Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Another nice, leisurely sleep-in this morning. Ah, I am sure going to miss doing that. However, Michael, and his son Michael, with whom we are staying, were involved in exactly the opposite of sleeping in and actually got up before the sunrise. The reason for this was to head out to early to get some deals. Today, you see, being the day after Thanksgiving, is known here in the US as “Black Friday”. It is so named for the fact that this is typically the first day of the year where retailers finally make enough money to cover their costs. In other words, all the money they have earned up to this point in the year will allow them to break even and, hence, puts them in the black, from an accounting point of view. Retailers usually have outrageous sales today to get people into the stores and get the Christmas shopping season underway. I, being Canadian, and not having any room in the MoHo for anymore stuff anyway, chose to take it easy and, instead, just did a little blogging in this morning. Then Chantal, the kids and I headed out to visit one place we always used to love going when we lived here … Kids Towne! It is an awesome, sprawling, wooden castle structure that has all sorts of cool little features that test your strength, agility, and balance. And all the passage ways and steps throughout the structure are set up much like a maze. Lots of fun for kids and adults alike. We actually got to play on a similar structure during our trip when we were in Santa Barbara. While the kids skulked around the structure, I took a bunch of photos. Then once we had our fill of the castle, we popped over to the baseball field there and had ourselves a little game. And I must say, that Morgan is quite the hitter. He consistently put them over our heads, although A-P did manage to pick one of the fly balls out of the air. After that the plan was to take MaryLou & Michael, and their kids, out for dinner tonight. However, our plans were suddenly changed when we returned home where we got a phone call from Chantal’s brother. He had called to let us know that Chantal’s mother had become very sick and had been taken to the hospital today and that they were not sure how long she had left. After a short discussion of our options, Chantal and I decided that we would drive all the way home tomorrow so that Chantal could be with her mother. Once that was decided I realized that I would have to winterize the MoHo since we would be heading into territory where water freezes at night. That is definitely not a good thing if there is still water in the pipes. So Michael and I spent the evening, in the dark, that is, ensuring that all the water was drained, or forced, out of the MoHo water system and that there was antifreeze throughout the MoHo’s plumbing. We ended up doing takeout Chinese for dinner and then we packed everything up in preparation for a 6:00am departure the next morning. I guess I didn’t realize just how abruptly my sleeping-in was going to be coming to an end.

Today’s word:

skulk \SKUHLK\, intransitive verb:
1. To hide, or get out of the way, in a sneaking manner; to lurk.
2. To move about in a stealthy way.
3. To avoid responsibilities and duties.
4. One who skulks.
5. A group of foxes.