How Much TV is Too Much?

If you're like me, you have a major complex about allowing your child to watch TV - any TV. That said, you readily (but secretly) admit that TV makes your life as a parent That Much Easier. In fact, it's sort of amusing how, before you became a parent, you swore that your child wouldn't watch an ounce of television, eat junk food, or do anything similarly detrimental to his/her development as a wholesome individual. But this is real life, folks, and we all know a person has to keep sane.

So... what's a conscientious (but lazy) parent to do?

The Washington Post today offers a refresher on how much screen time is too much. The bottom line - no more than two hours a day.

Since K. loves (and I mean looooooooves) Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, I try to make up for the fact that I let him watch it twice per day (once while I am showering, and the other time right after bath as a means of "settling down" before bedtime) by reminding myself that we never* go over that two hour limit. Good to get some affirmation from the experts!

*full disclosure: well, ALMOST never...

Miscellaneous Musings

I've been thinking a lot lately about ramping up my business (communications consulting, mostly to nonprofits in the Washington, DC area). Now that Kibi is in school six hours a week, and he is (knock on wood) pretty reliable about naps, I have bigger chunks of time to get some serious writing done. So ... all I have to do is get more clients (as if it were as easy as that).

Anyway, I went on a whirlwind spree on the internet last night, looking up all kinds of freelance writing blogs and sites, and was pleasantly surprised by how much is out there. It all seems to emanate from this wickedly awesome site: Media Bistro. I share this only in case any of you out there are interested in the same line of work that I am (freelance writing and PR).

The other thing I decided last night is that I need to learn WordPress (as you will probably agree by staring so long at the sucky layout of this blog - sorry, Blogspot!)

Soooo... I'm taking an online web writing and editing class which starts next week! As part of the class we will develop our own blogs, so this is when I hope to get my act together and, ultimately, move this blog over to a far more attractive site at WordPress.

I realize that you, dear readers, may care about precisely none of any of the above, but finally getting my entrepreneurial act together excites me in a geeky way, plus I'm operating on lots of caffeine and little sleep and feeling very streamofconsciousness. In any event, I'll keep you posted whether you want to be or not. Ha!

Have a good weekend!

Off Topic: Netflix is Off Their Game!

I love Netflix. Whenever a new movie comes out that I know there's no way in hell I will be seeing in the theater because, after all, I am the parent of a toddler, I promptly add it to my Netflix queue then sit back and rest assured that I'll catch it the minute it comes out on DVD. For some reason, this process gives me complete peace and serenity.

Anyway, DH was under the weather Sunday night, and I was bored, so after putting Kibi to bed I settled down in my PJs, glass of wine handy, and got ready to watch State of Play. I was totally drawn in - - that is, until about 3/4 of the way into the movie where the DVD promptly pooped out on me. I got it out, rubbed it off, and did all those other things you're not supposed to do when trying to fix a malfunctioning disc. Still, no dice. At precisely the same point in the movie, the DVD just went kablooey.

So, sadly, I shipped the disc off, completed the "report a problem" function on the Netflix website, and waited.

Yesterday Netflix sent me a new State of Play disc - or so I thought. Last night, I was all excited and got ready to watch where I left off. Imagine the stream of curse words that exited my mouth when I got to the EXACT SAME SPOT IN THE MOVIE AND THE DISC STOPPED WORKING AGAIN. At first I thought, "What are the CHANCES!?!?" Then I realized, duh, clearly someone who hadn't had their caffeine yet at Netflix opened up the disc I returned, put it on the top of the "BAD DISCS" pile, and then mistakenly missed the "GOOD DISCS" pile and re-shipped me my bad disc. Right? Because otherwise... well, that's just statistically impossible.

Argh. C'mon Netflix, wake up. I need to see what happens to Congressman Ben Affleck. Don't let me down!

Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot, Phase 2

I'm too distraught to post much today, because they've started with phase two of the Great Dismantling Of Our Backyard to Make Way for a Bike Path and Sidewalk Project.

Today they're taking down our backyard fence... they'll put up a temporary one until the new fencing that goes along with the project is installed. But for now I guess we can kiss playing in the backyard goodbye, since it would involve Kibi almost literally playing in traffic. Ugh!