Katie's Newest Pastime

Alternate title: Why Styrofoam Peanuts Should Be Banned

Last Christmas, my sweet Uncle Ralph sent Katie a very special gift.  It's a framed picture of me at age 6 with my dear Aunt Gayle, who passed away last year.  He thought it would be cute for Katie to have a picture of her Mommy as a little girl.  Isn't that adorable?  And did I mention that Aunt Gayle and I are both in costume, as Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion? (I got to be Dorothy.) At the risk of dating myself, when I was a kid, The Wizard of Oz used to come on Channel 5 every year. I would go over to Aunt Gayle's and we'd play dress-up and act out the parts. We even got Uncle Ralph to be the Scarecrow once! Mostly it was me playing Dorothy and Aunt Gayle doing quick costume changes during commercial breaks. I even had a DIY pair of ruby slippers (patent leather + red glitter = a huge mess!)  Ah, good times.

But I digress. Uncle Ralph's present arrived in true Uncle Ralph fashion: wrapped so securely that you could drop it off the top of the Eiffel Tower and it would be unscathed. He cleverly constructed a double-walled cardboard box by taping two boxes together, Frankenstein-like, with what must have been about a mile of tape.  The frame was wrapped in some kind of space-age* cushioning, and...a BOAT LOAD of little green styrofoam peanuts.

I hate these things. Who doesn't hate these things? Why are they still in use? They make biodegradable ones out of corn now. Amazon uses those nifty little air-filled bags (still plastic, but at least they're theoretically recyclable.) I've even heard you can use industrial-grade popcorn (air-popped) as packing material.

Anyway, Katie would definitely disagree about these things being the scourge of the universe. She freakin' loves them. She takes one in her pudgy little hand and breaks it in half with the other. Then she breaks that half in half again. And again. And again. Best game ever! (gaah!)

Last week we finally broke down the box and bagged up the peanuts. (You know, since it's April.)  But some escaped, all over the garage. Can you picture me trying to round up the peanuts, while Katie runs around exponentially increasing their number?

CURSE YOU, STYROFOAM PEANUTS!

*Anthony pointed out that the Space Age was the late 1960's. So not exactly cutting edge. ;)