For your Friday-of-a-long-weekend enjoyment, The LaReau Sisters offer this sweet, sweet procrastination. (Thanks to Stephanie for the link.)

One of our favorite commercials is featured above, which was aired in heavy rotation on Saturday mornings. Oh, how we miss Hubba Bubba and its no-trouble big bubbles, especially in the grape flavor.

So what are some of your favorite childhood commercials?

When it comes to family vacations, the LaReau Sisters have some very colorful memories.

Of course, we took one obligatory trip to Disney World, and while we remember having fun, we can't recall much that was really distinct about it. Does the Magic Kingdom elicit in all its visitors the same brand of generic, mouse-eared euphoria? We do remember one thing: encountering a caricaturist who was stationed at our hotel; he'd ask you what you liked doing, and would then depict you performing that activity. Jenna said she liked drawing, so she was depicted wearing a beret and holding a palette. Kara said she liked roller-skating, though her prepubescent chubbiness must have suggested she needed further motivation to exercise; the caricaturist depicted her on roller skates, moving in the direction of a sign with an arrow that said "ICE CREAM."

The LaReau Sisters' parents must have come away from the Disney World vacation with a desire to get more creative with family getaways, because our next trip was to a little oasis called Roseland Ranch. Folks, this was a dude ranch. In New York. (We traveled there in the family gas guzzler, piloted by our father, who is an easily-distracted driver; as always, we spent our time in the back seat trying to be quiet and unobtrusive so he could make his best effort not to veer off the road.) Upon our arrival at the Double-R, we discovered that our room had a rustic, stable-like quality, as it featured bunk beds (even for our parents) with scratchy horse blankets and a musty, vaguely feral odor. Later, we learned that all of the "cowhands" at the ranch were actually surly teenagers, who had forsaken their cowboy hats and plaid shirts and chaps for the more truly authentic uniforms of feathered hair, concert t-shirts, and tight jeans. Mom and Dad LaReau tried to save face and make the most of what Roseland Ranch did have to offer; among other things, Kara and Jenna actually rode horses, if you want to call the sway-backed, molasses-slow animals they gave us horses. But the highlight (relatively speaking) of the vacation for the LaReau Sisters was the Roseland Ranch "game room," which contained a pool table, ping-pong table, a juke box, a couple of arcade games, and a large, mangy, taxidermied bear with his arms outstretched (to make it easier to pose with him for photos, we surmise). This was the height of the video game craze in the eighties, so Kara and Jenna spent a good deal of their vacation in that room, playing Pacman and listening to the very limited song selections on the juke box. In fact, to this day, whenever Kara hears "Morning Train" by Sheena Easton, she immediately smells horse manure.



But by far, the most vivid vacation recollection we have is of a place called Browns, which was a resort in the Catskills. (Think of the Kellermans resort in Dirty Dancing, but thirty to forty years past its prime.) Kara and Jenna's parents chose this locale because, according to its brochure, it had everything. And it did have everything, though it all happened to be in a state of decay, including the other guests, none of whom seemed to be under the age of one-hundred-and-eleventy. There was a generous whiff of territorialism and ageism at Browns (with a soupçon of mothballs), as the seniors were clearly long-time patrons who didn't look kindly on newcomers invading their space, especially children. On one occasion, the LaReau Sisters secured front-row seats to view a Johnny Castle-like ballroom dancing demonstration; halfway through the performance, an elderly couple not-so-gently asked Kara and Jenna when they'd be leaving, as they felt entitled to their seats. This brand of geriatric strong-arming continued throughout the weekend. The lowest point came when Jenna was happily swimming underwater in the pool one afternoon, and a gentleman placed his foot on her back, holding her down for an extended period of time as he chatted with one of his friends. Was this an accident? We think not. What did soothe us, ultimately, were two things: the resort had a roller rink, so Kara could skate to her heart's content (followed, of course, by ice cream), and the gift shop featured a kiosk selling iron-on, personalized baseball shirts. Jenna's was purple and Kara's was pink, and they both featured rainbow iron-ons and had their names running down one sleeve in flocked letters. (If you were not a child of the eighties, let us just tell you that these shirts were HOTT.)

Back then, we were more than a bit suspicious of and ungrateful for our parents' vacation choices, as our friends would all be going on more standard family getaways — day trips to amusement parks or weeklong rentals on Cape Cod (or of course, annual pilgrimages to Disney World). It is only now that we realize that our vacations were truly special, in every sense of the word. Like a purple baseball shirt with a rainbow iron-on and one's name running down the sleeve, they were one of a kind. And hilarious to think about in retrospect. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

(And thanks, Karen. Great suggestion!)

To their great delight, Kara and Jenna have been suffering from seasonal migraines this week. We'd say more, but it's hard to elaborate on anything when you're in the fetal position, using one hand to type and the other to either hold your head, shield your eyes from bright light, or cover your mouth so as not to toss your cookies.

We would like to take a moment and re-congratulate our friend Karen G, who won our Caption This Photo contest. In honor of her winning entry, and her constant support of us, we'd like to give her the opportunity to choose our next blog topic. Just let us know what you want us to talk about, Karen, and we'll post the entry next Tuesday. The choice is yours!

The LaReau Sisters are back from their first-ever creative retreat together, hosted by SuperAgent Barry Goldblatt and attended by a veritable Justice League of authors.

Kool-Aid was imbibed. Tootsie Pops were savored and observed. Utilikilts were modeled. Stories of sexy skunks and loogy public transit rides were related. Fears and concerns and insecurities were quelled (if only temporarily — after all, we are artists). And it was confirmed that Rick Springfield did indeed have his own animated show on Saturday morning, if only for about a second. Clearly, there was very little about this experience that did not rock.

Kara and Jenna would like to thank their fellow retreaters for being so welcoming and supportive and just generally amazing. We're delighted to be able to call you our colleagues and friends. And we're grateful that you allowed us to share some of our own stories with you, including that of a certain very special Christmas morn, as shown in the above commemorative photo. Let the good times roll!

The LaReau Sisters congratulate Karen, the unanimous (not to mention unopposed) winner of our Caption This Photo contest! The nature of the prize will be revealed in our next blog entry.

(Of course, we can't help but feel a wee bit disappointed that our contest didn't receive more of a turnout; certainly, we thought that the opportunity to caption two very compelling vegetables would have garnered some interesting responses. Que pasa, friends?)

Kara and Jenna are going to take a few days to work through their abandonment issues, sniff sniff, but in the meantime, we leave you with the following clip, which we hope you find entertaining. Enjoy!

It's contest time! Put on your thinking caps and let us know how these very emotive pumpkins should be captioned.

Submit your entries no later than this Friday, August 10. Kara and Jenna will post the winning caption (as well as what the captioner has won) on Monday, August 13.

Good luck!

The above photo was recently brought to our attention.

Two questions:

A. What is this young man holding in his lap?

and

2. Where can we get one?