How to keep your kids in line.

While still living in Germany I started threatening to sell the boys on the Black Market if they kept up whatever they were doing at the time. I came upon this idea while living out in Auerbach since the Czech border was under an hour from us. The drama of their reactions made the tale even better.

See, I'd tell them I refused to have the mob help me find the Black Market because you never wanted to owe the mob, especially the Russian mob who essentially ran Pegnitz, a town not far from us. The gypsies were the ones who knew everything. They would help me find the Black Market so I could sell them. There were times I'd point out the gypsies coming across the border from Czech, which created it's own drama when they saw the trailer's they'd be riding in.

Through the years the threat doesn't hold up as well. We've pointed out new entrances on occasion, such as the Federal Penitentiary outside of Ft. Leavenworth.

Last week we started watching a show on Animal Planet called Fatal Attractions. It's about people who own pets which end up killing them. This particular show told of a man who had rather large lizards as pets. He left them loose in his apartment. As with all owners of certain types of reptiles, he'd been bitten on occasion without any ill effects from the bacteria in the saliva. Until the last time which killed him. His lizards had partially eaten him by the time the police found him.

Sure enough, we started getting a bit of attitude from the boys when it was announced they should go to bed. Jason asked them if we should bring the lizards home. We have found the new Black Market in our house.