Last week on a road trip to Disney, I was digging through the contents of the arm rest compartment for some tissues when I realized the old maxi pad that had somehow gotten stuck to my hand would have to do the trick. Plus it had wings, which made for an easy clean-up.

I looked at my mother and said, "We need to invent some kind of portable tool that has all the necessary mommy accoutrements to tackle any parenting task."

Because this was a long road trip and we were two slap-happy adults listening to a Bratz movie for the fourth time, we made a list of all the things said contraption would need.

So here are the fruits of our brainstorm. I give you ... the Swiss Mommy Knife.

Part of the American dream has always been home ownership. It's just a fact. From the time most Americans are in their 20's, they are already thinking about saving money to purchase their first property. It is considered a "great investment" and a huge part of the successful life. And yet, things have changed.

Between the mortgage crisis and foreclosures and falling home prices, owning a home is just not what it used to be. So why are people still so obsessed with it? Just the other day, I was talking to a friend who is pregnant and she and her boyfriend were stressing because they still rent at 36 and have a second baby on the way. I get their concern. But honestly? Lucky them.

A conversation on Cafe Mom is also brewing about this same topic. Some agree with me. Some agree with them. But the reality is: no matter what your opinion, home ownership is just not what it used to be.

First Hurricane Sandy victims had their homes destroyed by that ferocious storm -- and now they're being battered by insurance companies who are dragging their feet, finding loopholes, and doing anything they can to avoid pay-outs. Take this Staten Island couple, who was insured by Allstate. They evacuated their home before the storm, but a neighbor called to tell them that wind had knocked the roof off their house. Allstate, however, says the roof came off due to flooding -- and conveniently the couple didn't have flood insurance. (They had cancelled it earlier because their payments were far more than the few reimbursements they'd gotten in the past.)

The couple, Sheila and Dominic Traina, say they were massively ripped off by Allstate. But that didn't stop the company from using their home in a television commercial touting how they are "helping" Sandy victims.

Any smaller and it would be a toy.We bought my little apartment 14 years ago, and it's so sweet and perfect I've never been able to leave -- even though it's way too small. A couple years ago we renovated our bathroom and now it's a gorgeous, sparkling temple to hygiene. But the kitchen? That's a different story.

I love to cook. But I hate my kitchen with a deep and abiding passion matched only by my passion for cooking. Yeah, it's like that. So my home improvement wish? Well, let me tell you about my dream kitchen.

If you're one of the millions of people who had your precious electricity knocked out thanks to Hurricane Sandy -- or maybe it happened during Hurricane Irene, or the storm that hit the Washington, D.C., area a year ago, or any other time the lights have gone out -- you're probably kicking yourself that you didn't have a generator. Considering that it doesn't seem to take much for the power lines to go down, and it seems to take forever for them to come back up, why don't we all have them? Well, unfortunately, it's not that simple for everyone. Let's look at the ABCs of generator ownership.

When a series of storms hit the mid-Atlantic region knocking out power for millions of people during a horrific 100-degree temps heatwave, you'd think there would be at least one tiny little silver lining: Your electric bill would be lower that month. But apparently that wasn't the case with Pepco customers. Those who didn't have power for days or even weeks, like Gawker writer Drew Magary, still had to pay up the same as if they'd been home chillin' in the AC, scarfing gelato, and watching Game of Thrones. Magary, who lives in Washington, D.C., was without power for a whole week. But apparently that mattered none to his electric company, Pepco. Rants Magary:

Pepco [is] THE SINGLE WORST COMPANY ON THE FACE OF THE F*CKING EARTH. In fact, calling it a company is an insult to other companies, even sh*tty ones like Goldman Sachs and Disney.

But tell us how you really feel, Drew!

Oh, life. Full of rainbows and roses and shiny, happy things. Also? Full of thunderclouds and thorns and really really annoying things. You know what I'm tawkin' about. We all have our list of stuff that drives us crazy. In JoAnn From Bensonhurst's case, most of that stuff happens when she's doing routine -- one might say mundane -- household chores, the kind of things we all do as moms. It's not surprising. She's our very own version of a real (not desperate) housewife here at CafeMom Studios YouTube Channel. One with a very pronounced Brooklyn accent.

Anyway, the things that annoy JoAnn are probably very similar to the things that annoy you too. They range from telemarketers ("They should actually be auctioneers. They talk so fast that before it hits your brain after it hits your ear, you're tellin' the guy yes") to grocery scanners ("I don't deal with robots") and so many other irritants in between. You should hear what she has to say about cable TV ... 

My sister and I used to share a car, and I was always amazed at the panache with which she would do car maintenance and repairs, like top off the oil and windshield-wiper fluid."Oh my God, you’re like a mechanic," I’d say, watching from our stoop as she strode purposefully from trunk to engine with mysterious bottles. "It’s not hard," she’d inform me. Maybe not. But despite the fact that I can negotiate a car purchase with terrifying efficiency, cook amazing meals that'd make Emeril Lagasse say "BAM!", and share the stage with male improvisers without fear, I was convinced that if I'd attempt such tasks, I’d somehow end up with oil spurting across my windshield on the New Jersey Turnpike. But when I got a fix-it ticket last week and looked at our dwindling bank account, I knew I had to try a few simple car fixes, including fixing my broken tail light. And you know what? It wasn't hard. My sister’s right.I hate when that happens.