09 Friday Sep 2016
Posted in Product Reviews
≈ Comments Off on Red Boot Review – Kamik Heidi
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I bought these a year back specifically to deal with the cold wet that accompanies fall soccer. As it turned out, I never needed them last year so they were still in their box.
Now, I’ve been out watering the new grass. After my feet got soaked one too many times I decided to open the box. I am happy to say that they do exactly what I bought them for. They’re slightly warm for summer, but not bad. They’re comfortable and true to size. Most importantly, they keep my feet entirely dry.
25 Thursday Aug 2016
Posted in Home, Product Reviews
≈ Comments Off on Boxes can Say a Lot
I noticed a few things about my collection of boxes during the moving process. First, as evidenced by this picture of the office, we have many diaper boxes. Pampers and Huggies could give me a commission for this.
What people don’t realize is that diaper boxes make great moving boxes. They’re thick. They’re glued on the bottom. And, they used to have handles on the sides.
Note: Pampers has completely ruined their boxes by moving to suitcase style top handles. I agree these tear less. But, they’re difficult to carry unless you have large hands. And, more importantly, when you’ve tucked the box somewhere (closet, trunk, etc.), there’s now nothing to grab on the end to slide the box back. Pampers: you can feel free to keep the top suitcase handles, but please bring back the end handles before I run out of kids in diapers. Most of these are older boxes with the end handles.
I also suspect some people might think I bought a whole new kitchen to go with the new house. But, no. I am happy to report that all of the kitchen items that had been in use, but living in their boxes in the basement, now fit in the cabinets. It’s not that this kitchen is dramatically larger. Instead, it is much better designed.
I didn’t take a picture of the recycling last week, but it looked something like this week’s version. That’s a lot of kitchen boxes gone!
01 Friday Jul 2016
Posted in Family, Product Reviews
≈ Comments Off on Lawn Ornaments
I’m not sure if they fall in “the best things in life are free” category, but large kids items can often be had for little or no money. This is because folks don’t want the big items taking up space – in or out – and they outlast one, or even a few, kids.
For Exhibit A, I present our backyard collection. The hockey net was a present. But, for the rest of it I paid a sum total of $25. That’s one big wooden structure, one small plastic structure, two 6-seat kids picnic tables, one play house, one basketball hoop, and one plastic kids basketball hoop.
It was all herded onto the driveway for winter and so as not to kill off the grass while we sold the house. Similarly the attachments are off the play structure until it gets to its new home. Everything was worn, but in good repair; some things we’ve had for 8 years now.
30 Thursday Jun 2016
Posted in Family, Product Reviews
≈ Comments Off on Strawberry Picking
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Our summer days seem to fall in one of two categories – we either do a lot or we don’t do much. Yesterday was a lots day.
Our entire day was planned around heading to New Hampshire for strawberry picking. The weather was questionable, but held. And, while humid it wasn’t so sunny that our strawberries got cooked before we got home to eat them.
First we went strawberry picking.
In total we picked just over 8 lbs of strawberries. Many were eaten after paying but before returning to the car.
Then we went to McDonald’s for lunch. This has been a requested summer outing and it seemed like an opportune time to fit it in. Plus the New Hampshire McDonald’s play area is different from the one closer to our house.
Third, we dropped off a few items at someone’s house while we were in the area. If I can get it out of the house I am, in preparation for the move. These items were permanently leaving our possession.
Fourth, we stopped at Lowe’s to pickup our online order – lighting for the new house. Customer service took forever though. I’m fairly sure I could have walked to the lighting department, found all the items, and gone through the regular checkout line faster. I think this is an issue that both Lowe’s and Home Depot need to address as I’ve had the same issue there. Online ordering with store pickup (where you could potentially buy more things) should be the best of both worlds for them, and fully encouraged.
Then we ran across the parking lot (I did move the car.) to BJs for a few items. And, on the way home we stopped at the dry cleaner and the gas station.
All in all a very productive day and we were only gone from 10-3 so still plenty of summery downtime.
17 Friday Jun 2016
Posted in Groceries, Product Reviews
≈ Comments Off on The BJs Checkout Process
Before critiquing, let me say that I generally like self checkout. I appreciate bagging my own stuff so its grouped the way I want, and in fewer bags. I don’t mind less interaction with staff. And, I especially appreciate that those lines are almost always available.
However, BJs is different. I appreciate that BJs offers self checkout. But, for me it is not useful. I need the hand unit to scan the big stuff and a quantity button for my 12 gallons of milk. Plus, if I take everything out of the cart I almost always purchase enough that the belt fills up and needs to be emptied part way through.
Thus, today I went to a cashier. She was atrocious. Nice, but an inept cashier which cost me between 20 & 30 minutes – a huge amount of time. It was so bad that the person behind me in line went fetch the manager to move things along and I employed the BJs survey to critique her performance later.
Unlike other places, the BJs self checkout lines almost always back up. This is often because the cashier lines are longer, but could be significantly improved fairly easily.
The self checkout process should be a positive for the store largely because fewer cashiers are required to clear the same amount of merchandise. But, BJs is handcuffing this process. It should be set free.
20 Friday May 2016
Posted in Home, Product Reviews, Twins
≈ Comments Off on Moving -> Get a POD
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No, PODS isn’t paying me anything to write this. Regardless, we found the POD to be a critical part of our moving process. It doesn’t need to be an actual POD, many companies offer storage boxes under different names.
But, the first thing to realize when you are going to sell your house or condo is that you need to clear it out. Space, everyone wants to see space. They want to see how the space might be used too, but they do not want to feel cramped. So, in February we brought in a POD (with a mild winter this was manageable).
First to go was anything seasonal that would not be needed until next Fall – Christmas decorations, Halloween, and a lot of winter stuff. The next category for us was kid stuff that was between kids – cribs (yes, we have two from the twins), bikes, strollers, clothes, and lots of large plastic stuff. Third, we packed up most of our books (and we have a lot). Books are time consuming to pack well and heavy so they go in small boxes that require many trips, i.e. expensive for movers to deal with. They also generally go on bookshelves that go up towards the ceiling making the room look smaller. So, into the POD went many boxes of books and most of our bookshelves. Many of our bookshelves fold flat, and I found the paper pads to be very useful for wrapping them up. I actually found these pads more useful than I had expected. I highly recommend them if you’re packing things yourself.
Finally, we filled up the rest of the POD with whatever else we thought we could part with. This included some of the pictures from the walls, some kitchen gear, and some tools/shelving from the garage. This has left us with a house that looks less cluttered for potential buyers and is easier to keep super clean as there is just less stuff to get strewn about. I highly recommend one. (Admittedly we haven’t gotten our POD back; its at their storage facility until we get to the new house. I reserve the right to change my opinion of them should things come back in less than optimal condition.)
13 Friday May 2016
Posted in Home, Product Reviews, Sports
≈ Comments Off on Baseball Season = Baseball Cleaning
By definition, baseball season involves a lot of dirt. Since it took me a while to learn how to deal with this, I thought I’d share.
First, get a boot/shoe dryer (DryGuy Wide Body Boot and Glove Dryer). This will not get rid of actual dirt, but it will dry out their cleats and substantially reduce stink buildup. Note, this is true for any kids footwear. Our dryers are in use year round.
Second, buy baseball pants. Baseball pants are relatively cheap for their durability, especially the elastic waistband ones. And, the grass stains come out of them better than general purpose athletic pants.
Third, find OxiClean gel sticks. Oxi Clean liquid is pretty easy to find; the gel sticks less so. Target should have them; your grocery store might. If you can find a coupon that helps as, in my experience, they almost never go on sale.
Fourth, liberally pretreat the pants. I do this right before I put them in and start the machine. I don’t think there’s a need to catch the stain early or let the product soak in for a great length of time.
Fifth, add the OxiClean liquid to your machine and run it. BEFORE transferring to the dryer check to see if the stain is gone. If it is proceed to dry. If not, hang up the pants to air dry. This will prevent the stain from setting. Wear the pants for another game (where they will inevitably get further stained) and repeat the process. The second pass should clear up the original stain.
Note, OxiClean doesn’t pay me to advertise for them. I’ve just found their product to be much more effective for this type of stain than Resolve/Spray ‘n Wash. Personally, I find Resolve does better with most stains – like food. But, OxiClean does better with dirt and grass.
31 Friday Jul 2015
Posted in Family, Product Reviews, Travel
≈ Comments Off on Sesame Place – 2015 Review
This will be the first of a few reviews covering the various places in New York and Pennsylvania we traveled to in June.
I wrote a preview of Sesame Place based on our previous visits roughly two months back. This, therefore, is more of an update than a complete review.
We had a wonderful trip to Sesame Place. Once again we purchased a standard ticket which gained us two days entry to the park. I did, this time, have a few “free” passes which I’d “purchased” via my Pampers diapers points so we did not need to actually purchase tickets for everyone. We had intended to be there Friday & Saturday, with Sunday in Philadelphia, but it rained hard on Saturday so we chose to go to Philadelphia instead and Sesame Place on Sunday. The weather both Friday and Sunday was lovely – warm enough to enjoy the water rides, but not so hot as to be unbearable.
In general we enjoyed the changes to the park. The biggest downside was that the cargo nets have been replaced by the Monster Clubhouse, which is not nearly as interesting. In fact, my guys weren’t interested in visiting it the second day. But, the new rides underneath were enjoyed by all and a definite improvement to the dated climbing structures that were there earlier.
That being said, they’re obviously not quite done because while Big Bird’s Balloon Race has been renamed Flying Cookie Jars and the balloon tops have been repainted, the bottoms are original and should be redone to look like cookie jars. Moving through the park we didn’t observe any other significant changes. Now the twiddle bug areas look the most in need of revamping as the Twiddle Tracks and Silly Sand Slides feel dated. The boys did take in more of the water slides, which were much enjoyed, as they are now older, taller, and better swimmers.
The younger two and I took in two shows – Elmo Rocks! and Elmo the Musical! (which were new to us and quite good) as well as Let’s Play Together! which we did last time also. We also enjoyed the parade both days and got photos taken with Big Bird and Elmo.
The food remains fairly dull amusement park fair. We ate lunch at Captain Ernie’s Bistro both days. The weather was nice for outdoor seating and it avoids the pitfalls of going indoors – tables set for 4 and little stroller space.
In summary, a positive trip, though we’re reaching the point where two days may no longer make sense if we can figure a way to get enough one day tickets.
22 Friday May 2015
Posted in Product Reviews, Sports
≈ Comments Off on Total Control Ball
With many kids we have a lot of sports equipment. These are a new addition for us and came at the recommendation of a teammate’s parent.
They’ve been everything advertised. One can pitch to the kids from a few feet away; they take a full swing with a real bat; and they feel the result, see the result, all while everyone stays safe. Tonight we also put them on a tee to work on hitting through the ball for power. Our yard is small enough that our oldest can easily hit a wiffle ball out. No issues here.
As you can see we got a few. They seem to come in batches of 6 or 12. We’re glad we got the dozen as one can hit them all and then quickly go pick them up since there’s really no chasing. You can also see that they’re a bit larger than a baseball. I’m not exactly sure why that is, but it doesn’t affect either throwing or hitting.
We’ve been very happy.
15 Friday May 2015
Posted in Home, Product Reviews
≈ Comments Off on Cubes?
I admit, I very much like the Closet Maid cube system, especially for organizing toys. (I’m sure some other brand cube system would do great too, but this is what I have.) Two squares is a good height and there’s enough room in each cube for most anything. Because we have a lot of trucks (yes, boys), we use the bottom row as a parking garage and the top row for bins and other toys. Really big stuff ends up on top.
I made the tags myself using self laminating luggage tags.
But, as you can see in the above picture from a few months back the cubs do not stay square for long. This is because their sides are cardboard. They’re pretty durable. In five years we’ve replaced two. But, it’s time to replace two more.
Once they’re replaced, they look nice and square for a short while. (Yes, I could have replaced the green one too. But, its mushed, not actually broken through the fabric yet.)
I’ve looked. I even talked to a professional organizer friend. Apparently nobody makes plastic cubes to fit these shelving units. With all the plastic bins available out there, I was surprised. This is a huge marketing opportunity for someone! (Write me if you do!)
Busy in the Burbs 
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