Puppy, Lake Maria State Park, and Finally Game Shop

So the puppy has been a trial and a joy. He tends to be an absolute joy when we are around but does not under any circumstances handle being alone well. Yesterday when we went to mass with Flopper's brother and his wife he managed to pull up part of the carpet in the room we were keeping him and rip a goodly chunk of it apart. Not very fun at all. We think that we will be able to hide that damage with the brass strip one put in from of carpeting in doorways. The joys of dog ownership.

We took Elias to Lake Maria State park in South Eastern Minnesota. This particular state park was one of the last remnants of Minnesota's "Big Woods" part of the Greater "Big Woods" that I read about as a child in Ingall's "Little House in the Big Woods". I had fond memories of the book and so was excited to see this park. The canopy was made up almost entirely of white oak with some ancient birch trees in the more moist areas and a sprinkling of softwoods deciduous undergrowth. It was not a dense wood at all and we could have wandered through it without taking paths but the fear of Elias attracting tick not to mention my own dread of them prevented us from straying from the path. This park is also habitat for the endangered Barding turtle. A reclusive little marsh turtle that happens to suffer from wetland development in this state. We unfortunately did not get to see one as they spend much of their time in the reeds and mud of the bogs.

On going home I had Flopper drop me off at the game shop in town. Now as many of you know I am a consummate dork. I tend to prefer table top games and fortunately for my sanity there is a game shop in down town Saint Cloud where I can socialize. This afternoon I played two games of "settlers of Cataan" which is a rather fun resource allotments game originally designed for children but probably far to complicated for them. There are a myriad of expansions to the game but I still prefer the original.

tomorrow begins week 2 of my summer courses and I would be lying were I to say they were challenging. They are however marginally interesting in that I have never had so many liberal professors. I am taking intro Politics, intro Sociology, and finally Developmental Psychology in order of least to most difficult. The things I'll do to be employed.

~Eikon