Giveaway: PIXAR Short Films Collection DVD

Before we get into the details of this giveaway, can I just bitch for a minute? Yes? Thank you.

My day yesterday:

Get up early, anticipating the arrival of my mother, the harbinger of an "easy" day for me. Get the kids ready so we can go to Barnes and Noble to get a gift card for a birthday party John was invited to later in the day. (The invitation said not to feel obligated to bring a gift, but if we wanted to, we could bring a book for the birthday girl. I decided to at least get her a gift card, because, if all she's getting are books, then damnit, she gets to pick the book out.)

Notice the pouring rain, but remain optimistic that it will lighten up. Hit my clicker to unlock the car from the family room so we can all jump inside fast. Notice the lights don't flash. Get ominous feeling.

Run out in the downpour and realize that, yes, I left the interior lights on (long story) and the battery is dead (again).

Decide to rally and move the car seats into my mother's car, even though I can't open the sliding doors on my minivan because they're battery powered. Take the tribe to Barnes and Noble.

After an uneventful and pleasant trip to the bookstore, return home, put John's car seat back in my car --in the unending downpour -- and bring various items into the house, where Ava promptly pees her pants. Check my messages and realize the doctor's office scheduled me for my abdominal CT (long story) at exactly the time I asked them not to. Make several calls. Realize the CT place is closing and reopening in another location this week, causing problems with getting an appointment. Also realize there is a "prep kit" involved in this test. Get ominous feeling.

Run out in the rain in my mom's car to get the prep kit. Return home to listen to Ava yell "I'm NOT SLEEPING MOM!" over the monitor while I slurp down some chicken soup. Give John time outs for various infractions before realizing he has a fever. Begin to wonder if he can go to the party.

Call Brian for the 13th time and get no answer. Send him an email: "Please call me. I've been calling you since 8:30 am!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Congratulate myself for showing considerable restraint, with the bitchiness restricted to exclamation points.

Ben comes home, in the pouring rain. Begin scrambing to give snacks and get homework done. Finally talk to Brian for half a second, and let him no the battery's dead and John may or may not be too sick to go to the party. Propose that Brian take John to the party instead of me. Get shot down, and realize I'll have to take him. Ava pees her pants again.

Answer the phone. It's Brian. Catastrophic problems at work, he can't come home so I can take John to the party. Can't I bring all three kids? (No.) Can't I call our neighbor and ask her to babysit? (During dinner time? No.) Listen to how tremendously bad he feels. Hang up and gaze over at John, who is wiping snots on his sleeve.

Consider all the ways I may be able to take John to the party (babysitters, dropping him off and driving around with the other two kids for two hours), all the while forgetting that my car won't even start.

Answer the phone. It's my mom, telling me she still has Ava's car seat in her car. In New Hampshire. She offers to drive it to me in the morning. I accept despite wretching guilt. Ava pees her pants again.

Break the news to John. Explain all the reasons why I can't take him, including his low-grade fever and my lack of a car seat. Still forgetting that my car has a dead battery.

Make raviolis. Serve dinner. Break up fights. Stop Ava from jumping on the couch/coffee table/her brothers/me. Yell. Blow John's nose. Clean up Ava's pee again (WTF?!). Clean up the house. Yell some more.

Get the kids to bed. Sit in a heap on the couch and watch Dancing With the Stars over a bowl of Red Sox Peanut Butter Nation Ice Cream. Go to bed, hoping that the rising sun will break whatever curse had befallen me.

Back to the giveaway:

I haven't watched this yet, but I'm planning on sticking Pixar Short Films under the tree and watching it over Christmas break with the kids. I've seen a few of these, as extras on various Pixar DVDs, and I especially loved "Boundin' Jack-Jack Attack," and "One Man Band." There are 13 shorts in all. You know you want it!

If you really do want it, just leave me a message telling me how your day is going between now and Saturday at midnight EST. I'll draw a name randomly and post a winner on Sunday. Good luck!