Evil Bastard will love this.  On the way home Friday night, I went to the Food Liion at the Karate Dance Bagel shopping Center.  There was plywood over the Food Lion windows with a big We are Open sign crudely written on the front.  I was so hoping that Dante would be at the check out, but alas he wasn’t.  Apparently the Ashburn Food Lion is going to become a Blooms - whatever that is.  I did find the coolest thing on sale there - Lego Waffles made by Eggo.  Yes, Lego shaped waffles.  There are six blocks per square waffle and you can break it apart and build things with them.  It is the coolest.  The only bad thing is that there are eight waffles per box.  Hello!!!!  My 4 and 2 year old can wipe out six waffles at breakfast between them.  We filled the holes with stick and buit a bridge.  Very Cool.  I need them to come in a 24 pack at minium in order to build anything cool.  I’d preferr a sixty-four pack, but I’m getting greedy.

No response from the Reston Multiplex Movie Theater regarding my ultra crappy experience there.  I expected at least a response and perhaps a coupon for a bag of pop corn.  However, Kudos to Pampers and Scrubbing Bubbles for writing me back regarding my less then stellar experiences with their products.
First is Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner.  You hit the button and it sprays cleaner 15 seconds later on the shower walls.  It’s supposed to clean at least up to 8 feet if not more.  Well, it doesn’t clean my less than 5 feet shower stall.  I have kids.  I have no time to clean my shower.  My kids’ bath tub is stellar.  Mine is disgusting.  So I went online and bought the kit.  I followed the directions.  The Spray doesn’t hit the back wall of my shower.  Where the spray does hit, it’s not doing a good job of cleaning  It is not doing as promised so I wrote S.C. Johnson and got a nice email back and they sent me a  coupon for a free Automatic Shower Cleaner.  Kudos to S.C. Johnson.  I still think the product is a great idea.  If it worked, that would be outstanding.  I hope my feedback gets back to product development.
Second is Pampers.

I only use Pampers on Four at night to prevent leaks.  I use Costco brand during the day.  I was in the hurry one morning and grabbed a Pampers.  Pampers has an Elmo on the back of it.  Four decided to spill water all over his car seat while going to get his picture taken.  I get him out of the car and his bottom is all wet and the Red Ink from Elmo ran and bled through onto his khaki shorts.  Lets just say I was a little less then amused and wrote Pampers a letter.  They didn’t understand how it could happen when they have thoroughly tested the inks blah blah.  But I got a nice letter back and they sent me a coupon for a free case of diapers.  So I’m pleased and I hope they will take my feedback to heart.  I doubt they tested the ink from the outside getting wet.  I bet they only test the insides being wet.   
 

I am delinquent in my postings.  I know I have a quota from Zinger to fill and September is almost over. 
Friday we got in the mail a flyer for a Grand Opening Party of JW Tumbles in Ashburn.  It’s one of those kiddie gym thingys.  It’s free, it’s two hours, I figure I’d take the kids and go check it out.  So Saturday Morning, The Husband said he’d come with us if I would bike there.  I’m thinking we will have one-on-one coverage for the kids AND I’ll get some much needed riding in.
So we loaded the kids up in the bike trailer and rode the 10 miles into Ashburn to this gym.  Let me just say that the Tot Land at Dulles Mall was much better than this place.  This was not the quality of a Little Gym or the Community Center Q goes to.  It was equivalent to a Chic Filet playground for over $100 a session.  It was just a bunch of indoor playground equipment like you’d find at Chic Filet.  It was packed.  No one was watching their child.  I got into it with two mothers in the thirty minutes I was there.  The Husband and I decided it was time to go after I got into it with the  fat lady in grey sweat pants.
The kids start crying because it was time to go until we told them we were going to have lunch at the fountain.  There was a fountain in the shopping center and we ate Subway at the fountain.  The kids had more fun eating at the fountain then the JW Tumbles.  We attempted to get Four a hair cut at the Barber Shop but the little man was not going have anything to do with that.
After lunch, we packed the kids back up.  Now it’s almost nap time and their patience with us is fading.  We gave them each their cookie from their Subway Meal and started biking home.   Half way home we stopped at this cool playground along the WO&D trail.  We release the hounds and spend almost an hour there.  They had a ball.
We all biked home and everyone got a bath.  Kids slept really well.
So lets recap – I got a 20 mile bike ride in.  The kids had more fun at the FREE fountain and the FREE Playground then the JW Tumbles (which runs >$100 a session).  Now I have had Q in Tot Gymnastics for almost a year.  It has been great for her.  She has learned to listen to directions the best that an almost four year old will do.  But I would not take her to JW Tumbles when I can go to the Tot Land at Dulles Mall for Free.  
Ok, that’s two playgrounds… where is the third?
Sunday was an Open House at Little Gym.  I sucked it up and paid for Little Gym this summer because the Community Center didn’t have classes due to summer camp.  So I got invited to their open house.  It was sooooooooooooooooo much better run than the open house at JW Tumbles.  Was it chaotic?  Duh – it involved kids.  Was it stressful?  No.  Was it well organized and staffed?  Yes.  Did I snap at any parents? No. I stayed there for two hours with Four and Q.  They had a blast.  Loved it.  Loved it.  Loved it.
 

I rather enjoy the most recent exploit by Banksey where he made bogus versions of her new cd with alternate artwork (nsfw) and tracks, and slipped them into music stores as a sort of media cuckoo’s egg.

RemoteCalendars is a COM-.NET Add-in for Outlook 2003/2007, written in C#. After installing this plugin, every Outlook user should be able to subscribe, reload and delete a generic remote iCalendar (RFC 2445) from Outlook 2003/2007.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/remotecalendars/

In other words, sync Outlook with Google Calendars

I’m eagerly anticipating The Departed, Scorsese’s remake of Infernal Affairs.

The story is already kick ass, and with a cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, and Alec Baldwin… the movie should be seriously worth watching.