fires and fish

The kids found two of these flashlight/magnifying glasses while we were cleaning out Lee's grandmother's house. I can't tell you how many times I tried to start fires with magnifying glasses when I was a kid. Never worked. I don't know where Leah and Neal got their fire genes, but they can smoke a leaf in about two seconds flat.

Terrible picture, but what you see here are two snails and a fancy guppy. There's another fancy guppy that must've been hiding behind the rock. (I'm not exactly sure what makes them so fancy.) There's also one of those small, tank-cleaning catfish thingies named Roger. The really cool thing about this particular combination of plants and creatures is that the water stays remarkably clean, which makes this aquarium a low-maintenance addition to the household. We've had it for months now, and it seems to be a healthy little ecosystem.

Mmmmmmm -- Lee just made brownies. Gotta go!

you know you're old when...

~ There is a drop-down for the year you were born, with a huge selection of years in the visible box, and still you must scroll down, down, down to find your year.

~ You used to call your friend who works in a doctor's office to ask for valium. Now you call to ask for eyedrops to treat pinkeye.

~ The librarian at your daughter's school starts talking about that Bon Jovi song, Dead or Alive, and you say, I remember when that song came out -- it was so popular, and she says, How old are you?

~ You find yourself trying to explain to your kids what a tape recorder is.*

~ You find yourself trying to explain to your kids that Drake and Josh did not write Here Comes the Sun.

~ You find yourself trying to explain yourself to your kids, period.

~ You actively promote the notion that Because I said so is a reasonable explanation for why a child must do whatever you say.

~ You take detours that allow you to show people all of the places you used to live, and you find yourself saying This wasn't here a lot.

~ You can't remember if you've already done a blog post just like this one before, and that's okay.

~ You can neither spell nor define familiar words without consulting a dictionary.

~ You squint for no apparent reason. (You do not need glasses. Nope. Not you.)

*Seriously, though -- tape recorders are fun.