One of the great parenting aids I have access to is our local neighborhood parents email list. Every day you can find messages from parents offering something or looking for something. I have utilized this list multiples times in the past for information at least one of the following topics:

1) How do you remove bullets from a sleeping child?

2) Where's a good place to go for swim lessons?

3) Is JOGGING with scissors ok?

And answers magically appear within minutes. God bless the Internet. And the children.

Anyway, an invitation came through the email list a couple weeks ago inviting girls to join a book club that was looking for new members. I snickered at the offer just long enough to realize, "Jesus, Daisy would love this kind of crap."

Sure enough, Daisy was delighted by the idea, so yesterday she went to her very first book club meeting, where about ten 9 year-old girls sat around drinking tea, discussing the book of the month, and giggling about things that are definitively unfunny.

Don't get me wrong, I love books. I was a voracious reader as a kid, and although I spend less time reading these days, I still cherish my moments with a good book, of which there are several on my night table at all times. It just never occurred to me to sit around with a bunch of other people discussing the books. "So, uh, Clyde, did you like the part where they slingshotted around the sun to go back in time to shoot the aliens in the nuts? ME TOO!"

I know several adult women who belong to book clubs, but I figured it was really just an excuse to sit around and drink wine. I'm pretty sure the 9 year-olds were just drinking tea, albeit tea with a lot of sugar in it. So, is this a gender thing?

Or is it a pretentious San Francisco thing? And, can I start a Battlestar Galactica club? That's what I really need to discuss. Bafflestar Galactica.