A HORNBLOWER BLOWS IT

The resident teenage musician has been saddled with a kiddie-quality starter trumpet for more than three years. Substandard! A big competition was coming up.

So Mom caved, and took her to the music store to buy a new one. It's pro quality! It's shiny! The grin that spread over her face after playing the first few notes was all I needed to see.

So, though I winced at the price, I quickly wrote the check. Maddy took hold of the beautiful new trumpet in its beautiful case, and we whirled around to the car to rush home so she could play it to her heart's content.

All the way home, we laughed and talked . . . 'til we got to the garage, and realized we had left Maddy's coat at the music store! Not only that, but her precious PHONE was in the pocket!

At 14, she's all about the Three T's: Trumpet, Tennis and Texting. So, embarrassed, we rushed back.

"Happens all the time," the nice music guy said. "At Christmastime, a dad was so excited about his son's new trombone that he raced out and got all the way home before he realized that he had left the trombone here at the store . . . along with his credit card!"

Hey! Not to . . . blow my own horn. But at least I got THAT part right!