There is little to report today.

We returned to the beach for a few hours.  We collected crabs from the sand, walked the beach and observed.

The swimsuits did not get better today.  At one point, Wiley looked up from his beach chair as a scantily clad woman walked toward the ocean.

“Is that woman wearing a suit or a tattoo?”

I think that tells you all you need to know about the outfit.

It has been interesting talking with the kids about why people wear different outfits.  While we cannot know the exact motivation for every outfit, I think we have learned a great deal from speculating about it.  Is that person drawing attention to himself?  If so, why?   Why does that woman wear such a provocative suit?

I love the opportunity to talk about these things with our children/young adults.  They are the type of conversations that are awkward if not impossible to have in the comfort of the home.  They do not want to hear our lectures or observations.  But when you see someone wearing a suit that is staggeringly provocative, it enables us to breach the conversation.  OK, it is an odd parenting tool, but a good craftsman embraces all tools.

In fact, I think that the best times to talk about the hard stuff is when they do not see it coming.

We have spent a lot of time to talk about pros and cons of high school - from dating to drinking to social cruelty.  Terrill even commented that she feels better prepared for high school next year.

This trip continues to serve our family quite well.

I do want to share a few quick stories from the day.

Modern Music

At breakfast, the restaurant plays the most bizarre of easy-listening music lists.  Here is a sampling of the artists from the playlist:

• America
• Chicago (before Peter Cetera)
• Chicago with Peter Cetera
• John Mayer
• Air Supply
• Bread
• Halls and Oates
• Blood, Sweat and Tears
• Bob Welch (“Sentimental Lady”)
• Fleetwood Mac
• Olivia Newton John – I must apologize for this, but the song we heard was “Have you ever been Mellow?”  I deeply hope that the song does not stay in your head as long as it has in mind.

We had a bizarre argument about whether Stevie Nicks was one of the lead singers of Fleetwood Mac.  You would think that Liam would know better than to question Susie about 1970’s/80’s bands.  You would be wrong.

We spent some time establishing that Stevie was a woman and that Lindsey Buckingham was a man.  This was one of those conversations that you dearly wish to end, yet you find it continuing nonetheless.

We listened to 3 or 4 songs in a row from the 1980s.  Then “Hey There Delilah” from the Plain White T’s came on.  This was a big hit in 2007.  Susie then commented “wow, a new song”!

Terrill protested, “No way mom, that song is at LEAST 4 years old!!!”

I guess we stood corrected.

Water HOT

While I have been writing, Susie decided to shower.  I soon heard a voice from the bathroom.  “Steve, something remarkable is happening.”

Worried that we are about to cross a weird line, I reluctantly responded, “What?”

“The water.”

“Yes”

“Is consistently hot.”

It was not until this moment that we realized that we have not had a consistently hot shower since Shanghai.  That would be 25 days ago.  Even the heavenly resort at Koh Phi Phi was cool, then scalding.  Yep, she just had the best shower in almost 4 weeks.

The Bright Blade

Virginia is dearly hoping to raise ducklings when we return to Camp Champions.  We want to make sure that she is sufficiently mature for the challenge, so we have asked that she outline her plan for hatching and raising ducklings.

She did an impressive job.  It was both detailed and thoughtful.  It, however, was riddled with some creative spellings.  One of the better ones was “enuf”.  We tried to remind her how to spell it.  We gave her the “G” and “H” at the end.  We then tried to give her some clues.  “O, U know how to spell this.  O, U know.”

Nothing.  She tried several times.  Eventually she got there, after we spotted her the E-N-O-U-G and H.  After Virginia left the room, Susie looked at me and off-handely commented,

“She is not the brightest knife in the drawer.”

I had no idea how to respond to this.  I decided to say nothing.  After all, sometimes is it better to let sleeping dogs fry.

Steve Sir