Not that I wouldn’t want to claim these smart little cuties. John and I were just visiting with the kids this afternoon. You know that show on Life Network called Crash Test Mommy? Yeah, my sister would LOVE to sign me up for that. She raises her 3 little ones (who are 6, 4 and 2 years old) day in and day out, on top of working part-time.

John and I had my niece and nephews for a couple of hours this afternoon. If we had them tomorrow I would have taken them to the Chinese New Year Parade but we still had a pretty good time. We ate lunch, went for a walk, coloured, watched a movie and baked some cookies. They’re such well behaved kids (although don’t let their cherub-like appearance fool you) it still is challenging.

I discovered a little something about my husband’s potential parenting skills. He was around when his nieces and nephews were growing up back in Iowa and I gotta say, he’s got that whole ‘say your name once in a stern tone if you’re doing something bad, it will make you freeze in your tracks and PAY attention‘ thing down to a tee.

I also found out that I need more colouring supplies in my house. A couple of highlighters had to suffice since the only other drawing tools we have on-hand are sharpies and, well permanent marker and little kiddies just don’t mix. I printed a some pictures off a couple kids colouring sites and also discovered PBS has online colouring – perfect for my niece who knows more about computers than half the people I work with.

My sister’s probably laughing at the fact that I’m a little tired right now. Yes, she has my respect, a lot of it. She also can’t wait until I have kids so she can a) play with a new baby b) watch me lose my girlish figure c) load my kids up with sugar then send them home to us.

Ever since I was introduced to Airtoons about 6 years ago, warning signs just haven’t been the same.

We have boxes of candles floating around our house as a result of my Partylite candle affair a few years back. A couple of days ago I noticed something on one of the boxes. Two warning images that made me giggle and think of a post by Matt from Onomatopoeia

There was a recent episode of Corner Gas [wiki] where the Karen, one of the two police officers in town, purchases a hutch from the giant Swedish furniture store. Of course it’s supposed to be Ikea [wiki] and it plays on the whole concept of taking home your pre-packed merchandise and putting it together yourself with an allan key. The instructions amused Davis, the other cop on the show, because he was reading them as a cartoon. This is easy to do since Ikea’s don’t have words, just images to help you assemble your coffee table, bed or chair.

Matt’s post features images that came with a recently purchased Ikea stool. The pictures on the instructions are pretty vague so he decided to add some rather clever captions. Click on the pic to view the rest, I didn’t want to spoil it by featuring all of them on here.

Now I just have to think of some for my candle box warnings, I’m afraid I may need some help, cause I’m just won’t be as clever.

Recently, a local blogger was in the news because he’s able to rake in a comfortable sum via the ads he puts on his website [JohnChow.com]. Sometimes ads work on the site, you barely notice them or maybe they’re interesting enough and you click them. With that click, you are putting a couple cents into the pocket of the blog owner and that’s how the game is played.

I’ve often contemplated putting Google Ads on the site, for the purpose of making money, but I’m not sure how annoying that would be. I’d want them to be non-intrusive but then again, if people don’t notice them how are they supposed to click on them? It’s a vicious circle isn’t it.

There are various kinds of ads. The ones that fit snuggly between blog posts, the ones that float in front of your screen that force you to search for the “close” button but not until it’s thoroughly annoyed you, there are sidebar buttons, banner buttons etc. Or there’s the massive site-wide background commercial plastering that apparently showed up on Beyond MySpace Robson this morning (pictured above). Despite their look or feel, we all come to live with ads.

If I started putting them on my site, I’d probably want to support a local business or site. When Matt Good had his adverts up they were for Discollection and Workspace. That totally works for me and they were tastefully placed at the top of the page with an option to turn them on or off.

I’d love to be able to make money off my site but I don’t want to be annoying about it. I still want readers to be able to enjoy the site (erm, which I hope you already do) but have a little bit of income flowing. It’s not selling out, and I don’t want it to look gaudy, so I suppose I just need some help.

I sent my niece a Valentine in the mail. It had a bee on it, it was pretty cute. I know that as a child anything that came through that mail slot with my name on it would light up my day. I think that’s also why at a Scholastic book fair one year I bought “Free Stuff for Kids”. It was a book with a whole bunch of contact information, where you could send a letter to say, the Otter Society of Canada and they’d mail you back a free poster or something. Yeah in effect, I sent myself mail, but I digress.

I hope my niece and nephews enjoyed the gesture, as it’s the only Valentine I’ve sent. Not even an e-card has been browsed from this end. We’ve been running around so much lately, and John’s been under the weather so our big day o’ romance on the 25th seems that much sweeter.

The Canucks face the Wild tonight in a must-win game (as per usual). Speaking of, I think I might have actually made a Valentine yesterday, for a special little lady over at Canucks and Beyond. Oh, and I just got email from my mom. She loves me.

If you really want to do something special, and have a very good laugh, check out The Onion’s Valentine’s Day 2007 headquarters page. Featuring a fun quiz and safe for work e-cards.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Put your feet up and lots of chocolates (or cinnamon hearts, or Cadbury mini eggs, or those hearts with the messages on them…)

Without Dave this episode we have a special guest joining J.J., Alanah, John and me for some good ol’ fashioned hockey talk. Run time 49:41, visit site to play or click here for mp3.

…we did find another blogger who loves the Canucks as well, but you’ll also hear about the “other team” he follows. Sean, aka Zanstorm, from Waiting For Stanley joins us from Smithers, B.C. to discuss the last two games against the Blackhawks and Thrashers.

Record as of this episode: 31-21-4
Northwest Division: 2nd
Western Conference: 7th

The hunt for the playoffs is on, so we cover some of that ground after getting to know a little more about Sean. John and J.J. also report back on what they can remember about the Thrashers game at GM Place. Rebecca checks in with the ever intriguing players blogs, and we can’t help ourselves from addressing the trade talks.

* Waiting For Stanley – Sean’s fan blog