Bratz - ( two of them)

Blogger will be down at 7:00 p.m. PSt so I guess I'd better grab it while I have the chance.

Thanks to all for the comments on my 15 minutes of fame. It was fun and I hope it helps. Our Mayor was just elected so any political thoughts I might entertain may be some time in the future. She's decent for a Republican (all the city officials are Republican, I think) so I probably won't start an impeach Ellie movement any time soon. The Mayor cuts ribbons mainly although she and the Mayor before her are uniters, not dividers. She seems reasonable on social issues. Meantime, some of us have started working with a potential candidate for one of the city or county offices. She'd be great - just missed the filing date last year. She hadn't considered it until friends started urging her to run; by then it was too late. Most of the local offices go by default and we'd like to change that.

It's probably better to be the power behind the throne. I can become the Karl Rove of Merced.

Roger suggested running for President. There's a thought.

Before I can take over running the country though, I have to do something about Rebecca and Rochelle. When we left off on Saturday, I had sent them to a birthday party at the large park close to here. I'm sure I must have said "stay with the group" but, even if I didn't, they were driven there and picked up. They know to stay with a group. Did they? No. They took themselves over to the skating bowl (for lack of a better word) to watch the boys show off. I'm sure the little hootchies were showing off for the boys as well. They were eventually rounded up with no harm done. I don't think they went by themselves but leaving with two 14 year old girls isn't sufficient protection. Fourteen year old girls are worse.

They spent Saturday evening staring at the walls and each other after cleaning the living room. No t.v., no music, no nothing. After church on Sunday, they spent most of the day totally grounded again. I relented on the t.v. Sunday night for an hour before a very early bedtime.

I haven't decided yet whether to let them out of the house for a little while after school. They're contrite and I hope I put the fear of God into them. That section of the park should be safe; it was built for kids. It isn't though. It's not well supervised and it's become a gang hangout. It's away from the main section where the picnic tables, grills, and playground are located. To compound the danger, they have to walk through a small wooded area to get to the skating area.

I've always tried to teach them to be careful without being too graphic. This time I sat their little selves down and was, I hope, graphic enough to scare them. I've been thinking about having one of the "community relations" police officers have a chat with them as well.

This morning we went over it one more time when they were a little more willing to listen.

I was almost sick with thinking what could have happened. Of course it didn't and they're growing up. I see lots of kids their age running all over town unsupervised and maybe I'm over protective. I just don't think they're old enough at 10 & barely 11 to exercise good judgment. Kids think they're immortal. They're not.

Other than that, the weekend wasn't bad. Steelers won; I spent part of the game chatting back and forth with ipodmomma who was propping her eyelids open while watching. It started at 11:30 p.m. over there. I've never "watched" a game with anyone from the other side of the Atlantic before.

This is not my normal computer time and I have a little while before the girls come home to nap. Dinner is cooked so I think I'll go do that. I may be back if Blogger is up and if I have anything to report.