One never knows how cool their house is til they show it to a 7-year-old

After a middling showing at a chemistry quiz last night, Doctor Octagon gave me the ceremonial ride home. On the way he picks up Squirt, so I get a little bit of kid-time in, which is nice. As he pulled up at my house, I realized that Squirt hadn't seen our chickens. I took him to the house to give a quick show-around before they took off.

Walking with him through the house, I realized that this place is pretty dam cool. Squirt's eyes darted here to there; the purple walls, the Peruvian angel icon paintings, forged iron Minora, and orchids in bloom. He wasn't super into the orchids until I told him that they were deep forest plants, growing on tree branches in steaming jungles in the amazon and such. His eyes got wide and he took new interest.

We walked out back to say hi to The Girls. They were just roosting up. I warned him the inside of the coop may be stinky -- he pinched his nose shut and went right in. The Muppet impressed him the most, which is only right. As we went back into the house, I pointed out the straw bales I use for archery target backstops. His eyes just about bugged out of his head.

"You have bows and awwows?" (he's not so hot on the hard "r" sound just yet)

"Yeah, wanna see?"

His look said -- "do I wanna see... HELL YES I WANNA SEE!"

I showed him the hickory flatbow I made. Showed him some arrows... he fondled them and was lost in his imagination. It was just too cool for words. He was absolutely mesmerized. The reality of it struck him I think. In his world -- full of Pokeman and Superheroes -- all weapons are made of ice or metal and shoot flames or acid or butterflies. The simple woodiness of this bow, its heft and size kind of stunned the little guy. I strung it for him, and he twanged the string -- still lost in some newly-created fantasy world in his head.

Before he left, Squirt decided to run around our house and count all the "gardens." He came up with 16 -- get that, we have 16 gardens at our house, does that rock or what? I kinda tried to explain that a separate part of a big garden is called a "bed" but I could tell it was starting to harsh his buzz -- so I relented. "Yep, 16 gardens, pretty cool eh?"

So there you have it -- our house is full of superhero weaponry, little feathered prehistoric monster beings, and 16 gardens! Who woulda thunk it.

ps: I did a Google search for "Dr. Octagon and Squirt" to get a possible image for the supervillan sidekick, and the first place selection was my own dam blog, the infamous Utopian Bathroom and chemistry study group post. That's kinda... wow.