Paleontologist = happy; parents = ugh

When our former neighbors moved out of the house next door in June last year, the mother asked if she could possibly leave her small barbecue in our backyard for a week or two until she returned to pick it up. It's still here. I don't have her phone number, but I do have her daughter's. I've texted her several times regarding the barbecue, but never heard back. It's time to get this thing out of my backyard because it's bothering me. On the next bulk pickup day, the damn thing is going to be out on my curb, and disposed.
It's hard to do something awesome for your kid, and have it kinda backfire, but have them still love it. It's contradictory, and I don't like that. Brian and I took Sydney to the "Discover the Dinosaurs" exhibit at the fairgrounds this morning, in what we thought would be a cool thing. According to the web site, tickets were $20 for adults, and $15 for kids (exhibit only). I had $60 in cash to finish up my birthday money, and I was okay with that. We arrived at the fairgrounds: $8 for parking. We arrived at the event: $20 each for Brian and I, but it was $25 for Sydney (all-inclusive, no options). And it was cash only at the ticket booth. We had to scrounge for the extra $13 to get in the place, which pissed me off, since I was feeling super ripped off. The exhibit itself was cheesy, certainly, and totally not worth the price of admission. What was worth it, of course, was how much Sydney loved it. But still, even with her proclaiming the event was "amazing," I was super annoyed with how much this had cost us. It had eight different display areas, and several opportunities to spend more money, but we kept to it, walked through it twice, hunted for bones in the dino dig, and she even got to ride a moving Tyrannosaurus Rex. For her: success and happiness. For Brian and I: would have loved to get a refund.