When In-N-Out Burgers comes to town.
…but I think that it works when you auto-tune science.
By the way, I’m contemplating changing the name of this blog to “How to make your kids complete science geeks.”
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This is what we do when we come to hang out with dad at his office. Then dad shows us how to find free food on campus (it involves crashing seminars in other departments).
For family night last night, Maren and the kids picked up a pizza on their way to pick me up from work. We had pizza and soda in my office and then went to the (free) Museum of Paleontology on campus. The museum has extended hours every Monday evening in November just for family night. It’s a tiny museum (with some really cool fossils) tucked into the corner of the football stadium parking lot. One of the cooler parts of the museum is where you can stand and watch the students work with the fossils in the workshop at the back of the building. They really do have a good collection for such a small place.
All yesterday evening and all this morning the kids and I have been singing this song:
yes, that is a dusting of snow on our lawn. Yes, it’s nearly melted by now, but THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS! Next thing you know, we’ll have this.
I was riding in the car with our next door neighbor the other day as her 10 year-old son was trying to talk his way out of piano lessons:
10 year-old kid: “Mom, please can I not go to piano?”
Mom: “No. We’ve already paid for the lesson. You’re going.”
10 y-o: “Please? I’ll pay for 1/3 of the lesson.”
Mom: “Nice try.”
10 y-o: “Please?”
Mom, starting to waver in her resolve: “What’s your best argument for not going?”
10 y-o: “Well, it’s just me and her in the room–alone. Are you comfortable with that?”
He ended up going to his lesson.
To further extoll the virtues of living in a neighborhood where you know your neighbors, let me offer the case of Halloween. The kids spent about an hour going around our block, they got invited in to a couple of houses, they hooked up with a bunch of other kids they know, and they made out like bandits with about two pounds of candy each. In fact, they got so much candy that they volunteered to share their candy with me. Usually I have to wait until they’re in bed and sneak the Reese’s peanut butter cups.
…and yet, the forecast for today looks like this: 
The first flakes just started to fly.
I bought a leaf rake the other day and tricked the kids into doing some yard work by telling them to make the biggest leaf pile they could. They both jumped at the chance. This is the result of all their hard work.
