Partying with interchangeable body parts

Did I mention the launch is coming? That would be the Mad Science The Card Game launch party. In case you were wondering. Saturday July 21, 4pm at Alterniverse in Salt Point. Be there or be Spongebob’s super lame cousin in right angle pantaloons.

We’re inviting friends and un-creepy acquaintances from far and wide to crash at Casa Mad Science aka the Laboratory aka the Skateboard Heroes secret hideout aka Lulu’s domain. I may even invest in an industrial strength shower fitting so we can offer group sanitation without the lye-overtones of prison induction.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit much. We have two showers and a third half bath so any guests who take us up on the offer can get clean without the threat of public indecency charges.

Unless that’s what you’re into.

Mad Science…

Yay!

My Only Slightly Larger Princess

My three year old daughter rules our house with an iron fist. Sure she has a wrist full of silly bands, an older brother’s Star Wars t-shirt cum ballerina dress, and a pink tutu, but she is totally in charge. When she barks an instruction, we jump to attention and follow it because no one is willing to suffer her wrath… all 30 pounds of it.

Nevertheless, she is still my baby girl. My little pink princess baby girl. Although she made a bit of a step forward. She left her crib behind this week and moved up to her “big girl bed.” No more Glenna Jean bedding crib sheets and vertically sliding crib walls. She’s got a twin with a Jenny Lind headboard from the 60s (the same one I inherited in the 70s) and it’s all alright.

Faulty Wiring

A friend recently relocated his retail business. He was more or less pushed into an empty space in a neighboring facility by his landlord so they could rent his former space to the next door tenanct who wanted to expand. So, they caused him the headaches and expense of moving with no real personal advantages.

Already we hate these landlords, right? As well we should. But it gets worse. When he moved into the new space, he found out that there were all sorts of wiring problems, with the phones in particular. The former tenant had a specialized business with specialized needs and had done some wacky stuff. Since it is all inside the building, the phone company won’t help without a miliion dollar service call that will result in lots of wasted time. Sure, all the panduit raceway that is sure to result will probably be cool and all that, but shouldn’t the responsibility fall on the landlord? After all, they said it was ready to move in. How can they just lay it at the tenant’s feet.

3 wheelers

Here’s another complaint that will make me sound like a total jerk, but, well, what can I do? I’ve never really understood the three wheel strollers. I get the whole baby jogger thing, and I actually did see it happen once. I mean, a mother jogging and pushing a stroller.

Most recently, though, I’ve noticed a lot of, ahem, larger couples with three wheel strollers. Now, at the risk of sounding judgemental, let me put it out there. These people ain’t jogging. No way, no how. So why the pretense? Unless there was a big sale or something, like 25% fewer wheels, 25% lower price, I don’t know why you would opt for the 3 wheel death machine.

Maybe it’s just me.

But at least half of the other times I’ve seen a three wheel stroller, it has been tipped over. Granted, it is usually tipped by overzealous older siblings, but it happens. I mean, it’s basic physics right? It’s a less stable foundation, and when you have bouncy toddlers. Well, it all goes to hell pretty quick.

Size Matters?

Speaking of camping and tents, I’m a smaller tent guy. I mean, not the totally tiny backpack models because I still need to be in the thing with my kids. But a 4 person model with a 9 by 7 footprint or so is totally fine for me. And now, like I mentioned earlier, I have two. I see some families with mega-tents that have “rooms” (separated with a sliver of nylon fabric) and can sleep an entire baseball team with coaching staff. But the fighting and yelling I hear, and all the stress created in setting up such monster tents totally rules it out for me. I mean, if you need power tools and welding equipment to set up your tent I think you might be doing something wrong.

I’d rather just point the doors of my two small tents at each other and call it a day.

Lotsa Camping

Yup. We’re going to be doing lots of camping this summer. We already had a chilly Cub Scouts overnighter in early May, and there are many more to come. The Parent/Cub weekend is coming up. While I was a little hesitant in the beginning, I have come to really enjoy this two night event. And this year will be the first with both boys.

Boy howdy.

Indeed.

I even bought another tent in anticipation. We’re still pretty low-fi, so we have basic 4 person tent models. Maybe when the older one hits Boy Socuts we’ll start looking at the heavy duty gear like Nemo Tents, but for now, the basics will do.

The busted fridge

Here’s the voicemail you don’t want to get when you’re helping the comic book store peeps move across the street to a new location: Call me back – I think the refrigerator is dead.

And I know everyone means well, but when they say things like “at least it’s Memorial Day so all the appliances are on sale” it starts to wear on your nerves. Sometimes the bright side is a little irritating.

Everybody else is out there shopping for electric fireplaces and patio bug zappers at holiday prices, but not me, I’m the schmuck buying a french door fridge.