The Curious Case of the Disappearing Crab

A photo Jason snapped from our back door of the stormy skies. I love it when it gets like this, and it has been looking like this a lot lately, so I'm a lucky girl!

Being chased in by the storm. They're looking back at that dark mess in the sky!

Today, Leify helped Momma clean the bathroom. Here he is a scrubbin' and a wipin' down the sink.

He had a rough night last night - with the start of school (not him, but all the local kids), a new slew of germs has been brought homeside. And no sooner does school start, but little Leify gets sick. He has a lot of icky cold symptoms, and now he has a fever. Waah.

The Curious Case of the Disappearing Crab

Yesterday, we put our crab traps back in the water after nearly a summer-long hiatus. We had run out of bait and hadn't had time to get the cast net out to catch more. So, silly us, we missed the best crabbing of the year. But ah, well, we're back on track now.

After baiting the traps and tossing them in last night, Jason and Leif went out this morning to check to see if we'd gotten anything. When they came in, I asked Leif how many crabs they'd caught and he held four fingers up. Then he looked at his hand and stuck out his thumb for five.

They put the bucket of crabs in the kitchen for me to cook them up later in the day, and during the day, one escaped. I saw him get out, and immediately puttering the scampering crab back in to the bucket.

Late in the afternoon, I went to put Leif down for a nap after a late lunch. I read two books to him in bed, then told him stories (about Leify, of course!) as is our tradition. Since we'd all had a rough night, I fell asleep right beside him.

A couple of hours later, we both woke up and got to our day again. I went to the kitchen after a bit and decided to cook the crabs. I looked in the bucket and counted four. I blinked. I counted four again. Hmn...something was amiss.

So, Leif and I grabbed the crab tongs and hand in hand, walked around the house, calling, "Craaaab, where are you?" and Leif branded his own call, "Show yourself, Crab!"

After searching the whole house with no results, we headed back to the kitchen. I was all glum because I knew that crab would die if left in the house, and create a giant stink when he did. I was not looking forward to that!

As we were walking back, I had the idea to look under the armoire, which had been pulled away from the wall so we could scrape, prime and paint the walls.

So, I looked under the back of the armoire and this is what I saw:

I lightened the pic up a lot so you could see the crab. It was dark under there!

Anyway, we grabbed a dowel from the armoire and used it to get him out, grabbing him with the tongs when he came out in to the open.

That is our adventure of a day! Have a good weekend!