The Zoo and an Egg

We went to the zoo!

We went to the zoo!

Okay, okay... Dad always makes me point out that we actually go to the "Wild Animal Park" and that the "zoo" is a different thing entirely. That's what I get for being the offspring of an engineer I guess. Though I do kind of wonder how he can want to be so precise in naming things and so completely messy around the house? I mean really... Sometimes it seems like he makes a bigger mess than I do! And I'm the small boy!

Anyway. Where was I? Oh that's right, the ZOO. (Take that, Dad!)

Mom got us all annual memberships to the ZOO. [Editor's note: Membership actually covers both the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park. So there!] And that means that we can go to the zoo anytime we want to! Which has been a couple times a week here lately because Mom is really enjoying seeing the lions. There is a family with seven little lion cubs! They have two Mommies and only one Daddy, which I don't really understand, but Mom says I shouldn't worry about too much. The cubs are really cool though - they are right about my size and jump around all over the place. I'd really like to play with them, but I can't get through the glass. (You can learn more about the Lion Camp at their website.)

One day on the way home from the zoo, we stopped at an ostrich farm and bought an ostrich egg. Or maybe I should say that Mom bought an ostrich egg. I don't have any money and even if I did I don't think I'd spend it on an ostrich egg. I'd buy the whole ostrich and ride it around the neighborhood.

Turns out that all you can do with an egg is eat it, which we proceeded to do the following weekend when we had my Aunt Melinda and Dad's friend John (Shiple) staying at the house. I guess Mom figure that we needed backup on eating the egg. And it turned out she was right - Dad was finishing the leftovers for breakfast all week. (Dad remembers their tour guide in Kenya saying that an ostrich egg was "a party!". Guess he meant that you need a whole party of people to eat one.)

At this point, I'll just shift to pictures, because this is one you've got to see to believe.

Mom prepares to attack with a large, heavy kitchen knife.

Slo-mo shot of the shell cracking off.



Mom finally got through! Time to dump it into a really big (12") frying pan to scramble it up.



Scramble scramble scramble (this was some hard work for Mom!)


The finished product. Ostrich Egg Scramble with ham, onions, green peppers and cheddar cheese. Pretty good, and it feeds twelve!

Matty vs. The Trashcan

This is a picture of Mom's nice trashcan in the kitchen. It's a very nice trashcan - shiny and new, or at least only a couple years old. And in case you're wondering, yes, almost everything in the kitchen is "Mom's" since she does most of the cooking in there. Though Dad did make me some pancakes using his mom's recipe this morning, and they were really good! (He says that those of you who have had those pancakes before might understand why he keeps eying my diaper fearfully today. Something about a "cleansing" from all the whole wheat and rolled oats in the recipe?)

Anyway, Mom's got a nice trashcan, pictured above.

Sadly, it's not quite as nice as it used to be.

I was cruising around the kitchen at top speed - one of my favorite things to do these days, when I tripped on something. Mom claims it was a toy that someone left laying around, but I'm not too sure about it - I think she's kind of upset about the trashcan. In any case, I tripped. And the trashcan kind of broke my fall. Or at least my head's fall.

So now there's a nice dent in the side of the trashcan.

Dad thinks that this is the funniest thing ever - that my head is hard enough to dent a metal trashcan. Personally, I think he maybe could be a little more worried about my personal well-being, but he just laughed his head off when he saw it.

He did eventually calm down enough to take a picture of my head, which didn't really look too bad, though it kind of hurt for a couple days.

Me, I just wonder where I got a head this hard, you know? I mean, it had to come from somewhere! I'll keep you posted on whether I can figure out where it came from.