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I had the opportunity to meet Ultra Bob last evening and although I was a bit disappointed that he didn’t greet us at the train station wearing underpants on his head, he was quite charming.

We’ll fast forward ten years for Embarrassing Kristen Story #2.

Now we lived in Valley of Lakes, a wooded ‘paradise’ in NE Pennsylvania. Developed as a vacation wonderland, this 300 acre plot had two man made lakes, a riding stable, swimming pool and tennis courts. It also had a series of scheming, crooked developers who duped many local contractors and pissed off most Valley of Lakes residents. Lack of payment plagued the contractors and lack of maintenance and services annoyed the residents. There were times when the homeowners were forced to plow snow and repair the water system.

Ah, but Phil and I thought it was a glorious spot to live. The girls thought we were trying to bore them to death.

For the first year there was no TV…horrors! There were no shops, no fast food restaurants and no pizza delivery. But there were tadpoles, salamanders, evil snakes and fossil rocks to examine and a whole lot of time to imagine. We would have resourceful children.

Kristen, now 11, had become pretty adept at amusing herself. If all else failed, there was always her little sister to torment. The words “I’m bored” weren’t well tolerated in our household. My usual reply to a lament of “I’m bored” was, “Why don’t you clean your room”.

On this particular day I didn’t wait for the “I’m bored “prompt to suggest that rooms be cleaned. I’d been asking nicely for several days and it was time to be firm. I looked Kris straight in the eye and in my best firm Mother voice told her to go upstairs and do a number on her room.

She complained but knew I was serious this time and headed for her room. I heard activity above me and when she came down to the kitchen about 30 minutes later I asked if she’d finished with her room. She told me to go to her room and see.

When I reached the top of the stairs, Kristen was right behind me waiting to show me the job that she’d done and there it was. On her door in yellow construction paper, neatly cut out was the number seven.

Living among the salamanders had made her quite resourceful.