Boy #2 is currently grounded  for having a horribly bad attitude and thinking that he can yell and scream at me as if he were my ex-husband. He’s done nothing but complain about the fact that he is grounded and Boy #1 is not. You know the typical sibling and teenager strife. However, Boy #2 is an evil genius at times. His latest attempt to “set-up” Boy #1 has me fuming.

First a bit of background… I am incredibly particular about how I do laundry and what goes into my washing machine and dryer. I check pockets, especially Boy #1’s and Bonus Boy’s as they tend to leave pencils and pens and school papers. Also, after every load comes out of the washing machine I check the tub thoroughly for anything that I might of missed. It’s my OCD, I check the tub AGAIN before starting a new load of laundry.

This afternoon after sorting out a load of towels and making sure the tub was free and clear and starting the load, I happily walked away. At some point during the washing of that load of towels, Boy #2 got the brilliant idea of setting up Boy #2 by tossing in a usb-thumb-drive and a black permanent marker in the washing machine. The only thing that saved him was that the cap stayed firmly on the marker. Time will tell if the thumb-drive has survived. And of course he’s playing the Shaggy routine; screaming, “It wasn’t me!” But you see, Boy #1 wasn’t home, Bonus Boy and Baby Boy were at the computers for free time (which Boy #2 is grounded from after pulling an all nighter Friday night on MySpace and YouTube). He was the only one with a motive and access to the marker and the thumb-drive. Of course then he tried the “Mom is Crazy” routine and of course I had to have put them in the washing machine along with the towels when I loaded the machine. Um. No. Not in this lifetime. Dig a deeper hole.

And they think parents are the enemy?