I slogged through buckets of rain to go to two video stores to rent three DVD's to watch with my boys tonight.

Damp hair, wet feet, $15 later, Drew and John down for the night - and Clint home from work, Max home from a movie and I finished farting around on the computer, met in the family room to watch Babel and the DVD player stopped working.

And I say to myself...well, I say some bad words, because who really wants to spend money replacing things? I hate it when things that are only 6 years old cease to function.

But what really ticked me off was the lost opportunity to spend some hours watching a movie with my older boys.

If this is another case of my raging hormones screwing around with our electronic equipement, I welcome menopause.