Guns don't shoot chairs, patrons shoot chairs.

And sometimes monkeys with guns shoot chairs.

Kids and Freedom. Eep.

The 16 year old I adore, and who considers me 'the cool old lady', is going to be in my total care for 4 entire days next month. Both parents are going to be out of town.

I'm a little bit freaked out. He's great...but 16...and I'm having this paranoid need to keep him safe, safe, safe. His mom said she thought he could sleep alone in his house. I nearly had a heart attack. Um. No. The dog and I will sleep over there.

Now, if anything ever happens to the 'rents, he's legally all mine...so I suppose I ought to be prepared. And I'm scared!

How do you say 'No' to a 16 year old and maintain your cool cred?

Yeah, I was a kid in Milwaukee and once we were allowed to cross the street, we could pretty much go anywhere. We lived in a really nice neighborhood, so it was not that dangerous, I admit, but we were in the city. I walked to school alone (well, with friends, but no adults). My brothers used to go to a local bar, called Hooligans, and hold the door open in hopes of getting a quarter. Every Saturday, we went to the Oriental Theater, which had a cheap kid's double feature. We all thought our parents were awesome for giving us movie and candy money each week. Of course, my mom told me later that this was the one time each week that she and my dad knew they had alone and they made, well, very good use of it. I was nine when we moved, so all this happened when I was a real kid. It was a great way to grow up.

And sometimes monkeys with guns shoot chairs.

Huh, around these parts we don't have monkey library patrons. But maybe Ohio has more literary monkeys or the libraries there have sections with French books.

How long until, um, Full Moon, Jess? Must be getting near, right?

9 more weeks! (Which is why we need the w/d installed NOW.)

And daycare centers are calling me back! With mid-August openings for infants!

Today is SO MUCH MORE AWESOME than yesterday. Keep it up, Tuesday...

Years ago, my parents hired some (hot!) illegal Irish guys to redo their kitchen, including putting in bigger windows.

Hot Irish workmen! Do you have their number?

So I decide to go to TWoP to read some snarky recaps of what I have watched, and the hell? What is up with the Doctor Who recaps, I want snark not analysis of the underlying themes and .... can't think of the word for it... some sort of psuedo-poetic musings.

No kidding. I hate Jacob's recaps. I don't give a flying fuck about your musings about "grace" and, oh by the way we're all VERY impressed by your poetical bullshit except for the part where we're NOT. Bring the funny, already!

We pretty much ran wild around the neighborhood. We pretty much stuck to our street (lotta kids in that neighborhood!) until we started riding bikes. Then we could and did go quite a ways. The basic rules were no crossing the main drags. Most of the concern was heavy traffic. Oh & be in before dark, for which in= if not at home, in the house or backyard with an adult on the premises, and we know where you are. It was nice. eta: and my friend is raising her kids in a very similar neighborhood and way in Idaho. So it still exists.

Every Saturday, we went to the Oriental Theater, which had a cheap kid's double feature.

I saw Rocky Horror at the Oriental! Great theater. And there was an awesome bar with a huge international beer selection just down the street from there--Von Trier's, wasn't it?

Childhood freedom was big for us, too. We were latchkey kids in junior high (my brother was in high school by then, so he could keep an eye on us until he was 16 and had an afterschool job, so it was just my sister and me then), and when we were big enough, we'd fix dinner so it was ready by the time Mom got home from work (lots of casseroles that we just had to pop into the oven at a set time and temp, and then mix up some salad or cook veggies on the stove).

Summers were great--Mom had a caretaker for us (one of the neighborhood college girls who would just hang with us to make sure we didn't kill each other) until we were all in high school, then we had the days to ourselves. In junior high, my band had summer practice for the parade season in the fall, so I'd have to walk the 1 1/2 miles to school, and the route didn't have sidewalks so I'd walk on the side of the street (saw a dead cat slowly decompose over the course of one summer's commute!). I'd also ride my bike/walk down to the library/strip mall where there was also the ice cream place and the drug store, always good for a Charleston Chew candy bar and possibly a magazine or two.

bullshit

That's the word.