Well, I got the kids, wife and house, but I’m still waiting on that dog.

When Allie and I started trying to have a baby, I had no idea how long it would take. No one does, apparently. I was actually shocked at how quickly things happened. Here we were one day finally agreeing to give it a shot when suddenly, BAM, it’s 9 months later and Jason was born. It took a little bit longer with Ryan, but overall not long at all.

That’s not to say we didn’t have complications or anything, but in the end, everyone turned out happy and healthy and I couldn’t ask for anything more. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking, “What if we just couldn’t get pregnant?“

In my day job at a marketing agency, one of our clients, AttainFertility, deals with infertility on a regular basis. Part of my job is to work with them on content strategies, and as such, I’ve spent a lot of time digging through their website and various social media accounts.

Before I go on, let me just say that I was not paid for this post at all, nor even told to write about them. In fact, the gang over at AF won’t even know about this until well after it’s live.

So why am I writing about this company if I’m not getting paid or at least getting a free baby out of the deal somehow? That’s simple. Because the people I work with over at AttainFertility are not just incredibly nice, sweet and helpful, but they truly believe in what they’re doing.

These guys and gals aren’t  just connecting depressed couples with fertility doctors who can attempt to help them get pregnant through IVF treatments. No, what they’re doing is helping to offer couples and single women the most powerful four-letter word in the world: Hope.

You may never ever reach your goal, whatever it is, but hope will keep you going. Hope will make you try and try again. Hope survives until you take your final dying breath… and then it lives on in your loved ones.

Okay, this is quickly becoming the most serious post I’ve ever written on my blog. That so wasn’t my point.

My first point actually,  is that if you’re having trouble conceiving and you’re considering IVF treatments, give AttainFertility a shot. I can’t speak personally about their success record (or else I’d be a modern medical miracle!), but I can at least confirm that they are indeed good people.

All that’s missing is a coconut drink, sunscreen and Gilligan.

The second point I wanted to bring up is that they’re currently running a pretty unique contest where you can Win a Romantic Trip for 2 to Costa Rica! How do you enter? Well, while the contest does relate to baby making, remember, this is a family friendly blog! So get your mind out of the gutter.

To enter, you simply need to create your own “Baby-Making Playlist!” Using a real simple interface, just enter some of your favorite songs that get you and your significant other in the right mood. Maybe it’s Journey’s classic “Faithfully.” Or Eric Clapton’s “Lady in Red.” Or for some, it could even be Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” Hey, to each his own, right?

What’s really neat about the Playlist Challenge is that you can view other people’s playlists, as well as see the current Top Trending songs.

As I write this, the Top 3 songs are:

1. “I’ll Make Love to You” by Boys II Men

2. “Crash into Me” by Dave Matthews Band

3. “Let’s Get it On” by Marvin Gaye

I wonder what those three songs are really trying to say…

Anyways, at this point, you’re probably real curious as to what kind of tunes get my mojo flowing. Am I right? Well, ladies, check out my playlist and then just try to tell me you aren’t already swooning.

You’ll never guess the other 8 songs on my playlist!

The contest ends on June 28, so put on your best MC Hammer pants, perfect your mad DJ skills, and enter already, will ya?

Enter the AttainFertility Playlist Challenge

Have you (or anyone you know) had IVF treatments?

Photo via Philippe Guillaume/Flickr

The jetlag’s almost gone and my massive migraine-like headache due to lack of sleep and mega stress is finally under control. So on this Sunday, Father’s Day, I couldn’t ask for a better present in the entire world than to be home safe and sound with my family.

Even with email, phone calls and yes FaceTime on the iPhone, there is still absolutely no replacement for hugging and kissing your loved ones in person.

So whatever your plans are for today, I hope they’re filled with plenty of food (hot dogs! hamburgers! beer!), family and fun. A super duper Happy Father’s Day to my dad, my brothers-in law, my cousins, uncles, friends, and blogging buddies.

Yep, this is how we roll on Father’s Day. All ready for an iHop breakfast…

Happy Father’s Day!

I’m currently out in L.A. again. Pasadena to be exact.

The other day we stopped to eat at an awesome place called the Dog Haus. I’m a big fan of hot dogs and this place is like a Wiener Nirvana.

As always, I order way too much to eat. And yet, I finish it. I think I’m still full and I ate this like two days ago!

So what’d I get this time? Well, besides a simple cheeseburger, I got myself a house special dog called The Amigo. It’s a chili dog with lettuce, diced tomato, cheddar cheese and sour cream. Instead of a typical hot dog bun, these guys serve everything on King’s Hawaiian dinner rolls. Three of those rolls together equal one super sweet awesome roll.

The Amigo gets a 9 out of 10 on the tastestastic scale, and an 11 out of 10 on the messy scale!

I also had to order some Ogre Rings. With a name like that, how could I not? They’re awesome onion rings with chili, diced onions, blue cheese crumbles and bacon. They were super crazy artery-clogging deliciousness!

If you’re ever in Pasadena (or anywhere near L.A.), and you’re a fan of hot dogs, it’d be a crime to pass up the Dog Haus!

What’s your favorite kind of hot dog?

I’m an old-school comic book fan. One who remembers when S.H.I.E.L.D. stood for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division. Yes, they changed it years ago in the comics and I’ve since come to terms with it. (You can thank my therapist for that.)

When Marvel’s Avengers line of movies started way back with the first Iron Man, I was pretty pumped, especially the very first time you saw Nick Fury walk on screen to confront Tony Stark. Yes, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been handled spectacularly in the movies, finally taking center stage in the Avengers movie itself.

And now, with the guidance of Joss Whedon, the fun continues over on TV with ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. hitting TVs this fall! It picks up where Avengers left off and the one big surprise is the return of Agent Phil Coulson!

Wha?! What the?!? If you saw Avengers, then you know that [SPOILER ALERT!] Agent Coulson was turned into a human shish-kebob courtesy of Loki. His death, in fact, is what sparked the Avengers to come together as a united front and take down Loki’s alien forces.

I’m not going to say anything else about that, except if you’re a comic book fan, you’re probably guessing one of those Phils is an LMD, am I right?

Anyways, take a look at the official trailer and please try not to get drool on my website, okay?

Clark Gregg reprises his role of Agent Phil Coulson from Marvel’s feature films as he assembles a small, highly select group of Agents from the worldwide law-enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Together they investigate the new, the strange, and the unknown across the globe, protecting the ordinary from the extraordinary. Coulson’s team consists of Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), highly trained in combat and espionage, Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) expert pilot and martial artist, Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker); brilliant engineer and Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) genius bio-chemist. Joining them on their journey into mystery is new recruit and computer hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet).

From Executive Producers Joss Whedon (“Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”); Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” pilot co-writers (“Dollhouse,” “Dr.Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”); Jeffrey Bell (“Angel,” “Alias”); and Jeph Loeb (“Smallville,” “Lost,” “Heroes”) comes Marvel’s first TV series. “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is produced by ABC Studios and Marvel Television.

Y’know all those little K’NEX pieces on your living room floor? The ones you’ve told your kids umpteen times to clean up and put away? Yeah, the ones you keep stepping on barefoot each morning. Those pieces.

Well, hold your rants for now because those little suckers could help your kid win $3,650 worth of prizes in the K’NEXpert Search challenge!

Your kids just need to create a super cool original K’NEX model and send in photos of their masterpieces. This year, the contest is broken down into 4 Grand Prize winners based on age groups: 5-6 years old; 7-8 years old; 9-11 years old; and 12-14 years old. What, no 40-50 years old category?

The K’NEXpert Search challenges young builders to design & submit a creative, original model made entirely from K’NEX parts and are judged on creativity, uniqueness and detail.

So what exactly can you, er, your kids win? A pretty sweet prize package, that’s what!

This year, grand prize winners will receive the coolest K’NEXpert prize package yet:

• $2,500
• An iPad Mini
• $250 gift card to Toys “R” Us
• $500 K’NEX credit code good toward a shopping spree at knex.com.

An additional eight finalists will each receive a $250 K’NEX credit code good towards a shopping spree at knex.com, a $100 Toys “R” Us gift card and a K’NEX t-shirt.

Take a look at some of the fun from last year’s K’NEXperts challenge:

To enter, just fill out the online entry form at Knexperts.com. All submissions must include 3 photos of the creations and a short one-minute video or one-page summary describing how your child came up with the idea, how long it to make, and how many K’NEX pieces were used.

The K’NEXpert Search runs through August 23, 2013, so hurry and get building already!

Good luck to all of you who enter!

Now that I know the whole story, I was happy to dive into the assortment of Iron Man toys and action figures that Hasbro sent my way for review. I’m a sucker for superheroes, so I couldn’t wait to dive right in and… ahem… “assemble” this post.

First up is the Iron Man 3 Arc Strike Iron Man figure  which passed the daddy test. I like this larger 10″ action figures with sound. When you tilt Shell-Head the right way, he gets into flight mood and you hear the cool jet propulsion sounds. You can also hit a button on his side to activate a number of phrases from the tin man himself.

Next, I played around with the Iron Man 3 Assemblers action figures. I’ve probably owned a few hundred different superhero action figures in my life (okay, fine. That’s a very conservative number.), but these were a bit different. Just like Tony Stark, you get to tinker around with his armor! Each suit comes apart at the main joints and every piece is completely interchangeable and compatible with another figure. Plus, each figure comes with extra limbs to swap in and out.

Yes, you get to play Dr. Frankenstein with Iron Man’s many armors!

Take a closer look at these figures courtesy of my energetic assistant, Ryan.

Of course, pictures can’t do these toys justice. So I donned my armor and once again requested the aid of my trusty assistant. Clearly he was more interested in winning an Academy Award, then helping me out. But you be the judge.

Did you see Iron Man 3 yet?

I was given the products featured in this post for review purposes. No other compensation was given. All thoughts and opinions are solely my own.

Ever since high school, my hair has started thinning. I definitely remember my wonderful classmates being more than happy to point out that I had a bald spot. Yeah, I just got a license to drive and I already had a bald spot.

That bald spot certainly grew over the years and is quite a bit bigger today. My hairline has also receded, happily showing the world my beautiful forehead. I guess I should be happy that at least I don’t have as monstrous a forehead as Dawson Leery.

I guess I’ve known all my life that my hair would continue to fade away as I got older. My dad’s got a huge bald spot on the top of his head and a pretty high hairline too. Thankfully it doesn’t seem like complete baldness is in our future.

That’s why when I was asked to review Viviscal‘s products that promote hair growth, I figured I was spot on for this one.

I was sent samples of Viviscal’s Hair Filler Fibers and Viviscal Man tablets. I’ll admit that I haven’t tried the tablets yet, I was real curious to try out the hair filler fibers. No surgery, no hair implants, no spray paint. More like shaking a container of pepper onto your head.

I had selected “dark brown/black” as my hair color. The jar itself has a shaker top that lets you sprinkle out the tiny fibers onto your head. You sprinkle them over your head and gently stroke the area.

The Filler Fibers contain microscopic, electrostatically charged fibers that stick to your existing hair to create the appearance of a full set of hair. As long as you have some hair on your head, these fibers will give you the appearance of a thicker head of hair.

Obviously, I was skeptical. But after trying this just once, my wife could not believe the difference. It really looks tremendously different. Take a look at these photos:

BEFORE

AFTER 

It really looks a ton better and completely natural. I’ve worn the fillers a number of times so far and they’ve actually lasted the entire day. Even with a few super hot sweaty days, as well as rainy days, the fillers stayed in place. I haven’t tried jumping in a swimming pool with them yet, but I’m curious to see what happens.

They do easily come out if you take a shower and shampoo your hair, so no need to worry that they’ll stick to your head forever.

Viviscal Hair Filler Fibers:

• An easy, instant way to get a fuller, thicker, natural looking head of hair in seconds
• Simply shake fibers onto hair and blend
• Each fiber is coated with an electrostatic coating which binds it to the hair shaft, immediately building hair density
• Will not run, stain or smear and last until washed out with shampoo
• Suitable for women and for men
• Available in 5 natural colors
• Size: 15 grams – typically 1 months’ supply
• Available in dark brown, light brown, and blonde

Availability: www.viviscal.com and Rite Aid

Price: $24.99

The Viviscal Man tablets are formulated to promote existing hair growth and nourish thinning hair. You just need to take two tablets daily for at least a 3 to 6-month period.

Viviscal Man:

• Viviscal Hair Growth Program specifically formulated for men
• Contains the same amount of patented and clinically proven AminoMar™ as Viviscal Extra Strength
• Has 36.4% more Zinc than the Extra Strength
• Contains Flaxseed as an additional ingredient, which is believed to be a DHT blocker. DHT is a hormone that is the primary contributing factor for male pattern baldness.

Availability: www.viviscal.com, Walgreen’s, Duane Reade and Rite Aid

Price: $49.99

While baldness may not be something you talk about with your family, chances are you know someone (your husband, your father, yourself) who is going bald. These would certainly make for a unique Father’s Day gift, though, wouldn’t they?

Visit Viviscal.com for more information. You can also save 10% on Viviscal Man and Viviscal Hair Filler Fibers at Walgreens.com through the month of July by using promo code VIVISCALMAN during checkout.

Do you think my hair looks natural in my “AFTER” photo?

I first wrote about my experience ordering a custom suit from Indochino about three months ago. Now I’d like to share the positively awesome results with you.

My suit arrived about five to six weeks after ordering it. I had no idea how it’d show up but it came in a nice large box, folded neatly inside. I tried the jacket on first and it was uber comfy. The pants, however, turned out to be a good three or four inches too short. They felt really comfy, they just looked a bit silly being so high.

I contacted Indochino’s customer service department from their website and have to say I was quite impressed with them. Not only did I get a very quick response, but they carefully labeled out exactly what I could do. If there’s enough material left, bring it to a local tailor and see if they can fix it. Indochino would even pick up the tab on alterations! If there’s not enough to let out, then I let Indochino know and they’ll send a new pair of pants after I re-measure.

So I brought them to a local tailor and they were indeed too short. We re-measured and emailed the corrections to Indochino. After acknowledging my alteration email, I was told it’d be another five or six weeks until my new pants would arrive. So I waited. Thankfully, I didn’t have a need for any wedding suits in the meantime. Although my old roommate’s getting married in late June, so I still had plenty of time.

The pants finally arrived and couldn’t wait to try them on. Of course that meant really dressing up again so I could take photos for this post. I’m a T-shirt and jeans kind of guy so dressing up is never a fun occasion, especially when I’m not even going anywhere. So you should feel extra special that I dressed up solely for this blog post!

The pants fit so much better, coming down to below the top of my shoes. I then tried on the full outfit to see how it looked. It felt real comfortable I have to say. Although the shirt I picked was a little snug. It “might” have something to do with the fact that I’ve gained a good 10 or 15 pounds over the last few months thanks to mega stress. Yeah, thanks, Indochino. After looking at these photos, I so need to go on a diet. Either that, or I need another custom suit for my second chin…

The real test would be how it looked, though. I walked downstairs and Allie’s immediate reaction was, “Wow! That looks so good on you!” I’m a terrible judge of fashion (Which explains why my closet is basically full of Yankees, Atari and Star Wars T-shirts), so I rely on my wife’s opinion to make sure I don’t look ridiculous.

But take a look for yourself:

I love the monogramming inside the jacket too. It says, “Custom Made for Andrew Kardon” right about the left breast pocket. Now I’ll never have to worry about someone walking off with my jacket while I’m off busting a move on the dance floor!

Here’s a look at my suit from the back…

… and another from the back in a casual, jacket-over-the-shoulder pose. Note that Mega Bloks Skylander toys are not included with your purchase. Sorry.

And there you have it. Now that I have my proper measurements, it’ll be super easy to order more suits from Indochino in the future.

I was real impressed with the site’s user-friendly interface, and just as impressed with the company’s customer service and quality merchandise. I’d certainly recommend using them if you’ve never had a custom suit before, or if you’re like me and hate in-store shopping.

Now I can’t wait until my friend’s wedding, so I have a legitimate reason to wear my new custom threads!

Visit Indochino.com

So how do I look? (Please, be gentle)

Build long, and prosper.

Let me get this out of the way. I’m not a Trekkie. Nor a Trekker. I pick Star Wars over Star Trek any day of the week.

That’s not to say I don’t appreciate Star Trek. I loved Star Trek: The Next Generation and never missed a single episode. I enjoyed half of the Classic Trek movies (the even ones), and found some of the episodes entertaining. For the most part, they were a bit too slow and plain for me to really get into though.

Deep Space Nine held my interest, then lost it, then got it back, then lost it again. Voyager and Enterprise made me pray for a Star Wars: Jedi Academy TV show to make up for Star Trek’s spiral into awfulness.

At this point, I figure I’ve either completely lost half my readers or angered the other half. Hopefully I’ve got another half made up of Star Wars fans to get my back. Er, yeah, math was never one of my strong suits…

All of that isn’t to say that Star Trek blows. Far from it. Without Star Trek, we’d never have Star Wars. Plus phasers and transporters are damn cool. Klingons are awesome bad guys and even more awesome volatile allies in later years. The Prime Directive (do not interfere with other planets’ evolution), while often broken more times than the hearts of the women in Captain Kirk’s wake, is an awesome idea to wrap an entire series around.

No, I like Star Trek. I like the entire universe. I’m just not obsessed with it.

But I’ll admit that my heart did skip a beat or two (hey, this is what I get excited about), when I was asked to review Hasbro’s new line of KRE-O building sets based on Classic Star Trek and the latest Star Trek: Into Darkness film. They sent me three sets: Transporter Trouble, Klingon Bird-of-Prey, and the U.S.S. Enterprise.

I mean, seriously, how can anyone pass up the chance to build the U.S.S. Enterprise? Even my kids, who know zip about Trek, thought it looked pretty cool.

So I took the three Trek sets I was sent and split them up among the boys in my house. Allie, on the other hand, supervised swimmingly from the comfort of our coach.

I grabbed the monstrous Enterprise and got to work building the best character ever created in the Star Trek Universe.

She looks great when she’s not all blown up and stuff.

You can raise the roof and see the entire crew inside!

Don’t ask me what happened to Chekov or Sulu…

Ryan got to build the Klingon Bird-of-Prey, which is much smaller than the Enterprise, but far more menacing looking.

Ryan even matched his clothes for the occasion.

When Ryan wasn’t looking, I couldn’t resist “play testing” his Bird of Prey.

That left the transporter for Jason to construct.

Jason was slightly disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to teleport himself to GameStop.

Klingons prepare to make a Kirk sandwich!

I have to admit, when I first heard Hasbro was putting out a line of building toys called KRE-O, I was less than impressed. So many companies have put out construction toys, many flimsy and cheaply made. But the KRE-O pieces were much sturdier than I expected, and for the most part, fit together quite nicely.

They also do a great job with the instructions, clearly labeling what pieces are needed with each step before they show you exactly how to put it all together.

I will say, however, that I did have a slight… ahem… temper tantrum when I was about two-thirds done with the Enterprise. Don’t worry, the kids were in the other room watching Minecraft YouTube videos at the time. I had the bulk of the saucer-part done with the Enterprise, yet when it came to attaching it to the main part of the ship, I just couldn’t get it to work. The pieces just weren’t clicking right. I double and triple-checked the directions to make sure I did it right. It took a number of tries but after taking a deep breath and going very slowly, I finally managed to connect it all together.

These sets come with a light-up brick to add some light effects to your play. Yes, you do need to add batteries to the Enterprise to get the full photon torpedo and Warp Engine action. Here’s a quick video of the toys in action:

Shop for KRE-O Star Trek

What do you love about Star Trek?

I was given the products featured in this post for review purposes. No other compensation was given. All thoughts and opinions are solely my own.

To this day, my parents still remind me of the the one visit they’ll never forget. As usual, it was a real hot summer day and we had spent a number of hours already walking the mammothly large zoo. Apparenly all I wanted was to see the giraffes.

I kept bugging them about it and by the end they finally said okay, let’s find the giraffes. And of course, they were clear on the other side of the park, so my parents had to carry me for probably miles as they made their way to the giraffe enclosure. I think I just smiled and then said, “I want to go home.”

Nowadays, my kids are the ones sending me all over the zoo. We’ve gone probably a dozen times already since they were born and yet every time, we see maybe 1/6th of the entire park, if that.

I like zoos, especially when the animals have a habitat to run around in, rather than a small cage. Yes I know zoos can certainly be educational but I never realized how helpful they could be in teaching my kids math!

When I was asked to review a new edutainment app called GazziliMath I figured it’d be a fun calculator-like app. Instead, I was thrown into an animated world of children at the zoo, where every step was an entertaining math lesson.

GazziliMath plays like an interactive cartoon. Nice, simple graphics keep things from being too distracting. Some apps put all their eggs in the one super animation basket, leaving them with no story, no good gameplay, etc. This one had a really perfect balance across the board.

The story starts at the zoo where the app asks you numeral-related questions such as “How many tickets do you need to enter the zoo?” You count the number of kids on the screen, hit the correct number from a displayed list. If you’re wrong, the app gently tells you to try again. If you’re right, you receive some encouraging words, see the gates open and watch your characters walk in.

Other fun challenges include counting up the number of animals in each area at the zoo, as well as helping to feed each group based on the number of picnic baskets waiting to be given out.

What’s really nice about this app is that it doesn’t just teach the same concept over and over and over and nothing else. It teaches similar concepts but through a variety of different examples. Kids will count animals, learn to count from 1 to 10 both backwards and forwards, etc.

I also like how GazziliMath does a solid job of taking advantage of the iPad’s features. Some challenges require kids to touch the correct number or animal, while others see kids pinching or dragging objects across the screen. Fine motor skills help too! Total bonus!

After each level there’s a super short quiz just following up on the main lesson just taught. Once complete, kids get to the GazziliMath Fun page! Basically you have animals that you press and they play a different instrument. As you advance through the game, more and more animals are added to your orchestra. It’s a cute incentive that’s sure to entertain the little ones. Heck, I had a blast making the cat “meow” over and over, while a seal played some horns.

There are also a number of settings parents will enjoy such as the ability to turn on/off sound effects music and even a hearing-impaired mode that displays the narrator’s words as they’re spoken.

If you’ve got a preschooler who’s just learning how to count or one who needs some extra practice, definitely give GazziliMath a shot.

 

GazziliMath Features:

- 6 math-based activities

- Successful completion of each activity brings GazziliFunPage to life

- Hearing Impaired Mode’ includes spoken narration of written words

- Interactive animations, music, sound-effects and surprise features

- Improves hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills

GazziliMath for the iPad is available for $1.99 on the iTunes App Store

This is a sponsored post. While I was compensated for this post, the thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own and in no way were influenced by the company.