The Saga Continues

School's out for summer but I still have to work.  I try to check in with the kids by phone ... almost hourly!

Now each and every time I call home, the main line is busy ... dang voice mail on the first ring again. Then I call the new second line and it's busy too!

Now, in a previous story I discovered that the teens were making oh-so-good use of the second line to make 3-way calling by using the conference button on the two line phone.  I couldn't really complain, as long as nobody wanted to use the computer, this was within the rules aferall!

While at work, I didn't forget about the above possibility. But, knowing how mature the girls are these days, I just knew they were using the two phone lines appropriately.

So ... last week went by basically without a hitch.  Aside from the fact that I never got through when I called!

Today I got home and much to my surprise, no one is on either line!

I am so impressed with my family. I must be doing something right these days!

It's dinner time now. Being the dutiful mom that I am, I begin cooking dinner.

I'm in the middle of dinner now.

True - I sneak on-line for just a minute or two, check my mail, post a couple of articles on the SIGs, answer last minute email, etc., while dinner cooks.

But, I signed off the system and returned to the kitchen to ensure that our meal resembled a teen's idea of a normal.  You see, teens don't eat anything resembling healthy, so I have to be really resourceful and imaginative these days just so that they'll eat dinner at all.

All of a sudden the phone rings.

I answer the kitchen phone and the phone continues to ring.

I'm speaking into the receiver, "hello, hello, do I have anyone on the line?" (tilting my blond head wildly from side to side), while the girls are telling me to go answer the phone by the computer!

I reply, "Wait, that phone can't possibly ring. I NEVER gave you the second line phone number ... you know the rule, it's only for outgoing calls or the computer!"

"But Mom," they say again in their most pompous tones, "Ever hear of Caller ID?

We just called our friend Carlos, and he told us what our new number was!  Now we can receive calls during the day when you're gone!"

The saga continues... Great Ideas Sometimes Backfire

On to ... Phone Line ... Number THREE!