Billiards a Java Joe's

Last Music Makers class til next fall. For the first time, we sat through it and even took some photos and movies. Sam correctly identified an English horn, and knows was pizzicato is. I sure didn't at that age! More importantly, he got to conga-line around the room with shakers, and later whack wooden blocks together. Fun stuff.

Then we went across the street for lunch at Java Joe's. It's a fun place with gritty jazz and all sorts of colorful paintings on the walls. We sat at the counter facing the sidewalk and watched people as we ate. Afterward we went downstairs to use the restrooms and Sam noticed the pool table. So we spent a buck and played a round. Sam was a little short for the cue, so we let him use his hand. He has asked us about 25 times now when he gets to go back to Jumping John's or Jingle Jack's--it changes every time.

Went from there to a city playground which won awards when it was built in the 60s. Has some interesting structures.

Other than that, a quiet weekend. Sam and I wandered the grounds a little, wading in the creek and using the swings and generally loitering. While out, we saw another Baltimore oriole, a big pileated woodpecker, a dam downstream which looks almost certainly like the work of a beaver, and a run-over rabbit. Of four of these, the one he wanted to take mommy to see was the roadkill.

Well, I'm not sure he really saw the oriole or the woodpecker. He also missed the hawk being chased out of our yard by the crows. But he got to see the dove's nest in our front yard. Spring is just busting out all over, here in Penfield.

He's really getting into the wooden marble racer, which is a lot of fun. He's building structures which are more creative than anything his parents come up with. One of them is pictured here. The marble rolls to the left, the the right, then into a completely enclosed tunnel. Fun stuff.

I'm away for a week. I don't think he gets that, and I am grateful for it.