logisticslad

Happy Birthday to the_shoshanna!

May your dreams be filled with slashy goodness !-)

Yesterday, I spent my birthday at the Philly Zoo with my nephews and my brother and sister-in-law! It was a terrific day! My nephews were entranced with the animals - the 4 year old kept asking to see specific creatures that he knew were kept at zoos and the 1 and 3/4 year old kept saying goodbye to each animal after we saw it :-) We saw the new Big Cats exhibit, which was basically the same animals in a guided walk through their habitats in a way that allowed one to get much closer to them. We said goodbye to the elephants - apparently they are going to move to another zoo after having been here for over 30 years due to concerns about their housing. My nephews were convinced that the crocodiles weren't real because they weren't moving for so long...and then one blinked!!! They were disappointed to learn that red panda are not the same as black and white panda. They were entranced by the primate house, but we had the most fun watching the otters at play!!! I was very touched that they loved the otters as much as I always have. We will definitely go back to the zoo.

Then they came over to my house for pizza and cake. Whew! It was a whirlwind of potential destruction. I had thought that my place was mostly childproof, but they proved me wrong by finding all sorts of unexpectedly breakable or potentially toxic things within reach. And they chased the cats, who didn't seem to mind the extra play, but it just added to the chaos. The contrast of quiet after we put on Winnie the Pooh was quite striking (at least until they started messing with each other while watching it). They gave me the X-men III DVD, which I had refrained from buying myself, hoping that it would be a birthday gift (while I didn't love the movie as much as the first two, I thought it was something I would watch again). It was simply adorable to see how my nephews understood the concept of birthday parties and how connecting it was for them to have a party for me (they wanted to know why my friends didn't come to the zoo for my party. My brother was gonna say that I had no friends :-P but then explained that I had wanted to spend the day with just them). This plus puzzld1's visit on Friday definitely made up for my having spent last year's birthday in the hospital having my appendix removed. I was exhausted by the time they left, but I had an amazingly fun birthday!

Woke up this morning to find a cat snuggled on either side of me :-) Good thing I don't move much in my sleep! The kitties seem to be getting along much better, although there are still some tussles. The Feliway is almost done, and I'm hoping that they won't need it any more.

Watched two "inspired by a true story" movies, Kinky Boots and Take the Lead. Kinky Boots is about a family shoe factory in England that has fallen on hard times and must find a niche market in order to survive. The new heir (played by the guy who played young Uncle Owen in the new Star Wars series) meets a drag queen and decides to hire her as his new designer of "footwear for women who are men." The drag queen is played by the actor who was the bad guy in Serenity and he does an amazing job, plus he can sing! A lot of the comedy is about the longtime shoemakers rising to the challenge of making kinky boots. And there is a fairly sweet love story, too. It has a similar tone to The Full Monty and I'd recommend it. Take the Lead stars the sexy Antonio Banderas as a ballroom dance instructor who arranges with tough principal Alfre Woodward to teach a dance class to the longterm detention students of an inner city high school. The kids really respond to him and learn to dance well enough to enter the citywide ballroom competition. Through this experience they learn self respect and dignity and have something to bring them out of their very tough lives. It came off as a bit contrived, but the dancing was good and it certainly worked as a cinderella story. I was quite surprised to discover that it was based on the life of a real person named Pierre Dulaine, who started a similar dance program.

I'm getting ready to go to my nephew's 4th birthday party. His actual birthday is Tuesday, but he has already discovered the family tradition of holding birthday celebrations on days when we can all get together. I have a dinosaur card game called T-Rex Rules for him as well as The Very Hungry Caterpillar card game (bought at the Eric Carle museum during my recent Northampton trip) and some Thomas the Train stickers. I think he'll enjoy them.

Tonight is the start of Yom Kippur. I don't plan on going to services, but I will do something for myself at home. I am taking tomorrow off work and will spend some time with my family. This holiday has spiritual meaning for me, but the traditional observances no longer do. Therefore, I do not plan on fasting for it, but will do some meditiating. It's important to me to feed my spiritual side every now and then.

Today also marks mine and puzzld1's 15th anniversary! Wow! Thank you, Hon, for all these amazing memories and times together. I look forward to many more!

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday to to alikander alikander!!

Welcome to the age at which we begin to wonder whether we are seeing double... !-)

Hippo birdies two ewes!