The Zoo: Elephants, Tigers and Kangaroos!

I went to the zoo today for the umpteenth time with my second son. Number 2 enjoyed himself in a grand fashion. I'm still undecided as to which he enjoyed more - the zoo or the ride to and from with his buddies! All the way there, those three four year old children laughed, yelled, screamed, cried, talked, screamed, touched, slapped, picked, screamed, asked questions (1,000,000 questions), told stories, screamed, pretended to be animals, talked, screamed (did I mention SCREAMED?)!!!!! In short, they had a wonderful time enroute to the zoo.

Once we arrived, we proceeded to visit the different animals. We found the Grizzly bears out and about even though they were a bit thin. We did see one sea lion where there are normally six or eight or so. We saw myriads of birds and snakes and the like. The gorillas would not come out to play so we didn't see not one gorilla. For that matter, I didn't see any tigers, hippo's, rhino's (I don't think they have one), one snake that was very well camoflauged, or very many monkeys. In fact, the monkeys were few in number and very quiet compared to other visits. The lion was asleep, the Baboons were more intent on "cleaning" one another than doing anything spectacular, the flamingos stunk and the meerkats were fun. All in all, we had a very nice day at the zoo even though I didn't get to see some of the animals I wanted to see and even though some that I saw were kind of mellowed out. Then we headed home.

All the way home, those three four year old children laughed, yelled, screamed, cried, talked, screamed, touched, slapped, picked, screamed, asked questions (1,000,000 questions), told stories, screamed, pretended to be animals, talked, screamed (did I mentioned SCREAMED?)!!!!! In short, they had a wonderful time on the way to the house! In truth, so did I and the other two dads who were with me. I'm not sure if they have come to understand what I now know to be true or if they already knew it and were waiting on me to catch up - namely, anytime a class of four year old children goes to the zoo, it's really more like the zoo comes to the see the animals.........

Thanks teachers for all you do to teach our children on a daily basis!

Of People and Pigs

This past weekend I set out to accomplish one of the oldest and most noble of culinary traditions, namely, cookin' a hog. In the modern era this centuries old practice has been modified and enhanced with propane bottles, heat measuring devices, state of the art grills and more, but I, alas, am one who believes in the old ways - those time tested and mother-approved ways. I like to cook a hog with wood coals over the span of about 12 hours. Let me share with you, then, my hog-cookin' odessy.
It all started with a desire to serve some of the finest people in our church family - the senior adults. Each month those over 60 congregate for fellowship, food and fun and let me tell you they have all three in abundance every month. I absolutely mope around for days if I don't get to attend their monthly meetings. So....this month was the designated time for me to do something special for those special people. What could be more special than a slow-cooked hog bursting with flavor and fat for the discerning BBQ connoisseur? At roughly midnight on the night before the celebration, my friend and I started the fire to offer our burnt offering for the Lord. At approximately 1am the wind began to disperse our fire on the ground, the roof of the church and the soft shell of the camper we were supposed to nap in. Needless to say, we drowned the fire with the water hose and at 1:30am found ourselves standing around a cold fire barrel with 70lbs of cold pork.
Anyway...the short version of the story is that we get the pig cooked and the time for eating arrives. I honestly did not know that Senior Adults could eat that much! For that matter, I didn't know that children and other aged adults could eat that much. We consumed that hog with a vengeance. Now it was good. It was flavored just right and sauced just right and it ate just right. We were happier than a pig in slop! If you ever want to learn a lot about somebody, watch 'em eat! I learned that there is more in common between people and pigs than I ever knew.......