I just returned from a marvelous trip with my wonderful friends to the NJ/NYC area.  We also made a couple trips on the way and on the way back.  Who would have thought I would be able to take two trips in less than a year’s time?  My role of “Manny” was once again very fun (even if there were a few slight moments in which I threatened to go into the back of the minivan, sit on any malefactors, and tickle them).

Day one for me started about 6:30 AM.  I had to be at C&Ls in time to leave by 8 and wanted to stop at Wal-Mart on my way. I stood on the front porch and knocked for about 5 minutes and decided to ring the doorbell butr apparently did not push it right since no one heard it.  I did not want to get the dogs going, anyway. So… shortly after 8, we were on our way.  First major stop… The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.  Not much there to comment upon.  Not one of the best I have seen; however, the next stop was one of the best.

We stopped at the Akron Zoo.   Much better than Cleveland’s offering.  The exhibits were great.  Outside the restaurant where we had lunch, there was a very friendly tamarin who was very active and liked to show off.  There was also a very loud Sumatran Tiger.  Not sure, but I think it was feeding time.  Right next to the tiger was the animal that was the basis for the creation of Winnie the Pooh: the Malayan Sun Bear.  We went into the animal hospital where a very informative and interesting volunteer informed us that a baboon was going to be brought in for a check up and we would be able to watch the procedure IF they could get the animal in the examining room.  Unfortunately, he did not get there before our group decided that it was time to continue and see as much of the zoo as possible.  Interestingly, there was a group of high school students who reminded my of my senior physics class trip to Cedar Point for Physics Day.  Very fun zoo.  Added to the enjoyment was taylhis’ commentary which was very fun.  I’m sure she will have even more to say and pictures to share.

Then it was back in the bus (OH… wait… that is ANOTHER post or two later on) for the LOOOOOONG trek across Pennsylvania.

OOOPS!   Apparently, my memory failed me.  The problematic baboon was at Cleveland and not Akron.  Thanks, Taylhis.

No, nothing to do with the song, but with a movie I saw with my daughters this weekend.

I saw Knowing on Friday evening. Decent enough movie, but it was not one I would have picked just to see a movie. We picked this one, because I was too tired to drive to another town to see the movie we really wanted to see. It was the best of the three in our local theater.

If anyone can remember my scale of movies… This one was a wait for a rental. A fairly predictable movie, and it had moments of a couple of other Nicholas Cage movies. Yes, the character and surrounding story was a lot like the National Treasure movies. The plot driving it could be taken out of any ‘end of the world’ movie.

Two things I noticed in the movie were that Cages character was a widower (that kind of stands out to me) and he drank way too much. I mean if any ‘normal’ person was drinking as much as his character did, I wouldn’t have trusted them to know much of anything about what he was doing. He had at least 3 good glasses of whiskey before he started to work on the numbers project. I would have been too messed up to even see the numbers….

On the widower point, I think that was handled fairly well. Some widows/ers do turn to booze to help them cope with loss. They can be overprotective of their children. They will turn down chances to meet someone else. They will wear their wedding rings long after the death of their spouse. Even without the booze, they will forget the days they are running the car pool. And the children will see all of this. Yes, this part of the story was handled well. No fake romance thrown in. The caring seen between the two adults in the situation, was because of the situation, not because of romance. Well done.

I just wish this much care had been taken in the story/plot/characters. It had moments that could have made it a much better movie, but ‘things’ got in the way. As stated above this could just as easily have been a “National Treasure end of the world” story. That for me made the movie a bit less interesting. I didn’t think Cage was that one dimensional, but maybe I’m wrong.

When one goes on a trip, they all go.  I really need more readers for my blog.  Sigh.

Well, on the lighter side is a look at some weird computer keyboards I just read about on another site.  Here are just two examples:

Just click here to go to PC Worlds’s article and read about these keyboards and more, including one for the Trekkie in most of us. 🙂

That’s the last thing I remember the nurse saying this morning before my ‘little medical procedure’. The next thing I knew I was back in the ‘staging’ area. I’m not sure what they gave me, but the procedure was relatively painless.

I wish I could say the same thing about the pre-surgery preparation. I can’t. If there is anything that would prevent me from seeing a Dr. again, it would be this preparation.

I was able to find someone much better with words than I am to tell you about the procedure. Mine was the non-Abba version.

Dave Barry’s colonoscopy.

Funny read, but serious stuff.

Private school is where it’s at these days.  Want proof?  Just check out these pictures I took today (yes, with my cellphone- why, can you tell? 😛 ) in the preschool classroom room at my church (where they have school during the week):  😀

Oh yes, click for larger pics! 🙂

Yes, hate- a stong word for someone such as myself.  Here’s the new thing in IL- mess up and forget to register your plates on time and you have to jump through bureaucratic hoops.  I noticed yesterday my plates were expired.  Oops- they sent me notice two months ago but it got buried and forgotten.  No problem, I’ll just go to the currency exchange to reregister as I always do.  Nothing doing apparently- now they require an emissions test first.  What?  Of course, with expired plates it’s illegal to drive there.  So what do they do?  Make available temporary registration that I’m told will only allow me to legally drive to the test facility, nowhere else.  Are they convenient to obtain?  This is government we’re talking about, so what do you think?  I drove to the local DMV which I thought was full service.  Nope.  They gave me the addresses of the three closest places- all over 20 miles away (in Chicago traffic remember!).  So I’m left with a choice- knowingly drive illegally to the test station and hope they don’t check the registration, or jump through this latest hoop and hope I can still get registered before the price-increase deadline.  Nanny states- why many people love them I will never know.  Conservativism clearly rules the day here.

Right now, I’m in the car with my husband, our 4 kids, and our volunteer “Manny” (a man who’s a nanny – thanks Jamiahsh!); we’re on the way to the New Jersey / New York City area!  How did I manage to make a blog post, you ask?  Well, I’ve actually typed this out days ahead of time and then used the brilliant tangents.org feature “schedule a post”, choosing the exact date and time for which my post will automatically publish itself!  I love technology AND tangents.org!

So I think we’re probably between zoos right now; the itinerary had us stopping at both the Cleveland and Akron Zoos in Ohio on the way to New Jersey.  Two zoos only 20 minutes apart?  How could I resist?  And why can’t my utopia of a hometown be located within a 20-minute vicinity of two zoos?!?

I hope we made it to both zoos without being too pressed for time, and I also hope the kids are being good on the long car ride.  I hope our business meeting goes well tomorrow and that we have a lot of fun before making it home safely.  Until I return…

My wife loved to sing (I’m sure that is where my daughters get their talent), but she was hard of hearing and would make a mistake or two on the lyrics of popular songs. I do realize that this was not something that she alone was guilty of, but she had quite a few good ones. Unfortunately, I know longer remember the specific misheard lyrics, or I would send them to a site I found this evening.

Have fun looking up some of the songs. Some of the misheard lyrics are quite funny, others better than the original lyrics.

So, “‘scuse me while I kiss this guy”.

I saw this article in the news a few weeks ago and was reminded why  I will never take my kids to a circus:

INDIANAPOLIS — More than a dozen children were injured Saturday morning at the Indiana State Fairgrounds when a circus elephant they were waiting to ride got startled and caused some scaffolding to give way.

The scaffolding stairway leading people to the elephant ride collapsed just before 10 a.m. inside the Pepsi Coliseum where the Murat Shrine Circus is being held, said Indianapolis Fire Department spokeswoman Capt. Rita Reith.

At least 15 children between the ages of 8 and 12 years old were taken to first aid stations at the site, but most suffered only bumps and scrapes, Reith said. One adult suffered a minor arm injury when he or she fell from the top of the stairs.

It’s unclear what caused the elephant to become startled.

The circus continued as scheduled.

Well, first things first – thank goodness no one was seriously hurt.  And it’s not that I’m some crazy animal rights activist.  But I do believe in treating animals with respect.  And I don’t see how it’s possible to treat circus elephants with respect given their busy show schedule, the cruel training methods, and the high intellect noteworthy of the elephant.  Not only is the performance schedule strenuous, but the fact that such a huge animal is forced to travel from city to city on a train leaves no room for an argument that the animals are being treated with respect – in my opinion anyway.  In fact, given the conditions that circus elephants are continually forced to endure, I’m actually surprised that circus catastrophes don’t occur more often.

Zoos are another story;  zoo animals’ habitats try to mimic nature as closely as possible; they’re not exploited for the sake of making a few bucks (pony rides and things like that are different – as I said, elephants are highly intelligent and when you add in the traveling with the circus and the sharp stick used to prod them when they disobey…), but rather, zoos exist to help educate the public.  And if the general public is going to care enough about animals to want to help endangered species and to further conservation, zoos are a key factor in making this happen.  So that brings me to the following picture, which was in an email I was sent.  There is a zoo exhibit in Canada where you get to go in a pool adjacent to the polar bear exhibit; with only a pane of glass separating you from the polar bears (albeit a VERY thick pane of glass!).  It’s a great example of how zoos can capture and hold people’s attention about animals without harming the animal in the process.  Check it out – maybe I can see it live some day!

Back in my past, before I even started school, my older brother would tell me ghost stories before I went to bed. Sometimes he made them up, but at other times he would read stories out of his book of Poe stories.

While I really liked the Poe stories, some of my favorites were the stories he made up. I remember ghosts in the backyard, or down by the river. Werewolves in the park. Vampires in the local schools. I’m not sure if he made them all up, or heard them from his friends, but some were quite scary.

He was, of course, just trying to torment his little brother. Scaring me right before bed would guarantee that I would remain quiet through the night. I would keep my head hidden under the covers, and never let out a peep, just in case the ghosts or goblins would get me.

Unfortunately for me, this all came to an end when I was about 6 or 7 years old. My brother being 12 years older than me went off first to college and then to the Navy, and finally he got married. No more ghost stories every night, but to this day I still like them. Not the Horror movies you see in the movies, but the old fashioned, around the campfire ghost story. I wish I knew a few to tell, but I would love telling a few. I guess I will settle for reading a few Poe stories, or some other good author. Just pure fun.

I guess that is why I liked the old TV show like The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone. Ghost stories told in the old fashion way.