Salt & Chocolate

Two months & change since I last posted here?

This morning I found myself with a salty mouth from having just eaten a handful of dry roasted peanuts (light salt), and with a yen to chase away the saltiness with chocolate.

"Salt & Chocolate ... what a great title for a blog post," I thought to myself.

So I wandered in here chewing on my Black Forest chocolate & raspberry cookie.

Chris's dog coal died, my dad was diagnosed with cancer, Jo's dad died.

In roughly that many days.

"Titles are misleading."

Too true.

Pond & lazy

The pond at Golden Gardens Park is a reliable place to see turtles in warm weather, and today seems to have qualified after several not-so-warm days. The turtles tend to come out in decreasing order of size, and only the two largest were out when I was there. But to make up for their smaller companions, there were two herons as well.

Webster's preferred daytime relaxation pose lately has been like this, one elbow on the window sill, taking a break from bird watching. He especially admires the hummingbird that is a frequent visitor, sometimes down in the flowers, sometimes just above him, perched on the wire. Just behind Webster is the fischertechnik construction that Archie posed with a few days ago.

Archie

Kitty alert! For those who don't follow my Blockplay blog, there are two fine pictures of Archie: with blocks, and with fischertechnik.

Backyard foolishness

I had started building a garage from a plan (more on that in Block Play), when Dillon decided I needed help ...

I quickly determined that my participation wasn't necessary ...

So we ended up with "a whole family of houses."

While Itchy watched and Britt ... ummm ...

Block Play

I posted this image in my Block Play blog today, but I'm not sure the Archie & Webby fans check there for cat pictures.

What? The dinosaur-robot doesn't look much like blocks? Well, I use "building blocks" with some figurative flexibility, and include many non-rectangular things where reusable elements are used to construct. Legos, Lincoln Logs, Erector sets, Parquetry Blocks, and more - and of course, nice, rectangular Building Blocks. Stack play, techno play, pattern play, whatever.

It's my blog, and I make the rules. :)

Beach

Today I had good beach.

Digressions

It was sunny today, and if not as warm as Monday, it was still warm enough that I walked on the beach with no jacket. A long way from Waikiki, in miles and spirit, but mostly I'd rather be here, even if my shirt might have suggested otherwise.

As I have read about Aloha Shirts recently, however, my interest has been piqued in other things Hawaiian -- or maybe it was Hawaiian BBQ that started it all.

Whichever, I have been reading about Hawaiian history and culture, and almost thinking I might like to go there again.

In my online poking about, I ran across an interesting blog entry that has something to do with why one might choose to wear such a shirt.

Mostly though, the last few days had more to do with fischertechnik, with blocks and unblocks.

And no, I have never been to Hawaii, but many years ago, when reading books about Hawaiian railways, I once found myself almost thinking I might like to go there.