Fun Weekend

Friday night we went to SF for Leslie's (friend, not brother) birthday. Vicki gave Marc a lift to my work and the three of us drove up together. Dinner was at Espetus, a Brazilian churrascaria. It was basically all you could eat meat, for $35. They brought out hunks of meat on skewers and cut it for you at the table. Really yummy - they even had roasted pineapple on skewers that was sooo good. We washed it down with some red and white sangria, and topped it off with dessert.

Saturday I got up early as it was sheep shearing day down on the farm, and I'd volunteered to help wrangle sheep. Bandit and I got there early, and Marc joined us later. The day is a whole event, and they actually have more than just shearing demonstrations - they have blacksmithing, wool spinning, woodworking, and a tour of all the restored tractors. Marc and I even bought some local honey.

The shearing is the coolest though - the guy who does it is sort of a wiry guy, but he's got to have a heck of a back, because he grabs the sheep (and they can weigh 100-300 pounds) and flips its on its back, and goes to work, and he does this all himself. And for a lot of sheep! It's cool, because the wool comes off in one big fleece.

There were a bunch of lambs from the spring too, and one of them was in a pen next to me while I was taking some pictures. I don't know what it was thinking, but it suddenly decided it wanted to try to jump out of the pen, but instead of clearing the wire fence, its head went through one of the squares, and it flipped over the fence with its head and leg stuck. So I did the only thing I could do, which was to grab its body and hold it up until reinforcements arrived. Luckily, we got it loose, and it didn't seem any worse for wear.

And it's really sort of typical behavior for sheep, which aren't the smartest creatures in the world. In fact, another sheep did a similar thing later that day, and Marc had to hop over a very shaky metal fence to help hold it up while we cut its foot loose.

There was also a lamb which had gotten separated from its mother (and actually, the lambs were really funny, because they'd run right past their own mothers after the mothers had been sheared - they didn't recognize them!). This lamb was walking all over, going, "Maaaa-om" all day. We finally located its mom, and we tried to usher the lamb into the same pen, but it wouldn't cooperate. So I finally went and grabbed its rear legs like a wheelbarrow until Jan came over and the two of us walked it in.

We had a barbecue for lunch, and Bandit and I were supposed to do a sheep dog demo, but we had to go home before we got a chance to.

Later that afternoon, our new 180 gallon acrylic tank was delivered! This thing is a beaut. It measures 6'x2'x2', and is made with 1/2" acrylic, and 1" acrylic on the top. The builder dropped it off, and then drilled all the necessary holes in it right in our garage. I'm going to try to take some pictures tonight.

Sunday we went and had lunch with my parents and brothers for Mother's Day. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and doing chores. The "West Wing" series finale was on, so we watched that (I don't even want to talk about the Sharks game). Marc insists that if we ever have kids, and we have a boy, he wants to name him Josiah (after President Bartlet). I insist that he has completely lost his mind.

You know what's funny though? Josiah ranks in the upper 100's for most popular baby names, while Bonnie is in the 900's. Still, there is no way I am naming my kid Josiah.