from the Philly zoo

all my animal friends would love you to check them out We went yesterday and I took far too many pictures. I've only posted a few there.

still spinning the fleece from the tour de france.

bronx zoological park

was the 'fun' thing to do yesterday. That was after the 5 mile walk in the morning to which I saw a kingfisher and some whitetail deer!
I'm posting a few pictures but if you want to see more, surf on over to my Bronx zoo album on facebook... there are some decent shots in there as well :-)


this Andean condor didn't like when I said she had an ugly face. There was a lady that visits weekly and when she calls to the bird it comes running over to her. She tells it how pretty it is and I guess the bird really likes her. The woman said every time someone says that the bird is ugly she runs away or squacks... too funny.



The snowy owl IS beautiful I think. This reminded me of the owls in Where the Wild Things Are. Snowy owls hunt by day and night, unlike other owls, because of the length of the summer day in the arctic.





We saw the elephants were on the monorail. Unfortunately for us our fellow passengers were little boys from the boys club whose chaperone was as rude as they were and it was very difficult to hear the commentary. But I did learn that an elephant has 40,000 muscles in its trunk. It can pick up an egg without breaking it and they flap their ears to keep cool. I think this elephant looks happy.... (stop anthropomorphizing, right?)




They had camel rides, which we didn't do, but I went over to say hello. This one started to sing to me. You can see his lips in a perfect [u] formation.






VV is here so I may be shy on the posts (or not).

Working on the decreases of clapotis #2!

how we spent memorial day

Guess what we did as a family? Or better yet what IS this picture?

Give up?? Here's the rest of the animal.

We had a great day. I knit a little. Especially while waiting to go up on the zoo balloon. Yes, we've been members for years and it is never working when we go. So today, it was. We stood in line for 40 minutes... only to have them tell us when we were once ride away, they were closing the ride because of the wind. ARGH! Oh well... maybe next time.

Here are some more pictures from the zoo that I uploaded to facebook.

It was a great weekend. The end of school is near and my grades are done! 5 student days 2 of which are half days (not that it matters, I teach 4 classes instead of 5 on those days) but I am SO looking forward to summer. Have heard nothing regarding the plan for the music dept. not that it surprises me.

The clematis in the back yard (actually it's the neighbors but grew through the fence) It's spent now as are the orchids but the roses are out. We planted some flowers, herbs and veggies this weekend.

I was spinning this weekend too... and my two forefingers are killing me... i wonder if it's related. I mean doing simple things like opening my wallet hurts so much.... I'll spin with my middle fingers from now on.

my life in the zoo

We had a blast yesterday at the zoo. The behind the scenes stuff was fine, a bit boring for the kids, but the animals that were out and moving were so much fun. We went to the giraffe barn and got to go into the galapogas tortoise exhibit. There was a reptile thing where we saw one of the pythons close enough to touch. Some of the extra behind the scenes we skipped but our favorite spot was the big cat walk.

DS1 was playing for a LONG time with one tiger. He'd run outside and the tiger would see him, actually look for him. Then DS would run back into the place with the glass separation and the tiger would run right up to the glass. They would have touched noses were it not for the glass. Then they pawed at each other and the running game started over again. It was so funny and DS LOVED it.
He had watched an older boy doing the same thing with the lions and got the idea to try it with the tigers. It was almost closing time and I'm sure about dinner time for the tigers, so they were looking for some interaction. Plus it was a tad chilly... about 18° F.


The pumas were out and very playful as well. They were enjoying people watching. The zoo has a set of triplets (2 boys and a girl) that were found orphaned because a hunter had shot their mother. Fortunately he had reported it and a animal rescue team went out searching for the pups. They knew it was vital because they discovered that the mother was still lactating. These cats have been in captivity just about all their lives so when the zoo heard the story, they pounced on it and the cats were transferred to Phila. To distinguish the one male from the other the zookeepers have painted a black mark on its left hindquarter. It actually looks very natural though.

If you want a great book to read to your kids try Verdi. It's about a snake. This snake reminds me so much of the snake in the book, I had to take its picture.

The orangutans were having a blast but sadly I have no good pictures to share....

what did you do on the 4th?

what a day.....we had plans to go to our friends' house for a picnic and then fireworks. The rain and our schedule of events cancelled out the fireworks.


We're driving along and all of a sudden the battery light goes on..... (mind you the check engine light has been on for about 5 1/2 weeks and nothing has been done about it) a few miles later the ABS light comes on and then the engine starts to rev. I suggested that we pull over... and turn off the car. So DH kindly followed my instructions. Then tried to start the car and it gave that rr, rr, rr sound of a dead battery. So call AAA (thankfully we have AAA+ which tows for 100 miles for free) and I start thinking who can pick the 7 of us up? My brother won my vote and as serendipity would have it (in a bad situation) his van was finished getting fixed, so he just had to pick it up and my nephew followed in his car. They let us have to van to use until ours gets fixed. Mind you, my brother lives 50 miles from me (albeit in the direction we were traveling) but still, he's an Eagle Scout through and through.
We unloaded the car with stuff that we'd need and all the people and parked in someone's front yard along the side of the country highway (a state route... that is fairly busy) and waited for the tow truck, which came pretty quickly once we figured out where we were. Oddly enough after the tow truck took away the car, the people in the house came out and looked a bit puzzled but were very kind in offering their facilities should we need them. My brother and nephew came and rescued us with their van and rabbit (be a better story if they rode in on a mustang, no?) and we continued on our merry way.
I'm curious to know what the problem is and if it's related to the check engine light.

Two of the caterpillars have pupated and one is in the J. The fourth looks about ready. I'd take pictures but the batteries in my camera died and my kids used the rest of the AA batteries in the house, so I'll have to go get more tmrw.

I started this cloth on the way down, finished it at our friend's house and left it for her. I found the idea on ravelry and think it's a brilliant way to use up those scraps of kitchen cotton.

Pattern: Lizard Ridge Dishcloth by Laura Aylor
Yarn: Lily's Sugar 'n Cream
Colors: Delft Blue, Red and White
Needle: US6
Made for: Gaby

There's one goof in it, but I left it go. All in all it's a great patriotic cloth and another wonderful use of the Lizard Ridge pattern. Thanks Laura! :-)

I still haven't finished sock #2. There is about 3 inches left to knit. I should get cracking. Tomorrow, OK technically today, starts the Tour de France and with it the Tour de Fleece... I'll spin up what I have in rolags and hope to card more as well.

And last but not least, some pictures from the Philly zoo yesterday. We bought the family deluxe membership so the kids got to go on all the stuff that was available and we'll have to go back again in the next year (I personally could go there every day!) We arrived around 11:30 and stayed until closing. Suffice it to say that there were 7 very tired people when we got home!










The tree house. This is a very cool large room where everything is oversized even for adults. You can climb up inside the tree and look out at the room. There are giant frogs kids can climb inside. A HUMUNGOUS beehive, gargantuan monarch caterpillars and butterflys, Some dinosaur replicas, a flower seat and more. The kids had a blast here.

There will be more pictures after I steal them from my FIL's camera ;-)