Brookside Gardens Trip

Last Friday in the DC area the weather was incredible, but a someone who has a real job, I was at my desk, in my office.  The advantage of my particular office is that I do not have any windows, and that makes it easier to not fret about leaving work because the weather is nice, because I just plain don't know!  (The same is true of worry over snow - I never see it so I don't have reason to be concerned about the traffic.)

As it turns out, though, we were told to pack up early and head home.  At one. I immediately began making plans to take my water bottle, camera and extra batteries and head someplace quiet and pretty to take some pictures.  I have actually never done that.  Back when I used to have quiet in nature (thanks Glenkirk!) I did not have a camera.  Now I have a camera, but no easy place to get completely lost in the woods.

Then I realized that I had someone in the hospital that would love a visitor, and that in reality my brain is more attuned to being with someone who wants to chat than it is sitting with a creek or a flower.  I went for a quick visit that turned into an hour and a half of talking about all sorts of things.  I know that the hospital is the place that I should have been, both for the person in the bed and for myself.

But when I left I was still feeling a need to get out and play.  I popped by the house for some cold water, then realized just how late it had gotten.  Knowing that I would genuinely have a better time if I had Anny and Abby with me, I put a call in to Anny and we decided to meet up at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton.  Why on earth did I invite my loud daughter and never-sitting-still wife...


That's why.

The thing that I value more in the world than peace and quiet (because really, those are low priority to me) is watching Abby discover something new.  I did not pose the picture above.  We walked up to the pool and she ran ahead.  She wanted to learn what was in the water and on the water.  I love watching Abby's amazement that "she found a treehouse" when we could see it a hundred feet away.  It is like she was the only person to have ever seen the pond above and she took it all in.  Freaking awesome.

I am considering telling Anny that this will become a weekly Friday outing, so long as I'm let go of work early to do it!  (And no more hospital visits - PLEASE!)

Other great pics from our time out there are below:

 Abby was loving the butterfly benches, too!

We had a blast, and I knew we would if we went together. I might not ever go out by myself, but that's okay with me.

If you are local, even on the "other side" of the river - this park is worth a morning or afternoon of your time.  We were there for more than an hour and didn't even get to see half of the things they have.  We are also sure that this place looks different with every trip because of when things bloom fade.  Just a great place to spend time.

Summertime in Spring

This weekend was pretty much a whirlwind of fun and activity for us!  With temperatures in the upper 80's and low 90's it could have been miserable, but it was great!

Saturday -
We started the day at Maryland Day, which is annual open house that the University of Maryland puts on.  It was hot and crowded, but a heck of a lot of fun!  Abby had a blast playing with the bubbles when we first got there.  There were plastic ducks in the main fountain on campus, and all three girls had fun retrieving them and throwing them back into the water.

(No pictures from Maryland Day - I left my camera and phone at the house on accident.  It was really weird for me to not be connected!)

After grabbing lunch and a nap, we went up to celebrate Luke's second birthday!  Lots of family and tons of presents, but mostly it was fun to watch the children together.  Evan and Luke are constantly in motion, which is awesome to watch.  I think that Abby did not believe Luke was up to the challenge of opening his gifts on his own, so she helped a little:



We left their house way too late, but Abby did not notice too much.

Sunday:
We realized on Saturday night that our regular church service on Sunday was not going to be "normal" but rather was the Easter Choral Cantata.  I love music, don't get me wrong, but I don't love Latin.  We decided to head up to the National Aquarium in Baltimore for the morning.  Last summer we got a membership for the family as a good, indoor play place for Anny and Abby for hot summer days.  Abby has never really been a huge fan, so we wanted to go this spring to help decide if we wanted to renew our membership.  The answer is "no" but we had a fun time.

We have not been to the dolphin show with Abby, mostly because we paid for the membership and I'm too cheap to tack on extra money while I'm there!  This time they gave us tickets to the show for free, so we were not going to pass that up.  Anny went in and found seats while Abby and I walked up and down stairs a few times and looked at the dolphin tank from below.  Very cool.  When we got in and sat down it took Abby a minute to figure out what was about to happen, but when she figured it out it was hard to wipe the grin off of her face!



We had lunch at the Inner Harbor - nice big salads really hit the spot for Anny and I.  Abby went to sleep in the car, but not quite enough.  I hate when that happens.

After having folks over to watch the Capitals game, we went out and played in the yard and the street for a while.  Yes, I am a bad parent and let my daughter walk in the street without holding my hand, but she seems to be pretty clear about when that is and is not allowed.  We walk down the street with her in her wagon, or on her new bike, and sometimes we let her push her baby stroller:



Overall we had an incredible weekend and can only hope the whole summer is this fun!

How to Ruin an Awesome Day

We went to the zoo Saturday with a family from our church.  It was awesome to spend some time with them outside of the normalcy that is the church nursery.  They're cool folks, but the last time we tried to meet up with them there was a little chaos and we just never connected.

Only I can come up with two, yes two, ways to completely ruin this day.

1 - it seems that there was a marathon in Baltimore.  We typically go into the city through 295, which brings us in by two of the coolest stadiums in the state of Maryland.  The aquarium is only a few blocks to the right of this way into the city, so it's easy in that respect too.

Because of the marathon, though, the cut off one of the north-south streets, pushing a city's worth of traffic north with no real options for getting to the middle easily.  We spent 90 minutes sitting in the car just plodding along.  Unbelievable.  We finally found a way south and went in another way - with absolutely no delay.  Argh.  Two hours late is not the way to start awesomeness.

That could only be topped by one thing - burning our house down.  Okay, the thought of burning our house down.  About halfway through our drive home we were talking about what to have for dinner and it occured to me that I hadn't turned off the stove, so I hoped beyond hope that Anny had.  She had not.   I was making hard-boiled eggs for our salads this week, and luckily had left the heat down, or we really would have been homeless.

We threw away the pot.  There were four eggs - each in a different state.  One was in tact, but empty.  One was completely crushed and empty.  One was half full. The fourth, though, was fun:

On the right of the picture is the egg shell, on the left is the fully cooked yolk.  It seems that it hopped out of the pot and shot it's yolk through the flames, still in tact.

We're really lucky.  I spent about 25 minutes getting smoke out of the house with open windows and fans, while the girls got gas and dinner.  On Sunday when we got home from church it's was stinky again, but open windows took care of that. 
Other than that, Saturday was wonderful.  :o)

My Weekend ROCKED!

My Facebook message says "Glad for an awesome weekend, sad it was too short."  My sister commented to ask why, and I realized that in all of the hubub, I haven't updated my blog since Wednesday!

On Friday afternoon I got motivated at the office to clean out our storage unit in the basement.  This "room" is very cluttered, and not with the right stuff.  There are boxes of old books that have since been reprinted, old financial records that can't be tossed until January of next year, and old blueprints for churches.  Okay, old blueprints, most of which are for churches, but some are for closed churches, camps or other properties that we no longer own.  Fun.  I brought one of the four boxes up and began sorting.  This will be a several-weeks process, and I'm okay with that. 

Because I got so much done here, I headed home and chipped away at some more of my attic cleaning project.  We bought our house from the family, and still have not gotten to cleaning everything out of the attic.  There is some pretty cool stuff up there, but also some trash and things that have been out of date for years.  (i.e. a crib that, by todays standards, would implode immediately and burst into flames!)  I got enough done to be happy and leave the rest for a cooler day, hopefully in a few weeks. Anyway.

On Saturday we did our normal morning routine:
Farmer's Market
Eat our Farmer's Market pastries
Wash diapers
Grocery Shop

We did a detour on the way to the grocery store to support our friend Charlene's fundraising efforts for her crazy three day journey in a couple of weeks.  They were having a bake sale and a yard sale.  We spent a few dollars on each of those, in addition to a check for just walking.  Worth every penny.

On Saturday afternoon Anny had a friend over to do some scrapbooking.  I don't really deal well with printed pictures.  I view the internet as my scrapbook.  With that in mind, I grabbed Abby and we took off for the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge.  We had a nice hike, just the two of us.  The weather would not have allowed me to take her shopping or anything like that, and I'm glad that we didn't.  I stopped along the way several times and let her out of the stroller to play.  I got a couple of nice pictures, and one amazing one.  You'll have to wait until Wednesday for that one, sorry. 

Saturday night we had dinner with my brother and his wife.  They are so great with Abby, but struggled with the concept of an early dinner.  I think they understand, and hope that if they don't that they will soon.  :o)

Sunday night we went to dinner with friends.  This is where the awesomeness stopped.  Abby was just way too overspent to enjoy a quiet dinner, so Anny and I ate in shifts.  That's never fun. By the time we got home, and not very late I must say, Abby skpped her bath and went straight to sleep.  It's adorable and annoying, both at the same time.

What did you do this weekend?

Question from a Reader: The Cost of a Child

Okay, really I got a question from a friend after reading THIS post a while back.  Technically it was a question from a friend, but since it relates to the blog, and Amy does this from time to time, I'm responding to my first...

Question from a Reader!

I actually have a question for you.  I  don't normally read your other blog but I was having trouble motivating myself to work this morning and so followed more links than I should have.  Anyway, in your most recent entry you said something that I've now heard about 3 times in as many weeks--that having a child was more expensive than you'd expected.  Can you quantify this at all?  I know it is a personal question and you can feel free to ignore it, but we've been doing some of the "when will we be able to afford to have a child" math recently and I'm beginning to fear that our math may bear little resemblance to reality.

In an effort to be transparent, I neglected this email for over three months before responding.  I can be a bad friend without much effort, it turns out.

Here goes:

The answer to "how expensive is it to have a child" is such a hard one to answer.  There are way too many things to factor in: bottle feeding or breastfeeding? stay-at-home parent or day care?  Are your parents/in-laws going to spoil you or do you have to pretty much figure things out on your own, financially?

The reality is that the costs begin to pile up from the moment you say "let's have a kid!" 

Our journey began on March 20, 2003.  (yes, do the math and you'll see that Abby is a very special girl and her parents love her enough to fight for her for years)  That's the weekend that we were visiting family and they told us that they were expecting!  Great news.  Flying home two days later made for some interesting conversation, naturally.  We shared excitement for them, and conversation turned to our future.  It was decided that we would begin "trying" shortly thereafter.

Only we experienced some unforseen health issues and ended up going through several (years of) intentional, professional infertility services. (if you're local and have a need, we highly recommend the facility we used. Drop me a note and I'll give that to you.)  Bottom line for us, expense wise: $5,000-$7,000.

Now that you've got the smudge/peanut/bean inside of you, there are doctor appointments, which can be few if everything goes perfectly, or plentiful if there is some sort of concern.  We had 15 or so visits, at $35 per shot we paid a bit.  Bottom line, expense wise: $100-$500

The cost of the actual birth will vary based on what sort of services you want/need.  I can't even begin to put a price on this because there are WAY too many variables.

Okay, that covers all of the stuff from "let's have a kid!" to "congratulations!" but costs do not stop then, obviously.

Some other categories:
Food: if you breastfeed your child the milk is free!  Score one in the win column.  If you're going to work, though, you will need a pump and bottles.  Believe it or not, you can rent a breast pump!  Please, if this option is available at your hospital and you only plan to breastfeed for a year, do it!  It costs about the same as buying a middle-of-the-road pump, but it's a better pump and will not sit in your house for the rest of your life.  (Guess this is different if you plan on having more than one)  A pump can range from about $100 to $500.

Formula: If you choose formula it is more expensive on a recurring basis.  I think we used about one big can of powder every three weeks for a year, when they will switch to regular, whole milk.  Each can was $25, but you can easily find coupons.  If you don't notice them show up before your delivery date, go onto the formula providers website and sign up for them.  Coupons are generally $4-5 each, which is a fortune in the long run!  Formula for a year: $350

Diapers: Here is another big dilemna.  Cloth diapers are costly to get going, but save you money in the long run.  Disposables require less work (washing machine every other day versus taking the trash out once a week) but are more costly as you go along.  We switched to cloth partly for the money reasons, but mostly for the good of the environment.  Oh yeah, and they're easy.  Based purely on my preference for cloth, I will only quote you that cost: about $300 total for diapers that will last from day 1 until potty training.  Tack on another $100 spread out for your water and soap bringing it to a whopping: $400.

Clothes: Purely based on how much you buy.  Realistically your child does not know what they are wearing for a very long time.  It is easiest for friends and family to fill in this portion of your budget, because shopping for baby clothes is REALLY fun!  Try to ask family or really close friends (folks you can be blunt and honest with) to buy clothes for the later stages, because a lot of acquaintances are going to buy you 0-3 month clothes.  Those are only good for like two months!  We have spent a small bit of money on clothes because we have a large extended family that likes to buy clothes.  I can not put a price on this one, sorry.

Equipment*: There are some essential things for baby (i.e. some place to sleep) and things that you can buy, but are not necessary to development (floor mat).  Cribs are pricey, and you can not buy these used.  Don't do it.  High chairs vary based on how nice you want to get.  We bought one of these used for $50 on a whim, but in retrospect I would probably have gone with more of a booster seat, which will last longer.  Car seats vary in price, too.  You also have too many choices in this area - convertable, carry-able and bassinet style are all available.  We bought two and have spent (or been gifted) with about $250 in car seats, but we'll be set for a long while.  You can only buy car seats used if they have not expired.  On equipment, of which there is more than I can account for, we have spent between $1,000 and $2000. 
Ahh the pricey one: Childcare.  If a parent is going to stay home that has been working it will not "cost" you anything in the sense that you will be "saving" money, but really you are losing out on one income.  This is not feasible in our house.  While neither of us makes a ton of money, both salaries are relied upon for essential things like food and shelter.  If a parent stays home the real cost is: Whatever that parent makes in the job market.

If you go with the daycare option there is good news and bad news.  The good news is that after the age of 2 the price goes down.  Really, though, that was just to soften the blow of this large number.  Now, we realize that there are different options that fit different price ranges.  You can find a local family-run operation, or a more institutional version, just be sure that they are licensed and have all of the training needed (CPR and such) and that you are comfortable.  We chose to put Abby into a program run by the school system.  We know that they have background checks for all of their staff, that they are licensed and that they have educational program planned for the children every day.  (I also realize that at 3 months Abby did not grasp colors and shapes, but they were sure being taught!)  For us, the childcare cost is $13,500/year. (holy crap that hurt to actually put in writing.)

I'm not going to total that up, because I know that the total is more than I have made in two years, so I dont' want to cry. 
Please know that those numbers are both round and generic.  You can find ways to save on some of these things, or ways to spend a lot more on things.  For example, we have friends who are expecting in the spring and we are passing down a lot of equipment that is short term, like a bouncy seat, so that they can save some cash on that stuff.  There are lists online everywhere that tell you what things you can buy used and what things you should always buy new.

Having a child is not all about cash, of course, but I'm glad to know that people can think practically about such an emotional process.  We love being parents and wouldn't trade it for any amount of money.  Which is good, since we can't go back now!

(Other parents out there - please let me know if there is something I missed, or feel free to blog about this on your blog and let me know you did so that I can link over to you.  Consider it a really twisted Meme!)

*I think that the next parenting post I tackle will be about products that are available and we have bought that in retrospect were a bunch of money wasted...

Follow Up: A Little Weird-ER!

Following up from my grass-cutting confusion back in May (post is HERE.)

Thanks for all for suggestions - but we never bridged the language barrier, mostly because we have literally not seen the neighbor himself since before the lawn-cutting incident. I never thanked him face-to-face or even through his daughter.

The bottom line is that I ran out of time. I think an acceptable time frame for such thanks is fairly narrow - maybe two weeks, probably one. I was willing to give myself an extra week (three) but just never got around to it. I decided that I would just cut his grass when it got to be long.

The thing is that he has good grass for summers in our area - low to the ground and uses water to the best of its' ability. (read: doesn't get long, but stays green!) We, on the other hand, have a collection of different grasses. There must be three kinds of grass, and four kinds of weeds. 90% of the grass is less than 3 inches and we will get a strip that shoots up to over 12 inches in the course of a week!

So two weeks into June I cut my lawn - but his had hardly grown.

Two weeks after that there was FINALLY enough growth to cut his lawn - and mine again - so I had at it! After getting over the jealousy about how much greater his lawn is than mine, I felt like we were set - eye for an eye on the side of being good neighbors.

I never got a thank you, but I have no problem with that. My act was in response to his, it was my "thanks" and nothing more.

Until yesterday. It happened again. We went to a pool party and came home to the grass being cut again. What gives? I know that the one strip was getting long, but I was planning to cut it this afternoon.

Lucky for me, Mr. Neighbor, Mrs. Neighbor and their daughter were outside! They had just gotten daughter a new bike and all three were quite excited. I asked if he had cut our lawn, and he said yes. I shouted out a big "Thank You!" back.

Are we even?
He cut twice.
I cut once.
I thanked for the second cut.

I am a nice guy, but I don't think that I can keep up with a Battle of the Niceness for much longer. We don't get enough snow to count on two snow-shoveling jobs this winter, either!!

Maybe I should be preparing to hang his Christmas lights....

Just a Little Weird

Got home from church yesterday and were greeted with a very nice surprise: a cut lawn. It appears that our neighbor needed to cut his lawn, and just popped right over the driveway and did a quick cut for us too! Very cool.

So, how do you thank a neighbor for such a selfless act?

Okay, so here's a wrench in the matter: how do you thank a neighbor for such a selfless act when that neighbor speaks a different language?

I don't believe that the father/husband speaks any English, but I know that mom/wife has been taking classes to learn. I do have some conversations with their seven year old daughter and her cousin. Is is apropriate to ask them to send thanks on my behalf? Is it better to write a thank you note, offering to do the same in return? If I do that, do I write it in English and then copy it into Spanish? (BTW - I do not speak or write Spanish very well either, but am sure that I could translate a short note)

Please let me know your thoughts. I'm at a loss...

Observations from the Last Few Days

Some Observations:

On the Abby Front:
A fat lip on an infant is both funny and cringeworthy at the same time. Sorry, no pictures. Can't have social services after me.
She is scooting toward her toy basket, but only when she can touch it already. She's gotten up on her hands and knees, but gets confused pretty quickly at that point. Hopefully a weekend with Ada will get her moving.

On the Sports Front:
I apreciated hearing Plaxico Burress after the SuperBowl. His comment was "This is the greatest feeling in professional sports." So often we hear that something in sports is the greatest thing in LIFE, and I just can't believe that.
Who really cares who the next Redskins coach will be? Aparently a lot of people. What I can tel you is that he, whichever he it is, will come in and change the system, personnel and feel of the team. Oh yeah, and it's not your decision, it's the decision of the guy that owns the team. He does not come to your office and tell you who to hire.

On the Political Front:
There are a lot of people in Virginia that don't know how to listen. Seems that they got almost 1,000 calls yesterday furious about closed polling stations. Yeah, Super Tuesday was not in your state. That's NEXT Tuesday, just like they keep telling you in the paper, radio and TV.
Because the folks in VA, MD and DC want to feel important they have dubbed next Tuesday, our TV Stations have dubbed it Chesapeake Tuesday. Get over it. It's just another Primary Tuesday. It started yesterday and I'm already annoyed with it.

On the Music Front:
When someone posts a new Celebrity Playlist on iTunes, check it out. Thanks to one list I have discovered Brett Dennen and what is now one of my top 10 songs to listen to. (Oh yeah, check him out based on my recommendation too!)

Thanksgiving Week

This is the week that we celebrate things we're thankful for. Last year I wrote a poem about the things that my family was thankful for. I had everyone send me something and mushed it all together into a dorky poem. It was all just a ploy to announce that we were having a baby. That made it cute, not dorky.

This year we do not have an elaborate announcement, but we are still very thankful. Abby is happy and healthy. So are Anny and I. We both have good jobs and great family and friends.

But this week is about more than being thankful. It's also about Turkey. It could also be about slapping, if you watch How I Met Your Mother. In our family we leave out the slapping, but are heavy on the turkey! The dinner is big and wonderful and prepared tirelessly by one of my aunts.
Two turkeys - one baked, one fried.
Two kinds of cranberry sauce - the traditional and a creamy version for those "outside the box thinkers" in the crowd.
Almost as Many Pies as People - yes, it's going to be true this year. My brother has his own cherry pie. Several pumpkin pies. Some sort of cream pie. Pudding for me since I don't like pie crust!

The food brings us together. We see each other fairly often, but it's different at holidays. No bickering, just having good conversation and general fun.

Oh yeah, and there's always the Robly-Anticipated Black Friday Shopping! Last year I was to Target and back with breakfast in hand before Anny was out of bed. After she was ready to leave we stopped at another Target on our way to the family beach house located near - you guessed it - MORE shopping! I went to three Target stores - in two states(!) in twelve hours.

Something is wrong with me. I love to shop on Black Friday (and Saturday). I love to shop on Christmas Eve. I worked retail for four and a half years and my favorite days were the long busy ones. I am looking forward to strapping Abby into the Baby Bjorn and heading out shopping just before the sun is out on Friday! (We will be at the Outlet Stores in Rehoboth on Friday. Back in town for Saturday.)

Here are my tips for Black Friday shopping:
1 - Research on Thursday in the newspaper what you are hunting for on Friday.
2 - If you are looking for an electronics gift, get there early. If you're after clothes, sleep in.
3 - Dress in layers! It's chilly in the early hours, but hot inside stores by mid-morning. More people = higher temperatures!
4 - Be nice. Everyone is looking for a deal, not just you. Be especially nice to the store employees. You are NOT the first person to complain that they don't have the camera you wanted.
5 - Set spending limits and stick to them. This one is hard for me to type because I tend to overspend. If you go out and take advantage of EVERY deal you will be happy, but broke.
6 - Set time limits. If you're shopping alone this is not as important. If you're out shopping with someone, though, you need to take a break for food and drink, and sometimes it's best to just say "we'll shop until noon and then be done for today." Don't get your beloved mad at you over a sale on sweaters! (Anny, I wrote this to show you that I am trying to learn!)

In case I don't post tomorrow - Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!

If you go shopping - have fun! If you don't - have fun anyway, but stay away from the mall!

Baptism Weekend!

This post has been posted on both blogs, you're not losing your mind!

Everything went swimmingly! Anny and I snipped at each other twice, but aside from that the weekend could not have gone better, and for that we are thankful.

I picked up Anny's brother and family mid-morning from the airport and headed directly to destination number one: Wendy's! There are none left around their house, so whenever they go places that have Wendy's, a stop must be made. (I learned of this in July on our drive to Iowa as well.)

The Parent-In-Laws started their trip on a sour note, but made the most of a couple of days off of school. When they got to the airport they found out that their flight to Denver had been canceled completely. The next flight had only 3 available seats, so there was little to no chance they would fly out Friday. Their logical next step? Get gas and drive to Denver! It's only a four-and-a-half hour drive. They got in a bit later, but would not have missed this weekend for anything.

On Saturday we had a pre-baptism party to celebrate because a lot of folks were heading home pretty quickly either by car or airplane. We had a ton of family and friends over, and Abby was awake for part of it. She slept hard this weekend, so we think we might be growth-spurting again. We received some very thoughtful gifts and are once again finding ourselves overwhelmed by the generosity of others.

The baptism on Sunday was very nice. Abby was a little fussy as our pastor set things up (prayer, congregational questions) but once we handed her over, she was very calm and content. We had practiced putting water on Abby's head so that she was not caught completely off guard and freaked out. It would have been okay if she did, but it was better that she didn't.

When we were not with large groups of people, we spent a lot of quality time with Anny's family with a very relaxed theme. We intentionally did not schedule anything for our time since we had a four year old and two infants to work with. We tried a new restaurant on Sunday since our go-to restaurant closed in June. High marks from all of us!

Monday morning I took the Parent-In-Laws to the airport for their flight/drive home. Just us "kids" hung out until lunch time and we made a quick trip to Ikea! They don't have one in their city and had never been. I know they are looking at remodeling at least a bathroom and there are a ton of deals to be had.

It was a wonderful weekend and we both realize how blessed we are to have that many people that care about us.

Wii Would Like to Play. Would You?

My brother is diligent if nothing else. He went to eight different stores in search for a Nintendo Wii for me last week, and was successful!


I'm now the proud owner of one of the coolest toys that I've ever played with. Info is here http://us.wii.com/

I have logged several hours while Anny and Abby are napping, and I'm very happy with my purchase. Anny has even played a few games while Abby is napping, so that makes it a family toy now! (She's great at bowling. We're going to have to work on baseball.....)

Anyway - I needed to publicly thank Jason for his hard work, and that's what this post is all about!

Do you have a Wii? What is your favorite game thus far?

If you live locally and would like to join in the festivities, let me know and we can try to rock some gametime!

Good Judge, Bad Judge

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070625/ap_on_fe_st/67_million_pants

If you have not heard about the $54 Million dry-cleaner case, read the above article. It was a local issue so we hear about it about every other day.

The Basics:
Judge sues dry cleaner for $54,000,000 because they lost a pair of his pants. They were a nice pair of pants, but no pants are worth that amount of money, even with "mental anguish" as a claim.

His suit was based on a sign in their window, Satisfaction Guaranteed, was false advertising.

He got his pants a day late.

HE'S A JUDGE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. Based on his filing of this completely useless case, I think he needs to have action taken against him by the Bar Association.

I'm relieved that the judge presiding over the case has common sense and ruled in favor of the dry cleaner!

Movie THEATER Review

This one is for the locals:

Don't go to the movie theater in Calverton ever again!

The theater used to be a Loews Movie theater but is now owned by AMC. Overall the theater was never the best, but was affordable and close enough to get to in ten minutes or so. I can remember seeing some of the great movies there: Titanic, Tommy Boy, Star Wars during it's second run.

Yesterday we went to see Knocked Up, and the theater killed the movie experience for both of us. The movie was good, though it had way too much foul language. I felt like I must be too old to have gotten into the see it!

But the theater!? $8.75 each for the matinee, because they no longer offer discounts for the mid-day showings. Grr. The theater has certainly never been with that much, no matter what the movie!

Worse than the no-more-matinee prices are the insanely small seats! I've packed on a couple of pounds over the life of the movie theater, but this was ridiculous. Anny had a hard time getting in and out of the seats.

The third strike was the bathrooms which were extremely sub-par. A mop would have taken care of this, but it was apparent that no mop had been seen for a while!

So - go see the movie for some food fun. Don't see it, or any other movie, at the movie theater on Powder Mill Road in Calverton!