Mr Al Young Dot Com

On Sunday my family plus my mother in law visited the California Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park.  If you have not visited the Academy of Science yet, it is well worth it for adults and kids alike.  While it is worthwile to visit it is not cheap especially for a family.  However we got to experience the Academy for free.  How?  With mystery shopping.  Mystery shopping involves visiting a business and getting paid to rate their customer services so thye could improve the customer experience.  For example dining at a restaurant and rating the server and food.  Years ago I did a few mystery shopping assignments for a few restauants in which I got a free meal out of it, but this assignment at the academy is much more lucrative.

Our assignment allowed us to get up to 4 adults into the academy(kids under 7 are free), spend $25 in a gift shop and lunch.  Once inside we can visit anything we want, but we are required to visit and rate several exhibits as well as a gift shop and a cafe during our visit.  All the exhibits were great.  I particularly enjoyed the aquarium.  I heard the planetarium was also very impressive, but I fell asleep.  Very comfortable chairs though.  Oh well, it was free.  The cafe was surprisingly very good too.  While the assignment gave us a budget for the gift shop it did not specify an amount we could spend on lunch.  So I ordered everything.  I hope I get reimbursed for lunch.  My rating of lunch may have been biased due to the fact that I was very hungry and it was free(I hope).

Had we had to pay it would have been a very expensive day.  With parking, food, and admission we are looking at close to $200.  Of course I would have probably bought my own food in.  If you get a chance to take a mystery shopping assignment it is certainly worthwhile.

Once you get to a certain age your social obligations slow down.  All your friends are married and are done having kids so no more weddings or baby parties to attend.  However once your kids are in preschool your social calender is packed again….with kids birthday parties.  Last weekend we attended 3 parties in a row and had to decline two others on the same day.  Here are some pictures from a very busy, cake filled day.

Party # 1-Bethany Age 3-Pump It Up-Union City-10:30 a.m.

Cake # 1-Homemade Princess Cake

Party # 2-Mason Age 3-Tilden Park, Berkeley-1:00 p.m.

Cake # 2-Yo Gabba Gabba

Taking a nap between party #2 and #3 @ 5:10 p.m.

Party # 3-Jacob age 4-Maxim Restaurant, Hayward 5:30 p.m.

Cake #3-Spaceship

By this time I was so full and tired that I forgot to take a picture of the kids at party #3.  Does’nt matter.  They look and and act just like the kids in parties 1 and 2.  The following day we had another birthday party and yet another BBQ the day after that, but at least they were on different days.

A few weeks ago Marcus got together with some of his best friends at school to take some sports pictures.  Some Mom thought it would be a good idea to take some picture of them now in their sports gear.  Maybe we will take another one in jr. high or high school if they are still playing organized sports together.

One silver lining in this economic recession is that many people are cutting back on dining out. As a result restaurants are offering very good deals on meals, even free meals. In the past few months I have scored free food at Jack In The Box(twice), Denny’s, Ben and Jerrys and El Pollo Loco today. At Ben and Jerry’s last week I saw several people I knew in a very long line that moved fairly fast. One family I knew was even able to go back into line for seconds. Thanks to Stan for pointing out these freebie deals.

Next up is almost free 31 cent scoop of ice cream at Baskin Robins.  Its always a long line at my local Baskin Robins but I heard others are not so crowded.  When I can’t find a coupon or a free meal I always try to use Restaurant.com to get a big discount on a meal.  With Restaurant.com you get to buy a gift certificate at a participating restaurant so you get a deeply discounted meal. A drawback of Restaurant.com to some people is that you can only use your gift certificate if you order more than $35 in food. Also the restaurants are usually not well known chains so you are not quite sure what kind of food you will be getting. However its not too much of a drawback to me since with a family of four you will always spend at least $35 dollars no matter where you go. Plus it is discounted by a lot. I also like trying new restaurants and a quick check on Yelp will keep you from making a big mistake. We have found some good surprises thru Restaurant.com. Right now they have a 80% off gift certificate sale good thru April 30. Give it a try.

Does anyone remember the Frontier Village in San Jose many years ago?  It was a frontier theme amusement park.  I remember going when I was young but don’t remember much about it except for the trout farm they had.  You rented fishing poles and fished out of a stocked pond of trout.  Almost guaranteed to catch something since the fish are not fed.  It was my first fishing experience and very exciting since I got to actually catch fish.  We could have caught fish all day but my Dad cut us off at a limit since you had to pay for each fish you caught.  I have been fishing many times since that first time, sometimes successfully sometimes not but I always remembered my first fishing experience at Frontier Village and how excited I was to catch a fish.  Fast forward 30 plus years later.  Last weekend I took my kids to a trout farm near Arnold.  Like Frontier Village it was a stocked trout pond.  More like a cement pond in someone’s back yard, but guaranteed fish just the same.  Here are some pictures of our catch.  Like my Dad I imposed a limit of 2 each before this fishing trip drained all my cash.  I don’t like fish that much.  I prefer sea bass or salmon but it was still fun.

With the start of spring comes baseball team for our local teams and little league for those with young boys.  This year we do not have major league team names.  We have minor league team names.  We are the Bees.  I’m not sure if its the Bumble Bees or Killer Bees.  Most of the time its the bumbling Bees.  Most of last year’s T Ball team returns.  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.  A year later most of the kids are now at least in Kindergarten.  Hopefully with more maturity and longer attention span, but that may be wishful thinking.  We are still one of the younger teams in the league with mainly kindergarten and first graders. Other teams have older kids of mostly first and second graders and it shows in terms of skills and maturity.   So it will be a challenge coaching these kids, but Marcus has fun and just wants to play baseball even though his teammates don’t always want to play ball.  Still in the Spring every team has a chance.

My buddy Norm has always been on the forefront of technology.  He was an early user of the Internet and the first person I knew with a personal web page.  Today Norm does not have a blog, facebook account, or Twitter.  Norm has not denounced technology and turned Amish on us.  Quite the contrary.  Norm is employed by software giant Oracle.  So he is still heavily involved with cutting edge technology and he still scours the Internet looking for electronic and travel bargains.  However you won’t find him wasting hours away on social networking sites updating everyone on what he is doing around the clock.  I’m not sure why he has not joined the social networking craze but he is certainly making better use of his time.  And without kids he should have plenty of time to waste on Facebook……until now.  Yes Norm and Sandra are expecting their first child in October.  Congrats to the both of them.  Since Norm will have even less time soon don’t expect any Facebook updates from him.  Unless he wants to update us on his 2:00 a.m feedings.

Its too early for them to know if they will have a boy or a girl.  I don’t even know if they would want to know.  Either way it will be sure to be a blessing.  Different type of blessings but great joy nevertheless.  Since I have a boy and a girl I want to offer Norm some insights into the special benefits of having a boy and a girl so he can have an idea of what to expect.  While I am no expert on parenting I feel qualified to offer advice and insights because a) I have two young kids b) I watch a lot of Jon and Kate Plus 8 and c) I have a blog which makes me an expert on everything.

Top 3 Benefits of Having a Boy

1. Boys can sit through sporting events.  You always have someone to go to football, baseball, and basketball games with and it counts as father/son bonding time.
2. You can spend hours just throwing a baseball, football or shooting baskets with your son.  It also counts as father/son bonding time and its free.  If you are lucky they may become very skilled at a sport and be able to support you in your retirement.
3. You have another guy in the house who understands why jokes about body functions make all boys/men giggle.

Top 3 Benefits Of Having a Girl

1. Girls can sit quietly and play, draw or read by themselves.  So you can take them to the coffee shop and be able finish reading your newspaper or magazine.  And it counts as father/daughter bonding time.
2. Girls like to give hugs and kisses and say ” I love you” a lot.  Helps you get in touch with your feminine side.
3. Girls smell good.  Boys don’t.

There are probably more than just 3 benefits to having a boy or a girl, but after spending all day with these guys finding three was a challenge.  I don’t have time to list the top “issues” of having a boy and a girl.  I don’t want to scare Norm and Sandra and they will find out soon enough.  So I’ll just focus on the “joys” of having kids.  Congratulations to Norm and Sandra as they enter another big stage in their lives.

If you drive or walk around a major city you will notice a lot of billboard advertising.  There is so much advertisement that after awhile we kind of tune it out and don’t pay much attention.  That is bad news for the advertisers who paid big money to get their message out there only to have that message get lost in an over saturated market of billboards and signs.  So the advertisers have to do more to make their message stand out from the crowd.  That means more shocking, edgier ads.  Here are some examples:

The first one is my favorite.  It is an advertisement for a gym.  I don’t think this would motivate me to join a gym, just to find another chair to sit in.  The second one invokes strong emotion to donate food to helpf third world countires.  The last one also sends a powerful message.  I’m sure it will cause parents to watch their kids a little closer at the pool although it does kind of put a downer on a nice day at the pool.  Here are some more interesting ads.

Happy National Napping Day.  Today is National Napping Day which is always held the first Monday after daylight savings time.  Take a nap today and try to get back the hour we lost yesterday.  It seems losing an hour really throws people’s system off and they are aways unprepared for it.  Attendance at church was very low yesterday due to daylight savings time.  I’m not sure why it affects people so much.  Its only an hour and you have ample time to prepare for it but it always seems to catch people by surprise.

Nevertheless National Napping Day is a chance to get your system back on track if you take nap today.  I’m a big fan of taking naps.  Unfortunately sometimes the short naps turn to deep sleep.  Maybe if I took regular short naps I would not fall into deep slumber during the day.  The health benefits of taking short naps include less stress and a more rested body.  It seems that naps are favored mostly by the very young and old which I am quickly becoming.  Use National Napping Day to try incorporating naps into your daily routine and see if it does not improve you level of alertness and health.

In a few weeks March Madness will be upon us with the start of the NCAA basketball tournament.  For many years I have participated in a small tournament pool.  It is only about 5-6 people and the stakes are small.  Its just for fun and bragging rights.  It also makes watching the games a lot more fun.  At other times I have participated in fantasy football pool which are also fun but can become very time consuming and addictive.  I know other guys who do fantasy baseball but I have never gotten into that. It is all in fun and games and a good diversion but not a big money maker.

Well it turns out that to make big money in fantasy sports, I have been involved the wrong sport.  The big money is not in March madness basketball pools or fantasy football.  The big money is in fantasy fishing.  Yes fishing.  If you ever up late at night or up early you may have seen fishing tournaments on ESPN.  I watch everything on ESPN even fishing.  You may not be interested in watching guys you do not know fishing in some lake in Alabama, but you might if it meant you could make money at it.

Fishing may seem boring and watching someone fish beyond boring but fishing is a big deal in some parts of the country.  The fishing tournaments have stadium seating which means you are sitting in a bench seats watching guys fish.  Actually you can’t see people fish since your seats are on the dock.  You just sit around until the the fisherman comes back into the dock.  Than the stadium erupts in cheering on their favorite fisherman as they weigh their catch.  That’s right you are sitting in the cold for hours only to cheer on someone weighing fish.  I don’t get it either but the same people are probably watching NASCAR which I also do not get.

If fishing is on ESPN and people are watching can fantasy fishing be far behind?  Yes, not only can you play fantasy fishing, you can make big bucks from it.  There is even an article in Time magazine on fantasy fishing.  In this fantasy fishing league you try to pick the winner of each tournaments and gain points.  Each tournament is like a game in a football season.  There are over 10 million dollars in prizes and the winner will receive a million dollars.  All for predicting guessing who will catch more fish.

Fantasy sports are a fun diversion and makes the games more interesting.  However if you find yourself reading fishing reports at work and trying to follow the results of a fishing tournament in Minnesota on the Internet you may have a problem.