On parenting and golf

I love my parents. My father is intelligent, calm and collected. My mother is smart, kind, and tenacious. Both of them are very loving. In the Finnish way. They are also encouraging in the Finnish way.

Sage advice from my father while golfing yesterday:

"Hitting the ball is quite essential in golf."

"You should not hit the ball into the woods. They are harder to locate there."

"You should have aimed less towards the left than I told you to. Then it would have gone straight."

"You should try to see where the ball lands, then it will be easier to find."

"You should yell FORE! when you hit the ball towards me."

"You should avoid hitting people with the ball... or with the club."

"Sometimes it is hard to get out of a bunker, just keep hitting out the sand. Maybe the ball will come out with it."

Upon returning from successfully completing my fourth round of 18 holes, my mother finally concedes:

"So you might just be able to play after all."

Thanks guys!

The bad daughter repents

An SMS exchange with my father (since I don't actually have my mom's phone number - I'm a horrible daughter. Old news. We're Finnish - deal) on Sunday 3rd May 2009 at 11:24PM Finnish time:

The Bad Daughter:  Hope you are well! In case it's Mothers' day today a bunch of hugs to mom, if it's not then when exactly is it?

Father who was woken up by the SMS because he normally goes to bed around 10PM and who has never thoroughly embraced the SMS functionality on his phone: In a week.

The Bad Daughter: Good Night

The Father who was once, years ago, woken up by a frantic overseas phone call from his daughter concerning a certain elusive PIN code to a Visa card and a motel bill that needed to be settled right a way, to which he accidentally answered with the wrong number and then spent the next half an hour pacing the hallway waiting for his daughter to call back from the pay phone somewhere in Downtown Denver: Good Night

And we haven't even touched upon the subject of the daughter's travels onboard a greyhound bus, thrice across the American continent when she was just of age.

Any mothers' or fathers' day gift ideas?