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A small step for calendars, a giant leap for Frogs...

What has a leaping frog got to do with a drunk giraffe? Ask Steve Ballmer, the guy who runs Microsoft. Both have a common link: the 29th February.

It's been a rotten week, what with one thing and another. Friends and family all seemed to go into the dark, and need comforting; my PCs all died, one by one, and internet connectivity has been almost entirely a nightmare. So I needed cheering up. Enter the Google Leap Year Frog! And Geoffrey the Giraffe, of course.

Geoffrey is the mascot of Roys 'R Us, and he doesn't send birthday cards to kids who are born on 29 February. As far as I know, he doesn't leap frogs; but he definitely doesn't leap years.  As Cade Metz reports:

Toys R US claims that any attention-starved kiddie can sign up to receive an annual birthday card from Geoffrey the Giraffe. But according to the international Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies, Geoffrey has a habit of ignoring kiddies born on February 29.

Enough misery. Google's Leap Frog to my rescue. And you'll be glad to know, it's done the trick. I went out to walk the dog with a smile on my face.

Not that it's the only Leap Year image available. I particularly liked the illustration of "how to propose" - though I suppose that's not what the artist was necessarily thinking. But it did get me thinking: what is a "leap-frog year?" - which in turn led me to the smartly-dressed chap on the next picture, right, which is from leapfrog.com and is an incentive to learn to read and write.

Your fridge door is the perfect place to develop a taste for reading.
Nobody goes hungry for learning with this set of 26 colorful, easy-grip magnetic letters and magnetic letter reader that attaches securely to your fridge. Each letter talks, sings and teaches letter names, letter sounds and learning songs. Put a letter into the reader to hear its name, its sound or a fun phonics song.
Your kids might not eat their vegetables, but with the Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set they can learn to spell them.

 That was announced a few years back. I've never ever seen an electronic, talking fridge magnet since. I suspect there's a reason... and I suspect the reason is that young humans don't go to the letters on the fridge because they want to learn phonics.

What they're trying to do (obviously) is not play with electronics, but get noticed. Much of the day is spent preparing food; if you stand in front of the fridge, you get noticed. And if the letters are just letters, you get attention.

But if they are talking letters, it's an excuse for the adult in the room to say "Ah, I can stop being distracted by the little brat, and get on with work!"

That's never going to work, is it?

Happy Leap Year!