Monday, April 30, 2007

Mishmashing

It was one of those hectic, but fabulous weekends. Unruly managed to get a "green light" Friday so, as promised, we headed to the zoo Saturday morning. With temperatures hovering in the upper 70s and the sky nearly cloud-free, it was a perfect day to spend wandering around the zoo. We could have stayed home and sat on the deck to watch the bi-plane aerialists practice their air stunt act, but we didn't. That was only exciting for about half an hour. I mean, you can only watch barrel rolls and nosedives for so long before it's just not exciting any more.

At the zoo, all the animals were out enjoying the weather. And so, it seems, was the entire population of St. Louis.

Every. last. person. was at the zoo Saturday. I now remember why I prefer the zoo on chilly days. Fewer irritating, rude people. What is it with people thinking it's okay to harass animals to try to make them move or "do something?" Unruly and I were watching the chimps in their wonderful new exhibit when these three kids came up and started yelling and beating on the glass. Moms just stood there and completely ignored their brats. Of course, Unruly decided that if those kids could yell and bang, she could yell and bang at those poor chimps. Uh uh. Not my kid! I said, rather loudly while pulling her from the glass, "No! YOU are NOT going to bang on the glass! How would you like someone to bang on the window in YOUR room? It's rude and mean." Suddenly, the other mothers became aware of their children's bad, bad behavior and admonished their brats to stop.

We had a good day. Unruly got to talk at length with a zookeeper hanging out near the new cheetah cubs. Have I ever mentioned she wants to be a zookeeper/zoo vet? She does, and boy! was she EVER enthralled by this young zookeeper who was so kind to engage her in conversation and answer ALL of her questions. The zookeeper said the zoo has a Zookeeper-for-a-Day program for kids. I checked into it. Awesome program! So awesome that every single program until fall is BOOKED FULL! Grrr....


Got more chickens Saturday afternoon. Yeah. What is SO freakin' addicting about those fowl? Cute. Fascinating. Each has a very distinct personality. And, they eat bugs. Lots of bugs. Which is good when you live in the country. So we now have, ummm...four ducks and 12 chickens, including the grumpy old hen Fuzzy Face. She sure is a grump and she doesn't put up with the chicks' crap at all. She cackles and clucks and screams at them...very, very cranky, that old hen! But, she lays green eggs, so it's all good.

I saw a turkey, a big ole Tom turkey, walking down the side of the highway during rush hour. A major highway. Very odd. He didn't seem bothered one iota.

Sunday morning around 5 a.m. the dogs started going nuts. Barking, growling, whining. Of course I think it's a serial ax murderer standing outside waiting to chop us up into little bitty pieces. But really, when I got up to look, (Hubby doesn't get up. He'd rather die in his sleep, I think. The wimp!) I saw a doe standing in our yard grazing. The sun was barely coming up and it was hazy, so the scene was very serene and Bambi-esque. I've heard them in the woods, seen them in the pastures and spotted their foot prints in the creek and in the driveway, but never seen them so close to the house. I like them, but I guess this means I'll be planting no tulips, peonies or begonies. They are like candy to deer.

Most of Sunday was spent mowing, weeding, talking and chillin'.

Wild was gone all weekend. Oddly, the weekend was relaxing, uneventful and quite enjoyable.

I will be ordering my new John Deere lawn tractor tomorrow. Online. How funny is that? I've ordered small things online, but it strikes me as highly amusing to order a lawn tractor online! Ha! I'm easily amused, I suppose.

2 comments:

Jane said...

Yeah, Bambi's mom was just peacefully grazing when BLAM no more mommy deer.

/ray of sunshine.

Jenn said...

I've told Hubby he will not be shooting Bambi's mom on our property. Ever. Nor his dad. Nor Bambi himself. I like them too much.

However, if they start to really destroy my gardens, something may need to be done.