Guest Blogger, Aunt Julie: A Story That Will Steal Your Heart Away!

Please give a Warm Welcome to Today’s Guest Blogger, Aunt Julie. As most of ya know, Auntie J., who happens to be my SIL, is a familiar presence around these parts. The photo above shows College Boy, on the right, with his roommate Casey, who’s on the left. The kid in the middle is named Panda. I know, don’t ask. So sit back, relax, and hear Aunt Julie’s story of sending College Boy off to school this year. This tale will pretty much steal your heart!

College Life isn’t what it used to be. When Uncle Lynn and I moved College Boy into his new apartment 10 days ago, we were in for a couple of interesting surprises.

The apartment is very nice. It is on the edge of a very large city park, on a small lake, an easy walk, bike ride or bus trip to campus. The park is home to the baseball field where Hammerin’ Hank Aaron got his start, playing Class C Northern League baseball for the Eau Claire Bears in 1952. College Boy has one roommate, named Casey. The boys face the lake, and can wake up every morning and see the water, and hear the ducks.

My first thought when I heard where they were looking for an apartment was, “On a lake? Shouldn’t you be above a noisy bar with five other guys? And shouldn’t the wind blow through the windows in the winter, and shouldn’t you hear the pitter-patter of little mousy feet in the walls at night? What do you mean, on a lake, with one other guy? Don’t kids start at the bottom any more?! When I was your age…”

Well, when I was his age, I lived at home with my parents, and college was just four more years of Harder High School. So I didn’t want to promote that! College Boy did report that the day after I left, he and his roomie pooled their money and bought a flat-screen TV. Guess the living room is just too small for an Old School TV. Just because I don’t have a flat-screen yet is no reason for me to be petty, right? Though I sure would like to watch Brett Favre march the Jets to victory each week in High Def!

Anyway, back to my story. I had paid $50 to get a mountain bike tuned up for College Boy, and bought a locking cable, too. The first time he took the bike out, to a friend’s house to watch a movie, he couldn’t find the bike when he left to go home, because it had been stolen!

I had called College Boy to see how things were going and he said he had “bad news.” I asked how the thief cut the cable, and College Boy hesitated. I said, “he didn’t have to, did he?” There apparently were several other bikes there, none locked, and his is the one that’s gone! Ya, right!

The moral to this story? If you don’t plan to use the lock for your bike when you go out, stay home and watch the movie on your own flat-screen TV!

Today's Guest Blogger: "Mr. Pops;" aka, Uncle Lynn!

Uncle Lynn, The Pop’r King, is guesting today on Eat Your Veggies! He wants all Our Bloggy Friends to know how his little ol’ family-run company got started. So here’s Chapter One: What to Do When a Good Idea Pops into Your Head! And Don't Forget to enter this week's Great Pop'rs Giveaway!

Hi there, Blogosphere! I’m Mr. Pops; aka, Uncle Lynn, The Pop’r King. Veggie Mom has asked me to write a bit of The Pop’rs Story, and while it is hard for me to write about me, it may be an interesting story to tell. What I plan to do is publish The Pop’rs Story every once in a while, and if Veggie Mom tells me it’s interesting, I’ll keep on going. Soooooooooo...

It all started at the end of a business trip in 1992. Our family then lived in a very small town in the Southwestern part of Wisconsin. On my way home, I stopped to fill up my car (probably for about $1.25 per gallon!) and noticed a sign advertising Pop Rocks. Remember those? Since I had not yet bought the “Look what I brought home for you!” present for the three kids, this jumped out at me and I was sure the three boys (this was before Soccer Boy came along) would think they were cool–problem solved.

I bought each boy a pack or two, and headed home. I got about a mile away, and that “light bulb” you sometimes hear about went off in my head, and I wondered out loud whether Pop Rocks could be put into Popsicles. I started to giggle a bit thinking about it, and then decided I would go back to the gas station, where I bought every Pop Rock packet they had! Over the next weeks I played around with the idea, and eventually got something that actually worked. This was a little tricky, since water sets Pop Rocks to popping, but when I got it going it made a very interesting experience for my kids and their friends.

I guess I have always been a bit entrepreneurial (I once tried to make a Trivial Pursuit-like game using a school's curriculum as a fun study aid, and pretty much lost all the little bit of money we had at that time trying to figure out how to market these games, but that is another Very. LONG. Story!), so once I had a sample Pop Rocks/Popsicle product that worked, I started doing some research.

If you remember, you couldn’t just Google an answer back then, so it was a bit of a test of my resolve to find a contact at the Pop Rocks company, but eventually I did. Turns out back then Pop Rocks were marketed in North America by a company named Carbonated Candy Ventures, which was managed by a fellow named Raul. I was able to convince Raul to let me come to Pennsylvania with my sample and let him try my idea.

When we met, he was blown away by the POPPING POPSICLE I let him try, and he immediately told me I would have to meet the owners of the company so they could check it out, and see what they might want to do. Thinking I could do this all in the same trip, I was ready to go. But, the owners I needed to meet were located in Barcelona, Spain. Hmmmmmmmmm. It turned out to be quite a long business trip!

Guess this is a good place to end this chapter–but you can see the fledgling idea that formed the basis of the Whole Pop’rs Story. More to come later!

PS: Isn’t Veggie Mom doing a great job over here at Eat Your Veggies? Make sure you enter her latest Great Pop’rs Giveaway, so that you can try some of these fun and good-for-you seasonings yourself!

Thanks for Sharing!

“Mr. Pops;" aka, Uncle Lynn