This is a test of Post-By-Phone
If this works, I’ll have posted a photo to my blog using my phone.
Aloha Friday: Grill Fail to Grill Win
A couple of days ago, I posted about my Grill Fail. Well, yesterday we tried again. This time I had some new tools and was all set. I put the coals in and lit them. For awhile, things weren’t looking so hot. Literally. The coals seemed to refuse to stay lit.
Just as we were deciding to give up, I gave it one more try and success!
Before long, we had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. We only had hot dog buns, so we split the burgers in half and put them on the hot dog rolls.
NHL, B and I each ate two hot dogs and one hamburger. JSL ate one… hot dog bun. (He’s extremely picky and barely tasted the hot dogs or burgers.)
With this initial success under my belt, I want to do two things. First of all, I want to buy a chimney starter. This should make starting the coals a lot easier. Secondly, I want to try some other things on the grill. Turkey burgers and chicken breasts are a sure thing.
Another possibility is salami. My father used to slice salami, grill it and then serve it atop rye bread. Delicious!
My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you have/use a grill? What do you grill on it?
Don’t forget to enter my Dinosaur Train giveaway. You could win Dino Poop and Hatchers.
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.
Aloha #89
TV Dad vs TV Dad: Who Is The World’s Greatest?
Over at ManOfTheHouse.com, they’re running an interesting elimination bracket. Giants are facing off against each other to see who is the best of their group. No, I’m not talking about sports teams going head to head. I’m talking about such giants as Keaton, Seaver, Winslow, Micelli, Huxtable, and Foreman. Yes, they have pit 32 TV dads in head to head competition.
You can head on over to the “World’s Greatest TV Dad” contest and vote for your favorite in each of the two dad matchups. Each week, one dad will triumph over the other and half of the competitors will be eliminated. The remaining dads will face each other again and again until only one is left.
Already some dads have been eliminated, including one of my favorites. Before this contest, if you asked me who was the best TV dad to use as a role model, I’d have said Cliff Huxtable. It’s clear that Cliff, for all the goofy things he says and sarcasm he tosses out about his ever-growing household, loves his kids. He works hard to provide the best for them and wants to see them be the best they can possibly be.
However, for all of Cliff’s benefits, there’s another TV dad that I might hold in higher esteem. This dad was very ahead of the curve when it comes to dad trends. Of course, I’m talking of Tony Micelli from “Who’s The Boss.” Tony was a single dad of modest means. He took a job as a live-in housekeeper to give his daughter a better environment to grow and learn. His job entailed cooking and cleaning; jobs that were not widely considered “things dads do” in the early 80’s.
To me, Micelli’s dedication to provide the best possible life for his daughter, coupled with his bending of cultural and gender stereotypes makes him a great TV dad role model in my book.
Disclaimer: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received promotional items to thank me for taking the time to participate.
Grilling Fail
Last year, I won a Weber Grill and grilling utensil set during a Twitter party. The grill arrived and I hastily assembled it. If by “hastily” you mean “let it sit in the box in our living room for a month and only put it together and took it out because B was going to kill me.” With the grill all set up, I proceeded to not use it. For one reason or another, I just didn’t get to use it during the rest of the summer or fall. Winter came and away the grill went.
With spring here, I decided that we should grill. I remembered that the instructions had said to heat the grill for one hour prior to first use. Unfortunately, this meant that I couldn’t use the grill during the week. (Waiting an hour and *then* cooking time seemed excessive.) Weekends were perfect, but it seemed like every day brought rain. No way was I going to be standing over the grill with an umbrella!
Finally, this past Sunday, we had nice weather. B went to the store to get some hot dogs and hamburgers. When she got back, I went out, put some charcoal in the grill and tried to light it. Sadly, the wind quickly put out any flame I lit. Undaunted, I recalled a trick about using newspaper. So I got a single sheet of newspaper, arranged it among the charcoal and lit the paper.
Sure enough, I got a nice, big flame. I also got pieces of paper shooting off. Too late, I noticed some vines (waiting to be bagged) that had potential for catching on fire. The hose was close, but not on. Fail #1. Luckily, nothing caught on fire, but lesson learned. Next time, I’ll turn the hose on before I light the grill to cut down on any fire extinguishing delay.
The next fail came soon after. I had the grill all ready now and going nicely. I began to picture the hamburgers and hot dogs on there cooking away with me flipping them using… uh oh. Where were my utensils. During the winter, we put the utensils away. For the life of us, though, we couldn’t remember where. Taking turns (as we weren’t comfortable leaving the grill unattended), we looked and looked to no avail. The utensils *are* in our house. Somewhere. But “somewhere” doesn’t help me flip burgers. Fail #2.
It was too late to go out and buy new utensils, so I let the grill burn for the hour, snuffed the flames and put the grill away (after it cooled down). The next day, I looked into some new utensils. On the way home, I bought a new spatula, tongs, and grill brush from Lowe’s. Tomorrow’s weather is looking good so here’s hoping that My First Grilling Take Two is more successful than Take One was.
Don’t forget to enter my Dinosaur Train giveaway. You could win Dino Poop and Hatchers.
Dinosaur Train Toys Review and Giveaway
My boys love the Dinosaur Train television show on PBS by The Jim Henson Company. They also love playing with toys. So when I was given the opportunity to review three Dinosaur Train toys from Uncle Milton’s Toys, I was excited. When I saw that the toys had educational value, I jumped at the opportunity.
Dinosaur Poop
Let’s be honest. Tell any kid that you’re going to let them play with poop at the table, and they’ll look at you funny. But once you take out this product, they’ll be crying for you to open that package quicker.
Of course, the contents are not really poop, but a brown dough-like substance. They come inside of a storage container to keep the “poop” fresh between uses and some pieces of the dinosaur’s most recent meal.
In the case of a carnivore, these pieces are 2 fish skeletons. In the case of a herbivore, 2 plants. An omnivore has one fish and one plant. The pieces can be put together like a puzzle for even more fun.
Once all the pieces have been found, you can flatten the poop and press the fish skeleton or plant into it to form a fossil impression.
You can also get more creative and form poop sculptures.
Of course, this toy can also lead to interesting statements from parents such as “Who wants to play with poop?” or “Keep that poop on the table and not on the floor!”
Hatchers
How would your child like to grow his or her own dinosaur? Hatchers lets your child do just this. Each package contains an egg.
Drop the egg into a glass of water and out hatches a dinosaur.
Ok, not immediately. This is the tough part. The hatching takes about two days. So children get to learn a lesson in patience.
Dino Track Discovery Pack
My boys love games. So it was only natural that they loved playing with the Dino Tracks. Each package comes with three trails. Each card contains a dinosaur footprint on one side and some dinosaur facts on the other. There are also two “egg” cards with suggested games such as follow the trail or try to jump the space of one dinosaur stride. (As you can see, one T-Rex step is just a little bit shorter than JSL on top of NHL.)
Giveaway
Thanks to Uncle Milton Toys, one lucky winner will receive a Dinosaur Train prize pack which includes two packages of Dinosaur Poop and two Dinosaur Train Hatchers. To enter, simply leave a comment below answering this question: What is your favorite dinosaur?
You can also earn bonus entries by doing any (or all) of the following items. Just be sure to leave a separate comment for each item that you complete. (Don’t just leave one comment listing everything you did.)
- Follow @TechyDad on Twitter. (1 bonus entry)
- Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter. Be sure to include @TechyDad and a link to this post in the Tweet. (1 bonus entry per day) For example: Play with poop and hatch some dinos with @TechyDad’s Dinosaur Train #Giveaway http://bit.ly/jB2JcX
- Subscribe to my RSS feed or let me know if you already are. (1 bonus entry)
- Leave a comment on any of my non-giveaway posts from April/May/June. Leave a comment here letting me know which post you commented on. (1 bonus entry per comment, maximum 3 entries)
- Enter any of my open giveaway posts (excluding this one, of course). Leave a comment here letting me know which giveaway you entered. (1 bonus entry)
- Write a post on your blog linking to this giveaway. Leave 3 comments about this to get credit for all of your extra entries. (3 bonus entries)
To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today, May 24th and ends at Noon EST on June 7th, 2011. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. residents only.
Disclaimer: The products were provided for this review by Uncle Milton. The opinions expressed above are my own.