Medical Center

Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center
$17.99
My 5 year old son was about to start Kindergarten this fall, he's a bright kid, but did not want to learn to write or spell, ec. He'd rather run around and play than work on his letters. Who can blame him! I ordered this item, it came, and from day one he took to it like no other toy he's ever owned. Literally within a week he was writing all of his letters, and a little while later all of his numbers. He started kindergarten with a month's worth of playing on this writing board. I know it has helped him tremendously. I think kids at first dont want to learn things out of lack of confidence in their abilities. This educational toy gave my son a sense of accomplishment. Every time he fills the letters in he beams with pride. He always wants to work on this thing, even when the television is on. We write at breakfast, after school, and sometimes in bed at night. I'm ordering a second one just to have as backup. It's that worthy. Cheers.

Mannix - The First Season
$49.99
I have been waiting for this TV series to be released ever since the powers that be began releasing TV series on DVD. This was my favorite TV series other than "Hawaii Five-O" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", when I was a kid. "Mannix", starring Mike Connors and Joseph Campanella, used to come on Sunday evenings after the "Wonderful World of Disney". I always knew when it was coming on because of that really cool and distinctive theme done by Lalo Schifrin. If you recall, Schifrin did a lot of music for Movies and TV shows back in the day; "Dirty Harry" comes to mind. Anyway, this is probably one of the best, if not the best, private eye show going even by todays standards. The action, stunts, graphics, and film quality rival some of the shows on TV today. Each show in the series is an hour long episode with some in two parts. (more bang for your entertainment buck) This series is Excellent, Excellent, Excellent and comes highly recommended by this viewer.

Quincy, M.E. - Seasons 1 & 2
$29.98
This deserves 5 stars but I had some disc sticking/freezing issues also-this seems to be a regular problem with double sided discs, no matter where I play it. This is one of the best crime series I have watched and truly stands the test of time. I love the storylines, Quincy's ability to always stir up trouble in search of the truth and his well connected, politically correct boss's annoyed acceptance of the fact that Quincy will always do the right thing no matter how much trouble it causes, and ultimately is always supported in the end. Sadly, the rogue but honest, hard working, stellar employee is not as acceptable in this "go along to get along" everyone should be and look and act exactly as the boss says with no semblance of a personality or conscience in this lovely day and age. It's a shame that honest whistle blowers (not the make it up to get back at my employer types)or the honest person who says "I can't ignore that" or "I can't do that" is usually seen as the "uncooperative", "insubordinate", "bad" employee these days by the company, the media, the government, everyone, rather than the one person with values, morals, and the guts to say "that's just wrong" or against the law. Growing up, in a less PC world, people were people, had personality, dressed differently (but within a professional, unwritten code)and could have courage like Quincy and still have a job...these days, when you stand up for truth or justice, it's less acceptable, more scary, more likely you won't have a job tomorrow just for giving an alternate opinion.

okay, the I love Quincy and the ways of yesteryear rant is over......but I love Quincy.

Can I just say, as a child of the 70's.....The song is the greatest!!! Gives me that cozy childhood feeling!

Trauma Center: New Blood
$19.99
Good - Good game for Wii, especially fun for 2 players, and good use of controllers. Takes team work to finish the operations. On single player mode found some of the operations impossible to finish in normal, but with two players made it more manageable. Can skip boring dialogue, and has good replay value. Rated for Teen, but suitable for 10 year olds.

Bad - Needs more accurate controls for some operations, next version might be better for that. Easy mode is too easy for most levels, hard is way too hard.

Recommendation - Good play value for price and casual gamer. One of the better games out there for the Wii.