While on the plane traveling on Delta earlier this week to the HIMSS conference and back I managed to browse through the whole SkyMall catalog. Delta had managed to screw-up my flights on Monday so that I was in transit from Boston to New Orleans from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM EST including some fun two hours after boarding the plane in Boston watching my connection slowly get missed. Then once on the ground in Atlanta I got called by Aaron as he got onto the next flight on stand-by while I was waiting in line to figure out whether to go to Mobile Alabama on a 9PM flight then rent a car in a city where there were no remaining cars at the airport. Luckily I did manage to get on the 7:50 flight, the third standby that I had waited for and finally arrived in New Orleans to find that my hotel room had been cancelled so that Aaron and I needed to bunk together with a bed on the floor for me. The important thing in all of this is that I had plenty of time for my computer to power up and down and learn that I need to power down rather than close my machine and that led me to my reading the entire SkyMall catalog.

While most products today are blah I found three that were of interest. Two of the solutions were cat related. Until I had a cat I didn’t realize how many unsolved cat problems people had. For example the cat litter box is a terrible thing to have to look at and the cat likes to sit in the litter then spread it all about the kitchen floor. The folks in this catalog created a litter box that looks like a large vase with a plant on the top. The cat can climb into it and you don’t have to look at or smell the cat litter. Furthermore it helps to keep the cat litter from getting strewn all around.

Cats have a nasty habit of using their claws on a brand new mattress at 2-6 AM while people are trying to sleep. While scientists have split the atom they haven’t come-up with a viable solution to this problem that I know of. They invented the scratching post but for some reason the cat would prefer to use the mattress because of the fun and silly things I will do in response like spraying her with a bottle of water, free shower, feeding her, or locking her in the bathroom. But finally they invented a scratching post that dispenses treats so that the cat learns that the post is the right thing to scratch.

All of that innovation was also combined with adult pajamas with feet. Who wouldn’t want that?

The Midwest Airlines people don’t want to be acquired because they take pride in their luxury services. The PR person when interviewed stated that Midwest Airlines “considers themselves to be in the service business, not in the moving people around in a metal cylinders business”.

So now I am riding on a Delta flight again. This time to Utah to go skiing with the Falkoffs. I watched Rocky Balboa on the plane. It’s the movie predicted from the Airplane series with an elderly Rocky fighting. I liked the movie but I would have changed the ending. I think they should have had him die in the ring rather than winning his last fight. I realize that Stallone wouldn’t let a Rocky movie have a dark ending but it would have been the best way to close the story. The reason why I would have Rocky die in the ring is that the movie is about how he lost his wife Adrian and he has a hole in his life because of it. The theme would be more about how people can’t live without the things that you love. It would be more adult than the other Rocky themes where the underdog always triumphs in the end. It would show that Stallone had matured and not decided to recycle old material with a little twist. But they did what they did so I can only think of what it could have been.

Lately Madeline has been a happy baby who laughs and smiles most of the time. She has her fits but she likes to play games like tent. Tent is when we hide under the covers in the bed. We then can make the tent dark by closing off the light or light. She can climb in and out of the tent. When we are playing it she giggles and smiles and calls out her requests for dark and if she gets out of the tent she calls out more, more, more. It is also easy to make her laugh by dropping things onto her like her hat or my gloves while she is in the stroller. She loves it when I pick her up and lift and bounce her on the couch then let her fly above me as I hold her with both hands and spin.

Madeline had been wanting a potty after hearing so much about it in books. We brought it home. She sat on it and then we had something in it. This was about three weeks ago now and it hasn’t happened since. Beginners luck. Lately we have seen a number of dolls, stuffed animals, and balloons piled high on top of the potty. Her play style is to want to have her play objects all ride together. Among the new toys she has is a small toy stroller and it is piled high with whatever she can find on a regular basis.

Here are some words she now speaks (sorta): and just what I can remember
Ball, balloon, more, Madema (Madeline – probably my favorite thing to ask her to say), momma, daddy, bagel, cheese, juice, cup, pppp (grape), nana (banana), meow (cat), U (orange/clementine), doll, moo (cow), bock-bock-bock (chicken), sss (snake), owl, bye-bye, tent, dark, yeah, no-no, uh-oh, nurse, brrr (cold), hot-hot, yum, up, down, belle (Annabelle), dog, pot (potty), car, psss (pee), duh-duh (I have no idea what that means but she says it)