Full of Fail

Adding more fail to the situation? Probably!

There comes a day in every cat macro fan's life when you really need a macro. My day has finally arrived. But I couldn't find a cat macro that was full enough of fail to accurately reflect how I felt about reading the synopsis on Amazon for the "Great Big Glorious Book For Girls". I was really looking forward to this, since it was supposed to be the girl's version of the Dangerous Book for Boys.

All girls know that there's more to them than just make-up and gossiping - although they're not averse to a little bit of both. Boys aren't the only ones to like a little danger, a little adventure in the Great Outdoors and a lot of fun, wherever they can find it.And that's what makes "The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls" just so glorious. It's big enough to cover every element of girlhood, from the luxurious pampering of a home made spa to the quiet delight of reading the stars on a clear summer's night. It's great enough to satisfy the whims of diehard tomboys and devoted flower fairies. And it's certainly glorious enough to provide inspiration, come rain or shine, to girls of all ages. So if you've never been quite sure how to do the perfect French Plait, or if you are in need of a dastardly trick to keep your pesky brother in line, or you feel a friendship bracelet would be just the thing to show your best friend how much you love her, delve into "The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls" and discover all the other treats waiting inside.
Amazon.com synopsis of The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls (emphasis mine)

Maybe I'm missing something, but aside from the dastardly deeds and diehard tomboys, the synopsis makes this sound like another run of the mill girly girl book. Where are our instructions for pinhole cameras, secret inks, being spies, and building a periscope? Granted, I haven't read the book, but after reading this, I have no real desire to grab a copy.

If I had a little girl, I'd skip this, and use The (Hypothetical) Dangerous Book For Girls over at Ask Moxie. (The comments are also worth a read.) She's got everything from "Walking Gracefully in High Heels", to "Maintaining Control of the Story During a Press Conference", and my personal favorite, "The Basics of Digging to China in Your Backyard". If that were expanded into a book, I'd probably pick up a few copies for the little girls I know.

Via Bookslut

Surviving a Road Trip with your Toddler - The Gear

Paul reading a brochure about Tennessee

Having the right gear available makes a road trip much easier, especially when dealing with the whims of a toddler. Here's a list of a few things that I make sure I have before I hit the road with Paul.

• The quick change bag - I keep diapers, wipes, a couple of extra sets of clothes, and a few plastic grocery bags in the back of my car. Accidents happen and it's nice to not have to unpack the car enough to dig through your luggage for a spare set of clothes.
• Disposable Cups - These make great travel cups. While Paul is getting better at drinking out of a regular cup, he's not ready to handle one in the car. The disposable cups are easy to rinse out in the hotel, and they are also reusable.
• Foldable Toilet Training Seat - I've been to rest areas in 34 states and have yet to run across a family restroom or a childsize toilet. It fits in your day bag, is easy to wipe down, and you don't have to fool with any complicated moves in a tiny stall so your toddler can relieve themselves. Having this has made rest area stops so much easier.
• Kid's Atlas- Although I use my GPSr and Delorme Street Atlas for navigation, I occasionally break out my map books. Paul likes having his own map, even though he can't read. He will occasionally "read" to me about a state or give me directions from his atlas. If you don't want to get a kid's atlas, brochures from the rest areas also work well.
• Travel Size Magna Doodle - This is pretty good at helping Paul quietly entertain himself, with the bonus of not finding melted crayons in my car.
• Music - It's best to have a selection of albums. We rotate back and forth between kid's music and my music. Paul likes Little People Disco, Wee Sing in the Car, and Deep Forest for naptime music. We also have an audio book of kid's stories that he really likes. If you have a hard time finding one, you can record yourself reading the stories and burn it to cd or make an mp3 of it.
• Snack Food - I like to keep a couple of boxes of non chocolately granola bars stashed in the passenger seat. They tend to stay in one piece while they're being eaten and it's just enough to stave off a hunger related tantrum when you're not able to stop for a meal. I also try to keep an apple or two, raisins, and some carrot sticks in the mini cooler to round out fast food meals. The koolaid single serving packets are also great for toddlers who want something besides water, but haven't mastered the juice box.

Surviving a Road Trip with your Toddler - The Basics

Paul at the Louisiana Welcome Center on I20

People always thought I'm a little crazy for embarking on a solo 3k mile round trip with a toddler and a puppy several times a year, especially since we don't have plans for a DVD player. Road trip season is coming up, so I thought I'd write up how I survive road trips with a toddler. It is possible with a little work, and if you remember a few things:

• Incentives - If Paul is good between gas stops, he gets a dollar to spend as he wishes at the gas station. He prefers getting post cards and key chains. You could also substitute books off the dollar rack or some other trinket.
• Minimize how many times they have to get in their car seat while maximizing the time they can spend out of it. When Paul was little, he didn't fight about getting in his car seat, no matter how many times we were in and out of the car in an hour. But now, it works best if we merge a few short breaks into one long break. Picnicking at rest areas or a park works well for us, since I can sit down and eat while Paul burns some energy off. I usually take these when I do my two hour safety break.
• Stop before your toddler has a chance to fall asleep for the night. I learned this one the hard way. If I didn't stop until midnight, Paul had a 4-5 hour nap, and kept me up all night. It is much easier to take our last long break an hour before we stop for the night, since Paul will usually fall asleep easily.
• Try to avoid rush hour in metro areas. It's bad enough being stuck in rush hour at home with a cranky toddler, but it's far worse when you get stuck in an unfamiliar area and don't know an alternate route when traffic comes to a standstill.
• If it looks like you're going to be stuck in traffic for awhile, it's less frustrating to stop for an early meal or gas station stop than to deal with traffic and a bored toddler.
• Point out interesting things along the road. When we cross state lines, I make a point of pointing out the "Welcome to [State]" and saying "Yahoo Mountain Dew! We're in [State]!!". I also point out the bigger river crossings and the bridges. If there is an option to take a tunnel, I take it, because Paul gets a big kick out of it. I also try to point out any landmarks we might pass.

Tomorrow, I will post my list of essential gear that I use for keeping my sanity on those long stretches of interstate where the only scenery is "Next Exit - 34 miles".

Planning a Geocaching Vacation: Part 3

So now I need to locate caches along my route. I have a standing goal of doing at least one cache in every state on my trip, so I zoom in to the find the first stopping point. From the main Geocaching.com page, I do a search by state and city. Once I have caches for my first stop, I switch to the map view.

This is the tedious part. In my mapping software, I have all the major stops on my route marked. I use that map as a reference, so that I follow the right roads on the Geocaching.com map. Once I find an interesting cache along my route, I open that caches page in a new tab. I read over the description and past logs, to make sure the cache is active and not in need of maintenance. Then I check the attributes and difficulty. I travel with a baby, so we're mostly limited to a terrain of 2.0 and easier. I note the cache type before adding it to my bookmark list. If I need to print directions for a non traditional cache or solve a puzzle to get the corrected coordinates, I note that in the description field when I bookmark the cache.

Once I have my caches bookmarked, I go to the Pocket Queries page and use my bookmark list to generate a pocket query. Then I load that pocket query into GSAK. Using GSAK, I export the cache listing to the format my mapping software uses. After I've imported that file into my mapping software, I insert stops. I usually try to keep each file to one day's worth of travel.

The night before the trip, I go back to my bookmark list and verify that all of the caches I intend to search for are still active, as well as double checking my puzzle solutions. We spent over an hour in Michigan on a cache that went inactive a couple of days before we started on our trip. We could have avoided that frustration if I wasn't a last minute packer and had allowed time to check the cache status.

Planning a Geocaching Vacation: Part 2

Now that you have an idea of what your general route is, it's time to pick caches to visit. There are a few things to consider when picking caches, such as distance from your route, who's caching with you, the type of cache, and the amount of time you want to spend caching. Money is also a consideration for some caches. Some caches are set up as mini tours of a city and use the public light rail systems to get between each stage of the cache. Read more »