Elizabeth's Blog

Usually I’m bitching about those darn “Bratz” dolls that are Barbie’s trampy cousins, but this time I have a little bone to pick with the folks at Barbie. I saw a commercial for this today and I actually did a double take because I couldn’t believe this passed the test and made it to market:

http://barbie.everythinggirl.com/catalog/productbrd.aspx?sku=J9472

For the lazy:

Did you know Barbie® doll has a dog named Tanner™? This pooch is has a mouth, ears, and tail that move with your help! You can even “feed” Tanner dog biscuits! After the pup goes potty, just clean up with a special trash can and magnetic scooper. Good doggie!

Yes, that’s right. The dog comes with it’s very own dog shit that you can clean up with a little Barbie pooper scooper. That’s funny, when I was little, we had our Barbies pretend to go shopping, have sleepovers, or go to birthday parties. And this is what kids want to pretend now? I’d like to obtain a list from Mattel of every girl who buys one of these things and have them come to my house any ol’ time they want to… with 2 dogs weighing over 200 collective canine pounds, we have plenty of shit they can clean up.

So I’m volunteering to do the PTA website and I’m searching for some warm fuzzy little quote about how wonderful children are, and blah blah blah… when this catches my eye on the “quotations” page:

I remember seeing something like this on Aaron Wormus’ website and I just think it’s so funny. It makes me want to keep clicking these links just to make the advertisers pay for such ridiculous automated systems.

It’s getting closer - only 7 more days until PHP Appalachia. Looks like the weather will be cooperative, at least as far as they can predict today. I’m dusting off my camping gear and getting ready to head out.

I wanted to give a quick acknowledgement to our sponsors for the event, as posted by Ben on our PHP Appalachia site. We have so many sponsors, and so many door prizes to give away, a good time will definitely be had by all. Their donations are really helping our grass roots gathering come together, and we all greatly appreciate their efforts. I also want to give a quick thanks to Cal Evans who also personally donated numerous t-shirts and goodies as well.

Our rough schedule is in the final stages of completion, and besides alotting time for our presentations and lively campfire discussions, we’re also going to be setting aside time for lightning talks (in true OSCON fashion) so the attendees can take the floor for 5-10 minutes and speak about whatever’s on their mind. We’ve also of course included time for hiking, sightseeing, and simply hanging out around the campsite. I’ll be posting the schedule to the PHP Appalachia site once everything is finalized… or as finalized as we’re getting at this gathering.

Although it’s only a week away, you can still register for the event. Registration is only $15, and all attendees get a free t-shirt and free Wi-Fi while they’re at the conference. The more the merrier we say - so come join us! For more info, visit our site.

Being a Cincinnati native all my life, I’ve seen the Bengals go from the Superbowl to non-winning seasons from 1991-2003. It makes it really tough to root for a losing team, but I am definitely NOT a fair weather fan. Yes, I have an autographed trucker hat signed by Kenny Anderson and Chris Collinsworth (among others). Yes, I cherish my pair of commemorative 7UP Bengals bottles from 1973. And sadly enough, I’ll admit I’ve had my face painted orange and black on more than one occasion. I’d probably cry tears of joy if I ever met Marvin Lewis.

This being said, we play one of our biggest rivals tomorrow, the icky Steelers. Naturally, my husband is a huge Steelers fan so it gets a little crazy in our house on these days. I don’t have quite the animosity for them any more since they signed Big Ben Rothelisberger, who happens to be a fellow Miami University (of Ohio dammit) alum. And while he wasn’t smart enough to wear a helmet when he was riding his motorcycle, you have to give credit to someone who is playing an NFL game 10 days after having his appendix out. (10 days after mine was out I think I finally began to emerge from my hydrocodone fog and my biggest feat was staying awake for more than 2 hours at a time). That being said, I only have one thing left to write:

Go Bengals!

For anyone curious about what our plans are for the PHP Appalachia conference, we’ve posted our schedule on the site. Our plan is to keep things flexible, but with a pinch of structure, and a couple of formal presentations thrown in for good measure. If you’re going to be attending and you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send an email to the mailing list, or to me or Ben.