Owing to unseasonably warm weather, the kidlets have spent the better part of the last week outside, and my brother is already starting to darken. He has the irritating ability to bronze after just a few hours in the sun, a trait that seems to have passed me by completely. I take more after my Scottish ancestors. Last summer, after two weeks in Africa (and a spectacular sunburn in Annapolis preceding the trip) I came home with only a slightly reddish-tinge.

My sister tries to console me: “There’s a genetic disorder that makes some people immune to tanning, you know…I’m serious! I saw it on the Discovery Channel. They just burn and turn white, burn and turn white. They cannot ever tan.” (with special emphasis added to the last three words)

“Shut up, Hannah.”