Two weekends in one post

Saturday, October 10 was open house at the fire house.

Here's Geek Girl meeting Sparky.


And trying out the cool motorcycle.


We also watched some demonstrations and Geek Girl got to aim the fire hose at the target. Later in the afternoon Geek Girl was getting stir crazy so we headed into D.C. for a couple of hours at the Hirshhorn museum.

The next day was beautiful and it was a great day for an adventure to Larriland Farms in Maryland with Long Lost Cousin and her family. Hay bale maze, boo barn (that was more funny than scary), and hay ride followed by apple picking.

Here's Geek Girl in the maze.

Geek Girl and her second cousins.


Columbus Day we relaxed. Last week was mostly rainy and wet. Then it rained all this past Saturday. By Sunday we were ready to get out, but we didn't want to deal with too much mud. So we went to Potomac Overlook Park for a nice stroll in the woods. The viewpoint no longer has a view (too many trees), but it was still a nice walk and we saw several deer.


After our walk we went to A & J restaurant in Annandale for dumplings and other yummy things to eat. Daddy Geek and I were quite sleepy all afternoon, but Geek Girl was still full of energy, so after dinner we took her out for another walk.

A little too much time on the computer?

Yesterday Geek Girl was drawing pictures and I was helping her spell words when she asked.

This is what she created.
The bird is saying Do not wory. "Visit me." Bat Duck is a super hero duck

Visit Bat Duck at www.animalsuperheros.com an' meet more animal super heros

Note: wory is her misspelling. I might have spelled heros/heroes wrong for her or she decided to turn it plural on her own. I'm not sure why she decided leave out the "d" in the word "and", but she put an apostrophe there to let us know.

I just checked and www.animalsuperheros.com does not exist. Yet. Whew.

(She's been playing a lot of Batgirl and Robin with her friend downstairs.)

Grammar tips from Geek Girl

The following scene just played out in The Geeks' living room:

Geek Girl: My towel is wet.

Parent: Put it where the washer and dryer is.

Geek Girl: You mean "are". You said "is", but you should have said "are".

Parent: Now *she's* correcting me!

To be fair, our washer and dryer are a single stacked unit with the washer on the bottom. But the parent in question regularly endures corrections from the other of us - and now Geek Girl, too.

Fossil Hunting

Last Saturday we went fossil hunting at Calvert Cliffs State Park in Maryland. According to the website, over 600 species of fossils have been identified, with shark teeth being the most often found. The drive was under two hours and after parking we had a nice 1.8 mi hike to the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. New body of water!

Here's Geek Girl leading the way with her trusty shovel.


Okay, where are the shark teeth?


Maybe I'll just get down and dig a little.


Never mind. I'm sitting and making mud pies. That's why mom and dad packed extra clothes for me, right?


We had a nice time listening to the waves and avoiding getting covered with sand by zealous digging daughter.

On the walk back, we came across this cool frog.


From the beach we could see a lighthouse to the south so we went searching for it. We didn't find it (turns out if we had kept going on our last road we would have found it) but we did find a nice big playground to climb and play hide-and-seek.

On our way home we stopped at Good Stuff Eatery for burgers and milkshakes. Pumpkin and a Milky Way/Malt one were both yummy, but I think in the future we should just share one milkshake. The burgers were good and they had interesting flavored mayonnaises such as Old Bay, chipotle, Sri Racha, and mango. Afterwards we took a stroll around the Capitol building and then headed for home.

Okay now I'm caught up. Tomorrow is fire station open house and farm day and Sunday will be dim sum and/or apple picking. And Monday is Columbus Day -- which is a holiday for everyone in the Geek household!

Tidal Basin Paddle Boats

The day after the Property Yard Open House I came down with a cold. I guess it was inevitable. Daddy Geek and Geek Girl decided to rent a paddle boat on the Tidal Basin.

Here's Geek Girl waving to the camera.


Jefferson Memorial in the foreground, US Capitol in the far background.


I guess the tide was IN.


Silly face in front of the Jefferson Memorial.


Daddy Geek. Remember him?

Property Yard Open House

A couple of weekends ago, there was an open house at the property yard. We watched a hoist truck in action and some crews repair pipe leaks. The best part was getting in the equipment.

Here Geek Girl has climbed into the front end loader. You can just see her plastic hard hat.


Here we are ready to be scooped up.


At first Geek Girl didn't want to get into any of the trucks to honk the horns. However, by the end we had to drag her away because she was having too much fun leaning on the horn.

October 2009 version of what Geek Girl wants to be when she grows up

1. Astronaut

2. Book Illustrator

3. Fire Fighter

4. Teacher

5. Car Doctor

6. Tow Truck Driver

7. Fish

8. Paleontologist

And also a mommy.