Twice a Week Was Not Enough.
Amazon gave us a UPS tracking number for the Saturday, July 21st delivery of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. One might even be so presumptuous as to think that UPS would be delivering it. You don't have to do a thing--just sit back and wait for the book to arrive on the day of release, July 21, 2007, guaranteed!*We needn’t have bothered to wait around for UPS though (actually, we forgot to wait and went out to run an errand). Apparently, UPS delivered the books to USPS. In the early hours of the afternoon today, Muggles started calling each other to spread the word to stop waiting for UPS and check the mailbox instead, where we happily found our books waiting. So, if you ordered from Amazon, but do not yet have your copy of book seven, check your mailbox before contacting customer service. Alternatively, you can go into any book store or other retail location, including Fry's, Walmart, and grocery stores to pick up a copy. I hear that there are no lines and plenty of books. If it had only been that simple to get a Wii console.
*For this special guaranteed Saturday delivery, certain restrictions apply.
Although a signature is not required, we cannot guarantee whether our carrier will leave a package at the delivery address if no one is available to accept it. . . . Therefore, we recommend that someone be available to accept the delivery on Saturday.
I was faced with a bit of a moral dilemma yesterday. On the one hand, I am staunchly in favor of strict gun control (really I am in favor of gun elimination, but since gun-control measures are at least up for debate in our society, I allow my idealism to give way to realism now and then). Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all of the arguments back and forth, to and fro, and side to side. (Cue Brian’s comments . . .) I’m not going to reiterate herein my side of what has been said before by others more eloquently than I in this age-old debate; that’s not the point of this here post. So, on the one hand, I’ve never let my kids play with toy guns, and Laura has never even had so much as a water pistol. On the other hand, I struggle here and there with the sequelae of a somewhat deprived and very dysfunctional childhood; my early experiences included being left out of after-school activities, scouts, camps, dance classes, ice-skating trips, Candy Stripers (are those still around?), etc. because I didn’t have the right stuff to attend, like the uniform, dues, T-shirt, costume, equipment, or a mother who would carpool. I was always the only kid without whatever it was that was required to participate in whatever it was that all the other kids were doing. Don’t cry for me Argentina, I’ve had a lot of therapy, and some of it has stuck. But I do still want my kids to have the important things that I had to do without. So when I took the Maternal Oath of Office before giving birth to my first child, I put my hand on the Bible and vowed that I would faithfully protect, preserve, and defend my children against the tyranny of being the kid whose mother didn’t provide whatever it was that her kid needed to participate in school and extracurricular activities. 
Oui, we got a Wii®. As you might imagine, Tom’s competitive side is displayed in its full glory when he plays Wii Sports. So far, he has won every game played on the dang thing. I’m going to have to start practicing while Tom’s at work. And I’m secretly counting the hours until Laura’s next play date with Henry so that someone who really knows how to play Wii Sports can put Tom in his place. The worst part of all? When he plays, Tom moves his body and swings his arm all over the place, causing me and Laura to behave like arcade-game moles -- he has nearly whacked us on more than one occasion. In Tom’s defense, I will say that when he can manage it without risking a missed shot or the loss of a point, we do get a cursory apology. Apparently it is more important to get the bowling/tennis/golf ball in the right place than to leave family members’ body parts intact. But really, what’s a bruised limb or mild brain damage between loved ones? Thank God for the wrist strap. But still, I do have to keep telling Tom to put it on, warning him that Wii damage is not the stuff of urban legends. I even remind Tom that one of Bryce’s roommates once let a Wiimote fly, shattering it and causing precious nearby objects to crash. So far, with an almost imperceptible roll of his eyes when I prompt him, Tom reluctantly puts on the wrist strap. (If he acted the same way about putting on a condom during his college years, there just might be a little fatherless, green-eyed child who’s really good at gymnastics and chess out there that we don’t know about.) I must tell you that I secretly harbor a mad desire that Tom will cause a Wiimote to fly through our TV screen. It would accomplish two important ends. 1) I’d have a proper excuse to get me that big-ass plasma-screen TV for which I have had a hankering; and, 2) without my even needing to point it out, Tom would know that I was right.
Photo by Trish
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