Eclectic Amateur

Finally!

After far too long, and far too many “we should really do something with the families together sometime”s, we actually managed to meet in the real world with Dale and Heather Price and clan.

Plan: meet at the Detroit Zoo. Wander around. Let kids have fun. Try to squeeze in some grownup conversation while we’re at it. Let those of the respective clans who aren’t compulsive bloggers get (re-)acquainted. 🙂

Dale’s version of the outing is here.

I think I’m going to frame the comment about our children being “perfectly well behaved” and pull it out on those days when we need it. As to specific points made:

1) It’s big. I re-learn this every visit. With toddlers, it turns into an exercise in cat-herding.

You know, we did suggest Toledo as a more toddler-friendly destination, but noooo …

(2) Madeleine likes giraffes most of all. Giraffes are waaaaaaaaay toward the back of the zoo. See Toddlers, Tired, supra.

It’s not so much the walk to the back of the zoo as the return trip.

(3) Dale likes peacocks. He’d very much like to catch one. Peacocks do not enjoy being chased by toddlers.

“Dale, watch out! He’s bigger than you!” “And better armed, too!”

(4) Rachel has formed no firm opinion as to a favorite animal as of yet.

Why would Rachel have formed such an opinion? She was having too much fun having new people (big and little) gawking over her and making a fuss.

(5) If jacuzzi jets existed in the wild, seals would never move. True story–we saw a seal in the Arctic Ring of Life exhibit (it’s very cool–you walk under water and can see the critters through plexiglass) swimming with its head two feet in front of the water circulator. Watching its face blubber flap in the current was one of the highlights of the day.

Agreed. Seal was Way Cool™. Maybe that was its attempt at Botox?

(6) Gorillas are cooler than chimps. The latter had stagefright and/or narcolepsy. The silverbacks were ready for primetime. One of them strode up to the viewing window, extended its massive arms to either side of the glass frame, and looked straight in at us. It then purposefully gamboled off, as if to say, “That’ll give ’em a thrill.”

Um … that weren’t no silverback. That was one of the juveniles. The silverback is about twice that size. The keeper told me that one was about 8 or nine years old, and so the equivalent of a teenager.

(7) I’m getting older. I was in bed by 9:30.

Heh.

Thursday night I was OK, but spent Friday and Saturday struggling with The Headache That Wouldn’t Die™ and a complete lack of energy. Wondered if I was getting sick or if I was finally succumbing to allergies. It even crossed my addled mind that this almost felt as bad as that time I had to drastically reduce my caffeine intake all at once and suffered withdrawal.

Sunday morning, I discovered that I had made a terrible stocking error in the kitchen and filled the regular tea backet with decaf.

Did I mention that Nancy was out of town for a homeschooling convention this whole time?

Amazingly, the house did not burn down, and the trains (i.e., sports practices, etc.) even sort of ran on time during Management’s absence. And I’m now back on my regular maintanance dose, thankyouverymuch.

Back to the zoo trip: blog readers may not believe this, but when the Eclectic One™ and the Dyspeptic One™ were together, there was hardly any mention of regular blog topics like liturgical and theological goofiness in our respective churches. In fact, I think the only blog topic we covered was my new-found fannishness for S. M. Stirling, which is entirely his fault. And Dale just had to mention that the lastest sample chapter of The Protector’s War was online, the b******.