The first day of school, 2013

It's looming over my shoulder, getting closer and closer. I'm torn between excitement and utter sadness; excitement at the prospects of watching my children grow and learn, and sad at the fact that they ARE growing, and each passing day gets them one day closer to adulthood.

Alayna starts middle school, MIDDLE SCHOOL! She's growing into such an amazing, smart, beautiful, kind young woman. I'm so proud of her. She's worked SO hard this last year. She's made 2-3 years progress in occupational therapy over the last 11 months. We're still waiting on her physical therapy evaluations, but I'm willing to bet there's some amazing progress there too.

Aiden, my sweet sweet boy is starting his last year of elementary school. God, that makes my heart ache. My little boy is not so little anymore. He's nearly as tall as his momma and just all around amazing. He's looking forward to next year and his move into middle school, for now, this momma is just trying to enjoy him as a little boy for one more year. We met his teacher tonight, and thankfully Aiden already knows him as he was Aiden's track coach last year.

Brooklyn is entering 1st grade. She's torn between complete excitement and anxiety. I'm hoping this year is better for her, she spent so much of last year so anxious every step of the way. We met her teacher today and saw her class list, she has friends from last year in her class, I'm really hoping that helps.

Isabella, my baby... She's starting Kindergarten. my baby is starting Kindergarten! She is SO ready. She's THRILLED, she cannot wait! In her mind Kindergarten is the equivalent of a trip to Disneyland. We won't know who her teacher is until Friday afternoon. She gets to go for 1 half day of school next week as a "get to know you and school" day.

Every day my babies get bigger and bigger, they get smarter and smarter, and I love them more and more. For now, I'm going to enjoy the fact that school hasn't started yet, that we still have a few more days of summer vacation, and I still have several more years of my babies as children.

Brooklyn, strep throat, and hospital visits

Saturday August 10th Brooklyn came down with a virus, the same one my nephew Asante had (a day or two of a fever, followed by a day or two of a sore throat). Saturday was fever day, Sunday was sore throat day, and by Monday she was fine. That entire week she was fine.

Until the following Monday, August 19th. That morning she woke up complaining that her neck hurt and she was hot to the touch. I took her temp and it was 101. I called the advice nurse at her ped's office, and she suggested that I take Brooklyn up to the ER to be checked for possible meningitis (which is the first thing they think of when they hear neck pain and fever), especially since Brooklyn was refusing to move her head at all.

At the ER when going over Brooklyn's symptoms with the doctor and the doctor examining Brooklyn it was concluded that it wasn't meningitis. They did a strep test that came back negative (but they always culture it for 24-48 hours). It was decided that she probably just had a virus and we needed to let it run it's course. So, back home we went to use tylenol and motrin for pain and fever and push fluids.

Tuesday August 20th Brooklyn woke up and her neck was visibly swollen, she couldn't swallow and she was crying. So, I called the advice nurse again, she said I should bring Brooklyn in to be checked out, just to be sure there wasn't something else going on. Brooklyn had an elevated temperature, but not a fever. She saw the doctor, and it was concluded that she COULD have mono (too early to test, but she also didn't have any abdomen pain/discomfort that is present with mono), but most likely she had an infection in her lymph nodes. The doctor prescribe Augmentin (an antibiotic). After I got that filled at the pharmacy I got a call from the ER saying that Brooklyn's strep culture was positive, so she did need antibiotics, they said that the Augmentin would work perfectly for that and that she should be feeling MUCH better within 24 hours of the first dose.

Tuesday she got 2 doses of Augmentin in her, but she was still feeling pretty awful, and she looked terrible. She refused to eat or drink anything, she only peed once in 24 hours, and that night she started vomiting. So, back on the phone with the advice nurse I went. She said Brooklyn was most likely on her way to being dehydrated, and I should take her in for IV fluids. So we headed back to the ER.

At the ER the doctor ordered the start of IV fluids, but she was also concerned with possible mono, so she asked the nurse if she would draw a bit of blood for some lab work before starting the IV fluids. They took the blood, started the IV and Brooklyn and I sat back to wait. After a bit the nurse came in and said Brooklyn's white blood cell count was really high, so the doctor wanted to give Brooklyn a broad spectrum antibiotic. Shortly after that the doctor came in to talk to me. She said Brooklyn's white blood cell count was consistent with a MAJOR infection (much more severe than strep throat). The doctor told me that sometimes people can get an abscess in their throat from strep, so she wanted to do an x-ray of Brooklyn's neck and chest.

We did the x-ray and waited for the results. When we got them, the doctor said that the x-rays did show a rather large mass in Brooklyn's throat, so she wanted to give Brooklyn a steroid which would help with her breathing (it wasn't labored, but she was breathing VERY loudly). She said she also wanted to do a CT scan to be sure if the mass was swelling due to the strep throat or an abscess; but that either way Brooklyn was being transferred to a children's hospital.

The CT scan showed that Brooklyn did have an abscess, and the only way to fix it was surgery to clean it out. We had to be transported via ambulance to the children's hospital, and that wait took 2 hours. It was 5am by the time Brooklyn got loaded onto an ambulance. During the wait Joe got the other kiddos to my parents' house and drove up to the children's hospital to wait for us.

Around 6am we got settled into a room. At 8am the surgeon came in to discuss the possibility of surgery with us. He still had to look at the CT scan, but that most likely they would need to go in through the right side of her neck and drain the abscess, they would have to leave a drainage tube, and they'd have to remove that in 3-4 days. He said the surgery was a bit dangerous due to the fact that 1. there's a main artery in her neck, 2. The infection was VERY close to her spine, and 3. the infection could possibly spread down towards her heard.

At 9am we were informed that they were preparing an operating room for her, and by 9:30 we were down in the pre-op room. We met the head surgeon that would be doing her surgery and he said that he should be able to go down her throat and access the abscess, this would mean no drainage tube and no scar, as well as less recovery. This also meant that the anesthesiologist would have to put her breathing tube up her nose and down her throat to give the surgeon the room he needed to access the abscess.

By 9:55am they started the surgery. Poor Brooklyn was terrified and she cried as they wheeled her away. I cried too. About 30 minutes later the surgeon came out to tell us the surgery was over, she did great. They ended up getting 5ccs of puss (a teaspoon of puss) from the abscess. They also sprayed the area out very well to make sure it was cleaned 100%. About 20 minutes after that I was called back to the post-op recovery room. It was terrible. Brooklyn was very upset, it took me 15 minutes to calm her down, and even then she barely recognized me. Shortly after that we were moved back to her room. She slept for several more hours and woke up sometime around 3pm and said she was hungry. She ate a plate of scrambled eggs and a bunch of grapes. Later on that night she ate about 1/4 of a ham and cream cheese sandwich, some mashed potatoes, and some jello. I slept maybe a total of an hour while in the room. I had been up since about 8 am Tuesday.

Brooklyn had a good night Wednesday night, she slept from about 11:30pm until about 9am when she was woken up by the doctors needing to check her out. That gets us to Thursday. She was doing GREAT, eating, drinking, peeing, etc. So, after lunch (and taking her antibiotic capsule well) we were all set to be released. Brooklyn is taking her regular Ritalin ER and Ritalin (for her ADHD), her regular Clonidine (for sleep), and now some heavy duty antibiotics (for the infection) and some probiotics (to prevent tummy issues related to the antibiotics).

She goes in tomorrow to have a check up with her regular pediatrician, and then she'll be seen again after finishing off her antibiotics just to be sure everything has cleared up and healed well.

She's back to her usual self, running all over with TONS of energy.

I'm going to send a thank you card to the ER doctor. In my opinion, she saved my daughter's life. If she hadn't investigated a bit there's a VERY good chance we'd have gone home and the abscess would have been allowed to spread, potentially reaching Brooklyn's blood stream and/or spinal cord.

Angel, the special American Pit Bull puppy

There's this rescue group in WA that is making SERIOUS false claims about at least one dog they've helped place. It's sickening that a RESCUE for medically special dogs would make false claims about a dog that was adopted out through their rescue group. I'm not sure if the information they were given is false, or if they are outright lying by choice. I do know that the original owner has tried to contact them in regards to the truth. I have also reached out, via a blog post and their facebook page, to let them know that Angel was NEVER intended to be used in dog fighting. There have yet to approve my comments on their blog and my comments on their facebook page have gone ignored.

They're trying to say that Angel, an American Pit Bull Terrier born without back paws, was "saved from a life of dog fighting" by her disabilities. This couldn't be FURTHER from the truth.

Angel was born in June of 2011 into the home of a family that absolutely LOVES their pets. None of their dogs have EVER been used in fighting, and to suggest otherwise is an outright lie and slander against this family. You see, my cousin was the original owner of Angel. She LOVED Angel and wanted to keep her. But, my cousin was unsure as to what type of life Angel would have and how she would meet Angel's needs. So, my cousin contacted Wags to Riches, an animal rescue group. They said that they had connections to a program in California that could help Angel and that they would update my cousin with how Angel was doing.

Unfortunately, they did NOT follow through with their claims to update about Angel. Much later my cousin found out that poor Angel contracted Parvo, which is VERY dangerous to young puppies. At that point Angel was sent to yet another animal rescue in back in Washington.

Most recently Angel was adopted out to an AMAZING home where she will live out her life with a wonderful family. This is a blog post about Angel as of last week, http://www.seattledogspot.com/blog/dog-blog/post/pawless-pitbull-from-yakima-saves-moms-life-on-first-day-in-her-forever-home?fb_action_ids=10200451499789297&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.Ugahgbyq0k8.like&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210200451499789297%22%3A248256511965693%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210200451499789297%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%2210200451499789297%22%3A%22.Ugahgbyq0k8.like%22%7D#comment_top

You'll notice in the article they AGAIN say, "Angel was born in Yakima and would most likely have suffered through a life in the cruel world of dog fighting, but because she was born with no paws on her hind legs, a rescue was able to save her from that fate." I have posted 2 comments explaining the truth behind Angel and what her original family intended for her, neither of those comments have been approved to appear on the blog. I'm certain that my cousin has also attempted to post comments regarding the truth to Angel's life.

Let me be VERY clear, Angel's parents were never used in dog fighting, Angel's siblings were never used in dog fighting, Angel would have NEVER been used in dog fighting. Angel's parents and siblings are FAMILY pets. Angel lived the first few months of her life in an amazing home with children who loved to snuggle her and gave her wonderful attention. The ONLY reason Angel was given up to a rescue agency is because the original family wasn't sure they would be able to meet Angel's medical needs.

So, I'm writing this to get the truth out. Angel was never intended to be a fighting dog. Not every American Pit Bull Terrier born was born to be a fighting dog. We need to stop this gross generalization of a very loved breed.

11 years

Tonight (or more specifically, yesterday, as it's after midnight now) Joe and I celebrated 11 years of marriage. Over the years we've had our ups and downs, but I have to tell you there have been MANY more ups than downs.

With divorce rates near 40% nationwide, I say we're doing pretty darn good. Why is that though? I happen to think it's because we truly love each other. My parents taught me that marriages take work, they take trust, and they take faith. I think both Joe and I have done a pretty good job of working on our marriage, of trusting each other, and having faith in each other.

I couldn't imagine myself with anyone else, I can't imagine a better father for my children, a better life partner.

I look forward to celebrating again next year, and in all the years that follow.

Safe Computing on a Budget, Part 2: Know what you download

In the previous post, we changed our browser to Google Chrome. This will help prevent a lot of the slowness and security exploits in other more popular browsers. Today, we're going to discuss knowing what you're downloading, which seems like common sense but can be hard to verify if you're a computer novice or you find yourself downloading certain types of files often.

Know Your Source

Don't download everything. It's not always necessary to do so. but when you do, make sure where you're getting the file is legitimate. How do you do this in a vast sea of web sites? Despite the immense number of sites available, very few actually host files. Downloads can take up server space that site owners typically have to pay for, so they choose to host their files in the same place as everybody else. This equates to a finite but still large number of legitimate sites.

The best way to know where you're getting your file from is to look at the bottom of the screen when you move your mouse over a link or button:

The address to the next place you will go to get the file is listed here. It can seem arbitrary, but the main part you need to look at is the address of the web site, which is the first part of the link (everything before the ".com" or ".org" or whatever) called the domain. You can actually open a second window and open this first part of the address to see where it goes. Does it go to a place you recognize?

It complicates things when a web site owner uses multiple addresses for different functions, like CNET using dw.com.com for its download pages and files. This server, if you went to it directly, shows nothing. It would look to a novice like it's something bad, but it is used by a reputable company. The second thing you might want to do is check the owner of the site by using "WHOIS" search.

Who.is is my favorite of these types of search sites but you can use most services you see when searching "whois" in Google. The function here is to see who owns the domain. Because one business can own another, you are looking for something that identifies the web site as owned by someone you expect it to be owned by.

In this example, we see that the owner of dw.com.com is CBS Interactive, Inc, which is somewhat arbitrary to someone who doesn't know who CBS Interactive is. However, we do see that the person to contact has a CNET address, so it should be legitimate (most hackers and scum won't ask you to send inquiries to a major company, because having that information on WHOIS means that company may have some legal control over its ownership).

You can do this your first time, and as long as you're going to the same place each time, you shouldn't have to go back and check WHOIS each time. If the domain was "dw.com.ru", which would be a Russian domain, or "dw.com.co.uk", which would be a British domain, you can decide if you should really be going out of the country for your file and act accordingly. The WHOIS should show the same information if owned by the same company. If it shows some random person with contact info that does not seem legitimate, be cautioned when going there.

Know the Sender

Email is not as common to contain viruses because less people use software like Microsoft Outlook for their email. Attachments in places like Yahoo! Mail or Gmail are often scanned by the provider, and many harmful extensions (detailed below) are denied being downloadable so their clients are not infected. However, some viruses still get through.

Don't open attachments from people you don't know, and verify that people you do know actually purposely sent you any attachment you didn't ask for. Some attachments are sent automatically or have been spoofed by a sender to look like your friend when it was really sent by someone else. And don't use "Reply" to ask a sender to verify themselves, as emails can reply to a different email address. Always type a new email with the original sender's email address.

Instant messaging is also potentially unsafe if a friend sends you a file. Don't open anything sent by a stranger; don't even accept the file transfer.

Know Your File Type

There are tons of types of files, PCs determining the type of file by the extension used (the letters after the dot in the file name, like ".exe"). Viruses are not present in many types of files because they are not "executable", meaning they don't create commands that the computer must follow to use the file. Items with extensions like .jpg, .png, .mp3 and some other media files are not likely or sometimes impossible to carry a virus.

Fileinfo.com discusses common file types and their uses. Use it as a reference to find the kinds of files you want, and know if the file you're downloading has the right extension.

However, the reality of the internet is that it always changes. And the internet community has seen viruses hide in all sorts of files, and new viruses are created everyday.

Treat all files the same is my motto. I scan everything I download from any source I don't know intimately, or at least have an active virus scan that can catch things before I open them. This is especially true for any .exe, .zip, .rar, .pdf, .epub, .mobi, .msi or .7z files that are common to include viruses if not from a well-verified source.

Know that double extensions,which can look like .exe.vbs or .jpg.c, are likely to be a virus in disguise. Hackers expect novices to not notice the extra letters, figuring it's some sort of enhanced version of a file type they know. Unless you know for sure the file should have a double extension like this, don't open it, and delete it immediately.

P2P and Torrents Are Plagued

Anyone who has used ThePirateBay.se or other torrenting sites, or used a peer to peer (P2P) networking software to download files from other people will have heard of or have experienced a virus being carried by the files shared. It doesn't seem illogical to assume when you're doing something illegal you will probably run into other criminals who want to mess with you. You also can't trust someone else's computer to be virus free if they're not a corporate server or a high-level tech geek.

Assume everything you download from torrents is potentially infected with viruses, whether you're pirating movies or finding legal free stuff from collections shared by others. Scan everything, verify all files, and don't download anything you don't know how to open. Don't even trust common safe file types like .jpg.

Torrent sites like ThePirateBay.se also have comments posted by other users. It is important to read these comments before downloading anything from a torrent because they will tell you if someone else caught a virus or if it's not the real thing. Communities like this try to tell each other when to beware. If you are active in these communities, give feedback when you can.

Please note: Pirating songs, movies, software or other copyrighted or patented material is illegal and you can be fined or jailed for engaging in communities that traffic this kind of contraband. These are considered black markets, and on top of virus possibilities you should consider the legal ramifications of your actions before choosing to download something that you don't own.

Use Common Sense!

You get an email from a friend that has some kind of general note in it like "This is so funny I almost died laughing" and that's it, but it has a file you have to download to view. Is something so funny you risk infecting your computer and losing your data? Or could you let your friend know you aren't opening that stuff unless they give you more details about what they're going to see, and add something that verifies it's really from them? Common internet courtesy for emails, file sharing and the like is to make sure there's a way you know who it's coming from and what's in the file. If you don't, you might as well delete the email or pass up the file sharing link until you can.

Only download stuff if you know it's really what you want. One of the most common mistakes made by people who constantly get viruses is to download items that say they're something the person really wants, like a cute game or, inevitably, porn, but the file they download uses those popular past times to lower the person's sense of security so they won't scan it beforehand and make sure it's safe.

And speaking of porn, for the sake of your security and family sanctity, find a better use of your friggin' time! Porn really isn't that exciting. Half of it is hilarious, and the other half is gross. But most video and photo downloads that are freely distributed have a higher potential than any other kind of software to contain something harmful, annoying, destructive or curious about your personal data. I have fixed more computers damaged by people who got porn viruses than any other kind of infection. You really want to see people having sex? Get a subscription to a porn site or go to your local smut shack and buy a DVD.

Now that we've covered that...

In the next installment, we will discuss virus software and what I suggest to use to scan and protect your system.

Apple products are less likely to have viruses. Is tax time the right time to switch?

Have questions or concerns I haven't covered yet? Ask in the comments below!

Safe Computing on a Budget, Part 1: Get a new browser

The top question I get involving computers is how to avoid viruses. I've had a computer in the house since 1994, been online since 1995, designing web sites since 1996 and had almost no viruses in that timeframe. What? Wait... did I just write that correctly? Almost no viruses? Well, I can't say never, but they've been few and far between. Never had my identity stolen, never had my computer hacked into. And I am not running state-of-the-art computer software by any means.

(Please note, this is not a challenge to would-be hackers. I know I'm mainly just lucky. The end.)

One of the reasons I keep relatively virus free is because I take a step-by-step approach to using the internet. And I have several free tools that, along with good practices, keep me relatively virus free.

Keep in mind I have found viruses on files I've downloaded. No one can say that they did something to avoid downloading viruses. Even CNET's Download.com, one of the longest-running free software servers in the internet, has let some slip by in uploads that had new viruses their own software couldn't detect. It happens. But there is a difference between "downloading" a virus and "getting infected by"a virus.

In this multi-post series I will outline my setup, and I suggest trying this to reduce your risk of infection. Please note I spend no money on these items at all, but some have a paid version that does have some nifty upgrades you could look into if you are so inclined.

First line of defense: Google Chrome

They like to claim otherwise, but both Internet Explorer and Firefox have exploits and functionality deficits that make them more susceptible to attacks from rogue web sites and overall slower to respond. Here's how it usually works in terms of getting a virus from just looking at a web site:

1. You click on a link or type in a web site.
2. That web site is run by a "black hat", or computer hacker that distributes harmful viruses. Sometimes you can tell by the way the link is read like "http://www.yahoo.nwp1.com/, which kinda looks like yahoo.com but is obviously different). But sometimes the web site is legitimate and has itself been hacked by this distributor of evil.
3. The web site looks for a way to save a file on your computer, which is the only way it can get in. Unless you download it yourself on purpose, files saved to a computer are limited to image files (most of which cannot contain viruses), text and "plugins" such as Flash, Java or otherwise that run multimedia content or provide specific computing functions.
4. The hacker will usually hide the virus in a plugin, which is used by the browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, etc) by downloading a file into a temporary part of your hard drive to help speed up the use of the media.
5. Once the file is saved, it uses how the browser opens the file to launch the virus and start the infection.

This seems like a long process, but it can happen in a matter of seconds. To their credit, browser developers have secured their browser software to prevent these kind of exploits, but there are specific functions of ActiveX, a plugin specifically used on Internet Explorer, that allow functions that can seriously compromise your security, usability and functionality of your computer.

One of the first things I did after I heard that there were other browsers out there was to switch from IE to Firefox. I used that for a long time, and in designing web sites I made sure Firefox users could see my web sites clearly. However, it also had the ability to install browser bars and other plugins that, as well, had exploits hidden in them. It also uses a lot of memory and has processing bottlenecks that cause it to run a lot slower than other browsers. I have admittedly not used it much, but my wife does still, and has had to shut down Firefox so she can run things like media streams without issues.

One of the most common source of viruses today is browser bars, those add-ons that give you a bar at the top of your browser that searches for you, gives you smiley faces in your emails or claims to give you faster browsing speed. These things are not only crapware but potential security risks because they load every time you load your browser. IE and Firefox are notorious for people purposely or accidentally installing browser bars that either stop their internet browsing cold or cause other infections on their computer.

Google Chrome has been historically very clean, a side effect of being based on Apple Safari and its simple yet secure structure. More recently they have allowed the use of "extensions" that give it more functionality, and that can sometimes also be a source of break-ins. So just keep Chrome the way it is and you shouldn't have much to worry about. Chrome even links up with major security indexes and warns you if you're going to a site that has been reported as harmful or dangerous.

Opera, which is another browser software with a smaller following, has also been quite secure but has historically had functionality issues with some web sites. The problem with Opera is that many designers of web sites do not test their site in that browser, which can cause unwanted display problems like images being in the wrong place or text being the wrong size. Many sites suggest using IE or Firefox because of their high level of adoption among internet users. Chrome, the basis of Google's new Chromebooks, is well tested and compatible with almost all web sites. However, I use Opera Mobile on my phone as a much better alternative to Android's built-in browser.

Ultimately the use of these browsers is up to you as to which one will feel most comfortable and do what you want it to do. I just urge you to stay away from Internet Explorer.

Changing your browser is not, in itself, going to keep you from contracting viruses. In my next post, we discuss the reason even Chrome extensions are sometimes bad and what is even more important that finding the right browser: knowing what you're downloading!

While you're at it, check out this good starter laptop for any age of student!

Hack All The Things: Kid-friendly music from Pandora

Morgan gets way to much attention on this blog. I want some attention too. I'm going to start posting some good family hacks for us low income families who are trying to make it and still want to be tech-capable or need to fix something quick.

First hack: Kid Friendly Music Time
Needed: Pandora and Pandora-capable devices
Also Featuring: K9 Web Protection

I don't like paying for music when I'm a broke dad. It makes me feel like I am spending money on a past time for their ears rather than food for their mouths. But I don't like the radio. There are too many mixed content bags on broadcast radio where you could be listening to a perfectly kid-friendly song then get something like Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night". No one wants a 4-year-old asking, "What's a mhuna-mhuna (ménage à trois)?"

Here comes Pandora! I have offered to have a computer in each of the kids' rooms equipped with K9 Web Protection so I can block everything but what I want them to see online. I can also stop the internet entirely after 8pm so they have to go to bed or suffer boredom. I setup Alayna's email address with Pandora, and set the Explicit Content Filter to "No" (Settings > Account > Explicit content filter) with only my email address able to remove it. Now whenever she goes into a Pandora-enabled app (Pandora.com, Pandora on Android, etc), she cannot receive explicit content. Beyond that, I told her I will remove any radio stations I deem inappropriate and she will be grounded anytime I find one. I have also agreed with her and Aiden that no radio stations are added without my knowledge. If it becomes a problem, I have another hack that can prevent them from changing anything on Pandora.com when they're on the site (sometime I'll show you how to do that).

My fav stations for the kids right now are:

• They Might Be Giants (Children's)
• Laurie Berkner
• The Aquabats (Children's)
• Caravan Palace
• Beats Antique
• Flogging Molly
• Children's Indie (Genre)
• Children's Folk (Genre)
• Family Folk Songs (Genre)

There are plenty of others. You'll have to find the ones you feel are appropriate. Remember that the explicit content filter will not go through a song and deem it unsuitable if it has questionable subject matter, such as kissing same sexes or smoking and drinking. It leaves out swear words or removes songs flagged as explicit, which is not always the same as your own definition of "explicit".

For rooms without a computer, use the Pandora Android or iPad app on your phone or tablet. You can also use a streaming media player, like the Netgear NEO TV Streaming Player:

These boxes replace your cable or satellite box, or complement it, depending on what you like to watch. This is also a great streaming source for Netflix, Hulu Plus and YouTube, but the main function here is Pandora Radio. Roku was one of the first to make a commercial streaming player to rival cable/satellite television. I often recommend Roku streaming players over other brands.

You can even get Pandora in your car to provide family friendly audio entertainment on long drives. With four rambunctious kids, I expect at some point to get a deck that streams Pandora myself. But instead of spending $100+ on a car audio deck to play Pandora, why not use your iPhone or Android smartphone powered by the Pandora app and use an FM transmitter to send Pandora audio straight to your radio in your car, regardless of brand or connections?

Connect this to the headphone jack on your phone and use the MP3s you load onto it or Pandora to keep the kids interested in something other than fighting with each other all the way to grandma's.

It's this kind of stuff that keeps us sane. It does not have to cost a whole lot either; often you can use what you already have if you don't need radio coming through your car and TV speakers. It's just another way to tailor the audio in your life to your kids (or you and the spouse when you're having "time alone"). Don't spend your money on MP3s or CDs unless you want to listen to specific bands on demand, which is the only limitation of Pandora. Save that money for the mouths in your house.