Tuesday Disappeared Off My Calendar

I went on a field trip with my son's class yesterday, a group of 2nd grade Catholic school kids, to a science center where they learned first about weather, then did a lesson on amphibians and reptiles. It took up most of my day, but I'm not complaining. It was actually quite fun, especially with the other parents who went along, too. We were Catholic Parents Behaving Badly.

The first session was about the weather and meteorology. The highlight here were the tornadoes-in-bottles. You know, these are the things where you take two plastic 2-litre bottles, fill one with water, and connect them together with a plastic tube, like this one that you can get at http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/product/1226. When you tip the "hourglass" over and swirl it around vigorously, a "tornado" appears inside the bottle. Pretty cool, huh? The addition of various little plastic toys inside the hourglasses made the activity even more entertaining, particularly for the adults. Two dads were present, and their tornado bottle had a little plastic dog in it. We were quite amused by Toto spinning around, and we kept bursting out with phrases like "Auntie Em! Auntie Em!" in between hysterical laughter. We also made suggestions for other toys we could put in, like a little plastic bicycle and witch. I thought a little plastic cow would be great.

After a picnic lunch, we headed to the session on amphibians and reptiles. Frogs and snakes. The kids were REALLY excited about this one. I was lukewarm about it. I mean, I've been married 16 1/2 years, so snakes really do nothing for me. The instructor was showing various snake skins to the kids, then she showed them under the microscope to demonstrate some of the major differences among various types of snakes. She made the comment that "not all snakes are created equally." My son's teacher and I looked at each other and smirked.

The ball python the instructor showed to the kids was quite pretty, though. He had a really nice pattern. Contrary to what many people believe about snakes, they are not cold and slimy feeling at all. They are dry and smooth to the touch. The other snake she had to show was a rat snake. He had just shed his old skin, so he had his nice new skin, and he was really shiny. He looked like he was ready for a night on the town!

In her talk about snakes, the instructor mentioned that when she was hiking in the fall, she had encountered a couple of ringneck snakes, except she had a slip of the tongue when she first said it, and she called them "redneck" snakes. Naturally, everyone laughed, but the adults laughed the loudest and the longest. I turned to another mother and whispered, "So, does a redneck snake slither along with a small 6-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and listen to Bocephus on his apodal iPod?" When I relayed this story later, my good friend Annette, who is also the godmother to my hellions, um, children, added, "I thought it might hiss out 'FREEBIRD'!"

Now that I think of it, I might find a tiny plastic snake and tiny beer can to add to my tornado hourglass when I make it.