John Paul remains fixated on a short trip we made to an animal refuge in Jupiter last month. It was fun -- there were lots of cool animals. But that's not what John Paul remembers.

It was on the eve of Hurricane Charley's blowing past, and it was already rainy, but we went anyway. We parked the car and piled out -- myself, the boys, BazzukaJoe and Stephanie. For whatever reason, we thought the way to reach the animals was to cut through a path that led through the woods.

Wrong. We walked several hundred feet into the woods and not only did the path not lead to anything, it sort of disappeared. So we turned around. We found the animal displays behind some administrative buildings.

Not a very memorable part of the trip -- I had forgotten all about it. Until Alane asked me about it.

"When we were in Florida, did you wander lost in the woods because you missed a sign and then have to go back to see the animals?"

Apparently, John Paul decided to share the tale at great length while they drove somewhere last week. The other night, I decided to ask John Paul about it directly. I was amazed to learn just how extensive his version of the story had become.

According to John Paul, BazzukaJoe and I walked us all past a clearly marked sign that said "zoo" and had an arrow. We went in the other direction, taking us all into the woods and getting us lost.

This was a bit much -- not only did I doubt that there was a "zoo" sign, I found it highly unlikely that he saw it while we didn't. Besides, the kid's four and a half years old: he can't read.

"John Paul, if you did read a sign that said 'zoo' then you'd know how to spell that word."

I watched the gears in his head turn.

"It's spelled oh oh zee."

Okay, so he knows the letter in "zoo." And he would presumably recognize a sign that said "zoo." That place didn't call itself a zoo. And there were no signs. And we weren't lost.

And besides, he spelled "zoo" wrong!