You've Got Mail Monday

Between being gone to Disney and spending so much time in the garden, I haven't had a lot of time to concern myself with the mail. June is also a notoriously busy month for us. With softball, end of the school year activities, meetings for fall sports, and volunteering, it seems the days whiz by.

A new Dave's Soda and Pet Food City opened recently. We haven't been inside yet, but our mail carrier brought us a coupon for $5 off a purchase of $20 or more or $10 off a purchase of $60 or more. Payless Shoesource® also sent us a coupon for 20% off a purchase through June 9th. I don't think I'll have a need to use it, but with the ways these girls grow, you never know how quickly that will change.

SpongeBob Squarepants characters have come to Build-A-Bear Workshop®. Our catalog shows SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, and Gary are available. Arriving in June, they'll have Sully and Mike from Disney Pixar's Monsters University.

The June 2013 issue of Traditional Home® magazine arrived. This month's cover is stunning. Love the pink marble-looking walls in the featured room. There's a beautiful guesthouse on Lake Manitowish in Wisconsin featured on page 75. The June 21, 2013 issue of All You magazine also made it's way into my mailbox. Looking forward to reading the article on how to save $100 on groceries this month.

Catalogs arrived from FrontGate®, Improvements®, Grandinroad®, and Land's End.

That's it for this week's edition of You've Got Mail Monday. Hope you have a great week.

April A to Z Blogging Challenge

What is the A to Z Challenge? It’s blogging a letter of the alphabet every day the month of April (with Sundays off for good behavior.) It began April 1st, with the letter A and ends April 30th, with the letter Z. You can click here to see who else is participating in this challenge.




Today's post is for the letter:

I guess we could talk about X-axis or X-rays today. If it were fall we could probably discuss xanthophyll. Xavier isn't a name you hear too often these days. Maybe we could wonder what a Xenosaurus looks like.

Instead, I want to talk about just the letter "X", because if you're a pirate, "X" marks the spot. I can't say I've ever come across a big "X" marked in the sand, but it seems to happen in cartoons and can be worked into film titles quite nicely.

In an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants (yes, you knew I was going there), SpongeBob and Patrick are recruited by Mr. Krabs to become pirates and search for the Flying Dutchman's treasure. After running the boat aground--which is a strange thing to happen underwater--Patrick reads the compass wrong and sends the group about 10,000 paces in the opposite direction. After they are about to give up the ghost, they stumble upon the "X" that marks the spot and begin digging.

In the first season of Josie and the Pussycats, they meet Professor Isaac Belfour, a scientist who invented an invisibility formula. They take him along for their gig in Puddletown, England, to protect him from Mr. X, a former laboratory assistant who stole the formula. Now doesn't that show my age.

X Marks the Spot was also the title of a 1942 movie starring Damian O'Flynn as Eddie Delaney. Here's the IMDB synopsis:

Delaney is a second lieutenant in the army, but also a private detective. Eddy swings into action, when his father, police-sergeant Timothy J. Delaney, is gunned down by rubber racketeers. With the help of his brave friend and radio disc jockey Linda Ward and police-lieutenant William 'Bill' Decker, Eddy goes after the racketeers. Eddie, Linda and Bill have during their search to deal with various criminals, like Marty Clark and the unscrupulous businessman and owner of the nightclub 'The Spot', John J. Underwood.

See, I told you the letter "X" comes in handy.

Can you think of any shows or films where the letter X is involved? There's a famous one about a couple of FBI agents that comes to mind.

April 2011 A to Z Blogging Challenge

What is the A to Z Challenge? It’s blogging a letter of the alphabet every day the month of April (with Sundays off for good behavior.) It began April 1st, with the letter A and ends April 30th, with the letter Z. You can click here to see who else is participating in this challenge.


Today's post is for the letter:

S is for one of my all-time favorite cartoons, SpongeBob Squarepants. Who knew when they debuted the first cartoon about a childish sponge working as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab that he would be so popular?  There is a 14-year age difference between our son and our first daughter. Spongebob Squarepants is probably the only current cartoon both of them watched as kids.

SpongeBob lives in Bikini Bottom. His next door neighbor is Squidward Tentacles, a pessimistic squid who bemoans his meager existence as the cashier at the Krusty Krab. SpongeBob's best friend, Patrick Star, lives on the other side of Squidward. As childlike as his friend, together, Patrick and SpongeBob drive the mature, serious Squidward crazy with their antics.

SpongeBob has a pet snail named Gary, who doesn't like baths. In one of SpongeBob's dreams, he sees Gary as a highly intellectually being that tells him to be careful of invading other people's dreams.

SpongeBob and Squidward work for the notoriously cheap Mr. Krabs. As owner of the Krusty Krab, he is always trying to cut costs and increase his profits. He's not against taking money from unsuspecting children. His competitor is Plankton, owner of the Chum Bucket. Plankton is always trying to steal the secret Krabby Patty formula with the help of his computer wife, Karen.

Also living in Bikini Bottom is Sandy Cheeks. A squirrel who hibernates during the winter, Sandy lives in a tree covered by a glass dome that keeps out the water. When Patrick and SpongeBob go to visit her, they must put on helmets that contain water so they can breathe. Sandy wears a spacesuit and astronaut's helmet to protect her body from the water and to provide her with oxygen to breathe.

It's hard not to like SpongeBob. He's always happy and he loves his job. He's often trying to help miserable Squidward see things in a more positive way. He'll do anything for his friends and he loves Gary with all his heart.

They made a SpongeBob Squarepants movie in 2004. I'm hoping they'll do it again. The storylines are totally outside of what goes on with the regular series, so it would be fun to see a sequel.

Do you watch SpongeBob Squarepants? Who is your favorite character?