Field Trip Season

Hopefully I'll have at least one usable photo of our field trip today. We'll see. I do TRY to take decent pictures, but, you know...

We took two classes of fifth graders on an hour long trip to Sacramento (our state capital) to visit Old Sacramento and the Railroad museum (by the way, if you get the chance to visit the Railroad museum -- AWESOME!!!)

This time I got to sit at the back of the bus and be the dampening influence on the rowdy bunch. Yippee. And the bus had a distinct tendency to jounce (especially at the rear end of the bus) which got to be very interesting after a while. The nice thing about fifth graders is that they still somewhat obey the voice of authority. Somewhat. Especially when it comes from a body the same size as theirs.

Next year, I'll have a bigger problem being proper parental authority when they are definitely bigger than I am. But then, for a bunch of these kids (mainly the boys) I either have worked with them in Cub Scouts, know their moms (horrors... and I can tell tales on them :) ) or I can use my bony heels on them to good advantage and no one is about to tell the teacher on me.

Or.... or.... or.... I could start wearing five inch heels. Nah. That's never gonna happen.

I will try and check the pictures I took with my phone later to see what came out. But I can't really do it right away as the NEXT field trip is TOMORROW.

Luckily, that field trip is closer to home, and it is with son number two and the much sunnier, sillier bunch of third graders. I can still face them down any day. Hopefully, I'll take incriminating pictures there too.

Wish me luck.

Buck Euchre.... a game for swingers!

You can't really see it well from this picture, but the group around the card table are all dressed in their....

birthday suits.

Yup, this is one swinging book from the 1970's where playing games is SO MUCH FUN because everone is Nekkid!

Or.... everyone is GOING TO BE Nekkid sooner or later...and of course that leads to other fun.

(in groups, no less).

How 70's can you get.

The heart of the book is a game manual on the specifics of Euchre, an offshoot / variation on the card game Bridge.

But lo, this book is not written in tech speak and diagrams (like those you see in the newspaper....actually, come to think of it, I haven't seen Omar Sharif's bridge column in a while ... maybe that sort of thing is long gone).

At any rate, no, this is not tech speak but a fictional dialogue (probably not Platonic) between players as they....enjoy.... the game.

Here's part of the flap blurb:

"Just what is buck euchre? A card game for four participants, similar to bridge, and somewhat more exciting! But this is no mere description of the game. This is an entertaining - and rather quite bawdy - learning experience! The book's format is most unusual. The game is explained in a dialogue between two characters whose risque humor helps to make the game come alive."

I couldn't help myself.

I had to post it.

Enjoy.