Kris's Korner

Wabbit season!



Love those old cartoons! I enjoy some of the newer ones, but Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck - Classic!

Or did someone break the blogs?

I get through my usual paging through of the News+Views section, head over here to the blogs and ...

Nothing...

No list of blogs to read!

[cue chirping cricket sound]

So, is this punishment for my absence (RL got in the way of my blog time!), or did someone break the blogs? Inquiring minds, well, at least my mind, wants to know.

Toodles!

Morning all!

So, I was doing some quick grocery shopping last night, and my youngest had to use the facilities. So we wander over that way, and as I'm waiting for her, I notice this stand in front of me. It's for a new M&M product. Premium M&Ms! There are 5 varieties, mint chocolate, triple chocolate, raspberry almond, and 2 others I can't remember off the top of my head. But, I couldn't resist buying a couple! We tried the mint chocolate last night - quite yummy! Here's what they look like:

Hi all!

I missed most of the fun yesterday (darn van, grumble grumble, a/c out again, grumble-OK, I feel better), so I figured I would get today started. Found this quote, and I actually have a cross-stitch scene with these same words.



We've never seen our Vee, few have actually heard her voice, but we really, truly feel her in our hearts. We love you Vee! We hope and pray you continue to get better!

OK, so today I learned a little something more about men vs women.

My van was in the shop yesterday having the a/c fixed, an all-day repair since they had to pull off the dash to get to the busted part. So, I drop off my hubby at the end of the day, as we're hoping that it will be ready before they close for the day. Anywho, he calls me to let me know he's got the van and is on his way home. So I pick up dinner, and arrive home later. He tells me the only problem he sees is that the radio is canted back farther on one side than the other, but I may not even mind. So I figure, yay! No obvious rattles, scratches or scrapes, so this is good, right?

Fast forward to this morning. I get in the van and look at the radio. Yup, I see that it is a bit crooked, but nothing I'm going to raise heck about, so I back out of the driveway. Well, before I get down the 25 yards of my street, I notice something a bit more significant than the radio being a bit crooked.

Anyone care to guess...Anyone?

My speedometer is not working, the needle is on the wrong side of the little stopper, so I have no clue how fast I am going. And he drove like this for about 15 miles without noticing! I knew he wasn't much for using the mirrors, but the speedometer? The tachometer was the same way, but unless you're a race car driver (in a minvan!), it's not nearly as essential as the speedometer.

On the bright side, I figured I had a really good reason for speeding if I happened to be pulled over!

OK, so in reading some of the blogs from the last couple of days, I was introduced to a new book that my kids haven't read, and they may be too old anyway. However, in reading notes on Amazon from one of the author's other books (Math Curse), this is in the examples:

If an M&M is about one centimeter long and the Mississippi River is about 4000 kilometers long, how many M&Ms would it take to measure the length of this river?


Anyone a math major out there? Bueller? 'Cause now I kinda want to know...

OK, I admit to watching America's Got Talent. Even without the kids. So I watched last nights premier, and basically enjoyed the show. There was a nice mix of the good, the bad, and the cringe-worthy. However, there was one audition that really stood out in my mind.

The adorable 4-year-old girl, Kaitlyn. Now, I wholeheartedly agree, she's an adorable sweetheart. And she stood on that stage with poise and an apparent lack of fear. But I have to ask, WHAT ARE HER PARENTS THINKING? I agree with Sharon, she sang all the words, sang along with the melody, and did it in front of hundreds of people. But why? My oldest daughter, who is 11, can sing and has a lovely voice which has really started to blossom over the last couple of years. But I wouldn't dream of letting her audition!

And let me not forget the judges. I was thinking to myself, how are they going to let this sweet, innocent little girl down easy? But then Piers, of all people, tells her she has the best voice for a 4-year-old that he's ever heard, and puts her through to Vegas. Again I ask, WHY?

Again, I agree, she's adorable, and not many kids 2 or 3 times her age could handle being on stage in front of that many people. But why put her through to Vegas? Why allow her to audition?

It boggles my mind.

OK, I'll admit it. I was jealous of all you guys posting all the cute pictures and animated smileys and such. But did I ask how it was done. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! That would be too hard. However, I happened upon Julie's (ZZZ999) comments in Mannie's blog (trying to figure out what's happening on Friday), and I figured it out. I'm so happy now! Now I have more things to distract me from work (yikes, did I say that out loud??)



Remember folks, it's the little things in life!

What does this have to do with TV? Give me a minute and I’ll get there.

For quite some time, I’ve known that my kids, and by definition I and my husband, lead very, very busy lives. They’re in school 7.5 hours a day, then there’s after school activities and of course homework. On a good day, they’re in bed by 9:30 (still too late for my oldest who, like her mother, gets grumpy on too little sleep), and on a bad day, like yesterday, it can be after 11pm. String too many bad days together, and you have meltdowns, again, like yesterday. My oldest (she’s 11, in the 5th grade) had a math test on Tuesday which she says she studied for, but only got a 76%. Not the end of the world, but not what she’s capable of if we know about it ahead of time and remind her to study, oh, say the weekend before, not just the night before. So my hubby is trying to help her with the concepts that she missed, and poor thing is struggling to get it. It’s pre-algebra, complete with variables and such, but she’s so tired, her brain just can’t wrap around the concepts.

Let me back up a couple of days. No, let me give you her general schedule, then jump to the specifics of the last few days (and yes, I will get to TV, I promise). She has dance 2 days a week, soccer the other 3, plus a game on Sunday. Busy girl! Oh, and guitar before dance on one of those days. Last weekend, she and I actually bailed on her younger sister’s soccer game, as I wasn’t feeling well. While I slept, she was on the computer playing a game, then she was outside for a bit. She says she studied a bit too. I’m dubious. Sunday was dance recital day (missed the soccer game), so we were at the theater all day (10am to after 5pm), then dinner and bed. Monday was soccer and homework, Tuesday was the math test, plus an evening recital at school, she bailed on dance that night. So after soccer last night, she lets us know how she did on this test we knew nothing about. She’s upset, because she knows we have high expectations. Long story short, we try to help her understand the ones she got wrong (their teacher has them do corrections) and the poor thing is up until nearly 11pm completing this and her other homework. 6am wake up call, and she wants to do nothing more than sleep. But, trouper that she is, she’s up and going, though not happily. And tonight it’s guitar, homework, dance, homework (?), and then sleep.

OK, now to the TV bit. In and around all the activities and homework, I watch way too much TV. During the regular TV season, there’s at least 1 show per night that I watch, some nights it’s 3-4. So, I get home from schlepping one or both kids around, (oh, yeah, dinner is in there too) get them through homework, THEN I watch TV. OK, some nights I have the headphones on to watch TV, then I ‘ignore’ the calls for help, since hubby can, and does, help too. Guilty! Can you say midnight or later for me? And I’m the one getting everyone else up in the morning. Add grumpy mom plus at least one grumpy kid, and boy my house is fun!

But, honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing! My kids love their activities, I love watching them, and I love my TV! But boy is it different from when I was a kid not so long ago. After school activities consisted of my mom telling us to go outside and play! (My hubby had an experience similar to that of my kids though, so I guess it may not be so different.)

Oldest may be dropping an activity next school year anyway, as conflicts arise and we learn all about 6th grade. But until then, I'm running around like crazy!

Greetings all! I've lurked here for quite a while, posted somewhat infrequently. But something my hubby and I were talking about over the weekend has stuck in my head, so I wanted to see if we were the only ones.

The one that bugs both of us to no end is the Bank of America "Keep the Change" ads. Now, I like the idea of automatically transferring bits of money into savings, for those who can't seem to find a way to save money. Our problem is this. The ads take the angle that there's all this change laying around, getting lost, and it's just waiting for some purpose. So why not, whenever you use their card, just transfer those 'lost' coins to your savings account. However, those coins aren't lost, they're still happily sitting in your checking account.

They're not:
-in your car or couch just waiting to be vacuumed up
-dropped on an escalator just waiting to be kicked or sucked into the escalator
-lost in a pocket of an old coat in your closet

They're in your checking account! You don't get change when you use the debit card (unless you ask for them to charge a higher amount, and even then it's usually round dollars you're getting back, not coins).

Does the advertising exec who came up with this think that folks will say "hey, yeah, let me save all that change so it won't get lost in one of these terrible places and I can't spend it?"

Does this bug anyone else? Is it just me and my hubby?