Update on Life

I'll get the life news out of the way first so that people who are not so fascinated with zoos as me can skip the rest. The internship is going so well - I was expecting a very, very different experience. My supervisor told me to come in on Monday so I could start on paperwork. I though, oh boy, filing paperwork, can't wait. Actually, what she meant was that I needed to fill out paperwork. Oh. That's easier. So I did that and wasn't really sure what to do for the first few hours because she kept giving me really simple tasks that were done in a couple minutes. Anyways, on Tuesday she told me to research various e-mail mass marketing campaign programs and give my recommendations to her and the executive director. They're really interested in any projects that I'd be willing to start so I'll have to begin those soon.

Here's my work station. It's not quite an office because it opens up to the hall but I actually like that better since people walk by and stop and talk to me all the time. I have been freakishly lucky since all of my co-workers are very, very nice and no one is grumpy. I'd say 95% of them have come up to my desk to introduce themselves and stayed for at least five minutes.

One of the older guys ('Bill') retired yesterday so I made sure that I was working during that time because there was a luncheon and I am all about free food. Lordy, was there ever free food! There was salad with all kinds of dressing, rolls, biscuits, margarine (woo), and the main course had a Mexican theme since he was taking a trip to Mexico. There was chipotle chicken, swordfish, potatoes, onions, oh tasty. Hah, the spell check doesn't recognize 'chipotle' and instead offers such close alternatives as 'spotless' or 'potlatch's'. Almost!

In addition, we all got to eat in the board room with the fancy dimmed lighting and large leather reclining chairs and shiny long table. They set up all of this bunched fabric in the middle along with candles that I'm sure posed a fire hazard. Then, for dessert, we had carrot cake (delicious), various bakery treats (I took a meringue which tasted so weird, like butter popcorn. I could not stop eating it because each time I finished a bite I said 'that didn't really just taste like popcorn, did it??'), and for a finale they poured out champagne for everyone to toast Bill. Thanks, Bill! He's my new favorite ex-employee. This luncheon took an hour and a half.

It's cold and rainy outside, but thankfully it's not icy like in other parts of the company. I can't complain because it's normally sunny here and I get to walk around a lot. Here's some recent pictures:

Oh, the first SmartCar USA sighting!








What? The L. Ron Hubbard House? And they give tours?!? What is with the Scientology focus in my hood?






Now, on to the zoo. I stayed mainly in the Invertebrate House because I don't trust animals with a backbone.





What is this thing? I should spend more time reading the informational placards.






Current desktop background. Oh, I like this picture.







The crabs were really feisty. Out of the four crabs I saw, three of them were actively snapping at me. They must intuit my love for crab legs at inexpensive Chinese buffets.




Grr.

















This was a local crab.








Nice close-up.








This was the one crab that didn't react to me. He was kind of brooding back in the corner of the tank.





Nautilus.











Neat rainbow fish.








This urchin looked like it had lips.











More urchin.








It seems that all of the zoo volunteers are in love with the octopus. One of them actually came by and rounded up everyone in the invertebrate house because there wasn't anyone around to watch the feeding.


Closer picture.








Did you know... this octopus is able to suction herself to the surface of the water?






Hah, that's cool. She looks angry.








Here is the volunteer about to give her a half crab on a stick. She is very unwilling to release the stick afterwards.





This was the only animal I saw that had a number.










Shell.








Shell with growth.








More jellyfish in the tank. Unfortunately, I cannot replicate the rainbow shimmery coolness that these things radiate in real life. Maybe next time I will take a video.




Doesn't this look like there should be a glass wall between you and the spiders? I talked to one of the volunteers and he said that the spiders were homebodies that didn't like to leave their webs. He tried unsuccessfully to throw crickets in the web so I could watch a feeding but they weren't sticking.


Eek.








I know that it was called the pollinarium, but there were no bees in this room. Thank god.











































































This centipede looked fake. The original probably died years ago and someone just tossed this in saying "eh, no one will know the difference".




This made me laugh. Look at the huge bowl of food for that one, immobile millipede. I have never seen a millipede that wasn't curled up into a little pile. How much food could they possibly need?



I exhausted the Invertebrate House and moved northward to Reptile Land.

The crocodile looked bored.








Eek - gila monsters scare me. I think I had some book about them when I was little and it talked about how they were poisonous and that was the moment I decided that I did not want to visit the southwest.



Oh! Wow! It was here - a skink!








I had imagined a little lizard-like creature but this thing was almost as big as the gila monster.







There were a ton of snakes that were incredibly active at 11:00 in the morning but at this point my camera ran out of batteries and I walked home.