My friend Juliette calls us the  ‘Little House on the Prairie’ home.  I don’t think we are all that out there but I do realize most of our friends don’t have ‘butcher day’ at their house.  On the other side of the pendulum we (Mike and Pistol) love technology.  My Dad got Pistol started with her first desktop computer at the age of 2.  Yes, she had a nicer computer than me.  They both love to figure stuff out in their own ways on the computer while Dumpling and I put in our IT requests of what we would like. “More music on my iTunes, please.”

The girls are both 13yrs old now.  Gone to the wasteside (Editors note from Mike:  unintentional Mollyism) are dolls, scooters, bouncy balls and dress up (unless we are talking the occasional fashion show in my clothes!).  Nowadays they want clothing and technology.  They have whittled their desires down to the essentials.  For two years both girls got the newest iPod nanos (they were gifts).  Last year they both wanted iTouches.  I’m the parent who says, ‘Why do you need that?’  Mike, on the other hand, is a technology enabler.  I’m outnumbered.  What they ended up doing this time was rather clever.  With the help of Mike (I’m yelling in the background, ’11 and 12 year old children don’t need iTouches!’) (Editors note from Mike: No she wasn’t, she was squealing with 8 other ladies in the living room because she was hosting “trashy book club” night.) they sold their iPods online and then bought refurbished iTouches, again, online.  They used some of their savings to make up the difference between their sales revenue and the cost of the iTouches. » » »