My kids got me some great Father's Day presents: a singing stuffed oriole, a trick can of saltwater taffy with a jumping shark/snake in it, Taj Mahal(cool!) and Alien Ant Farm (DUDE!) CDs, and Spiderman for Nintendo GameCube. Okay, so maybe that last one was for them, too. But I got them a present that was also for me as well: an Estes ready-to-fly model rocket kit.

This evening, we walked over to the field behind the local elementary school and did four launches.By the last one, we had the attention of most of the kids in the neighborhood–it's kind of hard to miss the”WOOOOOOOOOOSH! Pop!”