Pre-schoolers reminisce about pet rodent

Marbles the Rat is no more. The furry mascot of Cottage Childcare and Learning in Post Falls didn’t recover from a recent severe illness. And is now buried behind the shed, with a flower designating the tiny grave. The pre-schoolers marked their pet’s passing by offering their comments, which were duly compiled and sent home to parents on an 8-by-11-inch sheet of paper. Youngster Cooper, for example, believes matters would have turned out differently had Marbles the Rat bothered to get a flu shot. “Now,” writes Cooper, Marbles “is playing with Jesus and every other rat in heaven. Maybe they’re playing Candyland.” Molly also has a fun-and-games view of heaven, where Marbles and God are now playing “Rememory.” Tannis, another pre-schooler, sees a silver lining in Marbles’ demise: “I don’t like it that she died, but she’s in heaven with Kelly (my dog). Kelly is licking her.” Cadan, meanwhile, commented bluntly, “Marbles is gone and dead.” No sugar coating there.

Accurate prediction

I recall three things about the 1997 Mr. CHS competition: 1. My son, Seth, participated, although he was sick; 2. He and senior classmate Steve Pilkington performed a dyne-oh!-mite rendition of the Spartan Cheerleaders from “Saturday Night Live,” and 3. His succinct answer to the question posed to him by a student moderator: “What are you going to be doing in 10 years?” Seth answered: “I plan to be a doctor and have a family.” He missed his goal by a year. On March 7, I enjoyed the rare privilege of watching Seth defend his dissertation in neuroscience at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. His thesis title was as complicated as his 45-minute introductory comments before six of the school’s top professors: “Localized Calcineurin Controls L-type Ca-2+ Channel Activity and Nuclear Signaling.” Ah, it’s something to do with brain signals. His successful defense concluded the research phase of an eight-year MD/PhD program in Denver. Eighteen months from now, he’ll finish medical school, adding the MD to his research doctorate. His wife, Stephanie, began work as a registered nurse at a children’s hospital this month. Why am I telling you all this? Sometimes, a dad has to brag.

Huckleberries

Adding insult to injury, Sara Anderson of the Moscow blog, F-Words, recently survived brain surgery – to find a jury summons waiting when she returned home. A note from her doctor got her excused … Quotable Quote: “I get a little cranky when I see thugs running around, and I can’t sip my cocktail through my sippy-cup in public. Bust the bad dudes and not the cool ones, like any guy whose pants are not on above the butt-crack, start with them!” – Berry Picker CoeurGenX re: downtown CdA police patrols … Mark of the Moose? A Seattle Mariners fan was shaken somewhat when she spotted that green Mercury Sable at Appleway and Ramsey Road Tuesday – you know, the one with an M’s license holder and the Kootenai license number “666” … Yeah, that was Mindy Newby, of the jogging Vern Newby family, and a galpal, in party hats and fairy wings, trotting past Independence Point a week ago to celebrate Mindy’s 24th birthday. Kerri Thoreson/OnLocation North Idaho snapped the action for her blog.

Parting shot

“Peeps are one of the most versatile foods of any holiday,” said Berry Picker JoeB during a Huckleberries Online discussion of Easter candy this week. “They’re also more fun than Twinkies to observe scientifically over time. Me and co-workers used to track their life cycle when we should have been working.” First, JoeB said, the peeps are soft. Then, within a few days of being opened, they get crunchy. Then, they get rock hard. “Then,” JoeB said, “over about a two-year period, they get soft again, hard, then strangely soft again.”

I’ll stick to peanut butter cups.