Well -- not much happening. Have hardly seen or heard our Flycatchers but last night one paid a visit to the fence near the bird house. Didn't appear to go in. Saw only one again this morning -- 2 x (or two different birds at two different times???) -- it didn't appear to go in -- just sat there calling and calling, but they're sneaky so who knows. May have to try the piece of grass across the entrance trick... We heard a couple calling to each other across the trees but we just keep seeing one on its own -- hope that something hasn't happened to one of the 'pair'. Meanwhile ----- back at the Bluebird Ranch, Mama blue is incubating her 2nd clutch of 4.... with "baby girl" from clutch 1 looking on....

Knowledge is power. They don't teach much about money management in school. Many didn't learn much about it at home - as children grow, it seems to me wise to have them gain in-depth knowledge, incrementally, of how the family's financial system works. When I was a kid, we got a weekly allowance, that grew as we grew, and we were epected to buy our clothes for school and cover school expenses (which were smaller than currently). World War II began in 1939 when I was 10, the farmhands went off to war and what Dad and this 10 year old, plus a couple smaller, got done - got done: the rest ... didn't. We had lots of work in summer and Dad paid us for that, which helped us buy the things that we needed to return to school and there was an increase in our allowance, to compensate for the increased chores, year-round. We were encouraged to save some - I had a bank account when I was too young to see over the counter ... and we were expected to pay at Sunday School, church-based youth group, etc. from our allowance. In case of dire emergency, we could borrow against future allowance from Dad, which entailed some questions as to whether we might have foreseen the problem, and, even if not been able to have seen it coming, to cover the cost from savings, had we chosen to have some/(any?). And we learned early the discipline of getting along for a while on less after we'd borrowed, for Dad expected us to repay those loans earlier rather than later. Good training as to management of debt ... which would be helpful much later, when "credit" cards appeared on the scene: we knew that they didn't offer "free money". When we use someone else's money - usually they require some compensation (and, sometimes ... way too much: have you investigated the economics of the recently-arrived "payday loan" game?)! After one has stepped into a bear trap - it's a bit late to wish that one had chosen where to put one's feet more carefully! Looks as though Microsoft has cut some of our opportunity for learning about one portion of personal financial management a bit short, also. ole joyful P.S. When one guy, regardless of how central a position he holds in our economy, can become the richest man in the world in half of a generation ... ... do you figure that possibly sometimes people get overcompensated for some innovative discovery that they have made (usually, along with a number of others)? That just possibly our free-market-based economy could stand some tweaking? And the Bolsheviks and the Commuist systems aren't any better - look at all of the newly-minted millionaires ... nay, billionaires ... that have been appearing in Russia and China as their system matures (goes to seed?). And during their heyday, they arranged things so that not too many became part of the core system - didn't want to spread the largesse around too much - or it'd get too thin for each! o j

I play scrabble on there, non paying. My pogo name is: tastyemilydog682 In case you think I'm a weirdo for having that name, I tried for over 15 minutes to come up with a normal name without luck...they were all in use by someone else. So, then started using my dog's name, Emily...and this popped up and I thought it was kinda funny and was really tired of trying to come up with something so picked it.

Lily, I would play with you too! Maybe you can find a source of games in your community. A venue in my area has Game Night once a month, attended by people of all ages. Some of the games look rather intense and seem to require a lot of thought (Pandemic is one), but I've played lighter games there with a friend. If you're close to my age you could probably find games at a local senior center. You could also poll your friends to see if there's any interest. Who knows--some may be silently yearning for a fun game. Fran, I was thinking about bridge recently. I haven't played since the 1960's, but I'd be willing to read up on it and see if I could join a group. However, I remember my husband was not thrilled with my bridge playing. He was a serious duplicate bridge player, and I like to chat while I play. Chances are the local groups would feel the same way my husband did about my playing style. LOL Foggy, I looked up Telestrations, and it sounds like great fun. But I wonder if the two artists in my group would spoil some of the fun. They are very good. Playing Cranium on my team recently, one of them had to draw a saddle with her eyes closed. It was perfect. Socks, thanks for the tip about Hoot Owl Hoot and Peaceable games!