smacky and bucky

De's post on Facebook about the scifi mag Starlog reminded me that I subscribed to Blender a few years ago. It was basically a geek mag that covered movies, toys, music, etc. A little of everything. Anyway, it folded, but I still had about six issues left on my subscription. But instead of offering me a prorated rebate, they switched my subscription to another magazine they published: MAXIM. I also had this subscription sent to our place at the river, and Laura's parents picked up our mail between our visits. So every time we went down there (for six months) Laura's stepfather would drop off a plastic grocery bag of mail, and inside the pile would be an issue of Maxim with some woman in her bra and panties on the cover.

AWKWARD.

I explained to him the circumstances, and how I was now receiving a magazine I didn't want, but really, would you believe that if someone said that to you?

Today was one of those days when you feel like crying. While screaming. While laughing.

I actually got a chance to watch Prometheus the other night, but it was on DVD, not BluRay. All the extras that promised "answers" are on the BluRay, but the bedroom only had a DVD player. First-world problem.

One cool thing I did: Henry has pajamas of Woody and Buzz from Toy Story. The bottoms of the Woody PJs are just blue with red cuffs. I found Henry a Spider-Man T-shirt and combined it with the Woody bottoms and created Spider-Man PJs that he was very excited to show off.




Do you know how difficult it is to find a large Spider-Man safe enough for a 2-year-old that isn't covered with stupid electronics? This one was on sale, but he had some bizarre rocket launcher attached to his arm. Removing it required removing three screws, then using Super Glue to to put the two halves of the forearm back together!

The wife is working with a team on a big proposal (cross your fingers, everyone, PLEASE!) and they had to work over the weekend (as in 9-5 Saturday plus a 4-hour conference call on Sunday!)

That meant it was me and the boy all weekend. What to do?

Saturday morning he was up at 6, like every morning, so we had breakfast and watched a little Yo Gabba Gabba! I opened Craigslist and browsed the yard sale listings. One caught my eye, as it ended with "If you have preschool boys, this is the yard sale for you!" Well, we have one, and another coming in less than two months (ACK!) so it sounded good to me. It was 8:15 and the sale started at 8, so the boy and I hopped in the car and headed out.

Sidebar: The iPhone 5 maps app has gotten a lot of bad press about the 3D view looking insane, but the turn-by-turn navigation is awesome. I copied the address of the yard sale into the app, pressed route, and it gave me real-time directions out loud so I didn't even have to look at the phone while I drove. It was so easy to use that I ended up finding two more yard sales on Craigslist and used the map app to get to those too!

We got the the first yard sale, and a family of four was outside, including two little boys, maybe 7 and 5. They were selling a bunch of toys they were too old for, which meant they were perfect for the kid I was carrying in my arms. We made a quick circuit, and while his eyes fixed on a little Toy Story puzzle, I had my eyes on something else:

A big play tool bench!

He's always grabbing everything he can get his hands on and manipulating things, so this would give him the opportunity to do that without being told, "Stop! Put that down!" The older boy came over and explained everything it could do and what came with it in a very serious tone that was adorable. I paid him the $10 asking price and put it in the car. Look what else came with it:

A ton of tools (from lots of different sets). Six hammers!

 

Power tools! Fresh batteries installed and they all make annoying noises now! (and another hammer!)

We stopped at another yard sale and bought one thing: The special edition 2-DVD set of the first Ice Age movie (which none of us had seen) for $1!

Then we had time for one last stop before the kid needed lunch, so we punched in the address and headed over. This one had an odd jumble of things. Toward the back of the driveway they had several larger items. One was a Little Tikes slide. It was pretty dirty, and quite large, so I only glanced at it. But then I saw the sticker on it: FREE. Hello! I put the boy down and asked him if he could climb the ladder (no point in killing myself getting it home if he wasn't big enough for it). He scampered up like a monkey, so I talked to the woman, got my trusty bungee cords out, and strapped the thing to the top of the car.

How big is it? Check it out:

It even has a little club house underneath!

I got it home, hosed it off, sponged it clean, toweled it dry, and put it back together. Boom! Our yard is starting to look like an outdoor display at Toys R Us! (I just looked it up online, and new it costs $160!