My son named the biggest spider on the upstairs window Shelia, and loved her. When I cleared the webs, his sister cheerfully announced that Dad killed all the spiders, and he cried for days. "Shelia" is back, and this year I am handling it while the kids, the informant especially, are far away.

I am not a marriage counselor, but I have a proposal. Any couple weighing divorce should sit through what I watched today: hours of two parents bickering over a five versus six o'clock handoff, until the judge scolded them both for acting like children. Most would go home and work it out.