What's short, green, Jewish and has lots of wheels?

Devra and me at the Chicago Auto Show! Or possibly a Kosher picklemobile.

I'm continuing this year's apparent theme, little women.* You'll see what I mean after I post a picture of us. As for green, AlphaMom already got a sneak peek in Detroit and said that the new cars are finally getting greener engines.


We'll be joined by Daddytypes, a blog recently noted in the Chicago Tribune for the author's hipness and sense of style, which is why I went out a got a real haircut the other day.

There will be a few other bloggers there as well. I'm told we're going to hear some exciting news for families about a Chevy (GM is sponsoring my trip to the auto show). Oh, the anticipation! I'll keep you posted.

*How I wish it were the year of big paychecks, instead.

Snow Day? Who cares?

I do, actually. Tomorrow, I've got appointments at the dentist and a doctor, as well as a little get-together with the brains behind Spatulatta, so a snow day would really screw me. Also, Chicago Moms Blog and our sister sites issued another call to the presidential candidates, and as a result, tomorrow afternoon I'll be on the phone to a rep from HRC's campaign. I'll be listening, not talking, but still, it would be nice not to have screaming boys in the background.


On the plus side of a snow day, I just received warm, fuzzy new slippers from my friends at Graco. Everyone at the Graco-sponsored Sweetpeace holiday party for the Chicago Moms Bloggers received a fluffy white pair of slippers. Mine were exceedlingly large, so I gave them to DH. I mentioned this in an off-handed comment on Chicago Moms Blog. And, lo and behold, one of Graco's little angels promised to send me a pair...if I posted a pic of DH in the slippers.

Urgh. I took the picture, I know I dowloaded it and I cannot find it on my hard drive. I promise one soon.

And look, my friend Catherine from Chicago Moms Blog is featured in a Daily Herald article.

Tech talk

Maybe it's that my subscription to WIRED magazine finally kicked in (one of those exchanges for soon-to-expire airline miles) or because I've added Techmamas to my blogroll, but I'm getting in touch with my geeky side. Stop snickering. Is my geeky side always that obvious? *sigh*

Anyhoo, the boys and I, but mostly the boys, recently tested out a set of kid-friendly AIRDRIVE earphones. They hang over the ear and can be comfortably flexed into place. Seven-year-old Pikachu tried them out using my iPod (an obsolete Shuffle stick) grooving around the house, occasionally stopping to ask questions like, "Mom, why do you have Ralph Covert on your iPod?" Oh dear, my geek is showing again.

Once we did, or rather attempted, a comparison test with my iPod ear buds, the AIRDRIVEs were the clear winners. He couldn't get my buds to stay in his ears.

In other kidtech news, LeapFrog, a company whose books, toys, or videos are no doubt in your child's playroom, announced a cool new piece of technology that will be on sale this summer. The Tag reader (pictured) takes all the great features of LeapPad learning systems and condenses them into a tiny pen-like device. No more bulky units! No more lost cartridges! Read the details here.

It's interesting to see that popular tech blogs like Gizmodo and Crave have snarky headlines about this product and how it will be a hit with absentee or lazy parents, which is why I look to mombloggers, rather than childless men, for reviews. Harumph.

Note: edited 1/31 to paste in the photo of Smartypants wearing the AIRDRIVES.

Choreplay or foreplay?

What gets you in the mood? Click over to today's post at Momformation and let me know what you think.

Tomorrow

My blog sistah WhyMommy is going in for surgery tomorrow--a double mastectomy.

Pop over to her blog and marvel at her composure, her grace and strength as she battles Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Keep her in your thoughts as you go about your day.

What not to say, auto edition

"Aunt Kim, it's good that at least you're tall enough to see over the steering wheel so that you can drive."

I have often wondered why it is that children who tower over my petite five-foot frame are often prohibited from sitting in front passenger seats of cars because of airbag safety concerns, but I'm not?

Hmmm. I just got invited to the media preview of the Chicago Auto Show, so I'll have to ask around while I'm there.

I'd love to be able to drive four children around in my old Subaru or stick a crabby member of our carpool up front with me to allow a little breathing room in the back seat.

Exciting news!

Pikachu made it into the Gifted Academy's Geography Bee! Read all about it at Momformation.


Oh, and I'm mentioned in the 1/17/08 issue of the Christian Science Monitor in an article about mombloggers and the auto industry. People who are not familiar with this paper and its excellent reputation get a little thrown off by the name. That group includes my boys...and my mother. For those of you who don't have time to make it to your local CS reading room tomorrow, just click.


Did you know the Chicago Auto Show is only a few weeks away? I just found out that my blog sistah Devra from the DC Metro Moms Blog and as well as Mommy Guilt and Parentopia fame is coming to town for the show. If she can extend her stay I promised her I'd let her sleep on our musty basement couch* and watch enough Moldofsky home videos to last a lifetime (cuz who knows when I she'd ever get a chance to see them again?) and I promised to make her these:



*Kidding! The couch is not musty. It's only a couple of years old. DH always reminds me to Respect the Couch.

Little Women

Per my resolution to spend more time with real-life friends in 2008, I went out to lunch with two friends last week. I think the tallest of our trio was about 5feet, 3inches tall.

I also went walking with a friend on Friday, so already I've had more social contact this year than I did in the last quarter of 2007. Which, shouldn't keep anyone from commenting. I still like my virtual friends, too.

No wonder DH and I never go out

I just popped over to SitterCity and used their rate calculator to figure out the average costt of a 17-21 year old babysitter for my 7 and 9 year old boys--nearly $13.00 an hour! Yikes! No wonder we don't have many date nights.

We have a big screen TV and DH prefers to simply buy the movies we want to see and watch at home. We can watch it over any period of time that suits us, (handy as I tend to fall asleep after about an hour on any sort of TV), take bathroom breaks as needed (something that apparently becomes more important as one ages), and it's less expensive than a date (helps us save up for the child-free(!) trip we're taking in March...or private school tuition, depending upon how you look at it.)