While we are on the subject of our family name, Frank noted that we have our own deodorant line. You might have heard of it. At one time, he had presented his thoughts on our name. Entitled, “The Center of Axecellence and that’s no Axecrement”, he went on to Axeclaim, “You’ve heard of the Axis of Evil, well, we’re the Axes of Good.” Anne mentioned that Dan’s second grade teacher once marked the word axe misspelled, because he had spelled it with an e. When Anne met with the teacher, she could offer no reasonable Axeplanation.

This morning, after we dropped Dan off at the train station in Salinas, Dave, Anne and I went to Pacific Grove. Anne wanted to visit a yarn store to get some advice on her current project. She had been knitting on it merrily until she discovered that she had made a mistake. Then she had to tink. Tink is knit spelled backwards, which is what she does, when she unravels what she had already knitted. After she got her advice, she bought more yarn as payment. 😉

The photos with this post were taken outside the Hopkins Marine Station. It is the marine laboratory of Stanford University. Located adjacent to the Monterey Aquarium, just west of Cannery Row in Monterey, this marine research and educational facility also harbors seals during pupping season. A cyclone fence keeps the public out year around, but during pupping season this fence is lined with a tarp. The tarp is supposed to provide the seals some measure of privacy during this delicate stage. Unfortunately, for the seals, the paparazzi were not detoured by a canvas-covered fence. One could hold a camera over the fence.