The Hottest Toy of 2009- Zhu Zhu Hamsters

I saw these Zhu Zhu critters on the shelves in September, fully stocked and ready to be taken home. At the time, I didn't care to have one of these fake rodents in my house. Still don't, but I am curious on the mayhem, these little mechanics are about to stir. Disclosure: I own a "real" hamster, which doesn't have an off button and it stinks at times, why would I need a fake one?  So I passed up the chance to get my hands on the "Hottest Toy of 2009". Shucks, I always do that ( a chance to buy in bulk and charge people 5,6,7 or 8 times the retail amount).  I could of cashed in for the sake of those poor parents trying to fulfill their kid's holiday wish. Retailers are counting on Black Friday to have this toy hamster bring in the masses. On Black Friday, Toys R Us is planning to have a lottery to have a chance to buy one of these $10 electronic fur balls . Heck, this beats buying them on the black market for $60 each. But is my headache worth $50, probably not. My prediction, one year from now that little $10 or $60 fake rodent will be on the bottom of someone's closet (Hammy or Hamlet can be friends with Tickle me Elmo and Furby). Can I add there are accessories too- playhouses and trails with add-ons, hamster balls, skateboards. Add about $20-$100 extra dollars (for retail) to this mix, closer to $200-$500 for black market fulfillment. Holidays fun yet? It hasn't even started, it isn't even Friday yet.  P.S. if you see one of these things send one my way, my kid "kinda" wants one this Christmas. 

PPS. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and don't stress out. Family or Friends rules out woes (Thankful for great people)

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Team Edward

I have to admit, I do like the Twilight series, it gives people the chance to swoon over something positive in their lives. There are too many crappy things going on in the world. Why not escape in a good fantasy movie like New Moon.  They make fabulous merchandise for the movie, isn't that what it is all about the merchandise? My key find are these Team Edward T-Shirts. I am thinking about getting them for my family members. Why? Because Edward is the name of my husband not because I am a New Moon fan (but I can pretend).

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Parent-Teacher Conference

Highlights...Looking at E's work of her hand-drawings of a cartwheel demonstration and balloon sayings "I don't feel so good" (girl upside down) and her drawings of her cheeseburger cravings in gymnastics.  Overall a good PT meeting. I am glad that there are caring teachers out there.

Another edition of How am I?

I am doing just great from the standpoint of my health, my family's health, love from family and friends. Still wanting to get to Paris, France sometime soon. I still am employable, just haven't found the right gig yet.

My list of desires in a position:

*Flexible (from the time I am writing this post Graveyard may do too)
*Use of my brain (Social Media Marketing preferably)
*Close to my house (Preferably in my house)
*Pay would be wonderful (enough to save to retire when I am 65 but will settle on paying my bills)
*If I must work out of my house and have to work during the day, doggie's to work would be nice.


That's all on the job situation. It is approaching Thanksgiving. I will be thankful that I get to be happy everyday of the week. My mind has been meandering but I am getting there. Lots of family roller coasters but the train hasn't fallen off the track yet. What is broken can be fixed. This is what I am thankful for this year.

No Running in Target Either

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Black Friday out of control- Really?

Did people just now find out that the lottery system is the way to go with the Black Friday Bunch? Crazy people getting up at the crack of dawn for crappy electronics, game systems that are not hard to get anymore and free snowglobes for the first 200 people. New rule for 2009- No running in Walmart. Any other rules I should know about? I wonder how Twitter will play into this crazy insane shopping day? 

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108137/calming-the-black-friday-crowds

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Why books won't go out of style

I own so..so..so many books. I like the look and feel of the cover and the paper inside. My grandmother owned a bookstore in the bay area and when I was little I used to marvel at all the books she had in her store. I was drawn to the vintage magazines and toys she had on her shelves. I like that you can just pick up a book and go to the page you were on. This last week, I went to two book signing events. The first book signing I went to was the David Sedaris event at the new Balboa Theatre in San Diego. David is so damn funny. He has a voice that I can listen to for hours telling me silly, offbeat stories about his family life or some satire he concocted from his vivid imagination. David is a cute little guy that drew a picture of himself in my book of him throwing up. He said he is too old for people to be taking real pictures of him, so he drew me a picture of himself. Then I told him I saw him on Letterman (YouTube Style), he then proceeded to draw chunks coming out of his mouth and told me, "that is me when I got off the stage on Letterman". The second book signing this week was a wine tasting event for Gary Vaynerchuk's book CRUSH IT! Gary has a sense of enthusiasm that makes you want to go CRUSH IT yourself. I admire his wine tasting abilities- not sure if I could pick up the petrol, beef jerky hints in wine myself but fruit hints of the wines- yes. I liked 3 out of the 4 wines which is not bad for someone who doesn't like the strong tannins in wines. Both of these events I thoroughly enjoyed and had a physical book in my hand at the end of the night. 

My point to this post is-  if books went out of style, what would we have these authors sign? Would there be a blank page for the kindle for the author to stylus their autograph? Would furniture makers slow down the production of book shelves? How about B&N, Borders and most important the indie booksellers? I understand the usefulness of a kindle for clutter relief and ease of use when traveling, but damnit, I like my books. What if my kindle fell into the bathtub? I would loose my page literally. Paper and ink wins this debate. Technology has won most of my heart but in the publishing world, I will stick to the real thing. 

 

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