A Chocolate Moose for Dinner...

It's no secret that I love to read...some (for instance my husband) have even been known to suggest that I am a nerd, and I'm afraid I can't dispute it, so this story should come as no surprise.

Saturday morning Charlie and I made our regular trip to the library -- just in time to not incur fines -- in pursuit of a book about "chocolate".  Each visit he picks a topic, and we try to find at least one related book -- usually it's trucks or dogs or boys, fairly easy stuff, but this week he picked chocolate (a bit of Halloween influence, perhaps?).

Anyway, after selecting his other five books and having no luck finding anything about chocolate or candy (after all, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is still a bit advanced...at least until he's three...), I broke down and used the library computer system.  Now, I am a fairly computer literate person, but I just hate learning new software -- especially when I don't find it user-friendly and I'm responsible for the two year old running around pulling books off shelves, so I just went for the first non-cookbook I found.

A Chocolate Moose for Dinner sounded like a "Children's" book, but was in fact in the "Youth" section (who knew that even existed?!), so we actually had to use the call number and everything.  Our struggle was worth it though, because Charlie loved the cover -- and isn't that really the most important part?

So, after suffering our first library wound (paper cut with blood and everything), we headed out for a birthday party.  As we drove down Trolley Road I found myself amazed that Jason would rather spend his morning fishing in frigid 30 degree temperatures than corralling a 2 year old at the library -- clearly we are a well-balanced couple.

Anyway, a few hours later Charlie and I sat down to read A Chocolate Moose for Dinner, and as we paged through I found it extremely familiar...and then we turned to the undertoe page and it hit me -- I had checked this very same book out of the Johnson County Public Library some 30 years ago, for the very same reason -- it was about "chocolate"!  And not only that, the illustration of human toes sticking up in the surf still pops into my head whenever I hear someone mention an undertoe at the beach!

I really can't explain why this was so exciting for me...maybe because Charlie's and my minds think alike, maybe because he will have some of the same picture images in his head as I have in mine, maybe just because it made me feel young... I don't know, but it was quite the nerdy delight!