Basketball and Buckyballs . . .

August 14, 2012 Uncategorized

Basketball and Buckyballs . . .

Landon’s 2nd birthday is coming up next Monday and we ordered this expandable basketball goal for him.

It looks like a neat toy and we’re sure he’s going to love it. And it can grow as he does.

Note that according to the description it’s designed for ages 1-1/2 to 5 years.

However a little further down the page is this required legal notice.

HUH?

So exactly what is the “small parts” Landon is supposed to swallow? The ball that’s almost as big as his head? The hoop that’s even bigger?

What?

On a similar note, I’ve made my donation to the Save Our Balls campaign. How about you? (Get your mind out of the gutter, Nick.)

Buckyballs are adult toys made from powerful rare-earth magnets and are a little larger than a BB. Their popularity has taken the company from two guys in a garage to a $50 million company in three years.

Their sales and marketing plan was approved by the CPSC (Consumer Products Safety Commission) over two years ago. Now, with over half a billion magnets sold, and less than two dozen “incidents” with children, the CPSC has changed its mind and told the company to recall all of their products sold, refund all the money, and go out of business.

The danger with magnets is the fact that if a child swallows more than one, the magnets can stick together through the walls of the intestine and cause damage and infections.

This, of course, ignores the thousands of “incidents” of kids swallowing other small objects. In fact there have been over 30,000 hospitalizations from children swallowing money.,

They also sell Buckyballs in cubes, rods, and even Big Balls. (Again, out of the gutter, Nick)

So after reading the story I immediately ordered 2 sets, and they are really a lot of fun to fool around with. And of course they will be nowhere around when Landon is.

Well, one week from today (Tuesday) we will be on our way north to Celina, OH. Where the high temp today, 74, was lower than the low here today, 76.

And we’re really looking forward to some cooler weather.

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Thought for the Day:

I really hate it when the voices in my head argue with my imaginary friends.

——————————————————————————————————————–And now here’s some of what we were doing about three years ago.

Quebec

Originally posted on September 18, 2009

Today was our day to see the city of Quebec.

We started out with breakfast at our new favorite breakfast/lunch place, Cora. Hopefully these will show up in the US soon.

We drove around Quebec, finally ending up in Vieux Quebec, or Old Quebec where we found a Tourist Information Center.

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We found that there was going to be a 2 hour bus tour at 2:30 pm and signed up for it. Luckily for us, today was the last day for this tour, and, even luckier, it was all in English.

We’ve noticed a lot of touristy things are starting to shut down, or reduce their hours, due to winter coming on, and the tourist trade is dropping off.

We had some time to kill before the tour started so we drove to a Glass Shop on St. Jean street that Jan wanted to visit.

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Finally we headed back to rendezvous with our tour bus. Our driver, a Quebec City native named Francois, spoke very good English, luckily for us. But Jan said he sounded like Inspector Clouseau of Pink Panther fame.

Our tour gave us a look at the major sites in Quebec, in both the old and new sections.

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Here is the Simons fountain in front of the Provincial Capitol of Quebec.

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Here is the view from the Plains of Abraham battlefield site overlooking the St. Lawrence river.

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The battle of Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Quebec, took place during the French and Indian War in September 1759, and the British victory over the French led to France relinquishing all claims to Canada.

Here’s Jan with another view from the battlefield.

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And here is the Chateau Frontenac Hotel, one of the most magnificent sites in Quebec. Built in 1893, the Frontenac is one of the premiere hotels in North America.