What season IS this

Fifty and raining one day, single digits and snowing the next. Or maybe even the same day. Maybe the sun hat and sandals go well with the snow pants after all.

Butterflies in the garden

Jon says "there's a beautiful butterfly. What's that plant they like so much?"

I say "It's a butterfly bush."

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

"I know it has butterflies on it, what kind of plant is it?"

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

"It's a butterfly bush."

Giant swallowtail

"There's no need to get snippy."

Giant swallowtail

It's a butterfly bush.

Rain and sleet and snow, oh my

And oh bummer. It wasn't even so bad when we went out, bright and early, this morning to go to our library's monthly book sale (the one that Calvin and help set up all month long). It was raining, sure, and we wore warm sweaters under our rain coats, and Calvin wore his rain boots of course, but having not checked the weather report I had no idea that by the time we got home from library, book store, and grocery the rain would be ice, and then snow. I think we'll have to shovel tomorrow.

It's Saturday, and we like to surround ourselves with things that give us joy, so we hit up our book sale early (see Calvin reading under one of the sale tables) and followed that up with a stop at our Borders store.

We like Borders. At one time it was a local business, I even went to school with the Borders children, but clearly it is not that store any longer, and maybe it would be better if it was. We like Borders still because they alone carry our favorite coffee (Seattle's Best), because they give me a 25% off educator's discount on any items I use with Calvin, and because they are always joyfully willing to help me find obscure things, even if they have to order them from obscure places (like a full copy of the Parlement of Foules). Maybe they would do those things for us at Barnes and Noble, too (although I highly doubt it on the discount front), and our favorite book shopping is still at used book stores (we always go for used first when we can), but for whatever reason, and maybe it's the nostalgia token, Borders is our book store.

That's why their recent troubles leave us feeling sad. It's also why, when we see such appalling abuse of book shelf space as that pictured below, we feel deeply distressed. Compare the shelf space in the social studies section taken by Justin Bieber to that given to "world history, K-5" and ask yourself how Justin Bieber can really be that important. I know I did. And just to clarify, there were more of those purple books on a display front overhead. This is social studies today? I never did find the book on Egypt that I wanted.

So I guess it's not hard to figure out why Borders is struggling.

Then we came home, just before the sleet and snow started, had lunch, played with Legos, painted things, watched a video on hippos and rhinos, played some guitar, played some piano, had dinner, painted some more things, read some books, and went to bed. Or at least the (not so) little one went to bed.

There are more things I could say here, but I think one long paragraph is enough for a post. My bit on our new guitar, hootenannies, and my dad's longish hair years will have to wait for another day.

Don't let the dog play the game

Perhaps you've seen the Pigeon books by Mo Willems. The one that I always think of is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. I'm not a fan of the Pigeon books, but that was immediately what came to mind when I saw this series of pictures on the camera today.

Don't let the dog play the game.

Please, please let me play the game?

I'm good at games. Really.

If you let me play the game I promise I'll be good for ever and ever and ever.

Well if you're not going to let me play the game I guess I'll have to go cry in the corner. Boo hoo! ... Have you changed your mind yet?

You didn't let the dog play the game, did you? Phew! Thanks a lot.

And if you're not annoyed yet, then the Pigeon books are probably for you. Personally I think it's adult humor, sarcastic in nature, innapropriately aimed at children. The Piggy and Elephant books (There is a Bird on Your Head!) by the same author is a better series with a similar dry humor, minus the sarcasm. We kind of enjoyed those.

I see what you're doing there.

Earlier in the summer our neighbors around the corner offered us the dinosaur sandbox from their yard that Calvin has been coveting since we moved in and that their children have long since outgrown. They told us to just come by whenever we had time and take it home. A month went by while we hemmed and hawed about how to get the thing, still full of sand, back to our house—it's only half a block, do we carry it? Do we pull it on the wagon? Do we drive? Finally, after putting Calvin to bed one night, we decided to just drive over there, stash it in the back of the van, and drive it home. It was already quite dusky, almost dark, when we pulled up next to their house, opened the trunk, and started shoving the thing in, and that was when another of our neighbors drove by, slowing to a crawl to watch us stealing children's toys in the middle of the night. It's not what it looks like. Really.

We couldn't fit it far enough in to close the trunk, so we actually just backed up the street and around the corner into our driveway, trunk wide open, dinosaur peeking out. Then, after we'd carried it to the backyard and were softly discussing how exactly to settle it in its new home, I looked up at Calvin's window where I expected him to be soundly asleep. Instead, I saw, faintly outlined in the dark, the shape of our son peering quizically out his window at us.

"what are you doing?" I asked
"I'm looking at that sandbox there."
"At what?"
"At that turtle you have there."
"I don't see a turtle, I see a dinosaur."
"At that dinosaur there."
"What dinosaur?"
"That one behind you."
"I don't see a dinosaur."
"Behind you."
"I still don't see a dinosaur." (looking up and all around)
"No, look down. Down and behind you."
"Oh that! Yes, that is a sandbox for you."
"I didn't know that you would be bringing a sandbox tonight."
"No, it was a surprise."
"I like that sandbox."
"Good."

So now we have a dino sandbox, and it even came with a few toys.