fossilfreak | A Fabulous Friday the Thirteenth

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 558
170.5 miles

cold in the mornings, sunny and breezy

361 recordings of 30 types, 58 old SVU. 20% clear.

I decided to stay home in the morning, because I was going to be gone a long time. So I went over to Renaissance about 11:30 and succeeded in finding a parking place. The time travel movie was "Il Mare", a Korean film dubbed in Chinese and subtitled in English. It's a romance between a guy who is 2 years behind the girl. Another mind-blower. And in parts, a tear-jerker. I really enjoy this class!

I then went directly to Elk Grove, a bit early for the school festival. I tried with Gareth to finish the da Vinci model, but it's next-to-impossible to put together. I wish I'd read the Amazon reviews before I bought it. We can see how it's supposed to work, but you can't get the wheels on well enough to engage the gears. I'm very disappointed.

Finally Rob came home and we could go to the festival. I drove over so I could get a parking place but they walked. Joanna was dressed up, Gareth not. I enjoyed some of the kids' costumes: a Ghillie, a Minecraft character, the usual mad scientists and Frozen characters, a couple of dinosaurs, but my absolute favorite was Little BoPeep, complete down to the frilly leggings (ending in the light-up sneakers!) I started off to tell her mother how much I loved the costume when I saw the sheep... in the baby front pack!

Bernadette had been working on the candy dish she made out of the gourd, and also making the basket for the 2nd grade. (We'd heard someone else was doing the 4th grade, but it didn't come.) She was justly proud of the result. We both put a lot of tickets into this bag and a few in other places. Neither of us won it, but the family that did was so delighted with the candy dish they hadn't even noticed the basket! In the end, Bernadette won two: dinner and a movie (in a nifty popcorn bowl) which she gave me, and the State Fair basket, 4 tickets, monorail rides, ride bracelets, and concession $$ as well as a few other goodies including a HUGE stuffed Poppy. Gareth was delighted! He spent most of the festival walking around, or eating. Joanna went through the Haunted House (with her mother) and ate and played most of the games.

I ate, walked around, and finally sat down and finished my Nero Wolfe book (Too Many Cooks.)

Now reading: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (yeah, right); Pepys' Diary; American Fiction; Embarrassments by PJ Nel; Shattered, Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes; The Little World of Don Camillo, Giovanni Guareschi; The Beans of Egypt Maine, Carolyn Chute; and Some Murdered Caesar by Rex Stout.

I came home to a pleasant surprise, a check from the reunion committee who were so fiscally prudent that they only needed the seed money I sent to start off, but broke even! This means I can make a donation to Safari West to help in the recovery from the fires.