ad from the detroit zoo from the 80s. love it! don't think i'll be able to work with the flamingos anymore without hearing, "and one, and two, and one, and two" in my head.

guttenplan crab feast/ whiffle ball game

brian's family's annual crab feast/family reunion/whiffle ball game on labor day weekend this year. the whiffle ball game is always divided into guttenplans vs. non-guttenplans. our team had t-shirts this year, and i think it was the team unity that really allowed us our first win. the record stands at 4-1-1. great times!

maryland state fair

baby pigs at the "birthing center" and a baby goat flehman-ing. so cute. 

we went to the largest candy store ever, where they had fireballs (my favorite!). i got a deep fried snickers bar for the first time....and probably the last. you just can't beat a good old fashioned funnel cake. saw a lot of animals (also my favorite!). and rode the big metal centrifuge that spins and sticks you to the side of the cage. i love the fair!

surf v turf

we played the aquarium in surf v turf part two. beat them in flag football last year, beat them in softball this year. taking bets they want next year's match to be water polo. :) 

Breakfast in the Farmyard

Doing a Hog Training Demonstration for all the people that came out for Breakfast in the Farmyard event at the zoo. Bella is such a champ, still pretty good on sit, even though we haven't trained in forever. Adorable! 

dad and susie's arrrrrmazing trip to baltimore. we went sailing on a pirate ship (aka day care dinghy) arrrrround the inner harrrrbor. 'twas loads of fun, and we walked away with booty and new dances to teach all our friends. ahoy!

hawaii

went to kauai with brian for my cousin alex's wedding. after the 24-hour-travel-fest to get there, the trip was wonderful! wild chickens running around, a great hike, and gorgeous views. and got to spend time with the family i don't see often enough. 

zooomerang

i recently attended the annual black tie affair at the zoo. even the camels wore bow-ties. we ate fantastic food from local restaurants, and danced the night away. it was entirely exciting seeing people not only out of their uniforms but so dressed up. i wish i took more pictures, but was enjoying myself too much to remember to pull out my camera.

heat wave

it got so hot, we sheared the sheep earlier than planned. chris did droopy, and i did lambert. (lambert looks better, haha.) and i got to leave a poof on the end of lambert's tail. it looks so cute!


before


during


after...so pretty! (the sheep were cooler, and we were sweatier)

spring is in the air

it feels a lot like summer, though, with the warm weather we've been having. i am still getting used to the ALL DAY RAINSTORMS baltimore has to offer. in colorado, if the thin air manages to rain, it's for an hour, tops. but here, with the ocean so close by and what not, it will rain all day long, and since i work outside, i come home looking like i fell in the farmyard pond.

but i digress...i really just want everyone to see pictures of the prairie dog babies and the sitatunga!



p. dog babies are adorable. they act just like adults, but talk in higher voices. and jahari is such a handsome sitatunga, and he will come inside when called in return for apple pieces. joanie makes this hilarious face. as if i can take something as cute as her seriously when she shoots me a 'drop dead' look.

getting back into the blogging habit

me and my favorite cows. moo. brenna loves chin scratches more than anything, and bailey likes to lick my pants. i think i have been working in the farmyard so long now that my pants have absorbed the taste of hay. they are so cute. the picture was taken for a slideshow to be shown on the night of zoomerang, our zoo's annual fundraising gala.

also, our new baby elephant is out and about for the public to see. samson is adorable.
see?

baby elephant!!! plus: the circus! plus: bella training!

congrats to the elephant staff at the zoo for their new baby! felix gave birth to her 2nd calf wednesday night, a 290 pound baby boy! he is super cute from the pictures i have seen!! i was, of course, on my weekend when he was born, so i am so so so excited to get to work tomorrow to hear all about it. i love my job. (have i mentioned that?)



plus, tomorrow i get to go behind the scenes at the barnum & bailey and ringling
bros. circus that's in town for the next couple weeks. we will get to see how they travel with the animals, and meet a few of the trainers that work with the tigers, llamas, dogs, and elephants. i'm so excited, i love learning about and seeing different kinds of training.

**and an update on my bella training: my favorite little hog is doing awesome learning how to station. i ask her to go to her mat, and she has been doing it consistantly, so now i am making her pause on the mat before releasing her with the bridge (whistle) and giving her her reward. she held still for three seconds the other day while staring at me the whole time. yay, bella! once she is able to hold for an extended period of time, i will put the scale in there so eventually i can weigh her.

decorating

i am in the middle of trying to decorate my room, and find myself constantly drawing a blank on where to begin. i have heard it's a good idea to look at a lot of pictures you like, and see what they have in common to get an idea of your decorating tastes. but i think i have the most random tastes ever. i like the clean simple lines of modern style. but love lots of color. and things that don't really match but go together anyway. and bold prints. and now i have no idea how to mush all this together into a lovely room i will love sitting in. here's some of my favorite pictures, maybe someone will have better ideas than me:

i wish i was a giant...

i would play with people like this all day! and i hope their faces would be as absolutely hilarious as i did so! enjoy:

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/hillary.htm

opening day!

it's almost opening weekend, and we have all been running around like decapitated chickens to get the zoo looking pretty! i have swept and raked till my arms just about fell off, but i can't wait for people to actually be around. one: because it will feel less like i'm working in a ghost town, and two: because i have put so much work into giving the animals new toys and fixing up the exhibits, i want people here to admire it all!

plus, there is so much new stuff happening, i am so excited to be a part of it all! we have a new male giraffe, cesear joining our herd of females. i actually worked with a keeper in denver right before i left that was his keeper in jacksonville, fl, and helped train him before he left for maryland. so i was sure to tell him hi from her.

aaaaand, we recently got two new elepahnts: felix and tuffy (i know, but we didn't name them, haha). and if having a new male around isn't a big enough deal, the zoo finally anounced to the media that felix is pregnant and due any day now! can't wait to see the little baby. oddly enough, i turned on animal planet (more on the new logo later) and they were playing a documentary on felix! it followed her when she lived in the riddles' elephant sanctuary and was having her first calf, max. it was so cool to see how they managed her, and introduced all the elephants to each other to try to form a cohesive herd. and now they are doing the same thing at our zoo! this will be the first baby elephant born at our zoo ever. here's a picture of felix and max:

i am also proposing we get in a new breed of goats for our petting zoo: dwarf goats. they are super cute, small, and come in very fun unique color patterns. maybe we will get a dalmation spotted one!
(head tilt) "awwww!"

adventures in baking...♥

after the disasterous attempted birthday cake for marielle, sarah and i decided to go with just plain brownies to make for matt's birthday. but sarah found a great recipe and decorating inspiration and i got off work early since i only had my zoo orientation all day. so i got to work on the baking, and sarah took over the artsy decorating! and voila:

and when sarah said she wanted to make the same brownies as cupcakes to bring into work, i thought it would be a good time to try a delicious-sounding recipe i found on tastespotting: lavender fairy cupcakes. mmm... i can't recall every eating anything with lavender in it before, so the taste of the muffins was unexpected and wonderful. (i call them muffins because they were less sweet than i typically think of cupcakes being.) the taste reminded me of being in new zealand; the neighborhood i lived in had many many lavender shrubs cut into hedges that bordered peoples' property. walking to school on a sunny day (or even rainy, i love the rain and mist) was delightful.

miss me?

sorry i have been m.i.a. for a bit. it's been busy busy around here. and i ended up with a list of things to blog. and i finally had to skip wing night (!) to catch up with some stuff around the house. so one by one this weekend, i will knock out all the bloggity blogs i have swimming around in my head.

#1: the failed birthday cake. observe:

yep, in case you ever wondered what would happen when you forget to add baking soda to a simple chocolate cake recipe, this is it. flat. eggy texture. not very good. not like that stopped sarah and i from eating a couple peices...but not pretty enough to serve to marielle for her bday.

so we ended up making a pacakge of brownies and covering it with pink sprinkles. yum!

♥

thought i would spice up my blog for valentine's day. i love the pink craziness for the short month. i am going to post some pictures of the crazy decorations from my neighborhood. the people around here totally get into front window decorating. i thought it would only be for xmas...but then down came the tinsel and up went the pink colored tinsel. yay!

p.o.d.

i ♥ national geographic's picture of the day. always something new and pretty to look at. and often they are of animals. love it. (although, if you look at my pictures, my cows at the zoo are way cuter!)

grateful for graffiti

hahahaha. oh i love when my roomie sends me
funny stuff! is graffiti still a crime if it makes the sign better and hilarious?