The problem with babysitting school age kids is that it gets boring. Sure, you have to feed them, check their homework and settle their squabbles over who gets the computer, but other than that -- well -- they're in school! Sunday through Wednesday of this week we were in Asheville looking after our seventeen-year-old granddaughter and eight-year-old grandson while their folks were away. What to do for entertainment?

On the occasion of our fortieth anniversary some time ago, our son who also lives in Asheville gave us two of the comp tickets he'd earned at the Inn at Biltmore to tour the Biltmore House. What a great way to kill a morning! Not only that, but all those steps make it great cardiovascular exercise.

For a fiction writer, it is a treasure of ideas for everything from horror stories, mysteries, romances and humor. Well, I might have been the only one to see humor.

You have to admire the thought that went into building such a house on the cusp of the change from telegraph to telephone, horse and carriage to automobile. The treasures in the house are unbelievable, the conditions in which they are kept and displayed immaculate.

The tour is pricey, but could be well worth it for a writer.