Tuesday Top Ten

Welcome to Ten on Tuesday! Today we feature a lovely list in honor of a 300 mile road trip with two boys.

Ten Travel Tips

1. Control the audio

When I was growing up the rule was that the driver controlled the radio. Notsomuch anymore. Sanity often dictates giving up the grown-up music for yet another round of KidsBop or Veggie Tales. Which leads me to #2.

2. Tune out the monkeys with a Personal DVD Player

Too much TV is a problem I constantly battle. In the car, however, I gladly set up the DVD player in the back and let them watch until they turn into zombies fall asleep.

3. No more melted crayons!

Three words: Crayola Color Magic

4. Yellow Car

SS#1 introduced us to this fun little car game. It actually keeps BOTH boys occupied for a good 30 minutes. The premise is simple. Look for yellow vehicles, have one of the munchkins keep track. As SS#1 puts it, "If it moves, it counts".

5. Very Few Snacks

This may seem contradictory to traveling with children, but I don't like to overpack the snackage. A couple of bottles of water or juice boxes, and some dry, non-messy snacks (shelled peanuts are a fave) and we're good to go. We tend to stop once to eat and usually twice more to empty the human bladders and/or fill the automobile bladder.

6. Everyone Pees

Whether or not they think they have to go, when we stop, we go. Got it?

7. Pillow

I've learned that a pillow for each child makes it much more likely that napping will occur. Of course, it also makes it more likely that at least one pillow fight will ensue, but that's a chance I'm willing to take.

8. Mrs. Garmin

It used to be that Mapquest and I were constant travel companions. I didn't travel more than a couple of miles from my house without him. For the most part, that relationship served me well.

Then I met Mrs. G. And while we've had our ups and downs, and sometimes I turn the wrong way just to irritate her, I usually follow where she leads.

And the best part is, she can play audio books and music WHILE she calmly directs your travel!

9. Audio Books

Oh, my audio books, how did I ever travel long distances without you? Now I can hear your wonderful words on my GPS or on the CD player. Oh joy, oh rapture. And Cracker Barrel even has audio books you can rent and return on your trip home.

10. "______________________ or-so-help-me-I'll-stop-this-car-right-now!"

Pick your poison.

Where's Nancy Drew When I Need Her?

We've decided to rename our youngest, the one you all know as The Manimal. His given name is one we like very much, but recent events have led us to give him a more, well, appropriate name.

Hector.

As in Hector the Collector.

Allow me to elaborate. Last night, around 9:30 pm, Diva Husband discovered that Crackberry phone was missing. We searched high and low, indoors and outdoors, calling his phone from every other phone in the house. Over an hour was spent looking for the dang thing phone.

All to no avail.

So I called TeeMobile and asked them to check for outgoing calls in the last four hours (thinking that perhaps Princess the Wonder Dog had developed opposing thumbs and was calling her boyfriend Dan the Man Labrador), then asked that they put a restriction on all outgoing calls until we rectified the situation pleaseandthankyouverymuch.

Fast forward to this morning, as I was getting The Manimal his clothes for school. I discovered a blue shopping bag in his secret lair bedroom and just for fun, I checked it out.

And there it was, in all its Blackberry glory.

Along with a computer thumb drive, an empty $25 Visa gift card, a small (but very expensive) magnifying glass and a flashlight.

When I confronted our little perp about the contraband, his simple response was that "Daddy wasn't in his office."

Uh-huh. Case closed.

Now that the case is solved, you can go read about another odd item finding. My bloggy buddy The Original Octamom discovered that one of her kiddos has been experimenting with cryogenics. Thank goodness we live many states apart, because I don't need her kiddos giving The Manimal ANY help...

By George, I Think She's Got It!

It's snowing here. Again. And I have to work. Well, not really WORK, per se. It's more MONITORING than anything. Thank goodness for laptops and wireless access. And Diet Coke.

I've been wanting to learn HTML for a long time. Web page design is fascinating to me, from both a creative standpoint and also from a personal development standpoint. I'm pretty sure that both SS#1 and The Manimal are going to blow me out of the water with their computer skills at some point in the future, but I figure that learning HTML/Web Design might at least give me a fighting chance! :)

I have a friend from college who's a website designer, and what fascinates me most about her is that it's really her second career. With undergraduate and graduate degrees in music education, she sure didn't start out to be a web designer, so I figure there's hope for me yet!

So I did a little online research, figuring that SOMEWHERE in the vast world wide web there would be SOMEONE who offered free online tutorials, and sure enough, I found one. Well, I actually found several, but one was plenty to start.

I went to the Quackit HTML Tutorial and spent about 90 minutes. Now, I'm no expert, by ANY stretch of the imagination, but I was able to learn enough to write this whole post in HTML mode! All by myself!

The link above? I didn't use the handy-dandy little blogger tool. I personally typed the code in with my own ten fingers!

Not only did I learn how to make a link, like you see above, but I also learned some other cool tricks...

• like


• bullet


• points

1. and


2. numbered


3. lists

And how to make things really colorful!

I even learned how to embed graphics.

This one worked pretty well. Kind of wonky looking, but it was from the tutorial library.



This one didn't work so well. I haven't opened a Flickr or Picasa account yet, and my link to the photo on Snapfish was broken. But see how it says "SS#1 Spring"? I made sure it would say what the pic was in case it didn't work!



I also learned how to make a quick e-mail link. You all can e-mail me and let me know how much fun you're having with HTML!

I'm having lots of fun playing with my new baby skills. While it does take a bit more time to enter everything in HTML, it's a cool way to practice. When you're typing in Blogger HTML, however, be sure not to flip between the HTML and Compose modes accidentally. It really does a number on the code and you have re-enter every.single.tag.

Thank goodness for Diet Coke.

Wow. Just Wow.

Silly Little Birdies

I really enjoy blogging, that's no secret. I love to write, so it only seems natural.

I'm pretty particular about my writing, though. Don't usually just write (or speak, for that matter) "off the cuff", as it were.

So this whole "Twitter" thing is kind of a wonder to me. I mean, it's one thing to put your thoughts out there once (or maybe twice) a day or so for everyone's amusement/enjoyment/edification, but a brief little snippet? Often? Multiple times a day?

And following others? We are becoming quite the virtually voyeuristic culture, I think.

And apparently, I fall right in line with the rest of culture. Because, my friends, I now tweet. Of course, I can't completely figure the darn thing out. For example, the process of actually adding people to "follow" is somewhat of a mystery to me. And I have yet to figure out how to put it on my blog.

What about you? Are you joining the avian craze and twittering? Because I'd love to talk to someone other than myself in this craziness.