February 3rd, 2009 by Stinkhead

The UK Guardian is reporting that Hans Beck, inventor of Playmobil, passed away last week.
I am a bit saddened, due to my love for everything playmobil. Read that article for more in depth history, and I’ll use this space below to tell you my history with playmobil.
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in article, playmobil | 2 Comments »

January 31st, 2009 by Stinkhead

CPSC votes to delay CPSIA for one year – this is great news, perhaps this will give the CPSC some time to figure out the best way to provide safety for our children, without banning them from libaries. Read on.

And according to this article on Consumerist.com, there are groups pleading with Obama for new leadership at CPSC.

I have to agree that this situation has been terrible, and created a lot of undue panic. I want our (collective) children to be safe, but banning all consignment sales is ridiculous.

Posted in article, baby, CPSIA, crafts, linky, news | 1 Comment »

January 30th, 2009 by Stinkhead

Vaccines and autism: Many hypotheses, but no correlation Click to read the report from the February 15, 2009 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

I don’t like to get preachy on here… so I’m just going to point out this article, and this can help you the next time you come across a parent that refues vaccines for their children.

Posted in article, baby, kids, linky, news | 1 Comment »

January 19th, 2009 by Stinkhead

When you have a baby and the two of you are on your own, your dinner options are limited to begin with –and every now and then you need buffalo wings. It doesn’t help that my wife isn’t a big wing fanatic to begin with, so most of the opportunities to have wings are when I am flying solo. (That was a terrible wing pun) As you know, it’s tough packing the little one in the car to go get food, and then come right back home (much less feeding and tending to a baby when you’re up to your elbows in that sweet, sweet BBQ sauce).

Two of my favorite wing places are Wing Stop and B-dubs, and they don’t deliver. (and don’t get me started about how the DC area is in sore need of their own B-Dubs)

So I started exploring these places that deliver wings. I know what you’re thinking, but there is good news and bad news.

I’ve had some success and some failure, but now I’m on a real mission. Here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to invite some guys over and order wings from a few places and get a consensus to see who delivers the best. Some may be local, so I’d love to hear from you, which are the best in your neck of the woods (and who to avoid)

This isn’t part of my official trials but here are two findings so far:
Armands Chicago Style Pizzeria (with locations in DC-MD-VA and one in DE) has great deep-dish style pizza, but their wings are the best I’ve had delivered so far. The trick is that they arrive hot. Really hot. The first time I ordered their wings, I had to wait a minute or two to dig in. This is not the experience with other places. The wings are also huge… they don’t skimp ya. I’ve ordered their wings a few times now, and other guests of mine have said they were top notch as well.

Wing Street (a division of Pizza Hut) was not too good. To be fair, I ordered their boneless wings, and they were pretty crummy, I should try traditional style wings from each place to see, but these were just like chicken nuggets from McDonalds. On top of that they didn’t include any ranch or bleu cheese or anything. That’s a crime. The ordering process was difficult too… the minimum order for delivery is $10, but 10 wings is $8. (20 wings is $15, but too many wings for one guy) so I ordered some bread sticks. Those were also sub-par.

This is my second lousy experience with Wing Street… the first was when I originally tried to order from them, but because there was a Pizza Hut in closer vicinity to my house, they would not deliver to me. However that Pizza Hut didn’t have the Wing Street menu… so that’s when I went to Armands…

So anyway, let’s be scientific… I’ll order Medium and Hot wings from several locations (I might have to throw in a carry-out from Wing Stop just for control group purposes) but I’ll stick to traditional style bone wings, to be fair.

Then I’ll report on the findings.

But please chime in with your own experiences and local favorites… help another dad out there who’s looking to fulfill a wing fix when his arms are full.

Posted in advice, article, cooking, cringe, gripe, review, wings | 1 Comment »

January 8th, 2009 by Stinkhead

UPDATE: 3:40pm on Thursday January 8, 2009

I just received Good News, regarding the future of Thrift Stores, eBay, consignment sales, Salvation Army etc. They’re going to be fine, as long as they don’t sell recalled items…

Click below for The Official Word from CPSC

Washington, D.C. – In February 2009, new requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) take effect. Manufacturers, importers and retailers are expected to comply with the new Congressionally-mandated laws. Beginning February 10, 2009, children’s products cannot be sold if they contain more than 600 parts per million (ppm) total lead. Certain children’s products manufactured on or after February 10, 2009 cannot be sold if they contain more that 0.1% of certain specific phthalates or if they fail to meet new mandatory standards for toys.
Under the new law, children’s products with more than 600 ppm total lead cannot lawfully be sold in the United States on or after February 10, 2009, even if they were manufactured before that date. The total lead limit drops to 300 ppm on August 14, 2009.
The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children’s products made after February 10 meet all the new safety standards and the lead ban. Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.
The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties. When the CPSIA was signed into law on August 14, 2008, it became unlawful to sell recalled products. All resellers should check the CPSC Web site (www.cpsc.gov) for information on recalled products before taking into inventory or selling a product. The selling of recalled products also could carry civil and/or criminal penalties.
The agency intends to focus its enforcement efforts on products of greatest risk and largest exposure. While CPSC expects every company to comply fully with the new laws resellers should pay special attention to certain product categories. Among these are recalled children’s products, particularly cribs and play yards; children’s products that may contain lead, such as children’s jewelry and painted wooden or metal toys; flimsily made toys that are easily breakable into small parts; toys that lack the required age warnings; and dolls and stuffed toys that have buttons, eyes, noses or other small parts that are not securely fastened and could present a choking hazard for young children.
The agency has underway a number of rulemaking proposals intended to provide guidance on the new lead limit requirements. Please visit the CPSC website at www.cpsc.gov for more information.

Posted in article, baby, CPSIA, cringe, gripe, kids, linky | 1 Comment »

November 26th, 2008 by Stinkhead

Thanks to Lyzz, the Fletches, Blum and Andrew for being testers.
Links below go to dedicated reviews with more pics and video and links to buy (when available)

In this gift guide for boys ages 5-12 we cover the:
Yada yada yada – the voice changing toy, perfect stocking Stuffer
Playmobil Pirates and Dinosaurs (2 separate dino articles in that link), but click here to read all of our playmobil coverage.
Lazer Tag,  definitely snatch this one for $40 or $50 on Black Friday (normally $80 or $90)
Nerf Vulcan EBF-25… (KMart will have this $40 gun for $25 on Thanksgiving day)
Playskool’s Helmet Heroes, available as Police Officer, Fire Fighter, or Race Car Driver from Amazon
Hot Wheels Speed Racer Sky Jump look for deals on this one on Black Friday and online.
The ATC3K Helmet Action Cam, check out my videos there, but you can get this one online from Oregon Scientific
We also looked at Skeleflex which are available as two-packs at Toys R Us.

No fear, we have a couple more Gift Guides coming your way, we’ll cover toys for girls, infants and toddlers, and I’ll try and gather some super cheap/free gift ideas along the way.

Posted in 5&up, 8&up, advice, article, Boys, cringe, gadgets, gifts, good deals, kids, linky, pirates, playmobil, podcast, review, shop, toys, video | Comments Off on Gift Guide – Boys ages 5-12

October 2nd, 2008 by Stinkhead

One of the Dads I converse with online is Marissa’s dad, he run’s a blog called, well, MarissasBunny.com. His daughter Marissa, has Infantile Spasms, something that is not very well known, but is starting to get some awareness. He asked me to help him spread the word a little bit, so I want to share the following with you. Check out his blog (which is also in my blogroll to the left).

One in Eight

Annandale, VA September 30, 2008.

 Stand warned, there’s mathematics and drama ahead.

• There are approximately 305,297,000 people in the USA
• 14.02 children are born (and survive three months) per 1000 people in the USA every year.
= 4,280,000 babies will be born and survive to three months old

Infantile spasms prevalences in research are variable and depend on which source you refer to. I’m going to estimate conservatively and assume a 1:1 male to female ratio, and use 1:4000 for males, and 1:6000 for females, averaging out to 1:5000 births afflicted by infantile spasms.  The ratio is actually 1.05 to 1 male to female, so the actual number of IS kids is a bit higher.

So, with 4.28 million babies and a 1:5000 infantile spasms affliction rate:
• 856 kids a year are diagnosed with infantile spasms.

Infantile spasms resolves itself into something else at approximately 2 and a half years of age.  Following that logic:
• 2,140 sufferers of infantile spasms currently less than 2.5 years old.

Infantile spasms is fatal in 1 in 20 of these kids before age 3, not due to accident.  That makes 42 kids a year.  ACTH treatment mortality ranges depending on the literature between 1:20 and 1:30.  For the sake of argument, we’ll say 1:30, and that will account for both kids that go on multiple courses of ACTH and kids that never do.  That’s still an additional 29 kids a year.

• 42+29 = 71 kids die a year from infantile spasm related causes

Removing all mortality statistics from IS kids, that’s 786 kids that survive to age 3.  Accidents from drop seizures following IS resolution claim some more before adulthood at age 18.  The numbers on accidents are fairly staggering depending on your source, but I’ll call it 1:20 again, for the sake of conservatism – this number goes very high in some studies. That’s another 40 kids before age 18.  746 kids survive to age 18.  Overall mortality before age 18 is then about 12%- one in eight.

One more time, and in bold.  One in Eight.

Look around your town, your supermarket, your place of work.  Would you notice one in eight people gone?  In what world is a 1 in 8 mortality rate un-noticeable or inconsequential?  How many of these kids can be saved with better research, quicker or more accurate diagnoses, more community awareness, or a better support mechanism?  I’m sure it’s not all of them, but given the current state of research on IS, a small improvement would make a huge difference.

IS kids have had one voice in the past- Danielle Foltz talked to the Joint Economic Committee in July about the price of rare disease drugs.  Penny-arcade.com helped me reach over 60,000 more people, but it’s still not enough. I’m not Superman.  I can’t sweep across the country bearing a red cape and talk personally to the parents of all 2,140 kids with infantile spasms, I can’t even catch the new diagnoses.  It’s asking a lot of the parents of IS kids to be a public voice for their children individually.

Even with everything else going on in our lives, I’ve started the wheels in motion for a foundation for promoting awareness and providing support to IS parents.  This is going to take time and money, so be patient with us.  A week or so ago, I spoke with Mike Bartenhagen, another face in the battle against infantile spasms, about this and we’re both on board with this idea.  As a group, we’re stronger and louder than we’d ever be individually.

If you want to help, please contact us.  If you’re a parent of an IS kid, and feel you can offer sympathy, support, or advice to other IS parents in the future, especially the ones with new diagnoses, please let me know.  Financial help is always welcome- please donate through the front page.  These are the early, fragile days of any new foundation-to-be, and any and all help is welcome.

———————–
ABOUT MARISSASBUNNY.COM Marissa is a baby girl who was diagnosed with Infantile Spasms on February 15th of 2008.  Infantile Spasms is a serious pediatric epileptic condition that could leave it’s mark on her for years to come.  Fairfax is Marissa’s Bunny – a shared name for stuffed rabbits that are traveling the world trying to spread awareness of her disease that has no reliable cure and is hard to relieve.  Marissasbunny.com is a website dedicated to spreading the word about infantile spasms, with the goal of better diagnoses and enhanced support for parents with infantile spasm suffering children.

Posted in article, baby, kids, linky, news | 1 Comment »

September 28th, 2008 by Stinkhead

The experts and pundits keep saying that it’s impossible to have a total economic collapse… but you can’t help but wonder… what if the economy did fall apart?, What would happen is suddenly the global market says “We don’t want your money” and then everybody starts thinking “this money is no good” Once the electric company or the beer store decide that money is no good, you’re pretty screwed…
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in advice, article, crafts, cringe, DIY, gripe, how to | Comments Off on How would we survive a total economic collapse?

September 3rd, 2008 by Stinkhead

I love playing with the new Clipo blocks by Playskool. After watching the video, check out the picture gallery.
You can get more information from Playskool.com.

Posted in article, baby, Boys, Girls, kids, podcast, review, toys, video | Comments Off on Playskool’s Clipo Blocks – Video Review

August 22nd, 2008 by Stinkhead

So, have you heard about the baby born to Gavin Rossdale (from Bush) and Gwen Stefani?
Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale was just born and is doing well. He’s doing well now, before the other kids kick his Zuma up his Nesta… wow.

But I believe the greatest awful baby name ever is (and this is real)
Urhines Kendall Icy Eight Special K
Hey dummy! You misspelled “Your Highness” haha!

Leave any names that you’ve heard like that in the comments section

Posted in article, baby, cringe, kids, linky | Comments Off on THAT is a terrible baby name…