family ties

i called home this morning for the weekly chat with my parents, forgetting the promise i had made to myself to lead off with a profuse apology to my father for leaving him a plastic penis water pistol to discover in his trunk on the way to work. he, of course, refused to let it go, and made sure to remind me that he'd found a plastic penis water pistol in the trunk of his car on the way to work, and also admitted that he felt quite compelled to torture me about it. i begged him to throw it away, but he remained steadfast in his refusal- he apparently prefers to leave it on the mantle in the living room, awaiting my arrival next week (intended recipient of plastic penis water pistol is getting married). in a last-ditch effort i pointed out to my dad that the plastic penis water pistol doesn't even work... although he sounded mildy disappointed, he didn't cave.

i can't quite bring myself to share this story with my younger brother who is in town for the weekend. we're pretty open with each other (i think) to the extent that every now and then the details of his romantic exploits get to be a bit much for me (you have to draw the line somewhere, and i say that line should be drawn way before "she didn't even want to mess around")...
and it's not like we've run out of things to do or talk about. after coaching me through the pounding of 4 beers in a half hour at a microbrewery in milwaukee we bought cheap tickets to a bucks game, during which he raised very complex questions like, "do you think the mascot has a day job?"

maybe i haven't given my family enough credit...