Monday, November 14 2022

Hey Reader!

Hope you're all staying warm out there and finding the energy for one last push through work to the holidays. We had a lot of things to do around the house in preparation of having Poppa Wilke over for the weekend. In truth, all that preparation probably wasn't necessary. Poppa Wilke is a wonderfully easy house guest.

A Chilly Day at the Zoo

We took Poppa Wilke to the zoo this weekend. When it's cold outside, going to the zoo actually isn't a bad choice. We wore layers. We stuffed our pockets full of hand warmers.

Most of the animals cuddled and napped in caves or on beds of straw. This polar bear had the right idea. "I would totally snuggle with that Bear," I joked. "We could curl up on the couch and just watch football all afternoon."

Walking around the zoo on a cold November afternoon, you can find warmth in humid monkey caves or the pungent stink of the indoor pachyderm hut.

German Pancakes

"I'll take the German pancake," said Marissa confidently.

"That's gonna be about twenty-five minutes," said the waitress.

The warning gave Marissa pause, and she picked up the menu off the table to scan over the options again.

"Just do it," I whispered.

"Yeah, ok," she said quietly back to the waitress. "That's fine."

A short twenty-five minutes later, we'd witness how serious this place was about the German pancake. The waitress used two hands to lower it to the table like a flying saucer landing in a farm field. It easily eclipsed our lesser breakfast dishes.

"Is that... gonna be enough food for you?" I asked.

Farmboy

I wandered out of my office and into the dining room. The view I caught from our window puzzled me - why was Rodney pushing hay bales up the driveway? Marissa was packing up our Halloween decorations for the season. Marissa was knelt in the dirt, picking up the chewed scraps of pumpkins left from the squirrels. "He looks like a little Dutch farm boy," she laughed.

"Now boy you move that hay for your mother," I called out. "Then I believe the cows need a milkin'."

Swinging

Miles and I went to the park. He ran right toward the swing, dashing my hopes of a nice break on the bench scrolling my twitter feed. Miles wanted to stay on the swing the whole time. We made up a game within a game playing catch with his baby dinosaur.