The screams of 10-year olds travel far. And like all mothers in the animal kingdom, especially those in the human kingdom, a mother of pre-tweens can single out the wail of her children across the expanse of a public swimming pool of wall-to-wall floats, bodies and shrieking girls without batting an eye.
“Oh no,” she said. “Christopher’s been hurt. She sighed – interrupting our conversation and turning to look over her shoulder at the pool.
“How can you hear anything?” I said listening to the roar of kids, splashing and whistles …

“Oh Dad, it’s just a little bit of cursing. It’s not bad.” Six heads nodded in agreement. No sex. No nudity. No gore. Just some mild swearing. Maybe the “f” word once or twice. At the head of the table “Dad” listened intently.
“You said it had some really good lessons?” he asked.
I watched as the teen-agers looked at each other - a bit shocked that their conservative father might actually be considering letting them see an “R” rated film.
“Well, I guess you all are old enough now to start thinking …

Two weeks after 10-year old Sarah’s parents told her she couldn’t have a dog Sarah bought a small little collar. It was pink with rhinestones. The rhinestones captured her heart like only rhinestones in the eyes of a tween can. She clipped the price tag off and threw away the receipt.
“You know you can’t return it if you do that,” I said.
“I’m not going to return it,” she said smugly.
A week later she picked out a name.
“I know what you’re up to Sarah,” her mother told her. “And it’s not …

Okay, I reread my rant about Apple this morning. My Mac is only getting worse. Apple is not going to do anything. I’m tired of it. You guys are tired of it. I’m saving my $$ for a new machine - I don’t know what yet. The cursor on this one jumps all over the place - Apple charges $49 PER service call and doesn’t guarantee an answer. At least I know I’m helping pay for Steve Jobs multi-billion dollar empire eh?
I wouldn’t be so frustrated if it weren’t for …