The Man, The Myth, The Father

I would be remiss, as I often am about so many things, if I didn't give a shout out to the other J. Khooler in the wake of his special role-appreciating day. He is a really good dad. He cooks delicious dinners. He puts pony tails in Naomi's hair in the morning. He reads stories to Muriel. He lets Naomi play CDs in his stereo. He attempts to explain scientific stuff to them. He queues up the Chicken Dance on his ipod. He plays the piano with them. He digs in the garden with them. Geez, what exactly have I been doing all this time?

For Father's Day, the girls and I attempted to use a fun garden stone kit to make Dad a special fun garden stone, only we (I) failed miserably and ended up with something that looked like a giant unbaked cookie with glass gems and letters white-glued to it. It is crumbly as hell and if we move it off the kitchen counter, it is likely to completely implode. Oh well. Naomi did a good job keeping the whole thing a secret, until I asked Dad where the big jug of bubble solution was, and he said it was in the shed, and she said, urgently and loudly, "Don't let him go in the shed, Mom!" Ha.

We celebrated, also, by going to the aquarium. Although Seattle seems like a candidate for a truly spectacular aquarium, the one they have is just OK. It's been improved by a giant wall of tank when you first come in, where you get to watch a chipper woman (on the outside) exchange banter with a scuba diver (on the inside) who is quite obviously freezing her flippers off. For me, the best part of the whole place is the octopus. It is a good-sized creature, and seems oh so very sentient, and (therefore?) really pretty menacing, in a way. Magnificent.

I also appreciate the mammals (seals and otters!) and the shore birds, including curlews and plovers and fancy puffins. All of which are fun to say. Also it was senior citizen day, so there were more than four occasions where I was compelled to scoot my kids out the way of an oncoming walker. Which I was happy to do. And of course because it is Seattle, there are many, many salmon.


Hi, fry!

I am not a great photographer, so Jim tries to position me before I take a shot (subtly, but I know what he's doing), so as to fill the frame optimally. But I still move in or out as my misconceived whim directs me. Oh well. Here's Dad on his day with his daughters, and the artificial orca tail.


Ah, and Saturday on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, in a story about the world's most unhygienic tourist sites (culminated of course by the Blarney Stone), what else got a shout out but Seattle's spectacular Wall of Gum? Yea!


And finally, a couple of girls who really, really love their Dad.