The hot dogs. Hamburgers. Corn on the cob. Potato Salad. Pickles. Cole Slaw. I only wish the internet had smell-o-vision installed already.

Yes, Memorial Day’s upon us and to me that means three magical letters: BBQ!

If you haven’t used your grill yet, Memorial Day’s the time to do it. I don’t care if there’s 3 feet of snow on your deck, you have a Constitutional right to uphold. The right to cook hot dogs!

Now, whether you have an old grill or none at all, you’ll want to check out this sizzling giveaway from LD Products. They asked me to share it with you and even have a separate giveaway to run on Mommy’s Busy… Go Ask Daddy. (More about that in a minute.)

LD Products sells all sorts of ink and toner for your printer. They specialize in re-manufactured ink, which not only helps you stay green (as in environmental, not necessarily the color), but you’ll save some big bucks too. Also known as “greenbacks.” Get it? More green!

To help celebrate the kick off the cookout season, LD Products is giving away a monstrous Grill Package valued at roughly $1,100!

The prize includes:

• Weber Genesis S-310 Grill
• Weber Grill Cover
• Cuisinart Grill Tools
• Assorted Grill Swag – includes skewers (100-pack), cedar planks, grilling basket, 5 lb. bag of mesquite wood chunks, 5 lb. bag of cherry wood chunks, and 12-in. grilling thermometer
• The value is about $1,100
• Grill Giveaway ends June 7, 2013 at 11:59 pm PST

It’s a snap to enter. Just click the link below and enter your email address. Nothing more!

Enter the Grill Giveaway

The fine folks over at LD Products also want to reward my readers with $100 credit towards re-manufactured ink on their website, so you can really test out their products!

Win $100 Credit to LDProducts.com

(Re-manufactered ink only)

Use the rafflecopter widget below to enter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends on June 7, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on this site. Giveaway is open only to legal residents of the Contiguous United States (including District of Columbia), who are at least eighteen (18) years old at the time of entry. The winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

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.

Earlier this year, I talked about a search called Qmee. It’s a neat little app that you just add to your browser and it lets you earn money simply by searching or shopping at your favorite places.

You don’t need to use a special search engine and you actually do get pretty solid results. Best of all, Qmee pays you via PayPal as quickly as you’d like.

How it works is pretty seamless. You do a regular search on Google, eBay, even Amazon, and a Qmee sidebar pops up on the left side of your browser. It lists related results to your search, along with a price next to each result. Click on any of those, and you’ll bank that money immediately into your PayPal account, while your browser redirects you to the page you wanted to see.

If you don’t like Qmee’s results, you can just click the regular results in the main window of your browser. And cashing out via PayPal couldn’t be better. There is no minimum (shocking to me!) and it shows up in your account pretty darn quickly.

Qmee’s been in beta since I first checked it out in January, but they finally have finished testing, fixing bugs, and all that jazz and have officially come out of beta! Woo!

Unfortunately, they’re still only letting in users who have invites, as they slowly roll out their program.

Lucky for you, you’ve got Mommy’s Busy, Go Ask Daddy on your side! My new good buddy Amy (Cheers, Amy!) who lives across the Big Pond, hooked me up with a bunch more invites to share with my readers.

So if you’re interested in joining Qmee now, I currently have 24 invites left, so the first 24 to snag them can get in. Just click the link below to sign up and grab one of my invites.

Sign Up for Qmee

(Only 24 invites left)

Please let me know what you think of Qmee by leaving a comment below!

I’ve worked with many companies before doing reviews, giveaways and just general posts. But I’ve never before been an official blog ambassador.

Blog Ambassadors get to represent a company through multiple posts all year. Specifics vary by company, but some are paid, while others only give you free merchandise to review and give away.

I’ve always wanted to get an ambassadorship, and now a little over one year into blogging on Mommy’s Busy, Go Ask Daddy, I finally got my first official one. I’m proud to say that I am an official K’NEX Ambassador for 2013!

I’ve built a number of K’NEX toys with my kids in the past, mostly Amusement Park toys such as a dueling rollercoaster and Ferris Wheel. They’re a ton of fun to put together and even more fun when you’re done. Since they attach to a motor, they really do move, plus you can stick all sorts of little figures in the seats and give them the ride of their lives.

Thourhgout the rest of the year, I’ll be sharing the latest K’NEX news, reviews and hopefully some giveaways with you guys. I happen to have the inside scoop on a few upcoming sets and I absolutely cannot wait for them to come out later this year. Let’s just say if you’re a big video game fan like myself, you’re going to go broke buying up everything.

I’ve already received my first box of toys to review from K’NEX, so I sat down with my boys this morning and put a few sets together. There’s a neat line of motorized Robo Creatures. They aren’t too difficult to put together, but definitely take a little bit of time, so they give you your money’s worth.

Ryan decided to put together the Robo-Sting. It took us a few minutes to figure it out but we’re pretty sure this is supposed to be a bee.

Jason grabbed the Robo-Smash! This was one killer robot!

That left me with the Robo-Strike. If you can’t tell, this one’s a robotic scorpion. And no, I don’t know what’s going on with my hair.

We each grabbed the instructions, dumped everything in piles on the floor and got to work!

The most colorful killer bee ever!

This robot reminds me of a crazed gorilla!

Never ever sneak up on a scorpion!

I have to admit, when we finished, these all looked pretty cool. And when you turn them on (they go backwards and forwards), the movement is pretty freaky. I need to turn these on one night when it’s super quiet in the house, so I can scare the bejeezus out of Allie with them.

The robot is probably my favorite because he really looks like a few screws are loose and he’s about to hunt me down and bring me back to his robot overlords. Ryan helped me put together a quick video to show you how they move.

You can pick up the Robo Creatures K’NEX toys either online or at your local toy stores.

Buy K’NEX

While one or more of the products mentioned in this post were given to me for review purposes, no other compensation was provided. All thoughts and opinions in this post are my own.

Okay, anyways… my true confession is that… it’s true. I haven’t seen Iron Man 3 yet.

I know. I know. What the hell is wrong with me? I wrote a friggin’ blog post that actually analyzed the movie posters for crying out loud. Clearly the Box Office didn’t seem to miss my $11, though. So why haven’t I seen it yet?

I haven’t seen it yet for one very solid reason. I’m a good dad.

See, Jason’s birthday was on May 3. Yeah, the day Iron Man 3 opened. We originally were going to take him and a few of his friends to see it as his birthday party. Followed by a night of junk food, pizza and a sleepover. Except there was always a conflict with the date, so we ended up pushing it off a few weeks.

Which means, I can’t see Iron Man 3 for a few more weeks. Unless I sneak out and see it, but I know Jason’s dying to watch it with his friends and me first. So I’m being good and waiting.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy some Iron Man 3 merchandise! Yes there are plenty of action figures and role-playing toys to go around, but that’s kids’ stuff. (Mostly.) But did you know there’s an entire Iron Man 3 store over on CafePress.com?

I was approached by the gang over at Cafe Press to take a look at them all and share with you guys.

And I have to admit, there are some pretty neat items in there. Yes, there’s plenty of  Iron Man 3 shirts and even boxers to go around. But they have oodles of iPhone cases with various Iron Man pictures on them, Stark Industries mugs (love the R&D Department one!), an Iron Man shower curtain,  Iron Man 3 hoodies, a  messenger bag, coffee tray and more!

Even cooler, Cafe Press is sponsoring a giveaway on Mommy’s Busy, Go Ask Daddy, so one lucky winner can build his or her own arsenal of Iron Man merchandise! So what exactly can you win?

Win a $50 Gift Certificate to CafePress.com

Use the rafflecopter widget below to enter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Giveaway ends on June 1, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on this site. Giveaway is open only to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States (including District of Columbia) and Canada, who are at least eighteen (18) years old at the time of entry. The winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

While the prize was provided by Cafe Press, all thoughts and opinions in this post are my own.

More Contests & Giveaways
Online-Sweepstakes
Sweepstakes
Infinite Sweepstakes
Contest Bee
As seen on Hypersweep.com
The Sweepstakes Wire™
Sweepstakes Fanatics  – Share Your Giveaways for Free
Blog Giveaway Directory
Super-Sweeps
BearableDeals
About.com Contests 
Sweepstakes Crazy- Your Source for free online sweepstakes, contests, games, and free stuff on the Web.
Contests & Sweepstakes
More free to enter sweepstakes at ContestHound.com

You really have to hand it to Disney. (Or Disney Interactive in this case.) They really know how to take a good idea and make it great. Not to mention cute. Apparently they grow stalks of adorableness at Disney HQ year round.

I’ve written about Club Penguin before, so you already know that I’m a big fan of the virtual world for kids, as are my two boys. And now, Disney has done what nature never could… they’ve made penguins fly! Well, assuming you download the My Penguin app to your iPad and bring it on an airplane, that is.

The My Penguin mobile app is not only free; it’s pretty darn addicting. The app is filled with some of Club Penguin’s most popular games including Pufflescape, Puffle Rescue, Puffle Roundup and Ice Fishing. I have to admit, I just played Ice Fishing for the first time and I had to snap myself out of it to write this post, or else I’d still be playing! It’s so simple to play on the iPad but it’s so darn cute, you don’t want to stop. I totally would’ve beaten that shark too…

Look who’s about to catch his 50th fish!

I tried out Puffle Rescue as well which reminded me of the Old School arcade game Frogger. But instead of running across busy highways and lily pads with a frog, you’re a brave penguin leaping across ice blocks to save a stranded Puffle. I was immensely proud of myself when my penguin made it to the Puffle and started bringing him back. Proud, that is, until I stopped to gloat and that’s when the ice cracked beneath my penguin’s feet, er, flippers, and he plunged into the icy depths below.

Time to rescue that Puffle! Hmm… wonder what this game is called…

Yes, playing Club Penguin’s most popular games on the iPad is a blast and you and your kids will love it. But even better, you can earn coins and items while playing and transfer them to your ClubPenguin.com account when connected to Wi-Fi.

And coming soon is a My Penguin app-exclusive game… Sushi Drop! I’m so ready for it! Though I’m afraid I might start smearing wasabi all over my iPad if I’m not careful.

There’s also plenty of videos, sneak peeks at upcoming releases on the What’s New Blog, and you can create a new penguin from scratch if you’d like and customize him or her with all sorts of fun outfits and accessories. I had fun bringing Stinkypantz to life and making him as fashionable as my own outfits are every day. You can also simply login to the app using your penguin name and password from the virtual world.

Yes, my penguin’s called Stinkypantz, and he’s not even wearing any pants.

If your kids are as into Club Penguin as mine are, definitely download this free app for them. And if you’ve always wanted to try Club Penguin out but never got around to it for some reason, My Penguin is the perfect way to try out a few of the site’s best games.

Download the free My Penguin app 

It really comes as no surprise that some of the marketing folks over at Disney are just way too sweet. They’re not only eternally happy, bubbly and helpful, but they’re a sincere pleasure to work with. (Special “you rock” shout-out to Mackenzie!) Besides filling me in on the My Penguin app, Disney’s ponying up… or rather, penguining up a fantastic prize for a Mommy’s Busy, Go Ask Daddy giveaway!

Win a 1-Year Membership to Club Penguin

($60 Value)

Use the rafflecopter widget below to enter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Giveaway ends on May 31, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on this site. Giveaway is open only to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States (including District of Columbia), who are at least eighteen (18) years old at the time of entry. The winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

More Contests & Giveaways
Online-Sweepstakes
About Sweepstakes
Infinite Sweepstakes
Contest Bee
As seen on Hypersweep.com
The Sweepstakes Wire™
Sweepstakes Fanatics  – Share Your Giveaways for Free
Blog Giveaway Directory
Super-Sweeps
BearableDeals
About.com Contests 
Sweepstakes Crazy- Your Source for free online sweepstakes, contests, games, and free stuff on the Web.
Contests & Sweepstakes
More free to enter sweepstakes at ContestHound.com

Since I took a few photos and had some fun tales, I thought I’d just share with you. Unless you want me to bring out the slide projector that is…

 I knew it was going to be a rough trip when the TV monitor in front of my seat was showing me fun code and a Linux penguin. Sigh. Everyone else gets to watch the latest hits like Hansel and Gretel. I’m stuck deciphering code.

We landed no problem, rented a car and drove the hour up to Pasadena. Not too much traffic and we eventually pulled into our hotel (That would be the Vagabond Inn), which we picked because of good reviews, close proximity to where my meeting was, and because it got pretty good reviews. Overall, it was totally fine. Certainly seemed a bit dated, but for the price, it was more than adequate. Here’s the view from our room. I just love those mountains in the distance.

And you just know you’re in a classy joint when they have to nail down the iron to the ironing board.

Did I mention it happened to be insanely hot in Pasadena for this time of year? Like almost record-breaking hot.

 The first thing we needed to do was eat. They fed us nothing on the plane and we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast way early in the morning. So I browsed UrbanSpoon and saw a place called the Dog Haus. It happened to be right around the corner!

I cannot pass up a good hot dog. Heck, I can’t pass up a bad one either. This place was fanTASTIC. Food was incredible and the menu is crazy. That on the bottom is a Reservoir Dog (haus chili, mustard, and haus slaw), and the other is a Frickin Chicken (chicken sausage, onion, garlic, melted mozzarella, and tomato sauce). I wanted the Sweet Potato Tater Tots but alas they were out of them. The food was equal parts messy and mouth-wateringly delicious. I’d definitely go back. Like a zillion times.

Later on that night we realized we hadn’t really had dinner, since the Dog Haus was more of a late lunch (at 4 p.m.), so we tried out this nearby Noodle House… and man was it good. We hit the restaurant jackpot that day apparently. I went with a basic chicken yakisoba and I could’ve eaten a bathtub full of those noodles!

The next day was a long one and I got it in my head that I needed a Pepperidge Farm frozen cake. I hadn’t had one in years. So we drove around, found a Ralph’s, found a cake, went back to hotel and proceeded to devour said cake.

The last day we had some time to kill before hitting the airport that evening, so per my buddy Mel’s suggestion, we hit Venice Beach. It supposedly has a fun boardwalk and is pretty close to the airport.

The Boardwalk stretched pretty far. We walked most of it but never made it to the end. Sadly, it was late in the day so most shops were closed or closing. The bulk of the stores, though, were either Tattoo parlors, T-shirt shops, or shops selling… ahem… glass water vaporizers. I can’t imagine why there’d be sooo many stores selling these funny glass shaped vaporizers that don’t even run on electricity! You just use any old cigarette lighter it seems. Fascinating!

One of the cool stores that was open had a section up front with some artistic sculptures made of scrap metal. Check out the ginormous Optimus Prime and Bumblebee Transformers! These things were HUGE. Like over 10 feet tall.

I didn’t ask if they’re for sale even, but they do make smaller metal sculptures of all sorts of pop-culture characters.

These are the droids I’m looking for! I totally would’ve bought them if I had a few hundred bucks to spare.

Yep, even SpongeBob has gone metal!

I found it funny that right in the middle of all the…ahem… interesting shops, there was a Jewish Center! The Shul on the Beach!

The place was pretty full of kids skateboarding or smoking. Or smoking on their skateboards. Clearly I fit right in…

We made it to the airport way ahead of time and finally made it home. California’s great and all, but I’m just a New York suburb kind of guy. One who’s super happy to be home with his beautiful wife and amazingly awesome kids.

The End

I saw this posted on Facebook earlier today and it really touched me. Yes, I’m a guy, but I’m allowed to have a sensitive side. Plus, it’s baseball related. Find me one guy on the planet who hasn’t teared up just a little while watching Field of Dreams!

I have no idea if this is a real sign somewhere or a Photoshop. (My money’s on Photoshop.) But regardless, I believe 100% in what it says and think that the official Little League association should officially adopt this poem as its motto. Or rather, it’s mission statement.

I want to see this sign placed in a highly visible spot near all the bleachers at every single Little League ball field around the country.

I don’t know where the photo originated, so if you do know (or it’s your photo!), let me know in the comments below.

Play Ball!

While every day should be Mother’s Day (taking care of kids is the hardest and most rewarding job in the world), it’s still nice to take a day and remind mom how awesomely special she is.

That goes for all you women out there–even if you don’t have any kids, you can still be a fur baby mom. Taking care of dogs, cats, bunnies, etc., is a big responsibility too! So don’t feel left out on this holiday!

I want to wish my beautiful wife, my mom, my sister, mother in law, sisters-in-law, aunts, cousins and all you other family and friends with kids a very Happy Mother’s Day!

Now I’ll let my old friend Mr. T bring it on home for me. Hit it, T…

When I was a kid, I had this little Disney phonograph. It was a small blue plastic case that opened up to reveal a small record player inside. There was a big picture of Pluto on the front and the arm of the player that you move to play the record was actually in the shape of a dog bone.

I tormented my poor family in those early years by playing and playing and playing and playing this Batman record I had. In particular a song called “Here Comes the Batman.” My mom probably still quakes in fear whenever I sing it near her.

But the one other thing I recall fondly about my record player was this Book & Record set I had. It was a 45 rpm record that went with an included Captain America comic book. (It was Captain America #168 for those of you keeping score at home. Great issue!) The record was just a narrative of the story, complete with different voices for each character and all sorts of related sound effects. Yeah, it was my first “book on tape” basically and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Nowadays, the only record my kids seem to know about is the current high score in Mario Kart. But thanks to some fantastic advances in technology, something as awesome as an iPad can bring just as much joy and entertainment to young kids as my little Pluto phonograph did for me.

I was asked to review a new book reading app called MudBuddy and if this is the future of reading for young kids, I think they’re in pretty good hands. MudBuddy tells the story of a little guy made of mud who tries to find his place in life. He’s dull, brown and doesn’t seem to do anything. So he goes on a quest to learn more about himself and finds some surprisingly wonderful things about himself after interacting with his friend Worm, a talking rock and plenty of other creatures of nature.

The story itself is easy enough for real young kids to follow along and with plenty of humorous situations, they’ll certainly be entertained. The artwork is both vibrant, cute and engaging. MudBuddy and his pals are just cute li’l guys who you’d probably love to spend an afternoon hanging out with in your backyard. Though, beware of too many hugs, or you’ll certainly need a long hot bath afterwards.

It’s the delivery of MudBuddy, though, that impressed me the most. I’ve seen children’s books on the iPad before and they translate fine but they don’t do more than just offer a different way to read the book. MudBuddy, however, takes advantage of the iPad’s technology to go beyond that. Happy background music softly plays throughout, giving a nice friendly overwhelming feeling via a “soundtrack.” There’s even some slick animation throughout. No, it’s not a cartoon or anything, but as you turn pages, some will zoom in to larger areas and at one point MudBuddy kept pointing impatiently to the lower right corner, encouraging me to move on to the next page.

You can choose to listen to the book as a narrator reads the entire thing, changing up voices for each character. He’s got a great voice that’s engaging and fun enough to keep you wondering what’s happening next. If you’d rather turn off the narrator and read it yourself, just click one button and you’re there.

The simplicity of the menu is great for young kids (and grandparents too!), as a slide-down menu simply lets you jump to any page in the book and turn on/off the narrator. That’s it. Nothing else to get in the way or cause any confusion.

This is the first of hopefully many books in the MudBuddy series. Hopefully it will encourage parents to head out to their own backyard with their kids and start exploring nature in a fun, hands-on way. In fact, after yesterday’s massive rainstorm here in NY, I think I may just find MudBuddy and his entire extended family out back!

You can download MudBuddy for just $1.99 in the Apple App Store.

This post was brought to you by MudBuddy. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own and in no way were influenced by the company sponsoring this post.

Then I met my wife in college, who was not only a huge fan of Ms. Pac-Man, she was also the best player in the whole dorm! That and the fact that she didn’t run to the hills when she saw my comic book collection was all I needed to know that it was true love.

Anyways, this weekend we celebrated Jason’s 10th birthday and Allie made an awesometastic cake. Jason loves Mario and all things video games. She actually made him a Creeper cookie cake a few days earlier for a joint family party with his cousin Harry, so she wanted to do something different. So as a surprise (to him and to me too), she made a Pac-Man and Ghost cake!

Pac-Man eats the ghost, we eat Pac-Man. It’s the circle of life.

Gotta love those LEGO candles!

Notice the light blue ghost? That way it can be Clyde, Inky, Blinky or Pinky!

But this weekend, I also participated in a Cheetos Art Contest held by Life of Dad. I was sent a bag of Cheetos and charged with the task of creating a work of art with them. I gave it some serious thought. My bag contained orange Cheetos puffs, small green puffs, thin red crunchy Cheetos and large round Chex-like ones.

My initial thought was to try to make Garfield. He’s orange and has some recognizable features. But once I started, it didn’t go so well. Then I took most of the green ones and made a Yoda head. Not too bad until Allie told me to make the whole body, which turned into a disaster. She, on the other hand, made a cute Luigi hat but when she tried making his face, it was as bad as my Yoda body.

Then it hit me. What kind of people love Cheetos the most? Yeah, gamers. Who doesn’t own at least one game controller covered in orange powder? So what game should I make? Allie’s cake must’ve been in my mind because my initial thought was Pac-Man.

Allie worked on the ghost while I handled Pac-Man himself. It ended up pretty awful, so Allie took over Pac-Man for me while I added the dots and built out the maze. The end result was pretty good I think.

CHOMP!

Three of my favorite things: My wife, Pac-Man and Cheetos!

My infamous Pac-Man impression.

You can view my entry here. If I’m selected as the best Cheetos artist, I’ll win a trip to the Dad 2.0 Summit, a blogging convention for daddy bloggers. (Or a seemingly legitimate excuse to hang out with some other dads and drink ourselves silly.)

Anyways, please comment and share my entry if you deem it worthy. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a little bit more of some Pac-Man Fever.