Very Full Sunday
It's been a pretty good day. B's turn to make the big family Sunday Dinner. I bought an apple pie for dessert, so my day is as free as I want it to be.
M & I went out to look at Fox Lake estates(?) subdivision, to at least do a drive-by of the 4-family condos and the single-family homes. I repeatedly come to the conclusiuon that subdivisions by and large, are more densley populated then where I want to live. And I just don't think condos are the right fit for us. Much as I would love a care-free exterior to my house, I think I would be unhappy if I didn't have at least a small garden to putter in. Especially, since I want trees both bonzai little, and maturely full grown. I tried going a slightly different way home and of course got "lost" as in I had to pull out the gazetteer to figure out where we were. Turns out I went W on Hwy59 when I would swear that turning right should have taken us E. Oh well. We ended up driving through the tiny town of Wales which I much enjoyed and and some P named Corners. Both had nice topography and are at the outer boundary of how far I'm willing to commute in to work. So I will investigate further.
Came home for a break while M called TX Aunt & Uncle. I read my new Liaden book whil she chatted. Then we went for our walk at the zoo. Of particular note this week: We have two new yearling Rhea birds in the South American yard. At first we thought they were baby ostriches, but they didn't look quite right for that. Then we saw the sign that said new Rheas, from the DC zoo. The youngest alpaca was making a game out of chasing the Rheas (Sophie and Liz?). It's the most energy we've ever seen in the S.A. yard, ever. All the alpacas running, with the younger ones doing quite a bit of bouncing (boing, boing, boing); rheas squaking in protest and much flapping of wings and running, slipping and sliding on their part. They are *not* graceful birds. All the while, there is a handfull of male peacocks displaying for one semi-interested female, who was also displaying her tail feathers, something else I'd never seen before. But whenever the alpacas took off, it was like flipping a vocal switch on the pea fowl and all of the boys would start yelling, preceded by a single loud honk. (I love that honk!) With all of the squaking, honking, helping-yelling (that's what peacock calls sound like) it was near deafening at times if funny to watch. Finally a keeper had to step in to calm the alpacas down, because the rheas were getting too stressed. It was only their second time out in the yard. Talking to teh keeper, we found out that our biggest breeding male, Sooner, is being shipped off to an alpaca farm tomorrow, and we will be getting a new male, with some different colors, to diversify our herd both chromatically and genetically. Currently our males are white with black backs & rumps, and our females are either solid white (a non-bnreeder) or solid chocolate brown. I guess the new male will have light brown coloring.
Over in the polar bear area, both bears were out, and I wish, wish, wish! I'd brought my camera! Our guest male, whose name has escaped me for the moment, had apparently very recently gone for a swim, and then immediately afterward went for a roll in the sand-pit. He was completely brown-sugar brown. It was amazing. Peopel actually were wondering why we had a brown bear, grizzly bear, or some other kind of bear in the polar bear display. (People, people, people, a polar bear could be purple and still be distinctly a polar bear simply by its shape!) We also noticed that he was limping pretty severly on his left front foot, only walking on his finerger tips, instead of his whole hand (corelating to our anatomy). The vet was standing there and she said that he basically has tennis elbow. That it's been chronic since he's been with us. But it does come & go. Both Goldiebug and I know exactly how he feels! Lily, on the other hand...er paw, wasn't the least bit phased or impressed by her guest's odd looks, and when he limped over to her for some attention, she gave him a kiss on the nose (or maybe a bite on the face), depends on your perspective.
Other then that, things were normal. The Moose and Black-tailed deer were napping,the Alaskan brown bear Boris was feeling his oats, and charging all over his enclosure, while Aurora watched lazily from the hammock. Ruth & Brittany were feeling spunky, too. They were just coming out into the yard after a clean-up break. Ruth ran out grabbing multiple flakes of hay and willow branches as she hot-footed it over to the Baoboa tree. Brittany came more slowly, also picking up flakes as she moseyed over to the cement tree, where she proceeded to take away several of Ruth's flakes as Ruth turned her back and tried cramming as much willow leaves into her mouth as she could. Brittany didn't go after the willow, so Ruthfinally calmed down a bit while she peeled bark off the fatter parts of the branches. Brittany can be a real bully, often insisting that there is nothing that Ruth can have that she, Brittany, can't take away from her.
After the zoo we came back home and had a little reading time before dinner. B made fabulous stragganoff for dinner. Yummy!! Afterwards, M did my hair, then we watched the Amazing Race. No spoilers, but the only remaing team that I liked is gone, and I honestly don't like any of the remaining 4 teams. I only hope that Team Big brother wins because everyone else hates them so much. But there is no way in heck that's gonna happen. I think the Madison team (angry ex-Army & wife) are going to win. After the race I read for a bit then finally went down and put my lunches together for the week, and whipped up a batch of cinnamon pecan scones for my Brady girls dinner tomorrow night. So no post tomorrow. But the scones turned out great, very flavorful and light! A new can of baking powder made a huge difference in the rising.
And now it is 2 hours past my bedtime, and we are getting up super early tomorrow so I can get to work around 7. (Crying)
M & I went out to look at Fox Lake estates(?) subdivision, to at least do a drive-by of the 4-family condos and the single-family homes. I repeatedly come to the conclusiuon that subdivisions by and large, are more densley populated then where I want to live. And I just don't think condos are the right fit for us. Much as I would love a care-free exterior to my house, I think I would be unhappy if I didn't have at least a small garden to putter in. Especially, since I want trees both bonzai little, and maturely full grown. I tried going a slightly different way home and of course got "lost" as in I had to pull out the gazetteer to figure out where we were. Turns out I went W on Hwy59 when I would swear that turning right should have taken us E. Oh well. We ended up driving through the tiny town of Wales which I much enjoyed and and some P named Corners. Both had nice topography and are at the outer boundary of how far I'm willing to commute in to work. So I will investigate further.
Came home for a break while M called TX Aunt & Uncle. I read my new Liaden book whil she chatted. Then we went for our walk at the zoo. Of particular note this week: We have two new yearling Rhea birds in the South American yard. At first we thought they were baby ostriches, but they didn't look quite right for that. Then we saw the sign that said new Rheas, from the DC zoo. The youngest alpaca was making a game out of chasing the Rheas (Sophie and Liz?). It's the most energy we've ever seen in the S.A. yard, ever. All the alpacas running, with the younger ones doing quite a bit of bouncing (boing, boing, boing); rheas squaking in protest and much flapping of wings and running, slipping and sliding on their part. They are *not* graceful birds. All the while, there is a handfull of male peacocks displaying for one semi-interested female, who was also displaying her tail feathers, something else I'd never seen before. But whenever the alpacas took off, it was like flipping a vocal switch on the pea fowl and all of the boys would start yelling, preceded by a single loud honk. (I love that honk!) With all of the squaking, honking, helping-yelling (that's what peacock calls sound like) it was near deafening at times if funny to watch. Finally a keeper had to step in to calm the alpacas down, because the rheas were getting too stressed. It was only their second time out in the yard. Talking to teh keeper, we found out that our biggest breeding male, Sooner, is being shipped off to an alpaca farm tomorrow, and we will be getting a new male, with some different colors, to diversify our herd both chromatically and genetically. Currently our males are white with black backs & rumps, and our females are either solid white (a non-bnreeder) or solid chocolate brown. I guess the new male will have light brown coloring.
Over in the polar bear area, both bears were out, and I wish, wish, wish! I'd brought my camera! Our guest male, whose name has escaped me for the moment, had apparently very recently gone for a swim, and then immediately afterward went for a roll in the sand-pit. He was completely brown-sugar brown. It was amazing. Peopel actually were wondering why we had a brown bear, grizzly bear, or some other kind of bear in the polar bear display. (People, people, people, a polar bear could be purple and still be distinctly a polar bear simply by its shape!) We also noticed that he was limping pretty severly on his left front foot, only walking on his finerger tips, instead of his whole hand (corelating to our anatomy). The vet was standing there and she said that he basically has tennis elbow. That it's been chronic since he's been with us. But it does come & go. Both Goldiebug and I know exactly how he feels! Lily, on the other hand...er paw, wasn't the least bit phased or impressed by her guest's odd looks, and when he limped over to her for some attention, she gave him a kiss on the nose (or maybe a bite on the face), depends on your perspective.
Other then that, things were normal. The Moose and Black-tailed deer were napping,the Alaskan brown bear Boris was feeling his oats, and charging all over his enclosure, while Aurora watched lazily from the hammock. Ruth & Brittany were feeling spunky, too. They were just coming out into the yard after a clean-up break. Ruth ran out grabbing multiple flakes of hay and willow branches as she hot-footed it over to the Baoboa tree. Brittany came more slowly, also picking up flakes as she moseyed over to the cement tree, where she proceeded to take away several of Ruth's flakes as Ruth turned her back and tried cramming as much willow leaves into her mouth as she could. Brittany didn't go after the willow, so Ruthfinally calmed down a bit while she peeled bark off the fatter parts of the branches. Brittany can be a real bully, often insisting that there is nothing that Ruth can have that she, Brittany, can't take away from her.
After the zoo we came back home and had a little reading time before dinner. B made fabulous stragganoff for dinner. Yummy!! Afterwards, M did my hair, then we watched the Amazing Race. No spoilers, but the only remaing team that I liked is gone, and I honestly don't like any of the remaining 4 teams. I only hope that Team Big brother wins because everyone else hates them so much. But there is no way in heck that's gonna happen. I think the Madison team (angry ex-Army & wife) are going to win. After the race I read for a bit then finally went down and put my lunches together for the week, and whipped up a batch of cinnamon pecan scones for my Brady girls dinner tomorrow night. So no post tomorrow. But the scones turned out great, very flavorful and light! A new can of baking powder made a huge difference in the rising.
And now it is 2 hours past my bedtime, and we are getting up super early tomorrow so I can get to work around 7. (Crying)