The Zoo! In January!

When my husband first got me a membership to our zoo, the lovely Fort Worth Zoo, it was a Christmas present, but it was kind of delayed a little so I ended up activating it in January. This means I usually make a trip to our zoo in January each year to pick up my new membership card. Now, they changed the way they do their cards sometime last year, so I actually didn't have to go pick up a new card this year. Still, I had already planned a trip over there with the kiddo when I learned this, so I went anyway, just because it was a nice day and I hadn't been in a while.

Those of you who live around these parts will already know that it usually happens that we have a handful of incredibly nice sunny mild (sometimes warm, even) days in January. These usually occur right before we get that end of January/start of February super cold freeze accompanied by the once yearly (what passes for) snowfall in these parts. This past Tuesday was one of those nice days. It was sunny and clear, and it was a little brisk, but nothing that walking around the zoo couldn't shake off. So the kiddo and I enjoyed a nice little visit with some of the animals. We didn't check out the whole zoo, we just hit up the Museum of Living Art (MOLA), which is the really awesome redone herpetarium, as well as stopping by the penguin house. We did stop by the zebra pen on the way to let Baby Girl count the zebras like she does in her book.

That in itself was really kind of incredible. Barring the aquarium exhibits, she has usually pretty much ignored all of the animals on previous zoo trips. This time, however she was really engaged whenever we stopped to look at something, and she gave much more attention to the animals in the aquarium exhibits as well. I can't wait for spring to roll around so we can actually spend more time at the zoo. It's going to be so much fun watching her discover all of those marvelous creatures!

They have these little statues all over the zoo. I love them! Poor Baby Girl is going to hate them by the time she's six, because she will never not go to the zoo with me and be forced to be photographed with one.

Here she is checking out the fish on the other side of the aquarium, totally oblivious to that turtle by her feet.

Of course, it was pretty darn cool when she did notice him.

After which she had to make friends.

MOLA houses many, many turtles. She had fun trying to race these guys back and forth for a bit.

She wanted to be sure I saw the penguins too.

She also enjoyed hanging out with this little guy for a bit.

Before we went to the zoo, I took Baby Girl out to lunch, just the two of us. She ate all of her fruit and then went on to totally eschew her chicken fingers in favor of my chicken enchilada soup. She is getting nicer and nicer to eat out with all of the time. While we were enjoying lunch, and knowing we were heading to the zoo next, I decided that I would like to declare Tuesdays "Adventure Day" from now on. It's a day where we usually don't have too much to do in the way of chores and errands. Rather than sitting on my butt in front of the television while she runs around the house like a lunatic, I think I would like to get out of the house for a while. Go to lunch (or maybe pack a picnic) and then wander around this fair city's lovely attractions. On nice days there will always be the zoo, the park, or the botanical gardens. We also have a ton of museums around here, and I think she's getting to the age where she can really start to appreciate these kinds of things. It will be good for both of us. I'm kind of looking forward to it.

We're Sorry, But The Brain You Have Called Is Temporarily Unavailable

Hey, it's Friday! Go check out the new Gronk!

I myself am going to kick off the weekend by taking my daughter to her music class and then to the zoo. Because the zoo is awesome, guys.  Gonna see some penguins, wave at my Komodo dragons, maybe let the kiddo chase an otter or two. There are even dinosaurs to check out. Good times.

Here, have some LOLcats to make up for the lack of a substantiative post.

And last, but certainly not least, this one.

Have a stellar weekend, folks! See ya Monday.

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

Family invasion of awesome begins tomorrow, huzzah! My mom and stepfather will be getting in sometime in the early afternoon. I am really excited about their visit! Before that we have to get up crazy early to do the Fort Worth Zoo Run, and then we are having a birthday breakfast with a friend (since family will still be in town on his actual birthday). Tomorrow's gonna be a bit nuts. But it should be the fun kind of nuts. Guess I am going to bed early tonight...

I don't have too much to say today, I'm kind of distracted finishing up getting ready for company and being excited about seeing my mom again. But I do have a few random bits to send you off to your weekend.

For anyone wondering, I did indeed go get my haircut on Wednesday. I am pretty happy with how it came out. Here are the before and after shots:

Long hair...

...short hair.

This is the cycle I have been on pretty much since my sophomore year of high school. I'll grow it out for a while, get fed up with it, and then cut it short. This is the longest I have let it grow out in quite some time, however. I really did want to try to maintain it at a longer length. But summer is coming and my hair is crazy thick, and after a few warmish days I realized that, ponytail or no, that was just too much hair for a Texas summer. I normally get it cut a little shorter, actually, and then spend several months being irked that I cannot put my hair in a ponytail any more. This time I thought it out beforehand and when I went in I asked the stylist to cut it as short as she could while leaving it long enough for a ponytail, and that is exactly what I got. Problem solved. Excellent.

Oddly enough, this is also the first time in years that I have gotten the appropriate haircut for the season. Usually I leave it long during the summer and warm months (so I can pull it in the aforementioned ponytails), and then by winter I am sick of messing with it and go get it cut off. Should be interesting to see how a short-haired summer goes...well, interesting for me, I mean. I know no one else cares.

In Baby Girl news, I have discovered a new and interesting side effect to letting her have the roam of the house. She has determined that some of the toys that previously lived in her bedroom should live in the living room and vice versa. More specifically, she has decided that all of her stuffed dragons (she has many) should live in the same place.

Dragon party! With special guests Duck, T-Rex, and Turtle.
One of these things is not like the others...

She is quite adamant about this new arrangement. Wednesday night when I tried to put some of the dragons back in her bedroom during pre-bedtime cleanup, she threw a holy fit. Freaked the cat right out. He had to come sit in the bathroom on the counter during her bath where he could keep an eye on her the whole time and ensure that I was not, in fact, murdering her. Sigh. Last night went much better. I tried to sneak some of the dragons back into her bedroom, but she found them while we were still picking up and moved them back to the toy chest in the living room. I decided I could live with this new arrangement and let it be. Much happier bath time!

She also likes to carry all of the dragons around and arrange them in various spots in the house now. I was joking the other day that she was "holding court" because she had arranged all of them in a semicircle around her and was just sitting there gabbing at them. Last night, when I was trying to be sneaky about putting them away, I found she had put them all in a line in front of the front door. Dragons are indeed fierce guards, didn't ya know?

Then there was this:

Gotta keep an eye on the fridge! Except for that guy on
the end, he's apparently watching the dishwasher.

I have no idea what the duck is doing...

Anyway, you guys have a fantastic weekend! I certainly plan to.

Don't forget to check out the new Gronk! Join Gronk and Kitty for one more fantastic voyage!

Ciao!

Emerging From My Shell (For a Few Days At Least)

Man, I kind of had a busy weekend. It was very unlike me, I have to say, considering I am the first person to describe myself as a hermit.

But this past week was Spring Break in Texas, which meant two things: my husband was out of town most of the week because he was playing at South By Southwest in Austin, and my friends who are teachers were free for daytime socializing.

So, with Hubby out of town, I was glad of the chance to hang out with people. And boy did I ever.

My "weekend" actually started on Thursday, when one of my friends came into town for lunch and she and Baby Girl and I enjoyed a fine meal at Riscky's BBQ (yum). If I am rating restaurants solely on the quality of their sweet tea (which I have been known to do), Riscky's is way, way up there, I have to say. Though I feel I must also mention that we decided to indulge in dessert (a first for me at this particular establishment, actually), and the carrot cake was also absolutely fantabulous. Even Baby Girl enjoyed it. After lunch, we hung at my house and played with Baby Girl in the backyard for a bit before walking up to Sonic. It was just too nice to stay indoors.

Friday I met up at the Fort Worth Zoo with a couple who are both teachers and who have a son a few weeks younger than Baby Girl. They had initially wanted to try going on Wednesday, which is half-price admission day, but I am thankful that we decided to move the trip to Friday instead. It was bonkers crazy crowded enough then! We mostly had a good time, wisely deciding to hit up the Texas Wild portion of the zoo at the start of our trip. It's in the very back of the zoo, and since we got there at opening and headed to the back first, it was not that crowded until we started making our way back to the rest of the zoo. But none of the three of us are very good with large crowds, and so we were quite quickly drained of energy and didn't hit up too many exhibits after that. We did get to check out the new outdoor addition to the penguin exhibit, and that was kind of awesome. Of course, then Baby Girl had something of a meltdown, which was less awesome. She desperately wanted just to push her stroller around and when I tried to put her back in it, she did not approve. Sigh. Usually I let her have a bit more free reign and wander around more when we go there, but usually there are not nearly so many other people we have to look out for, and she made it very clear that she did not appreciate not getting her way. She eventually calmed down once we started making our way through MOLA (Museum of Living Art, it is a really, really cool exhibit). But it was a pretty exhausting morning for all of us. Still, gotta love the zoo.

Baby Girl tries to catch some fish.

She enjoyed exploring the interactive displays.

Saturday was Super Social Day, to be sure. My super awesome mother-in-law came over to stay with Baby Girl and I got to go out and have some not-Mommy time. I met up with the friend I had lunch with on Thursday as well as three other friends at Grapevine Mills mall and we all had an absolutely fantastic lunch. Then we bummed around the mall for a bit (I found a super cute pair of flip-flops for Baby Girl for only $3. Okay, so I had a little bit of Mommy time).

Later that afternoon, three of us went to see the movie Paul and absolutely loved it. Seriously, this movie was hilarious. I was laughing pretty much the whole time. Almost as awesome as the good time with my friends and the incredible movie? The AMC at Grapevine now has a bar and kitchen--which means they now have iced tea! I was thrilled to learn this, as even as we were walking into the theater I was bemoaning the fact that there aren't enough theaters that sell iced tea. There really, really aren't. But now there is at least one more.

Yesterday was much more relaxed, though there was still some socializing. I slept in until I absolutely had to get Baby Girl up, and woke up to find my husband in bed with me (yay) as the band had taken a bus to South By and ridden home after the last gig Saturday night. I let him sleep in until I absolutely had to get him up for lunch purposes, and until then I hung out with Baby Girl and began watching the BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice (featuring Colin Firth, yum). While doing that I also picked up my Doctor Who scarf and made a pretty good deal of progress on it.

After lunch, Hubby's brother stopped by to say hi and visit with Baby Girl, and some of our friends (the couple I had enjoyed lunch with on Saturday but who had not been able to stay for the movie) stopped by as well to visit a little (and see Baby Girl). They walked to Sonic with us, and barring a few issues when our order was delivered (unsweet tea is a horrid, horrid thing, especially when you are expecting sugary goodness), it was a lovely way to wrap up the afternoon.

The evening was spent in much the same manner as the morning--with Baby Girl, my knitting, and Jane Austen. There was, of course, some tea involved. I could hardly be watching such a British show and making such a British thing as a Doctor Who scarf without having a good cup of tea, could I? Baby Girl thought she should be able to have a cup of tea as well (actually, she wanted my cup of tea), but I managed to distract her so I could drink it in relative peace.

All in all, I think it was a fantastic (and long) weekend. Now I am looking forward to a rather more normal and quiet week. Let's just see if that happens, shall we?

Distraction By Animals

So, I know I promised you a book review, and I am working on that, but it is not looking like it will happen today.  You may be asking why, and lucky for you, I will tell you.  Because today I went to the zoo.  A friend of mine that just recently moved out of state is back in town for the weekend with her son and so we decided to get together this morning and go to the Fort Worth Zoo.  Oh it was glorious.  I love the zoo.  I love zoos period.  My favorite place on the entire planet is the St. Louis Zoo.  Which is awesome.  And free.  But I digress.  I offer up for you some of the highlights of the trip, in photo form.  Enjoy.

Baby Girl finds the Wooden Fence Exhibit fascinating.

A kangaroo that is actually out and about (usually they are all hanging out along the very back wall of their exhibit).

Lions in all of their majesty.

Baby Girl watches the penguins swim around.

The white tiger strikes a pose.

A goat plotting his escape from the petting zoo.

I don't think I'd be half so set on never leaving Fort Worth if I didn't love the zoo here so much.  A good zoo is an important thing. 

It's not all just cute animals and babies though folks, I also have a few links for you to fun things I found this week. 

Here's a nifty article about ten television series you should watch on DVD now that they've ended their run and have been released in full.  I find it very interesting that out of the shows on this list that I haven't seen, only one of them isn't on my list of series I'd like to watch someday (or already in my Netflix queue). 

And Jo Walton over at Tor.com has a nifty theory on what sometimes happens to books you love when you don't reread them for a while.  Jo Walton has a few books out, one series of which has been described as Jane Austen with dragons, which I totally want to read.  I love her articles on Tor, so I can't wait to actually read one of her actual stories, her writing style just makes me happy. 

And lastly, I will close up by taking the opportunity to tell you about a wonderful little webcomic called Gronk.  This is an absolutely adorable story about a monster who decides she doesn't want to be a monster and so heads off for our part of town.  She is found by a human who takes her in and it follows this new family as they try to adjust to each other.  It's drawn by Katie Cook who has a wonderful artistic style and who is clearly all kinds of awesome, because not only has she done licensed work for Marvel and DC, but she's also done licensed Star Wars art as well.  I mean, come on.  Anyhoo, check it out if you get a chance.  It's only been going for a few months and is just a once a week update, so there's not too much to catch up on, but what is there is pure win.  Today's strip is an excellent example.

And on that note, fair readers, I bid you adieu.  There's some darkspawn in the Deep Roads just begging to have me destroy them.