Monster Spray

One night a few weeks ago Zoë called to me from her bed where she was supposed to be sleeping.

"Mom! I think there is a monster in my room!"

This was the first time she ever claimed to see a monster in her room and I was a little surprised by it. As I was climbing the stairs I was thinking to myself that I didn't want to make a big deal out of this and out of nowhere I was hit with what turned out to be a great idea. I grabbed the can of Lysol from the bathroom and went into her room with my "Monster Spray." I sprayed the spot where Zoe claimed to see a monster and when she asked me how it worked I said monsters are repelled by the smell, just like bug spray.

Zoë being the trusting, darling child that she is accepted this completely. She was fully satisfied that the monster was not coming back. At first I was concerned that this would bring on nightly monster scares, but there has only been one other since and it was just as quickly wrapped up with a couple of sprays of Lysol.

I wonder if the Lysol company knows about this added use for their product?

Xanadu on Broadway

Yesterday I just happened to read the NY Times' review of the new Broadway show "Xanadu." I don't ordinarily read the theatre reviews because I don't get to the theatre very often. And yes, it is "Xanadu" based on the cinematic gem by the same name that starred Olivia Newton John, but that is not the part I am excited about.

I am excited because this production stars Kerry Butler and the review is glowing. I attended college with Kerry Butler. We graduated the same year, same theater department. (Clearly she made good use of her degree unlike myself.) While this is hardly her first Broadway show or even her first starring role, the review about her work is amazing. It is really nice to see such great praise for someone you know and who's talent you have always admired. Plus everyone likes to brag about the famous people they knew "way back when."

The article says:

Kerry Butler, as the Greek demi-goddess Clio, who also roams Venice Beach as the Australian mortal Kira, is simply heaven on eight little polyurethane wheels. Or heaven in leg warmers.

...

Ms. Butler is the rare Broadway ingénue who is as funny as she is pretty, and she sings gloriously, too, both in her own tangy Broadway belt and in a devastatingly funny impersonation of Ms. Newton-John’s sweetly sighing soprano. (When Ms. Butler is speaking Australian, she’s actually a ringer for a fresher import from Down Under, Nicole Kidman.) She’s got a lovely line in arabesque on those skates, too! Can Audra McDonald or Kristin Chenoweth do that?

If Super-Powers were widely available

I'm not sure what exactly started me on this train of thought, but I've been thinking lately about Super-Powers I would like to have. Yes, there are the obvious ones like flying or x-ray vision or mind-reading, but lets say those are all taken and any"evil" powers do not apply. Here are some I'd like to have:

1. The ability to suspend time for the purpose of reading. As long as I was reading something, time would stop and I could continue reading for as long as I desired without being interrupted, falling asleep, or even getting hungry.
   
2. The ability to make children fall asleep and stay asleep for what would be a normal and appropriate length of time. At night that would mean 10 hours or so and mid-day that would be about 2 hours.
   
3. The ability to eat calorie-rich delicious foods without the terrible side-effects of weight gain. (This had to be included.)
4. The ability to regulate temperature in indoor settings. Mother Nature is free to continue to control the outdoors, but I would like to set the temperature when I am inside.
5. Perfect spelling and grammar at all times. I'm not saying I want stiff and formal speech or writing, but it really drives me crazy when I realize I've said something grammatically incorrect or I've written something with a spelling error.
   

Those are the powers I've come up with so far. I'll let you know if I think of any more. What would your powers be?

The Dog Bed

Last weekend we went foraging at Target. One of the items on our list was dog food and as we wandered the multiple pet supply aisles Rob became enamored of an enormous faux-shearling dog bed. After only a few moments of contemplation Rob, who will hesitate at spending $9.99 on a new shirt, put the $39.99 dog bed into our cart. I would have had no problem with the idea or even spending the money except that our dog, Spanky, is 14 and he has never slept on a dog bed so it seems unlikely he would start now. You know the whole old dog, new tricks bit...

Anyway, despite my mild protests we brought the bed home and set it up in the spot in our upstairs hallway where Spanky usually sleeps at night. As predicted, he won't go near it. I mean he won't even lay near it and now has switched to his alternate sleep location (Zoë's room) on a full-time basis.

So I told Rob I wanted to return the bed. Zoë then promptly lay down on it and said if Spanky didn't want it then she did. The bed is so big that Zoe could actually use it for a bed, but I pointed out to her that she has a much bigger and nicer bed in her room already.

"But Eeyore needs a bed."

"Isn't this kind of a big bed for Eeyore?" I asked her. Eeyore is her most beloved stuffed animal, but he isn't more than 12 inches long.

"Yes, but he moves around a lot at night," she replied matter-of-factly. So credibly that for half a second I almost acquiesced.

Website of the Week: BookSwim

OK I know it isn't really right for me to call it "Website of the Week" since it has been months since I've posted one, but I still like the alliteration.

Anyway, the site is BookSwim.com

They are self-described as Netflix for readers.

BookSwim is the first online BOOK RENTAL LIBRARY CLUB lending you paperbacks and hardcovers direct to your house WITHOUT THE NEED TO PURCHASE! Whether it's New Releases, Bestsellers, or Classics, we've got 80,000 titles to choose from, with FREE SHIPPING BOTH WAYS! Read your books as long as you want -- no late fees! Even choose to purchase and keep the titles you love!

It sounds like an interesting ideas. Especially for those books you read fast and then look to give away because you don't want them to take up precious shelf space. (Think chick-lit or airport reads.) The site is in beta right now and I am hopeful that there will be two improvements:
1. More options in pricing plans like Netflix has. Right now the options are limited and the price is a little high for more books than I could read in a month. I would like to see something more like $5.00 a month for 2 books like the lowest level Netflix plan.

2. More new titles. The selection looked current, but not up to the minute.

Zoe Graduates Pre-K!

(The band-aid on her lip is from stitches that were the result of a run-in with a flying piggy-bank.)