Like reading Kim & Jason? The duo is starring in a brand new project called Monsters. Go behind-the-scenes and follow the adventure as it unfolds as a Club K&J member! (Learn more.)

It’s the Duck Duck Goose t-shirt. And it’s tagless.

If you’re a Club K&J member and you want in, act fast to ensure you get the the size you need from the first print run. Details here.

This week’s prize is a Rubber Duckie Kit. This nostalgic kit explains how the familiar tub toy became a true icon of childhood, and why it’s become so collectible. Featuring a classic rubber duck plus an 80-page book detailing history, trivia, and trends, illustrated with photos of the author’s extensive collection, it’s an essential for kitsch aficionados.

Packed inside this informative book, you’ll find everything you need to have a swell time with your favorite duckie–his life history, a bubble bath tutorial, cleaning tips for dirty ducks, tub-time trivia, and much more! Best of all, it includes a classic rubber duckie who will make a great addition–or beginning–to any collector’s flock!

Here’s how to enter:

1. Just leave a comment on this post, answering this week’s question: “What’s your favorite childhood bath time memory?”
2. Deadline for entries is 11:59 pm CST on the day of the post. We’ll pick a winner from the list of comments on the following Friday.
3. We’ll contact the winner by e-mail to find out where to send the prize.

Good luck! And don’t miss any of the other cool stuff for the young at heart at The Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand!

**UPDATE: This week’s winner was Lance:

My favorite bath time memory… is watching my kids build bubble beards and all the giggles, when a tub is an event, not a task.  However, my wife’s worst memory is when dad put Tide in the tub thinking it would create better bubbles.

Even though this week’s contest is over, you can still buy your very own Rubber Duckie Kit at the Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand. And stay tuned next week for the next chance to win!

There’s a huge distance between being informed and fear mongering. Not to be a media basher, but the reality is that bad new sells.

Here’s a sampling of the top news stories in Madison last night…
Murder on Madison’s South Side, Abduction Investigation, GM to Speed Up Closure of Janesville Plant, On the Menu: Higher Prices?, Madison Bus Driver Could Face Felony Charges.

Not that I’m advocating denial here, but do we need this negative programming right before our night of rest? It’s no surprise that there’s a major connection between lack of sleep and stress levels. With that in mind, I share with you the following…

Top 5 Ways to Sleep Well at Night

1. Do not watch the news.
2. Do not watch the news.
3. Do not watch the news.
4. Do not watch the news.
5. Do not watch the news.

Jason and I rarely ever watch the news. I get my news from USA Today’s breaking news email alerts. Everything else, locally, that is newsworthy certainly finds it’s way to my ears without my help- grocery store check-out lines, the talk from people after church, or headlines on the newspapers I step over on my daily walk.

Do yourself a favor and limit your intake of fear. It goes a long way on your journey to fight Adultitis.

The Kim & Jason daily comic strip officially retired in 2007, but that wasn’t the end of Kim & Jason. Nope, not by a longshot.

I’ve been busy with a new project. It’s a new adventure for Kim and Jason, a story that deals with the monsters under the bed and the things that test our patience. The script is finished, and a number of paintings are already finished. So far, I’m very pleased with the results. This is already turning out really, really cool.

I’m intending to publish the story as a full-color hardcover book sometime next year. But in the meantime, I’m going to be releasing the pages one at a time over at the Clubhouse. Hopefully this will be exciting news for those of you jonesing for some new K&J adventures, as you’ll be able to follow the story one page at a time.

The first page is already up. You can take a look here.

We love getting questions, and often answer them on our blog and in our magazine, podcasts, and videos.

Just fill out the simple form here. Thanks!

Now I’m not sure if you know this or not, but there is kind of an entire industry that caters to providing stuff for babies. I’ve heard rumors about these giant, warehouse-type stores designed just for this purpose. I think there are even stores that I frequent often that supposedly have entire departments devoted to this sort of thing, but I’ve never noticed them before.

They have basically evaluated every single sliver of your baby’s life, and created one-hundred-fifty-seven trillion products that allow you to micro-manage it accordingly. They even have a special bar you can attach to your bathtub that has the sole purpose of giving him something to hold on to as he enters and exits the bath. If you wanted to, you could easily outfit your entire house to look like a nursing home, with the only difference being that the residents are under two feet tall. (I could write a whole post on the similarities between nurseries and nursing homes.)

So yeah, there’s a lot of stuff. Although it looks like we’ll have to go back, because the automatic diaper-changing machine must have been out of stock the day we were there.

I’m sure it’s a popular item.

I actually enjoyed the process of registering. I liked certain parts exceptionally well; especially the barcode scanning part of it. Most things involving baby cater to a decidedly feminine point-of-view, but I am reasonably certain that the person who developed the barcode scanner had the masculine soul in mind. And I appreciate that.

I liked being in charge of the gun. First of all, it looks like it was used as a prop in Star Wars, plus it shoots lasers. LASERS! Echoing back to the ancestral days of hunting and gathering, it was as if Babies”R”Us became a dense and expansive forest, and my job was to shoot down things that my baby would need. I felt like such a capable provider. (Never mind the fact that the things I scanned are items that I expect other people to buy for me.)

I feel sorry for any expectant (and frankly, emasculated) fathers whose wife takes control of the scanner. It’s an important role, ladies. For the love of God, don’t take it away from him.

The lady who helped get us all set up at Babies”R”Us tried offering some helpful advice. She said to register for things you need for the whole first YEAR of baby’s life, not just the first few months. This was not very helpful for me, as I’m still trying to get my head around trying to figure out what a newborn needs. The idea of prepping for a one-year-old at the same time just blows my mind.

My brain started drowning in possibilities: “Pants. We’ll definitely need pants. And sippy cups, I think. Or will she be past that stage already? Oh dear, do I need to start thinking about training wheels for the bike already? We don’t even have a bike yet! We should probably register for a bike AND training wheels…and a helmet, right?…”

Somehow, I was able to pull myself back from the nether-regions of near hyperventilation to focus on the task at hand: Get the stuff that’s already on Kim’s list.

Whew.

I am happy to say that as overwhelmed as we (and by “we” I mean “I”) might have been upon entering the store, we quickly got the hang of things. I could tell because I made Kim laugh when I said in a tone that was more serious and concerned than confused or sarcastic, “Do we need emery boards?”

Likewise, I knew we had hit full stride when Kim yelled, “YES! Sleep sacks!”

It was an exciting an productive day, and all of my thoughts just won’t fit in one post.

(To be continued…)

When I was about nine-years-old I distinctly remember consciously NOT wanting to grown-up anymore. It looked like too much work… too many hassles… too much stress. It was much easier (and TONS more fun) being a kid. My oldest sister was turning sixteen and looking for a job and it hit me that my childhood was ticking away and was eventually going to come to an end. Reality check.

One of the things I prematurely mourned was the loss of free time to do what I loved… things like going on a bike ride, lying in the hammock and listening to the chimes, or going to the library and checking out a monstrous stack of books.

Who says the life of an adult has to be all doom and gloom, consumed with chores, bill paying, and work? Sure, these are the realities that inevitably need to accompany the responsibility of being a grown-up, but why do they have to devour every waking moment? If you cannot find 15-30 minutes on a regular basis to do something you love, then what’s the point?

By the way, if it’s been so long since you’ve done this that you don’t even know what you’d spend your time doing, then there’s a pretty good chance you have a severe case of Adultitis. Don’t fret, you’ve come to the right place.

Leave us a comment in the Escape Plan Blog to let us know what you spent your 15- 30 minutes doing?

That is until I thought about the easiest way to eat an elephant, which is…

…one bite at a time.

So I’ve decided to break the project down into chunks. It’s pretty convenient that I had the foresight to divide my book into chapters, so that part worked out nicely. So now I’m in the process of recording one chapter at a time, which is much more manageable. The first one, “Delight in the Little Things,” is done, and I have posted it in the Clubhouse for Club K&J members to download for free.

Delighting in the little things is a very important skill that most of us lose as we get older. The cool thing is that it’s not hard to re-train ourselves to see life with new eyes. In fact, it’s one of the best things I know of to make life more enjoyable.

Download the audio chapter here.

Like reading Kim & Jason? The duo is starring in a brand new project called Monsters. Go behind-the-scenes and follow the adventure as it unfolds as a Club K&J member! (Learn more.)

Here are a couple of pictures, the first one is of me and one of my heroes, Donald Duck. The second one is me and another buddy of mine.

• Hometown… I’m originally from Chicago, Illinois… not the suburbs, mind you… actually in the city… Northwest side… (ok, so I’m a city snob!… everyone always says they’re from Chicago, and then you find out they really didn’t live in the city… I did!) I also lived in St. Louis, MO for many years (once again, in the city… ) before moving to the greater Denver Metro region (yep… suburbia! Notice how I didn’t say I lived in Denver, even though most people wouldn’t have a clue where Highlands Ranch, CO is?)

• My biggest dream… I’ve got two… the real biggie is to go to Egypt and ride a camel down to the pyramids and the Sphinx. That’s probably going to take a while to achieve. So right now my big dream (for the not so distant future) is to attend the Olympics in Vancouver (2010). That would be way too cool!

• My inspiration… St. Francis of Assisi, no doubt about it! He was content with the simplest of things, and realized how amazing everything in nature is. And felt connected to it!

• When I was a kid, I… I loved to collect bugs. (I still love bugs!) They are so amazing… But don’t ever kill them! Collect them, watch them, befriend them, then let them go.

• One way I stay childlike is… By doing something fun everyday. It can be simple, like just telling a joke or funny story (though it usually isn’t something that simple!) I was going to say, “by doing the unexpected,” but people have started to expect the unexpected from me!

• What I know so far… Is that everyday can be an adventure! The world is filled with people to meet, places to see, and things to do!

• My favorite thing about “Kim & Jason” is… The chance to do the things that add real enjoyment to life, and not worry about what someone else is going to say or think! You’re not the boss of me, right?

Become an official member of Club K&J and have a chance to share your story, just like Jim.

This week’s prize is a Pinocchio Tape Measure. A whimsical tape measure straight from Gepetto’s workbench. Pull Pinocchio’s nose for a fully functioning, 60-inch measuring tape; press the button in the middle and the tape springs back!

Here’s how to enter:

1. Just leave a comment on this post, answering this week’s question: “What’s your all-time favorite Disney movie?”
2. Deadline for entries is 11:59 pm CST on the day of the post. We’ll pick a winner from the list of comments on the following Friday.
3. We’ll contact the winner by e-mail to find out where to send the prize.

Good luck! And don’t miss any of the other cool stuff for the young at heart at The Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand!

**UPDATE: This week’s winner was Steph:

The minute I read the request I knew exactly what movie I’d choose. Then I had to go out online to figure out what it was called. When I was six years old, my dad took me to the drive in to see the Disney movie - The Unidentified Flying Oddball. I remember so little about the film, except that there were knights and a spaceman together and they did crazy stuff, like build robots. What I do remember is my daddy putting a blanket in the back of the truck, holding my hand to the concession stand and buying me popcorn, and continuously asking me, “Do you understand what’s going on?” I’m pretty sure I lied and said yes!

Even though this week’s contest is over, you can still buy your very own Pinocchio Tape Measure at the Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand. And stay tuned next week for the next chance to win!

If you haven’t done one of these five things this summer, you need to get out your calendar and schedule one in… NOW.

1. Catch a lightening bug and put it in a jar in your bedroom.

2. Grill out and have a picnic. Don’t forget the sweet corn and cherry pie.

3. Go to an ice cream stand and get a treat, the more scoops the better.

4. Lay under the stars with a friend and dream together.

5. Go to a drive-in movie. (There are still 500 operating theaters in the U.S. Find one near you.)

What’s your favorite summer staple?

When I was teaching Kindergarten, on average, I probably received three pictures a day from individual students in my class. Usually, one of the three would be left on my desk at some point throughout the day, nameless. I would find it around 4PM while attempting to find my desktop. It always brought a smile to my face, even after the toughest of days. Kids love to make pictures for others, it’s a simple way they show affection.

Yesterday at our niece’s sixth birthday party, she came up to me and Jason at one point with a handmade card. On the cover it said, in her handwriting, “To Aunt Kim and Uncle Jason.” On the inside was a large smiley face. After thanking her for the gift, I asked her, “What’s this for?” She casually shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know,” and she walked away.

When’s the last time you doodled a picture for someone else?

As adults life is much to busy, filled with much more important things. There’s no time for silly foolishness. Right?

Wrong!

Life is too short NOT to be silly. A simple way to do this is through doodles. So, grab that marker. Dust off your box of crayons. Get to work putting a smile on someone else’s face.

Share with us about your doodle experience this week in the comments of the Escape Plan Blog.

Oh, and you might also like this post about kids and fireworks and delighting in the little things: I’ll Have What They’re Having.

(Click the comic to see it bigger.)

This week’s prize is a Childhood (Take Two) Mug. Who says you can’t have a second childhood? Not us! In fact, we believe that you can have one that’s even better than the first! This mug expresses that sentiment, and it’s the perfect size for your favorite morning beverage or late night brew. Large, easy-grip handle. 11 ounce, dishwasher and microwave safe ceramic coffee mug.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Just leave a comment on this post, answering this week’s question: “What’s one thing you wish would have carried over from childhood to adulthood?”
2. Deadline for entries is 11:59 pm CST on the day of the post. We’ll pick a winner from the list of comments on the following Friday.
3. We’ll contact the winner by e-mail to find out where to send the prize.

Good luck! And don’t miss any of the other cool stuff for the young at heart at The Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand!

**UPDATE: This week’s winner was John:

I wish I could have carried over the (nearly) total lack of responsibility that there is in childhood.  No mortgage, job, taxes, even feeding the dog could be pushed off on someone else most of the time.  No responsibilities meant that I could focus on the important stuff: having fun!

Even though this week’s contest is over, you can still buy your very own Childhood (Take Two) Mug at the Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand. And stay tuned next week for the next chance to win!

Kim and I got talking about “our song” and remembered that it played a big role in the movie Karate Kid, Part II. The song I speak of is Peter Cetera’s “Glory of Love”, which was a #1 hit in the U.S. and won an Academy Award nomination for best song from a film.

We heard it on the radio while we were on our first date, Valentine’s Day, 1995. We both said how much we loved the song upon hearing it in the car on the way to Monical’s Pizza. Ironically (or maybe not so, considering it was Valentine’s Day), we heard it again while sitting in the restaurant. We each ended up buying the CD, and it ultimately became the first song we danced to as husband and wife.

Well, this weekend Karate Kid, Part II showed up on cable, and we realized that we had never actually seen the movie together. So after a busy weekend hosting family, we camped out on the couch and watched the old 80s classic together. I was surprised to learn just how extensive Kim’s crush on Ralph Macchio really was, and Kim was surprised to learn that I had created cardboard action figures based on the characters in the film. (They were pretty sweet, too. Their legs and arms were joined by pieces of rubber band, giving them authentic karate chop action. Hey, these are the sorts of things introverted creative types do…)

For those of you looking for a trip back in time, here’s a video with “Glory of Love” playing over some highlights from the movie:

* * * * *

Ok, now on the WINNER of Escape Event #3 and a set of six movie passes — Club K&J member Lisa Warsinske of Wisconsin! Lisa and her husband Jim took a little inspiration from Driving Miss Daisy and Chevy Chase’s Vacation to create this classic Escape Event moment. I’ll let Lisa describe it in her own words:

I know, I know - the cost of gas… blah blah blah. BUT you have to find the fun!! This weekend, cool hubby Jim and I took (70 year old fun-loving) Mom to dinner. In and effort to participate in the Escape Event #3 and to have fun along the way - I taped an empty soda cup (complete with lid and straw) on the roof of the van.

It was taped on, not going anywhere and empty - get it? So we go for a nice drive around town…one son and I were in the back seat watching the folks on the street who would spot the cup on our van.

There was honking and waving and pointing and yelling…

What fun ensued!!! People are PASSIONATE about letting you know there is a cup on your car. We just wave back and act like we have no idea what they are saying to us, or why they are pointing up. Mom was so funny riding shotgun, giving people a nice smile and oblivious wave accompanied with a cheery thumbs up.

One guy on a bicycle saw us enter Riverside park (LaCrosse, WI) and he rode his bike really fast to the other side to head us off and told us about the cup. Jim admitted to him that it was taped on for a joke and the guy says “Man. That’s a good one. You should video tape it. But hey - promise me you won’t do that with a fake baby!”

Other highlights: A teenager screamed “Taco Bell on the roof!” A man on a sidewalk called out “There’s a cup up there.” Which is fun to say repeatedly and fast. (There’s a cup up there. There’s a cup up there.) It makes my lips tingle with silliness.

A whole volleyball team stopped their game at the beach to scream “STOP!! You have to Stop!!!” Mom just smiled and waved cute. I find our outing a fine combination of the Chevy Chase “Vacation” movie with a little “Driving Miss Daisy” thrown in.

A fine combination, indeed! Cheers to Lisa and Jim for an absolutely stellar Escape Event performance!

In preparation, I, the dutiful father, have come up with an idea.

This could be one of my best ideas ever.

Or it could rank right up there as the one I most regret.

I thought it might be a good idea to get the advice of our readers on a few things, as I know plenty of parents are following along. We live in an apartment, so we don’t have all kinds of extra space for the at-home version of McDonald’s Playland. So here’s what I want to know: What are the must-have, ignore-them-at-your-own-risk essentials? And what are the fuhgedaboutit, don’t-even-bother-no-matter-what-everyone-else-says items?

So here’s your chance. Veteran parents, please leave your thoughts in the comments. Other than duct tape (of course!), what are your 3-5 must-haves, and what are your 3-5 top fuhgedaboutits?

Today is the youngest you will ever be. Act like it. - Mark Cuban

Whether you liked him in office or not, former President George H.W. Bush Sr. is a great example of what this quote it all about. This picture is from his sixth jump, at the age of 83, just less than a year after a hip replacement.

What kind of jump should you be making?

(Thanks, Phil, for sharing this quote!)

Do YOU wanna have a chance to win next month’s S.W.E.L.L. prize? For just $4.95 a month, you can become an official Club K&J subscriber today!