highway robbery

i'm always so amazed at how prices differ from one place to another for the same service or product. i really don't understand why one company could produce a service or product for a certain cost, and then it costs the next guy twice as much to manufacture the same thing.

last year the kids discovered ice skating. we spent some time trying to see some 'local' seasonal things since we knew our time in this part of the country was drawing short. we spent a day in manhattan and went ice skating in bryant park. they had a blast. free admission, $10 for skate rental. if you have your own skates, then FREE for you completely! we then spent a week in utah visiting family about a month after that. found an indoor ice rink and the kids wanted to skate of course. i can't remember how much for admission and skates exactly, but for all 6 of us we paid less than $17 to get in and skate for a couple hours. we were blown away. cheaper than a meal for all of us. so now the kids continue to bother me to take them skating. only i just can't bring myself to do it. here in jersey they want your right finger in payment it seems! i've checked into at least 3 rinks, and they're all so darned expensive! $7-9 just to get in! and that's per person! (so multiply that times 6 for all of us!) and then another $3 at least for skate rental (again times 6). i'm just having a hard time seeing how it should cost that much. does water in jersey cost more to freeze than in utah or manhattan? i didn't really see that many people on the rink in utah, so i can't believe that it's a supply and demand issue.

i also have frustration with whoever decides how much our food should cost. it really baffles me how all these health freaks preach that our society is obese and lazy, and counsel that we should all eat better and exercise so that we can be healthier and live longer. but if you try to buy food that is actually healthy for you, it costs 3 times what the crap food costs that supposedly will kill you sooner. i mean, really...how hard is it to make some pasta that doesn't have any fake phoney blah additives in it? i guess twice as hard as it is to make the kind with all the EXTRA garbage in it. since plain old walmart pasta costs about half what decent preservative-free pasta costs from whole foods. isn't it a little backwards that the healthy food is harder to find and more expensive, if we as a society are being preached to about eating those foods?

it's highway robbery i tell you!

only an E

luigi never can seem to get all his work done each day. even though it's the SAME THING every single day. we're not quite sure why he can't remember. at any rate, the kids know that i do my grocery shopping and errand running every monday morning. (morning is a loose term of course) if someone wants to go with me, they have to be up and dressed and have all their chores done and be ready to leave the house when i am. so luigi asked last night if he could go. i restated the rule and told him he'd better use his job cards to do his jobs so he didn't forget anything. the doc suggested that he set them out right then, so they'd be waiting for him when he woke up. so he went into the kitchen to do so, and then up to bed. about an hour later when we were headed to bed, i walk through the kitchen and here's what i see on the island:




















maybe if it were not in the shape of an E, he would have gotten up in the morning and thought the job cards were for someone else???

laugh til you cry

youtube is actually one of the few things i have never acquired an addiction to. but my sister sent me this and i just think it is one of the most hilarious things i've ever seen on there (ok, considering that i don't browse that site very often).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQt-h753jHI&feature=related

i have crossed over

well, i am finally converting myself to blogger. i am not real keen on copying and pasting ALL my archived posts from freewebs. i copied the most recent but that's as far as i'm willing to go. i haven't found any export feature on freewebs. so, for now, if you want to read those, just keep that site bookmarked and peruse it at your leisure.

don't forget to update the link if you have one on your blog!

is it better in a bin?

unfortunately a while back i let marlie watch a movie. now all she wants to do is watch movies. i have enjoyed hearing the dialogue of all the old disney ones though. the older kids don't watch them anymore. anyway, she just gets insanely cranky if she wants to watch a movie and we are all occupied and can't distract her with something else. the other day i came downstairs and here is where she was...




i'm not sure why it's better to watch from the inside of a plastic bin, but there IS a blanket in there with her so maybe she knows something i don't.