These are signs for the bathrooms at the Seattle Scifi museum. Four
years ago Monti fell in love with Godzilla at this museum. It started
when she saw a poster advertising a Godzilla movie but something about
it struck a chord inside her. This time she started asking lots of
questions about "The Fly".
I took Monti out of school on Thursday so we could go to some of the
museums in Seattle with my aunt. Many of the museums have free admission on the first Thursday of the month. First we checked out the Seattle Art Museum or SAM.
Dahlia explained to me that she was being well-behaved at lunch because it was her restaurant. After this comment Monti felt the need to remind Dahlia that she may have a restaurant named after her but she has an entire island named after her… Montserrat.
We finally tried out the restaurant in downtown Seattle called
Dahlia's Bakery. The cookies at the bakery were outstanding. We will
be going back. People at the bakery kept complimenting our Dahlia on
her wonderful food. She got a big kick out of all the praise.
It has been nice having my aunt Lorraine around this week. Monti has
been enjoying her first real mystery story this week.
Ghana native Kane Quaye started making "fantasy coffins" 30 years ago when
his uncle, a lifetime fisherman, asked his nephew to sculpt him a unique
coffin. Kane chose a canoe shaped coffin for his uncle. Since then he
has made a full collection of personalized coffins. They are designed
to represent and honor the person's spirit in life.
In Ghana these coffins could cost almost a full-year's salary for some. Families and communities have been known to band together to make the special purchase possible. In addition to the car shaped coffin he has made coffins shaped like an airplane, a crab, and a chicken. You can find more of his "fantasy coffins" on display at the National Museum of Funeral History on the north side of Houston.
Monti loaded up on books at the library. She had a stack of 11 books
from the history section she wanted to check out. Most of them were
500 pages plus with no pictures. She was begging to check out the
book "Presidents : Every Question Answered" in addition to the
library's huge reference section dictionary. Instead we settled for
the "Children's Encyclopedia Of American History."
Recently she watched an episode of Jeopardy on TV. I think it may have
inspired her to beef up her knowledge base for trivia games in her
future.
Monti’s tooth which has been wiggly for months needs to come out soon. They say she should really start wiggling it so the new tooth can grow in. After x-rays and a cleaning the girls both went home with “no cavities” to report.
During the visit Dr Thoa asked Monti if she was the tallest in her class. She said “No I am the fifth shortest.” Now that is knowing where you fall.
They are so good with the girls at Pacific Dental. Monti and Dahlia
get checked out at the same time in the same colorful room. The kids
lay down and get to look at all these fun things on the ceiling. The
two women who clean their teeth know just how to handle little kids.
Since 1996, 62 pedestrians have been injured or killed in Kirkland crosswalks. The town is attempting to combat the problem by making pedestrians more apparent to automobiles. At crosswalks they have yellow flags in a bucket to be carried across the street with you. The goal is to get 40% of pedestrians using flags by 2010. In the last survey less than 9% were using the flags but at that time the flags were orange colored. Respondents to the survey said the original orange flags looked too much like construction flags, and they felt silly using them. Hopefully the money spent on the color change will make all the difference. Salt Lake City has 35% compliance, the highest in the nation, with their flag carrying crosswalks. I wonder what color flags they carry?
The girls had no issues about holding the flags.To them it was like a mini parade each time they crossed the street. However they would have preferred rainbow glitter flags instead of plain old yellow.