Before, During & After: A School Visit

BEFORE

As I was racing around this morning, getting ready to leave for my school visit and shooing children out the door to school, here was the conversation in my kitchen:

Child #3: There is no real food for lunches in this house.

Child #4: You're not going to wear flip-flops, are you, Mom?

Mr. Summy: What time am I supposed to pick up Child #3 again?

Child #1: You have a good reason for doing these visits, right?

Dorothy the dog: Can we walk there?

Child #2 didn't say much of anything this a.m.


DURING

Here is the front of Reynolds Elementary School in Oceanside, CA where the students are inquisitive and fun! The visit went super well. Thank you Barnes & Noble CRM Connie and Librarian Caroline for setting up this delightful event!

A couple of unusual student questions:

"Do you want any of your children to grow up to be writers?"

"How many pages do all your books add up to?"

"Is your house haunted?"

I have never before used a popcorn machine as a stand for the LCD projector and my netbook. But, guess what? It worked perfectly. And was fun to look at.

AFTER

I treated myself to a sushi lunch. Scrumptious!

**TONIGHT IS A BOOK SIGNING AT THE OCEANSIDE BARNES & NOBLE (2615 Vista Way, Oceanside), 6PM-8PM.**

My Town Monday: Invasion of the Sea Lions, Oceanside, CA

This past February, I wrote about selling our baby veiled chameleons to a reptile store in Oceanside. A year before that, I wrote about a great Oceanside Thai restaurant and its awesome aquarium. And in 2009, I visited the Oceanside Pier.

For today's My Town Monday post, we're headed 39 miles up the coast, back to Oceanside, CA. To investigate....(cue scary music)...

The Invasion of the Sea Lions!!!

This is a California sea lion. (Thank you google images.) Not to be confused with a harbor seal, the California sea lion, known in science-y circles as Zalophus californianus, has external ear flaps and, with their noted intelligence, often are the trained "seals" you see at zoos and aquariums.

The California sea lion is found along the Pacific Coast from Vancouver Island, Canada (Hello Homeland!) all the way down to Baja, Mexico. There are also California sea lions at the Galapagos Islands. And there used to be some in the Sea of Japan, but this group has been extinct since World War II.

More recently, though, California sea lions have invaded the Oceanside Harbor! Yes, bulls (adult males who can reach seven feet and weigh 850-1,000 pounds) and their harems (females can reach six feet and weigh 220 pounds) have taken over Oceanside Harbor and show no signs of leaving.

The natives are not amused! The sea lions leave behind smelly poop, are raucous barkers all night long and eat the live bait kept in underwater cages by fishing companies.

To complicate matters, sea lions are protected under federal law. However, it is legal to hose them down, pelt them with paint balls, and accost them with loud noises and pinwheels. Thus far, hosing them down hasn't fazed the pinnpeds in the least. Pinwheels will be tried this week. As of yet, no one has resorted to paint balls. Although mating season begins in May, at which time the bulls become more aggressive.

I'll keep you posted.

And, going totally off topic for a second, I SO DON'T DO MAKEUP will be released in paperback TOMORROW!! Woohoo!!! Please feel free to buy a baker's dozen. Or more. :) Sorry, but I have to do a bit of this promotion thing from time to time. :)

Click here for links to more My Town Monday posts. It's always fun to see what's going on in other corners of the world. Enjoy your first Monday of April!

p.s. The Oceanside California sea lions are not to be confused with the harbor seals at the La Jolla Children's Pool.

sources:

http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/education/marine-mammal-information/pinnipeds/california-sea-lion/

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/oceanside/article_3dd4c2f7-7455-5cbe-a013-40193d346147.html

My Town Monday: Oceanside, CA; Goodbye Baby Chameleons

It's way past Monday, but I've been wanting to share this particular My Town Monday post with you.

So, a couple of Mondays ago, I headed 39 miles up the coast to Oceanside, CA with my friend, Christina, Child #4, and Christina's Child #1 and #2. The sun was shining. The breeze was warm. The sky was clear. But...We did not bring boogie boards. We did not bring sand toys. We did not bring swim suits. (This is sounding very Dr. Seuss-ish.)

Our destination: LLL Reptile and Supply

And the precious cargo in the very back of my car? Two cagefuls of 32 baby veiled chameleons.


Here's a shot of the store from the front door. These people take reptiles seriously. Lots of reptiles. Lots of reptile supplies. Lots of reptile knowlege.

They're checking out our chameleons, making sure they're healthy. According to the manager, our babies are in really really great shape. He said we'd done a super job! And he bought every single one of them. (In case you're wondering, he paid $17/baby).

I cried.


The manager told me to call him whenever I had babies to sell. He asked for my business card because he's always on the lookout for a good CHAMELEON CONNECTION! Apparently, that's me! Ha! Who knew? I will add this to my resume. :)


Everyone's lunch was paid for by the chameleon "earnings". (I use the term loosely. If you add up all the money spent on crickets and lights and cages and vets, well, there was no earnings. But there was a lot of fun and learning.




We did eventually wander down to the beach where I sat on the warm sand and wished I'd kept one female baby.


Here are links to people who posted on time! about their corners of the world. Please check them out.

Jim Winter returns, bearing chili from Delhi Chili in Cincinnati, OH

Travis Erwin ducks, goose poop in Amarillo, Texas.

Reb posts about the West Edmonton Mall where this actually an indoor lagoon!

Clair Dickson posts about ice harvesting in Brighton, Michigan



, your chameleon connection!!


P.S. Because you miss them as much as I, here's one last shot of a baby.