Yesterday Mandy had a Scentsy party in Lehi. I took the kids and kept them occupied by taking them to Cabela's to see the fish and the animal exhibits there. When we pulled in to the parking lot Walker says "Where are we?" I said "Cabela's" He grumbled and said "I thought Cabela's was some lady's house that just had some fish and stuff" I said "Um, nope. It's a store that has a huge aquarium in it" He said "I'm bored already..." He confessed as we were leaving that he had fun.

Going out to the car I observed some rugged looking outdoorsy type guys -- 4 of them emerge from the store notice the snow, wince in apparent pain, cover their necks up and run like little girls who had just tipped over a beehive, to their trucks.

Then I took Walker and Shelby to McDonald's so they could play in the play area. Several more observations took place there.

I first noticed the person working the counter who looked exactly a heavier set Napoleon Dynamite. He stood motionless behind the counter like the life size animatronic dolls at Chuck-E-Cheeses that fall limp at the end of the show, but suddenly spring into action when you put a token in the machine. He stood there, head hanging slightly down and to one side, mouth hanging open just staring motionlessly at me. As I continued to watch him, he would stand up taller and assist customers that came to his line. But on their departure, sagged and continued staring at me again. I looked over at one point and saw him lazily blowing a poinsettia leaf in an arrangement by him. When the leaf stopped wagging from his last poof, he would blow on it again.

After Walker and Shelby had finished eating they went and played. Meanwhile a family came in and one person, who I later surmised from eves dropping was the father of three children and was with his mom who the children called Grandma. Their father wore cowboy boots, tight wranglers, a grey Mickey Mouse shirt and had a blue bandanna wrapped around his head, worn low over his eyes so he had to tilt his head back to see. He stayed focused on his sandwich, until he paused turned around in his seat to face the play area and then he would bark out "YOU KIDS NEED TO STOP SCREAMING!!!!!!! DALTON! QUITE SCREAMING!!!!" Not sure where they learned to communicate loudly to each other.

The yelling didn't seem to distract Napoleon or spur him into any sort of alternate action. The yelling did have a pretty immediate action on the parents of the other children who were playing there. They all stood up, started putting on coats and began collecting their children for prompt departures.

Which brought me to my final observation or point of pondering. Is it, or when is it acceptable for someone over the age of 12 to wear Micky Mouse clothes? To be honest, I had never really paid much attention, but I couldn't think of an occasion where I thought an adult wearing Micky Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck or Pooh Bear type clothes looked notably good. (Certainly not with Wranglers and a bandanna.) However, I also realize that as a parent your fashion sense instantly dissolves. Some parents do well watching others and sort of mimicking what they are doing. Some revert back to whatever it was that was cool when they graduated from high school, and others like me just wear whatever passes the sniff test off of the floor.

I have embraced my fashion ineptitude and maybe this person's sniff test indicated that Mickey mouse, Wranglers and a bandanna, to keep the ears warm was what was on today's menu. Uniform wearing individuals like Napoleon don't have to worry about trivialities like this, which free up some spare time for doing stuff like staring or dusting the leaves of poinsettias with your breath.