This past weekend my parents came down to see Monkey. TRgirl, Randy, and I were around but were clearly not as interesting. They really enjoyed the fact that he is now in a talking phase and will tell you a story with mostly nonsensical words, goya being his favorite. He ends the stories with, “OK?” and is happy when you answer with, “OK.”

Saturday we took him to the zoo. Randy elected to stay home and enjoy having the house to himself. The Richmond Zoo is odd in that you can feed most of the animals. Which, in case you are wondering, leads to obese prairie dogs.

At one point my dad was feeding one of the monkeys. (Note: an actual monkey. Not Monkey.) This monkey had climbed up his enclosure and was sitting on one of the fence supports. He was trying to catch the food my dad threw, and every time he didn’t he gave my dad a look that said, “Dude, WTF?” This was sometimes accompanied by gestures. (This is not the first strange encounter that my dad has had with a primate. He once royally ticked off a gorilla at the National Zoo. We don’t know why, but the gorilla did not like him.)

You can also feed the giraffes. If you did not know, giraffes have long (about 18 inches) prehensile tongues. One of them used said tongue to lick Monkey’s head. This bothered the child not one bit.

I left early, as Apple and I were going to Williamsburg for the Wine and Cheese event at the Williamsburg Storytelling Festival. We met a third friend and her mom there. It was fabulous. I did not really know what to expect, but I enjoyed it so much that I am already looking forward to next year.

After the event, the three of us (sans the mom) headed over to Food for Thought which I highly recommend that you try should you ever be in Williamsburg. (Invite me. I have a coupon!) We spent the night at the mom’s house. She made us a fabulous breakfast the next day.

Apple and I headed home and stopped at Flanders’s to pick up her dog. We ended up staying for about 5 hours. We also debated about the proper possessive of Flanders. (Since we were talking about his house, Flanders’s is correct. If we had been talking about his stove, then it would be Flanders’.)

Tonight I’m babysitting. OK?