Crayola Washable Window Crayons

$5.95 on Amazon

Today I decided while I was at the store to pick up some Crayola Washable Window Crayons just for a bit of fun. I didn't know how well they'd work but I wanted to give them a try.

With a price tag of around $5 I hesitated since I'd never heard of them before, would only get five colors ($1 a color seems high, doesn't it?), and then didn't know if I'd really enjoy them that much.

As for the last bit, I apparently had forgotten that I'm actually a child in a large man's body.

Because I had an absolute blast.

"Ho, Ho, Whoa!"

Now, I'm not one to brag but when it comes to drawing I absolutely suck at drawing. Like, stick-figures come out looking wrong, somehow. I still had to try: I had purchased these large crayons and I was going to see how well they worked.

I logged onto DragoArt, my go-to tutorial site for art, and found some children's drawing exercises that were appropriate for the holidays. I spent way too much time drawing Santa, then a penguin, and then a misshapen candy cane.

Throughout the process I was easily able to erase mistakes and guidelines with a dry tissue. Just one dry tissue could clean up a pretty fair amount of window crayon and the one time I had to un-create (read "erase") a horribly drawn candy cane that took up an entire window I wiped it down with a tiny bit of water on a sponge and it came up almost immediately.

I also wasn't sure how long they would last and if you look at the Santa picture I can tell you that I was genuinely surprised to find out that there's still probably enough red left over to do this drawing at least two more times without running out. Plenty of color for your dollar!

Hi!

The only way I feel these window crayons are lacking is that there aren't enough colors. A white crayon would have been nice for Santa's beard, hair, and fuzzy bits on his hat/boots or maybe for some snow. I'd have liked an opportunity to put a little more pizzaz into my pictures.

I could have purchased the Washable Window Markers or the other ones that have "Crystal Effects" (and may still) but since I know the crayons work I wish I could find them in more colors.

I really enjoyed these crayons and will continue to do so for at least a few more days. I have at least 3 windows to draw on and one more large sliding glass door!

Kroger Skillet Meals - A BzzCampaign

10 Minute Meals With Quick and Easy Sides!

Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of Kroger stores and most of their Kroger-brand items. Sure, it's no Wegmans but since the two stores aren't in the same areas it doesn't have to be. Kroger stores are clean, well-stocked, and always have what I'm looking for.

When BzzAgent sent me an invite to the Kroger Skillet Meals BzzCampaign I was super excited to give it a try and looked forward to giving them a positive review. It never once entered my mind that the campaign items would be anything but great.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

Let's start with the positives. There are a few:

The Kroger skillet meal is supposed to be a quick-and-easy 10 minute meal fit for a small family and I have to hand it to them that this entire meal from beginning to end (garlic bread, chicken fajitas, and a Caesar salad) were all done in about 12 minutes.

I didn't actually think it would be done that quickly and was very pleased to find out I was wrong. The frozen meal cooked down quickly, heated up nicely, and was seasoned evenly by the time I was done. Frying up the included tortillas (as per the directions) took a little longer than I thought it would and if I were going to do this again I'd probably throw them in the oven for a few minutes instead of frying them for the sake of convenience but it's not like that added a bunch of difficulty or anything.

Bright colors, happy plate.

And that's where the points stop. One point in its favor. Then we move over to the other side of things.

The disappointment.

I'm sad to say that out of all the components of the meal the only thing that was enjoyable was cooking it.

The skillet meal itself was over-powered with the taste of peppers. I like peppers but it shouldn't be the only flavor coming through while I'm eating a piece of chicken or an onion.

It's pretty. Another plus, I suppose.

The Kroger garlic bread was bland dough without even a hint of garlic to it. I actually ended up adding my own extra butter and sprinkle of garlic powder but even the dough was just too thick and cloying. It was unfortunate that I broke my low-carb diet to eat these things.

I don't really even want to get into the Caesar salad at this point. It was a kit bag with everything included all in one package; a great idea with horrible execution. Absolutely nothing worked as it should have; the dressing was thin, the lettuce was limp, and the cheese was tasteless.

The leftovers.

In the end, here's my wrap-up for you all:

If you're looking for an extremely quick and very easy meal to feed your small family who aren't particularly fussy (or you're willing to add some flavors of your own, upping the difficulty slightly but possibly making this better while still being easy) then Kroger Skillet Meals and a few Kroger sides can be right for you and your family (except for the Caesar salad mix kit).

If you're looking for a delicious dinner that's quick and easy? Remember this little saying:

You can have it quick, easy, or delicious. Pick two.

Unfortunately, Kroger went with quick and easy, leaving out any trace of delicious.

Book Review: Iron Druid Chronicles - Hounded

Atticus O'Sullivan, as he's known now, is the last of the Druids. He and his Irish Wolfhound, named Oberon, live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, trying to remain hidden from the powers that be and some trouble that he may have run into in the past.

Turns out that some of that trouble has returned to find him. Otherwise it would probably be a dull book.

Hounded is a fun book filled with intrigue, comedy, action, magic, and good writing. I'm a fan of the fantasy genre, and especially urban fantasy. Kevin Hearne, the author of this series, does a good job of drawing the reader in to the story by having many of his characters have to balance the modern day versus what they have grown used to over the years. When you're 2000 years old but look 21 that can get a little confusing!

The last of the Druids is in trouble as an old enemy seeks him out, marking him for death. The folklore is rich, as are the magical traditions. One of the great things about the way Kevin Hearne is how he blends multiple magical traditions and doesn't just try to shoehorn them into one neat box; all different kinds exist and they interact with each other in odd ways since not all magics were made to work with other magics.

It's a quick read, which to me is its only flaw but to other people may be a plus.

If you liked Harry Potter, enjoy the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher , and generally just love fantasy novels that you can devour in a few sittings, I would definitely pick up this book. Then the next couple. It's a great series with something for everyone.

Comforts for Baby

Not my child, but my product!

Comforts for Baby was a brand I reviewed a while back when I first received the coupons from BzzAgent. I liked the brand then and thought that I should revisit it, talk about it now that I've had a little more time with it.

The soaps and shampoos are definitely a favorite of mine. They smell nice, don't seem to bother my little one when I use them on her (no tears when washing her hair thus far), and aren't harsh on the baby's skin. As I said before, they also make a nice bubble bath!

The bibs are bibs; it's kind of hard to say much about them other than that they fit, they catch food, and they do exactly what they're supposed to do. I don't really see how someone could go wrong making bibs. I guess they could be ugly but these particular bibs are not ugly and they work just fine. I'd even go so far as to call them cute. Of course, maybe I'm wrong about a bib being a bib; my baby doesn't really use them all that much and as such we don't have a lot of experience with them. She's just not that messy of an eater, thankfully. Usually.

And the baby wipes. Well, I was a huge fan of these wipes at first because they're inexpensive and they worked just fine. The only issue I find is that when there's a little bit of diaper rash these wipes seem to be a little harsh on her skin; they're not quite as soft as some of the leading brands. They're durable, they clean well, but they're not quite as soft as we'd like. We'll still keep them on hand but we'll probably pick up a second brand for when sensitivity is needed.

Overall, Comforts for Baby is a perfectly good brand and I was happy to be a part of this campaign since it gave me an eye into new inexpensive and convenient quality products to use for my daughter.

Home Sense from BzzAgent

A new Bzz Campaign, made just for me!

The newest BzzAgent campaign landed me with a bunch of free Home Sense cleaning supplies; something I guess you could say I desperately need. It gave me a needed kick in the pants to get my kitchen clean.

I decided that I'd challenge myself to clean the kitchen using only Home Sense products. Obviously the laundry detergent and fabric softener wouldn't help me here but we'll see how the towels, disinfecting wipes, and dish washing detergent work out!

I really don't want this on the internet but here you go.

After a few busy days with friends visiting, many meals made, and a fridge that needed to be cleaned out the kitchen was a complete and utter mess.

I obviously couldn't expect the Home Sense to take out the garbage or empty out the fridge but the stains on the counters, the dirty dishes, the floors and walls? Home Sense could help me there!

With the garbage taken out, everything emptied, the dishes put in the dishwasher, I began cleaning.

Subtle product placement is subtle.

Before too long, the kitchen was clean and disinfected. The dishes were washed and the floors were sparkling!

I'll probably just continue using my sponge in the future since that's better for the earth but with a combination of Home Sense paper towels and Home Sense disinfectant wipes the kitchen was fairly easy to clean despite the soaked in mess I had allowed to happen.

Washing the old cast iron pan was no problem; a few paper towels, some salt, some water. Good as new!

More secret and hidden product placement.

Overall I was pleased with the cleaning ability of the Home Sense campaign. The wipes were a bit strongly-scented at first but the lemon scent that came in after everything was dried was subtle and pleasant.

The paper towels held up to my abuse with no problem.

The dishwasher detergent worked perfectly fine, leaving me shiny, clean dishes.

Overall I was satisfied. Home Sense is as good as any other brand when it comes to getting my kitchen nice and clean.

Spaghetti Squash - A Strange Thing To Review

Before today, the last time I had spaghetti squash for dinner with homemade red sauce was probably 5 or 6 years gone back. I vaguely remember having trouble splitting the giant gourd in half to cook it and then not really being all that satisfied with its texture when compared to actual pasta. It was like angel hair pasta if it were wheat, grainy, and stuck together with slime.

To say the least, I was disappointed.

I cooked some more spaghetti squash today because I'm a masochist, apparently. I started eating ketogenically about two months ago, eating no more than 30 grams of carbohydrates per day. I count my carbs carefully and even a few ounces of pasta puts me over my entire daily limit, so that was straight out.

Yet here I was with a bunch of stunning homemade sauce* and nothing to put it on.

Spaghetti squash to the rescue?

Looking at the large yellow gourd the size of my head I grabbed my chef's knife and went to work. Strangely, this one split in two with just a few quick pulls of the knife and was a cinch to split then clean of its seeds and entrails. I threw it in the oven, cut-side-down, and baked it at 350 degrees (F) for an hour.

I scored it out of its shell, threw some sauce on it and dug in, wondering if I once again had made a colossal mistake.

The only mistake I've made is in not eating spaghetti squash for the past 5 or 6 years.

It was delicious. Sure, it wasn't actually anything at all like pasta but after two months without pasta I don't have much of anything to compare it to; without that comparison the spaghetti squash was amazing and I'll be having more of it whenever I can find it at the store, especially as I still have a lot of sauce left.

My suggestion would be to try spaghetti squash. It's simple to cook, has a mildly nutty flavor that enhances the pasta sauce somehow, and a tiny bit of sweetness to it without being overpowering. Don't expect it to be like pasta; it's definitely its own thing. It satisfied my craving for something pasta-like.

Enjoy!

*I'm teaching a friend to cook and my red sauce recipe was the first step.

Perks of Being a BzzAgent!

One of the great perks of being a BzzAgent, aside from getting to try new products and spread the word about them, is that I sometimes get some really awesome coupons that I get to use and then share with friends and family.

Because of the Green Mountain Coffee campaign that's going on right now I received a booklet of coupons offering 50% off of Keurig machines on their website. They're going fast but I wanted to give everyone an opportunity to get their hands on one, so let me know if you'd like one of the codes please.

Free Trade Green Mountain Coffee K Cups!

Here's the thing: About a week after I signed up for BzzAgent's coffee trial our Keurig broke. Then I gave up caffeine because I'm very sensitive to it and get withdrawal headaches after only a couple hours without caffeine in my system.

Yuck, right?

That doesn't mean I can't tell you good things about this coffee!

Green Mountain Coffee is Fair Trade coffee which means they focus on sustainability and better trading conditions for developing countries! It's definitely not a new movement but it's one that's newly gaining steam in my area! I applaud Green Mountain Coffee in their support of Fair Trade and hope that you will too!

I have several coupon codes available if you're interested in trying their coffee so that you can help them support Fair Trade by buying their products. It's a very limited supply of coupons so let me know in the comments quickly if you want one!

Wine: Apothic Dark

Note: Does not actually smoke.

Apothic Dark is a red wine from the makers of Apothic Red, which happens to be one of my favorite wines ever made and a great wine to get non-wine-drinkers into enjoying red wines.

Right out of the bottle the wine is smooth with very little taste up-front but hints of chocolate on the back end. It was pleasant enough but not the full-bodied experience I expect when I have a wine from this particular vintner.

I let it breath for about ten minutes and on the next sip I found what I was looking for; the wine had come to life after being aired for just a few minutes. Suddenly the front taste had notes of berries, sweetness, carried on a nice heady scent. The back end woke up too, carrying more chocolate, a bit of the berries, and a finish of light coffee.

This wine has made its way into my list of favorites, right next to its sibling and I will be purchasing a few more bottles. Apothic Dark is on limited release so I will enjoy it while I can and save a bottle for a later time, probably a date night with my special lady.

I suggest picking up a bottle, maybe two, and enjoying it alone, paired with some very dark chocolate, or with a rich, delicious dinner of ribeye steaks and mashed potatoes. It will liven up any dish.

Apothic Dark: Break the mundane.

Comforts for Baby

My new Buzz Kit arrived! The new Comforts for Baby campaign from BzzAgent includes a bunch of free coupons for me so that I can try several different Comforts for Baby products and so far we've used the ones for baby wipes, baby shampoo and a pack of bibs!

The baby wipes are great and are definitely one of our top go-to brands from here on out. They're a little starchier-feeling than the other brand we use but work fine and don't seem to bother our baby's skin at all so I have no problems with them and neither does the little one! I'm tempted to hoard the give-away coupons I have for ourselves to use later on these wipes but I know other moms, dads, and babies who can benefit from them just as much so I'll not be selfish and I'll share.

The baby shampoo is fine too but I have to admit that I prefer using it as a bubble bath. My baby prefers it too - she loves dunking her face into the bubbles and being silly! It smells nice and cleans just fine so there are absolutely no complaints coming from this happy household!

We also went out and got some bibs. Now, bibs are bibs, of course. These are cute and work perfectly fine for their intended purpose. Yay!

The one thing that sets this brand apart, considering their items are of at least decent quality in all respects is that they have decent quality for a low price. It's hard, sometimes, as a parent to make your ends meet so I'd suggest considering Comforts for Baby as a good brand to help keep the prices on necessary items low!

One of the other nice things I noted while writing this is that Comforts for Baby has an active link on their website directing you on where you can find good coupons for their baby items!

I highly suggest giving the Comforts for Baby brand a try.

Vivarin Caffeine Alertness Aid

OR: How I Stopped Sleeping and Started Walking On The Ceiling

I was on the popular website reddit the other day, browsing through a section that highlights free stuff and giveaways available to the public. The Vivarin caffeine tables caught my eyes and I thought, "Why not?"

It's a fair certainty that many disasters have happened all through history that began with the question "why not?"

"Beautiful Queen Helen, will you run away with me?"

"Sure. Why not?"

*War*

"Hey, do you think we should make another Jurassic Park?"

"Why not?"

*Jurassic Park 3*

See? Disasters and horrors.

I'm not saying Vivarin is bad. Oh, no. It does exactly what it says it does on the tin. I'm feeling alert, completely energized, 100% unfocused, and about 30 times more jittery than I do when I drink a cup of coffee. I think that if I held a glass of water right now over my laptop I would soon need a new laptop, assuming I didn't shake the water out of the cup between the sink and the couch.

I still have 3 more of these pills laying around; for a free sample they definitely did themselves justice. Most companies only send out one of whatever it is you want to sample. I definitely give them credit for that. I think that if I'm going to try any of these other pills I need to keep one very important thing in mind:

Eat first.

I'm thinking it may not be their fault that I'm a little "bouncy" at the moment. I had some food and I slowly (the only thing I'm doing slowly at the moment) seem to be coming down into a normal zone of "okayness." At the height of my bounciness I'm pretty sure I would have made a High School mascot look lazy.

What do I think? I think that these pills aren't for me. Would I recommend them? Absolutely. Right after making sure the person knows what they're getting themselves into.

BzzAgent Buzz!

I'm a member of BzzAgent and one of the things I love is the anticipation of a new campaign! There's one coming up that I'm really looking forward to because it's the first campaign I've been signed up for that's specifically for babies!

I'm really looking forward to see what products I'll be getting for my amazing little girl and whether or not they hold up to our high standards! We use a few Comforts for Baby products around the house already (specifically I know that her favorite sippy cup is made by them) so I'm hoping to find a few other products that she might love.

I can tell I'm a dad, though, because I've done about 10 other campaigns in my few months with BzzAgent and this is the first campaign that's had me really excited to see what I get. I'm more excited about this one, seeing what I get for my daughter, than I was about the one that essentially offered free wine!

Here's hoping that these products are better than the wine, though: I paid $5 a bottle for them, with a mail-in rebate to get that back, and it was worth every penny I paid (after rebate).

What The Heck Is This, Anyway?

I've recently signed up for a couple of great product review sites, BzzAgent and Influenster. One of the things that both sites will grade you on is whether or not you have a blog of your own in which you review products. I want to have a blog so that I can increase my visibility for these sites and my reviews but I don't want to spam all of my friends on my other blogs and so I have created this!

This review blog will be for product reviews both from those sites and from my life. It may include dining experiences, reviews of books I've read, video games I've played, and possibly even reviews of my own cooking as though I'm at a fine restaurant and they've messed everything up.

Honestly, I have no idea.

I just like blogging and reviewing, as should be obvious if you know even the slightest bit about me.

I intend to write at least 3 posts a week with reviews.

Intentions are hilarious sometimes, right? We'll see how this one works out.