To dress up or not?

How many of you out there still dress up for Halloween? How many of you dress up your pets?

I think the last time I dressed up was when I was 10 or 11. I found out  that I have to dress up this year for a party, so its time to start looking for costumes. I  don’t like to dress up so I always look for ways out of it. I think it's the mask that always has me dreading Halloween. 

I am a big Adam Sandler fan and so I decided to dress up as Happy Gilmore. All I need is a Bruins Jersey, sweatpants and Black boots. Living in Massachusetts I already own two of these, so I only have to go out and buy blue sweatpants.  All I have left to do is to bring some of my golf clubs with me. Are there any other easy costumes that wont cost much money and make it feel like your not really dressed up? I may need those ideas for next year. 

As for the pets I have a 6 month old German Shorthaired Pointer. My wife wants to dress him up for Halloween. I am not sold on this but most likely lose the battle and let her dress him up. The only problem is that large costumes for dogs are sold online and not in stores. 

Since I am set up with my costume already please let me know what costume I should get for Wrigley. I would love to know any web sites that have good deals on dog costumes as well. All help and recommendations would be great! These are my top 5 so far.

School Vacation...

With school starting back up. What do you do for the school vacation weeks? I don’t have any kids but my wife is a teacher. Planning a vacation around her can be a pain. She is only allowed 2 personal days a year and they cant use them to make a school break even longer. 

If you have kids do you take them out of school for a week (which I hear from my wife... most parents do), or do you wait until school vacation to go on a trip. 

Unfortunately I have to wait for those vacation weeks and I am looking to go to Florida for a week in February. Why February and not the summer when they have two months off you ask. Who wants to leave 90 degree weather to go to 100 degree weather? I like leaving in the 20-30 degree weather to go somewhere that the average is 75 degrees.

Looking for the best deals in flights I have to go Monday to Friday. Weekend flights are up to $600 each way. I was almost going to pay $600 for the two of us to fly but they were not on nonstop flights, so the travel time was well over 6 hours for a 3 hour flight if nonstop. 

I patently waited for Southwest to come out with their schedule today so I finally booked all nonstop flights for $560. (I still think this is quite expensive but to go on that week, I guess you have to pay it. The one good thing about Southwest is our bags fly for FREE! This way my wife can bring all of her favorite Chadwicks clothes, I am hoping she only uses one suitcase though. 

All I have left is to get a rental car and I will have a week of peace and quiet away from everything (except my wife). Any good ideas on what I can do in the Orlando area without spending a lot of money? I will most likely find a beach and relax for a few days.

Reality TV!

I’ve always been curious about how many people out there really watch reality TV.  For me, it depends on what you consider reality TV.... do all the sports games I watch count? How about the news? It’s all reality, but its not like the popular shows American Idol or Survivor. If sports do count then 95% of what I watch it reality TV!

What made me really think about this is the one true ‘reality show’ I do watch every Friday night, Whale Wars on Animal Planet. I personally believe this is one of the best reality TV shows out there. The stars of the show are not trying to win money or gain a contract, they don’t even get paid. They are all volunteers on a ship to help stop Japanese whaling in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. This show just started last year and is only in the second season of filming. I think it makes for good TV, not to mention good publicity to the groups helping the whales. 

Some people don’t realize that the Japanese whaling fleet plans to kill 935 Minke whales, they also plan on killing 50 Fin (endangered) whales a year. The whaling fleets say they are killing the whales for research but in the end each whale is worth anywhere from $250,000 to $1 million. 

Besides my sports, to me this show is “really” reality TV. It actually makes you feel emotion. American Idol on the other hand, may be entertaining to some but the passion from everyone on the show is not there every night (yes when they get voted off they are upset, but if they are in the top 3 or 4 they are pretty much guaranteed a contract). The crew members of The Sea Shepherd don’t spend 2-3 months on a ship to get a contract when they get home, they turn around and keep volunteering more time.

Do you have a reality show you’re addicted to? How much “reality TV” do you watch every week? If you count sports, it’s around 7-8 hours a week, plus my one hour of Whale Wars and that’s it...for now.

I’ll be setting my Tivo soon to catch Chadwicks on TV! Don’t forget you can check it out too. We’ll be on The Balancing Act airing weekdays 7am-ET/PT, 6am CT, MTN-check local listings on Lifetime....while it may not be as intense as Whale Wars, it’s bound to be fun, enjoy!