Can't Review Things - Playing Games

I am sorry if it seems like I am ignoring you. I'm really not.

I just got Rock Band 2 and we (as an entire family) cannot tear ourselves away.


PS - Rock Band Parent Hack : If your small children insist on playing along, let then stay involved, but unplug their instrument. Even better - give him your guitar from Guitar Hero. If the kid is young enough he or she will never notice the difference.

The Mystery of Landmark Mall

Do they ever wipe down any of the tables in the food court at Landmark Mall in Alexandria?

Honestly, I've only been there a handful of times and there are never more than five other people in the entire food court, but you would think that would make it easier to clean.

How can ALL of the tables be dirty every single time I go there?

Discuss.

Checking My Flickr Stats

This is a new free widget to track you flickr stats. I couldn't put it in my sidebar because it is huge.

I'll let you know how I like it.

The Cascade/Electrosol (Now Finish) Comparison

A couple of months ago I was sent two kind of dishwasher liquid to try out.

I was sent a bottle of Electrasol (which I believe is called Finish now) and a bottle of Cascade.

I really hope that the PR company that sent this to me was representing Cascade because the honest truth is that the Cascade worked about twice as well as the Finish.

Dishwasher detergent is one of those things you don't think about much until you get a hold of some that doesn't work, and I thought about it a lot when I was using the Electrasol. I hate having to run the dishwasher twice.

To be completely honest, I have been using Cascade for years and after doing this experiment I plan on continuing to use it.

When did it become 1984?

Oh crap.

After all of that Rosemary business now Ian wants a Cabbage Patch Kid too.

A boy.

I have called ten stores so far and I am on hold with my 11th.

Help me!

Rosemary

Meet my newest grandchild. Her birth certificate says her name is Rosemarie Anette but Claudia calls her Rosemary.



Well, okay, to be honest Claudia calls her Wosemawy but I know what she means.



Rosemary is a 25th Anniversary Edition Cabbage Patch Kid. It doesn't seem like 25 years since I got Fayette Nellie. She was a preemie. I guess she still is because Claudia drags her out every time we go to my mom and dad's house. Now I see her as foreshadowing. Maybe if she had been twins I would have been more prepared.


Yes, I know I was a little bit on the old end to have a Cabbage Patch Kid, but didn't everybody want one?

Sarah Reviews (sort of) Susan Rook Photography

Sarah b&w
Originally uploaded by Sarah606

I went to this party last night and I met this wonderful photographer named Susan Rook.

She was kind enough to share the pictures she took of me.

You can see more of Susan's work here.

Sarah Reviews Orville Redenbacher's Popcorn

Want an easy* was to make this boy happy?

Ian Loves Popcorn
Originally uploaded by Sarah606

Give him a big ol' bowl of popcorn.

In this case Orville Redenbacher's Movie Theater Butter type.

Ian loved it.

I liked it too. It's popcorn. Popcorn tastes good.

(Deep thoughts brought to you by Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah)

_____
* I usually just make popcorn in a pan - old school style. It isn't hard, but sometimes I forget how convenient microwave popcorn can be.

Outback Special for Father's Day

I haven't been to Outback in a long time. Gabe and I used to go at least once a month, but that was before we had kids.

I kind of miss it. I was close, it was easy and we could get a really huge mug of Fosters on tap.

This Father's Day, Outback is offering kickbacks! Check it out -

______
Outback would like to help satisfy what all dad’s are craving this Father’s Day – food! If you bring dad to Outback on June 15, he’ll receive a $10 certificate valid on your next visit. Dad will need to need to activate the certificate online at where he’ll also automatically be entered in an online sweepstakes to win a $100 gift card when they enter the promo code found on the bottom of the $10 certificate.

The certificate can be used at any Outback location from June 18th– July 20th with the minimum purchase of $25. You can learn more about this promotion and some of Outback’s new menu items by visiting: http://outback.com/.

Sarah Reviews: Rockabye

When Rebecca Woolf's book "Rockabye:From Wild to Child" came out I made a note to get it. I've been a fan of her blog for a while and her column on Babble.com. I also had the pleasure of meeting her at BlogHer last year and I was amazed that she is ten times more beautiful in real life.

I'm not sure why, but when I saw the "Mother Talkers" offer to review her book I didn't take them up on it. I felt like it might be weird to review the autobiography of someone I (kind of) knew. Plus, sometimes great blogging doesn't necessarily translate into "really good at keeping my attention for 288 pages".

In addition, I've been reading Girl's Gone Child ever since someone pointed out that Rebecca and I both wrote posts about raisins in poop on the same day. I felt like I was already pretty familiar with her whole story - cool L.A. party girl, unplanned pregnancy, young mother, happy ending.

But after reading 30 of my favorite bloggers rave reviews of "Rockabye" I went out and bought it. And sure I knew the outline of the story, but I didn't know the whole thing.

I couldn't put the book down. It was riveting. I felt her pain, her fear, her frustration.

I finished the book about two hours ago and I immediately sent Rebecca an e-mail. I pretty much gushed. I think it would even qualify as fan mail.

It was a great story and even better - it was a really well told story. I found comfort in it as a mother who doesn't always parent the way the books say I should, as a mother who doesn't always fit in with the other moms, and as a woman with a body and a life that will never be the same as it was before my kids were born.

Sarah Reviews Circle of Friends Bath Products for Children

A couple (fine, probably six) months ago the lovely people at Circle of Friends sent me some bath products to try out on the Goon Squad.

Each product has a child on it (a cartoon child) and information about the country where the kid came from and little facts about the region where he or she lives.

My children and I love the bath products. My kids really identify it as something that belongs to them.

"Where is my Ana Banana shampoo?"

The products work well and my kids love to use them which is good because it means they are cleaner.

My only concerns are 1) My husband thinks that the Safari Detangler is racist. I disagree but I can see where he is coming from and 2) I am afraid to use the duck sponge because it looks like a sandwich from a gas station. Fortunately, they aren't all brown and I doubt you could confuse the other ones for stale wheat bread.

Over all I have a very favorable impression of the Circle of Friends products. They are as gentle as any of the other baby washes we use on a regular basis.

The Nintendo DS Potty Trained My Children

I'm not trying to be crude here, I swear, but let me tell you a little story about how my Nintendo DS (Lite) helped to potty train my kids.



Back in April I went to Johnson and Johnson's Camp Baby one of the things I left with was a Nintendo DS Lite. I was very excited. I figured I would give it to my husband and he would forgive me for abandoning him for three days to go hang out in New Jersey for three days with a bunch of other lady bloggers.

I was right.

In fact, he bought Super Mario Brothers for the thing before I even got home.

What I didn't count on was the fact that my children would also be obsessed with it.



I figured that this was something I could use to my advantage.

Look, I know that nobody (well, not nobody, but most people) wants to sit around and discuss their bathroom habits, but how many people can honestly say that they don't read in their own bathroom?

Well, my kids can't read yet and they would get really bored sitting on the toilet trying to poop.

Enter the DS.

The kids are allowed to use the DS if they are on the potty and trying to poop.

I don't know if that is healthy or not, but I do know this - they've been doing a much better job of pooping in the toilet instead of in their pants.

I'd like to also believe that it helps their eye-hand coordination.

Maybe problem solving skills? (Is that pushing it?)

Either way, thank you Nintendo. It never would have occurred to me to go out and buy a DS as a toilet training tool but it really seems to be working for us.

Now I just wish I had two.

Heads Up - Palm Technical Support

Those of you who read my other blog may know that I read a lot of books on my Palm Pilot. I used to be a huge Palm supporter.

No longer.

I got my 4th Palm Pilot in December. It is my third in three years. I don't blame Palm for the death of the first of those three. Ian spilled water on that one.



The second Palm shit the bed died in six months and one day after I bought it. How can I be so sure of the time frame? It had a six month warranty. I called two days after my warranty expired.

The third one (my fourth Palm, but the third in three years) has been having problems since the third month I had it.

Did I mention that you have to PAY for technical support over the phone if you call Palm more than 90 days after the purchase of your device.

Screw that.

Who do they think they are? The thing cost less than $200 and I have to pay them $20 for a phone call?

I chose to chat with representatives online (free) which in the last six days has sucked up at least seven hours of my time. If I charged them $20/hr I could almost buy a new one.

But I won't be buying a product from the Palm Corporation again.

Who knows of a good way for me to read books electronically? (I would love to get an Amazon Kindle but I don't have a spare $400 right now.)

Me and Ted Allen at Camp Baby

Sarah and Ted are on the same wavelength
Originally uploaded by ninjapoodles

Ted and I enjoy looking goofy together.

He was really great - even though he refused to give us any inside scoop on "Top Chef". (Did I mention this hotel doesn't get Bravo. What the hell?)

I'm having a fantastic time at Johnson and Johnson's Camp Baby, Bravo or no. I wish I had met the sleep specialist (Jodi A. Mindell, PHD) two years ago. She could have changed my life. Of course the kids sleep now. Mostly.

More later. Or sooner if I get organized.

Thanks to Belinda for this picture.

Forgive Me Readers

Forgive me readers for I have slacked.

I'll be back soon with a review for Circle of Friends children's bath products and a book about emotionally healthy twins.

I just have to finish the book.

I also have some unsolicited reviews I would like to offer. Some good, some bad - so nobody piss me off (I'm looking at you Spirit Airlines*).


* Have I mentioned that Spirit Airlines ripped me off?

Valley of the Dolls

Ugh. I just watched "Valley of the Dolls".

I really wish I could have my two hours back.

Best Shirt Ever

I just got this shirt yesterday and I LOVE it. I love it so much I am going to go order some more.

That site is under construction until Jan 10th, if you need one right now go here to get one.

And yes, those are my boobs. Well, to be fair, that is my Wonderbra. (Hey! Two reviews for the price of one! You guys are so lucky.) I didn't put on makeup today so this is what you get.

Seriously, these shirts are great. You can get ones that say "Mommy needs a Cocktail", "Baby Brewing", "I'm blogging this" and I even think there is one that says "Mommy Needs a Glass of Wine". Just make sure to order yours one size larger than you think you need. They run kind of small. (Hence the boob shot.)

Sun Country Rules

I have been known to trash an airline or two (or three) here on Sarah and the Goon Squad.

This time it is different. Last week I flew on Sun Country airlines. I know they aren't all over the place. They pretty much fly in and out of Minneapolis, but luckily for me that is where I was going. Apparently customer service is not dead in that industry. They were really great. I'm not kidding, the people on the phone were nice and so were the people that checked me in and the people at the gate and even the flight attendants! I was very impressed. They still pre-board if you are flying with young children and just to make me want to kiss them more, they even had a play area in their terminal at the Minneapolis airport.

Okay, I am done gushing for just a second. I have to tell you another story about my flight home.

I sat by Ian. Ian loves to read (well, really, make me read) the aircraft safety cards.



So I noticed something odd that I otherwise wouldn't have seen.



Notice anything funny?

If I were doing my Bossy impersonation, this is the part where I would have circled the ballerina in crash position and written something like "Who dresses like that to fly to Minneapolis anyway?" But alas. I still don't know how to use photoshop.

Can you spot what made me take a picture causing people to stare at me here?



Is it clearer here?



I was thinking maybe I had accidentally smoked some crack at the airport. What was going on here? Who designed this airline safety card? Jerry Garcia?

Then as we were getting ready to take off the nice flight attendant came over and said to Ian "If you can find the ballerina and the magician on the card you get a pair of wings!"

And then I felt like a jerk.

Well, sort of. The boy knew exactly where they were. His crazy mother had just been taking pictures of them for 15 minutes.

Really though, Sun Country was the best flying experience I've had in a couple of years. I thought it would only be fair to praise them for their work (and it also gives me another opportunity to tell U.S. Air, American Airlines and Spirit to suck it).




Cross posted on Sarah and the Goon Squad.