[show notes by Daniel Clark]

It’s pretty much all my fault. I was out of town last Wednesday, so we couldn’t record on time, and then when we got together on Friday, I was in charge of production – which I couldn’t finalize until today. Many apologies to the guys… I’ll do better next time!

Despite my (apparently) best efforts, we had a great show. Topics this week include:

• My family’s traveling adventures and keeping kids entertained on long drives. Scott likens me to a rock star’s wife – always on the move (we’re not gone *that* much!) – and Joe asks if we trash the hotel rooms. Yeah, we do.
• When travelling with young kids, if you can swing a suite don’t hesitate.
• Scott’s daughter turned 12 and got an iPod Touch! Lucky kid… I don’t have an iPod Touch, and I’m jealous.
• At what age do you give a kid a cell phone? How much freedom should they have with a cell phone?
• Don’t leave the door of your freezer overnight. Trust Scott when he tells you, it’s not fun.
• School seasons and schedules
• Muggy, frappes, grinders, coffee milk and other New England-isms
• Joe’s Memorial Day excursion with the girls – riding the train around Atlanta! Fortunately, there was no riff-raff on the train that day.
• Scott tells the tale of the home renovation he’s going through right now (boooo to wallpaper) and the acrobatics required to navigate new flooring.
• The remodeling is due in part to Scott’s fish tanks, which he explains in great detail (our longest segment of the show this week) – and which leads into a discussion about how awesome basements are. If my next home has a basement, I’ll seriously consider fish. We also cover the ins and outs of salt water coral tanks.
• Pool tables at home, basement bars.
• Being a packrat, especially for books and electronics. We all agree that if they want people to recycle electronics, it needs to be much easier and cheaper than tossing it in a trash can.
• Disposing of motor oil and paint.
• Finally, of course, Twitter and Kukral. I wasn’t hating on him! Jim’s a good guy. Spymaster, a Twitter-based game, gets some coverage. I compare it to Utopia and Earth 2025, which may or may not be very accurate. Scott updates us on his experiment with running two Twitter accounts – one where he autofollows everyone back, and one that he keeps very small and personal.

…and that wraps up this episode of GDAH. We’d love to hear what you think!

Here we are for another GeekDads@Home episode, brought to you by the number 6.

This show was recorded on Scott’s Birthday, January 28. Mental note, if we put the date in the podcast, publish it on that same day. My bad.

The birthday discussion sends Daniel into his rendition of Patton Oswalt’s take on birthday celebrations.

Sam has a friend who was born on leap day and only celebrated birthdays every 4 years. She’s 26, does that make her 104 in human years?

Sam shares a little too much about gym class, showers, and junior high. Awkward.

In the geek department, Sam shares his experiences with Windows 7 Beta. We’re concerned that he’s moving back to Microsoft.

We discuss the phenomenon of Keyboard People and Mouse People. Daniel’s a mouse person. He may lose his geek credentials and be sent down to the LudditeCast with Jim Kukral. (Not really Daniel, we just have to mention Jim at least once in every show.)

Joe shared his visit the world famous Atlanta Aquarium recently. I call field trip!

Great video by Joe. Be sure to flip this over into HD mode…

Finally, Sam laments on the Twitter impersonators that assumed his identity and spammed his followers. Marketers ruin everything. We discover that adblocking is the real reason that Sam was forced to leave marketing for good to avoid a scandal.