to have fun are very clear. I know that sounds “paranoid parent” but its intended to be more of a pure criticism of their marketing approach.

Ran errands with the wife and Amy. Had a good time for the most part except when wife went psycho and called me psycho. Amy impresses everywhere she goes overflowing with cuteness and popping weird things out like “look, a baseball” yes, she said “baseball” Where’d she learn that?!

We picked up more birthday invites, dropped off stuff related to Cathy’s projects, did some banking for me, reserved a meeting space for Cathy’s zoo project wrapup, tried to see if my phone needs a firmware upgrade or a total replacement but the tech was too busy, bought new sheets, did some necessary shopping for the kids, and pet some puppies.

Then we came home and Sarah spent $165 on a $.35 milk and I tried to turn it into a “value of money” lesson and Sarah ended up in tears and Cathy got mad at me.

Baby woke just as I was getting into my productivity gear. She is a woot and a half. I’ve left the television off this morning despite the temptation. She is a bit on the wild side this morning but having a great time with her toys. She and I both enjoyed some conversation and some waffles.

When she got up she removed the full diaper and immediately threw it in the diaper pail when I let her out of the bedroom. What a good baby! And soooo ready for potty training.

I love watching her play with her toys!

Baby’s sentences this morning:

“Look Dada. A truck!”

“I tripped”

“A waffle!”

I had a question about my “canned air” reference. This is neat stuff. The chemical composition is 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane (at least in the Fellowes brand that I buy). It’s a chemical under pressure that is typically used to blow dust out of computers. If you turn it upside down the chemical will spray out in liquid form and can freeze ants or be used to remove bubble gum stuck to something.

I found it interesting that when I bought this at Walmart I had to have an “age verification” which severely slowed me down at the self-serve checkout. This forum discusses the “blackouts” and “paralysis” caused by huffing canned air. Would You Know If Your Child Was “Huffing”? (scroll down to see article. Note 1999 publish date.)

    

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

This was one of those mornings I would have given body parts to keep sleeping. Now I did wake at 5am and was wide awake. Had I gotten out of bed I’d be writing a different story. I got the kids up at 6am and went back to sleep until 6:15 when I went up to give Tommy his medicine. Sarah had laid on the couch and sprang from it as I came up the stairs. Then I went to sleep again until 6:30 and I awoke with my head spinning, that kind of dizziness that only lying back down can resolve. I fought it and got dressed then stirred Tommy again at 6:35.

I am dreading today. I want to hide.

Last Evening

I rewarded my computer efforts with some yard work. I intended only to be an hour and ended up being 2 hours. I fixed another lawn mower. So that’s 2 out of 3. The two push mowers both work (granted I think I still have a little tuning to do on the 2nd push mower). Now I just have to get the commercial walk (run rather) behind mower working. This is one that I can get a sled for and it does all the work. It’s going to be a beast to get running again.

After getting the mower working I grabbed the pruning shears and machette and bush hogged the yard for a bit. Cleared a good bit of brush back and the red bellied woodpecker later thanked me by flying through its newly available flight path. The birdseed that has fallen to the ground has grown so tall that its starting to go to seed. I am certain that this is how the chipmunk found its demise since the cat could hide in that tall grass which was right beside the drainage pipe that the chipmunk lived in.

The evening was spent getting the kids to bed then watching most of a good movie with the wife.

I put a new (rather older) video card into the graphics production machine and was able to reboot it. If I can get the driver working with it once again I can do design work with that machine. I think to celebrate I will take an hour break to cut the grass in the lower lot in preparation for assembling Noah’s soccer goal. Milestones and babysteps!