SouthDakota2008: Signs

One of the fun things about traveling is seeing different signs. Here are some of the more "interesting" ones we saw in the Black Hills of South Dakota...

This one was at the Rapid City Airport...
...move over Mayo Clinic!

Also seen in the Rapid City airport...
...while waiting for Michele and Sammy to arrive...
...not really a billboard sign...
...more a sign of the times...
...Hulk Hogan breaking his silence (was he ever silent?)...

This was at Old MacDonald's (Petting) Farm...

This is something we'd like to see...
...though not from the ground underneath him as he works...

Echos of M. Night Shyamalan...
...instead of crop circles...
...the Black Hills has tire donut circles....

Little Rock 2008...easy rider...

Little Rock is a fun city to visit. It's clean, well kept up, the people are friendly, and just when you get a little comfortable you see something that strikes you...

Wyatt & Billy rode past the trolley...

Perhaps they were passing through...
...on their way to Madame Tinkertoy's House of Blue Lights...
...if that's the case then they have a lot of pedaling left...

The Five Day Delay Rebate...

Today Paul took our Passat wagon through a local car wash. After he paid the clerk, she gave him a rebate coupon along with the receipt. It seems kind of strange, when you mail the rebate in, it "...must be postmarked no sooner than 5 days...of application [car wash]." One can hypothesize that they are hoping you forget about sending it in if you wait five days. Let's see if Paul remembers to mail it in (granted, at $.41 for a stamp this turns out to be a $2.51 rebate). Maybe the bigger lesson to be learned is that Paul should save money and wash the car himself.

"no sooner than 5 days"?

I can't believe you are watching that!

The Minnesota Atheists As They Appeared On Our Television...

Michele seems to believe that Paul has a talent for finding the weirdest thing currently on TV and then watching it. One day she caught him watching the cable public access channel while they were broadcasting "Atheist Talk TV." What follows is a conversation between Michele & Paul:

MICHELE: Paul, what are you watching now?
PAUL: Uh...the Minnesota Atheist show.
MICHELE: Since when did you start watching this show?
PAUL: Uh...I watch this show all the time.
MICHELE: Pray tell...why would you watch it?
PAUL: Uh...the inspiring stories.
MICHELE: Such as?
PAUL: The University of Minnesota Atheists are on now.
MICHEL: And how is that inspiring?
PAUL: They hope to get back up to 50 members this year.
MICHELE: Oh, really...and you think they'll make it?
PAUL: Well, you gotta have faith.
MICHELE: Paul, I've never seen you watch this show.
PAUL: Oh, I do...I watch it religiously.
MICHELE: Give me that remote control!

Note: as can be evidenced by the make of our TV in the photo above (you have to click on it to view it larger), Paul does not believe in buying expensive consumer electronics.

Things that go bump in the night...

Back in '95 we saw a movie which explained an awful lot. You see, while you sleep or arent around, toys come to life and do things...so long as you aren't there to see it.

A few weeks ago, we went to the Mall of America. As usual we bought items we didn't need such as a Ricki Ricardo-esque bongo drum for Paul (sadly, for real). But the real prize was at the Lego store. They had Lego Batman and Robin people. So of course we had to buy them for Sammy...and since he can't play with them until age six (always read the labels) it was up to Paul to put them in a safe place until Sammy was of age.

Correction: Michele just informed Paul that the bongo drum was *NOT* for him but for little Sammy. .:sigh:.

The strange thing is that when we wake up in the morning the house is in shambles and the Batman Lego people are all over. Suspecting that what we saw in the movie was true, we needed a way to verify...so we asked our big orange cat Veto to take some pictures with Paul's camera during the night.

What follows is Veto's account as told to us by Veto....apparently while we sleep the great battle of good versus evil rages on in our house.

"I was sitting there with Paul's camera when I took a cat nap. I rolled on my back and was dozing off when I heard what sounded like jingle bells...I was able to snap off a quick shots of events as they unfolded. Meow."

Jingle bells, Batman smells...

Robin laid an egg...

The Volkswagen lost its wheel...

And Joker got away.

Veto did a great job capturing photos to verify our worst fears. Hopefully tonight Batman will get that rascal Joker. But we did see one last picture that Veto took...quite disturbing. It shows BatGirl getting into the Jokers love van. Why do all the nice girls go for the bad boys?

Who's afraid of the big bad...red dog?

Paul remembers a cousin who when a baby used to cry uncontrollably whenever the song "If" was sung. Well, it appears we have found little Sammy's Achille's heel...a stuffed red dog that Michele bought for him. When he sees it, our otherwise intrepid young man's face opens wide in horror and he starts to shriek and cry uncontrollably. So the red dog has been exiled to the top of our bed (where our cat Veto used to sleep...until all 17lbs of him fell on us one night).

Next to Red Dog in the photo below is the first ever picture taken of Sammy when he was still in Michele's tummy.

Who's afraid of the big red dog
Big red dog, big red dog?
Who's afraid of the big red dog?
Tra la la la la!

Well, our baby...

If you're a parent, you've probably felt a bit competitive. Especially when other parents insist that their baby slept the whole night through from day one...or that their baby exited the womb already bilingual...or that their baby by the first week could dance and sing like James Cagney in "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

Luckily, we're not like that.

Recently, our almost 3 month old son Sammy (notice how we want to emphasize he was less than 3 months old at the time) was sitting on Michele's lap in the kitchen. He was watching his 10 month old cousin Ana drinking from a "sippy cup." Suddenly Sammy became very agitated with his eyes glued on Ana and her sippy cup. Sensing his desire, Michele grabbed another sippy cup, filled it with formula, and offered the cup to Sammy. He grasped the handles with both hands and pulled it towards his mouth. Michele had to guide it to his mouth (he's just a baby after all) and most of it spilled out...but that's our baby.

Our Sammy, the real thing, shows up all those Cagney wannabe's.

The Great Similac Heist

Our loot of liquid gold spiritied away from the Twin Cities.

We have finally made the transition from breast milk to formula with Sammy now (sincere apologies to La Leche). At the hospital Sammy where was born they used Similac. We would "top off" Sammy with some Similac after he drank the breast milk. So for consistency sake, we feed him Similac now.

Sammy seemed to get gas from the powdered Similac, so we resorted to the pre-made formula...which can be troublesome in the middle of the night. Once we open up one of the 32 oz. bottles we have to refrigerate the unused portion. Sammy does not look kindly on delays for nighttime feeding. So we buy the small 4oz bottles to open during the night...to avoid wasting precious time warming refrigerated formula.

Therein lays the problem. To the best of our knowledge, no store in Rochester sells these valuable bottles. The closest Babies'R'us store is currently up in the Twin Cities. Our stock ran out and last night we had no pre-made small bottles...Sammy was displeased with the wait he had to endure for warm formula.

Luckily, Sammy's Aunt Annie makes runs to all the Babies'R'us in the Twin Cities and buys their entire stock for us. Today she made a humanitarian run down to Rochester with the boxes she had cleaned out of 3 Babies'R'us in the last day.

17 boxes of Similac: $240. Gas for the trip to Rochester: $9. Avoiding Sammy's wrath: priceless.

"Price Charmin"

Well, Paul is known for being cheap at times. After all, his favorite store is Wal-Mart. This past Saturday, Michele's sister Sharon (who is staying with us while her husband is in Iraq) convinced us to get a Sam's Club membership. So Sharon and Paul went off to get a membership and try to find some deals.

But although Paul is cheap, there are a few things he won't skimp on and at the top of that list is bathroom tissue. "You just don't mess with that," he says. So he always buys Charmin Ultra. "Try it, you'll see the difference." Anyway, at Sam's Club they had this big package of them for $17. But how does it compare to the normal one Paul normally gets at Wal-Mart for $8 or $9? Luckily, Charmin gives you a chart so you can compare the various roll sizes you can get Charmin Ultra in:



If only it were as easy to go back and forth between Celsius and Fahrenheit! Anyway, it looks like it is a decent buy at Sam's Club for Paul. Both sizes available (at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club) have the "Big Rolls", so the comparison is fairly straight forward. But ever the skeptic, Paul looked at it from various angles to ensure he was getting more than twice as much for about twice the price.

One thing Paul speculates is that Charmin is in a secret pact with the house building industry. A "Mega Roll"? That would never fit in our 1960s bathroom tissue dispenser (it's ceramic...mounted on the wall...matching the tile). To use the "Mega Roll" size we would have to buy a new home. And that ain't no fairy tale!

Note: The walls in the photos just have primer on them...Paul has been busy painting the hallway...for the last year.

At first glance, it doesn't look like the one on the right
gives you 3x as much...

But from this angle, it's easy to see.

Disclaimer: Sam's Club is owned by Wal-Mart. Paul does not own Wal-Mart stock.

Where in the world is Sammy?

Well, it was bound to happen. Paul had not posted a pic of little Sammy in a while and suddenly the rumors started to fly. "Paul actually went through and sold Sammy on eBay!" and "Gypsies arrived in Rochester and left with Sammy!" and "Paul and Sammy sure look alike...and we've never seen them in the same room!"

So anyway, to put the rumors to rest, here is a picture taken of Sammy today (really...nod nod, wink wink).

Sammy, Sammy
he's our man...