happy day!
Knex.
Only the most awesome building set in existence. Which was Child's birthday present to me, after I carefully picked it out and hugged it to my chest and refused to let go of it by the time we got to the check-out at Toys R Us, where I cleverly said I needed to go to buy Child a gift card.
Trying to explain the magic of Knex is impossible. Also, I think it's K'nex. But whatever.
It's like the coolest toy since Lincoln Logs and for those who have followed this lj for the last almost-five years? I am an addict of those and Tinker Toys.
I got the 425 Super Value Tub, which is made of so much awesome I can't even describe it. You can build like anything out of these suckers, so I got the building guide out and skipped to level three to make the freakishly awesome Space Ship Ride and then the Eggbeater Ride and then went to level two for the Ferris Wheel. Tomorrow, the Tilt O'Whirl and the super awesome and should-be-four-star Grandfather Clock. I'm also stealing the ones I got Child last year, since he never really got into it, which if I find most of the pieces will give me something around eight hundred pieces of sheer joy.
www.knex.com, btw, for parents out there who want something to play with. I mean, honestly? Children cannot appreciate the awesome like they should. Give them Playstations. Leave me the things that build like, entire amusement parks and robots, 'kay? Also, official knex website is cheaper. I am staring in lust at the Musical Rides combo pack. Musical rides combo pack!
Well, not as much. I don't like the event-specific pieces as much as the huge boxes of general ones. Oooh, this one lets you get your name on the case!
Huh. They are also the sellers of Lincoln Logs. I am so unsurprised.
Okay, anyway, got lovely gift cards from family and friends, a really awesoem breakfast brunch, and lunch tomorrow with a friend, where with any luck she'll want to try that Hawaiian fusion restaurant thing that keeps making me curious.
This has seriously been an awesome birthday.
Other News
Middle Sister's Boyfriend--this is the sister who has a child and a steady job and doesn't scare us every day, but did take me to that place where I tried to ride wave-runners and almost died, died, died--is showing, in a weird turn of events, Baby Fever. He now makes noise about marriage and my sister getting rid of her IUD and it's very cute and kind of funny. I don't know if they're in love, but I think they're extremely compatiable, and my sister really wants more children. I've been kind of cruising the baby areas everywhere I go looking at rompers and jumpers and onesies and hideously expensive things from Osh Kosh and wondering if there's Baby Armani, because if I start *now*, we can have that kid clothed for the next five years easy. I like subverting any lingering desire for a baby by hoping a close family member has one instead that I can buy for. All the fun and none of the colic.
He's nice, though. *thoughtful* I didn't like him at first, but he's not quite as first impressions stated. He goes to work regularly, never misses a bill payment, extremely frugal, is smart, sort of funny, and comes from a similar background as my sister. He's an engineer, which means he can fix things like the telescope we got Nicky that the directions were wrong (HA I WAS RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT!) and knows his way around electronics. Funnily, his first wife is a heart surgeon and daughter of some company president somewhere, so I wonder sometimes if part of his attraction to my sister is that she can and will stop her career to be a stay at home mom, which I know she'd really like to do, especially because I'm pretty sure she wants more than one or two kids. He makes enough that they can do that without unnecessary trauma. He loves my niece a lot, and he's great with Child, which is of course smart if he's trying to get along with the family, but also kind of cool in itself. He and dad watch have an addiction to the Discovery Channel, which is still the funniest thing I have ever seen.
It's weird to judge my sister's boyfriend on all these practical criteria. He's very quiet, and unlike Sister's First Husband, he's doesn't take up huge amounts of space and attention and energy. He's--hmm, very self-contained. Not so much shy as comfortable inside himself. Sister and Boyfriend do share a taste for high quality porn--they actually have a ratings system of their own on porn, please do not ask me about this, I don't want to know--and basically have the same interests and way they like to do things.
It could work. *thoughtful* I do hope so. They seem happy together, comfortable together. It's a good thing.
Youngest sister--yeah. That'll be another entry, when I feel like being depressed and worried.
Only the most awesome building set in existence. Which was Child's birthday present to me, after I carefully picked it out and hugged it to my chest and refused to let go of it by the time we got to the check-out at Toys R Us, where I cleverly said I needed to go to buy Child a gift card.
Trying to explain the magic of Knex is impossible. Also, I think it's K'nex. But whatever.
It's like the coolest toy since Lincoln Logs and for those who have followed this lj for the last almost-five years? I am an addict of those and Tinker Toys.
I got the 425 Super Value Tub, which is made of so much awesome I can't even describe it. You can build like anything out of these suckers, so I got the building guide out and skipped to level three to make the freakishly awesome Space Ship Ride and then the Eggbeater Ride and then went to level two for the Ferris Wheel. Tomorrow, the Tilt O'Whirl and the super awesome and should-be-four-star Grandfather Clock. I'm also stealing the ones I got Child last year, since he never really got into it, which if I find most of the pieces will give me something around eight hundred pieces of sheer joy.
www.knex.com, btw, for parents out there who want something to play with. I mean, honestly? Children cannot appreciate the awesome like they should. Give them Playstations. Leave me the things that build like, entire amusement parks and robots, 'kay? Also, official knex website is cheaper. I am staring in lust at the Musical Rides combo pack. Musical rides combo pack!
Well, not as much. I don't like the event-specific pieces as much as the huge boxes of general ones. Oooh, this one lets you get your name on the case!
Huh. They are also the sellers of Lincoln Logs. I am so unsurprised.
Okay, anyway, got lovely gift cards from family and friends, a really awesoem breakfast brunch, and lunch tomorrow with a friend, where with any luck she'll want to try that Hawaiian fusion restaurant thing that keeps making me curious.
This has seriously been an awesome birthday.
Other News
Middle Sister's Boyfriend--this is the sister who has a child and a steady job and doesn't scare us every day, but did take me to that place where I tried to ride wave-runners and almost died, died, died--is showing, in a weird turn of events, Baby Fever. He now makes noise about marriage and my sister getting rid of her IUD and it's very cute and kind of funny. I don't know if they're in love, but I think they're extremely compatiable, and my sister really wants more children. I've been kind of cruising the baby areas everywhere I go looking at rompers and jumpers and onesies and hideously expensive things from Osh Kosh and wondering if there's Baby Armani, because if I start *now*, we can have that kid clothed for the next five years easy. I like subverting any lingering desire for a baby by hoping a close family member has one instead that I can buy for. All the fun and none of the colic.
He's nice, though. *thoughtful* I didn't like him at first, but he's not quite as first impressions stated. He goes to work regularly, never misses a bill payment, extremely frugal, is smart, sort of funny, and comes from a similar background as my sister. He's an engineer, which means he can fix things like the telescope we got Nicky that the directions were wrong (HA I WAS RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT!) and knows his way around electronics. Funnily, his first wife is a heart surgeon and daughter of some company president somewhere, so I wonder sometimes if part of his attraction to my sister is that she can and will stop her career to be a stay at home mom, which I know she'd really like to do, especially because I'm pretty sure she wants more than one or two kids. He makes enough that they can do that without unnecessary trauma. He loves my niece a lot, and he's great with Child, which is of course smart if he's trying to get along with the family, but also kind of cool in itself. He and dad watch have an addiction to the Discovery Channel, which is still the funniest thing I have ever seen.
It's weird to judge my sister's boyfriend on all these practical criteria. He's very quiet, and unlike Sister's First Husband, he's doesn't take up huge amounts of space and attention and energy. He's--hmm, very self-contained. Not so much shy as comfortable inside himself. Sister and Boyfriend do share a taste for high quality porn--they actually have a ratings system of their own on porn, please do not ask me about this, I don't want to know--and basically have the same interests and way they like to do things.
It could work. *thoughtful* I do hope so. They seem happy together, comfortable together. It's a good thing.
Youngest sister--yeah. That'll be another entry, when I feel like being depressed and worried.