M is Just Going to Have to Learn Japanese

What parent hasn't found cryptic ways of communicating secrets with other adults in front of their kids?

First, M and I could just use big enough words that they went over Claire's head.  Considering Claire's vocabulary, I think it's a testament to our sesquipedalian tendencies that we lasted as long as we did just doing that, if I do say so myself.

Then we started spelling key words out.  Yah, that didn't last long.  Lately one of Claire's favorite games and/or stall tactics is to converse by spelling her sentences out.  She and I will go back and forth five or six times just spelling out what we want to say to each other.  Whatever keeps 'em occupied, right?  It's better than listening to her chew out Scott.

So now M and I have to speak Spanish to each other.

Any bets on how long until she's bilingual?

Normal is in the Eyes of the Beholder

Things have been pretty cold lately for these parts, so my glove collection from spending seven consecutive winters in Utah has been logging a lot of miles.  (Notice I avoided saying I actually lived in Utah... I think this is justified since I left every summer but one.  I just got to be there for the cold parts.  Whose idea was that anyhow???) I have a pair of gloves that I only get to wear in December for the Christmas season, so I'm trying to wear them the most often while I still can.  Every time I wear them, I laugh a little.  Partly because they're just fabulously cheesy, and partly because it makes me think of my friends in college who would never let me live down the time I referred to them as some of my "normal gloves":

But in my defense, they are more normal than the snow gloves I had for snowboarding (from a utilitarian perspective).  And in general, they are A LOT more normal than these babies:

I'm Going With Tungsten

So since we've been discussing my toxic fingers...

Anyone have any advice on how to handle computer keyboards whose letters wear off?  It doesn't matter much for me and M since we know how to type, but it's a bit rough on poor Scott when he's trying to play alphabet games on PBS kids.

For awhile we had a standard off-white keyboard with black letters.  I wore the markings off it.  We didn't care until we felt bad for Claire when she was using it and couldn't find the letter she needed.  Not to mention the fact that my dad would come to visit and whine to no end about it.  (He's more of a "seek and ye shall find" kind of typist.)

So when we built a new computer a little over a year ago we bought a nice black keyboard to match our new case.  Within a couple of months the letters started to wear off that one too.  It's now so bad that about half the keys show only half a letter.  Scott can't really identify the letters.  And I keep asking M why we bothered getting a new keyboard?  At least with the old one we could have just used a Sharpie to write the letters back on.  Classy, no?

Lame plastic covers?  Expensive laser projected keyboards?  I've seen a lot of possibilities, but nothing cheap and elegant.  Can anyone think of a solution that doesn't involve exorbitant cost or hideousness?
 
For now I'm leaning toward white nail polish and a little polyurethane.