ALERT ALERT strange boy in the house ALERT ALERT

My teenage daughter comes home from school today, and *casually* mentions, "Oh, so-and-so might drop by this afternoon." A boy.

Really.

Immediately, I started thinking about the fastest way to "NO"... but then again, it was a good opportunity to observe the enemy.

And, by "the enemy", I define that as "any boy who ever wants to date or even hang out with my daughter." Just so we're clear on that.

So anyway, I said OK. Well, actually, I said "No way in hell is anybody coming here with the house looking like THIS" ...which was an amazing way to get two teenagers (since the 16-year-old immediately recruited the 13-year-old brother) to tidy up a house in an amazingly short period of time. I want this kid to come back for no other reason than that!

So he shows up. Seems nice enough. He even liked comic books. However, it hasn't escaped me that I myself was also a pretty nice teenage boy. And I still REMEMBER being a teenage boy. So this young man will never be able to lull me into a false sense of complacency. EVER.

For approximately four hours, we subject him to intense sibling interaction. I must particularly thank my four-year-old, who was so excited to have a new person to show off to, that he basically sat, bounced, and crashed on the young man for just about the whole time. It was awesome. It couldn't have worked out any better if I gave him a bottle of red food colouring to chug beforehand.

And strangely enough, it somehow happened that there was always at least one sibling present for the entire duration of the visit. Funny how things work out like that.

So that went alright. Using the words of the immortal Jed Clampett, I put forth to the young man: "Y'all come back now, y'hear??".

Because I need my house cleaned again.