The theme of this year’s party was Finn McMissile / Secret Agent. It was a pretty easy theme to work with: Cars 2 and spy stuff. We took a risk and booked a pavilion at Liam’s favorite park for the party. Thankfully, the weather cooperated and the plans went as scheduled.

The main activity we lined out was for each of the kids to build their own marshmallow blaster (a.k.a. the RoboBlaster® — thanks Dave!). Per Bob Schmidt’s instructional video, Rob cut the ½" PVC pipe into the various lengths needed and Liam helped sand the burrs off of the cut edges, then we made Ziplock bag kits that included a homemade assembly diagram. The kids & parents assembled them at the party, then we passed out bags of ammo (mini-marshmallows) to all the kids and turned them loose. The kids had a blast (rimshot!) playing with them and it made a nice party favor for each of them to take home.

Below is a video slideshow of some of the party highlights and I think you’ll agree from the kid’s faces that the party was a big success. I know we had one happy, exhausted boy when we got home!

Project Vote Smart, founded by former Arizona Senator Richard Kimball, aims to help. This free non-profit, non-partisan research organization collects and distributes comprehensive information on U.S. political candidates and elected officials. In particular, the VoteEasy tool can help you zero in on a candidate based on his/her official stance on a range of key issues or criteria. It even includes historical voting records so you can trend how candidates have performed in years past.

Especially interesting is the Political Courage Test that measures each candidate’s willingness to provide citizens with their positions on key issues. (Note that all of the 2012 Presidential contenders fail this test!)

I do my part and cast my votes but honestly, I’m still fairly skeptical about the real net value of individual votes in our electoral system (although I’m feeling slightly less iffy about this after some further reading). What are your thoughts on this? Do you feel your efforts at the polls are meaningful?

 
Starting today, the City of Odessa has enacted even more stringent—some would say extreme—exterior watering restrictions for homeowners. That is, we’re allowed to water, via bubblers or by hand only, a scant 2 hours per week within a given 4 hour window. As you can imagine, area residents are doing a lot of hand-wringing over how they’ll even keep their trees & plants alive, much less their lawns.

Ah, the lawns. That’s the thing that’s really bothering me. Simply put, we have conditioned ourselves to an idyllic 50s-TV-inspired notion of what a home should look like. And it’s an unrealistic image that’s especially ultimately unsustainable when you live in the West Texas desert. We’ve convinced ourselves that a suburban home without a lush, green carpet of weedless turf is somehow much less cared about than those in the neighborhood that do have such. We’ve bought fully into the notion that the guy on the block with the best yard wins. And I’ll admit I’ve been as much a part of this problem as the next guy, having spent lots of money, time, and effort in years past to foster and maintain just such a showpiece front lawn.

Now of course, some locals are opting to have water wells drilled on their property so they can continue right on with the same watering practices, but that seems short-sighted at best and downright irresponsible at worst. Plus, there’s a reported 4 month average wait time now that so many are turning to this alternative source of water. And then there’s the considerable expense with little or no guarantee that a long-term personal supply of water actually does lie directly beneath your feet.

Perhaps it was inevitable that we’d run low enough on water that concessions would have to be made, but I think our civic leaders have done us a disservice in enacting severe water restrictions without first giving us homeowners some guidance on low-water (or no-water) alternatives. And likewise, the city officials should be offering some kind of incentives to those who opt for no-water solutions, as is common in many other areas of the country.

I certainly don’t want to concrete in the front yard and I’m less than crazy about crushed rock, and sadly, I’m not quite creative enough to visualize other, more attractive options. But certainly, I’m especially interested in alternatives that don’t negatively affect my property and/or resale value—and that’s something that a brown yard will almost surely do.

The artificial turf that’s available now looks and feels authentic, complete with little strands of dead thatch to complete the illusion. And it’s a long-term, nearly maintenance-free option. However, that plush, realistic synthetic lawn material must’ve been developed in a NASA lab, because they come with suborbital price tags! (Ya gotta wonder why the vendors offering this aren’t pricing their product more competitively to capitalize on the desperation of area homeowners.) And again, even if artificial turf were anywhere near affordable, that only goes to perpetuate the “lush lawn” stereotype that’s gotten into the jam we’re in.

So, if you’re in this area (or another with similar drought-stricken conditions), how do you plan to deal with the exterior water restrictions? And how does this shape your long-term home plans?

Yup, the big two oh. 2 0.

Twenty years.

Hardly seems possible.

Early into my working life, I remember worrying that “job-hopping” could make you seem risky to potential employers so I made a point of trying to establish lengthier stays at jobs. For a brief period, even having multiple jobs at the same time. In fact, when I started at MCH, I was only halfway through my 4 year stint at America Online and was still doing occasional weekend shifts for Washington Inventory Service auditing grocery stores’ inventory in the wee hours of the night—a mind-numbing job if ever there was one, but it taught me 10-key proficiency and the value of Mountain Dew: it had almost twice the caffeine of other soft drinks! Somehow I thought that all of this would make me look more attractive on paper to prospective employers.

But somewhere during the past 2 decades, there’s been a big shift in the value of job longevity. It used to be a much-admired trait. We used to marvel at hearing about friends’ Dads who retired from their companies after many, many years of service. Building tenure at a single company was considered a sign of dependability and fortitude. Accordingly, I’ve always been—and continue to be—proud of having been able to remain a productive, ever-growing employee for the long haul.

But these days, when I tell someone I’ve held a job—tho a number of distinct postiions—at the same company for so long, I’m sometimes greeted with a mixture of sympathy and thinly-veiled disgust. This is especially the reaction of “Gen Y” people, for whom self-loyalty is most often the focus. They seem to think of long-term employees as stagnant or non-ambitious. For this group, dependability does not equal consistency. For the newer entrants to the job market, job-hopping is practically required for professional development.

And maybe some of this is due to the job market quakes we’ve seen in the past decade. The ripples from downsizing and corporate disintegration may have forever changed the old rules. Where employers once promoted job security, corporate loyalty to employees seems almost dead. Employee loyalty still seems to be kicking, but it’s detached from the idea of long-term security and aimed more at skill-building and growth opportunities.

What do you think? Are your views on job longevity different than that of your parents? Or do you have a different outlook on job security now than you did when you were just starting your working life? And how much do your employment benefits (paid leave, insurance, etc.) play into this? Have benefits and/or security ever kept you at a job in spite of wanting a change?

March is National Peanut Month and tho we’re big fans of the lowly legume (not to mention Snoopy’s gang!), we’re celebrating an entirely different kind of peanut just now…

Nicknamed “peanut” by its adoring fans, the iconic peanut-shaped TiVo remote control is once again gracing our home. And we couldn’t be happier!

We’ve always insisted that TiVo was light years beyond all other cable company DVRs. No other cable box I’ve seen has a channel guide that’s as comprehensive and up-to-date. The WishList and Season Pass features are revolutionary! And of course, you can remotely schedule recordings online. And we had all of that with our original TiVo nearly 7 years ago!

So when our cable / internet / phone service provider Grande Communications began offering the TiVo Premiere DVR to Midland/Odessa customers a few weeks ago, we immediately jumped on board. I’m happy to say that this new TiVo goes to 11 with super sharp HD, multi-room viewing, even smarter predictive recordings, and boatloads more on-demand content than we could access on our old Motorola DVR. You can even remotely schedule and control your box(es) via smartphone app!

We got off to a rough start this year with Kindergarten but since the Christmas break things have been going great at school and his after school child care. They informed me today that he has been picked to be the Star of the Month at the child care because he did so well in January and his Kindergarten teacher gave him a reward for his good behavior. I’m so happy that he is finally adjusting to all the changes he had this year.

Most of all, I think he has learned the most important thing in life…that chocolate will always put a smile on your face!

It’s been another eventful year for us here at 2Dolphins. Our blogging might have slowed down but we certainly have not. Below are some of the highlights of the year:

March – trip to Washington DC and Liam got to climb the steps and see Abraham Lincoln (something he had been asking to do for months)

June – my Mom passed away. This was bittersweet as you’re never ready to lose a loved one but you also never want to see them them suffer with a horrible disease like Alzheimer’s.

July – Corpus, time to heal at the beach.

August – another year older and wiser. Rob & I celebrated our 15 year anniversary.

September – San Diego, it had been too long. Also, Liam started Kindergarten and it just about broke my heart. It has definitely changed him and not all for the better. He went from being my sweet innocent baby to all boy picking up some bad attitude from the other kids at school.

November – after 15 years, we finally had to buy a new washer & dryer and got the front loaders that we had been eye-balling for years. Luckily they stopped working on Thanksgiving Day so we could cash in on some Black Friday deals.

December – we had a white Christmas for the first time since 1997 and the ghost of Steve Jobs visited and converted me to an iMac user. I’m looking forward to learning the new photo capabilities it has to offer.

So as we say goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012, we want to say how thankful we are for our friends and family and all the blessings we have received this year!

Liam is in super hero mode these days so of course, he was Spiderman for Halloween. I really didn’t expect him to leave that mask on for more than 5 seconds or I would’ve picked a costume with a different kind of mask that didn’t go over his head. We spent a great deal of time adjusting it so he could see through the eye holes. Lesson learned!

We went to 2 carnivals over Halloween weekend and then trick or treating in our neighborhood on Halloween night.

Here’s a couple of pictures of Spidey Liam getting into character:

Spidey Liam swings from his “webs” at sunset:

Trick or treating was an adventure and Liam was really into the “trick or treat smell my feet…” chant this year. Someone (me) regretted teaching him that one. About half way through the neighborhood, we were told to be careful that there had been a coyote in the neighborhood the day before. Yikes! We survived and after 3 days of Halloween activities, I was ready for it to be over.

Banks are making the change because revenue from lucrative interchange fees paid by merchants (a.k.a “swipe fees”) is being cut in half by a new rule issued by the Federal Reserve Board that takes effect Oct. 1st. So, instead of an average of 44¢ per transaction, banks will only be earning 24¢. Bank of America estimates that it will lose $2 billion annually because of the change. So, what’s a poor bank to do? Well, they’ll negate their losses by shifting their costs onto consumers, of course.

Even beyond avoiding the aggravating new monthly fee, using a credit card has distinct advantages.

Federal laws protect credit card users from fraud much better. The Fair Credit Billing Act ensures that you bear no liability for fraudulent purchases, damaged goods, and products that were never delivered. And you generally have 60-90 days to report fraudulent or erroneous charges to the bank.

The Electronic Transfer Act does provide debit card users some protection during a dispute or error but only if you catch and act upon the issue quickly. If you notify your bank within 2 days of a questionable charge, your liability is limited to $50. However, between 2 – 6 days your liability could increase to $500. Beyond 6 days, you may have no coverage. And to dispute a debit card transaction, you may be required to prove that the card has never been used online on an unsecured network.

And remember that with a credit card dispute, you’re questioning fraudulent or erroneous transactions before you’ve paid the bill. With a debit card, the money has already been withdrawn, so recovery is going to be much more difficult.

Given that debit cards are directly linked to your bank account, a thief who obtains or clones your debit card along with its PIN may be able to clean out your bank account, and you’d have little or no recourse.

By the way, many banks claim that their debit cards can also be used as a credit card. While it’s true that these transactions may take slightly longer to post to your checking account, they’re still a debit transaction. So, using your debit card in this manner does not afford you the same protections or deferred payment opportunity as a “real” dedicated credit card.

The biggest disadvantage of using a credit card over a debit card is self-control. You have to make sure that you’ve saved enough money to cover your purchases when the credit card bill arrives in order to avoid finance charges. Since the money is not being taken out of your bank account immediately as you make purchases, there’s a high risk of overspending and accumulating interest-bearing debt. But with a little self-discipline you can actually avoid the finance charges and earn money on your purchases.

So, do you use debit cards? And if so, will these needless new fees affect your debit card usage?