Awesome.

Yesterday, my husband and I spent the day at the beach with my niece (4) and my nephew (8).  (Technically, they are my great-niece and -nephew, but that makes me sound a lot older than I am, so we'll just call them my niece and nephew) and their mom and dad (my actual nephew).  My husband had his kayak up on a grassy area above the beach, and everyone except for my niece and me were down playing in the water.  She was playing in the kayak, and I was watching her.  A man came up to us with his dog, Ola (who is featured in the video below) and he had a kid's book (complete with CD) with him that he said he wrote about his cat, Checkers, who was rescued from an animal shelter.  He asked me if my niece would be interested in it.  I said she might but that I didn't have any cash.  If he wanted to wait around for the others to come up out of the water, they might, but he said not to worry about it-just give him five bucks the next time I see him, whipped out his pen, and made the book out to my niece and nephew.  We went down the beach to show my niece's mom the book, and when I looked back up, the man was leaving a little bouquet of flowers on the kayak.  Aww!   

I'm sorry, but I can't recall the exact name of the book, and I can't seem to find it on line.  I think it's Motorboat Kitty, but that might not be quite right.  I'll try to find out and get that information updated. **6/16/09-Edited to add that the name of the book IS Motorboat Kitty, but I don't have any other information on it at this time.

The man's name is John Orr, and here he is on YouTube singing a song that his dog, Ola, helped to write (just watch, you'll see).  He also shapes surf boards and has surfed with some big names in surfing (Cheyne Horan or Eddie Aikau anyone?)  Some of this information is in the back of his book, and some of it I found on line.  He certainly wasn't bragging about it when I met him on the beach.