And I Thought 52 Card Pick-Up Was Bad!

NaBloPoMo or no, I'm just not gonna post on Sundays. Sorry. I like to spend Sundays resting from my cares, not dredging them up and exaggerating them for the sake of a humorous blog post.

But anyway, yesterday was apparently all about spillage.

First thing in the morning, Claire explored the stack of board games we had foolishly left out from the night before. While I was busily distracted, she took ALL the games out of their boxes. As I tell you about the games pieces I got to sort, it will also serve as a little tour of our game collection. That makes my complaining seem much more legitimate! I got to sort the following sets of cards: Uno, Apples to Apples (green and red cards, mind you), and Mille Bornes. Then there were the Scrabble tiles everywhere. And the Settlers of Cattan land and water hexes with a loose road or two. Don't forget a nice sprinkling of Monopoly money! Fortunately, the Boggle dice were still in their box and I only had to collect the tray and timer. Thank goodness we had put away Trivial Pursuit (the game we had actually played the night before) because those pie pieces can be brutal. So not that this serves as an exhaustive list, but there's a decent sampling of our game holdings. Feel free to scoff or cheer at will.

Then Claire decided to spill a cup full of very orange colored fruit juice all over her shirt, her capris, the table, the floor, and worst of all, my very tired but better than nothing upholstered dining chair. It was actually Juicy Juice's new "Harvest Surprise" in the tropical flavor. It has carrots and sweet potatoes in it, in addition to mango juice and some fairly normal fruit juices. Hence, very orange. Though it tastes pretty good aside from some graininess, I think the name is a little disturbing. I generally prefer my food and drink to come no where near the word "surpise." But I was actually suckered in by this latest marketing gimmick of juice with vegetables in it because Scott really is that bad of an eater. Don't get me started...

Never fear, Claire was not the only one participating in yesterday's spill science experiments. I foolishly left a mostly full spice container of cajun seasoning on the dining room table after making my stew palatable. Apparently I also forgot to close it because Scott picked it up and immediately started dumping it out. I was only maybe 5 yards away, but by the time I got Claire off my lap and dashed over, there wasn't even a dash left in the container. Somehow it must have gotten turned to the "pour" not "shake" opening. There must have been at least a cup of the stuff on the table and floor, if not more. Note: Canjun seasoning does not come out of the cracks in tile well, so if you let your toddler get ahold of it, you'd better enjoy the "creole breeze" scent. I wonder why I've never come across that candle scent??? Ha ha!

How Can You Be BAD at Candyland?!?!?

Note: For everyone who played this game as a child, it's worth knowing that the game has received a few "updates." For example, apparently "Queen Frostine" kicked the bucket and was succeeded by her daughter "Princess Frostine." Also, kids these days are apparently considered too dumb to know what molasses is, so now it's the "Chocolate Swamp." On the up side, the spaces with the dots have been replaced with "Licorice Spaces" that merely involve losing one turn rather than an indefinite wait for a certain color card to be drawn. In this post, I refer not to the version I played as a child (I believe the 1985 edition), but to the I think 2002 edition.

It's finally happened. I beat Claire at Candyland.

We gave Claire Candyland for her birthday back in March. I've played A LOT of Candyland since then. (I'd say we've averaged about a game a week.) But by some strange twist of statistical improbability, as an adult I have never won Candyland until yesterday. I solemnly swear that I do not throw the games out of pity for my child. Once, I did put an interminable game out of it's misery by stacking the deck with "Princess Frostine" and several sets of doubles in Claire's favor, but that was only because she was further ahead of me and represented the fastest path to the game finally ending and me putting Claire down for her quiet time. I was so sick of reshuffling! But most of the time, letting her win on purpose just wouldn't be healthy for her in the long run. No, I really just lose even when "trying my best." (As if that's possible in Candyland...) Apparently, Claire won't gain the full beneficial experience of losing on a regular basis despite my best efforts. Once, I did beat Claire, but I didn't win the game. The neighbor boy won and then Claire always insists we keep playing until everyone gets to the Candy Castle. So I did get there before her... does that count?

I've been telling M for a long time now that I'm bad at Candyland. "How can you be bad at Candyland?" I know, I know. There is NO skill involved. Apparently the fates just hate me. M didn't actually believe me until a couple months ago when we played a game as a family. If normally I'm bad at Candyland, then this time I was abominable. I couldn't seem to get past Grandma Nut in Peanut Acres without drawing a "candy card" and going backwards. This went on for A LONG TIME. He finally believed me that somewhere along the way I must have crossed the Candyland gods and doomed myself to Candyland failure. But no more! The Candyland gods, for once, smiled on me yesterday. I don't know what changed, but maybe this is beginning of a whole new Candyland life for me!

HD-DVD vs Blu-ray... Round 1... Fight

OK,

G has taken the risk of letting me post on this blog. This is good for me because I don't have nearly the quantity or quality of material necessary to sustain my own blog and this gives me a chance to leach off of someone else.

Down to business.

Many of you are probably unaware that a technological war is going on right now. The war is about what kind of discs will be used to display high definition movies. In case you are unaware DVD's just don't have what it takes to produce a "sharp" picture on today's Hi-Def TVs. I assure you that soon, you will realize that your current television and DVD player don't really cut it and will go out and buy one of these new high tech thingies.

There are two main contenders in this fight. Blu-ray (pronounced Blue-Ray) and HD-DVD. They are fairly similar. Blu-ray stores a little more data, HD-DVD is cheaper to make, blah blah blah.

I'm hoping Blu-ray wins for one simple reason.

I don't really want to say HD-DVD. It is five difficult to pronounce syllables and makes me think of a medical disorder more than a cool new toy. Blu-ray rolls of your tongue and sounds like some kind of super weapon or piece of medical equipment. I feel like I should be able to diagnose someone with HD-DVD using a Blu-ray scanner.

Seriously though, when coming up with a trade mark did they not notice that every other acronym longer than your standard TLA (three letter acronym) is pronounceable? Like DARPA or CORBA or COBOL? Why not just add vowels until you can pronounce it like HIDEDIVID (HIgh DEfinition DIgital VIdeo Disk)? Oh wait, I think I know.

So if for some reason Sony or Toshiba calls you in for a focus group, remember, why use five syllables when two would do?

What Could Make This Blog Geekier?

All right, all right. Enough with my doting mom posts already. I'm sure you've had enough of my kids' costumes. Moving forward...

How would y'all feel about M doing some cameo appearances on my blog? He's expressed interest in being a guest writer. I think he'd be fabulous - much more amusing than me - but I fear I might be biased.

My Beauty and My Beast

Here is some photo proof that these costumes were apt choices:

"The Beast" trying to climb up the steps rather than pose for a photo while "Beauty" tries to stop him.

"The Beast" making a break for it out into the parking lot as "Beauty" calls for him to stop. 

(Don't forget M rushing in for the save from stage left.)