The Back Table

Last Christmas while I was shopping with my family, our youngest daughter Mackenzie decided to spontaneously leap out of her stroller for an afternoon jog through the very crowded mall. At first I stood there in total disbelief at what just happened; it was almost surreal...I mean, even for a two-year-old, who just gets up and starts running for no reason with absolutely no warnings or signs. For a few brief seconds it was silent like in a movie scene where a bomb goes off real close to someone and they can't hear anything and then slowly the volume comes back. Mine came back with my wife's voice asking me what the heck I was doing just standing there looking at an empty stroller. So I start running. Bobbing and weaving, ducking and jumping...I have to admit, it was kind of thrilling. I felt like I was invincible, nothing could stop me or intimidate me. I feared nothing. My goal was recapturing Mackenzie, end of story. I finally did corner her in a store, or so I thought. After

What is the most annoying sound to you? What's the sound that makes you go to a unhappy place? For me, it's my alarm clock. I hate that thing. Don't get me wrong - I need it. I count on it. It saves me every day. It keeps me employed and my kids in school, but the sound that comes out of it is horrid. (The people who make alarm clock noises must really hate life. We all should be praying for them on a daily basis.) Every now and then a company will make the colossal mistake of having an alarm clock go off in one of their commercials. You know; you've seen them. They reenact someone sleeping in bed who can't get up because she didn't take their sleep aid pill. You just know what's coming, yet you don't believe they'll actually do it. But they do - the alarm starts going. Sometimes they let the alarm go for a few seconds...pure torture. I instantly turn it off. I yell at them (to myself), "Do you want people to buy your product or are you sick or