Catching up

The visit to Bass Pro Shops: 

• The fish feeding: The fish were not so thrilled with the Knox Gelatin-based squid cubes and the little pellets. They ate those because they only get fed three times a week, I guess. What they really wanted was the live tilapia. This was not a good place to be the little fish, and this was something that is best viewed on a small television via PBS rather than live and in person. 
• The shooting gallery: This involved shooting at targets placed on inanimate objects such as a treasure chest, a whiskey jug, and an outhouse. If you miss, a taxidermied animal might die(?). Twenty-five shots for fifty cents. The eldest of the Adventurers is quite a good shot. Even better than grandpa the snake tormentor. Who would have thought? Grandpa wants a rematch, slingshots being the weapon of choice.
• The taxidermy: This place is the taxidermy capital of the world, maybe. There was this special very large dead elk display. Each dead elk had the story of it's "harvest" posted. The one that is bugging me told the story of how the man had  been watching this bull elk for three years, and he finally got a permit to kill it. So he went out hunting and found it fighting another bull elk and enjoyed watching for ten minutes and then "harvested" it. I hope the meat went to feed someone, but I can't help but wonder why he did it, after enjoying watching this animal for three years. Now he can't watch it any more. I think I will stick with "Take only photographs, leave only footprints." 
  
• The fudge: Yummy, especially Mocha.
• The entertainment value:  Free, except for the fudge, as animal-killing implements weren't tempting me to open my wallet. The kids loved the boats.

The Olympics

• 2008 will be remembered as the year of the cool opening ceremonies, the slippery batons, and the bikini uniforms--maybe just a few more Olympics before the athletes compete the way they did in Ancient Greece. Oh, and have you ordered your Michael Phelps video yet? 
  
• My favorite athletes: Dara Torres, mom, age 41 -two silver medals in swimming; Oxana Chusovitina, mom, age 33- a silver medal on vault, competing against a bunch of little kids; Constantina Tomescu, age 38 -gold in the marathon. 

The Book of the Week: The Jungle Books, by Rudyard Kipling. Maybe I should watch the Disney movie some time. Then again, maybe not. Book is usually much better than the movie

• Baloo on education and discipline:
  

"But think how small he is," said the black panther, who would have spoiled Mowgli if he had had his own way. "How can his little head carry all thy long talk?"

"Is there anything in the jungle too little to be killed?" No. That is why I teach him these things, and that is why I hit him, very softly, when he forgets."

• The Law of the Jungle:
  

"One of the beauties of Jungle Law is that punishment settles all scores. There is no nagging afterwards."

The New Hobby: Grower of orchids. I've tried and tried to kill my other house plants and they just won't die. These certainly are interesting. Very cautiously optimistic. 

Driven to Drink

I went to the doctor today. The grouchy one. But he was downright friendly this time. Maybe because he had good news for me. I am fine. Except for one thing. Apparently I have a drinking problem. A big one. But with an odd twist. I don't drink nearly enough. Now I have to drink as much as I possibly can. Nay, more than I possibly can. 

This could get interesting.

Turns out that Bison are Kosher

The Orthodox Union has declared it so. Zebu are not.

Scamp the dog

For all of you who were following the story of the adventurer who wanted to adopt Scamp the dog and went to great lengths to persuade us, he was adopted by someone else. 

Praise God.

We have enough dogs, don't you think?

Poem of the Day

A VICTORY

The dog will potty on command

If there is a green bean in my hand.

This is a very major feat.

It is a good thing the dog likes beans to eat.

Buzzy Bugs

Cicada are flinging themselves against our kitchen window tonight. Repeatedly. Maybe there are many of them. I am afraid to go outside. I think they are protesting the soup.

Cute dog photo. I need to try hairspray next time.

Craziness

Youngest adventurer had altered the PC passwords to suit himself. Passwords have now been altered to suit his parents. This situation unsettles me. This child is very determined to control his world. His word of the day: "NO!"

School backpack has been weighed. It has no books in it, only the laptop and a couple of small folders. 22.4 lb. Laptop alone is 7.1 lb. This adventurer only weighs in the 60's of pounds. Good thing the backpack rolls. Homework may need to be done downstairs.

I heard the call of the Abert's Towhee in the backyard this evening while waiting for the dogs to finish wandering. I like birds.

Time Machine Scores a Save

One of the kiddos, with misguided enthusiasm, dragged the Word icon out of the folder where it belonged  (well hidden in the depths of the imac hard drive) because said child thought it needed to be on the desktop. Unfortunately, Word only likes to work properly when it is located in it's preferred folder. 

A trip back in Time showed us where Word had lived previous to it's move, and we were able to put it back in it's place, where it works again. Then the re-educated child used Pages to complete her project. All is well.

Coming soon: weight of the school assigned laptop, both with and without it's rolling backpack. We thinks it needs to sign up with Wii Fit. This laptop is definitely not a mac. :-(

Wii Fit Update

Today's info:

BMI:22.73

Weight: sorry I don't share, but I lost a little!

Wii fit age:46. This is up from 34 two days ago. Note to self: don't do Wii Fit after coffee and before breakfast-it does bad things to one's balance. Wii Fit age seems to be all about balance.

Labels assigned: everything from "couch potato" to "professional" and "body builder"

Favorite activities: Yoga: Sun Salutation; Strength: definitely not the Plank; Aerobics: Boxing; Balance: Ski jumping

Time: 40 minutes

She's off

Adventurer has been thrown to the lions at THE ACADEMY. 

We forgot to take the "first day of school" photo.

Traffic Report: 

13 minutes to school

7 minutes home

Sat through four lights to make a left turn.

Will try a new route which avoids that particular left turn tomorrow morning as a comparison. 

Interesting things I have read on the internet lately:

The lady who wants go live a month without plastic.

They have discovered 125000 western lowland gorillas no one knew were there in a swamp in Congo. 

There is rocket fuel in the soil on Mars.

Other notes:

• You can't trim braces wires with nail clippers. We notched a brand new pair of nail clippers on advice from the orthodontist who said we wouldn't need wire cutters. Wire cutters purchased at Buy and Large ended up notched also, but did the job. 
• Adventurer starts school at THE ACADEMY tomorrow. Several of the teachers are very very young. P.E. seems like it might be better than it was when I was in Jr High.
• Will wi fi work upstairs? Adventurer wants to know. We will find out when the school laptop arrives. We should maybe have checked that before the loaner went home. 
• The sunset was pretty tonight. 

The Tooth Fairy does come to hotel rooms

I love my camera

She could have beaten any of the Riordans to the phone

Young pianist trying to decide what in his repetoire he can play perfectly on this Steinway. His feelings afterward: It was hard because it didn't sound the same as our piano, he was with a lot of strangers (he was put on the spot), and he didn't have his music. 

I'll take these bookshelves, thank you.

The closest he may ever get to a Harris Hawk in flight. And it was pretty close!

The tooth fairy does come to hotel rooms. Our hotel was fresh out of the tooth fairy signalling device (think high-powered laser pointer/Bat Signal) but the tooth fairy made it here anyway with cash  for the large molar that Spelunker happily dislodged yesterday.

We have found the hotel room if the home group extraordinaire ever comes to Flagstaff. The sign out front advertised "Martians Welcome." I think we would fit right in. We could bring our extended family as well.

Ate at The Place for breakfast. I have never seen the young pianist eat so much. He ate all of his food and much of mine. 

Interesting fact about Great Horned Owls: They really like to eat skunk. You don't want one living in a tree near your house.

The Odyssey has traversed many a dirt road. Desperately needs a bath and maybe an alignment.

Still, it is a happy car.

It is not going to be so nice to be outside at home. :-(

For people who like trains

I could hardly get the camera out fast enough to catch this while driving on the highway. In spite of hanging out at the Flagstaff train station quite a bit on this trip, this may well be the coolest train photo of the vacation. Both those trains were moving.

Hoodoo, Zebu

Hiking in the shade of Red Mountain Volcano.

Red Mountain volcano can be reached by a one-mile hike (each way) only 30 miles or so northwest of Flagstaff. You have to sign in when you begin your hike so that they know who to rescue in case of emergency. That may have been a first for us. It also involves a short drive on a dirt road. The hike is easy. There were a couple of pretty small children on the trail. The destination was declared "cooler than Wii" by the resident Wii expert on the trail.

Weird lava thingys

A Hoodoo

If one can pet a zebu, might it also be possible to pet a bison?

Today:

Found a geode.

Climbed a Hoodoo

Squished a penny on the train tracks

Learned that tame deer are like large, pushy goats

Met Ginger and Mary Anne (sadly, the younger adventurers could not sing the entire Gilligan's Island theme song)

Had ice cream with fellow travellers

Became tired of hiking