That was knot fun!

Mark's Cub Scout meetings always prove very entertaining. Last night was no exception.

The boys worked on knot-tying. They each got a length of rope and strict instructions not to tie said rope around their necks. Of course, they immediately did just that.

There were also some Boy Scouts present -- older brothers who'd been recruited for their knot-tying abilities. But instead of teaching the younger boys, they scampered around the room, jumping on and off a target on the floor.

The dads leading the activity lined the boys up. One had a long rope, tied to the end of a bag. He showed the boys how to loop the rope around their elbow and hand, then swing it gently, tossing the bag at the target. The Boy Scouts were dodging the bag, and one mother suggested THEY be the targets -- "Moving targets are more fun to hit!"

The father said that wasn't a good idea.

"Why?" the mom asked.

"Because the bag is full of ROCKS!" he answered.

So it was agreed that the (non-moving) paper target on the ground was, indeed, good enough.

The boys took turns hitting the target. After the first kid threw the bag, the dad realized the "wall" in front of them was really windows. "OK everybody, go line up on the other side of the room!" he said. "We're throwing toward the chalkboard instead!"

Mark did really great -- he hit the target dead-on the first time, and came pretty close the second time. (As he was wrapping the rope around his arm, I noticed his arms were FILTHY -- seriously, they were black with dirt! I was mortified -- he'd washed his hands before dinner, but obviously not his arms.)

After the target toss was over, the boys moved to a table. The Boy Scouts had stopped scampering and started teaching. Unfortunately, they'd forgotten which knots were which.

"...And that's how you tie a double-knot," ended one Boy Scout.

"No, that's a square knot!" corrected another.

"No, a square knot looks like this...Hey Dad, how do you tie a square knot again?"

The dad came over to teach the life-saving knot (sorry, I can't remember the technical name!). You use this knot to create a loop to toss at someone who's drowning, and pull them safely to shore. After watching the boys' loops fall apart numerous times, I realized I was probably gonna die if I fell in the lake.

Next, the dad placed some chairs upside down on the desk and asked who'd ever watched any Western movies.

The boys stared at him blankly; no hands raised.

He tried again. "I mean, cowboy movies...who's ever seen a cowboy movie?"

This time all the hands shot up, along with a chorus of, "I have! I did! TONS of them!"

The dad smiled. "OK, good. You know how the cowboys always tie up their horses? Well, we're gonna tie our ropes like that now. Pretend the chair is the hitching post, and you're tying up your horses."

The boys loved that! They tied their little hearts out, until one of the chairs fell off the desk.

"You just crushed your horse," I told one boy. He shrugged and ran off with his rope.

Then it was time for another reminder NOT to tie any nooses around your necks, or you would be on a time-out in the corner with the Boy Scout who'd already done so. There was a quick release of nooses around necks, which was followed by a new reminder NOT to whip the ropes all around. I'm beginning to think Cub Scouts is kind of a dangerous activity!

The last activity of the night was to perform a magic trick with the rope. One Cub Scout demonstrated this by crossing his arms and grabbing the opposite ends of his rope with his arms still crossed. He then slowly pulled the rope through his arms, and we watched the rope pull into a knot.

The boys LOVED that! They immediately stopped the nooses and whippings to try.

The poor dad leading the activity looked wiped out by then. "Is it time for snack yet?" he pleaded, so we put him out of his misery and called snack time.

The boys dropped their ropes and ran to the snack table. It was my turn, so I'd brought Pirate's Booty, Go-Gurts and Fruit Falls (flavored water pouches with only 2 carbs).

They devoured the Go-Gurts immediately. I watched one little guy shotgun three yogurt tubes in a row. "My tongue is numb," he told me after the last one.

He then implored, "Can I have another one?"

"Ask your mom," I said. "I don't want you to get a stomach ache!"

She said no, but I saw him downing another one later.

Another kid handed me his drink and said he didn't want it. "It tastes like mucus," he told me.

"OK, throw it out then,"I said.

But I obviously didn't give him the reaction he wanted, because he repeated himself, very slowly. "It tastes like muuu-cussss!"

He didn't realize I have an 8-year-old of my own, and these things don't phase me. "Then throw it aaaaa-waaaayyy," I replied, with the same inflection.

And so ended another fun den meeting. The kids cleaned up the room, collected their ropes and headed home for baths. And I headed off giggling, and checking off another skill Mark completed in the Cub Scout book.