The iPad Will Be Mine. Oh Yes, It Will Be Mine!

I try not to be an early adopter. For one, it gets expensive. For two, you never know which fun gadgets will take off and be useful, and which will whimper and die a quiet death having only been fun for fun's sake. But while I knew from the beginning that the iPad would be useful, awesome, and fun, it's still a good idea to wait for a second model before buying anything. So I kept waiting. And waiting. Coveting my neighbors' iPads. Making do with my little iPod Touch. Waiting. Yearning. Waiting. Planning. Until finally...

iPad 2 Release Date Announced!

It would have not one, but two cameras! It would be faster! It would be lighter! It would be thinner! And it would have a specially designed functional cover that you could buy for only $39.99! Ahhhh!!! After I managed to contain myself, I marked the calendar for the day when I could finally order one. And then I ordered one. One shiny, new, black, 64 GB wi-fi iPad, inscribed lovingly with, "Do, or do not. There is no try." Oh yes, it would be mine.

But once again it was a "hurry up and wait" kind of situation. Hurry up and order. Oh, but wait, it will be a month before it arrives. Ahhh! But after much planning and waiting, my iPad is almost here. I will be here waiting for it. And my family won't see me for the next week! I sure hope they'll send sandwiches because I'll be busy putting on apps, customizing settings, and reveling in this larger window to the world.

See you on FaceTime!

Otto's Long Wait, Hobbit-Style

Otto's off on another adventure of his own design. He and Mort are camping out waiting for The Hobbit movie to start. Nevermind that it's a long wait. He wants to be the first to get his ticket. He is even keeping a blog of his experience waiting for this epic movie. I've packed him some sandwiches and juice, but at this point I'm not sure if John and I are prepared to make the daily trips down to the theater to replenish his supplies. Perhaps he'll do some farming in the median. The growing season has started, after all.

Still, this reminds me of my own experience at his age, camping out for Return of the Jedi. The much-anticipated movie promised to answer all our questions and wrap up the story line. What was going to happen to Han and Leia? Where did Luke fit in? Would Han ever get out of the carbonite? What of Luke's training? Was he a half-Jedi? Would Yoda finish his instruction? All those mysteries I pondered as I camped out with my older sister, waiting to get tickets for the movie.

People didn't plan ahead so much in those days, though, and we only camped out for three days before the movie premiered. Our efforts were rewarded, however, when my sister and I were the first people to get tickets at our theater. The excitement of my pre-teen enthusiasm and crush on Han Solo were completely unaffected by any dose of reality. We watched the movie with wide eyes and loved it. And I loved the Ewoks, I have to admit. Sure, they weren't as hip as Tribbles, but they certainly didn't multiply like them, either.

My sister and I didn't get enough Star Wars to match our long build-up to seeing the movie, so after the movie was over we immediately got tickets to see it again. Our parents dropped some hot soup by to sustain us. I didn't keep a journal like Otto is doing, but that weekend certainly stands out as one of the most memorable of my childhood. I hope Otto has a similar experience! The long wait till be nothing in retrospect! Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!

Communicating With an Internet Addict 101

Out of necessity, I've developed a new way to communicate with my husband. He no longer responds to quiet polite comments, or even a shout across the house. I've always been very happy that I didn't have the kind of husband who watches football all day Sunday and ignores the rest of the world. But now I have a husband who has been seemingly irretrievably sucked into the internet. I can stand right next to him and wave my arms, and he is oblivious. It is starting to become problematic.

However! If I send him an email, or message him on Facebook, or even DM him on Twitter, he responds with amazing speed and efficiency. I've taken to carrying my laptop around the house for instant communication.

The only thing it doesn't work for, however, is calling him to dinner. He doesn't want to leave his desk. He must have a stash of food hidden somewhere, because he never seems to be hungry. But there is a silver lining to this issue. His unfortunate absence around the dinner table has allowed me to cook some more unusual dishes that Otto and I like, such as pork, vegetable, and raisin goulash stew! It's great with crusty bread.

Cookie, Cookie, Who's Got the Cookie?

When I was a girl, I loved being a Girl Scout. While all the other girls were whispering and passing notes, I was keeping a log of all my earned badges and figuring out what I needed to do to earn more. My favorites were the ones were I got to put things together, or to learn about science. It was also the first and last time that I got to wear a uniform. Color-coordinated polyester goodness! Also, because of this early exposure, I loved Girl Scout cookies from an early age. I didn't much care for selling them (going door to door and talking to strangers just isn't my cup of tea), but.. oh yum.. the cookies!

Having a son of my own instead of a daughter, I no longer have an easy "in" for getting as many cookies as I want. We do have a couple of sources, though. John's got someone at work. And one of the girls in the neighborhood sometimes comes to our door. But we have to be on our toes. To make sure we get our cookies, every spring we go on the prowl, laying in wait for when the cookies will go on sale. And then we pounce. Whoever gives us the first opportunity gets a huge order.

We order some of everything. I have my favorites. John has his. Otto likes to have as wide a variety as possible in as large a quantity as possible. And Mort, well, he'll only eat the Thin Mints. But he eats a lot of them.

We turn into paranoid hoarders come Girl Scout cookie season. We love our Girl Scout cookies. So we each have our personal stashes that we carefully hide and guard. I have all of mine hidden in a very secret location. I won't tell where. Otto might find out. I trust Otto in most things, but when it comes to Girl Scout cookies, he cannot be trusted!

I must go. The Trefoils are calling me.

World Domination Through Home Papercrafting

Otto and I have been fiddling around with paper crafts this week. Once we finished with the awesome robot kit I found, I became obsessed and found so many more online that you can print yourself! Thick card stock, a sharp X-acto knife, and a color printer are all we need to rule over our own universe of dinosaurs, the Copernican solar system, and subduction zones. Oh, and a space hotel, too! Muhahahaha!

Once almost all our dinosaurs fell in the subduction zones or moved into the space hotels, Otto got bored and mumbled something about preferring to build real robots. I, on the other hand, am now obsessed with paper. So I moved on to time machines. "Out of a Delorean?" you ask. Yes, of course. What else? Now I just have to find some uranium. Or invent Mr. Fusion. Then I can travel back in time to the time of castles and knights and take the last remaining dinosaur with me. Siege weapons will rule the day!

Then back in the real world, I can print out a planisphere to use with Otto and John to find constellations at night. Perhaps we'll take up astronomy with earnest next!

The only drawback to my new hobby? Papercuts.

Playing the Modern Bargain Hunting Game

The other day I planned to go out shopping to buy Otto some new socks. He must be battling Orcs with his feet because every pair of his socks are filled with holes! Unfortunately, the snowy weather kept me inside. I secretly love it when that happens. But apparently Mother Nature didn't get the memo that it is springtime now? It was so snowy that Otto barely made it to the school bus. I could see his little head bobbing above the top of the snow, in the narrow crevice that John had carved out before work.

I decided to shop online instead.

One thing I like about shopping online is that it is easy to comparison shop without leaving your cushy office chair! I didn't even have to change out of my robot pajamas. I eventually managed to find awesome glow-in-the-dark space socks for a good price, but the price was so good that I didn't fill my basket with enough for the free shipping. Such is the curse that are online discounts.

I think websites ought to make a new category entitled "Items under $5 that you might need to fill out your order that you will eventually use even if you don't quite need them yet." I'm often searching out $1 and $2 items to get to the free shipping threshold. It's harder than you'd think! Pencils come in a gross. Even granola bars come in a package of six or twelve boxes. I kept adding inexpensive things until I got over the $25 limit. So when my package finally arrives, it will have a book, Otto's socks, crackers, toothpaste, and a small package of emery boards.

I love ordering so many disparate things! When I open the box, I will pretend that we're all lost on a desert island and we got lucky enough to get a care package from a passing airplane. Everything I ordered could be handy in such a situation. After all, you don't want to snag your nail on a coconut!

In the Land of Comics

As a total comic girl, I saved my pennies to get new comic books as they came out. I loved Teen Titans and X-Men were my favorites. No matter that the other girls looked at me, Barbies in hand, with expressions of utter bafflement on their faces. I loved my comic books. (Though not so much that I'm not selling them off slowly to pay for Otto's college education!)

So when Otto came along, I wanted to suck him into the comic universe. I found some really cute or weird comic books intended for very young children. Once he stopped drooling on them and using them as stepstools, I set him free to read and pick out his own. His favorites were OwlyArchie. But of course I also had him read plenty of X-Men. Our weekly trips to the comic book store, Otto still in his stroller, were met with curious glances.

So it's no wonder that these days he's often elbow deep in his own comic book wonderland. Granted, that isn't very high, but comics are quite thin. So, yeah, that's a lot of comics.

These days, his swirling vortex of entropy (i.e., his room) is filled with a different kind of comic. I was concerned for a while that the comics Otto chose to read were giving him a ridiculously stilted view of life and interpersonal relationships. So I took away his Archie comics and bought him some Manga. Manga has been around for a long time, but I'd never read it when I was a kid. But now... the Japanese certainly know how to entertain the geeky masses!

Watching Otto get lost in comic books made me nostalgic for the days when my face was buried in the newest issue. So he's re-inspired me, and I've found some really fantastic books that appeal to me as a grown-up. So now I curl up with a mug of tea, Earl Grey, hot, along with books such as Mouse Guard or the Marvel Illustrated series.

And maybe someday I'll "borrow" one of Otto's books so I can figure out why he's so obsessed with Fullmetal Alchemist. I hope it has to do with alchemy and not the fact that the story involves cute girls in skirts that are WAY too short. Just so long as he doesn't pass it off as a science book. I know better.
and, strangely enough,