on sin nature, and dont pet the wet cats.

While the 3 older kids and wifey are at NBS, (Nightly Bible School, as they have to do it nowadays, apparently-grrrrr) I stayed at home with Stu-Jack. In order to alleviate some of the pain of being left behind that I can sympathize with since I am a "youngest" as well, I kinda switched it around on him and told him that we were going to banish everybody except the 2 coolest members of the family so that just Stu and I can hang out. He thought that was pretty cool and we did the obvious things that Man and Boy do together, eat ice cream, (Downstairs, even! Whoa!), sit at the table without our shirts, slop hogs, chase chickens, look for cats for Stu to pee on, watch Cowboy Pooh, turn the music up really loud and dance, and all the other normal stuff dads do with their boys. (I guess)

Mostly, though, we did whatever Stu wanted. Whenever he expressed himself, I just said "Whatever you want- today is Stu-Day!" and he was pretty impressed. At first it was very foreign to him, being the natural humble youngest child that he is, used to never getting anything you want and having to scrap for anything you do get, whether by sheer and sudden intensity of all the force his little body can muster against larger and more selfish older siblings (naturally), or by natural youngest-born charms. But, it only took him about an hour and a half before he fully realized the implications about his new found position in the universe, made evident by his yelling for me while he was in the bath. I came in at his perpetual insistence and asked His Nibs what he needed. He informed me he needed another toy, so asked him what toy he required. In reply, he pointed to a toy just out of his reach on the ledge of the other side of the bath. THAT was the end of Stu-Day.

When Wifey got home from VBS, everyone came in the house except Isaiah, so I went towards the back door to find him. Wifey beckons me over to the window to watch something and there he was, trying to pee on a cat. I stuck my head out the door and asked him if he had any luck. His quiet pride in his shy way showed through when gave his little smile and said: "they are pretty quick, but sometimes if you are fast, you can get them a little bit". I am very proud of my boy. I am proud of his modesty, I am proud of his hunter-spirit, and I am proud of his aim.

Disclaimer:
Just as a side-note, I would like to say that I do not pee on my cats, and as far as I remember have never told them too, but I exercise discernment when considering petting the wet ones...

Some stuff is too gross to feed to the pigs; So I ate it...

Last week good friend, neighbor, renowned culinary artist, and quite intrepid food taster, Gaylord, was at my house and we happened to be wandering through the garden when he spotted the disgusting pus-looking fungus stuff growing out of the top of the husks of corn. Not just growing, but BURSTING forth out of. He made a comment similar to how lucky I was to have that because it was worth quite a bit of money if sold for food.





I was a little dubious at first, not because I don't typically believe Gaylord, but mostly because I couldn't imagine anyone actually eating it. But if anyone would know something as obscure as that, it would be him. (Did you know that you could eat Queen Anne's Lace? I didn't, but now I believe him) And as my curiousity grew, so did my internet searches, and I disovered one of two things; either he was right and people do eat it or he is the master of practical jokes and went to a lot of trouble to prank me, because there is actually a lot about it on the internet. Often called "Mexican Truffles", they are basically a mushroom that feeds off of the corn. But dont take my word for it; check it out for yourself.
Remarkably, I couldn't make any of my family try it out with me, execpt an unwilling Wifey. Grace's remark as she was staring at it in horror was: "It kinda makes me shiver when I look at it". Here's some more pictures:



After eating it, I have to say, the looks of it and the name of it (according to wiki it translates into something roughly "raven poop") are the most defining things. It mostly tasted like slightly musty sweet corn, with a lot of jalepeno, to help my digestion, of course. It was mostly unremarkible in taste; my only regret about this cooking experience is that Gaylord is working nights and I never know when I can call him up and have him try something. You should have tasted what he did with a huge snapper-turtle I caught last month!