He Said – Fool Moon

Over Thanksgiving Saturday, while down visiting my parents, Cora, Gwen, Mom, Dad, & I went over to the village of East Davenport, Iowa. It's a quaint section of town with little shops. It includes and art / frame store, Woodland Gallery, where my mom & dad have done some shopping.

They have gotten a few P. Buckley Moss prints framed, including this one:

They also had a fabulous picture of a young Native American woman, refreshing herself in a mountain pool with a big water fall behind her. It was a bit like if you merged these pictures:

I kept telling Cora we hadn't decorated our bedroom yet. She wasn't buying it. In any sense of that phrase.

While we were in there shopping, Cora kept picking up this Christmas ornament and admiring it.

She kept looking at it.

Laughing about it.

Showing to every one.

Putting it back down.

Well, the shopkeeper distracted her with a box of Pixies, and a plan formed in my brain. While she and and Gwen were off looking at pictures in one section of the store, I casually walked over to my dad, and said, "Don't say anything, just hand me the keys."

Keys pocketed, I grabbed the ornament box, and tried to find the another one so that if she went back, my secret wouldn't be blown.

No luck. This was the last one. Bauble in hand, I went to the owner, and told him that it was a gift for my wife, and I needed to get this done FAST before she missed me. After he rang me up, I hustled the gift out to my bag in the car, safely stashed.

I'm a sneak.

I returned to the store, and she didn't notice a thing. Whenever we were back in that section of the store, I positioned myself so that she would not really walk past the end of the table where it had been. Eventually, we left the store, and I had pulled it off.

Sunday, when we got back, I snuck the Fool Moon onto her tree. (Yes, there is "Her tree", "My tree", and "Gwen's tree". You got a problem with that?) I was going to wait for her to see it, but I couldn't hold out.

I'm weak.

With the goose hanging right below a mini version of an arcade Pac-Man, I called Cora over to show me how to make it work. She looked at me a little confused. Like she could smell that I was up to something, but couldn't exactly make out what I was up to. So, she fiddled with the Pac-Man, pushed a few buttons, and the famous little Pac-Man ditty started up.

And then I asked her to do it again, but to look 2 inches down and to the right. (Taken out of context, that sentence sound a bit naughty, doesn't it?)

This was followed by a couple little jumps, hand claps, and a sustained squeal of joy.

Papa done good. :-)

To read Cora's take on this, go to HER BLOG.