late May, 2008.

It was a big day indeed. I got to see lots of Mythical Beasts, and rock-solid bits of Evolving Life, and lots of stuffed animals. I did go with an agenda, however. I had knit up a bunch of trailings of spare yarn into a lovely dodo-sized poncho. And, defying all odds, I FOUND a dodo. But, sweatering a dodo is a cowboy's sport, for sure. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get enough stealth into my approach.

I discretely tried to see if the colors would show off the dodo's beak, but I quickly blew my cover.

He seemed wary, but tolerant.

I tried convincing him there were worms in the fringe. He may have been dumb as a dodo, but he wasn't bird-brained enough bite that bait.

My big surprise for the day came when I tried to take a little reading break. There I was, taking a breather in the Tertiary Era of the Evolving Planet exhibit, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a real live mastadon skeleton comes barrelling up behind me and launches my book from my grip. My first concern was that he was going to eat it, and honestly, who would want to spend another $14.00 on a conveniently oversized softcover edition? Anyway, Mr. Mastadon came to an abrupt halt, and started tusking through the pages. When he finished, he kindly lowered my book back to me. I offered him some peanuts, but he opted to chew the foam handgrips on some lady's SUV-sized baby stroller instead.

He seemed to enjoy what he read, probably dreaming of Mammoth-sized Buttercups.

The Mammoths were apparently on migration. And, there used to be a lovely quintessential caveman diarama in the basement, but it is no longer there. The museum did away with it in the name of political correctness. I asked a museum employee what happened, and she said all the models from that scene are museum security guards now.

Finally, I got home and found Mrs. Bradshaw waiting for me. She was passing the time getting lost in a good book, reading the classic literature of John Collier, and enjoying some tea. I wasn't planning on seeing her until......yes, here it comes.....Thursday next.