The last few nights I've been reading "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" to the kids for a bed-time story. I've read the whole series before; I read the Half-Blood Prince in one long sitting on the night it first came out. But this is the first time for the girls, who are finally just old enough for it. When we read chapter books together I'm usually as eager to know what's going to happen as they are. But since I've read this one before, I'm immune from the suspense.

So I'm discovering one of the simple pleasures of parenthood -- torturing your children by closing the book at just the right moment, when the tension can be cut with a knife: "Harry raised his wand and .... Goodness me, is that the time? You should be asleep now! We'll finish this chapter tomorrow night."

"DAAAAD!"