Boots and bowling pins

Let's talk "man caves" shall we?

While we don't have a mancave at our house, we do have some manly-man items that, if there did exist such a room, would definitely be on prominent display.

Take for instance a beer glass boot. No man cave should be without one! Because beer? Is manly.

And while we're talking beer, most man caves I've seen are usually decorated with at least one beer sign. We have a few Guinness signs. They'd definitely adorn a wall.

And while we're on the kitchy sort of stuff, he'd also probably have a small bar in the corner. On top of the bar would sit a random bowling pin he got from the company he used to work at years ago. I can't remember exactly why he got it. And I have no clue why he kept it, but I would be there.

Oh and Mizzou stuff. There would be PLENTY of Mizzou stuff.

I sort of feel guilty that hubby doesn't have a man cave. He needs one! And at some point, we are planning to convert a section of our basement into a mancave. And then all of those tacky, weird things (like the drinking glass shaped like a penis that I've hidden away so well, even I can't find it anymore. Opps!) the man has collected over the years can "breathe."

Do you have a man cave? If so, what kind of "hidden goodies" lurk inside? Parent Bloggers Network wants to know! Write a post (don't forget the photos) about what kinds of objects are tucked away. (You still have time to post tonight yet this weekend) Also add links to http://shopping.billmelater.com/linkin?pageid=billmelater&s_kwcid=[PBN] and http://blog.parentbloggers.com. Then send your blog post link to parentbloggers@gmail.com. They'll link to your blog and enter you in the drawing for five $100 shopping sprees for use within the Bill Me Later merchant network. That's pretty cool, yes?

Love and Loathe

Here's a quick and dirty list of some products I've come across recently

I'm loving several products:

* "The Seven Principles For Making Marriage Work" by John M. Gottman, Phd. Instead of studying why so many marriages fail, he studies the ones that succeed. He's got some great insights.

*My Ipod. I downloaded a bunch of songs and at bedtime, I chose my "soothing" category and drift off to sleep that way. Just listen to the music and relax. Course its also fun to jam out while on a treadmill or while cleaning. How did I live life without with gadget?

*Dierberg's deli chicken salad. Oh my gosh! I eat it almost every day.

But then there is one service and a few products I'm loathing now too.

*Veolia Environmental Services. Do you HAVE to keep changing dates of the recycle, trash, lawn waste pick up? I can't keep track anymore. And your customer service is sucking hard! Yesterday I called four times only to be perpetually stuck in automated hell. Apparently, whenever a live person would get to my call, I would get disconnected. I don't know if that was done out of being ornery or if they truly are being inundated by calls. Either way, its obvious I'm not the only pissed off customer.

*Uniden phones. We just bought this phone. The sound quality is horrible. Also, sometimes while you're on a call the sound drops in and out. So you only hear parts of what people are saying. Lovely. What a POS!

*Cardio Pilates with Ana Caban. I've used exercise tapes and dvd's since I was in high school. I like the convenience of being at home. But I get bored after awhile. I've been wanting a different pilates video. And well, this one sucks ass. The pilates part was "meh". But the cardio part is the most boring ever. She does the same four moves, in the same succession over and over and over and over and over. It started to piss me off. Obviously Ana didn't spend much time thinking about choreography for this section. Nothing original here.

*Reebok Stay Ball. The hose of the cheap, poorly constructed pipe easily split before I could plug it into the ball. And the ball must have a leak. There was sand everywhere. What a waste of money. So back to Target I'll go.

There's a round-up of some of the products I've tried recently. Hope it help save you some time.

A carpet cleaning product that hits the spot!

The people who owned our house previously would probably freak out a bit if they saw the house today. Sure we've made some positive changes to the house. But the boy and the dog haven't been so kind to the existing flooring.

Let's just say this... Little boys + hardwood floors in bathrooms = BAD. (Especially in that "bad aim, pee all over the floor resulting in wood around the toilet getting darker" way. And old lady dog (who's developed a sensitive stomach in the last three years) + cream colored carpet = REALLY BAD.

We have a few old stains on certain areas of carpet in our front rooms, due to Abbey realizing too late that she shouldn't have eaten the grass/dead critter combo meal. I've tried several products on these pesky stains but nothing has worked.

According to Spot Shot Instant Carpet Stain Remover's website, the product, "instantly eliminates the toughest carpet stains-even OLD stains! Spot Shot works great on pet stains, coffee, spaghetti sauce, grease and oil, marker, wine and more!"

I was more than intrigued. I was hoping this would be the answer to my prayers... Would Spot Shot Instant Carpet Stain Remover stand up to this HUGE challenge or would it falter due to performance anxiety? Let's do a play-by-play.

Living Room: It cleaned up the shadow of an old stain (about 2 yrs old) after two passes. Other products had failed this test completely. I had given up hope of ever getting out this stain.

Dining Room: It cleaned up a few stains the first time around with little effort on my part. These were done within the past six months.

Head of stairs: There was some mystery stain here for a year other cleaners couldn't even soften. Spot Shot took it out easily on the first try. I was floored (pun intended)!

Guest bedroom: About a year ago, Seth spilled children's grape cough syrup all over the floor. The Spot Shot lessened the stain after two passes.

Boy's Room: There is some mystery blue stain on the carpet in Seth's room. Nothing could get the stain out before and whatever it is, has proven to be very stubborn. Now at least a shade or two lighter after two passes of Spot Shot. I might just dry it and try, try again.

So there you have it. Overall, Spot Shot emerged victorious -- it left my carpets looking better than they had before. (In other words it picked up the slack other cleaners left behind.) Plus, the product is non toxic, won't hurt the environment and the bottle can be recycled when emptied. Yeay!

This review was written on behalf of MomCentral.

Woogi World - the place to be?

When MomCentral put out a call for interested parents to review Woogi World, I was super excited. My son doesn't normally do computer games, but that's mainly because the boy can't seem to sit still for more than 30 seconds. I was hoping that maybe THIS website would capture his attention.

Woogi World is a website for kids filled with all sorts of educational games and ways to earn prizes. A child can chose a Woogi, name him/her, dress him/her and even decorate the Woogi's house (aka wigwam). Plus, there's some great information for parents as well as grandparents. And the site offers "basic internet training" for kids on how to navigate through cyberspace safely. According to the site, children can "safely experiment with and practice behavior in a microcosm that they’ll eventually need to know and display when they explore the much broader, unsecured and precarious online world." Kids can earn extra points for completing this training. Oh and? No advertising of any outside products. No advertising at all, actually.

So what did we think? It started out promising. There's a cute little game your child can play with the mouse while the site downloads. But overall, we found things a bit confusing.

At times, when it asks for user name, we'd enter my son's Woogi name. And when it asks to enter a passcode, I'd enter the one we had set up but it would get rejected. It would ask for an email address but sometimes that didn't work either. Then you are taken to the "Bulletin Board". There wasn't an obvious place for the games. (You have to close the bulletin board window to get to the game area.)

My son also had some frustration with some of the game stuff. All he wanted to do is let the Woogi roam around and explore what was on the site but soon found himself underwhelmed and frustrated. After hearing my son whine, "Mmoooomm. I can't get this to wwwooorrrrkkk" about eight times every five minutes, I'd get frustrated too. And we'd do something else. I went back to the site with him three different times and it was pretty much the same experience each time. (I went to the site several times more but I didn't get much farther than he did.)

But at one point, we did find a great game that we played over and over again. We had to work as a team and it turned into a really fun experience. Basic membership is free and the more advanced is just $6.95 a month.

But for kids like Seth, who aren't big on sitting still? You might want to wait a bit before you sign them up.

This review was written on behalf of MomCentral.

What a circus!

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Children of all ages. Welcome. To the greatest show on earth!"

You know what I'm talking about, right? The circus! The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Baby’s Circus to be exact.

And now, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey have created a little something called "Baby's First Circus". The program was created with U.S. parents and babies (12 months old and younger) in mind. If you go to the Ringling Bros site, you can sign up to receive a voucher for a free ticket to any Ringling Bros. performance, (valid for any date, any place) as well as a personalized certificate for baby. Sign up the older kiddos and they get a free personalized Ringling Bros. commemorative certificate. Visit the site to participate.

Thanks to the peeps at MomCentral, you an get a 20% discount code for Ringling Bros. performance coming your way. Enter code: MCC. (The code is valid for the circus shows in the following cities:)

Indianapolis, IN - Sept. 4-7, 2008
Kansas City, MO - Sept. 10-14, 2008
Grand Rapids, MI - Sept. 18-21, 2008
Denver, CO - Oct. 2-13, 2008
Boston, MA – Oct. 8-13, 2008
Cleveland, OH - Oct. 24 - Nov. 2
Chicago, IL - Nov. 6 - 30, 2008
St. Louis, MO - Nov. 6-9, 2008
Auburn Hills, MI - Nov. 12 - 16, 2008
Highland Heights, KY - Feb 27 - Mar. 1, 2009
Cincinnati, OH - Mar. 4 - 8, 2008

Don't forget to check out their website. (We had to keep refreshing the main page because my son loves the train and music!) Click on the "Amazing Animals" section then over to various animals featured to get great factoids. Or spend some time in the "Fun Zone" and play "Clown Cannon" or "CircusFit".

This post was written on behalf of MomCentral.

Do the right thing

I'd never heard of the Liberty Mutual Responsibility Project until recently through MomCentral. But it sounded interesting. So I took a gander.

According to the website, the project was created after an overwhelming response to a Liberty Mutual commercial about the kindness of strangers. According to the site, "we thought, if one TV spot from Liberty Mutual can get people thinking and talking about responsibility, imagine what could happen if we went a step further? So we created a series of short films, and this website, as an exploration of what it means to do the right thing."

My son and I looked at the site together, watching a few of the shorts. Sometimes the concept of "responsibility" can be difficult to describe. But the site did get us talking. The site lists questions you can ask your child or debate with others and it reinforced some of the ideas we've talked about.

We especially liked "Hot Seat." Anyone who's worked in an office can relate and will get a giggle out of this animated tale of office bunnies who, upon finding themselves in possession of a broken office chair sneakily pawn the chair it off on other unsuspecting worker bunnies.

The website isn't just for parents or kids. It is for everyone. And its a pretty great idea.

This post was written on behalf of MomCentral.

Pizza Hut's new pasta (easy-peasy and cheesy!)

Our family loves Pizza Hut pizza. So when offered a chance to try their newest pasta dish, "Premium Bacon, Mac 'n Cheese", I was very excited. I mean, who doesn't like free food? Especially when there is minimal clean-up afterwards?

We'd tried another pasta dish by Pizza Hut a few months back. It was ok. But we were especially interested in this newest product. You see, our son LOVES mac 'n cheese from a certain restaurant that the hubby and I despise. We only go there so "the boy" can eat his weight in macaroni. But the quality of the rest of the food the restaurant produces is getting so crappy that we've stopped going there all together. We were hoping he'd love this dish as much or more.

But he didn't. He ate a few bites then whined. (This is not uncommon so Pizza Hut, don't take it personally.) He's not used to the bacon taste. And that's a bummer because the hubby and I really liked this dish. Its very cheesy and the bacon gives it a very nice flavor. We think this boy is just plain strange. Really. Who doesn't like bacon?

This is a great dish to get when you have a casual party and don't want to cook. Order up a few pizzas, a few pasta dishes and make a salad. Easy Peasy. Or for those little kids who love hot dogs and macaroni? Cut up a few dogs and serve mixed in with the cheesy pasta. If you've got little bacon lovers in your family (who also love cheesy noodles) this is a good choice.

The Tuscan pastas are $12.99. The special comes with five breadsticks and feeds a family of four. (Although if you have teen boys who really like pasta? You'd better order an extra pan.)

WIN A GIFT CARD FOR SOME FREE PASTA FROM PIZZA HUT!

Leave a comment here or on my main blog between now and Tuesday letting me know you're interested. I'll choose three winners and Pizza Hut will send you the gift certificate!