Still, these days, it’s hard not to succumb. We decided that not letting our kids have them was kind of like not letting your kids watch tv: it’s a recipe for making them socially incompatible with their peers. In our house we have one DSi per kid, and one Wii system. Nothing crazy – just enough to keep them from being weirdos, and keep me from going crazy when they can’t think of anything to do.

Still, the battle of “turn off your (fill in the electronic blank)” rages in my house.  They’re always in the middle of a level – if they stop now they’ll lose everything! I don’t want to be the ogre, shutting the game while they’re playing it (though I have.  it wasn’t pretty, but I did it.). Neither, however do I want them on those things as we walk to school in the morning, or wait for our food at a restaurant, or really anywhere other than the privacy of our own home during designated “screen time.” What’s a mother to do?

I found at last week went I went to the laughably hip W Hotel in Times Square (I say laughable because it’s soooooo self consciously hip that it’s like it’s making fun of itself)

That’s where the new Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver come in.  Because this latest version of the classic game (did you know it was an electronic game first and a card collecting thing after? News to me.) come with a Pokewalker.

The Pokewalker is that little flat looking pokeball type thing up there. (I realize that I’m speaking in Pokemon-ese here, if you don’t have a child in the house seven to eleven years old – most likely a boy – I might as well be writing in Swahili) Anyway – this two-inch diameter Pokewalker let’s players wirelessly transfer any one of their Pokémon from their handheld to the Pokéwalker.  Then,  as the player walks around in real life. their Pokemon walks through virtual routes as well.  And all your kid has to do is have the thing is his pocket!

You read  it right: your kid doesn’t have to play the game – doesn’t even have to touch the Pokewalker – and he’s still earning Watts – or points just for having it with him. They can either use the Watts within the Pokéwalker to encounter and catch wild Pokémon or search for hidden items, and transfer them into Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions to unlock new routes. There are even special versions of certain Pokémon that can only be found within routes on the Pokéwalker,  and the possibility that your kid will walk enough to go up a level. That means that with this game – at least some of the time – it’s better for your kid to walk around and exercise than to play the game.  Gotta love that.

As a mom who’s at best ambivalent about the DS, this is the greatest game ever.  Better order one now, it’s coming out on   March 14th, and for once, I think it’s gonna be the Moms waiting on line to buy one.

The first is The Sunshine Award and it comes from Dawn at Dawning@blogspot.com, and I have to admit, this one means a lot.  Why? Let me count the ways:

1. Dawn is FUNNY, smart, witty, thoughtful and self-deprecating just like me.

2. Dawn is inspiring and prolific — she writes and posts A LOT plus she works a regular job and has kids and a husband, and well, I don’t know how she does it.

3. I do not know Dawn, and have never met Dawn.  She is my first ever blog-only friend.  So you gotta think she awarded it to me because she likes my blog, and not just to be nice. Yay me.  Even more yay her.

3. A condition of the award is that I list 12 bloggers I’d like to give the award to.  And since I’m not all that blog-savvy, that’s made me really troll around the web to find blogs I like. Fun.

The second award, The Kreativ Blogger Award, comes from Tracy Beckerman at Lost in Suburbia.   Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Tracy thinks I’m fabu…but she’s also a friend.  So she mighta just done it to be nice.  Still, it’s meaningful in a different way:  she likes my blog…and me! Plus, Tracy is busy busy busy — nice she took the time.  She has TV appearances, and a nationally syndicated column, and a blog, and a husband, and two kids, and and and and and.

This award comes with the responsibility to pass it along to seven other bloggers, and to tell viewers seven things they don’t know about me.

So here goes:

1. I used to be a Bar Mitzvah band singer.  In Paris.  Yes, it’s true.  I sang “Material Girl” to banquet halls filled with Parisian teenagers back in the 80’s. Glamourous, no?

2. I do not like chocolate.  Now, this is one of those weird ones you don’t want to admit.  People think I’m some sort of freak!  Who doesn’t like chocolate? Me, that’s who.  And before you go on about how lucky I am that I don’t eat chocolate, read the next thing you don’t know about me…

3. I once ate an entire Roast Chicken in one afternoon.  You know, it was in the fridge, I picked at it once, and once more, and twice more after that, and before I knew it: carcass.  That’s all that was left.

4. My drawing skills are only slightly better than your average five year old’s.  And significantly less good than those of a talented five year old.  I have trouble drawing a decent stick figure.

5.  I am shrinking.  Sad, but true.  See, I’ve weighed about the same since I was about 20 years old.  But I’m fatter.  Why?  Because I used to be 5′ 7″, and now I’m 5′ 6″.  I’m not even 45 yet!!!  At this rate, I’ll be a munchkin by the time I’m sixty.  A fat munchkin.

6. When I was five years old, my aunt had my twin cousins.  I told her I was going to have twins one day too.  And I did. (so did one of her twins, just a few months ago!  And our grandmother was a twin.  Think it might run in the family or something?)

7. Even though my boobs are gi-normous, I had breast reduction surgery when I was 18 years old.  Which means that had I not done that, they would be gargantuan. Wait – which is bigger?  gi-normous, or gargantuan? How about we just say they were Gi-gantuan and now they’re Gi-normantuan?

And now for the bloggers I just know you should read:

1.New York City Single Mom – because it’s amazing that you can be a good mom, and massively productive blogger, funny and fun all at the same time.

2. The Traveling Mom Blog – OK, I know I write for this blog, but the truth is, a lot of the bloggers there are way better than I am, and know A LOT about the best ways, places, and tips you need to know before you go anywhere with your kids.

3. Selfish Mom.  Funny. Honest. Read her.

4. Prime Time Parenting – by Esti Berkowitz.  Because honestly, I never thought that becoming an observant Jew could be so funny!

5. Role Mommy: The Blog.  Role Mommy has a lot going on: the blog, the events, Role Mommy University.  And the blog there is a nice mix of personal funny stuff and useful stuff and giveaways.

6. That Girl Blogs – sooooo funny.  Half the stuff she writes I wish I wrote.

7. Houzz – Because good design is, well, really, really good.  You know you can’t possibly achieve it.  But it’s nice to dream.

8. The Mummy Chronicles – an honest account of post-partum depresssion…that is sometimes also hilarious.  Nice to know we can laugh at ourselves.

9. Peas and Bananas – because why should the Mommies get all the love.  The Dad bloggers are funny, too.  Plus, they’re not going to show up at BlogHer wearing the same thing you are.

And now for the tough part — both awards dictate that I pass along the love.  Which I am SOOOO very happy to do.  But how?  Do I give both awards to everyone? Seems odd.   How about this?  To Dawn, at Dawning I award the Kreativ Blogger award.  Because she’s, well, creative.  Plus, I’m all about passing that good karma around and right back at you.  To Tracy, I award the Sunshine Blog Award.  Because,  well, she’s funny and I like the way she writes.

The other blogs?  Well, since I love you so much, I’ll let you decide. Pick one award, pick two.  Just know that I picked you all because you deserve it!

AP Photo

I am an Upper West Sider.  That basically means that I am a liberal democrat. And liberal I am, but even I have my limits. And David Paterson has exceeded them.

What is going on in this state?

It wasn’t bad enough we had a governor (Elliot Spitzer) who got caught with his pants down with a prostitute (though he did inspire an excellent TV show. The Good Wife. Go Julianna Margulies!), or that we had a convicted girlfriend beater, Hiram Monserrate, in the NY State Senate.  No that wasn’t enough for the past few years.

What we really needed was for the guy that replaced our scandal ridden governor to be in the middle of his own scandal. It seems (though so far he has denied everything) that Governor Paterson, the first African American Governor of New York, when he learned that one of his advisers had been accused of domestic abuse, used his power and influence to try to “make it go away.”

Does anyone see a pattern here?

All of these men  – all of whom vowed to uphold the law – chose to disregard it.  And all of their transgressions involved some sort of exploitation, bullying, or violence towards women.

Read more of my rant…and some STAGGERING statistics on violence in NYC by clicking over to NYC Moms Blog.

But seriously — it’s not even snowing.  It’s SLUSHING.  And I don’t care if that’s a word or not.  That’s what it’s doing.  And it sucks.

Even better, is that it’s going to be slushing non-stop until tomorrow afternoon, which means that by the end of the day tomorrow, there will be about six inches of slush on the ground, just in time for the temperature to rise up into the mid-forties, making the streets even MORE disgusting.  Yay!! Nothing like NYC slush on my dog’s paws to ruin a perfectly good upholstery job.

But rather than dwell on the yuck. (I know I’ve already dwelled, but too bad, baby!) I am offering a virtual solution.  Endless Ocean: Blue World, the Wii game that makes you feel like you’re scuba diving in warm tropical waters.  It may be totally gross and frozen in the real world, but out there in Wii world, it’s endless summer.

Endless Ocean^™: Blue World (click this link, it’ll take you to a trailer of the game) takes the original Nintendo ocean game to the next level, “with new features and story elements that create a mesmerizing aquatic odyssey for players of any age or experience level.” (can you tell I took that last bit straight from the Press Release?)

Endless Ocean: Blue World features an original story that players can follow as they choose. The plot involves Oceana, a girl who investigates the “Song of Dragons,” which her father, a prominent ocean explorer, sought before his death. As you swim around, you advance the story and go on new undersea adventures. Plus, if you happen to have a WiiSpeak microphone and a broadband connection, you can chat with friends(as long as they also have the microphone) while you play.

Wanna win it?  Leave a comment below telling me why your winter weather stinks, and you’ll be entered.  Link back to this post and you’ll be entered again.  Please note:  If you just write: I wanna win.  Or “Thanks for the chance to win” you won’t win.  You need to make some effort, people.  In this case, it involves telling me why your winter weather sucks worse than mine.

Now for the legal mumbo jumbo: Contest open to US residents 18 and older.  Winner will be chosen at random by random.org.  Contest ends Friday, March 5th at 10pm.

Happy virtual swimming!!

So I now have my own personal account person, Tammy, handling my – ummmm – extreme pain in the ass problem.

The good news:  This Tammy person is really on it.  Calling me.  Finagling appointments when the local service center said they didn’t have any.  And the guys showed up.  Two of them.  They spent 90 minutes taking aparty my dryer.  And guess what:  time for the bad news:  Sears ordered the wrong part AGAIN.

Bottom line?  I still don’ t have a dryer, who knows how long it will take.  But the Sears people are TRYING at least.  And Tammy is actually coherent and intelligent, and is doing her best.

Could I ask for more?  Sure.  I could ask for them to ORDER THE RIGHT PART THIS TIME. (Third times a charm, right?) But at least I’m not lost in the automated phone-help abyss anymore.  All I really wanted was for them to LISTEN.  Well, maybe I wanted more, but that matters, right?  And she’s listening.  It was nice for someone to actually APOLOGIZE this time for having ordered the wrong part. (Not that she ordered it, but, you know, speaking for Sears)

Now if only Tammy could miraculously make my laundry dry by itself, all would be right with the world.  Or at least with my laundry.

Anyone with kids (and lets face it, a husband) knows: there is no end to the laundry.  I sometimes feel as if the washing machine in my apartment is going seven days a week. But I’m one of the lucky ones – I have a washer/dryer in my apartment.  Or I did. Until last month.

Last month, my dryer heated up, but didn’t spin, which basically meant I got a big lump of wet, hot, clothing at the end of a cycle. Not good.  Needless to say, the warranty had expired thirty seconds before my dryer broke, so I needed a repair.

I called Sears.  BIG mistake.

Sears, evidently, is not staffed by humans.  It is staffed by automated voice answering systems that ask for your prompts.  “Welcome to the Sears Service Center  completely useless automated customer service system. Please say or press one to continue this infuriating process.”

Read the rest! Click here to read it on NYC Moms Blog.

1. Last Saturday night, hubby and I went out to dinner with (child free) friends.  The time of the reservation? 9:45.  The place?  The hip and fabulous Chop Shop in the Meat Packing district. What made it GlaMOMous other than the time and locale?  I was NOT the oldest woman in the place. Whoo hoo!

2. I was a lady who lunches and saw a Broadway Show, Time Stands Still, with Laura Linney, Alicia Silverstone, and Eric Bogosian. (they were in the show, they didn’t see it with me.)

3. I had my hair done by hair-dresser to the stars Creighton Bowman.  Or as he likes to be known, Creighton Bowman for Tres Semme.  Yes.  My hairdresser has a sponsor.  And he does movie star hair.  On real movie star heads.  Check out his website. Plus, in case you were wondering, he really does use Tres Semme.  I guess I always thought that celebrity sponsors only used their products on camera.  Turns out, Creighton (at least) uses his sponsor’s products in real life, too.

4. I met with my dog’s agent.

You read it right.  My dog, Bentley, has an agent.  And while he’s not ready for prime time yet…we’re getting there.  And before you get all upset about me exploiting my dog for profit — he’s a DOG! Get over it.

5. I had a massage in a lovely little town upstate that seems like just the kind of place celebs would go to be left alone.

6. I met Cody Linley (teen heart throb/Hannah Montana star) at a launch party for a new Wii game by Sega. (Click here to read all about it.)  And ok, ok, maybe that’s not exactly glamorous.  But my daughter was with me and she thought it was the height of celebrity.  So there.

7. I saw Kelly Ripa at the supermarket.  Which, I do believe, is the definition of GlaMOMous.  Because who, other than a mom, would be at the supermarket in the middle of the day?

8.  I went to Barneys.  True, I was there to return some clothing to the children’s department that was a gift, and that didn’t fit.  But still – it was Barney’s.  Talk about glam – even the  sales people look like movie stars. (Ok – those of you not in NY – is Barney’s a totally NY thing?  Or is it everywhere?)

I thought I could get to ten things.  Really I did.  But alas, no can do.

Still – not too shabby for a stay at home Mom.  Feeling better about myself already!

Didn’t win but still want to read it? Buy it, why dontcha?  Just click on the little book icon just over there on the right, and pretty soon, you’ll be laughing and reading.  Still not sure?  Save $2 per book by entering discount code SMR2.

I promise it’ll make you laugh.

To any of you outside of NYC, this might not seem like a big deal.  But, here in NY, land of the shoebox apartments,  big box stores are a big big deal. And groceries are really, really expensive.

So the addition of a BJ’s to the city is a pretty big deal.  It’s cheap, it’s huge, you can maneuver your cart around without breaking someone’s toe, and THEY TAKE COUPONS!!!!  So not only do you save 30%  to begin with (the amount they estimate an average consumer will save per visit), you can clip  coupons, too. Plus (and most importantly)- unlike some other warehouse stores I won’t mention – BJ’s sells items in sizes that will actually FIT into a NYC apartment.

(Not something you out there with your big houses and big garages, and walk-in pantries, and extra-fridge in the basement-types really think about when you grab a vat of Tide and a 24 pack of paper towels, now is it?)

So a new BJ’s is a big deal.  But for me, BJ’s will always be about movie stars and chauffers.  Why, you ask?

Read on.

My kids went to nursery school with the child of a very famous director. (VFD)  One day, at a playdate at their house (no shoebox for the VFD. He and his family lived in a 10,000 square foot town house), I noticed that  (walk-in) snack closet held giant sized boxes of every kid-snack every created.

“Do you go to one of those warehouse stores?” I asked. Incredulous.

“I love them!” answered the VFD’s wife. “I’m going tomorrow.  Why don’t you come with me.”

“I’ll drive” I offered.

“Oh, don’t worry about that, it’s all taken care of.”

The next day, VFD’s wife and I dropped our kids off for overpriced fingerpainting, and drove to BJ’s.  In her chauffer driven car.  Once we got there, the chauffer walked through the store with my new money-saving friend, and took things off the shelves for her.

“Peter,” she said, “We need tuna fish.”

And Peter would bend down, pick up a ten-pack of Tuna fish and place it in her cart.

When we finished shopping, Peter went and found boxes for us.  Peter packed our boxes. Peter loaded them into the car.  And she and I went to Old Navy to browse.

Over the course of two years, every few months, VFD’s wife and I went to BJ’s, to Costco, to Stew Leonards – always with a chauffeur.

One day, I left the store to see John with the White Mercedes waiting for me. Thing was, we had driven up with Peter, in the black Mercedes.

Seems VFD’s wife had bought too much to fit into one car, and so had called the second chauffeur, to bring the second Mercedes, to take me and my stuff home.

And that, dear bloggy friends, is how famous people go discount shopping.

p.s. Here’s the info, if you want to check out the Grand Opening tomorrow.  The new BJ’s is at 131-07 40th Rd. in Flushing, NY.  For the Grand Opening there will be lots of food, balloons, face painting, a DJ, giveaways, and more.

Read this and LAUGH!!!! Really. Click on it.  It is SOOOOO funny.

http://thatgirlblogs.com/i-must-be-on-my-iperiod/