A job Laura would love

The New York Times has a story here about the guy who cleans the coins out of the fountains at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It also speculates about why people throw them in in the first place. Add one possibility: Their small children insist on it. That's why we do it.

Thanks, Long John Silver's guy

I've never liked McDonald's, and I've spent a lot of time mocking my sisters' strange fixation with Taco Bell (they've moved on, thank goodness). I've always considered fast food establishment employees to be particularly inept.
So I was somewhat happy today to find myself at Long John Silver's. OK, so the food is incredibly unhealthy. But Kevin wanted chicken planks, so I stopped there on the way home from a friend's house.
Shock of shocks: Not only was the guy behind the register nice and friendly and helpful, he also had well-groomed fingernails. And he wasn't screaming at the employees in the back who were doing the cooking.
Maybe the other places could send their employees there for lessons or something.

In defense of spiders

I grew up in a pro-spider family. If there was one in the house, my mom would catch it in a jar and set it free outside. The only ones that ever got squished were black widows, and I don't remember ever finding one of those in the house.
Such unusual practices involving spiders came to mind today when Laura informed me there was a spider in her bed. I went to look for it and couldn't find it. I told her we'd look again later -- and that if we found it we could put it outside.
Her response:
"Or we could find something hard and smash it with it!"

When Tyrannosauruses attack

Doesn't it look like this T. rex is going after that guy's head? I didn't realize it when I was taking the picture.
Today Laura and I went to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. It's not as impressive as the American Museum of Natural History in New York, but they have a decent dinosaur collection, as well as a pretty good hall of mammals. Oh, and a few gift shops. At least my contributing membership to the Smithsonian is getting some use, and I'm contributing plenty, I assure you.
And especially for Kathye Thomas, one of my co-workers in Denver, I tracked down a hippopotamus. They're a lot easier to photograph this way than at the zoo.

Cute movie

We went to see Nancy Drew this afternoon, and I thought it was pretty good. Predictable? Yes. Cheesy? Yes. Believable? Heck no. But overall it was wholesome and modest and be-true-to-yourself-ish.
And even though my overanalyzation of movies and television shows tends to drive Kevin crazy, I'm going to point out the lack of parental supervision in the movie. But at least the girl's responsible and everything.

Interesting statements made by Laura in the past three minutes

1. I poked myself in the eyeball once.
2. I think Dad totaled the car.
(I doubt the truth of either one, but you never know.)

More fun with books

First, the background: Years ago, someone sent my brother Heath a book called Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. I'd ask whether any of my siblings remember it, but Laurie's the only one who ever reads this, and even she's out of commission having a baby any day now.
So, we all really liked the book. More that whatever books Nicole and I got at the same time, as I recall. So when I was in college, I got myself a copy of it. (Heath's was long gone and it was out of print, but the BYU Bookstore tracked it down for me.)
So now it's one of Laura's favorite books, even on nights I refuse to read the whole thing before bed. Finding Goldbug on each page is great fun. And the illustrations are the best, particularly the interesting vehicles. Carrotcar, anyone?

Oh, Ikea, how I've missed you

We didn't have Ikea in Denver, and I'd forgotten how much I like going there. We've never bought anything substantial there, but it's fun to go in and look around. We did that at Potomac Mills on Saturday, and we got Laura a wooden train set. Now we're talking about getting more track so it can go in more than a figure eight. Whether we'll ever get around to that is anyone's guess, but she'll need something to entertain herself when we're in Port of Spain trying to avoid exposure to yellow fever.

The joys of unaccompanied air baggage

Everyone in the Foreign Service gets two shipments -- unaccompanied air baggage and household effects. HHE goes directly into storage when you come to Washington, but UAB arrives not long after you do. Ours arrived last week, although there wasn't much in it that we really need. Our 600-pound allotment included things such as our winter clothes because we didn't know how long we'd be here. Obviously we won't be needing those things either here or in Trinidad, so they'll be going into storage when we leave for post.

Laura's favorite part of the shipment was the crates. There were six, and they were huge and made of heavy-duty, double-ply cardboard. (Regular moving boxes were packed inside them.) I hated to throw them away, but reusing them isn't allowed. I did keep one for Laura to use as a clubhouse, though.
And we thought the shipping information on the outside of each one was kind of funny. "Effects of" just doesn't sound right.

It's all about the mirrors

The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles reopened today after three years of extensive renovations. Some of the mirrors were replaced, but many of them are original (from the time of the Louises). Versailles as a whole is pretty impressive -- that was the whole point in building it -- but the hall is the highlight, at least indoors.

Sorry, Nicole, Heath, Laurie, Daniel, Thomas, Amanda, Katie, Jennifer, Courtney and Carolina ...

but there now is scientific evidence I'm smarter than all of you.
The San Francisco Chronicle's version of the story is here.

Maybe we're learning a (fake) language after all

Laura seems to have invented a language. Or at least she thinks she has. I have a habit of trying to talk in the middle of yawning (usually when I'm reading a book to her before bed), and she says that language is Yawndish.
Another product of an active imagination.

We need one of these at home

We went to Colonial Williamsburg over the weekend and discovered a way to keep Laura under control. Unfortunately, these aren't offered for sale there.
It was a fun trip overall, but we thought the Williamsburg sites would have been better if they were more interactive and less commercial. And we missed out on Jamestown and Yorktown thanks to a very obnoxious ticket saleswoman.

An addition to our technological family

Laura and I got Kevin a PlayStation 3 for Father's Day. I figured it was safe to do it now since Trinidad has the same electrical system as the United States. Thank goodness we don't have to worry about such issues as the Zambian power grid -- just getting diplomatic passports and immunizations for yellow fever.

It's officially official

Kevin's a Foreign Service officer. The swearing in was Friday. The highlight for Laura was getting to go to the Foggy Bottom stop on the Metro, which is the one closest to the main State Department building. (She apparently really likes the name.)

I've seen the future, and it contains macaroni and cheese

Our across-the-hall neighbors apparently are getting ready to leave for post because packers were in their apartment (and the hall in front of ours) all day today. Among the things I saw getting packed: boxes and boxes of diapers and other baby supplies, as well as Honey Nut Cheerios. (Kevin saw packing boxes labeled as Quaker Oats.)
For months, we've joked we might have to buy cases of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese -- actually Easy Mac -- to ship to post to make sure there's something there Laura will eat. I guess we're rapidly approaching the point we really have to make a decision on that.

I've got to get me one of these

One of my favorite paintings always has been Monet's Artist’s Garden at Vetheuil. We went to the National Gallery of Art on Monday, and there it was. So of course I took a photo. They also have some lovely reproductions of it for sale if anyone's looking to buy me a moving-to-Trinidad gift.
You'll notice in Laura's Book Nook down the right side of this page that one of her favorite books is You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum. She also enjoys You Can't Take a Balloon into the National Gallery. But I didn't see any No Balloons signs posted, so I don't know whether that's really true.

Cute video of the day

I'd never heard of African bat-eared foxes until this morning, but ABC News has a cool video here of some cute baby ones at the San Diego Zoo.

What a giant baby panda!

We went to the National Zoo on Saturday, and, as you may have heard, there's a baby panda there. He's not really a baby anymore -- I think he's around 2 -- but they're still milking the situation for all it's worth, marketingwise, so I figure it's OK to call him a baby.
As you can see, this photo has problems. Such problems are created by hundreds of people -- including the small child whose reflection you can see -- crowding around a glass enclosure midafternoon to get a glimpse of Tai Shan.
You can see better pictures of him here. There's a PandaCam, too, if you're interested.
So, we'll take anyone who comes to visit to see the giant pandas if they're interested. At least the National Zoo is free, unlike our little family's other favored zoos in Denver and Houston.
Added later: An album of our zoo photos.

What does this have to do with U.S. history?

Yesterday Kevin finished class/work early (what Laura calls an early release day), so we went to the National Air and Space Museum. The Museum of American History is being renovated, so the Air and Space Museum is housing the Treasures of American History exhibit.
Some kid behind us was pestering his mom about what in the world the Wizard of Oz had to do with American history, but I thought it was cool to see. (He wasn't behind us by the time we got to the Star Wars section, so I don't know whether he considered that to be more appropriate exhibit material.)
Later, there's a sunstone from the original Nauvoo Temple.

More on flag day

It's not the national holiday but the announcement of which posts the new Foreign Service officers are getting. They each get a little flag -- Laura's favorite part -- and have to act like they're excited about their assignment whether or not they really are.
The audience seats weren't well situated for picture taking -- there is an official photographer, after all -- but I did my best.

Cricket, anyone?

Yesterday we learned that our first Foreign Service post will be the U.S. Embassy in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. (That's off the coast of Venezuela for anyone who needs to locate it on a map.)
Kevin had it on his "high" list but, admittedly, we hadn't given it a whole lot of thought in favor of places like Guayaquil, Chennai, Singapore and Guangzhou. But that's not true anymore since we're leaving in September.
In other words, anyone who wants to come visit us in Washington should hurry up and come!

Are we there yet?

Laura and I just finished Day 2 of our three-day drive to our new life in Washington, D.C. (Kevin's already there.) Among the highlights:

"Are we in Missouri yet?" She asked this as we drove on the ramp from C-470 to Interstate 25 -- yep, a grand total of 13.5 miles from our house. "Not unless Missouri's moved," I said. Heck, we hadn't even crossed into Denver County at that point.

"This looks just like Colorado." Her response to my announcement that we'd entered Kansas. (To her credit, eastern Colorado and Kansas do look remarkably similar.)

"Do they speak English here?" What she asked when I informed her we weren't in Illinois anymore but Indiana.

Another graduation

Laura finished kindergarten today. Tonight there was a ceremony. Her teacher asked each child what they want to be when they grow up. Laura said she wants to be a math tutor.
That's her on the second row from the top, second from the left. Alexis is on the bottom row, first on the left. The identity of the head in the foreground remains unknown.

Scissors, the wonder tool

As predicted, the packers sealed up some things I was going to realize later that I really needed. Example of the day: a hammer. Actually, all the hammers we own.
So how does one remove nails without a hammer (at 7 a.m., when judgment is admittedly not a lifetime copy editor's strength)? A few I was able to pull out with my bare hands. But some demanded the use of an actual tool.
Enter the kindergarten scissors Laura brought home from school yesterday when all the supplies were divided up. Yep, kindergarten scissors can be very effective in aiding the removal of nails and drapery hardware from walls. Who knew?

Jumping with joy in Houston

As mentioned previously, we went to Houston over the weekend. There was a graduation party for Kevin, although the bouncy house wasn't really for him. Because it's all about Laura, as we're all well aware.