Someday I will learn to put some thought into the toys I buy for myself The Husband The Boy.

For instance, I just bought an Uruk-Hai Nerf crossbow.

Is it cool?

Yeah, it's way cool, despite the fact that we are unable to get the attractive Nerf arrows to shoot further than 9 feet (the box claims they can go up to 30 feet). The problem seems to be the fact that Nerf arrows leave a great deal to be desired in terms of basic aerodynamics. They have no balance at all, and have a tendency to reverse in midflight because the "tip" is heavier.

The fact that small boys (ages 3 and up) might actually want to shoot a Nerf arrow 30 feet helped place the set on WATCH's top ten list of 2005's worst possible toys. It is suggested that you give a child a box of scorpions, rather than these toys (we own three of them).

The first thing The Boy did was deliberately shoot himself to see if it would hurt.

He shot me while I was reading the various warnings to him.

I agreed that perhaps the warnings were a bit hysterical, and that the only way I could see that he could possibly put out an eye would be if he was carrying it while running with a shishkebob at eye level.

Naturally, we found a mod.

I'll let you know how it works out.