December 8

This morning, desperate for an outing, I made a phone call to Rebecca to see what she and Liv had planned for the day. They were headed for the Pioneers Park Nature Center, so Simon and I happily tagged along. In the new building, the Prairie Building, they have a kids’ play area, where Simon found plenty of questionable things to put in his mouth, including shed snake skin (is there a special name for that?) and the bottommost part of a deer leg (I think it must have been real). Ew.

One of the guys that works at the center took out a bull snake and let us all pet it—this Simon found fascinating, as he loves new textures (he was almost equally impressed with the fraying carpet under Jake the Snake’s cage). As we were thanking Dude (Ted) and getting ready to leave, Rebecca mentioned that they had a nice gift shop there. I mentioned that I would like to look for one of the toys that Simon had been playing with, a wooden snakelike toy with wheels that folded over itself. Dude (Ted) said that he had made the toy. “Oh, how cool,” I said, “Do you sell them in the gift shop?” No they don’t. “Oh,” I said, “You should make some for the gift shop; I bet they’d be a hit.” (I really don’t know why I was so obsessed with the gift shop.) Anyway, Dude (Ted) said that he could make me one (and for a very reasonable price, I might add), so he’ll give me a call in about a week or so when it’s done. Very cool.