Some of the highlights are the two older sisters who find their Siamese cat, Sam in the strangle-hold of a boa constrictor that apparently slithered from the neighbor's bathroom through the toilet into their bathroom.

There are also stories about being a landlord. For example, at one point there was a mouse problem in the apartment building they owned. Her solution? Buy a cat. The only problem was the cat didn't kill the mice. The cat eventually found a home with a neighbor, and an exterminator dealt with the mice.

The essays are light, and there's clearly the sensibility of someone who's been there, done that, gotten the t-shirt, burned the t-shirt, and now has grown children who are learning the ropes.

But with everything from trying to figure out how to put gas in the new car to missing the sighting of the whales because of acute sea sickness, it is also clear that the author has learned to laugh at herself.