Last year we were in Pittsburgh! That was a really fun trip.

Crombie has found her niche. She is professionally cute. It's aided by the hind feet splaying out like a rabbit's, but her size and her face and her actions are all focussed toward "awwwwww...". She and Fitch have a great toy, a cord. They play with it together, which is almost like a tug of war. As one pulls it, the other jumps on it, and that makes it wiggle for the first cat. This is good for a long time. As the ends fray, it becomes ever more interesting.
Fitch is far too big to be "cute." Rich thinks he's the biggest cat we've ever had, and he's only 6 months old now. He acts like a kitten, though, and loves my lap.

Today I had lots of trouble getting uploaded. I guess Yahoo! was slow.

Sam is on vacation. Today was our long-delayed trip to the Nimbus fish hatchery. I'd prepared for this by telling Sam about salmon, and reading an old National Geographic about them. When we got there, dodging kids and field trip buses, Sam knew a little what to expect. (Unlike, say, the Gold Fever! exhibit.) First we went to the fish ladder and watched the salmon working their way up. Out in the River, you can see loads of fish, throwing themselves up against the bars, trying to get to the foot of the dam where there are plenty of fishermen waiting for them. We saw a number of huge fish jumping from "rung" to "rung." At the holding pen, Sam was most fascinated by the dead fish. I reminded the child that they were going to die anyway. These guys go to animal feed.

Inside the visitor's center we looked at the exhibits. They weren't doing anything interesting behind the window, but the other exhibits were fun. Sam knew enough to be interested in the various boards, even though they couldn't be read. (On that topic, Sam is again showing a lot of interest in signs and billboards and asking what things are. We're getting there, even if this is more appropriate to 4- and 5-year-olds.) The Fish and Wildlife people had a female fish, cut open, and a milked male with the milt out on a table. Kids were all over the place, touching the stuff. Say, if Sam is planning to be a doctor, the child shouldn't be squeamish! There are about 5,000 eggs in a female salmon. They have, so far, taken 4,385,014 eggs and 970 females, 976 males. ("014"? Someone actually COUNTED??)

Once we'd exhausted the wonders of the Visitor's Center, we went out to the hatchery and looked at the small steelhead. Fish food is 5 cents for a child's double handful, and Sam had a good time tossing food into the tanks and watching the fish stir up the water. From there we went over to the other hatchery, for trout, and again watched the different sizes. I pointed out the net over the tanks, and we saw three egrets come in and land above us. They sure wanted a nice fish lunch!

This is what goes on at a fish hatchery. Unfortunately, the pictures don't load.

Then back to the center, where they did some fertilizing while we watched. Sam wanted to know how soon the eggs would hatch. At the time, I didn't know. We did have a poster that shows the life-cycle. I hope Sam can keep it intact for awhile. Back down the ladder. There was a snorkeler in it, filming what will possibly be Nimbus' own video so they can stop showing the Feather River one. However, Feather River has underwater viewing windows, which would certainly be nice here. We looked at the diver and decided he was a pretty strange fish.

Off to lunch at McDonald's, where Sam got a Lego plane. They were busy refurbishing the place, so we took our lunch to Carmichael park and ate there. After we checked out a craft store, we went back to the park.

Sam and I bought some thick yarn and started work on a potholder for the foster-care person. This is good for a number of reasons: weaving is good to learn, it's a long-term project instead of instant gratification, it's a gift for someone else, it's something the child can do that actually looks good. It also requires a certain amount of care. I was amazed at the concentration. I rather suspected that if I could get something Sam was interested in, there would be no ADD symptoms. I continued to read "Wizard of Oz" while the child worked.

It was a good day with Sam. Then I got home to cranky Rich. However, the day finished with a welcome phone call, and suddenly Thanksgiving is much more joyful.