May 2008 (180 lbs):

We left Tucson after work on Thursday and got to our hotel a little after 11. The hotel was standard, with zero parking, but had a pretty good continental breakfast. Which, I've decided, I will never stay in a hotel without a continental breakfast again. I mean, the money you save on not going out to eat, is fabulous.

Jeff brought his bike, and left bright and early Friday morning for a ride. Keep in mind that we arrived at the hotel when it was dark and Jeff left for his ride when it was dark. So the poor boy had no idea of his surroundings. Needless to say, he got lost, and his five mile joy ride turned into a 25 mile (not so fun) ride. But he was in good spirits when he returned.

We ate our free breakfast, then headed to the San Diego Zoo. We got to the gates 5 minutes before opening, and just as Jeffry was about to purchase our tickets (which were $35 a piece) a kind old woman tapped him on the arm. She asked him "where are you from?" and when he answered she said "well I can take one of you in for free, come with me." I'm not really sure if where we were from persuaded her in any way, but that's besides the point.



So Jeff stayed behind and bought his ticket, while I followed this lady (whose name is Cara) to the front of the line. She sauntered right up to the front of the line and started talking to people immediately. The zoo workers all knew her by name. They asked about her husband. Cara told me she's been a member of the zoo since 1974 and she goes there 3 times a week. When they let us in the gates, we were the first ones through. We pulled to the side and waited for Jeffry, while she told me all the things to make sure to see that day and which way to go first. When Jeffry finally found us, she told us we can't miss the Flights of Fancy Show, where the zoo keepers release macaws from overhead. Cara told us all about the flamingos and different birds while we waited, and she knew a lot about the running of the zoo. Like how the male birds have the identification band on their right leg, and the females on their left. And when Jeff commented that two flamingos were fighting, she said "oh, they're not fighting, they're just... disagreeing." :) She was great.



We said our good-byes to Cara after the Flights of Fancy Show and began meandering our way around the San Diego Zoo. It's not my favorite zoo that we've been to; it's too hilly, and there's a lot of walking without anything to look at. I feel like it could be much better designed, but I've never designed a zoo before so what do I know.



I made Jeffry take a picture of these tortoises because it looked like they were crawling toward each other for a chat. Reminds me of Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor and Wilson.

Here I am taking a picture of a nice family, which Jeffry likes to then take a picture of.



From our Grand Canyon trip last year and London the year before:



It's kinda funny.

That's all for now. More later.

Jeff and I went to the San Diego Zoo last week, which I will blog about later. I wanted to write about one experience at the zoo in particular: the children. Oh god the children. And I don't mean that positively. It seemed to be school field trip day; there were large groups of kids there, ranging from pre-school kids to middle school. Most of the kids were well behaved, especially the younger kids. But then there were groups that were out of control. I work with kids everyday. I'm used to chaotic situations. I handle loud kids exceptionally well. But these kids were ridiculously rude. They were yelling and clapping at the animals, running back and forth in front of cages, trying to get a reaction from the animals. And I'm talking kids that are 10-13 here. It was so bad that we would skip exhibits because an annoying group was there, or we'd hurry past others because the kids were screaming. It was disappointing that the supervising adults didn't take control of the situation. It made our zoo experience rather unpleasant.

However, I did see this little guy. And that almost made it worth it.

Congrats to Sam, who graduated from the University of Arizona yesterday!

"Don't let the pigeon drive the bus" is one of my favorite children books. Written and illustrated by Mo Willems, the book is interactive and silly. The whole Pigeon series is a lot of fun. If you haven't read them, I recommend you check them out. If you have read them, you might find this video pretty funny- I did!

I received these flowers at work yesterday:



They were from Jeff's parents, for teacher appreciation day. I might have the best in-laws ever.

When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal.

- President Richard M. Nixon

The president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our obligations, legal obligations, under the Convention Against torture. So that's -- and by the way, I didn't authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency. That they had policy authorization subject to the Justice Department's clearance. That's what I did.

...the United States was told, we were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. And so, by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Conventions Against Torture.

- Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

This music video by NYU student Nyle was filmed in a single take, and the audio was recorded simultaneously. I like it a lot.

Saturday night Jeff and I went out to Club Crawl, and I wanted to write about it on our blog. But I started thinking about the things I wanted to write, and they weren't things that would be overly interesting or funny to other people. But they are to me. And this made me think about why I contribute to this blog, which is different than why I think Jeff does. Jeff's posts usually have to do with opinions and current events, with some sentimental things strewn in. My posts are about events in our daily lives. While I like to share our lives with people, I mainly post so that I will remember those events. I'm sorry if I bore you, but here I go!

So, Saturday night John, Jeff and I went to Club Crawl in downtown Tucson. We got there about 8:30, while the lines were still doable. We eventually met up with my sister, Megan, and the newly engaged couple Sam and Brett. Shortly after we were joined by John's brother Andrew and his friend Bobby. I left to get John and Jeff a beer, and when I came back Andrew and Bobby were on stage dancing and singing with this very odd band.



John soon joined them. Needless to say, the boys were all pretty drunk by then. The singer was attempting to make love to the speaker, a girl was licking the guitarist's back, and Jeff was laughing like he was watching Kyle dance at my cousin's wedding. It was a fun time.

We made our way into the Rialto, where the Jons were playing. They were a lot of fun, and Jeff, John, Andrew and Bobby were cracking us up with their dancing. After the show, we took the dance party outside, where after John did some impromptu burpees for us...



...and some general debauchery...



...we had a little dance-off. I don't have any pictures of the dance-off, which is too bad for your sake. It was quite the event! We witnessed the shopping cart, the robot and a few other moves you just have to see to believe. But then Jeff breaks out with, wait for it, wait for it- a push up! You have to understand that he was totally and completely wasted by this point. So he does a push up, and some one else does, like 10 quick push ups. So Jeff says "oh yeah, watch this," and he goes to do a one-handed push up, but he essentially falls on his face. I'm laughing just writing this.

I wish I was a better writer, and that I could write as succinctly as Jeff does. But you're stuck with me! I know when I read this post 6 months from now, it will still bring a smile to my face- and that's what matters to me!