Too old to trick or treat?

I'm amazed at how many teenagers stop by our house each year. Some actually have costumes on, but others are dressed as "bums," or "teenagers," or "football players." Misscellania ran a list that might apply to those teenagers one day...

10. You get winded from knocking on the door.

9. You have to have another kid chew the candy for you.

8. You ask for high fiber candy only.

7. When someone drops a candy bar in your bag, you lose your balance and fall over.

6. People say, "Great Keith Richards mask!" and you're not wearing a mask.

5. When the door opens you yell, "Trick or..." and can't remember the rest.

4. By the end of the night, you have a bag full of restraining orders.

3. You have to carefully choose a costume that won't dislodge your hairpiece.

2. You're the only Power Ranger in the neighborhood with a walker.

1. You avoid going to houses where your ex-wives live.

Happy Halloween!

Putting Edge

A little late, but we finally took my older boy and a couple of his friends out for a birthday event last weekend. His birthday was actually back in May, but things happen, so, better late than never. :-) He chose to go play glow-in-the-dark putt putt at Putting Edge. Everybody had a great time. I think he even got the low score! Bonus!

As this event fell within my week of consumer experiment, I went out to their site to say thanks. While there I found an on-line putting game on their site! Even more fun! Check it out!

Click here for a $2 coupon

Finally...

Just a quick update for those waiting for an update on my "consumer experiment." I've got my list ready - there are over 50 brands from one week of logging - and I'm going to start trying to hit some of them tonight... more later...

It wears you down...

I noticed a couple of weeks ago that when I got into the car in the morning I needed to adjust the mirror almost every day. I'm sure that my wife hadn't borrowed it, so I was uncertain why the mirror kept moving out of alignment. I'd have to adjust the mirror up in the morning.

As I began to track this more, looking for a cause, I realized that when I started heading home at night, I'd have to adjust my mirror down for my evening drive. OK, so now I knew it was me who had been the poltergeist adjusting the mirror (I wonder what else I do subconsciously now).

It still took me a little while longer to realize that it was just because of my posture. When I head out in the morning, I'm fresh, energized and ready to head to work (yeah I know, I'm a little sick sometimes). After "a long day at the office" I crawl back into my vehicle and slouch into the seat, adjust the mirror and head home.

I'd never before noticed this very obvious example of how a day can really wear you down.

Anyone else have this issue?

Change of plans...

As I was laying in bed last night, I tried to run through all of the brands I might be writing down starting this morning. I played through my morning routine in my mind, ticking off each thing I interacted with. The alarm clock would be the first thing. Bedding. Television. Pain on the walls (as I felt my way in the mostly dark hallway to the bathroom). I quickly realized that there would be too much to include if I recorded EVERYTHING I interacted with, so I decided to narrow it down to "consumable" items -- things that would need to be replaced by their usage or consumption. Surely this would be a more manageable list.

Before I had hit the car to drive to work, I had already recorded over 20 brands to contact for my little experiment. I added almost 20 more throughout the day. This little experiment was turning into a much bigger project that I was thinking initially. And I still haven't figured out the tracking logistics.

I'll continue logging the products/brands, and I'll start thinking about the tracking (brand, website, contact form, data contacted, date replied, automated reply or personal, type of reply (email, snail mail), newsletter subscription, etc. So much work yet to do...