Barbie Publicity Stunt February 13, 2004 - 2:32 p.m.

It's splitsville for Barbie and Ken

Couple 'will remain friends,' says Mattel
Thursday, February 12, 2004

"Barbie stands alone in a Los Angeles, California, store. She and Ken have broken up, according to Mattel. Just like J.Lo and Ben, the romance is over for Barbie and Ken.

After 43 years as one of the world's prettiest pairs, the perfect plastic couple is breaking up. The couple's "business manager," Russell Arons, vice president of marketing at Mattel, said that Barbie and Ken "feel it's time to spend some quality time -- apart."

"Like other celebrity couples, their Hollywood romance has come to an end," said Arons, who quickly added that the duo "will remain friends."

Arons denied that there was any truth to rumors that the breakup was linked to the Cali (as in California) Girl Barbie, arriving in stores now. To better reflect her single status, Cali Barbie will wear board shorts and a bikini top, metal hoop earrings, and have a deeper tan.

This new style already has attracted a new admirer, Blaine the Australian boogie boarder.

Barbie -- the most popular fashion doll in the world, according to toy maker Mattel -- met Ken on the set of a TV commercial in 1961, and they have been inseparable ever since.

Arons hinted Wednesday that the separation may be partially due to Ken's reluctance to getting married. All those bridal Barbie dolls in toy chests around the globe are really just examples of Barbie's wishful thinking, she explained.

Another possible factor is Barbie's career. The doll who was "born" Barbie Millicent Roberts in 1959 has been everything from a rock star to military medic, and she's currently marketed in more than 150 countries. According to Mattel, every second, three Barbie dolls are sold somewhere in the world.

So where does that leave Ken? Said Arons: "He will head for other waves." "

This is so unbelievably funny, yet so very sad. First off, just before Valentine's Day, that's pretty rude. Secondly, if two dolls can't stay together, then what chance does humanity have of making it work?

In other news, Chris went to pay the retardly-past-due electric bill today, and was told that there wasn't an amount due. Yet he had a very current statement sitting in front of him, complete with disconnect date for yesterday. First instinct says hang up the phone and be happy that you don't have to pay the $150. Just be happy that it's somehow been taken care of, even if it's merely a computer error. But he did the smart thing and tried to make sure there wasn't a mistake. I say smart thing, because it would royally suck to call and say everything was fine, then have them cut off the electric later and have to pay the reconnect fees and all that - in the meantime, freezing in the quiet house while waiting for it to get turned back on. Just because of a small mistake that could have been caught.

After a five minute phone call and being put on hold for a really long time, he was told that there was a credit set up on the account. Apparently his mom created one of those flat rate plans when she opened the account, and as long as she continued to pay it on time, she established a bit of credit with them.

Over two hundred dollars worth of credit.

So when his account became delinquent and the electric was threatened to be cut off, they automatically used the credit to fix things. His debt with them is completely clear, and there's still a $60 credit to be used later.

And people say Friday the thirteenth is unlucky.

And now, thanks to this huge poster sized, lamenated calendar we have next to the desk, I can write down which bills need to be paid and when so that he can keep track of them and not forget, allowing them to go unpaid long enough to become delinquent. So when he's trying to figure out how much money he has, he can just glance at the calendar and see the blue writing and know a bill is due soon. And when it's paid, I wipe the words away. Gotta love dry erase markers.

In black, I write when a show will be on that I want to catch. Like Wednesday, Alyson Hannigan is going to be on That 70's Show - gotta follow that Buffy cast. And Kingdom Hospital starts two weeks after that, on March 3rd. There's not really much room to write anything else, though I noted his birthday and our anniversary with smiley faces.

I'm such a dork.

I still haven't made his card, though I have started going through magazines and my shoebox of clippings. I haven't really come up with much and I don't want to resort to simply cutout hearts pasted onto construction paper. Luckily though, he wants me to wake him up in a few hours so that he can go hang out at the bookstore, and I can use that time to work on it then. I would do it while he's at work tonight, but I've lately been sleeping during most of that time. Well, the past few days, anyhow. I don't mind; the let's-fall-asleep-for-two-hours-then-wake-up-without-being-able-to-go-back-to-sleep trend was getting annoying.

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