Tis the season of the Girl Scout cookie. Every time this year my wife buys a couple of boxes of cookies. This year it's even worse as she is a troop leader. As we were munching on some thin mints I was commenting on how small each cookie was. I could easily finish a box of these things. When I checked the nutritional info on the side of the box I was shocked. These things were REALLY bad for you. Worse than ice cream or a snickers bar or sugar cereal. How do you teach young girls about health and nutrition? The biggest problem is that their so addicting. Who can eat just two? The box indicates that is one serving. No way! While your eating them you feel really great. Then, after, you feel really guilty. Maybe we should outlaw cookies like we do drugs.

I'm always open to criticism or ideas about our paper's content, customer service, or website. If there is a better way of doing things, I know our readers can give advice. We can have a chat to discuss what you want and if it's possible to give it to you. Oneida is a small community and being open and honest is one of its benefits.

If you have any questions about how or why we do something, we can discuss that too.

You can comment on this blog, call me at 363-5100 or e-mail me at PAustin@journalregister.com

If you haven't seen our new monthly publication, I encourage you to take a look. We feature many of the activities and special events going on in the southern tier of our county. It's such a large geographical area that delivering it ourselves seemed like a daunting task. That's why we brought in the expert help of the US Postal Service. That's right, we mail it! It comes to over 14,000 homes and businesses from Cazenovia to Munnsville and everywhere south. It can also be found on our website in the upper right skybox or by going to:

http://marketplace.capitalcentral.com/SS/Page.aspx?ptype=SS_TILE&secid=78853&pagenum=1&facing=false

If you get a chance, check it out. I think you'll find there's lots going on down there and it's really not that far of a drive.

My wife and I have agreed to disagree on some smaller areas of raising kids. The big issues we agree on and I suppose that's the more important issue. It's the smaller topics that seem to create the most havoc. Here's an example...I am a big believer in teaching kids about the real world and my wife goes more towards protecting them from it. When it comes to swear words my wife doesn't want the kids to use them (I agree), but the difference is that I teach the kids new swear words and what they mean. My philosophy is they need to know what the words are so they know what they are hearing and what is right and what is wrong. If your oblivious to it then you could repeat a word you heard and not even know it's bad...until it's too late. It started when my boy was four and gave me the middle finger. He didn't know it was bad. He saw another "adult" do it and thought it looked cool. Now, I haven't mentioned the "F" word yet because the concept is still over their head. They know what the others are though and know not to use them. We have a quarter jar in the house which is fairly empty, thank God. If I even say "hell" a quarter needs to go in. Tough crowd!

I did my taxes this week and like all Americans, I was swearing at the computer the whole time. Actually I used Turbo Tax and it wasn't that bad. I started using Turbo Tax last year and I didn't think it was all that great. It still took me a long time and it cost me $60 for the program. This year was a different story. I loaded up the software and it got all my information from last year and moved it over. Luckily, I haven't had a lot of changes year over year so all the information from last year was the same. It was just a matter of plugging in a few numbers and I was done. I had swear words left over and no where to use them! I guess this blog turns out to be an infomercial for a tax product...who knew?

I talked to a friend of mine who lives in downtown Boston. What a difference in culture. He also has kids about the same age as mine but they have very different problems.

My kids - Go outside to play in the street or over to some one's house
His kids - Never go outside alone for fear of the neighborhood and parents always accompany the kids inside their neighbors houses

My kids - Ride bikes around
His kids - Don't even own bikes

My kids - Wait for the bus to school
His kids - Get driven everyday

These are just a few of the examples. Everyday life is also different. The traffic is always hectic in Boston. Even just to go to the store for a gallon of milk. There is a murder on the news every single night. Pollution is a huge problem in Boston. There are plenty of things to complain about living in Central NY, but the grass isn't always greener on the other side

I have a confession. I have a crush on Sandra Bullock. Not only is she adorable to look at, I also love to watch her give an interview. Her sense of humor really is what I am attracted to. I've seen her on Jay Leno, Dave Letterman and last night with Barbara Walters. I laugh more at what she says than the so called comedians hosting the shows.

I was glad she won last night and I really enjoyed the movie :The Blind Side" that she was nominated for. Even in her acceptance speach she was funny.