The Next Chapter in the Book . . .: Chapter 313

Happy National Catfish month!

Last week while we were on vacation we had some trouble with the Jaguar. Although we managed to handle the problem quickly and cheaply, we were left with another problem. The underside of the car was totally covered with oil and needed to be washed. Since we needed to raise the car up but didn't want to make a huge mess out of the garage, we decided to lift it in the driveway. Bob backed onto wheel ramps,

and put a slide under the car so Bob could get under there. After spraying cleaner on it with our garden sprayer he rinsed it off. Now it's good as new.

Carissa gave me a couple of white zucchini squash so I roasted one on the BBQ. I ate half and made dip out of the other half. It had the best roastie flavor ever. The leftover dip went into my pot of soup that I'm making for my school lunches. Yum.

Monday Carissa, Reagan and I met Chelsea and JoAnn out at their cabin on Lake Nahwatzel down near Shelton. It was a bit cool so we didn't do a lot of water activities but Reagan suited up and played on the beach anyway. "You either need to help me dig in the sand or leave!"

She played in the water for a bit.

Reagan thought the water was fine, however, she was not so sure about this Big Red Terror Machine.

Once back in the water, all was good with the world again. Everyone had a great time and our visit was over too soon.

Meanwhile back at school...Some architect somewhere decided we should remove our sturdy old metal roll up shop door at school and replace it with a display case front so the bad guys can pre-shop before they break in. I do enjoy the extra light that it lets into the shop. We also get the benefit of being to keep an eye on our neighbors, the Blue Dunkers.

While Mary Lou and I were walking through Poulsbo before our sewing class, we noticed this wire greyhound and I though of Kyanne and her House of Hounds.

After my sewing class, I went up to the Walkers so I could watch Reagan the next day. Of course Reagan is always cute, but she can really rock a pair of llama jammies.

After Chris got home from work Wednesday, he and Reagan walked down to the road to get the mail. Reagan is currently into her little owl backpack so asked to have it on before they embarked on their journey.

Reagan waited patiently while Chris loaded the mail into her backpack.

Then they headed back to the house with their mail. You know how toddlers are with routine. She'll probably never want to go get the mail again without her backpack.

Yesterday we went to help Carissa and Chris on a project and we were supposed to finish up with a trip to the zoo. As it turned out it was raining buckets so we went to the "indoor zoo" instead. Bass Pro Shop. They had lots of real, at least they used to be, animals, fish, foliage, trees, nature stuff, you know, everywhere in the store. The front entry looked like a fishing lodge. I remember going to see the Bass Pro Shop in Oklahoma City with my parents and it kept us entertained for several hours. Imagine how amazing it must be for a toddler.

Look at all the taxidermy in here. As Grama Book always said "I'd hate to be the one to have to dust that!"

We went to the Bass Pro Shop's Fish Bowl for lunch since we figured it would keep Reagan entertained.

If it didn't keep Reagan entertained, it sure kept me entertained. Look at the room we were eating in with the giant shark and the diver in the shark tank.

We were seated "pretty close" to the men's room so each time the door opened, I'd see a huge octopus painted on the wall. Reagan enjoyed her placemat while she waited for her food.

This is one of the murals in the women's restroom.

While we waited for our table we watched people bowl in this cool undersea bowling alley. Look at the ball return stations! The balls were just as fun.

One of the animal vignettes at the store.

I'm pretty sure this isn't a taxidermied whale but it sure looked real.

Between the murals and the wildlife mounts you really felt like you were on an adventure.

At the very end of this picture is a huge aquarium. As usual, Reagan loved looking at the native fish.

The fish were being fed while we were there and were very attentive to the fish wrangler located at the top left of the picture. BTW, that's a real person, not a taxidermied one.