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Lulla-Bear: July, 2009
I was contacted a couple of months ago by CrowleyJones, an Austin based company, to see if I was interested in reviewing Lulla-Bear, one of their newest products. The product sounded cool and so I agreed, especially since it’s coming from a local company! A few days later, a couple of boxes were waiting for me outside of my door when I came home from dropping off my two year old at school. I quickly opened one of them, even though I knew what was in it, as I love getting boxes in the mail. I took the Lulla-Bear out, inspected it and then laid the bear back in its box so that my daughter would have a “surprise” to open when she got home. She’s a lot like me and likes to get presents just as much as I do.
The entire ride home she questioned me about this surprise present. What was in it? Was it for her? We opened the door and she ran straight to where the box was sitting at the table. She tore open the box, took out the bear and I pushed the button to turn the music on. The first song that played is one of her favorites- “If you’re happy and you know it….” She was happy and started to sing along while carrying around the stuffed bear. I thought for sure that this would be one of her favorites, but the bear just sat for weeks, mostly un-played with.
Lulla-Bear is a cute stuffed bear that comes loaded with over 90 songs: kid songs, nature sounds and relaxing nighty-night music, as we refer to it in our household. It also has a USB cable tucked inside that plugs into your computer to upload even more songs or to personalize it with your very own voice, which is a great feature! There are so many non-kid songs that we listen to that my kids love and I really can’t wait until I can upload them to the bear. The bear has three different buttons on its left paw that allows you to choose what type of music to listen to. On the right paw sits the power button and the up or down volume. And, as an added benefit, it turns off on its own when the songs are done playing. It’s a good-sized bear, not really one that will fit into a diaper bag, but will definitely not get lost either.
The Lulla-Bear was initially created for infants, but it seems to me like it would be a perfect companion for kids all the way through pre-school. I was anxious to see how my daughter would play with it; would she throw it in the corner where most of her collection of stuffed animals lies or would this one take on a special place in her heart since she loves music (and there are buttons to push on this bear… an added bonus)? Over the past couple of months, there have been a handful of times that we’ve grabbed it, turned it on and listened to the music, but until a few days ago, she really didn’t seem to take much of an interest in it, even though she loves listening to and singing along with music. While we were sitting in her room, getting ready to dig through her dress-up container, she spotted Lulla-Bear sitting in her play shopping cart with a couple of other stuffed animals. She decided that it was time to play some music, so she asked me how to turn it on and then, once the music started, she started singing along while we played dress-up in her room. It was the first time that it cycled all the way through the songs and I realized that all of them are the classic songs that all kids love. I think the bear is starting to grow on her. I’m sure they will be inseparable before long and I’m hoping that she can take the enthusiasm that she has for her binky and put it into Lulla-Bear. Fingers crossed!
All in all, the Lulla-Bear is a pretty cool little bear. It would make a great baby shower gift- perhaps if the cost is split between two since it retails at around $50. I can certainly see infants using this bear by their crib to fall asleep and then continuing to use it as they get bigger. Getting it to turn on was a but confusing at first, but it worked fine after we read the directions and played around with it for a little bit. The only thing missing is an option for earphones as an accessory for the older toddlers and pre-schoolers who are attached to Lulla-Bear. My son always has his earphones in while listening to his MP3 player and my daughter is always wanting to take them from him so she can have earphones too. Many fights start that way, so if she had her very own MP3 player (Lulla-Bear) and earphones to listen to in the car, we’d be set!
Bess Bistro: April, 2009
I’d heard of Bess Bistro from a review that I’d read on another local blog that made me decide to schedule our monthly book club meeting there. We were reading Straight Up and Dirty by local writer/ blogger Stephanie Klein. She agreed to meet us there for dinner and drinks to talk about the book.
When booking the semi-private room at Bess Bistro, the manager stated that it holds up to fourteen people. We had eleven that evening and it was incredibly awkward seating. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable it would have been if we had to squeeze three more people in! There was one large round table and another long rectangular one. So, in order for all of us to hear Stephanie speak, we had to do some rearranging of the furniture. We did the best we could by moving the round table up against the rectangular one, but it was still suboptimal seating. I faced the back of another lady the entire evening and the people down at the other end had a hard time hearing our guest speaker. Long story short, if you are planning such an occasion, keep in mind that you might also have a tough time hearing your guest of honor. Other than that, the room was very lovely, being that it was tucked in a corner of the restaurant with a nice built-in bookshelf to help set the tone for our book club meeting.
Half way through the night, I stood and looked around from our little semi-private room to view the rest of the restaurant. I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw: exposed brick throughout with candles placed atop the tables, a few gas lights adorned the brick walls for that extra romantic touch, giving off the perfect lighting. Rather than it being a large open space, there were pockets of tables in cozy areas with booths tucked in here and there; the perfect ambiance for a quiet evening away with a sweetheart, I thought. I instantly fell in love with the surroundings and thought it was time for another date night with my husband.
The food, that evoked a whole other emotion in me. I looked at the menu online and had an idea- well, I actually already knew- of what I would order for dinner. As soon as I saw the description of the seafood risotto, I knew that I’d have a go at it. Here’s how it was described on the menu:
White wine saffron risotto with mussels, shrimp, wild snapper, scallops and shaved fennel- $21.50
Let me also tell you that I was starving. Yes, I was so hungry that I was actually feeling kind of light-headed in the car ride down to the restaurant. I had a granola bar stashed away in my purse in case one of the kids ever needed a snack, which I considered eating to hold me over until we got there. I resisted the urge to not spoil my appetite for what I knew was coming; a plate of yummy goodness.
When my food finally arrived, I asked the waiter to refill the bread basket because my dinner plate looked like there was no way it was going to satisfy my intense hunger. No, this wasn’t a case of my eyes being bigger than my stomach. It was a very small portion, especially for something that cost $21.50. It was maybe a couple scoops of risotto with two shrimp, two mussels and a few other chunks of random seafood. I could have easily have forgiven the size of the serving if it would have been incredibly tasty. Not so much. There was crab meat in it, which wasn’t in the description at all. It would have been fine if it had been REAL crab meat as opposed to the fake stuff. The risotto was a bit too crunchy and could have been cooked a tad bit longer. I didn’t see fennel or scallops, the two ingredients that I was most looking forward to in the dish.
I did eat all of it. It wasn’t horrible. Just not something I’d ever go back for. It was something I could’ve made at home, and when I go out to eat, I generally try to get things that aren’t so easy to prepare. I thought that I might have gotten a dish that just wasn’t made properly that night, but on the ride home, I found out that another patron in our group ordered a duck plate and about eighty percent of the duck was RAW. Like purple flesh raw. Ugh…. she was crossing her fingers that she wouldn’t get food poisoning, but since she only nibbled around the raw meat and tried to stick to eating only the cooked part, she was thankfully safe, surviving the night without any intestinal issues. Most of the others who carpooled with us also had similar complaints on the ride home.
Some redeeming qualities were the creme brulee; it was perfect. The waitstaff was nice and very attentive to us. In fact, everyone we dealt with that night at the restaurant were pleasant and helpful. They have curbside valet parking so you don’t have to drive around looking for those hard-to-find downtown spots.
It’s owned by Sandra Bullock and we heard it through the grapevine that she’s been in town, frequenting her restaurant. We were hoping she would hear about our exclusive book club meeting there (kidding on that exclusive part) and pop in to say hello to us. We were also disappointed in the fact that she didn’t show up, but know that there must have been something way more important going on that night to not come to our book club. We forgive her lack of appearance, but not the quality of her restaurant’s food.
Would I return? Possibly, as a dessert only option. Maybe stop in for coffee and creme brulee after a dinner elsewhere. Perhaps it was just a bad night for the chef.