July 17, 2010

The Pink Spork

Other than fishing, I'm not a very outdoorsy person.  I grew up in a somewhat urban suburb of Philadelphia, so never really did the hiking or camping thing as a kid.  I do remember my mom taking me to an arboretum quite often when I was little, but I wasn't a Boy Scout, have never started a fire by rubbing sticks together or any of that fun stuff.

My daughter Lilly - and I'm not sure from where - has recently come up with this idea that she wants to go camping.  She wants to sleep in a tent and most importantly make S'mores.  Ugh.  So I've convinced her that we we could pitch a tent in the backyard and burn toast marshmallows on our grill.  That seems to has satisfied her, as long as some stuffed animals can sleep in the tent too.  So now I guess I've got to go learn something about buying a tent.  Any suggestions?
Just this easy....riiiiiight!

Keeping that bit of context, KC., Lilly, & I were at the Eddie Bauer store this afternoon to pick up some clothes, and there was a bin of plastic sporks at the register.  Little Miss Outdoorsy immediately spotted them - naturally the pink one - and of course Lilly wouldn't leave the store until we bought one.  We tried to say no, but Lilly is one of those kids that would continually remind us about the spork daily for the rest of our lives unless it was purchased.  The random things she remembers amazes me.  If she ever becomes her high school valedictorian, I'm certain she'd even include a cute anecdote about being deprived of a spork as a 4-year old in her commencement speech.  For $2.99, it wasn't worth that kind of torture, so I caved.  The spork came home with us.

Amazingly when we got home, I was really impressed with the spork.  First off, it wasn't an inexpensive white plastic one like the version you pick up for free at the 7-11.  Made by "Light My Fire," it's quite heavy duty, with a somewhat different configuration to boot.  In addition to the spoon & fork, it also integrates a small knife edge on one of the fork's outer tines.  This was not only a revelation to me (I'm now tempted to trade in all of my silverware for sporks), but to Lilly too.  The novelty of the magic pink spork actually got her to eat her dinner for once - if only I knew this sooner!
A rainbow of colors for your sporking pleasure

So this gets me to thinking, if you could combine any 3 items into one "multi-tool," what would they be?  This could obviously go in several directions, so I'm curious to see what you all come up with!


8 comments:

  1. Having taken two kids (one an young lady) from camping in the back yard to eventually long backpack trips in the Rockies, I can tell you... In the beginning, go cheap. Pick up a $49.95 two or three man tent a Target or Walmart, get a couple of the twenty dollar sleeping bags as it's summer and you won't need much. Lots of stuffed animals and pillows work fine and the grill will work for "smores". Pack a cooler with munchies and borrow a lantern and you're all set. She'll either love it and you'll be getting a better tent and bags at some point or she'll hate it and you'll both be back in the house by 2 AM. Use a little bug spray, cook some hot dogs and smores on the grill and just enjoy. Don't go out and drop big money on a tent, in the beginning! For the back yard go as cheap as possible. If she doesn't like living on the grass you can always save the tent for those first grade sleep overs and pitch it in the rec. room.
    Go have an adventure!

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  2. This one time, at band camp, I saw some life saver candies and a yo-yo, glued to a willow switch, I think these fools were on to something, a

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  3. I think most of us started out camping in the back yard. Midgeman covered the necessities perfectly. Might also do a little search game after dark, with a flashlight, to find "cool" stuff (preplanted of course). Helps take the scary out of dark. We (the group of us youngsters on our first outing) stole watermelons from the local watermelon patch. Not what I would recommend for Lilly.

    Mark

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  4. Thanks for the advice. It's all much appreciated. Will probably be heading out to the store this weekend to pick up the essentials. Depending on my success, looks like we might give it a go on Saturday night.

    Big - you're just not right... :)

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  5. What does "not right" mean? I dont camp, I fish, so i cant help you there, how do you tell some one how to sleep out side..

    So I answered the question...if you could combine any 3 items into one "multi-tool," what would they be?

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  6. Big - Sounded like an "American Pie" reference...

    Click to view:
    American Pie Scene


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  7. And it was, I gathered a while back that you are a movie fan, so I thought I would throw that in..

    To clarify- When you evenly space life saver ring candy, down the lenght of a bendy stick and put something that holds string at the fat end, you have a fishing rod,, a very usefull multi-tool. Right? or Not right?

    A manarexic has no need for kitchen utensils,

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  8. Ah...makes much more sense now.

    Kinda like Daniel-san's awakening after "waxing on & waxing off" for weeks. Except minus the mad karate skills.

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