I have been trying to be more realistic about what I can achieve in a day at the office, so I often find myself saying, “Yes, I can definitely do that, but it won’t be today.” One day this week it suddenly occurred to me that “It won’t be today” was becoming my catchphrase, and maybe even the title of my biography. But, for the record, two of us thought it was a good dinner, and we confirmed that the smoke detector works. Then I put dinner on the table, and all my younger diners would eat was plain rice. I was on cloud nine as I stirred the vegetables and sliced the meat. “That can’t be true,” one of them said, “because you make good dinners.” Our boys seemed a little concerned, so I said, “It’s not a good dinner unless the smoke detector goes off.” I ran to yank it off the wall and stop the beeping. When I was cooking dinner last night, the smoke detector went off.
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Our boys are happy, our sitter seems happy, we’re thrilled, and the homework gets done.Īnd the boys have learned how to play gin, which is an added bonus. Somehow the pieces fell into place, and we ended up in this totally enviable situation. Our original plans for a sitter fell through on Labor Day weekend, and I was in a bit of a panic. But otherwise homework is happening mostly on autopilot, thanks to our afterschool sitter, so I really can’t complain. Studying for spelling tests is not as much fun as racing slot cars. But we are having a fantastic time with the slot cars.
No one else seemed to think that was a great idea. They’re so much fun that I suggested we could get rid of the video games and just race the slot cars. Our sons have built a couple different tracks to use, and they have had a blast. The cars fly around the track, and it’s not clear which one will win. I think if we had them set up in the living room, no one would ever want to do anything else.
In the end, though, it was the younger half of the family that carefully designed the track and set the cars loose for their first races. We went and picked up the boxes after I promised their father that he would get to help set them up. I mentioned it to the boys, and they were so excited. Maybe the boys would have some fun with them, he said. It was a rainy day, he was making a round-trip to New York that day (that’s not as unusual as it sounds), and he had left a few boxes of slot cars and track at his house for us to pick up. The two new tracks go on sale May 6.The other day my phone rang, and I saw that it was my father. The updated app and additional cars are available on Anki’s site beginning today.
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There’s no reason you can’t use software to make things better over time.” “You see it with cell phones, but you don’t see it in this industry with toys. “People should expect products to change over time,” says Hans Tappeiner, Anki’s co-founder and president. When the company does something like introducing additional tracks, it’s less about designing the new layout, and more about updating the iPhone app - which orchestrates the competition and keeps track of where the cars are - to deal with the new gameplay dynamics that layout introduces. Like the others, they’ve got their own capabilities and personalities: Corax can use two weapons at once and works only in AI mode until you’ve beaten it on the track, and Hadion is Anki’s fastest car to date.Īnki’s cars may be physical, but a huge percentage of what makes its products interesting is the software that powers the experience. Then there are two new Anki cars, which go for $69 each.