Posts from — November 2006

My favorite Thanksgiving celebration was one where I didn’t necessarily spend with the majority of my family. It was a year where Mommy Bacchus (MB) and I decided to not travel to visit our respective families. Instead, we stayed in our college town and invited an international student from Africa as our guest. The three of us sat, ate and enjoyed explaining American football to our visitor. There were no attitudes, emotional outbreaks, food emergencies, stress or drunken cousins to spoil the evening. Although I missed my family, I didn’t miss all the extra stuff that has a tendency to ruin the holiday experience. Since Bacchus Jr. (BJ) was born, MB has refrained from cooking at home, and we have instead scheduled a packed day visiting friends and family. The problem with doing this is that everyone wants to eat around the same time of day, Midday.

So how do you visit four different homes and eat four different times during the hours of 12pm-4pm? If you don’t eat enough at one house, the host gets offended. Eat too much at the first house, and then you don’t have an appetite for the rest of the day. Fail to eat early in the day, and you may get to a house where there’s nothing left but picked over parts of the turkey you don’t like. Or on the other hand, you may visit a house that planned to have dinner at 2pm and they just put the turkey in the oven at 1pm (Saw this on Gray’s Anatomy last night). Since we started “House Hopping” I have given up planning to watch any particular football game in one location. One of my thanks has to go to my DVR. I can record all the games and watch them at my leisure that evening or over the weekend. 

So you suggest we just host Thanksgiving meal at our house so we don’t have to “House Hopp.” Been there, done that. Too much stress, preparation and clean up. MB is an excellent southern cook, and she prepares for Thanksgiving as though the President was coming. Way too much activity….. MB started a new tradition last year that really has me excited. Since MB likes her own cooking, she has started preparing a small feast just for the three of us the Wednesday evening before Turkey day. It gives us the chance to have our quite meal, no stress, and if she doesn’t get to everything, she doesn’t have to do it. I have to admit, that I just love this……Having this Wednesday meal relaxes me and puts me in a good mood for the next day. I also leaned something last year. The first thing I have to be thankful for is, My family… I see them in a totally different light now and I will also admit, even my crazy uncle…Yes, every family has one…..Enjoy this time with your family and Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday experience.

Happy Turkey Day

Ed Bacchus

One of my co-workers had her house broken into while she was at work. This can be a scary experience for anyone, but to make matters worse was that her sister and her infant were in the house asleep when they initially kicked the front door in. In my city there is an increasing occurrence of front door kick-in robberies  I had my apartment broken into in college and since then, I have used door jammers for all of my doors.

You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to kick in a door, and those pretty $30 locks on your front doors are no match for a 130 lb crack addict looking for their next fix. Women who live alone or any family should have them placed on each door at night. So please consider investing the cost of $20 for each of your doors and use them on a regular basis. They can be found in most hardware stores, target or wal-mart.

We primarily only use them at night or if we are going to be away from the house for an extended period of time. Of course it is impossible to place them on all the doors when you leave the home but if you have three entry doors in a home, I would always leave a second door un-jammed.

Good Luck and be safe.

I have been ordering Greenberg Smoked-Turkeys for about 5 years.  It takes the hassle out of cooking the big bird and makes a wonderful gift item to send to family members who are unable to be with you during the holidays.  I usually order a 8-10 lb bird and now have a separate frig in my garage to store it, because once you open it, everything in your frig will have to smoked favor also.   It is a family run business located in Tyler, TX and they don't take credit cards or payment until after the holidays.  It usually costs $3.65 a pound and you can eat it right out of the bag once delivered.  Order your today to insure Turkey Day delivery. You can order online or contact one of their "like-family" staff will assist you. (903) 595-0725.

I took advantage of a free promotion to get a satellite radio for my new car.  My commute to work is at least an hour each way and music and radio options are very critical for me. So why would I recommend this very trivial radio device as a parenting toy? 

Disney Radio in crystal clear digital sound

We get disney radio in Dallas, but it is an am station and well, you know how am sounds.  Pitiful

This has been a wonderful option to listen to with BJ in the car.   MB (Mommy Bacchus) has gotten on me too many times for playing my advanced musical tastes while he is in the car, especially since he is able to memorize the words. Black-eyed peas is an example….

Once I got it set up and installed, (cost me an extra $80 because I broke my ac vents it was supposed to sit on) having so many musical options will be just like you switched from regular to cable TV.  When I got cable, I remember staying up all night just switching through the channels.  Satellite radio will give you the same experience.

Admittedly, I drove around the city for an hour just trying out all the various options and became giddy with glee….

So I highly recommend you consider this option for the kids at least, and Oprah and Friends, Disco dance, 1980's, 1990's, Jazz, hip hop and about 200 other options.  I am sure you will find something that will suit your tastes. 

A couple of months ago my Rio MP3 player I used while working out at the gym crashed and caused me to be in the market for a new player.  I purchased the Rio a couple of years ago and thankfully, also got the protected service plan.  I had to send the Rio back to the factory and wait for my refund.  Since I have to have my music while hitting the weights (treadmill), I immediately considered getting an IPod. I had been using ITunes for about 6 months to purchase songs that other providers didn't have and created some pretty cool playlists to listen to at work.  I settled on getting the 1 gig Nano($149), because it was the same cost of what my refund for the Rio was going to be. Naturally, three weeks later I could have gotten the 2 gig for the same price as I paid for the 1 gig.  Don't you hate when technology does that to you. It almost makes you not want to make the purchase in the first place.,

While at the store the salesman talked me into picking up additional earplugs that were better than what the iPod came with, and boy was he right.  I purchased a pair of Sony Noise reduction plugs ($49( that look just like the IPod version, but they sound ten times better.  Of course a sports arm-band was required and off I entered the new age of electronic music.  Within a couple of hours,  I realized why iPods have received so much hype and couldn't believe how easy my new nano was to use. 

Transferring my playlists from my computer to the iPod was as simple as a drag and release. I have ventured deep into iTunes and purchased a couple of  a dozen more songs to further complete my collection.  I will try to share some of my finds at a later time, but the true test was my recent airline trip for work.  This was the first time I would have to test the noise reduction earplugs on the plane.  I was pretty excited about the opportunity because I already realized from working out at the gym that almost all outside noise is exterminated.  They work so well, that I have to use a cheap pair of headsets when BJ is in the gym's kids club, because I can't hear the overhead announcements if they are paging me.  Now that's a resounding recommendation. 

I was hesitant to pull out the nano while waiting for my flight and wanted to get the full affect while in the air.  Once the pilot turned the seatbelt sign off, I popped my plugs in my ears and set the nano to randomly play my tunes.  What an experience!!!! No air sounds, or engine rumbling could be heard, just Ray Charles belting out his greatest hits…..

If you haven't joined the rest of the world, put this on your holiday shopping list and make sure you go for the upgraded earplugs from Sony.  You won't miss with this one…..

UPDATE: Now you can get an 8 gig nano for the price I paid for my 1 gig.  I'm not mad, this just gives me reason to consider upgrading again and giving the 1 gig to (MB) Mommy Bacchus.

When we attended meet the teach night MB (Mommy Bacchus) was hoping for an older more mature teacher, because we felt that BJ would  respond best to a strong non-bending authority figure. When we met the teacher, the first question out of MB's mouth was, " So, how long have you been teaching?" The teacher's obvious youthful appearance had us concerned.  She responded with a perky, "5 years" and further explained that she will be out for six weeks on maternity leave and motioned over to a grandma-like woman to her right as the substitute teacher. We were giddy with glee and just knew this was the best situation BJ could have fallen into.

After three weeks of public kindergarten, we began to wonder how BJ's behavior had been since we had not received any feedback from his teacher.   No notes, color indications of how his day went, or anything was shared with us.  Then a week later all the trouble started. The substitute teacher was calling us daily to tell us how bad BJ was that day and that he won't sit still during class.  Turned out that BJ was bored and was well ahead of the rest of the class.  His relationship with the older teacher deteriorated and we ended up putting him in a private kindergarten.

A month has passed at the new school and BJ is finally adjusting well and got his first "A" on a spelling test. The public school was only going over color recognition and the spelling created a big enough challenge to keep him in check.  With the new baby coming soon, he will have to go back to public school next year for first grade.  Hopefully he will have time to adjust by then and will have a more pleasant experience.