Bones

As you know, we've been studying the human body. This week we are learning about bones. It took a while to cut out the many pieces of skeleton that took a while to print out.

And while the paper model is nice, but it is hardly a substitute for an actual skeleton. You know, to see how those joints fit together and move and all that. It kind of makes a homeschooling mother wish someone would drop a skeleton off on the doorstep.

Well, sometimes things work out. While we didn't have one dropped off, we had the next best thing. One of the bonuses of having a husband who works as a university is that universities sometimes build new buildings. New science buildings. And it seems that when you have a brand-new science building, you don't want to put old equipment in the shiny new building. Instead you leave it behind in the old rooms, waiting around for someone to decide what to do with it. Or, until another person comes walking by and notices that some useful equipment is just sitting around and knows the person to ask. 

This is the reason why if you were walking around the campus where J. works yesterday evening, you would have seen a man trying to carry a skeleton that didn't seem to be cooperating. (The skeleton is not in the most pristine shape and didn't want to roll quietly along on his stand.) J. is pretty sure at least a couple of people did some double takes. But J. persevered, and after figuring out how to fold the skeleton into the back seat of the car, arrived home to surprise everyone with this...

Meet our new family member whom we are affectionately calling Gomez. (You know, from the Addams Family?) He has seen a few better days. As you can tell from this picture, he is missing his right hand, and he has a little jaw trouble. As in, his jaw has a tendency to fall out.

So people are needing to put it back.

Which causes either an extreme over-bit or under-bit.

He also is a little sticky and needs a good cleaning. And I think he walked in something dirty at some point judging from the state of his feet.

Gomez has proven very popular already, though K. isn't so sure he wants to be in the kitchen alone with the fellow.

So thank you, thank you to my husband's university who so nicely agreed to let us be Gomez's new caretakers.