MY KINGDOM FOR A HACK

So my darling Noodle this fall will be entering the grade where there's lots of project-style homework to do. That means graphics. That means printing stuff.

That means my wonderful and reliable black-and-white laser printer is not going to cut it.

That means I have to venture into the world of printers and printer supplies, the Mos Eisley of the computer-sales universe, where what I thought would be the kids' college fund will be eaten in ten minutes flat.

Unless there's some kind of way around walking sheeplike into the slavering jaws of the toner-cartridge-industrial complex...is there?

I thought maybe one of my local libraries might have a color printer handy, but no dice. What are some of the available workarounds? (If you have some local Hudson Valley knowledge, do share.)

IN WHICH I GET ALL McGYVER

So tonight at dinner Noodle accidentally bit her tongue. Really gave it a good chomping as only a five-year-old can do. The standard cold packs and other refrigerated soothers were not remotely cutting the mustard...what's a dad to do?

Snapped one of these right off the gutter for my little girl, I did.

Oh, it's not perfectly sterile; of this I am aware. But having told her in the past not to lick the cat, not to eat off the floor, not to drink her bathwater, not to play by the litterbox, not to chew on the DVD case, and not to put the driveway chalk in her ear...how bad could an icicle be?

Reminds me of a song...

UPDATE: Woot! I've just received word this little solution of mine will be featured next week over at parenthacks.com. At last, my fifteen minutes arrives - and remember, you read it here first!

GETTING THE LITTLE ONES RECYCLING

This idea of mine is somewhere in the queue over at Parent Hacks, but it seems wise to share it now since we're officially rolling into summer, a/k/a Sticky Soda Can Season.

Pet peeve: you set out your bin of recyclables religiously every (in our case) Tuesday, recycle everything right down to the bottle caps, and inevitably there's one or two bits of plastic detritus stuck to the schmutz that accumulates at the bottom of the bin. Eeyeewwwwww.

Solution: set up an itty-bitty mini recycling bin for the kids. A small bucket is perfect. We use an old lobster-scraps bucket from the Barking Crab in Boston. The kids pitch the bottle caps and the other small items into that bucket while the rest of the items accumulate in the regular recycling bin. Come recycling day you dump the contents of the smaller bucket on top of what's in the regular recycling bin, and they're much less likely to stick to the bottom, on account of they're on top and stuff.

If you want to be persnickety about it you can dump the smaller bucket into one of the larger recyclable items, e.g. a coffee can or a plastic salad box.

CORNHENGE

(I'll be dropping this one off at parenthacks to see what they think of it - they liked my first one about the headlamp very well indeed. Here goes...)

The kids used to really enjoy corn on the cob. It's a fun shape, it's noisy, it's good for them...but as with all foods for the little ones, sometimes you need to tart up the presentation to keep them interested. And what entertains the little ones more than druids, hm?

Tonight we had boiled up the usual ears of corn, but they sat uneaten at the table until yours truly got the idea to cut them into thirds, then re-stack them on the plate in the form of the place where the banshees live (and they do live well). After that came om nom nom nomsville, y'all.

Oh, of course. Here are the lads:



UPDATE: there really is a Cornhenge - in Dublin, Ohio. Not edible like mine, though. And not very hengey, if you ask me.

SIX DOWN, FOUR TO GO

Noodle's really getting the hang of this falling-asleep-solo thing! And that's even with the bummer news that the Memere had a bad cold and wouldn't be joining us at the Chuck E. Cheese or wherever it is we're going tomorrow.

We're also psyched here in Boogerland, because today I got my first hack posted over at the mighty parenthacks.com! Not that it's any amazing work of genius; I merely suggested a clip-on hat lamp would work wonders if you're in a situation like ours where the light from one kid's room keeps the other kid awake at bedtime, but turning out the lights straightaway would be a tantrum-maker. Here's the whole story, along with linkage to the one place I found that had the lamps if you're averse to grabbing them from the point-of-purchase rack at your local Wal-Mart.