The Great Outdoors

I haven't had much time to write about my activities. We here at Finnatics promise to post more regularly in the future, or you get your money back.

I went to the salon with Mom this week, but I didn't get my hair done. We went so Mom could get her hair done. I have a lot of hair, but I don't want to get my first haircut at a salon, being a boy and all. I'm thinking either the barber shop or this place in our neighborhood called King of Curls. They specialize in "braids, weaves and bi-cultural dry hair problems." I am bi-cultural, so I think it could work for me.

I'd rather look at myself than the camera.

We ate lunch under one of the four shade trees in the whole park.

This week, we also went on my first real hike. As I noted last time, this Sacramento place gets hot in the summer, so we took the opportunity to go on a hike on the closest Bay Area trail, Lynch Canyon. It is only about 50 miles away, but it still took us a good hour and 45 minutes because of traffic and because I had to eat. There was a nice breeze off the Bay that cooled us off, and we were pretty much the only ones out there. But the trails could have used more shade. The brochure described our Middle Canyon Trail by saying "shade is frequent." By "frequent," they must have meant on cloudy days or in the case of a solar eclipse. I counted four shady spots on the whole 1.5-mile trail (and none on the return 2-mile South Canyon Trail).

Good thing I got a ride from Dad in our super-duper Ergo carrier. In the Ergo, I faced Dad's chest with a little sun cover over me and a breeze coming in through the side. The rocking put me to sleep through most of the hike. This is the closest Dad comes to understanding what Mom went through during pregnancy. Though I will say, Dad, don't think that because you went through one hike with me attached to your abdomen that you know what pregnancy is like. Next time, try drinking a Big Gulp every hour, forcing you to pee constantly, and maybe you'll get closer to it.

On Friday, we visited my Grandpa and Grandma in Roseville. They haven't seen me in a couple of weeks, so they wanted to see big I'd grown. Look how happy they are to see me. I'm sending happy thoughts to my Grandpa, who is undergoing surgery this week. I hope he feels better.

Like the Venus Flytrap, I am trying to catch a fly in my mouth.

Finally, Mom, Dad and I went to the Farmer's Market this morning and then for a walk around McKinley Park. In the middle of the park, they had a carnivorous plant show. Carnivorous, I learned, means eating meat. I only drink milk, so I'm lactivorous right now, but I will probably be carnivorous at some point if I have inherited my parents' appetite genes. In any case, yes, these plants eat meat - in the form of insects. We saw a cobra plant and a Venus Flytrap. Not only does the Venus Flytrap eat flies, but it also has the amazing ability to belt out showtunes.