Oshkosh

For a complete review please see the Psychotoddler. I will leave you with one interesting anecdote.

This is not a very busy museum and although it is spread out, it has good sight lines, which means you can see just about the whole room from several points. All this leads up to the group going in different directions, often at different paces. This is not really a bad thing usually, as long as you keep counting heads, etc. Also, we're in Oshkosh, so how far could they actually go?

Nonetheless, I couldn't find a certain 16 year old when we went to the next level, which is sort of in a separate wing, so he wouldn't be able to see us. I looked in 3 different hangers (exhibits are divided into hangers) and I didn't see him anywhere. Finally I had to go to the admission desk and confess I had a lost kid, not a baby, a teenager. They asked me if I wanted him paged. I declined for two reasons (1) He never listens to announcements anyway, so it wouldn't do any good and (2) if he heard it he would never forgive me, as he doubtless did not consider himself lost. But I left them my cell phone number, which he knows anyway, and said if he worked his way to the front desk would you please give me a ring. That seemed to work.

Then one of the docents spotted a familiar looking kid down in the first exhibit hall and said "Look down there, is that him?"

"No," I replied, "That's his brother", the 12 year old. Fact is, although I couldn't bring myself to admit it, I didn't even know he was missing.

(Postscript - He was in the bathroom.)

Superman-----

I must confess after a tough day at the office the best thing is a little superhero action. I saw the original Superman movie with my little brother back in the day when the Mill Road was still a theater, and a Duplex at that. But I digress. This movie has it all. It has a story that is interesting, it has a plot, sub-plot and dynamics. And it has some great actors and characters in it.

I must say that the lead actor, the guy who plays Superman, does such a good imitation of Christopher Reeve that you will swear it's his brother. Mostly it's the little smile or eyebrow or something.

Also John Williams score cannot be understated. The man is a master of movie music. You hear those trumpets and you know something big is coming. On a practical level, you can take kids of any age to see this movie. A six year old will be entertained, if maybe a little confused. My 17 year old loved it and she thought it would be so hokey. I loved it. But to the basics, there is no sex, (I think one kiss), no immodest dress, no bad language. There is one violent scene and constant suspense, but no blood and gore.

This is a great movie, you should go see it and you can take your kids.
If you want to.
Or maybe not.

Day #3

When the PT came home from work last night and said "Did you buy me any more cereal today? The kids ate all my breakfast cereal." and I said "Hi honey." I knew I had some shoppin' to do. Obviously a little run to the grocery store, which suffices during the normal school year, would not be good enough anymore. It was time to go for the big guns.

Where else can you go to get Cheerios in 5lb boxes?

Altogether, I think I brought home over 20lbs of cereal, which should last us a week.

But as I was saying, while we were there, walking amongst the Rubbermaid cannister set and 20-pak lightbulbs I was approached by a sales representative who wanted to show me pictures of a screen porch addition she could add on to the back of my house.

That started me thinking, Gee, you're right, a screen porch would be nice. I thought all I needed to make my life better was about 20 lbs of corn flakes, excuse me, Cheerios, but now that you mention it, I think I'd like to take home a screen porch. Can you fit that in my van?

Tell me seriously, if you were thinking about adding on a screen porch - would you go to Sam's Club to get it? And if you weren't, do you think someone in the aisle showing you pictures would get you to change your mind?

I mean, who're you gonna trust?

Day #2


Strawberry picking. We will include some visuals here. Suffice it to say there was plenty-o-pickin and plenty-0-licken.

Also we got sugar snap peas, which when they are fresh, crunch deliciously.

It may interest you to know that all these strawberries and all these pea pods cost around $7.

You see, that's why you don't need to live in NY.

Welcome to Camp Mommy

When camp is too expensive and driving carpools has got you in over your head, what do you do?

You do it yourself.

Welcome to Camp Mommy. My boys are going to camp, my girls would have been over $2500 to send both of them, so we decided to make a summer of it, inasmuch as I haven't found a summer job either.

Let's start with resources: That would be me, my van, and I.
Campers: I will call them, Thing 1 and Thing 2. Thing 1 is almost 10 and Thing 2 just turned 5. There is also Thing A, aka Fudge, but I can't call her a camper (I could call her other things though, but I digress....)

Let us start with Day 1.

We went to the Mitchell Park Domes . It was the littlest camper who thought of the idea. and it was a good one.
Since it was raining and the Domes are free to residents on Monday mornings, we started there. Bringing with us crayons and paper to capture the essence of the scenery and beauty of the foliage, and some snacks to eat in case things got, you know, boring. When I figure out how to upload pics from the camera we will have some less generic art up here.