wanna bet?

I am very excited about a gift that arrived unexpectedly in the mail yesterday! You see, when the in-laws were out for a visit to help ring in the New Year, it was determined that all I was lacking to make me truly happy was a plastic playing card caddy. I had been looking for one in all the obvious places… Toys R Us, Target, local pawn shops, etc., but no one seemed to have any in stock. Imagine if you can, my surprise when I opened the cardboard Miles Kimball box that the mailperson delivered and pulled out my very own SEE THRU cardholder. As if clear isn’t kool enough, this model also has a sort of lazy Susan base that allows it to rotate a full 360 degrees. Although I haven’t tested this yet, I have a theory that if you spin the caddy fast enough, you can completely eliminate the need for a dealer.

Given that I have spent a good deal of time over the past six months writing product descriptions for a web-based, southwestern building supply company, I couldn’t help surfing over to the Miles Kimball website to see for myself what they had to say about this amazing product. My favorite portion of the description reads, “Clear plastic holder keeps the deck and discard piles neatly separate, prevents confusion.” Yeah right… “prevents confusion”- if anything, it will only delay confusion. Nevertheless, if you play card games and don’t own a card caddy, I recommend that you buy one today. If not today, then do your best to pick one up no later than the end of the month. Keep in mind that February is one of the shortest months this year.

Sure, you might feel the urge to argue that playing cards won’t get my blogging done, but if you do, please email that complaint to me directly instead of adding it as a comment to my blog.



The card game being played in the photo is Phase 10. For readers unfamiliar with the game, I would have to describe it as an addictive combination of Uno and Yahtzee- but without all the screaming. The game is actually pretty laid back, more like Canasta- except with more colorful cards. If you’ve never played Phase 10… DON’T! Instead, take up something less frustrating like juggling or jogging or both.

Thinking back to the abovementioned visit, I recalled an event that was so amazing my subconscious had pretty much blocked it out entirely. While we were enjoying dinner at the diner, Mark (my father-in-law) made liars out of Buddy Hackett, Tim Conway, and a host of other celebrity spokespeople by eating a single wavy Lay’s brand potato chip. That’s right… JUST one! It was one of those moments that define an entire meal. I have to admit that I was very impressed. I guess I bought into the whole marketing strategy of Lay's that eating a single chip was an unobtainable quest. After all, how can you argue with a slogan that has been around longer than yourself? I celebrated Mark’s magnificent achievement by adding a second handful of chips onto my plate.