It's all Happenin' at the Zoo

Today was our field trip to the National Zoo and I'm exhausted. We did have a nice day for it - overcast, so not too hot, but not rainy like it is supposed to be tomorrow. And it wasn't as crowded as I had feared. The National Zoo is built on a hillside, so it is either trudging downhill or climbing back up. I spent a lot of time sitting on benches waiting for students to come by in order to take their pictures (which I'm not posting to protect privacy.) But I did get a few nice animal photos too:

We had just read about prairie dogs, so it was exciting to see them here.

This zoo has a lot of turtles.

See the baby turtle in the middle of these lilypads? It is on the darker curled-up one in the center.

This guy was hanging out right next to the glass.

"Don't take my picture!!"

These butterflies did not slow down, and rarely rested on the flowers. I waited a long time to get this photo.

OK, I will post this one of a student, sleeping on the way home in a monkey mask. I could make a joke about my kids already being monkeys, but I won't.

We got back to school at about 6:45. It was a loooooong day. Luckily (as we planned it) tomorrow is primary election day, so we have no school. We get a day to recover.

Currently The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall By Mary Downing Hahn see related

Four hours on a bus

I brought  this book along to read on the bus today - because it fit nicely in the bag I was carrying. 153 pages, four hours to read, finished it with lots of time to spare. Nice read, just creepy enough for kids. Also a period piece, which I like too. I might read this to my class next Halloween.

Only thing that bothered me about the story is that the ghost could touch the girl in the story, even brushed her hair. That doesn't jive with my notion of ghosts.

Life Cycle of a Sweatshirt

This time of year there is lots of laundry: wintery things for those coolish days and summery things for those hot days. I had three loads this weekend, but being out of town I didn't get to one load until Monday. Started the washer and was feeling a little coolish, so I got out a clean sweatshirt to put on. Went into the kitchen to make dinner, opened a can of tomato sauce, and made a big red stain on my clean sweatshirt. Took it off, went and stuck it in the washer. It was more than halfway through its cycle, but I figured the fresh stain would come out fine. I felt a bit sorry for the sweatshirt. It spent who knows how long waiting, waiting, waiting to be chosen; I wear it less than half an hour and back it goes into the wash/fold/waiting part of its life cycle. Like those plants that only bloom once every 100 years, or flower seeds waiting for the intermittent rain on the desert floor.

But speaking of blooms, it looks like my lilac is going to bloom after all. All the other lilacs bloomed early this year, so I started thinking mine was not going to bloom again. But it is on the brink, so any day now.

Spent most of the weekend either helping Mary move or on the road between our two places. I don't know how much help I was, but probably a bit more than the two hanging out in the box: