Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Whew! Been a whirlwind of all sorts of things lately. Last week I had to head into the Concord office twice in one week -- Monday to deal with the audit team wanting to go over the specifics of my job (well, not my position per se, but the fact that I'm an SME for OFAC sanctions scanning) and Thursday for our 'quarterly celebration of success' (it's about as corny as it sounds). Added to the fact that Emm had to wake up at 5am for a stupidly early meeting on Tuesday, my Friday the both of us were feeling a bit overtired and loopy. Suffice it to say my editing/writing was minimal.

Add to that, on Saturday we chose to drive down to Watsonville to hang out a little bit at Gizdich Ranch, where they sell all kinds of tasty apples. It was hella hot and dusty there, so soon after we found an excellent ice cream drive-in near the shore in Aptos (the strip it was on definitely reminded me of Wells Beach up on Maine), and then headed back via CA 17--the road that crosses over the Santa Cruz Mountains. Once at the crest we took CA 35 the rest of the way. This was definitely one of those "lovely drive, but what was I thinking??" roads, where the southern half of it is squeezed down to about 1.5 lanes due to it having so many switchbacks. It's essentially a well-paved cowpath for about 4 miles. Found some great overlooks, though! There's a few wonderful vistas where you can see the entire stretch of Silicon Valley below, with Mount Tam and SF waaaay off in the northern distance. Got some great pix out of it!

Sunday morning was spent at our local zoo, where we got to see all three red pandas! Nearly all the animals were either in their pens, or passed out in the shade. It was too hot for everyone! The giraffes and zebras at the savannah area seemed to like it, though! The rest of the day we hid inside, watched football and ate pie. All in all, a busy weekend!

So yeah...any writing done in the interim? Sadly, not that much. I did get a few lines of editing/revision done last night, but not enough to make a significant dent. I'll need to kick it up a notch in the next few days to get back into the swing of things.

Which brings me to the 'tapping a foot on the ground'. Due to being ridiculously busy, I've kind of felt like I'm flailing in mid-air over the last few weeks, so it feels good to be able to extend my limbs and touch the ground now and again to remind myself it's there. It gives me something to aim for, a solid base to come down to within the next few days. My work priorities have finally returned to normal, so I can focus more on the creative ones again. Ah, the price I pay for having a day job!

Happy Holidays from the reindeer at the SF Zoo! :p



Snow leopard sez "I WILL EAT YOU." Kitty was grumpy as it had recently gotten up from a nap and didn't like the little kid that was nearby. Also, it barked at me as well.



Black swan sez "WHAT." Apparently he/she wasn't too happy about us taking pictures either, although there were a few annoying mallards in the pond as well that were making everyone else irritable.



The kangaroos are actually awake! Every time we went by their enclosure they were always asleep, sprawled on the ground with the local peacocks stealing their food. These guys were awake and actually hopping around the place.



Meanwhile, Mr. Meerkat keeps a watchful eye on any predators, including howling five-year-olds who think meerkats are the Most Awesome Thing Evar.



And one of many ring-tailed lemurs keeping a watchful eye on...something.

OUTTAKE: What happens when your camera's too slow and the lemur gets bored of posing:







Finally, a family portrait of sorts over at the African Savannah. I should note that this enclosure is at the southwestern end of the zoo, and when we're driving on Great Highway back from Target, we can sometimes see the giraffe heads poking up. :)

As promised...I filmed this on 24 April. They'd just started wrestling just as we got there, so this is pretty much the entire match. :)

Now that I've got your attention with the lemurs... ;)

emmalyon and I went to the Zoo today! We have pix below the cut!

( more pix for your enjoyment! )

Oh, and on the way back we stopped at Twin Peaks, the 2nd-highest points in the city...and this was a perfect day for some panoramic pix! :)

( Variations on 'I can see my house from here' )

If anything, this city is definitely picturesque. ;)