My mother has been bringing our little man a number of stuffed animals lately. It’s a troubling development because it can only mean one thing. Her addiction to the Claw Machine is back. It was an obsession that started out small—a few bears here, a duck or indistinguishable animal there. But by the time I was a junior in high school, she had had she amassed a collection so large that no one in our family could open the downstairs closet without buckling under the weight of beady eyes and plushy critter parts. But then one day, the stockpiling stopped. I didn’t know why, and because she had taken to storing them under my bathroom sink, I never bothered to ask. So here we are 15 years later and now the lucky recipient of her Claw Machine winnings is no longer a charity, landfill, or unsuspecting Jehovah Witness ringing our doorbell. No, it is my child, who at the sight of my mother’s last gift, a deformed effigy of the “The Hulk,” screamed so loudly and for so long, I can only hope she now has the perfect reason to say goodbye to her beloved Claw Machine.

A quick introduction. This is the 520 bridge. It floats (which makes it kind of a big deal in engineering circles). Once you’re on it, there are no exits. So unless you feel like spontaneously driving into the drink, you keep going until you reach the other side. Not a problem unless you’re startled by a backseat driver squealing, “Mommy, water!” A backseat driver that you somehow forgot to drop off at daycare on your way to work—a daycare located in the opposite direction, on the other side of the bridge. Thank goodness for flexible work schedules.  

You certainly don't have to be a working mom to appreciate life's shortcuts, especially when it comes to serious addictions like magazines. If you're anything like me, you're paying full price for your favorite reads because you have zero time to fill out those annoying subscription inserts. Enter Maghound, a clever new membership service for maganistas! In my case, I simply pay my blue nosed friend $7.95 a month to send me 5 of my favorite magazines (plans start at $4.95). And if I happen to grow bored of one, I just switch it out for something different the following month. It’s that easy. (Really.) The hound is clever. And a woman's best friend indeed!