it's all happening at the zoo

We had a great day. GREAT. I'm mean really great. The Rio Grande Zoo is kind of old, a little funky in spots, and very beautiful for the most part. I personally think that there should be only a handful of large, natural habitat zoos in the world, where animals can be protected and studied and bred in order to preserve endangered species. Small zoos aren't much fun for the animals, but I still like to go to them because I think the animals like to have visitors who appreciate them. I've never had such a good Zoo Day before. Most the the animals were active, and there were lots of babies, animal and human. My camera wouldn't work when we got there, and I thought I was going to have to skip photos all together. But when we got to the giraffes, I decided to try again, and the magic worked. My little camera came through for me one more time, and I took overt 60 pictures. I've picked some of the best ones for you here. I hope it inspires you to go visit your local animals. If I had to get a real job, I think I'd work at the zoo. Even the ladies in the gift shops are into the animals and know lots about them.

The baby giraffe was worth the trip, but of course there were a lot of other beautiful animals to visit too.


The polar bears were really busy and wonderful.


The lion looked sad, and every dumb mom who walked by said, "Look! It's the Lion King". I don't think he likes being a Disney character. I think he'd rather be born free...

The rhinos were pretty amazing. We rounded the corner to the sound of lots of laughing kids, yelling, "What are the rhinos doing, Daddy? Why are they being so silly?" Well, there are a lot of baby animals at the zoo, and the rhinos were attempting to join the trend toward parenthood... but I think the boy rhino was a little confused... don't be offended by this picture. It's only nature.

Yep - it's all happening at the zoo. but the poor guy got tired and lost all ambition pretty quickly. Before long, with no baby rhino success, they flopped down to take a nap...




On the way out, we got a last look at the flamingos, all squacking and bickering like a bunch of cranky Las Vegas showgirls. Pretty funny.

And now, back to work. Always so much to do. I have an idea for a new bead. It came from Paul Simon while were were driving yesterday. In the song Graceland, there's a line that goes, "Losing love is like a window in your heart...". That's all I'm sayin'. If it works, you'll see the beads on my website. They'll be called "Graceland Beads", for reasons you'll only know if you read this. Don't you feel special?