What-What?! Week of August 27th

Yesterday we went to an SCA event; there were a bunch of different classes and things to see and do... unfortunately, though this is more organized than in years passed, it was still very confusing for us newbies.  We were going to go back for the second day today, but Osric woke up this morning throwing up.  So I guess we'll be staying home. :(

Last week, I took Monday off so we could see the eclipse, then go to the Woodland Park Zoo.  We had a very good time walking around, and because it was a weekday, we went and saw some parts of the zoo that we hadn't in quite a while.

Most of my pictures of animals have a "Where's Waldo?" vibe.  There's a lemur in this picture somewhere.

Corwin was oddly not excited when we first arrived, but warmed up quickly.  He spent a good deal of his time reading the signage around the animals, which was a new experience.

Jaguar resting on a branch.

You can tell how excited Osric was to take this picture with his brother.

The toucan was hilarious, bobbing around and clacking its beak.  We spent a lot of time visiting the aviaries this time, which was quite enjoyable -- they have a giant variety of different birds.

Ridin' worms!

Over at the African plains exhibit, there's also a model of a rural African school and houses.  This is actually a grain storage hut.

There was a big meeting hut, too, which was perfect for taking a rest in.

Spotted these unusual flowers on our way out.

Happy Ozzy at the end of the day :)

What-What?! Week of July 6th

This week was pretty exciting.  The husband and I took the kids and a friend to the Woodland Park Zoo, which is discussed in this another post.  We had a great time.

We finished getting our car stuff figured out, which was more difficult than getting ourselves licensed, but still not overly so.

Peter now has a job, which he'll be starting this coming week.  It will be nice to have income again.  I'm still looking for a job, but that's neither here nor there.

Writing: My Newest eBook is Published!

I finally finished writing, editing, converting tables and graphs to images, creating a cover, description, and so on.  Now Specialty Grocery Retail Industry Leader Profiles has been published, and is available on Amazon as an eBook.  It covers the leading companies in the specialty grocer industry, with an emphasis on their target markets and how they market themselves.  It's pretty academic, so I expect I'll start getting sales when universities start back in session.

News: Bolivia CongressClock Altered to Turn Anti-Clockwise via BBC News

This is... well, this is just kind of odd.  I mean, it's not something that I wouldn't expect from a country like Bolivia, because little countries like this tend to have some odd aspects.  The idea of it is to question norms and to encourage creativity, as well as the mindfullness that this is a country in the south, not the north.  The north versus south thing I'm not entirely sure what to make of, but I get placing value on creativity.  Of course, is creativity good when it takes a useful object (a clock) and makes it difficult to use?  I'm not so sure.  There are certainly clocks that are art first and functional second, so I suppose this falls into that category.

Woodland Park Zoo Visit and Review -- Everett, WA

Watching hippos eat their breakfast.

The husband and I took the kids and a friend to the Woodland Park Zoo, where we managed to walk through about two-thirds before lunch. This zoo is very large, and has some nifty amenities that make a go-to place even during the rainy season. We arrived at opening, shortly after all the animals had been fed, and the whole place smelled like oat hay. After raising rabbits and alpacas for many years, it was absolutely homey. We saw the elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions, hippopotamus, tapirs, orangutans, snakes, a lot of birds, and many other animals that I can't think of right now.

The orangutans also had hay.  They were using it to make nests.

The selection of birds was pretty impressive; they had many different kinds of fowl, including bufflehead ducks, pheasants, and even guinea hens. There were various cranes, and some keas, as well. In one of the aviaries, there were the most adorable Blue Jays (and I mean Blue Jay, not Western Scrub Jay like we see in the wild here), and they were so close -- they didn't seem afraid of us at all.

Elephant, elephant!

We saw a handler give one of the elephants a bath. They wash each elephant's feet several times a day to monitor its condition and keep it healthy. The elephants have a large barn that's sided with glass, so you can look inside from on the patio and watch without being disruptive.

Checking the map while riding on a hippo.

One nice aspect about it being so large is that it never felt crowded. There was enough space in between exhibits to give a bit of a breather in between crowds. On most of the walks between areas, there were things to look at; there were many statues that were available to look at, and in the case of my children, climb on. We didn't realized how crowded the zoo was until we went to get lunch, and there were tons of people.

Beating on the drums.  We were pretty loud.

In addition to the regular zoo fare, the Woodland Park zoo also offers an indoor play area. It had an area for little children to run around in, a playground with slides for older kids, and a variety of blocks and building toys. It was a welcome break for both us and the kids, as they could run around more and do some self-directed activities.

Hiding in a meerkat burrow.

Also in this building is the Nature Exchange, where you can bring in objects you've found in nature --like rocks, leaves, shells, and so on -- and then exchange them for points.  The more information you bring in with you, like if you research what kind of tree a leaf comes from, you get more points.  You can then trade those points for things in the zoo's nature collection.  The husband and I think this would be a great thing to incorporate into our homeschooling efforts, and would be something that the kids would like.  My middle boy all ready has a collection of pinecones, so we'd only need to collect information about them, and bring it with next time we go.

Trying to climb into the animal enclosure.

Next time we go, we're planning on hitting up the entomology building, the farm area, and the arctic area. We'll probably swing around to see the elephants again at the barn, because that's really cool.  And we're definitely going again.  All summer, and probably all winter, too.

I have no idea what's going on here.  I just thought the expressions were funny.