As we all know, life is full of lessons to be learned. I was reminded of a couple lessons tonight as I picked up my phone to give someone a call...

Don't let your kid use your cell phone at ANY age!

and...

Keep written records!

My fancy-smancy European Sony Ericsson Walkman 980 phone can transmit an FM signal for listening to mp3s I have stored on the phone via my car radio. Nice, huh? On this phone I have a playlist of songs that my daughter and I enjoy listening to in the car. At age 7, my daughter Austins' intellect amazes me. It's funny how the way we communicate with our offspring changes in just a few SHORT years. Anyhow, I took her through the steps of setting the FM station and watched her start the playlist a couple times, so I felt comfortable allowing her to do it unsupervised as I navigated through the masses of Sunday idiots on the Bush tollway on our way to her mothers. I thought nothing of it as we bobbed our heads to such classic tunes as Jack White's "We are gonna be friends" of the movie Napoleon Dynamite and Marty Robbins "Hangin' Tree". On the ride back to my place, I picked up the phone and noticed only 15 numbers of the near 60 contacts I had saved in my phonebook remained.

...Good thing I wrote most of them down a couple months ago. SO.... if I haven't talked to you or you've changed your number in the last couple months, there's a good chance I don't have your number. Send it to me and I shall write it down.

Happy Halloween/Fall Festival to you all.