If you're a person of a certain vintage and your childhood years were spent plopped in front of the television, then you will no doubt remember "Schoolhouse Rock". These little animated shorts instructed us in important subjects such as grammar, mathematics and U.S. politics. Okay, perhaps that last topic wasn't so pertinent to us Canadian kids, but who can forget those catchy tunes that accompanied the lessons?

It's a great injustice that "Schoolhouse Rocks" is no longer aired on TV, but fortunately you can still find all the animated shorts on DVD. There's a 30th Anniversary edition available through Amazon.com. Yes, it was over thirty years ago (1973 to be exact) when "Schoolhouse Rock" first aired. Scary.

I managed to find one video clip on YouTube.com: http://youtube.com/watch?v=hOaty7FpwMI. You can learn all about pronouns, just in case you need a little grammar reminder.

Halloween 2006!

It's the same costume as last year, but now worn by a much bigger kid. This was the first time that Ridley officially went "trick-or-treating"; a custom that was not entirely grasped by our 22-month old but one which he appeared to enjoy nonetheless. Any event in which people are giving him stuff -- especially if the stuff is candy -- is considered a good time by Ridley.

I made the tactical error of feeding Ridley one mini-chocolate bar. Just one. Note to parents: not an advisable move to feed your toddler a chocolate bar just one hour before bedtime. The resultant sugar-buzz had Ridley bouncing off the walls for the following hour-and-a-half. What was I thinking?