We have a lot of conversation like this. Usually they run along the lines of 'Okay, say an alien species came down and attacked the planet earth and wiped out all power supplies, and your arms had been ripped off and mom was unconscious and it was dark and we needed a candle lit, then could I use your Zippo lighter?'. To which the answer is of course 'No'.

J. is a smart kid, and the ADD is really starting to clear up. His grades are getting better, mostly because we've been blackmailing him into doing his homework. His PC lives in constant fear of the things we have threatened to do to it if he doesn't.

That being said, another 'issue' that we thought had gone away, apparently hasn't.

When R. got home last night she called me out into the garage and while we were smoking she told me that she had two things she wanted to talk about. The first being that she'd discovered where her underwear had been disappearing to again.

"You checked his room? I check it last week and didn't find anything. I even checked K's room in case he'd hidden stuff in there."
"Did you check the pillow cases"
"Damn, I hate being outsmarted by a 15 year old. What made you check there?"
"When I walked into his room the other night he dove across the pillows as if there was something he didn't want me to see."
"So what did you find this time?"
"Well that same black dress as last time, and the Navy one with sparkles, plus hose underwear, and my black turtle neck."
"Maybe he just doesn't have any formal wear"
"..."
"Sorry"
"I don't have a problem with him doing that if he wants to, but just not with my clothes"
"We are talking about cross-dressing here aren't we?"
"What else could it be?"
I thought about that for a moment "Well, maybe he just didn't want to do the laundry. Maybe he's on laundry strike."
"Catpewk, sweetie, he took two of the dresses out of my closest. What's that - a pre-emptive laundry strike?"
"Well maybe he's dressing up the pillow case and um...well..."
"Whatever. I just don't want him doing it with my clothes. I'll buy some for him if he wants me to."
"I don't see that working, somehow. We can't even get him to go grocery shopping with you. Any other ideas?"
"I was thinking of emailing the radio station. Letting them talk about it on the air and see what their listeners think."
I thought about that. The radio station we use for the alarm-clock does that frequently. Someone calls in with a problem and they'd sort it out. To be honest, I'm not optimistic about any solutions from them, but J. listens with us in the morning over breakfast, maybe it will start a dialog. "Well, change his age to 16, and make him a 10th grader. And don't let them say your name on their air."
"Sounds good. what else did you have to tell me? You said there were two things."
"Oh yeah, (R's boss) has invited me over tomorrow to go through her closet for clothes."
"For J???"
"No, you flap for me!"
"You two aren't exatlty the same size. I mean if you need a car cover just let me know."
"She goes through different sizes. Sometimes she's my size."
"Okay, but remember its the Ninth Wave tomorrow night, and we need to clean house."
"No problem"

The last time J. started playing dress up, we didn't talk to him about it last time, just removed the evidence from his room. This time R. left them in the pillows. I asked for opinions, and I'd love to hear some more now. What do you think?

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