Why I Oughta...

I covered Vinylmations earlier this year on the blog , but we were in the Disney Store recently and came across these Cinderella-themed Vinylmations and it took all the impulse control in my body to not gobble up 3 or 15 of these for the girls and I to open as we squeal all the way home. If I go back, maybe we'll pick up a few of these boxes?  As long as we get the evil Stepmother, everything will be right in the world, right?!?

Back in January, I went to what I *think* was my first Chicago Blackhawks game with some buddies .  Last week, I went with the full 19-headed monster to the game against the Devils.  The seats, weren't...ahem...quite the same.  It still was a lot of fun and I got to take the Babe with me - so we had some good daddy/daughter time. Now....being up in the 300 level, things weren't all bad.  There are some advantages of 'seeing the game' from up there, but let's be honest:  everyone in any of the 300 level seats would switch in a heartbeat with someone in row 4 down close to the glass.  But, when you're with 18 members of your family, it doesn't matter where you sit.  It is going to be fun.

We went to Al's #1 Italian Beef over the long holiday weekend and on the wall there were just a handful of photo endorsements.  The usual suspects of Mayor Daley, Steve 'The Hungry Hound' Dolinsky were up there.  And so were a few wrasslers . And then there was this Paula Deen one.  Prominently displayed for all to see.    Seems her clout on food issues has dropped a bit, hasn't it?   Or...once you get a Paula Deen photo, you keep that photo?  Is that the case?

Me?  I call them 'poonch-keys' just like my Mama does. Nat went out of her way to pick some tasty treats up from the bakery - which I devoured.

In my office at work, I now have two wall calendars hanging on the all.  Both of them were shipped to me as 'gifts' from two different groups.  The one of the left is a Disney calendar that came as part of my D23 membership .  The one on the right came from the University of Illinois as part of their outreach program.  I have them both hanging right by my desk and - as of now - they're currently set to the right month. But...I have to wonder:  do these things provide any utility any longer?  I certainly don't mark them up with important dates and events.  In fact...I'll be surprised that I keep up with changing the months in a timely fashion.  The number of times I've walked into offices and people had their wall calendars set to 3 months earlier is too many to count. So...what do you think?  Wall calendars still useful?  Don't tell me you give them as gifts, do you?  Or...maybe...people love them?  (Some people?!?) I'm all set, thank you.

We were in the Toys r Us over the weekend trying to get our hands on some Shopkins when I saw a whole aisle of these white-boxed Pixar-branded toys.  If you know your Pixar movies, you'll know that there are guys from Nemo and Incredibles in this photo.  There were also the robots from Wall-E, Monsters from Monsters Inc and even some guys from Up and Bugs Life. What struck me as odd, however...is that these things are branded and packaged in all white packaging with just the Disney Pixar branding on them.  Further down the aisle, there were ToyStory toys like Buzz packaged up in Toy Story-ish boxes.  But...not these guys. Seems strange, right?

Was in and out of Denver Colorado (Or Denver Avocado as The Babe calls it!) in the flash of an eye recently.  I took just one photo while I was there and it was this brochure sitting on the check-in desk of the hotel. Not exactly the way you want to 'see' Denver, eh?  Maybe next time we'll have more time to take in the local...ahem...culture.