Imagine waking up one morning, feeling that sleepy oiliness that only one thing can cure: a nice hot shower. So, you climb into the shower, shivering a bit in the morning air. You turn on the water and then - BAM! Cold Water! Cold Freezing Cold Alaska Cold Mountain Lake Cold Water! Cold! But don't worry, it'll warm up in a minute, right? WRONG! Because your hot water heater has busted and there is no hot water. There won't be hot water for five days - three days before the plumber guy comes to even look at it. Horrible story. Even more terrible because its true.
I always wanted a pet squirrel. I mean, come one. They're cute, funny, jump twice as high as cats, and climb trees like their tail is on fire. So, I set out to get me one. This is my pet squirrel. Since I don't like fur on my furniture, he lives outdoors. But Meghan likes to talk to him anyways. We haven't decided on a name yet, but Meghan likes the ideas of "Gum!" "Dum!" "Mum!" and anything else with a um sound shouted in an excited manner. I think I just might be the traditional artist that I am and call him Unnamed.
The best way to catch a squirrel of your very own is to leave the lid off your trash can. They're about as bad as raccoons when it comes to raiding, but they're small so they don't make a real big mess. They also respond well to leftover bread chunks lying by a window. Out here in Maryland, they're as bold as a really bold thing so they'll come right up to it. Meghan delights in making our squirrel jump and bolt by banging on the window and shouting at him. We're working on adjusting him to living with a baby on the other side of the window.
When the Vonns came to visit us here in Maryland, where the coolest thing we have is spikey plants (see last post and resulting comments) they left us a cross between a Rubik's Cube and a Sudoku. The idea is to twist and adjust it so that each face has the numbers one through nine. Fortunately, the one through nine rule does not have to follow along one line between faces (I looked up the rules online). This makes sense because there are four faces along one line which means twelve squares and that's three more than allowed. Anyways, so they challenged Kyle to solve it since he is the Rubik's Cube Master.
Mom and the boys stopped by last week to visit Maryland for a few days. And we certainly had fun! After a day of resting up, we made our way to Washington D.C. to see some of the sites. We saw several of the museum buildings all right - as we drove around and around and around the National Mall looking for a parking space. Finally, we managed to find a two hour parking spot. From there we visited a few of the places I had been to before: The four story fountain and the National Space and Air Museum. Of course, the first picture mom takes is of the fascinating plant life.
There were also lots of really cool rockets and planes and space stuff hanging up everywhere. By this point, we had to go home because our two hours were up. However, we returned the next day to continue our adventures.
After less time driving around, we found an outdoor parking lot where we could park longer. So, from there we walked to the White House. If you look closely on the White House to the left, there are two guards spying on us to make sure that we don't try anything.
On the Saturday of Oompa and Nana's visit, we went to DC again, this time bringing Kyle along. This was a much longer trip with more visits. The first place we went was to the Lincoln memorial. Once again, everything was bigger than it looks in movies and pictures. And there is an unhealthy obsession with lots and lots of stairs. Every building has to have lots of stairs. I got tired just looking at all the stairs I had to climb. Inside the monument, the first thing you see is the statue of Abraham Lincoln, chilling on his chair. On the walls to the left and right are his Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address. And inside the memorial is tons and tons of tourists. They swarm everywhere and wherever they go small flashes of light follow as they snap and snap and snap photos. And YES, there are Japanese tourists! Why the Japanese want to see our National History is a little beyond me. I should have taken a picture but I was too polite.
From the Lincoln Memorial you can see the Washington Monument, which is huge as I have mentioned before. Its a good spot for a family photo without too many tourists getting in the way. Since we wanted to see some museums, we decided to walk to the monument and then on to the museums. Big Mistake. It is incredibly hot in Maryland at the moment. 
I didn't realize I was so fragile, but apparently being a nursing mother requires a lot of energy, leaving little behind for such simple tasks as walking across the National Mall. Once we got to the Monument, we took a break and Kyle took one of his "perspective pictures." He really enjoys playing with his camera.
Perhaps the best was Mr. Roger's Sweater. Apparently Mr. Roger's mother knitted his sweaters for him. Which makes me wonder briefly whether or not he lived in his mother's basement between episodes.
Anyways. Among the other interesting stuff on display was George Washington's uniform, a sample of the original penicillin mold, a microscopic plutonium sample in a box and so on. To our surprise, there was also a sunstone from the Nauvoo Temple!
