Please meet me at my new Blog: Parenting Toys

Because of so many problems, I have moved my blog to : http://parentingtoys.com

Great beginner Palm PDA under $100 (Palm Z22)

Most who know me know that I use a palm pilot PDA religiously to organize my life. I started using them several years ago when I was using public transportation to get to work. Like most people at the time, I kept a work calendar at the office and a personal calendar at home. But when I started taking the bus to work, I needed to know what I had on my calendar at work so I could determine if this was a day I needed to drive or dress in a certain manner. A PDA is not for everyone, but for those who have a desire to have all their contact and calendar items with them then this is the product for you. I use my palm for more than phone#’s and dates; I use it for finances, shopping, notes, spreadsheets, and even music. At one point I had a palm crash on me, but it was a minor bump in the road, because I still had backup copies of all of my data on my work pc and my home pc. I just didn’t carry it around for a week while it got fixed. The beauty was that I didn’t lose my data. How many of us have lost our date books and had to re-build them from scratch? A co-worker of mine uses hers to keep up with her teenager’s complex academic and social calendars.
This is a great palm for first-time user and it has many of the features that I purchased my Tungsten T3 for. It’s not a large investment, but a great toy to get started using one. Of course they have the palm/phone models, but this one will do many of the features without the price. Visit the palm website link by clicking on the title to this post to find out more.

Kid Activities for a Rainy Day

A buddy of mine at work and I came up with this list of things to do last spring during bad weather. He has 3 and I only have 1, but it has helped a number of times for us. Most are local Dallas, TX activities, but I am positive that you can find something similiar in your own area.


1. Childrens's Museum (Most major cities have one dedicated to children)
2. Kids Wing of the major Art Museum
3. Aquarium
4. Movies (A no brainer, but we can get more creative than this)
5. Science Museum (Great adventure for kids)
6. Toys R US Jungle Gym (In the TX summer heat this is a must)
7. Merry Go Round at local mall (We have a couple of malls who have installed these)
8. Roller Skating
9. Bowling
10 Build A Bear (A chain found in malls, you can take all afternoon deciding on the many choices)
11. Paint N Party (Arts store where you can pick your piece, paint it and they fire it)
12. Chuckie Cheese
13. Main Event (Similiar to Chuckie Cheese or Dave & Busters)
14. Dave & Busters
15. Bookstore (Barnes & Noble or a half-priced one)
16. Library
17. Ice Cream

The key to this list is to have it handy because you never know when you are going to need it. If you have something to add, please comment.

PocketDish portable media player announced

I can't wait until x-mas....... This will make it easy to take your favorite TV shows with you when you travel so you can get caught up.

Great way to organize old photos

I was watching my morning news program where I saw a home organization expert discuss how she organized someone’s study. On a bookshelf I saw a rack of plastic cases that seemed to contain collections of photos. It was sleek and neat and I just had to find our more. Like most people of have 1000’s of old photos thrown in a box. It was a very cute way to display and organize a group of photos for visitors to see. I tracked down the organizer and forwarded me to imago products that offer both the photopods and the racks that hold them.

This is a great way to start putting your favorite pictures in a display that I am sure you will enjoy. I pulled the following info from their website describing the 32 picture pods.

“Photopod is an easy to use organizing system which protects your precious photographs. Photopod are made of a durable transparent plastic which (1) filters out over 90% of harmful UV light to help prevent fading of your photographs. They great for storing photographs, whether they are from film or digital cameras and included is the Media CardTM for (2) labeling, (3) negative or backup disk storage, and an index print.”

The 32 picture pods start at $14.95 and the racks at $7.99. They are having a special that includes 5 Album Photopods with Storage Rack for $39.99.
Bundle price includes five Album style Photopods and one Storage Rack all for one low price! Stores 160 photos, perfect for your summer vacation or wedding proofs. Visit them at imagoproducts.com

Change your children’s toy batteries with ease

Christmas before last I was bombarded with installing batteries for all of my son’s electronic toys. Many required a tiny screwdriver that was not only hard to see, but almost impossible to turn. I ran across an advertisement for this powered mini screw driver and it changed my life. I could now change batteries easily and didn’t have to hunt around in my garage to find the appropriate screwdriver. I bought a total of three for various parts of my house and started to give them away as gifts to other parents with small children. The product has many more uses, but I am pleasantly pleased with how I use them. The product can be found in many drugstores and can be found on the BacchusLand Family Products ebay store found within the links section of this blog. I pulled this from the manufacturer’s website:
“The Mini Powered Screwdriver is the smallest powered screwdriver available. It is perfect for small screws and tasks requiring less torque: replacing toy batteries; working on computers; removing switch plates and many other everyday jobs. “

How to protect your Child’s DVD’s from Damage

I ran into this problem last Christmas when my wife and I bought our 3 year old his own DVD player (well actually Santa brought it). The DVD player went into his room and he quickly learned how to pick his own movie and use the remote control to start it. What he could not do well was handle the DVD’s without getting fingerprints, chocolate, candy etc on the DVD. Since I don’t have a DVD recordable disc drive in my computer, I was forced to buy a second Elmo DVD when my son ruined the first. Then late spring I found “d-skins.” They are plastic covers that fit over your DVD and still plays in the player. What a fantastic invention. They are disposable so you can remove them when they do get dirty and you save the heart ache and pain of trying to replace your child’s favorite movie. I copied the following from the d-skins website:

“d_skin Protective Disc Skins are a totally new, totally necessary product that acts as a protective Skin for all your favorite discs. Once your discs are skinned, there is nothing to take off to play your discs, nothing to put on when you store your discs one product protects them all the time!

How do you use them? Just snap one of these onto your music, movie, game or data CDs and consider them protected. The amazing Liplock Seal snaps onto the edge of any standard size disc and holds tight. Leave your d_skin Protective Disc Skin on while you play away outside and inside your media players. Seriously. Your discs are totally readable right through the Skin.

The beauty is, once your discs are skinned, if you scratch them, you just toss the damaged Skin and snap on a fresh one. Your entertainment survives!”

Available at Game Stop, Best Buy Circuit City, Wal-Mart and many other electronics and gaming stores.

The downside to the product is that they don’t work in every DVD player and I found that they only work in single players that the shelf extends out of the machine in order for you to play the DVD in. It’s still a worthwhile product and I bought a pack of 20 d-skins last spring and still have about half the container left. This is a must for anyone wanting to preserve the movies you have bought. If you have used this product or know of other interesting products, please comment.