@Safeway, I've never seen batteries kept under lock & key, but you should make sure someone not on break has said key.

That Maroon 5 song "Moves like Jagger" is a catchy ditty. Downloaded thru @Amazon so I can bob my head at lunch.

Kids clothes and supplies: paying it forward

As my kids blessedly move out of the infant and toddler stage into preschool range, I've been trying to figure out what to do with all of their outgrown clothing. I don't want to sell it, because I know there are folks out there who just need it. We were so blessed to receive so much for both kids that most of it was barely worn, but we don't know anyone the right age to pass it along to and. Especially Dylan's items, which he seemed to grow out of before we'd barely snapped him into them.

We also were the happy recipients of boxes and bags of clothing from family and friends with older kids, who were happy to 'regift' and 'pay it forward' with unworn items once their kids out grew them.

I can't tell you how nice it was to dive into bags organized by size and pull out lovely items for outfitting our kids whenever we noticed newly exposed wrists and ankles poking out of their clothing.

It turns out, there are a number of local places in need of new or gently used children's clothing. Red Tricycle has a bunch on their site and the stories on the St. Joeseph's Baby Corner site were very moving and just who I had in mind for paying our own blessings forward.

Throw in a few gift cards for the other essentials of raising babies and toddlers (wipes, diapers, books, baby wash, fresh food, etc.) and you're providing a lovely assist to parents grappling with the life's challenges, in addition to the care and feeding of growing kids.

Got any other ideas on sharing your bounty with others this pre-holiday season?

Peek into the automotive future

Went to Seattle Auto Show last night and got preview of life in 14 years:

Ava: "Me and Dylan are going to party... I mean STUDY! Well be back by curfew." Dylan: (whispering when he thinks we're out of earshot), "Did you get the fake IDs?"

Other shot is Jason and Dylan and $500,000 car. A dad can dream, right?

Best U.S. States for Working Women: where does yours rank?

Author Richard Florida has a new study out looking at The Best U.S. States for Working Women based on uses the American Community Survey data to rank the best states for working women. The findings look at rates of women's workforce participation and wage and salary levels for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. He and his fellow researchers find that:

Women make up a majority of the labor force in five states plus the
nation's capital: the District of Columbia (52.6 percent), Washington (50.2
percent), Rhode Island (50.2 percent), Mississippi (50.2 percent), Massachusetts
(50.1 percent), and South Dakota (50.1 percent).

At the bottom of the list is Utah, where women make up 45 percent of the labor force. Alaska and New Hampshire also have relatively low shares of women in the labor force (45.9 and
46.2 percent respectively).

Geography makes a difference when it comes to women's relative economic standing. So do the kinds of jobs they are working. Which is yet another reason why I love living in Washington state.