Tanner Gets His Laugh On

Oh Boy! I've got another video for ya today!

I read somewhere that babies will laugh at their siblings before they react to other people. This was certainly the case when Elias was a baby. Only Joey could elicit big smiles and laughter from Elias. Now Elias is the champion at making Tanner laugh. While it doesn't take much to make Tanner smile, Elias posseses the power to generate big harty belly laughs from Tanner!

Here's video of Elias dropping toy balls on Tanner's tummy:

A Bug's Life

It's easy to forget how fun it is to look at the world through a child's eyes. One day last week we had a very exciting morning when Elias spotted a rabbit in our front yard. After watching him from the porch for several minutes, Elias and I raided the refrigerator for something to feed the bunny. We put some strawberries on the sidewalk infront of our house and waited for the bunny return. The rabbit never did return, but Elias had a blast anticipating his return.

Later the same day, Elias and Tanner and I took a walk down the street to see all the different trucks at a neighbor's house. The neighbor is getting a new pool! We saw several dump trucks and a cement truck in action. Both the boys were very enthralled!

A couple nights ago, we spotted a little bug crawling across the floor. Elias adopted the bug, naming him Mr. Bug and spent the rest of the evening playing with the bug and carrying him around the house. Unfortunately, Mr. Bug's life was tragically cut short due to an accidental squishing...but we'll always have our memories:

Now That's A Photo!

Ocean City Eats

Last night we squared away our plans for a week long visit to Ocean City, MD this summer. Although our trip is over two months away, I'm already thinking about all the wonderful things I love to eat while at the ocean. If you're planning on hitting the beach this summer, here are some of my most favorite foods that you should sink your teeth into:

• Pizza omelet Dough Roller This is my absolute favorite thing that my mouth starts watering for the moment someone mentions Ocean City! First of all, I'm a big fan of the concept of crossing pizza with other foods. (Except that 7-11 Pizza sandwich thing...that looks friggin' disgusting!) Dough Roller is famous for their pizza, and their Pizza omelet is filled with gooey mozzarella cheese, thick cut pepperoni, and then topped with their signature pizza sauce. Soooo good!!! I think they only serve it at breakfast time, so you gotta get up early - but it's worth it!
• French Fries Thrasher's I know I'm not alone in naming Thrasher's Fries one of my favorite beach foods. It's a tradition for millions of people. No ketchup here, just a sprinkle of salt and plenty of vinegar! That's eatin' my friend!
• Seafood Festival Buffet Phillips Crab House Not only is this a meal, it's an evening's entertainment! This buffet is huge! Very huge! And it's all fresh seafood! Crabs, shrimp, fish, clams, muscles, more crabs, more shrimp and all kinds of other stuff. They even have hamburgers and hot dogs! Did I mention they have crabs!? They have whole steamed crabs, crab legs, crab cakes, crab soup, crab imperial...if there is a way to prepare crabs - they'll do it for you! A tad pricey, but worth every penny of it! Go early in the afternoon (4:00pm) to beat the crowds and get an early bird price special!
• Burger/Soft Shell Crab Sandwich Atlantic Stand We like to eat here more for the atmosphere than the food, but the food is really good. At this stand on the boardwalk, you can sit at the counter right in the middle of all the O.C. action. They have decent burgers, but my wife really loves their Soft Shell Crab Sandwich. It's simple, but very tasty!
• Anything Crab Cake Factory This unassuming spot is one of Ocean City's best kept secrets. It sits in the ground level of a hotel on 120th street ocean-side. Their food is incredible! Some of the best seafood I've ever had. We only discovered this place on our trip last summer, but we are all looking forward to another meal there!
• Double Cheeseburger Tubby's Simply put, I had one of the best hamburger experiences of my life here! Tubby's is a take-out place on 59th St. with some picnic tables out front. Make the time if you can, the food is great!!!!
• Cream of Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup B.J.'s on the Water I guess soup doesn't usually come to mind when you think of beach foods, but this fancy restaurant always seems to have the Pepper Soup as their soup de jour everytime we go in. It's an incredible taste that I haven't had anywhere else! Their entire menu is chock full of fresh seafood! Pricey...but good!

Do you have any eats you look forward to "down the ocean"?

Waterfalls Aren't Worth $250

My wife and I spent the past weekend in Tampa, Florida to attend the wedding of her best friend from high school. We decided to splurge and stay at a really nice hotel, the Marriott Suites Clearwater Beach on Sand Key, because we don't get away from the kids EVER and the hotel had this really cool looking pool with a waterfall. For some reason, Jennifer and I have this thing for waterfalls and we've always wanted to go someplace where we would have a waterfall at our disposal.

Well, the waterfall wasn't all the fun we thought it would be. What do you do with a waterfall!? You stand under it for a minuet or so and then you cross it off your list of things you'd like to do before you die!!?

We had a nice time in Florida, however. As I mentioned Sunday, instead of the Ford Tarus we had rented online, we upgraded to a sporty little convertible which was a ton of fun! We had some good eats at this cool little place on the water called Sculley's and did some shopping in the adjoining village of John's Pass.

The wedding Saturday night was on the sands of Clearwater Beach. The ceremony was right at sunset and the picturesque backdrop could not have been more beautiful.

We spent the day Sunday mostly relaxing around the hotel. Jen took a nap in the afternoon and I almost drove to Walt Disney World, but the guy at the front desk told me it was probably about a 2 1/2 hour drive so instead I paid $12.00 to watch Date Movie on the in-room movie service!

I snapped tons of pictures of Clearwater Beach, the wedding, our hotel and some other cool stuff we saw while we were down there. You can see all two pages worth of pictures in the Photo Album.

Checkin' In From Clearwater Beach

What's The Deal With That Don Henley Song

Seriously, what's the deal with that Don Henley song "Boys of Summer"?!?!? I heard it on the radio today for what must have been the 100,000,000th time and I had to think...Does anyone really need to hear this song again!? It's not that it's a bad song, or that they play it all the time, it's just that radio stations have NEVER stopped playing it like it was still on the charts! Most 80's songs went away and then came back when 80's music was retro...but not that Don Henley song, that song has been sitting in a CD player on standby in every radio station in the country for the last 20 years! And every station plays it too...pop, soft rock, classic rock, easy listening, mix stations...you can't escape it!

O.K. Don Henley, We Get It! The summer is over and you miss some girl you hooked up with! Get over it!

They should have a show like "American Idol" except every year we all vote on one song to have locked in a underground vault for 100 years! Some other contestants on the show could be any song from the 80's by Heart or Steve Winwood.

Obligatory Idol Prediction

I can't believe that I've followed the entire season of "American Idol" and what's harder to believe is that I haven't commented on it here on the blog since the very beginning. About two or three weeks ago I started to loose interest but by that point it was so close to end I felt I had to stick it out. Besides, a couple of my favorites were still hanging in there, and now as we get down to the bottom two tonight, I've got two favorites that look like they could take the prize.

One of the main reasons that I kept watching Idol after the audition shows was the unlikely choices of Taylor Hicks and Kevin Covais. They were both underdogs that didn't have the looks, but they had the talent. As the season went on there were other singers who I found very enjoyable as well, most notably Katharine McPhee and Kellie Pickler.

Tonight they announce the two contestants that go on to next weeks final show. I'm going to go on record with my prediction of Mr. Taylor Hicks our next American Idol. Taylor has never been in the bottom 2 or 3 and there seems to be some dislike of McPhee out there in the blogosphere. I'd like to see Taylor win. I think he will put out a good album and have a great career. I also would like to see Katharine win. She probably has just as much potential as Kelly Clarkson to go pretty far in the music biz.

Well, enough of me waxing philosophic! All I really wanted to do was list my favorite performances from the season. And here they are....

• Unwritten, Alya Brown
• Midnight Train to Georgia, Paris Bennett
• Copacabana, Bobby Bennett
• Reflections, Alya Brown
• Never, Mandisa
• Walking After Midnight, Kellie Pickler
• Superstitious, Bucky Covington
• Part Time Lover, Kevin Covais
• Taking It To The Streets, Taylor Hicks
• Fancy, Kellie Pickler
• Bohemian Rhapsody, Kellie Pickler
• Jailhouse Rock, Taylor Hicks
• Think, Katharine McPhee
• Bringing Out the Elvis, Katharine McPhee
• Black Horse and a Cherry Tree, Katharine McPhee
• You Are So Beautiful, Taylor Hicks
• Over the Rainbow, Katharine McPhee

Anyone else have a list of some of their favorite performances!?!

Aren't You Lucky

This evening Joey and I figured out how to get pictures off his new camera-phone and into the computer! So now you can look forward to lots of unnecessary photos like this one we took a few weeks ago of a Hidden Mickey in my salad at the diner!

Kool-Aid Man Video Game

This was one of the great games of the Atari 2600 era. Kool-Aid Man brought all the fun of powdered soft drink mix to your home video game console. You played as Kool-Aid Man and had to defend a back yard swimming pool from the evil Thursties.

You couldn't buy this game in stores. The only way to get your hands on a copy were to save up points from the back of Kool-Aid packages. But this game was so special you couldn't even order it from the Kool-Aid catalog (which my mom did a lot of shopping from.) You had to get a special order form for the video game from a comic book. I remember standing in High's at the comic book rack looking through several books to find the special ad. We ended up buying a Return of the Jedi comic. Saving up the points to order the game was not a problem, as we went though Kool-Aid like Donald Trump goes through hair gel. My mom had an envelope bursting at the seems with Kool-Aid points, so we were able to send for our game right away.

The game itself is pure video game goodness. It starts out with a very quick intro of Kool-Aid Man busting through a wall...just like he did in all his commercials. Then you maneuvered Kool-Aid Man around the backyard and tried to stop the Thursties from drinking all the water out of the swimming pool. You couldn't touch the Thursties unless they dropped a straw into the pool and started sucking out the water. Every-so-often Kool-Aid Man could grab a packet of sugar which made him invincible for a few seconds.

As with all good video games, the objective never changed. You just kept grabbing Thursties until all the water in your pool was gone. The Thursties would move faster and faster, but the levels never changed! Eventually everything would move so fast the game would be over in a matter of seconds no matter how good a Kool-Aid Man you were! They really ought to update this game for the XBox 360 or PS2! I'm sure it would be a big seller!

By the way, have you seen Kool-Aid Man lately!? He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and jeans now!?! Sure Kool-Aid Man, you're a giant glass pitcher of fruit punch...you don't need to accessorize!

Life of the Party

Last night Joey had some friends from school over for his birthday. Elias just thought he was one of the guys and pulled up a chair and ate pizza with them. He thought he was pretty darn cool. Everytime the guys would all laugh at something, Elias would laugh along too! It was very cute. Elias loves his big brother very much and it was cool that Joey included him in the fun...not that he had much of a choice. Joey has adopted an old bit of mine by getting birthday cakes with ridiculous things on them. See for yourself!

The other day we were at the mall and Elias was riding a Merry-Go-Round that costs a dollar to ride. After his first ride, he wanted to ride again on a different spot on the carousel. I told him we didn't have any more dollars to ride again. Elias replied, "We can go to the money store and buy some more moneys!" Then he thought about it for a moment and added, "We can go to the DOLLAR STORE and buy some DOLLARS!" He was very proud of his idea. So was I actually, that was pretty clever of him.

Local Charming Site of the Week Old man in restaurant pouring two packets of sugar into his bowl of chili.

Two Mickey Notes

If you've got little Mouseketters in your house, you've got to tune into Disney Channel's latest addition to their Playhouse Disney lineup! Mickey Mouse Clubhouse features Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the rest of the gang in brand new adventures designed specifically for 2 to 5 year olds! It's very much inspired by Blue's Clues and Dora The Explorer as Mickey and friends have simple missions and the kids at home help out. At least a couple dozen times in each episode, Mickey turns to the audience and asks for help in figuring out colors, shapes, sounds and other very basic skills that preschoolers are mastering. It's very simple, and very cute. If you aren't too keen on letting your little one watch TV, this is one show you should consider letting them watch. Besides the fact that it's commercial free, it's fun to watch with them and help them play along, and it's awesome to see the look on their face when they think Mickey is talking to them, congratulating them on a job well done.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in on Disney Channel Saturday & Sunday mornings at 9:00am. Even if you don't have kids, you should check out the very infectious song Hot Diggety Dog performed by They Might Be Giants at the end of each episode. (They also do the theme song.)

In other news, In case you just can't get enough of my writing I'm now doing some writing for the Disney DVD website Ultimate Disney. This site has grown over the last few years as one of the major sources on the internet for news on upcoming DVD releases from The Walt Disney Company. I've been a big fan of the site for a few years now, and I just joined the staff as a writer on their weekly newsletter. The newsletter goes out to about 1200 subscribers, I just finished my first issue that was sent to readers earlier this week. By summer's end, I'll also be writing DVD reviews for the site which I'm pretty excited about. Of course, I'll be blabbing about everything I do over there on this site....so ya won't miss a thing!!!!

The Ultimate Disney Newsletter is by subscription only. If you want to see it, but not subscribe, e-mail me and I'll send you a copy!

Daddy's Day Off!

Yesterday, I had the whole day off from my daddy duties and hung out with my good bud Kevin. Kevin and I both have the same hobby...eating. That's probably why we've been friends for 13 years!

We started our adventures off with lunch at Pioneer Beef, one of those little run-down looking Pit-Beef stands that sits off the road on a gravel lot and most people just ignore. It's on Rolling Rd. in Catonsville, near Security Mall right under the 70 Overpass. We've had a lot of pit-beef in our days, and Pioneer Beef continues to be the best pit-beef sandwich you can get for your money. Fantastic! They also have outrageous fries! I got a huge sandwich, fries and a large Diet Coke for $6.75. The place is great, we've been going there for years. You should check it out! Kevin and I would be glad to take you!

Our next stop was The Candy Box which is a little candy store in Catonsville on Frederick Rd. They had a cool selection of penny candy and chocolates plus they have an awesome concoction of a snowball mixed with a soft serve ice cream. I think many places do this now, but The Candy Box was one of the first. I opted out of the frozen treat and instead decided to "be good" and get some sugar free candy. The lady behind the counter asked if I've had sugar free candy before, which of course I had, and she proceeded to tell me that eating more than two pieces has a laxative effect on you. Whatever! I've eaten plenty of sugar free candy and never gotten sick! Thanks for the warning! But then I felt like I was being rude if I bought too much so I only got three little pieces of chocolate.


We eventually made our way to The Mall in Columbia. They have a vendor at a cart that makes really cool copies of keys. Guess what kind of key I got!!! That's pretty sweet, ain't it!? We also took in a movie at the mall, Hoot. It's about some kids that fight evil land developers to stop construction of a pancake house in order to save baby owls. I love movies with evil land developers plus it had music by Jimmy Buffett so it was a win-win situation. Cute Movie.

When we left the movie, my stomach was hurting really bad. I felt like I had stuffed myself with junk food. Yet all I had really eaten was lunch (hours ago), some candy, and some free samples at various locations throughout the mall. Man, I felt horrible. Then it hit me! The candy! The sugar free candy that supposedly had a laxative effect! The sugar free candy with the laxative effect warning that I disregarded and ate several pieces of!

I HATE public restrooms! But, to make a long story short, I spent quite a bit of the evening in the Sears bathroom and later at a bathroom in a nearby bookstore. I still didn't feel right all night!

And I was trying to be good by eating something sugar free!!! I guess I'm taking sugar-free chocolate off my list of things I eat! Wow!

Mouse Around the House

We have lots of Mickey Mouse stuff in our house because if there is something that they can put a Mickey Head on they will make it and I will buy it. How many other things can you be obsessed with and get a kitchen sink stopper to feed your obsession. I bet they don't even have NASCAR sink stoppers! We have alot of Mickey in our kitchen. There is actually an entire store of Disney kitchen stuff in Walt Disney World.

Like these Mickey dining utensils, how cool are they!?! I used to have Mickey and Donald forks and spoons when I was little, but these are nice adult utensils. When I'm dead and long gone, Elias' and Tanner's wives will be fighting over who doesn't get to keep these family heirlooms!

I actually got a Mickey toaster for my birthday that toasted Mickey heads into your bread and it played the "Mickey Mouse Club March" when your toast popped up...but it turned out to be a piece of crap! (Shhh...don't tell Mickey I said that!) However, Santa made up for the Mickey void in the kitchen by stuffing this Mickey Mouse Egg Timer in my stocking. How proudly it sits on top of our stove!

This is my wedding ring, and this is how you know you've met the right girl...we saw this ring in Disney World and I commented on how it would be a cool wedding ring. So, when Jen and I decided to get married, she called down to Disney World and had them track down the ring in my size and ship it to us. How cool is that!? By the way, I didn't propose to Jennifer in Walt Disney World, but you can ask her how that story goes if you have an hour or so to kill!!
Our last stop on the tour is our bedroom. It just so happens that these Mickey TV's came out at about the same time the TV in our bedroom died. It was karma...it was fate! This odd shaped red TV set doesn't match the bedroom set we have that my wife had always dreamed about. But even she can't deny the powers of the mouse, I mean, come on...the TV's got Mickey Ear speakers for cryin' out loud! And when you adjust the volume, Donald runs across the screen with his footprints measuring how loud the TV is. Now that's swell!

Saturday Morning Cartoons - 1981

Saturday morning cartoons were awesome! Back in the day, Saturday morning was the only time you got to see brand new cartoons on television. Nowadays the kids got the Cartoon Network and Nick and Disney running cartoons 24 hours a day plus they got their DVD's and their internets...they can watch cartoons whenever they want. When I was little, we got up early on Saturday mornings and planted ourselves infront of the television set for the rest of the morning. Mom and Dad would sleep in and when they did wake up, they wouldn't dream of taking control of the TV. And remember, that was the only TV in the house too! A big bowl of cold cereal and a chocolate milk were all the other ingredients needed for a perfect Saturday morning.

The new cartoon line up for each year would be unveiled in a two step process. The first would be ads (like the one above) in comic books. Then right before the new lineup would debut, there would be a half-hour special (AT NIGHT) hosted by one of the networks younger stars who would show clips of all the new shows and what time they were going to be on! I remember one of the specials was called "Back to Next Saturday Morning" which was hosted by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd playing their "Back to the Future" characters. A high-point in both their carrers, I'm sure!

This ad is announcing the 1981 lineup for NBC, my preferred network when it came to Saturday morning cartoons. "The Flintstones" were a staple of my cartoon watching diet from as long as I can remember. While reruns of the original primetime sit-com version played every morning and afternoon, the Saturday morning episodes were brand new and made for kids. There was about 100 different reincarnations of The Flintstones in the late 70's to mid-80's. Wilma and Betty worked for a newspaper with Captain Caveman, Fred & Barney solved mysteries, the Frankenstones lived next door, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm were teenagers that loved to drag race, and my favorite...Fred and Barney were cops partnered with the Schmoo, a white blob from the Lil' Abner comic strips of the Great Depression! (??? WHAT ???)

Now let's talk about "The Smurfs." The Smurfs WERE Saturday morning cartoons for the majority of the 80's. When I was 8 years old, I couldn't get enough of the Smurfs. I watched that cartoon so religiously I almost turned blue by the end of the 3rd grade. I was a Smurf for Halloween in the 3rd and 4th grade! My 4th grade costume was so much better than my 3rd grade one! Every couple of years "The Smurfs" show would get longer. First it was a half and hour and before long I believe it was up to two hours. It was all smurfy goodness as far as I was concerned!

I've never really been one for superheroes, but I liked Shazam simply because the show was made by the Filmation animation studio, and I would watch anything made by Filmation. Their most famous show was He-Man. Nobody at Filmation had any art training, and all the voices were done by the same two or three people. Nothing in their cartoons really ever moved except for mouths and vehicles. All I remember about "Shazam" is that it was done by Filmation, beyond that it didn't make much of an impression on me.

Next on the line up was "Space Stars" and I must have switched over to another network because I don't remember ever watching it. Among other characters pictured in the ad, you can see the Herculoids. I loved the Herculoids, but they had their own show at some other time. I was probably off at ABC watching Pac-Man or Richie Rich.

Now "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" was a great show! Peter Parker and this other guy and some chick all lived in his Aunt's basement and their apartment turned into a cool crime lab. And then they would all turn into their superheroes. The girl was Firestar and she was all fiery and stuff, and the other dork was Ice Man or something like that. I think he was supposed to be the Silver Surfer or somedude from the X-Men but they changed him all up for the cartoon or something like that. And then they would all fly around the town and Firestar would shoot fire at things and say, "Looks like we need to heat things up a bit!" And Ice Dude would be surfing around on his personal ice path and say things like, "Looks like you need to cool down a bit!" And then he'd shoot ice all over them. And Spider-Man would be flying around from his webs and say things like, "Thought I'd drop in!" And then they would all learn the meaning of team work! Man, that was a good show! (I think they play it on Toon Disney now!)

And then whatever other older shows rounded out the network line up, the local station would not air in favor of Soul Train or It's Academic! That's when it was time to go outside and play and reenact all the stuff we saw on TV that morning! Good Times!

National Hamburger Month

Hey, did you know it's National Hamburger Month!?! Well it is! On my calendar every month is Hamburger Month! But to celebrate National Hamburger Month here's a list of some of my favorite burgers that you could probably get your hands on!

• 1/2 lb. Hoss Burger Hoss's Steak and Sea House This is quite possibly the best tasting burger around. It is real ground beef, very juicy and very tasty. I order them plain and just put a dab of ketchup and mustard on myself. It comes on a nice moist roll too! Hands down my favorite burger!
• Classic Double with Cheese Wendy's As far as fast food goes, Wendy's has the best burgers. I'm sure they are frozen at some point and come from the same grade of Kangaroo as all the other fast food burgers, but their burgers taste great! Quality is their recipe you know! Plus you get a little more burger at Wendy's because their patties are square!
• Ground Peppercorn Burger Chilis This big burger is crusted w/black pepper & spices, then topped with shredded lettuce, tomato, pickle, Awesome Blossom® strings and bleu cheese dressing. A very unique flavor. Excellent!
• Western BBQ Colossal Burger Friendly's This puppy's got crispy Fronions over their really good BBQ sauce, with spicy Queso sauce and melted Cheddar cheese. Served on a grilled bun with lettuce, tomato and mayo. After eating, I almost don't have room for a five-scoop Resse's Pieces Sunday!
• 1/2 lb. Burger Fudrucker's Like Hoss's, Fudrucker's makes a mean burger. They offer their burgers served different ways with all kids of different toppings, but I like mine straight up! They have an awesome fixins bar where I add just a little bit of shredded lettuce, my ketchup and mustard, and some spicy jalapeno cheese sauce. Fantastic!
• Maryland Crab Burger Bill Bateman's Bistro I know, this one sounds weird at first. I was skeptical to try it on my first visit, but somebody in my family orders it everytime we go to Bateman's. This is a big huge burger topped with Crab Dip, Cheddar Cheese, Crabmeat and Old Bay Seasoning. That's eatin' right there my friend!
• Havana Burger Bill Bateman's Bistro This is a new entry to Bill's menu and it is fantastic! Iliterallyy get cravings for this burger and have to go just to get one! Combine Cuban pork, Capicola ham, Swiss cheese, sliced pickles, Dijon mustard, chipotle mayo, sliced tomato & 100% Angus beef burger all toasted on a ciabatta bread loaf. This one WILL fill you up!
• Big Mac McDonald's You know the drill...two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun! Sure, the burgers could be bigger and it doesn't really do anything in the "HungerFulfillmentt Department," but it's a darn good burger! The tastes just go together so well! That Ronald McDonald is a genius!

Feel free to comment on some of your favorite burgers! Happy National Hamburger Month!

Five More Cereals Based on Things

Last month we visited "Five Yummy Cereals You Forgot About" and I got some requests for more forgotten gems from our breakfast bowls. Brian in CA had space in his brain to remember this movie tie-in from the 1991 Kevin Costner film "Robin Hood and the Prince of Thieves." This is probably the only cereal based on a Kevin Costner movie, unless there was a Waterworld cereal I don't know about. One more lame thing about merchandising for this movie was the Robin Hood Tree House playset which was actually the old Ewoks Tree House Playset in a different box.

Back in the days when every cartoon character got his or her own cereal, this strawberry laced treat hit breakfast tables. I'm sure a box of this sweetness never made it's way into our house since I don't have sisters, but then again maybe it did. That's exactly the kind of thing I would have done just to tick off my dad!

Dunkin Donuts cereal was filled with so much sugar, the day after we went grocery shopping I opened the cupboard to get out the cereal and the entire back corner of our kitchen was covered in ants! The Dunkin Donuts cereal box was filled with millions of ants! Obviously we had to throw the whole box out, and my folks wouldn't buy it for us again. Sadly, the sweet...sweet taste of Dunkin' Donuts cereal will be one I never experience.

Two things about C3-P0's: their shape had nothing to do with anything at all relating to Star Wars. They were shaped like little oblong 8's!?!? I don't remember what that was all about. The second thing is that not too long after C3-PO's stopped showing up on the shelves, Kellogg's repackaged the exact same cereal as some cruddy health cereal. Either way, it was based on Star Wars and it came with cut-out Star Wars Character masks on the back of each box!

This was probably the last obligatory cartoon character cereal. The Bart Simpson flavor shown here was Peanut Butter and Chocolate. There was also a Homer Simpson flavor that was Cinnamon Glazed Donut flavor! Mmmmm...artificial donut flavored cereal!!!!

Elias: Car Salesman

Here's Elias showing off his brand new Cars toys. We got two Fisher-Price Shake 'N Go Cars: Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy).