Buggy!

GRATUITOUS DOG SHOT: I rarely post pictures of Kirby, but in case you're wondering how she spends her days, the shot above just about sums it up.

THE FAB ONE: Big BIG news here. We have a BEETLE! That's right, a nurtured-tenderly-from-a-mealworm-through-pupal-stage-to-a-full-fledged-adult MEALWORM BEETLE (more formally, Tenebrio molitor).

His name was String when he was a mealworm, but Annabelle thinks a new name may be more fitting. His new name is Runt. Guess we'll have to wait to see how much he/she/it grows before we know if that's an appropriate name.

In less inspiring news, it appears the last of CJ's waxworms is dead. He looks black and, well, crispy. However, CJ isn't ready to pull the plug for fear that the creature might just be in a morphing process.
 
As he put his waxworm back away on its shelf, CJ declared "I'm going to give him a (sun) shade just in case he's going through a rough pupa (stage)."

Good idea, CJ.

CARTER AND THE KING: I woke up thinking about King Tut this morning. That's not so random, right?

Well really, it's not *as* random if you live in Seattle right now, as magazines, billboard, bus ads and more trumpet the arrival of the exhibition of the Boy King's artifacts beginning May 24.

Anyway, imagine my surprise upon firing the PC up this a.m., I learned, via the Google Doodle, that today was the 138th anniversary of Howard Carter's birth. Carter was the archaeologist who discovered Tut's tomb in 1922. No wonder I woke up thinking about Tut! ;)

photo: The Library of Congress (USA) via Wikipedia

Via the Christian Science Monitor site, we watched this short video, "Howard Carter: Tutankhamun's Wonderful Things."  The video was photos with captions set to some very cool Egyptian music. The kids and I dug it (get it? get it? DUG the video about the archaeologist?!).

Afterward, we hopped over to BrainPOP. There, we watched the video "Egyptian Pharaohs."

It told about the immensely powerful kings and queens of ancient Egypt, how they were worshiped as gods, and how their authority was sometimes a double-edged sword. (For instance, if you are god like and disease or drought hits your people, they might be pissed at you.).  We also learned a bit about scepters, crooks, flails, sarcophagi and more. The video also covered how the Egyptian monarchy finally came to an end when Cleopatra the VII committed suicide.

In keeping with our theme, when we got our exercise in doing 45 minutes of "Just Dance 3," we had to attempt the choreography to "Night Boat to Cairo" by the band Madness.
We have tickets to see the Tut exhibit on May 28. Can't wait!

CHEEZED OFF: This afternoon we took a 'field trip' to the Grocery Outlet. That's always interesting, as you just never know you will find there. Actually, you DO know that you will find items at or near their pull date, as well as cast-offs-from-other-stores, plus some damaged packaging items.

The find that most intrigued the kids today was a special edition box of Cheez-Its featuring three different flavors. The marketing gimmick was to try to get consumer to sample them and then vote for their favorites. Well CJ thinks Cheez-Its are The Best Food Ever, so his curiosity was piqued. He studied the box and was crestfallen to learn that the national voting was over. Sigh.

I quickly buoyed his spirits by telling him we could do our own vote. He was all over that and immediately started formulating election rules and regulations. When we got home, he wrote them down.

The rules:
1: You may only vote for the top 3 candidates.
2: You may not vote for multiple candidates.
3: All voters must vote privately.
4: All voters must enter their sub(mission) by code.
5: All voters must vote in the bathroom.

That's right, people. Only the FINEST voting booth for you 'round these parts! (BTW, CJ reminded each and every one of us to lock the bathroom door behind us for the Ultimate in privacy.)

In case you're wondering, the "top 3 candidates" were the flavors in the box: Baby Swiss, Cheddar Jack, and Colby.  And the "sub by code" he spoke of was the number real contest voters were supposed to text to the Cheez-It people to register their vote.

Per CJ's specs, I printed out four ballots. They looked like this ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Only vote for 1 of the following:
Baby Swiss – BSW1
Cheddar Jack – CHJ1
Colby – COL1
Write your submission by CODE here: ____________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We voted in youngest to oldest order, per CJ. After the polling was over, he fetched the box from the top of the toilet tank and brought it to the kitchen to read the results. The first ballot he pulled out was for BSW1; the second was for COL1; the third was CHJ1. The fourth ballot would be the tie breaker! (So suspenseful, isn't it?!)  And the winner was ... COLBY!!!!

Three voters chose to reveal their private picks; Annabelle voted for Colby, CJ for Cheddar Jack, I voted Baby Swiss. By process of elimination, we know that Christian voted for Colby, too, though he refuses to divulge the contents of his private ballot. :)