Hi, friends! hampr Founder + CEO here, Laurel! That time is upon us – How the %*$# is it already December? I for one still think that 1998 was just 12 years ago so time honestly has little to no meaning for me. But here we are, about to close out another year and I wanted to share a few things that are (precariously and barely) holding my life together.
Tis the season and all.
Things That are Making My Life:
Duckbill.AI – My oldest son is now 11 and that means he is very particular about his holiday wishlist. I can no longer incept him the way that I used to (ex – “don’t you think Buzz Lightyear is the best character in Toy Story? Would be so neat if we had a toy version…” cut to him losing his ever loving mind when he opened his toy Buzz on Christmas morning).
Now he wants a Playstation Portal – this thing has been sold out on every site since it was announced. But I’m not sweating it – I have the wizards at Duckbill on it. Very much in the vein of hampr, Duckbill is a service that turns your to-do’s into dones.
We are finally going on a holiday vacation this year and need to board our 3 dogs. Duckbill called my vet to confirm which of them needed vaccinations before their boarding stay and booked appointments for me to make sure they were up-to-date. All I had to do was show up – a holiday miracle!
This is really not meant to be a promo – but I loved it so much they allowed me to share a special code with my friends! Use HAMPR250 to get 50% off 2 months of Duckbill (it’s honestly as game-changing as hampr – for real for real).
What I bought on Black Friday:
Dog DNA Kits – We are finally going to see what kind of breed these beautiful pups are. I have been dying for years to know what magical mix two of my dogs are. All of my dogs are rescues and full blown mysteries. I have strong suspicions that Roux (the black and tan one below) is a human trapped in a dog’s body. I’ll share the results next month – stay tuned.
A Dumb Thing I Did This Past Month:
We took our sons to see MJ The Musical in New Orleans – about 2.5 hours away from where we live. On the way home, our car battery died at a gas station in Boutte, Louisiana.
Where is that, you say? Exactly. No one knows. It’s in the middle of nowhere.
I called AAA and the nearest truck was in Mississippi… a whole state away.
My husband and I are both painfully polite people-pleasers. We didn’t want to bother anyone (this is some sort of trauma response, I’m sure of it) so we waited for an hour to hopefully get a closer truck. The kids handled it like champs but I was starting to lose it a bit. It was a long day and we were all ready to be home.
Finally, we had it with ourselves – and AAA was zero help. My husband decided to approach a truck and asked if they had jumper cables.
Reader. They did. The very first car he asked.
They jumped us and we were back on the road in less than 15 minutes. And we marveled the entire way home at how utterly idiotic we are.
Will we change? No. I ordered a portable battery jump starter from Amazon on the way home.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season – and now that you no longer have to do laundry, I hope you have time to enjoy my favorite holiday movie, Mixed Nuts. It is neither popular nor a cult classic but my sister and I watch it at least 8x each holiday season. It is classified as a comedy/ thriller – it is only one of those things but I won’t tell you which. You’ll just have to watch for yourselves.
Till next month!
L 💙
