THINGS TO DO: Make War with Rubber Bands

"Pling!" Another rubber bands shoots by me. "Plung!" They are flying fast and furious. "Plunk!" A band hits in me in my hip and I must retaliate!

The battle begins with a simple request, "Mom, can I use these?"

I turn around to spot Marek holding a bag of rubber bands that I just recently purchased.

"Of course! Maybe I'll use some too!"

I have never liked guns in my house - even water guns freak me out because a water gun is still a gun pointed at my child. But shooting rubber bands seems like a fairly good compromise between ammunition and waving daisies around a peace banner.

Marek and Oscar are mastering the slingshot technique where the band is mounted on one's thumb and the other hand pulls the band back and releases. They have also developed a technique where they launch the rubber band from the back of a chair.

After hours of practice in my youth, I have favored the one-handed launching technique where the band is wrapped around the thumb and shot from the pointer finger.

The bands don't really hurt when they hit - unless it is in the eye. Our rules are simple: No shooting at the head. Everything else is fair.

Recently I was at a friend's house. She apologized for the profusion of rubber bands around her house. Her son had just received a rubber band launcher made out of wire. And as anyone who has ever had fun with rubber bands knows, the remnants last for days and they are nothing to apologize for. I am still finding rubber bands here.