The Big DumpTruck

I know my step-son reads here sometimes, so happy birthday! I’m thinking we need to take him to UNO’s so we can get a desert for him to share with us. Well, Mr. Dump’s birthday is Sunday, so if we go on Saturday, that would cover both of them. I didn’t get my birthday meal at Uno’s but it’s already been a week, so I’m not going to try. I think they’d start asking to see ID if we said three of us were the birthday boys and girl.

Let’s see, what else.

Oh, this one is big. Well, not so much to you, I’m sure, but it is to me, because it’s like the beginning of a new era in DumpTruckLand. Junior sent me an email today. He wrote everything in it himself. This is a HUGE thing to me. I mean, I have a kid who can write me notes that express his thoughts and feelings!

And his thoughts and feelings were:

How are you?

I am fine.

We can watch a movie.

And have popcorn.

Oh, you betcha!

It’s like a whole piece of me is missing. I have the shakes, for goodness’ sake. How am I supposed to get through the rest of the day? I’m only human, you know.

For part of the day yesterday, I got confused and thought it was Friday. I cannot tell you how much it stunk when I realized that not only was it not Friday, it wasn’t even Thursday. Goodness, that was a moment of torture.

The morning team on XLO was telling a “horror story” this morning about this woman who lost all the photos of every major event in her life because they were all on Ofoto and she hadn’t read the fine print in the agreement that said if you don’t buy something every 12 months, they reserve the right to remove your account. This woman had pictures from her wedding, birthdays, Christmas, etc. and it’s all gone.

I’m flabbergasted. Firstly, because I never thought of Ofoto as a free storage space. I always thought of it as a place to upload pictures so you can order prints. Or maybe to share with other people who might want to order prints. But as storage? No. It’s a side benefit, but no. Then I was also flabbergasted that this person would upload her photos and then not keep copies of the files on her hard drive as a backup. Or burn them to a CD. Sheer insanity. You don’t throw your valuable memories on a website you don’t control, and then delete all your personal copies. NEVER EVER! Did we not live through the dotcom bust when websites disappeared without a whisper? And it’s not like you can download the original files back from Ofoto once they have them. What if you wanted to do something else with the file?

Lastly, she changed email addresses and didn’t update the one on file with them, so they sent 5 warning emails and she never got them. I would say that at this point, she can only blame herself. I’m not saying “too bad” but I am saying that you have to use common sense. If all your child’s baby photos are only available on a photo printing website like Snapfish or Ofoto, you’d better order up prints of all of them in case something happens. Do not trust 3rd party companies to own and care for your files. I am telling you this as a customer service, because apparently this isn’t quite so obvious to everyone.

I picked up the Boston Herald today because of the picture on the front. You see, Junior is 7, prime viewing age for all the Nickelodeon shows. Late every afternoon is the time for U-Pick Live, a show that combines games, interviews and cartoons selected by the viewers. One of the hosts, Brent, is apparently a Chelmsford native, so we have often heard him passionately praise the Sox and the Pats.

I assume the picture on the Herald is less because of the Brent connection and more how goofy the photo looks, but there is Pick-Boy, one of the regulars on U-Pick, in his Pick-Boy costume, interviewing Patriot Kevin Kasper, who looks amused if nothing else.

I actually bought a copy because I thought Junior would get a kick out of it, but maybe I’m delusional. No less delusional than the editor who picked that photo to take up half the front page, though. (Link only valid on 2/2/05)

I’ve been in a good mood for two whole days now! Can you imagine? Me! A good mood! See what a successful birthday party will do for you? Gosh, I should go into party planning, don’t you think? Except I don’t want to have to deal with all the little teeny details. So I want to be the high-level planner. Come up with the theme, other ideas like that. That probably isn’t enough to hang up a shingle for, but hey, feel free to ask me to help you come up with a party idea.

Here’s a freebie for a summer party: arrange ahead of time to have an ice cream truck stop at the party, let everyone get something free from the truck. Sort of like an open bar. I mean, who doesn’t love an ice cream man?

Hang on, I forgot to change my calendar to February.

Okay, thanks.

Where was I? Oh, right. Being in a good mood. I’m hoping I can get that strung out until at least the weekend. We’ll see.

So party details…

What started out as us looking to plan a small party for Junior’s 7th birthday ended with us renting out an entire movie theater for a private showing of Spongebob for 80 or so of our friends, family, classmates, etc. Hell, even my accountant was there! (Okay, so he happens to be married to a friend of mine…still…) This was justified by realizing it could be a party for Junior (Jan 6), my step-daughter (Jan 20) me (Jan 27), my step-son (Feb 4) and Mr. Dump (Feb 6).

If I do say so myself, it was a rousing success. We invited whole families, even those from his class. I didn’t want to be responsible for watching anyone’s kid, so when I got an RSVP call, I just said “And who will be coming with [name]?” All siblings were invited too. We provided popcorn and soda for each kid, too. People actually had a hard time comprehending that we were inviting their whole family to the movies, giving them popcorn, and that we had requested no gifts. Really, what’s the catch? Are we selling timeshares?

Nope, we just wanted a big crowd. There were 41 kids in all. We ended up plowing through 1.5 sheet cakes (anyone want leftovers?). For the record, the chocolate cake was almost completely gone. I highly recommend getting your cakes at Joyce’s in Leominster, next to the Bagel Inn. And get the sugar frosting, not the butter cream. Trust me.

I had SO much fun that I immediately told Mr. Dump we have to do this every year. Next year would be the 1st anniversary of my 40th birthday, etc. Of course, I can’t guarantee having a cool movie like Spongebob being available, but I have a feeling once the parents realized they could buy beer and wine to go with that grilled chicken and pesto sandwich, they don’t care what movie is playing. (For the record, I went for the deep fried ravioli and a 24oz Bud Light. Now that is movie food, my friends.)

[I took a couple of pictures, but it’s wayyyy too dark in a movie theater, even before the show starts. I’m going to play with Paint Shop Pro to see if I can lighten them up enough to post them.]