Last week I swore to myself I would write following a good day off.  Now, I cannot remember what was good about it.  A good friend journals to his two girls – I wish for something similar. I probably wanted to blog (and later did) because the giraffe kicked the ostrich, man that was awesome!

Our plan was to drop Caroline off at school, run an errand for Mommy, and go to the Science Center.  Me and Tinkerball.  No school today though!

Caroline accepted these plans with a generous amount of discussion.  I love discussion.  I do not love yelling, whining, and an unwillingness to try things.  She was awesome. This kind of awesomeness is new.

It took us a bit to figure out the free way to park at the Science Center (we are old pros regarding the zoo, Grant’s Farm and the B. Gardens – we used to live close enough to GF to go for free), but we got it.  We got there early (it opens at 9:30), and the girls were content to run in circles around the planetarium for the 7 minutes before opening.

Over the highway was a hit, some of the model airplanes were.  I will post a picture of Julia (when I can find my cord)  in the lobby: she just sat down and watched the ball-apparatus thing for 10-15 minutes.  I paid for the Discovery Room because they were excited and I thought it was free (even though I knew you had to get tickets)…  oh well.  The girls played in the water area for 30 minutes and did exactly nothing else in the room designed to introduce them to science.

Then we broke down.  Caroline stared (in retrospect like a poor New Mexican at Area 51 or something) at the T Rex in the Lobby for about 2 minutes (Julia loving it).  Screaming.  It apparently terrified her.  She started crying and screaming and telling me about how much better the real rhinos were.  Eventually I decided that this was either not – a – fight – worth – winning, or at least an un-winnable one.  Suddenly I was on an elevator with Caroline and not Julia.  Tink has learned that her opinion matters. We eventually succeeded in leaving.  There was a new park (Berra) on the way home.

Caroline and I talked more today.  Not more words – one would be hard pressed to get more words out/hour than with Caroline.  But, we talked more.  She made up new names for her and Julia (Planet and Mars) and alternated them with her old made up, sort-of-like My Little Pony Names: Waterfall River (Caroline), Fish Plant (me), Sunshine (mommy), and Daisy (Julia)…  That isn’t right for Julia.  What is it? I will come back to that.

What was new was that she quizzed me.  I don’t know if that was the game, if she was wondering whether or not I was paying attention, or if she needed help remembering.  I doubt it was #3.  At any rate it was a good morning off.  Meeting a friend for a cigar and beer, and then hopefully heading to the pool.

I want to believe the Sabbath is about me, but it is not.  It is about my family and about staying away from my 6-day-job.  Which may very well be a better me than the one I was referring to before.

So far I have not checked my email,  I did exercise, played with my girls, and am planning to do almost everything else I like to do (with the possible exception of seeing a movie) today.  And, most of it includes these two beautiful short people Rachel made for us.