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Our four year old loves to play chess. Yes, you heard us right...four. Is he some kind of prodigy? Nope. Don't get us wrong...our son is definitely very bright, and we claim our bragging rights as often as we can (doesn't every parent?). But, we don't think that Mensa is quite ready to extend an invitation to him yet. We do, however, give the folks at Winning Moves complete credit for our son's love of the classic strategic game with their wonderful edition of No Stress Chess.

Okay, so we are quite a few weeks into summer vacation, and we've noticed that we're filling out our bathing suits much more than we expected. Somehow, our plans for getting into better shape have fallen by the wayside. What's going on here? Well, though we are not ones to make excuses (yeah, who are we kidding?), we do have several explanations. The kids are home, so we're finding ourselves parked at fast food restaurants more often than not (hey, we're on vacation too). It's been hotter than...well, you know. And, if we're not suffering in the blistering heat, we're getting drenched in the rain and chased by a flock of mosquitoes. Who wants to exercise outside in that? Of course, the heat naturally brings on our cravings for the sweet stuff, so the kids are eating ice cream almost every day...we can't let them eat alone now, can we? Wouldn't it be nice if we had a way to get into shape without the extra effort?

The Daily Kool's beloved pooch Pepper, has just turned 9 years old...wow, time is definitely flying by quickly. Though he still acts like a puppy much of the time, we have noticed that things are slowing down just a little bit for him. The vet has told us his hips are beginning to weaken, as is often common for a standard poodle of his age. Plus, we've seen the extra hesitation when he jumps in the car, on the couch, and especially on the bed...yep, it's definitely time to get Pepper a pet ramp.

Last week was a miserable time to fly to the westcoast...trust us, we were there. The weather was severe enough to cause several flight redirects, delays and cancellations. There were babies crying, kids screaming and adults complaining everywhere we turned...at the airport and on the plane. And did we mention the turbulence? We were all shaking in our seats...literally. All in all, it was a frustrating, exhausting and noisy experience for those of us traveling.

Sunday, our two boys decided to surprise us with a delicious breakfast in bed...a bowl of cereal is the extent of their culinary talents. As we were listening to them bustle about downstairs (yes, we know everything that goes on in our house), we had a debate as to who would spill milk all over the floor...yep, it was the seven year old! Poor things...they were so upset! Independence is always so important to little ones, but let's face it...those gallon jugs of milk are heavy! After we dried the kids tears and cleaned up the mess, we all sat down together for a family discussion...the thought was wonderful, but maybe next time they should surprise just one of us and recruit the other to help. Milk containers are just not designed with kids in mind.

When we were kids, our older brother hated taking aspirin. Okay, perhaps we're really showing our age here, but these were the days before children's Tylenol liquid suspension and when Dimetapp cough syrup (we remember it as the yummy grape medicine) was by prescription only. Our poor mother could only get our brother to take a pill by crushing it in applesauce and spoon-feeding him. Considering the torture he put us through growing up, it was a great pleasure to have a reason to call big brother a "baby" at times...na nanny boo boo! Our poor pets don't have it as easy as our brother did when it comes to taking medication. Whenever our dog Pepper has to take a pill, we literally pry his mouth open, shove it to the back of his throat, clamp his jaw shut and rub until he swallows. Don't get us wrong, Pepper's pretty good about taking them (certainly better than our brother was), but why should we have to struggle at all? Isn't there a way to let him think his medication is more reward than punishment?