New Memory Card

Finally, the new memory card arrived. I even upgraded from 2 GB to 8 GB, so now I can take movies that are a lot longer (please contain your enthusiasm).

Here was a test run. Note Bode is suddenly camera shy. If you look close, you can also see Harley running around.

Very hot here...seems like we went from 60 to 90 in just two days. Oh wait, that is exactly what happened :-) Pleasant week.

Columbus Zoo

We had a great day today. Unfortunately, there are no pictures. Our camera's memory card has malfunctioned. It's a 2 GB card, but if I take one picture on the lowest resolution setting, I get an error stating the memory card is full. After trouble-shooting for a couple hours, I couldn't make it work. I went to the google, found a replacement card, and fired off an order. Sadly, the card didn't come in yesterday's mail, so it's going to up to me to color by numbers with words and illustrate our outing.

First, it was cold. Not Nebraska-winter cold. More like Seattle. Damp and misty. This actually turned out to be a good thing because if it had been steaming hot, the animals would not have been near as active as they were. We first checked out some bears. The black bear was puddling around in his water hole. He then got out, shook himself off, and waddled right towards us. I wondered how thick and strong the safety glass was--with a running start, Yogi could have smashed right through it. Instead, he ambled on, sniffing the same ground he'd walked on probably a thousand times.

The polar bears were a bit of a disappointment, as they were asleep. The brown bears were perched up on a big rock, looking like big dogs sitting in their yard. The grizzly bear was walking around. Huge, scary claws that wouldn't leave a mark if you got hit by them. Bode seemed to like them.

Next up was the elephants. They were outside, all three of them. Mama, Papa, and little baby elephant. He was so cute--reminded me of Harley. Their trunks are amazing muscles, the way they grab onto grass and feed themselves. The lions and tigers were all sleeping--do the big cats ever move in zoos? Bode pointed out the lions are supposed to go, "Roooaaarrr!" Darn those lions.

I loved the apes. There were scale models of gorilla and orangutang hands and feed. They have some big mitts--double the size of my hands and feet (although I wear a size 8, so maybe their hands are more like Shaq's...) One orangutang was climbing around. I wondered how many pull-ups he could do. The gorillas always remind me of people, with their facial expressions and quizzical looks. I'm expecting them to starting talking ("Get you hands off you me damn dirty human!")

The highlight for Bode (sadly) had to have been the play area. It was this immense climbing/sliding/tunneling structure. Kids were everywhere, running, jumping, yelling, and having a wonderful time. I'm always amazed there are so few collisions. Bode had never shown any climbing skills until today. We watched him try to climb up these levels. He got stuck, and we thought he was packing it in. Then, he saw another kid jump up and lean forward, getting his chest and stomach on the ledge and leveraging his legs up. Bode saw this, and he was off and ascending like a mountain goat. He got to the top and took the big slide all the way down. He loved it. However, as we left, he said, "I need a nap. I played really hard." So the little Jabba wanted me to carry him out of the zoo. This was cute two years ago. It's a horrific workout now :-)

All week, Bode has been having an accident at school. We know right away when we show up to pick him up if he's had one because he'll be in his backup clothes. Yesterday, Ashley picked him up, saw that he wasn't in the clothes he had on when we dropped him off, and said, "Did you have an accident?" Bode answered, "No, Jonah peed on me." Huh? Ashley thought he was confused until Miss Betty explained, "Bode was using the potty, and Jonah suddenly had to go, raced back, and, well..." So our boy was peed on (and all I could think of was Blackthorne and Shogun... :-)

We've no major plans for Memorial Day. I think we're all exhausted, so hopefully we can sleep it. Pleasant weekend.

Shortly

I can't believe we've had Harley for over a month. Since we see her every day, we don't realize how quickly she's growing. Friends that see her every couple of weeks are amazed by how much she's changed. Here are some recent photos. This first shot is from a few weeks ago. Note she still seems small next to Ashley, but she's a lot heavier than the 11 pounds she was when we got her.

Next we have me and the girl in a tug-of-war. I'm still able to win these battles.

Finally, here are some cute shots of Harley taking a nap. She'd been up and about all day, so poor little thing was exhausted.

Evidently she likes the pillows we have in the living room.

Despite the lack of photographs, Bode is still the jewel of the family :-) He's really becoming this little person, and we wonder where he learns to say certain things. For example, Ashley asked Bode for the camera. His response: "I'll give it to you shortly." It's also funny when he gets a bit confused. Ashley said, "Boy, Harley is pooped." Bode was very worried Harley had gone to the bathroom in the house. It took some time to convince him she hadn't. Ashley then tried to explain that words can have multiple meanings (i.e. homonyms). He's not quite there yet...

Four-day week for us, as we are taking Friday off. Pleasant week to all.