Too Far?

Recently AK has been obsessed with the Teletubbies. LP also enjoys them and I have two episodes saved to the DVR from a couple of years ago. This is quite fortunate because the 'Tubbies are no longer shown on TV. In fact, 'Tubby items are no longer really sold in stores either (you can pay an arm and a leg to get them online though).

Yesterday I thought I was being quite clever when I posted to Freecycle seeking All Things Teletubbies. Until I got a response and had to ask the Hoos to pick the items up.

The Hoos is not really a fan of Freecycling. When I Freecycled some kitchen gadgets earlier this week he wondered why I didn't just throw it out. "Hey," I reasoned, "If someone else is going to use it, why not? Better than going to a landfill!"

My request resulted in purple (Tinky-Winky) and yellow (La-La) Teletubby dolls. The Hoos thinks I am nuts. He thinks that if someone else's kids treat their toys the way our kids do (eating them, drooling on them, etc.) why would we possibly want them. I was going to just throw the dolls in the wash (before the girls see them, natch). If they get ruined, they get thrown out. Big deal.

What do you think? Freecycling stuffed animals icky? Or ingenious?

Free Fun for Everyone

My dad passed this on, so I thought I would share. All Smithsonian-related institutions are free on Saturday, September 26th. There are a few here in CT and many others around the country. Check it out and print your own museum pass:
http://microsite.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/about.html

SWEET!

Thanks to themommykelly I received a package in the mail yesterday. Two awesome tank tops and a t-shirt from Bad Baby. For all of the joy I get out of writing this blog, I do occasionally like to get free stuff. Especially when it is as cute as the Bad Baby apparel.

I Scream, You Scream...

Want free ice cream? Today Baskin Robbins is celebrating Bump Day and pregnant women get a free scoop. With the price of gas I am not sure it is quite worth it to travel to multiple BR's to get cones for all my friends, but if you are driving, I am willing to be your decoy.

Speaking of screaming...LP woke up around 4 am calling "Mommmmmmyyyyyyyyyy. Mommmmyyyyyyyyy." for no apparent reason. It was awesome.

Thanks, but No Thanks

Yesterday I was psyched to get the Robopanda I won from Working Moms Against Guilt in the mail. The Panda came direct from the manufacturer and they were nice enough to include an envelope with all of the batteries. It retails for around $150 (an amount I rarely spend on any single item) and it was hi-tech and cool sounding, so I was pretty excited to try it out.

Then I opened the box.

I am not as inept as I sometimes portray myself in this blog. Really, I swear. And it took me (no exaggeration) 30 minutes just to get the Panda out of the box. There were more wires, plastic and tape holding it still than can be found in my car. Seriously, if I was a kid and this was my Christmas present, I would be so over it by the time my parents handed it to me. Instant gratification is definitely NOT an option.

Once I finally freed it from its restraints I learned that the Robopanda is heavy. And, while I needed a screw driver to open the three hatches that house batteries, the hatch on the back where you insert a personality card opens easily. Actually, it pretty much opens if you just look at it. LP has no problem getting this hatch open. Not that she really likes to get close enough to the Panda to touch anything...which takes us to the actual Panda toy...

It is definitely not what I expected. I thought it would be an interactive toy that would respond when touched. It does respond when touched, but only if you touch it in specific spots, hard. And only if you are responding to an instruction from it to touch a specific spot.

For example, the Panda will say "If you think my Teddy looks like me, touch my head." If I whack the thing's head, occasionally it acknowledges that I touched it. Usually it says, "No, you don't think so? Do you think it looks more like you? If so, touch my back." I then smack its back. Again, it ignores me saying, "You are right, you are not nearly as cute as my Teddy." Lovely, the thing ignores me and insults me.

Anyway, if LP does decide to touch it, it usually isn't in response to a request. I understand she is not in the target age range for the product and so it takes her some time to warm up. By the time she decides to try and give him a high-five, Panda is off telling stories. If he is in the middle of a story the only way you get him to stop or redirect mid-sentence is to turn him off.

I have not experimented too much with the Panda. Maybe he is or can be more fun. But considering LP is a bit put-off by him and the Hoos finds the thing creepy, I am not sure he will get much use. We are hoping my nephews will give him a good home. Unless someone out there wants to pay shipping, then I will send him on to you. I imagine it will not be cheap since I really think he weighs a lot. And there is no way I can get him back into his original box.

Who IS the Boss?

Yesterday, I was eager for the arrival of Gabby, the nice woman who cleaned my house last month. She had called last Thursday to set up her next time to pay us a visit and make my house a little more livable. I was thrilled. Especially since the Hoos was not responding to my nagging for him to be proactive and call her.

She was supposed to show up at 3. I thought the timing would be perfect. In a perfect world, LP would just be finishing up her nap (at day care standard napping hours in her classroom are 1-3) and it would be good timing for a visit to the playground to tucker my little munchkin back out. Unfortunately, with all of the excitement around LP using the potty, she didn't end up going down for hew nap until closer to 2. Not a big deal, I had things to do and Gabby could always start work downstairs.

Three o'clock came and LP was still napping and Gabby was no where in site. An hour later and there was still no change in the status of the house. At this point, I knew that it was getting too late to visit the playground (yes, it is warm out, but it still gets dark by 4:45) and the likelihood of having my home cleaned by someone other than me was looking as dim as the sky.

Oh well, at least the Hoos and I straightened up the house this weekend anticipating Gabby's visit. There are maybe two less piles of random stuff in my house than there were last week. Now do we give her another shot (we had to reschedule her first visit twice), do we give up having someone clean our house (I think I might cry at the thought of this one) or, better yet, does anyone know a reliable cleaning woman in the Norwalk area? FYI: I refuse to use Merry Maids since reading Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.

AN ADDITION 1/9/09 8am: By the way, I take the fact that I have been receiving samples of cleaning products in the mail as a sign that I need help cleaning my home. TheMomBlogs sent me a full-size sample of Dawn Direct Foam (not that I expect someone to do my dishes, however). It is actually a pretty good product for handwashing dishes. I am not quite ready to convert from good old Palmolive yet since I am not yet convinced of its ability to be effective for soaking pots and pans. I received a Swiffer Sweeper from RoleMommy last week too. I think perhaps someone is taking pictures of the dustbunnies that crawl out from under my radiators. The swivel head is actually very helpful in getting under the radiators to capture these little MFers before they get out.

I'm a Winner!

How psyched was I to receive an email from Working Moms Against Guilt letting me know I was the winner of Day 2 of their No-Guilt Holiday Giveaway?! "Just a little" would be a gross understatement.

You all know I love free stuff, but free stuff that I totally didn't expect AND that totally rocks? Really, it is just too much. I am really psyched to check out the Wowwee Robopanda (yes, LP has more than enough toys, but a high-tech toy that can read her stories?! Man, I hope she isn't afraid of it.) The Hoos is most excited about the two Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease DVDs: In the Bedroom and Vegas Strip In the Bedroom. I don't think it has to do with seeing his pregnant wife striptease...

Stay tuned for more information on these fantabulous gifts. And get your butt over to WMAG to see about getting gifts of your own!

Holidays are "Free" Time

There is something about the holiday season that makes people want to give you things. And no, I do not just mean your friends and family that you normally exchange gifts with. For some reason retailers, mommy websites and a whole host of other places are giving out free stuff. Not that I am complaining.

Here are some of my recent "gets":

• Two $10 gift certificates to Kohls. I used one to get LP two blanket sleepers for $2 (they were marked down to $6 each). Can't beat that with a stick. It makes taking hours to comb through the messy racks almost worth it.


• Terralina face cream. This stuff is wonderful. It was a giveaway from ConnectingMoms, and considering my cheap-ass self is seriously considering spending some of my Chanukah gelt to buy another $40+ jar of it it really must have either some properties that make me forget the cost or melt away my wrinkles and hide my huge pores.


• Kashi TLC Party Crackers. This was from VocalPoint. They send coupons forstuff all the time and I figured this is a great season for party crackers. Boy, was I wrong. These taste like the carboard box they came in. Really, don't buy them. I forgive VocalPoint though, last month they sent me a $50 Target giftcard for filling out a survey. THAT is a good reward.


• Dawn Direct Foam dish soap. Seriously, I don't remember which mommy site sent this to me. But it arrived yesterday via FedEx. A regular size bottle of dish soap. With Chanukah over I didn't think we would be getting any more packages so I was pretty psyched to get a package at all, even if it was just dishwashing foam.

Speaking of free stuff, check out the Working Moms Against Guilt week of giveaways. They have some pretty neat sounding stuff.

Free to Me!

Once again, I would like to revisit the concept of free stuff. I have always loved free stuff, and I love it even more now that I am a mom since it is guilt free "spending" on me. Even better, Moms are seen by marketers as a hot commodity in the marketplace, so they give you free stuff "just" for being a mom.

Some examples:
Vocalpoint: This is a site, created by Procter and Gamble, that solicits mom opinions on a wide variety of things. Even if you don't give your opinion, they send you coupons for free stuff in order to entice you to buy things you normally wouldn't. So far I have gotten free Kashi Cereal and free Special K20, which is some sort of protein drink. I haven't been able to actually locate this product to buy it, but I am carrying around the coupon. In addition, as part of their program, they sent me some free Olay products for Mother's Day.

Harris Poll: I continue to do the online Harris Poll surveys. This weekend was a really annoying one where I had to go on every night and tell them if and how I used paper towels. I should get lots of points for this one, which is the equivalent of a free CD.

Mommy Track'd: If you recall, I got my free mug through a RoleMommy contest a few months ago. Today, I won a free momAgenda from Mommy Track'd, another "mom resource" Web site. The hope is that this agenda will perform miracles and help me keep chaos at bay. I will report back and let you know if I achieve success.

I blame my Dad for my obsession with getting something for nothing. He has been responding to "Janet Hall" of the Home Testing Institute for as long as I can remember. He is also now a "secret shopper" where he goes into various businesses and restaurants and completes surveys on how he was treated. He typically gets to expense his purchases and small amounts of cash for his troubles. Hey - it keeps him off the streets....And sometimes he gives me some of his free stuff - even better.