eye-opening website: betterworldshopper.org

I stumbled across this website yesterday and it's very eye-opening!

www.betterworldshopper.org

It is devoted to making public the records of major corporations in 5 areas: human rights, the environment, animal protection, community involvement, and social justice. (the website further defines these and how they ranked the corporations)

What is fun, and revealing, and sometimes disheartening, is looking at "The Rankings" by product category. All kinds of products, services, and companies are listed - everything from ice cream to banks and credit card companies - just click for an analysis of the best and worst.

Some examples of products we have bought, and how they stack up -

Toyota: A
Chevrolet: F
Apple computer: B+
Acer computer: D-
Chapstick: F
Huggies: B-
Nabisco: F
Kraft: F
Chipotle (restaurant): A
Subway: C
McDonald's: D-
Gas stations: Sunoco = A-, Costco = C, Exxon, Mobil = F
Patagonia: A
Costco: D
Walmart/Sam's Club: F
Stride Rite: D+ (too bad, they're the only ones that fit Sam's feet!)

While this is entertaining, and thought-provoking, I admit I don't know anything about the quality of this "research data" or how it got its funding. (perhaps from animal-rights activists or environmental non-profits??? not to be too cynical, but...you know.)

Before I swear off of Kraft macaroni and cheese forever (which I should anyway) does anyone know how this information can be validated?

word for the day - perendinate

I get a daily subscription of A Word A Day - and especially liked today's entry. I never knew the literal meaning of "procrastinate," and now I have another option when procrastinating is just not enough. :-)

perendinate
PRONUNCIATION:
(puh-REN-di-nayt)
MEANING:
verb tr. : To put off until the day after tomorrow.
verb intr.: To stay at a college for an extended time.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin perendinare (to defer until the day after tomorrow), from perendie (on the day after tomorrow), from dies (day).
NOTES:
The word procrastinate is from Latin cras (tomorrow). So when you procrastinate, literally speaking, you are putting something off till tomorrow. Mark Twain once said, "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow." In other words, why procrastinate when you can perendinate?

Sam's birthday

My baby boy is three. He is sleeping extra long today, which gives me a chance to post pictures. I included a couple other photos just for fun: bathtime bubbles, and Alex and Sam in their Easter duds.

spiderman poem

Last night we had people over for Sam's birthday party. I will need to post pictures when I get a chance. Lately everything seems like it takes more time than I have. We had fun - it was so nice to hang out with everyone. Sam was very happy with all the loud, noisy toys he got from grandma. I am tolerating them, for now. As one friend said, "It's just too bad - batteries CAN'T be replaced." ;-)

He got a Spiderman card, and I found a spiderman shirt and shorts set at a used clothing sale today. He doesn't really know who Spiderman is but I guess he soon will. The spiderman nostalgia got me thinking about this poem that I remember reading in college and I found it online:

Maybe Dats Youwr Pwoblem Too
by Jim Hall

All my pwoblems
who knows, maybe evwybody's pwoblems
is due to da fact, due to da awful twuth
dat I am SPIDERMAN.
I know. I know. All da dumb jokes:
No flies on you, ha ha,
and da ones about what do I do wit all
doze extwa legs in bed. Well, dat's funny yeah.
But you twy being
SPIDERMAN for a month or two. Go ahead.
You get doze cwazy calls fwom da
Gubbener askin you to twap some booglar who's
only twying to wip off color T.V. sets.
Now, what do I cawre about T.V. sets?
But I pull on da suit, da stinkin suit,
wit da sucker cups on da fingers,
and get my wopes and wittle bundle of
equipment and den I go flying like cwazy
acwoss da town fwom woof top to woof top.
Till der he is. Some poor dumb color T.V. slob
and I fall on him and we westle a widdle
until I get him all woped. So big deal.
You tink when you SPIDERMAN
der's sometin big going to happen to you.
Well, I tell you what. It don't happen dat way.
Nuttin happens. Gubbener calls, I go.
Bwing him to powice, Gubbener calls again,
like dat over and over.
I tink I twy sometin diffunt. I tink I twy
sometin excitin like wacing cawrs. Sometin to make
my heart beat at a difwent wate.
But den you just can't quit being sometin like
SPIDERMAN.
You SPIDERMAN for life. Fowever. I can't even
buin my suit. It won't buin. It's fwame wesistent.
So maybe dat's youwr pwoblem too, who knows.
Maybe dat's da whole pwoblem wif evwytin.
Nobody can buin der suits, dey all fwame wesistent.
Who knows?

a springtime poem

I heard a radio show the other night about people who memorize and recite poetry by heart. It was kind of cool. It inspired me to look up this poem by Robert Browning, of which I remembered only the last 2 lines.

It's a good poem for spring, even though today we are having snow...

The year's at the spring,
The day's at the morn,
Morning's at seven,
The hillside's dew-pearled.
The lark's on the wing,
The snail's on the thorn,
God's in his heaven,
All's right with the world.

-Robert Browning

Happy springtime, everyone!

4-year-old's shopping list, dumb kid jokes

Alex made up her first grocery list the other day. She asked how to spell things, I told her, and she attempted to write them down. The result, with backward/upside down letters and all, was:

hot dogs
crispy cereal
cookies
candy
4T pajamas
Alex cup
sausage
oranges
milk

I have been limiting the amount of hot dogs and sausage we eat, as it isn't really very good for us, and I guess she misses those. I tried to get her to add more fruits and vegetables, but to no avail. :-) But isn't that a cute window into her little mind?

The "Alex cup" refers to a red mug with her name spelled in bright colors. It's been through the dishwasher so much it is fading; thus she wants another one.

She and Sam are on a knock-knock joke kick now. They have the format down, mostly, but they don't really get the hang of the punch line. Here are some samples:

Sam: "Knock knock!"
Me: "Who's there?"
Sam: "Banana"
Me: "Banana who?"
Sam: "Orange! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Alex: "Knock knock!"
Me: "Who's there?"
Alex: "Stinky socks!"
Me: "Stinky socks who?"
Alex: "Stinky socks wants to eat your cheese! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Yes, this is my life these days.

Oh yes, one more I thought was cute. When we were on the plane coming back from Disneyland, Alex got a seat where she could see the wing of the plane. She said, "Hey, there's the wing!" and looked at it for a while. We took off and were flying for a few minutes when she asked me, "Mom, why the wings don't flap?"

I thought that was a pretty good question. It would be cool if airplanes' wings did flap like a bird's, I think. Can any engineer-types tell me if that's possible?

kid sayings

Alex is saying a lot of funny things these days, but alas, I seem to be forgetting to write them down. Anyway, I do remember two things from this week and wanted to document them before I forgot:

"Your mouth has a special finger in it called - a tongue!"

(see picture above, in the Disney teacups, where she is using her tongue to retrieve every last bit of cotton candy from her face. She was quite happy with her first cotton candy - exclaimed "It melts in your mouth!")

The other one was in the car, while talking about robots:

"Robots can help people without any brains do their ABC's."

She also told me "rojo" means "red" and likes to remember or make up "Spanish" words. Somewhere she got the impression that the word "moose" means "almost" in Spanish. When we are in the car she asks, "Are we moose there?" or "Are we moose home?" Sam picked up on it and now he says it too.

Sam is talking, talking, talking. It's fun to hear him babbling away in pretend games with his toys. His latest phrase is "almost forgot." Every time we put him to bed, just as we leave the room he thinks of something we "almost forgot."

Tomorrow I leave for San Diego for some "mom time" with online friends. Am looking forward to the 60 degree temps after 2 more snowstorms here since Disneyland.