Dinner and a lesson on anatomy all rolled up in one little package.

I tried this thing today, where you cook a whole chicken in a crock pot without any liquid.  It's supposed to be like rotissery chicken.  I guess it did turn out like rotissery chicken, except that there isn't really a way to crisp up the skin.  That doesn't really bother me because I don't eat chicken skin, I discard it.  (I don't even like to think about chicken skin.  For this reason, and others, I don't often cook animals that are whole.  And by "don't often" I mean I've never done it before.  I've been around when a Thanksgiving turkey has been cooked, but that's it.)  Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  As I was pulling the extra meat off the bones, I realized that this particular chicken had exquisite vertabrae.  So I showed them to Frank & Elise and showed them how they move together to let us bend and twist.  We looked at the little hole running through the middle of each one where the spinal cord is housed.  We looked at the other bones too, but the miniature little vertabrae were so so cool.   It was kind of fun, and it made me want to take up the habit of occasionally cooking a chicken.  We could even keep statistics on who wins the wishbone war each time.  And there's another justification for two kids:  no one feels left out when they don't get to pull on the wishbone.  (Don't mind me, I'm just always looking for a reason to feel good about my choices.)

p.s. Additional princess dresses coming soon...  two are in the finishing stages of production.  I've got to sew on a zipper and some trim, a couple of bows, and I need to hem one skirt.  Then they'll be ready...  After that I've got three more prom dresses to work on, though admittedly, I might be getting bored of this new obsession.  We'll see how long it lasts.