Socal Mom

Adventures in Blogging: "Large Lab Rats"

In December, I'll be celebrating my four-year blogiversary.

I started writing the blog to share details of our travels with my family and friends, but I quickly discovered that I enjoyed -- no, make that NEEDED to -- write about our every day adventures, as well. And I remember how surprised (and delighted) I was when total strangers contacted me to tell me they liked what I wrote. I now consider a lot of those people my friends -- and have even met quite a few of them in person (thanks to events like BlogHer).

But these days, the majority of the emails I receive are from PR people and marketers. As I'm just a lowly blogger with very little traffic, I am amazed at the number of people who find me and ask me to mention their products. I assume these folks know how to rate a site's traffic through Alexa, Technorati andother tools. I cannot imagine how many offers are being received by the big time bloggers.

Anyway -- I read these offers and either choose to act on them (because they sound like fun) or not (because they don't). If they do not relate to my subject matter or I do not find them all that interesting, I politely decline. If it's obvious that the person who sent me the inquiry has never read my blog or has any idea what it is about, I may not even give them the courtesy of a reply. The ones who flatter me ("We are inviting online media" -- I'm putting that on my business cards) get my immediate attention.

And sometimes, what they're offering is pretty darned good. The ultimate example is the Nintendo Wii party I got to host at the beginning of summer, which made my daughter's friends think I'm cool (and had my own friends remarking that blogging might not be such a weird activity after all).

This weekend, I hosted a marketer-driven party of a different kind.

You see, I really do give a lot of thought to these marketing emails. If the product/service/information doesn't sound like something that would fit here, I pass. Sometimes I get input from my family. So when Brighter Minds Media asked if I would review their Jurassic Park DVD game, I asked my in-house games and toy expert if she'd be interested in helping. She was.

Shortly after that, I was asked if I would be interested in trying out Hoffy's new brand of Super Lean Franks.

"Honey, do we want some free hot dogs?" Now, my husband has never been a huge fan of this blog. He reads it, he sometimes enjoys it, but I think he would prefer that I spent more time at paid endeavors. He doesn't understand why all of a sudden, I'm getting all this free stuff -- but he likes it. And he doesn't particularly care about being selective. Yeah, he wanted the hot dogs.

Last week was a bit like Christmas, as each day brought a new overnight delivery. First the game, then the hot dogs (in an elaborate cold pack). One problem: I wasn't particularly interested in sitting down and playing a board game. And after I agreed to take the franks, I discovered that they weren't allowed on my restrictive diet (even if they were 80% fat free). And there were a lot of them -- a package of eight regular size ones and four jumbo dogs -- enough to have a barbecue.

So I invited another family over for a blog-inspired casual meal and game night, so I could get some help in evaluating the products. My friend MarySueEllen was enthusiastic. Her husband had another take: "So we are just large lab rats," he remarked. Yeah. Something like that.

Before dinner, I let everyone know that we had an insurance policy: a couple of packs of Kosher hot dogs in reserve, just in case the Hoffy's were inedible.

My husband had no problem grilling the smaller dogs, but the jumbo ones came out a bit crispy. "The casings on these are like paper," MarySueEllen said. "I like a hot dog with a really good, natural casing."

Hmmm. I've never given the casing much thought. But, OK. She tried one of the less crispy, small dogs and thought the casing on those was much better. In fact, once she got around her dislike of the casing, she said that the hot dog itself has a "lovely flavor." Yes, that was her word. Lovely.

The kids were more succinct. "These are really good," Megan said. MarySueEllen's two daughters were too busy chowing down to answer. In fact, by the end of the evening, all the hot dogs had been polished off. There was no need to pull out the insurance policy.

So we moved right along to the entertainment portion of the evening. The Jurassic Park game consisted of a DVD, a board, a die, a set of cards depicting different dinosaurs, and play pieces with decals of the best known ones. The object of the game is to collect 5 to 7 dinosaur cards (depending upon how long you want the game to last).

The game can be played with or without the board (they recommend the latter for long drives, which makes sense for families with DVD players in their cars). The girls played with the board: they rolled the die, moved the spaces and followed instructions on the board to scroll through the menu on the DVD to go to either the jungle, museum, fossil pit, laboratory, plains, chasm or screening room.  Then they would have activities related to those locales, and often watch scenes from the three Jurassic Park movies.

"That's the only game I've ever seen where the players keep getting eaten," MarySueEllen's husband said, as his youngest daughter buried her face on her sister's shoulder during a particularly scary scene.

I noticed that while the kids were playing the game, they were learning about dinosaurs, fossils and natural history. But the real question I wanted to ask them is: Is it fun? All three girls said it was.

Any worries I'd had that my 11-year-old was too mature for a game about dinosaurs have gone out the window. She has been bugging me to play it with her ever her friends left on Saturday night.

She's home sick today, so I guess she'll have that chance.

I hope I win.

Finding Cheap Gas

While searching for the address of a local gas station, I stumbled across this service that might be of interest to you.

Motor Trend Magazine's website has a cheap gas locator -- you pick your state, type in your zip code, and it will show you the cost of gas at all the stations in your area... highlighting the stations with the cheapest offerings.

While playing with it, I discovered some interesting things -- like the fact that buying gas in Panorama City can be 10 cents a gallon cheaper than purchasing it in Northridge. And that Sherman Oaks is about 20 cents more!

My New "Rolls Royce"

My sister and her family didn't get to our house until after 11:00 p.m. on Friday night.

It was a whirlwind visit. The reason they came down was to attend a memorial for my brother-in-law's grandmother, who passed away shortly after New Year (while we were in the UK for my father-in-law's funeral). So they were gone all day Saturday and didn't return to our house until nearly as late.

"What did you do all day?" my sister asked.

I did NOTHING. All that housework took its toll - I didn't have any energy left on Saturday to do much else except catch up on some of the programs we'd recorded on our DVR. (This is actually one of my favorite things to do on a weekend, which I don't get that much opportunity to indulge.) So I finally saw last week's SNL with Steve Martin and Prince (and it was actually GOOD) -- as well as the season (series?) finale of Arrested Development, which was so twisted and brilliant and funny that I have to save it. I truly hope ABC or Showtime (who are rumored to be thinking of it) picks it up, because this show deserves another chance.

Actually, I did manage a couple of household tasks. My new dishwasher was finally installed on Friday, and with houseguests afoot (if only in the late evening), I was determined to put it through its paces.

I've been whining in these posts about not having a dishwasher for some time now. The last time I posted about it, in December, I had actually purchased one, only to discover that the opening for one in our kitchen was a half-inch below standard, which limited our choices. I cancelled that sale and waited for my husband (who shall not be named) to get back home and over his jet lag. I wanted a second opinion. I also didn't trust my measuring skills - I guess I was hoping that if he measured the space, he'd come up with that extra half inch.

He did not. So I dragged him back to the appliance store to get it settled once and for all.

The saleslady I'd talked to in December had suggested we buy a model manufactured by Asko. We took a look at what they had on the floor, and it seemed OK, if not that attractive. But HWSNBN didn't like the way the door was constructed, with a semi-sharp edge at the top. He asked if there were any other choices.

There were. One was made by Fisher and Paykel -- a two-drawer unit that I briefly considered until I spoke with a friend who has one and wishes she had selected something more traditional. ("I hate bending down to use the bottom one," she told me. I thought that was a good point. I hate bending down, too.)

Finally, there was the Incognito - a model made by Miele. It was sleek, with all the controls hidden at the of the door - and no protruding edges. It was also one of the most expensive models on the floor.

I told my husband he could make the decision. "What the hell," he said. We bought the Miele.

"Congratulations," the salesman said as he wrote up our order. "You have just purchased the Rolls Royce of dishwashers."

"That's nice," I replied. "Because it's going into a house that's a Ford Focus."

They told me it could take as long as four weeks to get delivery, so I was surprised when they called five days later to tell me my dishwasher was in. They don't install but did hand me a list of contractors who do, and I arranged with one to do the job on Friday (while I was scurrying around cleaning). He arrived on schedule Friday morning.

I braced myself for complications. In 10 years of home ownership, I've learned that there's no such thing as a simple home improvement. There's always a complication.

"Your old dishwasher was hardwired in," he told me. That meant he had to put in a new plug. Maybe a new water line. It was going to cost about $100 more.

"Fine, fine. Just do it," I said. The old dishwasher died on me 11 months ago. I just replaced it with a Rolls Royce. At this point, I wasn't going to stress out over a C-note.

It took him about 90 minutes to finish the job. I was pleased - Maybe I could take a break from the cleaning and do a little shopping?

But there was a complication. "I think you have a short somewhere in this conduit under the sink," he told me. "You need an electrician to check it out." He told me I could run the machine safely by disabling the garbage disposal and plugging in the dishwasher there.

This is just the kind of half-assed solution I am sick and tired of. I got out the Yellow Pages and made calls until I found an electrician who could come out that afternoon. Thirty minutes (and $130) later, he grounded the new plug and my Rolls Royce was ready to go.

I started reading through the manual. The one nice thing about my cheap and nasty defunct dishwasher was that it was simple. You put the rinsed dishes in the racks, poured in some detergent and turned the thing on.

But the multi-featured Rolls Royce came with instructions. Like the one warning you not to start the thing until you had programmed the built-in water softener. I never knew I needed a water softener, but the manufacturer included one because it helps eliminate spots on glassware and crystal (What? I don't have to handwash my wine glasses any more? "I'll believe that when I see it," I thought.)

Before programming the water softener, I would have to contact the DWP to get a numerical value for the hardness of the water where I live. And if the water was really hard (as I'd always heard it was in Los Angeles) - I would have to purchase special salt for the water softener.

The DWP's website features a report on our water quality, including the figure for how hard it is. And you know what? The figures for the water in Los Angeles IS really high... EXCEPT for the San Fernando Valley, where I live. I not only didn't have to buy special salt (which I finally located at a store all the way down on Ventura Boulevard) -- but I didn't even have to change the defaults on the dishwasher. (For once -- an easy-to-understand advantage to living in the Valley!)

I was now ready to do some dishes. Too bad I didn't have any that needed washing! For the last 11 months, the old dishwasher had been nothing but a huge dish drain. In anticipation of the new one's  arrival, I'd emptied it out ... and then declared that we would spend the rest of the week subsisting on takeout and paper plates. So I decided to do something I haven't done much of in the last few months: That evening, I was going to actually COOK dinner.

I drove out to the grocery store, making sure I remembered to buy some rinse aid. The old dishwasher had a well for this stuff, but I had stopped using it because it didn't seem to make much of a difference in how everything came out -- there were always spots everywhere no matter what. The manual for the new one declared that I NEEDED it. The Rolls even has an indicator light to let me know when I need to refill it.

So the first use of the machine had to wait until after dinner on Friday. I decided to put it through its paces. I did as the manual instructed, just scraping the food off the plates instead of rinsing. I put my pots and pans (which I usually hand washed) into the bottom tray. I placed wine glasses on the top tray. I filled the rinse aid compartment, added a detergent tablet and turned it on.

It was virtually silent. We watched television without interruption while waiting for my sister and her family to get here. I was able to empty it about an hour before their arrival - and everything looked beautiful. Way better than it had since I started hand washing it all.

My sister loves champagne, so we had a couple of bottles chilled and ready to go when she got here. Knowing that they would be arriving late, I'd also purchased some nice cheeses and other munchies, which we enjoyed until we went to bed around 1:00 a.m. I loaded the dishwasher again, including the champagne flutes and ran it -- even though my sister and her husband would be sleeping on the sofa bed in the living room.

The Rolls Royce was so quiet, they didn't know it was on. And when I emptied it the next morning, the champagne flutes sparkled.

I ran another couple of small loads on Saturday and Sunday, trying different items and different settings. I can't believe how beautiful everything comes out. And am close to ecstatic that I no longer have my sink and counters covered with dishes -- clean ones, drying ones, etc.

I may not have needed a Rolls Royce when a Focus would suffice - but I'm glad that's what I got.