Discipline from a Fortune Cookie

We ate lunch at Hunan Chef yesterday. At the end of our meal, we took turns reading aloud the fortunes written in our cookies. You know how they go:

Working hard will bring you success.

Your insight will lead to a bright future.

Sunny skies follow dreary nights.

Blah, blah, blah.

Well, when it came Joel's turn, we asked him what his slip of paper said. He unfurled it, smiled a halfway smile, and then "read" aloud,

"No XBox."

Get the Lingo Right

Our old laptop died a couple weeks ago and Paul bought a new one. He proceeded to inform me the day it arrived, rather matter-of-factly (not with any condescension) that those kinds of computers are properly called "notebooks". No, to me, a notebook is a 3-ring binder or a spiral and always will be. Besides, I've been enjoying Joel's pronuncation: "yab-bop". I didn't realize Joel had tuned in so hard to Paul's explanation of computer lingo.

Until yesterday.

Joel was being supervised while playing Neopets online. Then Stephen had to do some homework online.

"Joel, I need the laptop," Stephen said.

"It's NOT called a YAB-BOP, STeeeee-Phen," he corrected his teenage brother (with a trace of condescension). "It's called a NOTEBOOK."