The Things You Stumble Upon Internetally

Tonight's regular ol' wind-down clickfest led me to:

• The doleful tale of "Thomas's Stepmother," Britt Allcroft, who brought Thomas the Tank Engine to TV, and then was ousted from her own company because of one lousy movie. It's true, Thomas and the Magic Railroad is LOUSY, but reading that it was edited to crap might make complete sense that the movie makes no sense. I just thought it was interesting.
  
• Mine was the 800th signature on the petition to release the Director's Cut. Ha! What a nerd...

• Uh, hello... How come my hunny-bunny never told me he was interviewed for an article for the glossy Portland Monthly magazine? He represents the Ghost of the State Theatre Present, you can read his spooky input and misspelled name here.

• Through Original Portland I learned that West End News reported one of them natural barn razings. (I used to live down the street!) Sad, but you can visit better times here and here.
  

And now it's time for bed, later!

Olympsick

I'm a little sick of the Olympics (bring back Poker After Dark!) and now my little guy has a touch of the flu. =( His mouth-breathing and gurgly struggles to sleep gave me the opportunity to feel like quite the mother; I dug out the Mentholatum ointment for the very first time. Well what do you know, it semi-works.

Other stuff:

Raising insurance premiums for Facebook/Twitter users, in the UK at least.

Finding the right car seat upgrade for a car like ours sucks.

It's Lent Week at Shaw's Supermarket, apparently. Lots of seafood sales, hot cross buns (you're not supposed to get good sweets during lent, I guess) and plastic saint medals from the gumball machine to accompany other collections. Be sure to rush in, only 33 days left of Lent Week.

Tomorrow night, Hubby competes on Team Dead Kennedys vs. Team The Misfits for The Clash of the Titans.

And that's been the past few days around here.

More Indoor Lure

We've been on a pay-per-playground tear, today was at All Play Family Fun Center, and I think I'm getting spoiled by all these new places because I'm afraid today's visit has me grading All Play Family Fun Center a C, a bouncy C (any Irving Cohen fans out there? No?)



Whether Jimmy would rate it a C, I don't know, he didn't want to leave All Play any more than he wanted to leave the other places. The toddler room had lot of climby toys and fun on-the-wall things and he really loved the basketball hoop, but for me there was no "presentation." Which in some aspects was fine--I could see him from any part of the room but it just seemed less polished than Greenlight Studios or the Peek-a-Boo Center.







After the toddler room we graduated to the other areas. Again, Jimmy liked it all, it's just the Mumma in me was a little skeeved out. Why, what instills safety in a mother's heart like a Plinko table made of poorly painted plywood and naked tilty screws.





Or what family hasn't been allured by a bare industrial table scattered with wooden blocks. Thanks to Microsoft Word we learned this was All Play's "Building Area."



And then All Play's major draw: the bouncy houses. We were surrounded by other toddlers, boys and girls alike who were going nuts on ALL the houses (high! scary! kicky limbs!) but my cautious little marshmallow stuck with the 5-and-under house, and even that he didn't like much.





Probably the hardest part was keeping Jimmy out of people's minigolf games, he was very intrigued by the greens and the mini castles/bayous/hellpits. It was a full time job keeping him out of firing range of a couple preschool punks, it is the main reason I thought "maybe we'll come back when he's a little older..."



Best aspect: we only had to pay $5 for the two of us. I recommend it for moms of 5-10s, that is, if you like watching your child burn off a ton of energy, if you're into that sort of thing. =] Jimmy wouldn't object to another visit, that's for sure.

Peek-A-Boo! I See Screaming!

Business is booming for indoor playgrounds in this area, today we checked out the new Peek-a-Boo Children's Center in Westbrook.

Jimmy loved it, with a triple "l." Llloved it.

They had several themed rooms, here he is in the "constructiony" room. They also had "girly," and "outdoorsy," and "musicy," et cetery.








Build, build, build!

There was also some sort of "rompery" room which housed a little devil black widow baby and if anyone (including Jimmy) dared enter her bouncy lair...she'd lock her tiny hands on their collar bones and grip their throats! Spiderhissss!!!

After that hairy getaway it wasn't long before Jimmy discovered the huge train table.


At the Control Panel





This was the first glued-together track we ever used, and my nose is still a little out of joint from some mother insinuating that MY PRECIOUS SON stole her neonate's boxcar, but, whatever, Jimmy maintained his sweet disposition and we all lived. bitch.

Some time after that it was "time to go," the words Jimmy didn't want to hear, nor did he want anyone else in the 5,000 sf place to hear anything other than the highest pitch of his healthy little vocal chords. I'd never seen a little boy so opposed to putting on shoes, it was pretty bad. I apologized to the receptionist, but assured her that he thinks her indoor playground is really, really fun.

Next adventure for us: All Play. Bring your earplugs!

A Day On The Town

Jimmy is now apparently dating, or playdating at least and today's big date was back at the Greenlight Studio with Elizabeth, daughter of my longtime now-Massachusettsian friend, Shelly. Jimmy and Elizabeth first rendez-vous'd just the way Shelly and I used to in the 90s...at the bar.





Things were going well for Elizabeth and Jimmy so they advanced to a table date which ended up being a bit awkward for any onlookers, but Jimmy didn't seem to notice that he was making Elizabeth upset by eating off her plate so all was good with him.



Elizabeth's disgust over Jimmy's table manners was eclipsed by his cooperative interest in home management.



Which made things go so well that Elizabeth and Jimmy agreed to enter a "taking the plunge" challenge.

Here is fearless, confident Elizabeth:



And Jimmy..:









...and eventually...



Yaaaay!!! Mazel tov!

And then the two just had to test out "Happily Ever After + 50 Years":



It was an excellent date on the town! Thanks Shelly, Elizabeth, and MeeMee!

Road Trip

Thanks to Christmas, my father, stepmother, proper scheduling, and a Christmas gift card, tonight we got to hop into the family 2-door for a dinner roadtrip to Applebee's.










Jimmy's Mac and Cheese


Hubby's Fish and Chips


My Spicy Shrimp Diovolo

I think we were the only people there with a camera, but we were also probably the only people there who get to eat out 6 times a year. It was a great treat, thanks Dad and Joan!

January is for Indoors

Today we decided to check out the new Greenlight Studios, which is basically an indoor playground and cafe for we who live in northern weatheralia.

Unsurprisingly, Jimmy headed straight for the train table.





He later very surprisingly placed a hat on his own head. And kept wearing it! Giddy up!





Along with the hat, he also enjoyed a blueberry smoothie off the menu. There may appear to be few children in the photos but there was a constant healthy mix of kids the entire 2.5 hours we were there. The staff and other parents were very nice, all the wee ones respected each other (2 girls were pretty patient with Jimmy during an extended episode of hesitance on top of the slide), and aside from my coffee tasting like a blend of lukewarm water and tannis root, we'd have to give Greenlight Studios a GO.

Travels to Northern Internetia

Who woulda thunk a place like arctic Nunavut, Canada would have such a thriving blog scene that it warranted its own yearly awards, The Nunies.



Glancing over some of these blogs I couldn't help but notice that it's only 11 months to Christmas, and the blog Trials, Tribulations, and Toques led me to the image of one uniquely awesome nativity scene:


Take the Polar Express to the Brrrrrr-irth!

A long list of Nunavut bloggers can be found here.

South of the border, I'm trying to decide whether Jimmy and I will bite the wallet and pay a vi$it to the new Greenlight Studio tomorrow. Only time, and my budget, will tell...

The Miracle of Time, and Temp

Wow, wow, wow I just realized that I realized that I can see the time and temperature flashing from the Time and Temp Building (home of my forced-to-treasure Channel 8) from my kitchen window! This is how it looks with my awesome 20/500 vision:



And this is it with my camera and its 15x close-up lens:



Right there! In the center! Yes, it's a little small which probably explains why it took me 5 years to realize we could see it from here. And the only reason why we can see it now is because the temps are low, hence no leaves/no weather blocking it... =D

And if you look really-really close, you'll see that it says 9:30 which means Jimmy had been sleeping for an hour and a half, who knew the miracles of modern technology ancient humanology would get him to sleep so early if I didn't coerce him to sleep in until 10am with me. Really...!...Who knew...?...

...

Miracles...

Animal Tracking

Earlier today I went on an animal track expedition. I took a chart and started ID'ing winter footprints in my backyard.



I was surprised who was out there. I found the prints of a fox:



A 3-point gazelle:



The tracks of some sort of badger rumblefight:



Pixar's Mike and Sully:





AND Pixar's Kevin from The Movie Up:





And I love this Kumbaya photo of a collection of prints, tracking in harmony:



I less-than-secretly hope they are marching to tonight's Drink.Rock.Leave. event to see my hunny's band play. Support your local (hus)bands!!!