This collection of humor pieces from ten years of newspaper columns shares the highs and lows of the author's life with her husband and four children. Anyone who has been part of a family can empathize with events that only seem funny after enough years have passed to smooth the rough edges. Has the baby ever spit up on your dry-clean-only blouse as you walk out the door to an important meeting? Have you stretched the food dollar until it screams for mercy? Have you ever had to tell your children, "If you call me at work one more time there'd better be blood, or at least a life or death...

Eleven-year-old Cliff's dad was independently wealthy, which enabled him to spend his life exploring time travel. Cliff and his friend, Sam, "borrow" his newly-perfected time machine to experience first-hand something they've studied in school: the trek West on the Oregon Trail. Cliff planned ahead, and thought he'd prepared for everything, but there are still some instances when their ruse is almost exposed. They experience death, fear, hunger, thirst and weariness. They also learn to love the young family that provides shelter in exchange for the boys' help. Extensive research went into...