Going zoo-ing
I’ve actually been hideously lazy lately, which is why CavLec has also been slow. Have gotten a few things done (Alisa and Li, you have Spam Karma working again), but have mostly been frowsting with books or DVDs.
Today, though, is our wedding anniversary, so we took off for the zoo. The strip of Wingra Marsh we walk through on our way there boasted the usual pack of goldfinches, a hairy woodpecker, and a number of different spring warblers (I leave warbler identification to the truly insane among birders; “it’s a warbler” is just peachy-keen-fine with me). The turtles weren’t sunning themselves owing to a distinct lack of sun, but they did swim about and poke their little black noses up above the surface.
No ducklings today, but plenty of very young goslings.
The highlight of the zoo was the five young lions sunning themselves on rocks. Four of them were sprawled across the big rock when we walked up, the fifth sitting in the shade looking rather woebegone. David suggested that he try out the rock next door, and he apparently heard, because he got up and after a wistful look at his siblings climbed up and made himself perfectly at home. By the time we moved on, he’d figured out that having his own rock meant he could sprawl however he chose.
We saw a giraffe get up from a nap, an impressively quick operation given how gangly the poor creatures are. A white-crested cockatoo seemed to find us agreeable company, bowing and displaying its crest to us, and screaming horribly to bring us back when we left.
A white pelican came within arm’s length of us, regarding us patiently and (largely) fearlessly; we discovered why when a keeper came by to dump a bunch of minnows in a bowl for its lunch. It had considerable trouble eating the things; it could pick them up perfectly well with the tip of its very long bill, but getting them from the tip of the bill to the gullet presented quite some difficulty. The flamingos appreciated the pelican’s messy feeding; I confess I don’t see how pelicans survive in the wild without better eating skills than that, though.
After our trip through the aviary (which is still horribly designed, I’m afraid), we swung back past the lions and were treated to a glorious display of playful stalking and chasing and mauling. (Biting someone else’s tail appears to be a foul. Everything else is fair game.)
My feet are ripped to shreds, unfortunately; I must get new insoles for my workhorse Munros. I won’t be doing any serious walking for the next day or two if I can possibly help it; blisters on the bottom of a toe really hurt. But it was worth it.
If you read between the lines over the past year of CavLec, you know that David and I haven’t had the best year ever. I think that’ll pass; part of it is the usual way academia imposes on personal relationships (his department, not mine!), and part of it is the entire job-hunt thing, which still can’t end soon enough for my taste.
No, I haven’t heard from Perdóndaris yet, but since they just met the Other Candidate last Friday, I’m sure they’re still mulling over their decision. The bad thing is that I can’t get up the energy to send out other applications while this is hanging in the balance, though I have edited my résumé to add awards and (happily!) take away the “Expected May 2005″ from my MLS listing.