Mike's Journal

Today we took advantage of the flexibility of being homeschoolers and declared it a field trip day rather than doing regular classwork. After everyone was up and fed (I had to drag Adam out of bed), we headed out to the Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville to take advantage of our zoo memberships.

A chilly weekday fall morning was not zoo prime time – indeed, we had to cruise around the parking lot to convince ourselves that the place was open. But open it was, and we had it nearly to ourselves. Many of the animals are in warmer quarters for the winter (or wisely staying inside their houses and not coming out to play in the fenced enclosures), but the kids still enjoyed seeing what there was to see, which included a decent selection: gibbons, giraffes, zebras, peacocks, antelopes, a hippo, a rhino, snakes, a nice exhibit of nocturnal animals, wallabies, an iguana, monkeys, a serval, and plenty more. We spent a few hours wandering around and enjoying the sights.

After the zoo, we visited Steak n Shake for lunch, where everyone ate pretty well. Lindsey discovered fries dipped in melted cheese and could not be convinced to eat anything else.

I had just a quick bounce at home, and then headed out again. I’d volunteered to help the local homeschooling community judge a speech & debate tournament, and my stint at that was this afternoon. It was quite a big deal – easily 30 adults and 75 kids involved. I listened to half a dozen extemporaneous talks (just luck that I ended up judging the event that I’d gone to state level in myself, 30 years back), and then tok off to get home for dinner. Dana cooked, and we had burgers and mac & cheese and peas & corn and salad.

The next-door-neighbor-girl Sidney came over and Kayla had her first sleepover friend. Meanwhile, I spent the evening just relaxing in Second Life and doing some work on a big building that I’ve promised to get finished soon.