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We were looking at a foreclosed home the other weekend (no, we’re not moving – we were just providing moral support for someone else who is). One of the main problems with foreclosed houses is that the former occupants are often disgruntled and take out their lack of gruntleness on the house itself. Sometimes by destroying things, something by taking whatever they can.

In this case, I’m not sure which case it was, but the end result is that there was no downspout for the gutter:

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Consumer Reports has their “waste of packaging” award. In that spirit, I present to you the biggest waste of space we encountered over Christmas.

The Sea Monsters kit looks promising, especially to a 4- or 5-year-old boy.

But an adult who opens the box is immediately unimpressed.

At least the bags of chips have a plausible reason for their half-filled packaging – settling may occur and chips are fragile so a buffer is needed. For this box, there is no settling and the contents do not need a buffer.

Welcome back to another edition of Husbands and Wives. In today’s episode, we will explore how each party handles children who are at risk of injury.

Case #1: The Bunk Bed

Parent A: “The kids are jumping off the top bunk and landing on the mattress on the floor.”
Parent B: “Yeah, I told them no flips.”

Question: Which parent (A or B) is the husband and which is the wife?

Case #2: The Swingset

The scene: a playground. The dilemma: a child is swinging on the swingset and is contemplating an airborne exit. Both parents yell something to the child at the same time.
Parent A: “Don’t jump off!”
Parent B: “Land on your feet!”

Question: Which parent (A or B) is the husband and which is the wife?

Okay, we’re out of time for today. Remember to tune in next time to Some Blog Site for more Husbands and Wives!

I don’t throw things away, which means my wallet just accumulates stuff. Not money, of course – that never stays in the wallet very long – but cards of various kinds.

My wallet was getting overweight – a little bulge around the middle. It needed to get a little more trim, so I put it on a low-card diet. That Dr. Atkins knew what he was talking about – cut some of the cards out of the wallet and its girth shrunk in half.

Cards in my Wallet Before and After:

What? He said “low-carb diet”?

Oh well, my wallet’s doing fine now, but I’ll keep it away from carbs too, I suppose.

In case you’re wondering: 3 expired credit cards, expired zoo membership card, old Blockbuster card, old AAA membership card, some business cards, and phone cards (2 pre-paid (mostly used up), 1 account-type thingy).

Since Beta enjoyed last season’s hockey game so much, we scheduled another one for this year.

Parking

First off, parking was a hassle. It was very easy to get lost. Just look at this poor guy:

And if not being able to find a parking spot wasn’t bad enough, people added insult to injury by throwing hockey pucks at the guy.

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Here’s another winter weather update.

Pulling Sleds

The boys love playing outside in the snow. Sometimes they sled by themselves; sometimes I pull them.

The other day we were outside and we watched the neighbor get out his 4-wheeler and use that to pull the kids’ sleds around. That seems like cheating, if you ask me, but it also seems like more fun.

Snow Pile

I normally try to pile all the snow in one area. That way, there’s a nice hill for the kids to play on and in. We also normally try to hollow out the hill to make a cave, which the boys are calling an igloo.
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Some of you may recall the adjusted (by combining alternate spellings) baby name lists that I put together not too long ago.

I have added another section to that site – Top Names of the Decade, for each decade from 1900 until now.

Go there and click on a decade (e.g. The 1930s) for the top 25 most popular names, as well as which names gained or lost the most ground over the decade.