Family Updates

At Least We Have Clean Underwear

For the past week the management of the Factory has been replacing and upgrading the washing machines and dryers. Since we received all our stuff from Idaho, Tammy has been doing laundry from both the day to day needs and doing a “few” loads each week of the stuff that gets unpacked. Every few days I go and get $20 worth of quarters to feed the machines. Of course everything got interupted last week. Two Fridays past, at about 5pm the management posted notices that all this past week the washing area would be closed. Of course we were out of quarters, and it was the weekend when all the young single residents wait in line to use the machines. So —no washing for about 10 days. We were doing alright until Thursday when our underwear situatuation was getting critical. I broke out the cycling shorts, and Tammy raided the boxing shorts and lingerie. The washing area reopened today, and with nice fancy card reader washing machines (and a $0.25 a load premium for that…)

With the possibility of a bad hurricane season, and local concern that Isabel will turn northward, we were dutifully discussing storm preparations and evacuation plans—just in case. Out of the blue Tammy said in jest, “Well, if we have to evacuate at least we’ll have clean underwear.” Life is good.

Peter Rabbit Board Game

Quite some time ago, I think when we first moved to Idaho, Tammy found a Peter Rabbit Board Game somewhere. It’s a really nice game, with wicker baskets, a four panel board, one giat die and four extremely cute hand painted — cast resin little bunnies. I gave her a hard time about it back then, because we were esentially broke, and who was going to play it after all. We recently (last night) started playing the game with Johann— he loves it! We have played this simple but fun game more times than I care to count. It’s also a good counting tool, and taking turns and all sorts of good stuff. Of course we were essentially broke then, but we’re dead broke now, with an additional member of our family. So for Tammy— You were right, and I was wron—, w-wron—, wrong. Whew! Oh, and I love you.

Return to the Aquarium

We decided, since tourist season is over, to return to the aquarium today. Johann had a blast as always looking at the different animals. As always he loved watching the Beluga whales both from above and below. The stellar sea lions and fur seals are always fun to watch as well. Unfortunately the Penguins were uncooperative today, we should have tried to catch them more toward feeding time. Of course we couldn’t leave without seeing the jellyfish, sharks and the rays. Especially since he recently received a toy jellyfish from his Aunt Niki (which is now a regular at bath time.) During the summer months the indoor area, where the sharks and rays (amongst many others) are, has always been a zoo— no pun intended. In the summer the aquarium is graced with thousands of visitors daily. Usually among those visitors are one or two large summer school and “camp” field trips. Unfortunately this means that there are a couple hundred kids running helter-skelter with too few, highly-frayed and frustrated adult supervisors. Outside it’s not a problem, but once you’re inside with all that, it can quickly become a royal pain. Now we are able to leisurely stroll through the indoor area without being jostled. Really nice.

For the first time we took in a large section of the Bob Ballard part of the aquarium. All I can say is it is awesome. There are live feeds of his current exploration mission in the Black Sea playing on big screens, a whole section that (for this year at least) is dedicated to the PT-109 and it’s history including of course the work to locate it. Then there is a section explaining the archeological work going on now. This including the initial Black Sea expeditions that tie the region into the probable origin of Noah’s flood and the formation of the Black Sea. Part of this area was an exhibit that shows in excellent detail the recent find of an iron age Phoenician ship in the Med, full of amphorae still stacked in the hold. Johann enjoyed this area too, but was anxious to get out to see the beluga. He did however really enjoy climbing down into a mock up of the deep submersible Turtle with me and being able to look through the tiny porthole windows. Cramped quarters for two, even when one of us was only 3’ tall. Although I am generally not one for closed in spaces anymore, I think I could bear going down in the Turtle simply because of the exploration aspect. The whole time I was in the exhibit I could see myself helping them in some little way with commo, video or animation… of course there is always the Dolphin Communication Project (link doesn’t seem to be working though) which is going on in Roatan, Honduras. Gee, I seem to remember something about that place— what was it— oh, yeah— a whole lot of diving, including with dolphins. It sure would be awesome to go back there..

Pictures to follow… eventually. Gotta get the Gallery section in place first.

Anyone have some Elephant Tape?

So Tammy and I were discussing how to fix a small gap in the closet ceiling where dust is coming down onto the clothes. “Duct tape” I say. When from on the bed Johann calls out: “Duck tape?! No, no, no…Elephant tape.” It rolled steadily downhill from there. but it was fun seeing who could figure out what the weirdest tape would be. I think the winner is Armadillo Tape. Of course it would be extremely tough, but if you shine a light on it or surprise it it jumps six feet in the air then curls up in a ball. Not very practical.