By 10am Today, I’d Conquered the World.

Posted: September 28, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Cooking, Parenting | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Or at least I felt like I had. Up at 6:30, me and the boys dropped Mama off at her work at 7:30, then back home where I turned B’s Backyardigans episode on, then put G in his swing and played him guitar until he fell asleep. Over to the stove where I browned hamburger meat and cut up vegetables to make Pasta Fagioli in the crockpot. By 8:25, B was messing with G who was awake. I got B and myself dressed, threw G in his car seat, and took off for B’s school to drop him off. Back home again by 9:15, fed G, then took him for a walk in the Bjorn where he passed out. Put him in his swing where he dozed for a while. Whew! I don’t get how people with more than two kids can do this, and I flat-out don’t understand how my mom did it. At one point, she had four kids that were six-years-old and younger. Somehow she always had dinner ready, kept the house clean, and was my father’s secretary at the same time. Was she supernatural?

I Still ♥ Netflix

Posted: September 16, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

For months now, I’ve been hearing of the demise of Netflix, and NPR reports this morning that their shares are down 18 percent. All the hubbub is over the company’s split of its streaming and DVD-by-mail services two months ago which has resulted in a rate hike. For example, as NPR points out, a bundled plan that had cost $10 per month now costs $16 per month for existing customers. As a result, Netflix has lost around a million subscribers, and if you believe all the stories, the disaffected are so angry that they have grabbed pitchforks and are heading to company headquarters to burn it down.

The old lady and I have discussed dropping the the DVD-by-mail portion of our plan but I don’t think we could ever get rid of the streaming part. It literally is a life saver for us. B watches programs–right now it’s The Backyardigans–religiously by way of it, and we utilize the service, too, catching a few episodes of Friday Night Lights a week.

Then this past week I ventured to the local video store–we actually still have one–and rented Rio and Thor, rather than wait to receive them through Netflix. To have both for four nights, I laid out $9, which I believe is more than we pay for the DVD-by-mail portion. In that light Netflix, even under their new rates, is still a good deal. So why all the fuss then?