Boys' Treasures

Boys, I am discovering, love to collect things. Girls probably do too though I imagine that they collect things which are shinier and, as a general rule, smell better. But I'm not raising girls.

I am doing laundry this morning and that is when I find most of the collections. Sometimes, if I've mistakenly assumed that they've emptied their pockets, I find them at the bottom of the washer. Almost every weekend I narrowly escape clothing disaster just by pure luck of the laundry gods. There is no reason why a jagged piece of glass just managed to stay at the bottom of the washer without first slashing through my favorite Gap peasant blouse. I used to separate my clothes from the boys' clothes but then I got lazy and California decided to have a water shortage so now I combine them and go through the pockets as diligently as possible. Still, in the first load of the day I found 2 dimes and a key. I'm thrilled about the 2 dimes because kids are expensive and I can use every cent I find. The key is a mystery. It is not a standard key and I have no idea to what lock it opens. I checked the pockets but somehow missed these little treasures. I did find 2 bakugan balls, some sand encrusted legos, some sort of miniature circuit thingy and the clip of a pen. Then I went for the backpacks. Dean's contained nothing of note: a couple of books, his Dodger monkey and a few rocks. Jack's on the other hand, contained a packet of marigold seeds, a rusty screw and a roll of industrial tape. Hmmmm, what is he plotting?