They're Bouncy!

Last night, my daughter's Girl Scout troop went to Sky Zone, an indoor trampoline park. I've never been there before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It turns out that it is a pretty neat place! After paying and going through the obligatory safety speech, the kids were free to go wherever they wanted in the park. There are a number of different areas that have different "specialties." There were three dodgeball arenas, a large foam pit you can launch into, a basketball area for supreme dunking, an area for the smaller kids to jump around, and a large area for the bigger kids to jump to their hearts delight. Our kids didn't participate in the dodgeball but they did hit up the basketball area, the foam pit, and the jumping area.

The basketball area has three hoops set up at three different heights. It was fun to see the kids try to dunk on the tallest hoop. A few of them actually made it! The foam pit was tons of fun but it was a little difficult to pull yourself out. And the jumping area tired them out quickly. I think they only lasted about 15 minutes in that area before complaining about being tired. We told them to get back in there. :)

I'm not sure if the prices are the same at every Sky Zone. At the one in Oaks, PA, a 90-minute package costs $18 and you have to buy Sky Socks for $1. If you happen to be there when the park is crowded, you end up spending a lot of time waiting in line to use the equipment. We went at 5:30 on a Thursday night and it was fairly empty. There were a few birthday parties there but otherwise it was quiet. However, a bus full of kids pulled in around 6:30, which filled the place up a lot. Take that into consideration if you decide to go. A weeknight will probably be a better value than anytime on the weekend. With that said, the kids did have tons of fun. The trip was definitely worth it.

AMOK!

As I have said before, I am a fan of Supernatural. One of my favorite characters is Castiel, played by Misha Collins. Well, he also runs a charity called Random Acts that promotes random acts of kindness in the world community. This Saturday, March 1, is their Annual Melee of Kindness (aka AMOK) event. Basically, you spend one day doing acts of kindness. It could be something as simple as handing out handwritten cards with nice thoughts on them or volunteering at the local animal shelter to walk dogs or making care packages for the homeless. The things you can do are endless!

Unfortunately, my schedule is pretty tightly booked this Saturday. However, I am still going to try to get some random acts in. I'm not sure exactly what I am going to do but I'm leaning towards giving out cards or donating some much needed items to the local animal shelter.

What are you going to do?

Makin' Chainmail

As you may already know, I make beaded jewelry for kids. (Big kids too!) I've been trying to branch out into other things as well. Earrings, keychains, and bracelets have been added to my line. So now I am trying chainmail. It's not particularly difficult but it is very time consuming. I started with an extremely simple piece:

[ipic id="664498268390270077"]

And now I am trying this piece. I'm about halfway done. It still isn't difficult. However, I have to stop every time I switch rings so I can make sure the other things are facing the correct way and I'm not accidentally linking rings together twice.

My friend, Heidianna, makes some lovely pieces that she sells in her etsy shop, In The Spice Rack. I even own a pair of her earrings. One day, I hope to make pieces as nice as hers.

I'll try to post pictures of the new necklace as soon as they are finished. Keep an eye on my Instagram for more pics!

Small World 2

For Valentine's Day, my husband bought all of us copies of Small World 2 on Steam. We own the board version of the game but we never had a chance to play it. Either there aren't enough of us to play a good game or other players don't understand the rules. The digital version doesn't have these issues. Not only can you play against the computer, there is also a very short instructional video to easily explain the rules. An ideal fix for a mundane problem. The game itself is pretty cool. Every player picks a race with a modifier. You try to conquer as much land as you can before running out of armies. Then you can put your race into decline and pick a new one. Most of the time, you can only have one active race and one race in decline. The person with the most points after 10 rounds wins.

I am not all that great at this game. My daughter has won almost every game we've played together. Yet I still find the game a lot of fun. Since both the races and the modifiers are shuffled separately, you rarely get the same combination between games. One race may be super powerful one game and really weak the next. Also, it takes a bit of practice to figure out when you should put your race into decline and pick a new one. While you do still get points from the declined race's land, they are easily defeated by your opponents, giving them the points instead. But the game wouldn't be as fun if you didn't get to beat up your opponent's armies!

For those of you that love playing board games but don't have the ability to physically play the game, the digital version is perfect. If your friends have copies of the game, you can play online or locally. If you are having a party and want to play, you can play the Pass N Play option, which allows up to 5 opponents play on a single device. It is available in the Apple Store, on Google Play, and on Steam. Or you can just play by yourself with up to 4 AI opponents. (This is my favorite since my daughter massacres me every time we play.) This is definitely a good game to add to your collection.

Self-Inflicted Wounds

On Saturday, I finished reading Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation by Aisha Tyler. Let me start this off by saying I have a bit of a girl crush on this lady. While I may have seen her in some random show (she was Jake's mom on Glee?!), I really became a fan just from her voice (she is Lana in Archer). From there, I found her comedy act, which is hilarious. (As a warning, her act is a bit on the risque side but, in my opinion, that just makes it better.) From there, I found her podcast. And that led me to her books. Yes, she has more than one. But this is the one I chose to read first. Self-Inflicted Wounds is a comedic re-telling of Ms. Tyler's life. Each chapter is a story. Each story is always funny and always has a moral to learn. Generally, the moral is "If you don't even try, you will never succeed." I wish I could name my favorite story but they are all too good to compare. Though I do admit I fully laughed out loud when she broke her arm snowboarding after her husband told her not to. ("Don't tell me what to do!") I also found myself chuckling at her stories of her college a cappella group days. Mostly because, despite the 6 year age difference between us, a cappella groups were still the same when I was in college. My school didn't have an a cappella group though or I probably would have joined.

When I finished the book on Saturday afternoon, I was actually a bit sad that it was over. However, I did recommend the book to my almost-12-year old daughter. Yes, there are a few references to binge drinking and sex but there isn't anything particularly graphic in the book. Some people might think it makes me a bad mother. I think the message of "Work Hard - Try Everything - Don't Give Up Easily" is something that needs to be handed down to the next generation. Kids don't look at their parents and see how hard they have worked to attain what they did. Heck, they can't even look at most celebrities to see the hard work. Here is someplace that she can read about the failures and the successes. Here she can learn that one failed attempt doesn't make you a failure. It just means you get to fix your mistakes and try again.

It's hockey time!

Tonight, I will be attending the Phantoms hockey game with my family. It has been a very long time since I've been to a hockey game. My daughter has never been to a hockey game. We're supposed to be in a suite, which I have never been in period. So it will be an interesting time. Luckily, the weather has been super nice today. I think the highs are supposed to be somewhere in the 50s! Unfortunately, it isn't going to last very long. Supposedly there is another snow storm coming around Wednesday. I hope it's not a big storm because my daughter's birthday party is next Saturday. The weather this winter just sucks. I really can't wait for spring to come around. Maybe if I sing some sweet Spring songs, it'll come sooner. Hey, I can dream, can't I?!

Pinterest makes me collect crap

I am a crafter. I make tons of things and I have tons of supplies in various piles around my house. While the jewelry I make gets sold online and at craft shows, the things I make specifically for my daughter usually don't go any farther than her room. For example, I made her a Catbug (from The Bravest Warriors) plushie based on this pattern:

I've also tried getting photos transferred onto wood blocks. I think it would make an awesome present. But, for some reason, I just can't get it to work properly. I think I need more patience.

And I'm also learning how to make chainmail. It isn't very difficult. It is very time consuming though. I have faith that I'll get faster with more practice.

To all the crafters out there, what are some of your favorite Pinterest projects? Maybe I'll give them a try too!

30 Days of Lists

One of the reasons I haven't been writing every day is simple writer's block. I just don't know what to write about. So I signed up for the 30 Days of Lists. Every day for the month of March, they will give me a writing prompt. Some of them are lists (for example, 'Name your 5 favorite female TV characters.') but some of them are not. I'm hoping that this will get the creative juices churning again and I will find that writing spark once more. My friend, Heidianna, did the December version of the list over on her blog, In The Spice Rack and it was super cool. I can't wait to start!

My Salad Obsession

Yes, this post is very late tonight. That is because my family went to Panera Bread for dinner. See, I have this obsession with salads. I adore salads. Panera Bread has this amazing Steak & Blue Cheese salad. (Unfortunately, this particular salad is no longer on their website. I hope they aren't getting rid of it.) So, despite the fact that I had a Chicken Caesar Salad from Saladworks for lunch, I had yet another salad for dinner. I am OK with this.

I am the strange girl that will order salad when everyone else is eating hamburgers. I will be the one asking "Is everyone finished eating salad?" when I notice that there is still salad left in the communal salad bowl. (This happens at home a lot. I then take the huge bowl of leftover salad and plop down in front of the TV to try to put myself in a salad coma. I have never reached that point. Yet.) If the lettuce/spinach/whatever is fresh enough, I don't even require dressing. I love salad.

So I'm asking you to give me your favorite salad recipe. Have an awesome dressing? Do you make your salad with some weird ingredient? Tell me about it. I need new salads to try!

An Abundance of Katherines

I am trying really hard to read more books. It has been a long time since I sat down and truly read a book. The first book I read was The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Since I enjoyed that book so much (seriously, go read it), I decided to give another Green book a try. So I picked up his second book, An Abundance of Katherines. It is the story of Colin, a (somewhat former) child prodigy who has a tendency to date girls named Katherine. He has dated nineteen of them, to be specific. When Katherine XIX dumps him (as all Katherines do), Colin falls into a depression. His not-a-terrorist Muslim friend, Hassan, suggests they take a summer road trip as a change of pace. The duo ends up in Gutshot, Tennessee, thanks to a roadside attraction featuring the grave of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This is where they meet Lindsey Lee Wells, the Archduke's tour guide, a paramedic in training, and overall celebrity in Gutshot. Colin, who is still extremely smart despite his not-a-genius-not-a-prodigy state of being, decides to become a genius by creating the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Probability. This theorem is supposed to predict a future relationship between any two people. Lindsey's mother gives the boys a job for the summer. They need to interview various residents of Gutshot to get an oral history of the town. Even though that sounds like a horribly boring job, the boys find much more than they ever expected.

I will start out saying that I didn't like this book nearly as much as I liked The Fault in Our Stars. That isn't to say this is a terrible book, though. I'm not a big fan of math so a lot of the information revolving around The Theorem went right over my head. While the math does take up quite a bit of space in the book, it isn't everything. The story of Colin finding himself and Hassan figuring out what to do with his life and Lindsey finding out who she is are all very interesting.

Actually, my biggest problem with the book was the footnotes. I read the book on my Kindle. So for every footnote, I would have to page forward to the end of the chapter to read it, then try to page back to where I was. Obviously, this wouldn't be such a huge problem if you were reading a paper version of the book but I'm not sure how many people read paper books anymore. My 11-year old daughter is the only person I know that still prefers paper books to electronic ones.

If you can look past the footnote issue, I'd recommend giving the book a try. It isn't for everyone. My daughter didn't like it as much as I did but she didn't dislike it either. It doesn't read quite as fast as TFiOS and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I liked it and I hope there's something in there for you too.