The twins and I ditched preschool and spent the morning watching fine cartoons such as "Maisy" and eating chocolate donuts, sugary cereals, cheddar-flavored crunchy corn twists (Cheetos TM) and washing it all down with fruit punch that claimed to contain along with all the corn syrup the equivalent of an entire grape, though which species of grape was undisclosed so the exact percentage of actual fruit juice is unknown to me.

After a harrowing drive without car seats, we picked up the car seats from Barbara's work and were on our way to the Phoenix Children's Museum. All the delights awaited us, including most of the school buses packing up their students and leaving the place just about deserted. Mmm...desserted.

The museum is mainly a series of contraptions that the kids can fool around with while subtly learning about important science principles such as air pressure and chaotic variables and car washes. There is also an art project room. We painted a large castle. The only color available was yellow, which is a fine color for a castle, but I didn't steal any other colors because I didn't want to get kicked out. We'd only just got there.

We played with puzzles. Ender served pizza from the pizza puzzle to the crab from the sea creature puzzle. Ender, Remy, and the crab were delighted.

We left the museum after two hours and went to my work at the cat and dog rescue. A massive Doberman named Achilles was playing in the yard. It is important for me to know which dogs play well with children so I threw Ender and Remy into the yard with him. Achilles is slightly taller than the two of them so there was a risk of his bulk knocking them down. He licked their faces in greeting and then went back to playing fetch with Jeremy, one of the volunteers. Doesn't try to eat children; good to know.

I must confer with my boss to see if I can bring my nephews in to evaluate the dogs' response to them and perhaps get a bit of pay out of it. No sense risking their lives for free, after all.