Throwing Little Thought Pebbles at
Your Windshield Jan 31, 2001  

Enough Already!

My driveway has been a sheet of ice for two days now. What on earth is up with the precipitation this winter? It's probably a good thing it was 40 today, because if that rain had been snow, there would have been three feet of it. But still, sliding all over the driveway is NOT cool, no matter how funny your kid thinks it is. Oh, and he's useless on black ice. He doesn't weigh enough to give himself stability, so when he walks with me, I spend most of the time yanking up on his arms as his legs skate out from under him. I mean, it would make a cool Xtreme sport to line up a bunch of toddlers and have them try to climb an icy hill.

I think they are saying the rain is done but the snow isn't. I realize tomorrow is the first day of February, but can't we just skip to April this year?

The 0 Calorie Diet

Well, I think I've found the perfect diet. If you don't have high blood pressure. Or don't fear it. Other than a little too much sodium (let's just say sea creatures get less salt a day), my new perfect diet is The Pickle Diet. Because the jar I have in my fridge says right on the front label in big letters "Zero Calories Per Serving." These are Dailey Premium Hamburger Dill Chips, in case people are thinking it's one specific brand. But I suspect that as long as they are dill, they are a gimme.

My sister thinks it's rubbish that they have 0 calories. I think maybe the energy you use to chew and digest them cancels out the few calories they naturally contain. I don't actually know how they determine how many calories something has. I just know that it makes a more filling diet than the 2 calorie per serving Tic Tac diet. I mean, you eat enough pickles, you might actually be full. Too many Tic Tacs and something bad is bound to happen.

For the record, one service is 8 of these slices. There are 390mgs of sodium per serving. You only need 50 slices to have 100% of your sodium for the day. I'd probably drink a bit more water than usual, and remove all rings before you start it. And don't bother checking with your doctor because there is NO WAY you'll get the thumbs up on this one.

Toddler TV Reviews

I'm back with another Mookie Review. This week we will talk about a TV show near and dear to everyone's heart, "Lassie!" Actually, the show I've been grabbing is called "Timmy and Lassie" and it's on the Discovery Kids Channel.

Lassie is just as great as you remember it. We watched two episodes over the weekend. On one, when Lassie was owned by some guy and not a kid, this kitten set a building on fire and then Lassie had to go in and save it. Michael thought this was VERY tense. "The kitty is in the fire and she can't find the door!" But as nervous as he was, he loved it. Lassie saves the day by wandering, long silky fur and all, through the burning room. Both kitten and dog are unharmed.

The other episode involved a kangaroo that ate all of June Lockhart's strawberries. No wait, it was a wallaby, but Mookie is only 3 so I'm lucky he didn't call it a big rabbit like Timmy did.

This is an interesting series for the kiddies. It's from an era when a family show would show things like rabid animals and $1000 cows that have to be shot because of hoof and mouth disease. Gotta be careful about what the kids understand. He was far less interested in last night's "Timmy got stuck in a drain pipe!" (no, really) episode, and more interested in today's cow episode cause it had, well, cows. But I nixed a few that had DirecTV write-ups that looked a bit hairy. Something about a sheep-killing dog got axed. I am looking forward to the episode on later this week where we'll get to meet one of Lassie's sons! I had no idea!

Mook Rating for Lassie and Timmy = 3 paws out of 4, but only for episodes with lots of animals and maybe a little fire.

The List

Made up Excuses for Taking so Long Between Issues of the Big DumpTruck

• I was busy trying to figure out what kind of coffee to buy at Starbucks
• Busy making the switch from Tide Free to Wisk Free for laundry detergent. "Honey, look at how white your underwear is!"
• Hey, it's a lot of hard work maintaining the piles of junk on my kitchen counters!.

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