To iPhone or Not?

That is the question. My Blackberry Pearl functions perfectly. I don't NEED a new phone, but I WANT an iPhone. And so I obsess.

Reasons to get a new phone.
1. iPhones are really cool.
2. I could get really cool apps like Black's Law Dictionary and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
3. I want one.
4. Professor Torts thinks I should.
5. I can add educational apps for the younger BoilerBabies. That would make me a good mother. 6. All the cool kids have iPhones.
7. I'd be keeping pace with the older BoilerBabies.
8. An iPhone would match my wardrobe.
9. iPhones are really cool.
10. I want one.

Reasons NOT to get a new phone.

1. Everybody has an iPhone.
2. I don't want to be manipulated by AT&T.
3. I don't need a new phone.
4. There are children starving in Africa. A new phone would be the height of triviality.
5. I've lived 40-some years without an iPhone. I think life would go on if I didn't get one.

Wow! There are twice as many reasons to get a new phone as there reasons not to. So I stacked the deck. So what.

But, I'll continue to obsess.

My Old Man??

BoilerHusband reached a milestone: he's 50!!! A half-century. One-twentieth of a millenium. Ten times as old as a 5 year old; five times as old as a 10 year old. Many men his age have grandchildren.

I may be biased, but I don't think he looks 50. As long as he's clean shaven, no gray hair; minimal wrinkles; physcially active.

So why the question marks following "my old man"? We've been married forever, so I guess that makes him mine. No doubt he's a man. But now that I think about it, he's not really old after all. According to some who've already passed that mile marker, life begins at 50.

Kids won't jump from a moving car

Kids won't jump from a moving car, if for no other reason than self-preservation. That's why the car provides the perfect place and time for all sorts of things involving the kids. It's the perfect time to find out what's going on at school--who's going out with whom; what the wacky teachers have done most recently; etc. It's the perfect time for having "The Talk." There's no better time to find out what's bothering the kids or their opinions.

Valuable time. Time that ends too soon.

So, when I see kids in cars with their eyes glued to the DVD player, I want to shout, "Why are you wasting such valuable time???"

I don't have a problem with the car dvd players in general--we have a portable system that we use for long trips, but come on. Just wait until the kids (and their friends) start to drive. We learned when our older kids started how much we missed that time we were confined to the car.

So what prompted this rant? The kid who sat in his mom's car, watching a DVD on an afternoon when the weather was near perfect. An older sibling was at soccer practice, at a park with a cool playground. Yet another example of time wasted.

I'm just becoming an old fogey, and a preachy one at that, but kids grow up too fast to sacrifice time unnecessarily.

Adventures in kindergarten

Breaking news from Mrs. B's kindergarten class! As reported by BB4, one of the kids stuck a pencil in her ear, and broke off a piece of lead far enough in her ear that the school had to call her mommy to pick her up. My source reported that that the victim (perpetrator??) is NEVER coming back to school!

Oh that I could have such excitement. Then again, there's a reason I'm not an elementary ed teacher.

Should Walmart be held liable for the harm it did in reporting suspected child abuse?

This story bothers me. Apparently innocent pictures of children at bathtime should not result in child protective services removing children from their home and putting them into foster care for a month. If those are truly grounds for taking children out of their home, then I guess we were vulnerable. Like many families, we have cutesy pictures of our children at bath time. I don't believe any of our pictures show any of the kids' genitals--we got them developed at a time when we still used 35 mm film with no problems. But I suppose that in the mind of someone hypersensitive to child pornography, they might have tried to make the case for child abuse.

I'm guessing that Walmart will settle because the story will likely engender more negative publicity than even Walmart can tolerate. If the case does proceed to trial, I doubt that Walmart will be held liable. The photo clerk's good judgement gauge might be off, but the report doesn't appear to have been malicious. If state law doesn't provide qualified immunity for the report, I'm guessing that a court will create some exception that absolves Walmart from liability.

Plus, the real problem is with the local child protective services agency. CPS is vested with the power of the state to take children out of their home, away from everything they know and love. It traumatizes the children. We can justify the trauma when there actually has been abuse or when there are solid grounds to suspect abuse or neglect of one kind or another. But there is no justification when CPS workers take children on only the flimsiest evidence.

CPS should have investigated. The workers have to question the family. And given that a wrong decision can have serious consequences, I understand the CPS practice of erring on the side of caution. But did CPS really need to remove the children from the home in order to conduct the investigation? Did it really take a month to determine that the pictures were simply the kind of pictures the family will pull out to embarrass their girls as they age?

A troubling case.

Wait til next week

I should have known the karma wasn't right for the Baylor/UConn game today. Running out of Lemon Chill barely half-way through the game was a bad sign.

The fact that the Bears had two trunovers less than 90 seconds into the second half was probably another bad omen.

Oh well. The kids had fun. We all had fun.

Lesson learned for today: Get the Lemon Chill early.

An edgier Project Runway?

The designs are supposed to be edgy, but the designers brought their knives for this week's episode. Not the most original challenge--design with newspaper? We did that as a rush event back in the day. But there was enough entertainment from backstabbing. Everyone (but Shirin) thinks Shirin talks too much. Everyone (but Johnny) is just plain tired of him, and that includes Tim. Nicholas attempted to throw Johnny under the bus, right before the judges threw Nicholas under the bus, likening his dress to an insect.

Even Heidi wasn't immune from the snark. Eva Longorria Parker condescendingly explained that, "Tommy doesn't iron, honey" and then cackled madly when Heidi questioned Tommy Hilfilger about how much a steam iron could have spit on Johnny's dress. Let's see if Mrs. Parker gets invited back.

But when it was all said and done, Johnny suffered the fatal blow.

Lessons to be learned: don't lie and don't do crossword puzzles when there's work to be done.

Michael Jackson is timeless; I'm just old

BB3's slumber party was Friday. It has taken me this long to recover. Ten giggling, squealing 9 and 10 year olds, overtaking the house. BoilerHusband, a veteran of past festivities, escaped with BB4 before the first guest arrived. Too bad for them. They missed the scavenger hunt. They missed decorating the t-shirts. They missed pizza, grapes, popcorn, puppy chow, soda, lemonade, and who knows what else.

And, they missed dancing to Billie Jean and Thriller in glow-in-the-dark t-shirts with glow sticks. At least half of the girls knew most of the words to songs recorded years before they were born.

Somehow, I don't think that the boys thought that they missed anything. They certainly didn't miss their sleep. I did.

But it was worth it.

Happy Birthday, BB3

Today, BoilerBaby 3 celebrated her birthday. One child and her new family celebrate. One mother cries?

I don't know if BB3's birth mother is sad today because she is not able to hold her baby and celebrate another milestone with her, but I wouldn't be surprised if she shed a few tears. I understand that that is often the case with birth mothers.

When I laugh with my children, hug my children, and even fuss at my children, I often am reminded how fortunate I am that I have them. Days like today remind me of the courage it takes to give up one's child for adoption.

So tonight, we celebrate, but I suspect that someone quietly cries.

Be Wary of Barry

Did you hear about Pres. Obama's latest ploy? You simply can't trust those Ivy League-trained liberals, trying to spread their socialist agenda.

But not this time Presiden BO. Not in my back yard or in my kid's classroom. You will not indoctrinate our children with your message to school children that says:
1. Take responsibility for your education.
2. Work hard in school.
3. Set goals for your education.
4. Be responsible for learning.
5. Students, parents, and teachers must all take responsibility for your learning.

That kind of anti-American talk could get a president impeached.

Heck, the next thing you know, Obama will be telling our good red-blooded American children that anyone can be president, even a African-American born in "Hawaii."