Posts Tagged ‘Animal Welfare’

Ringling Brothers Circus

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

I’ve been meaning to get this post up, but Will’s been sick again (hence the lack of posts again.  It’s hard to put a couple of thoughts together when you are living on less than 4 hrs of nonstraight sleep a night).  That being said I have to tell you about the circus.

My kids had never been to the circus before this.  Bill and I hadn’t been in the circus in years.  I’m glad to report that we were happily surprised! There were a lot of things we remembered from the circus, but it has changed!

As always, there were clowns:

I didn’t remember dancing at all when I was younger, but it was very cool:

I did remember elephants and my kids loved them too:

Though I didn’t remember magic before, but it was pretty cool:

They even had people shooting out of cannons:

As you can see, there was a ton to watch.  My kids loved the circus and mom and dad enjoyed it too!  Madison’s favorite part was the magic, and Will loved the elephants.  I think this is a show we will attend next year!  If it hasn’t come to your town yet, make sure you get tickets.  You won’t be disappointed.

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Ringling Brothers Circus Giveaway!

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

This giveaway is now over. Dawn is the winner. Congrats!

ringling250I recently posted about our awesome trip to Disney On Ice.  I now have another great event that we are going to and I’d love to have a local blogger (or non blogger for that matter) join us!  My kids have never been to the circus, so we are so excited that we get to go this year!  After seeing their reaction to Disney On Ice, I know that they are going to love it.  They love animals — I’m just worried about how many souvenirs we’ll end up walking out with!  :)

Now, I have 4 tickets for one family to attend the Ringling Brothers Circus here in Chicago.  The winner will have the option of choosing to attend one of the following opening-night shows:

November 5th @ 7pm in Rosement at the All-State Arena
November 18th @ 7pm in Chicago at the United Center

Exciting, right?  Here’s what you need to do:

Leave a comment on this post. I’d want to know which show you want to attend and why.

Each of these gives you one additional entry:

1. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify. Or use something like this:

Win 4 Ringling Brothers Circus tickets from @blm03! Enter here: http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com/2009/10/17/ringling-brothers-circus-giveaway/

2. Stumble this post and add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

Each of these gives you 5 additional entries:

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

3.  Comment on another post on this blog.  Let me know which one, so I can give you credit.

4. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed

5. Add my badge to your sidebar:

If this isn’t working, please let me know. For some reason, Wordpress seems to be eating the code up when I post.

Each of these will give you 10 additional entries:

1. Join my Spark E Crew at Social Spark. Click here to find out how to sign up. If you are on my crew, please leave your social spark ID, so I can verify it.

This contest will end at October 28th at noon CST! Good Luck!! Now, if you don’t want to wait, look for the box marked “MC Promotion” when purchasing your tickets and you can use these codes to get some great offers:

* Offer #1: Get 4 tickets for just $44 by entering the code “MOM” at select ticketing channels. Offer good on all weekday performances, which includes all weekday evening and Friday matinee performances; minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each.

* Offer #2: All weekend performance tickets will be $4 off the original price.

* Offer #3: Get the best Circus Celebrity, Front Row and VIP seats available – We have reserved seats in these sections just for you! Enter the code MOM. No discounts available on these sections.

The above offers are good in the following cities:

* Denver: September 30 – October 11, 2009
* Boston: October 14-18, 2009
* St. Louis: October 15-18, 2009
* Cleveland: October 21-26, 2009
* Rosemont/Chicago: November 5 – 29, 2009 *available for purchase on Sept. 8. 2009
* Auburn Hills: November 18-22, 2009
* Charlotte: January 27-31, 2010 *available for purchase on Sept. 12, 2009
* Atlanta: February 12-21, 2010 *available for purchase on Sept. 12, 2009
* Cincinnati: March 10-14, 2010 *available for purchase on Sept. 21, 2009
* Dayton: April 29 – May 2, 2010 *available for purchase on Sept. 21, 2009

Hope to see you there!

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PETA – Save The Whales??!!??

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Do you find this offensive as I do?

s-SAVE-THE-WHALES-largeAccording to PETA’s press release:

A new PETA billboard campaign that was just launched in Jacksonville reminds people who are struggling to lose weight — and who want to have enough energy to chase a beach ball — that going vegetarian can be an effective way to shed those extra pounds that keep them from looking good in a bikini. [....]
Anyone wishing to achieve a hot “beach bod” is reminded that studies show that vegetarians are, on average, about 10 to 20 pounds lighter than meat-eaters. [...]

“Trying to hide your thunder thighs and balloon belly is no day at the beach,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA has a free ‘Vegetarian Starter Kit’ for people who want to lose pounds while eating as much as they like.

Are you shocked? I mean come on PETA. Granted, I know I need to lose a few pounds, but I’d love to just show you and go eat a hamburger when I see ad campaigns like this. (And why are they always using women to make their point?)

I’d love to hear your thoughts.  If you are a vegetarian, do you like PETA doing ads like this?

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Rodents and other creatures that go bump in the night

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007

Let me tell you about the house next door to me. In March of 2006, a builder bought the house next door. It sat for a really long time before they bothered to tear it down. Then it took them forever to put something up in its place. Now, I have a house that is half finished sitting next to me. In theory, that should be okay. However, it isn’t since they haven’t bothered closing off the place. On the weekends, teenagers like to throw parties in there and leave their garbage in there. Also, the lawn has never been cut since they bought place. Actually, there is no lawn anymore. It is just a yard of weeds. This makes a perfect breeding ground for a bunch of creatures I really do not want to be living next door too.

On Halloween, we were able to talk to my neighbors, and we found out how bad the problem has really gotten. Rich, my neighbor who lives across the street, is working nights and has seen a possum already. Bill, my neighbor who lives on the other side of the house in question, actually went in it a couple of weeks ago. He is the one that found all of the other unwelcome guests living inside there.

I personally am not sure what to do. We have contacted the people like animal control and the police, and they are doing nothing about this house. Putting poison out is not really an option for me, since I have two young children who too easily can get into that. I am not saying that this is the best option, but I know that Rich is looking at air guns as I write this.

This Weihrauch HW45 looks like exactly what he may be looking for. I know, the animal cruelty people are going to come out and tell me how inhumane this is. Well, talk to me after you end up with a rat or worse in your house this winter. I live in Chicago. It gets darn cold here, and the kids will stop partying there and leaving food for them to eat. If we don’t contain this problem, these creatures will be trying to enter my house and my neighbors’ houses, and we all have younger children. Since Rich lives across the street, he actually has the best vantage point. Bill (neighbor) and I have fences, so it is tad hard to see what is coming and going from that house. I would love to make his day and be able to pick this up for him. I even found a 5% off coupon on the PyramydAir.com site (that sells these). To get the coupon, all you need to do is email them any errors on their site or any suggestions about things you would like changed, and they will email you a coupon code. How’s that for customer service?

When I drop Madison off at school this afternoon, I think I am going to stop over there and show him this. I am pretty sure that this is what he was looking for. How would you deal with this problem?

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