The Muir's Halloween Walrus, Carpenter, and Curious little oyster.

Earlier this year when Mary was discussing the upcoming Halloween season with William the issue of theme and costumes came up. One year the Muirs went on a Halloween safari, another year Andrew was a car driver and Lilly was the bug his windshield missed. Then last year the kids made up a tool kit. So there they sat, William and Mary trying to decide what to do for Halloween this year.

In the background Andrew had started a movie and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were tempting Alice into staying for a bit with a story she had never heard before. The movie's version is a bit different from the book, but the words gave Mary and idea. So here we have it a Muir rendition of;

The Walrus And The Carpenter by Lewis Carroll
(Also known as The Curious Oysters).


The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright --
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.


The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done --
'It's very rude of him.' she said,
'To come and spoil the fun!'

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead --
There were no birds to fly.


The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand:
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
'If this were only cleared away,'
They said, 'it would be grand.'

'If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,' the Walrus said,
'That they could get it clear?'
'l doubt it,' said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.


'O Oysters, come and walk with us!
The Walrus did beseech.
'A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each.'


The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head --
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.


Out four young Oysters hurried up.
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat --
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more --
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.


The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.


'The time has come,' the Walrus said,
'To talk of many things:
Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax --
Of cabbages -- and kings --
And why the sea is boiling hot --
And whether pigs have wings.'


'But wait a bit,' the Oysters cried,
'Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!'
'No hurry!' said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

'A loaf of bread,' the Walrus said,
'Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed --
Now, if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed.'


'But not on us!' the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
'After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!'
'The night is fine,' the Walrus said,
'Do you admire the view?'


'It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!'
The Carpenter said nothing but
'Cut us another slice-
I wish you were not quite so deaf-
I've had to ask you twice!'

'It seems a shame,' the Walrus said,
'To play them such a trick.
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!'
The Carpenter said nothing but
'The butter's spread too thick!'


'I weep for you,'the Walrus said:
'I deeply sympathize.'
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.


'O Oysters,' said the Carpenter,
'You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none --
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.

So the Muir rendition didn't quite follow all the lines for instance they only had one "Curious little oyster" and the feed was on candy not on her. Their Walrus and Carpenter only shed tears at bed time and never any other time. Another dissimilarity was that Nanna Taylor sat and talked awhile but not of "ships and sealing wax," but rather Halloweeny things. And for those of you who wonder the candy was not eaten "every one," but Andrew sure did try.

A mommy moon for Mary...

So back in March Mary told William that she was annoyed that every time they took a vacation she still had to do her job. So after a serious discussion Will told Mary "if you plan it we'll go." So she started narrowing down possible destinations and finally settled on San Francisco as it was far enough away to require at least an over night trip and there was plenty to do to keep them busy. So after summer was over and the crowds had thinned off they went. The following is an outline of their activities and adventures.

Driving across the Bay Bridge on the San Francisco side. Yay we're almost there.

The first place we went to when we got to San Francisco was the Aquarium under the bay. These fish just kept swimming around and around and around. Mary got dizzy looking down at them.


There was a huge see bass in the under water tunnel aquarium. Will put out his hand so we could capture how big it was.

In the Shark tunnel we caught some sharks and rays swimming. Mary was just about to stop filming when the big shark showed up.

Leopard sharks are the most common in the bay. They have skin like a cats tongue and actually can taste things that brush past them in the direction from their tails to their heads. So I guess hope that they aren't hungry or that you don't taste good.

We walked to the other side of Pier 39 and caught these stinky noisy creatures.

Next we went to the Wax Museum and Will picked a group for Mary to pose with and She picked one for him. There weren't very many stay at home mom's so Will put Mary with the best looking women.
Luckily for Mary there was a group of engineers and scientists to capture William with.
We stopped at the English royals display and for a minute it looked like Princess Diana was totally checking Will out but in this picture she just looks like she's glaring at us.
I thought it was interesting how the Royals were displayed. Notice Princess Di and Prince Charles are not next to each other.
We took the awesome Red and White Fleet' s Golden Gate Bridge cruise and I was able to capture all of San Francisco, though trying to take pictures on a boat is hard. The main attraction in this picture is of course the Trans American Pyramid. It's the building that they always show in movies set in San Francisco.

In this picture you can see Ghirardelli Square with it's famous sign. There are a couple of awesome churches around there too. The church we attended is just up the hill behind the Square. Funny thing about going to church in San Francisco. There are signs that say visitors have to check in. This proved to be just a deterrent for people looking for free parking. Note to self during the week there is free parking at the church.

The Exploritorium is the brass looking dome in this picture. We had planned on going here but it really is meant for the whole family so we never went inside.
This is part of the Marina where we saw some awesome sailboats and learned about the crazy people who swim in the fifty-eight degree Fahrenheit and colder temperatures.
So here we are in the typical honeymooners heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge pose.
William caught this view from the starboard side of our tour boat as we went under the bridge.

Fort Point is the building under the little arch on the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge. Originally the Bridge's plans required the fort to be demolished but the bridge designer nixed that idea and the end result is rather nice.Heading back into the bay we had a great view of the Bay bridge which we were informed is actually two bridges. The San Francisco side has the same aesthetic appearance as the Golden gate bridge, accept it's gray instead of international orange.
The Oakland side of the bridge is more industrial looking. It was part of this side of the bridge that collapsed during the earth quake of 1989. The two bridges meet in the middle on Yerba Island.
Of course we also cruised around "The Rock". Alcatraz has an interesting history. Originally it was just a fortress during Civil war and gold rush time. The original inmates were soldiers who got out of hand with the natives. They were put to work with chisels and/or hammers creating the sheer wall leading from the dock to the facilities on the top. We learned about how later. The fort was used to house the influx of Chinese immigrants to the area after the completion of the railroad. Chinese immigrants were only allowed into the San Franciscan area if they could prove that they had relatives who were already citizens. That was all before it became the most notorious federal prison.
This is the Fisherman's Wharf sign at Pier 45. We actually ate at a resturant just to the left of the sign, and bought bread at the bread bakery to the right of it.
After the cruise we walked through a Machine museum with lots of antique machines collected through the years from the bay area. Mary's favorite was obvious. William liked all of the electronic and non-electronic games.

The Jeremiah was one of the ships anchored for people to tour. We passed keeping our money for the astronomical prices of Fisherman's Wharf cuisine.
The next day we went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. There were eight roller coasters of which William rode six and Mary rode seven. For some reason we didn't take any pictures of the coasters and didn't buy any that were taken for us as we rode them. The only ride we did photograph was in the Zoo section. Obviously Mary the frog fanatic had the camera.

We took pictures of animals for our kids because we knew that they would be more interested in them than coasters in the long run. The alligators were only about four to five feet long.
We missed all of the shows but the White Tiger seemed to be the most flashy even without its trainer.

We were lucky enough to catch one of the elephants (Indian of course) as it came to wet its throat on our hottest day in the bay area. Mary seemed to like the shade as well.
After we were done at Six Flags we took the long road back to San Francisco and drove over the Golden Gate bridge. The toll for this bridge was Six dollars the most expensive of all the tolls we had to pay.

When we were looking at taking a tour of Alcatraz we found out that they had night tours where you could do more than just take the audio tour of the prison. The sign on the dock is surrounded by Native American graffiti from when a group occupied the island from 1969 to 1971 in protest to the loss of native land. An interesting point of fact is that Alcatraz has no source of water and was only ever the native land of the pelicans.

This is the old guard house of the original fortress. Notice the burnt out roof.


We got to see the old prison guard housing by night. It was eerie to think that men would be walking toward these buildings at night during shift change and that children lived in them.Will was more than willing to make his way into an open cell. When he visited Alcatraz in high school they would actually close the doors on courageous visitors. They don't do that anymore because the opening mechanism sometimes malfunctions.

These shelves held the library books for the inmates. Having a librarian in the family I couldn't help but wonder what she would think about the way the shelves were situated above the heaters.

This sign explained that inmates could have subscriptions to various magazines. It also described how the inmates retrieved their reading material. Doesn't Mary look solemn.


Mary was listening to the audio commentary as she turned around after stepping into a "D-block" or solitary cell. These cells had solid doors that closed after the bars were closed. Across from the cells are windows that face San Francisco a mere one mile away through which the lights of the city would shine.

A trip to San Francisco wouldn't be complete without a ride on a cable car. While we were on the cruise tour we learned that the cable cars were created after a man saw a car being pulled by horses slip down a hill during a storm dragging the screaming animals with it.
This was the end of the Powell/ Hyde line. We started on Market Street and went over both Russian and Nob Hill. Mary didn't want to stand in the street for the picture.

Standing in front of Ghirardelli Square William and Mary got ready to bid San Francisco good-bye.

Just my way of saying "yes you did"

I know that I have told my mother on countless occasions that she can't prove the childish shenanigans I got into as I was growing up and because of my parental abuse I came to realize someday I could be in the same position. So I decided to post in this blog about my children and their messy behavior.

Lillian and Daniel are my main two perpatrators. Their main method of destruction is food. In this particular instance. They found left over yogurt from breakfast and very ripe strawberries.
Apparently they couldn't decide who should eat the yogurt and I'm guessing that Daniel probably threw some at Lillian and she got enen by by dumping the remainder on his head. The strawberries were a second choice.

Then came the day that I walked into my kitchen to find my white tiles turned to pink.
Daniel knew he was supposed to eat in the dining room because of all the reminders his older siblings have been given and I'm going to believe that is the real reason the mess traveled so far. (Okay so that's a bit far fetched but wouldn't it be great if it were true.)Daniel wasn't the only perpetrator though both he and Lillian were punished with a cool bath fully clothed. I think all would agree that it was the only solution for the mess.
To look at their smiles it is easy to believe that the punishment didn't work. I am happy to say I haven't had a food mess of either magnitudes portrayed in this post since.So far Andrew seems to have escaped the destruction genes but that all ended today. Andrew is very proud of the fact that he can now write his name so that it is recognizable to others. Unfortunately he hasn't learned the appropriate places to practice.
Andrew got a stern lecture about paper and had to take a nap. I think he looked properly chagrined. The one good thing about all of these messes is that they were temporary and fixable. My one hope is that these small emergencies are influential enough to keep them out of bigger messes when they're older.