modern day dad

Jennifer Lopez's Nursery and Other Recent Posts On Babble

Casablanca Cribs in Jennifer Lopez's Nursery
Jennifer Lopez has a (typically) ostentatious nursery and published pictures of them in People Magazine. But the crib is actually quite nice if that kind of decor is up your alley.

Audible Launches New Kids Site
Download audio books for your kids and stop putting Spongebob on their iPods.

7 Days of BPA-Free Plastics: CamelBak Water Bottles
Something to check out when you reach post-sippy cup nirvana.

Jessica Alba Gives Tastybaby
Jessica Alba gives baby food as a party favor for her shower. Seriously.

Mariah Carey Has a Hello Kitty Boo-Boo on American Idol
Mariah Carey is obsessed with Helo Kitty apparently. And she wears the same Band-Aids on American Idol that my kids wear.

Big Deal: FLOR Carpet Tiles for Kids On Sale
FLOR has a couple of child themed carpets on sale now.

Tip the magician.

So the other night I'm out with my ladies eating dinner, and a table-side magician approached us. Before I had children I would have tried to avoid it if I could, and if I couldn't I would just tell him that I wasn't interested. But now I've got a three year old who, although her experience with magic is very limited, her experience with balloon animals is not.

So after it was all over, it occurred to me that I should give the guy a tip for the floating card trick and the pink dog on a white balloon leash. So I handed him $4, to which he thanked me and went onto the next table. But it occurred to me, how much are you supposed to tip the magician?

As it turns out, I happen to know a guy through a friend of mine who is a magician and who has some experience working table-side, so I emailed him (quite out of the blue from his persepective) to find out what was appropriate. As a magician with an MBA, he gave me a rough frequency estimate of what people tend to tip:

$2 (20%); $5 (60%); $10 (15%); $20 (5%)

He said the high-end would be for tables of many adults where he "freaks them out" for 7-10 minutes, and small families like mine with a few tricks and some balloon animals would be $2 - $5. He also said many restaurant magicians are paid by the restaurant and shouldn't accept tips (I've never seen one), and those that work solely for tips usually work it into their act somehow ("A person wanted to leave me a tip once, but all he had was this poker chip...").

So I guess $4 is a decent tip for the situation I was in. And if you've finished this lengthy post about tipping magicians, chances are you have way too much time on your hands.

(A person was looking to figure out how much to tip the magician, but all they had was this random blog entry...)

[Big thanks to Frank from ConnectWithMagic.com - the best slight of hand guy I've ever seen close up.]

My new favorite kitchen tool.

With a 3 year old and a a 14 month old in the house, it's the small discoveries that I tend to get the most excited about.

A lot of the food that I serve my girls for meal times first gets cut up into smaller pieces. Most often it's to make bite-sized pieces for my youngest, but sometimes it's simply for the unpredictable whim of a three year old. I used to use all kinds of methods - tearing it up, using a case knife or whatever I had handy. Then the other day while I was cutting up a piece of cheese pizza I had a moment of clarity. I can use the pizza cutter to cut up anything.

Grilled cheese? No problem. Don't want that crust on the sandwich? No problem. Cut the chicken nuggets in half so they'll cool quicker? It takes two swipes. And I'm betting you already have one sitting in your drawer somewhere. I know it's not going to change the world or anything, but like I said, it's the small discoveries that can make your day.

And if you don't have one (or can't find yours) you can get the one I have (pictured) here from Amazon.com.

Prepping for Thanksgiving 2005

Thanksgiving is almost a week away, and if you're the cook in your house like I am, it's time to start thinking about what's for dinner. I'm probably going to stick with some of the same recipes I did last Thanksgiving, with a few new twists.

• Turkey. This year I'm probably going to grill the turkey like I did last Christmas. I ended up using this recipe from Alton Brown, and it came out great. The wood smoke gave it a great smokey flavor, but the real trick (I think) was the brining. You can't stuff a grilled turkey, so the dressing has to be made separately. I'm debating making two birds and roasting the other, but I don't think I'm going to have enough guests to justify that.
• Dressing. Last Sunday we had "pre-thanksgiving," where I try out the new recipes that I might use this year, and one of the winners was this Southwest Cornbread and Chorizo Dressing I got from Sunset magazine. It was really tasty, with the salty/savory chorizo balancing out nicely with the sweetness of the butternut squash. I used to make a cornbread and andouille stuffing I got from Emeril, but this one is way better.
• Stock. The only other thing I'm going to try this year is to make my own chicken stock. I know, it's a little over the top, but it's something that goes in a lot of recipes and I'm hoping that the real stuff will make everything taste that much better.

Baby longnecks.

When I was a little kid we had candy cigarettes. Looking back that seems like a pretty messed up thing, but this beats it by a mile. In Japan they are marketing non-alcoholic beer to children called "Kidsbeer" (and they've been doing it since 2003). Here are direct quotes from the article:

Asaba [the creator of Kidsbeer] said kids and other people "can raise a glass with this, even if they cannot drink any liquor."

Satoshi Tomoda, president of the beverage maker, said: "Children copy and mimic adults.

"If you get this drink ready on such occasions as events and celebrations attended by kids, it would make the occasions even more entertaining."

"Even kids cannot stand life unless they have a drink," reads the product's advertising slogan.

Is there some massive cultural disconnect that I'm missing here? There has to be, right? "Even kids cannot stand life unless they have a drink"??? Are you kidding me? It sounds like they wrote it in The Onion.

Kidsbeer proves hit suds for minors [The Japan Times] via Boing Boing
The Kidsbeer Shop if you're interested in picking some up (and you read Japanese).

Ice cream ball.

This summer I bought an ice cream maker (the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker), and even though I really don't need to eat ice cream (I really need to go to the gym), it's been a lot of fun. Then for father's day my wife got me another way to get fat - the UCO Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker.

It's a really good idea. You put the ice cream mix into the metal cylinder in the center of the ball, and then you fill the rest of the ball with ice and rock salt and start shaking. The ice cream freezes, but you need to keep moving the ball to agitate it. They make it for camping mostly, but we used it on the fourth of July with a bunch of kids and they loved it. The best way we found to keep it going was rolling it around to each other in a circle, as shaking and passing it gets tiring quickly.

I know the summer's halfway over, but trust me. It's still not too late to have fun while putting on some extra pounds.

UCO Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker. $27.99 from Campmor.com

Trapped snacks.

Sometime while we were away last weekend my baby turned into a toddler. The problem is, I'm not really up on the toddler gadgets and other stuff, but I did see something cool that I wanted to share. Friends of ours have a 15 month old daughter who had this cool contraption full of Goldfish crackers - the Snack Trap. As you can kind of see from the picture, the lid is perforated so little hands can get in and grab some finger food without spilling all over the floor. Not only does it keep things clean, but it allows kids to feed themselves (which I'm starting to figure out is something important to toddlers). It's probably not news to a lot of you, but I think I'm going to pick up a couple.

The Snack Trap. $4.99 each from Snack Trap.com

Old school McDonaldland.

Today we're going to Chicago to visit with Grandma & Grandpa and to watch my beloved Red Sox beat up on the Cubs. Consequently today's post is empty short, but I did want to call your attention to a one thing.

In the comments of my post about the changing face of Ronald McDonald two days ago, MDD reader P.R. Nelson posted a link to this: Two All-Beef Patties Special Sauce Lettuce Cheese Pickles Onion on a Sesame Seed LIE! [Stayfreemagazine.org]. It's basically comments and links to video of really old McDonald's McDonaldland commercials. It's really something amazing to check out.

Well, off to the airport. Wish me luck and make sure to look for me on ESPN on Sunday night.

Happy Memorial Day.

Happy Memorial Day. Stop reading blogs, go outside, have a beer and grill something.

Suckling a Big Mac.

Not to cop all of my blog entries from Boing Boing, but I have to mention this picture I saw there last night. It's apparently an ad from a European McDonald's, and even though it looks like it has to be fake, supposedly it's real. The thing is, back in the day when some of us were pretending we ran a McDonald's of our own, I bet this ad would have seemed cute to most parents. Now it just looks sinister.

Via Boing Boing, via WFMU, via Stay Free.