My parents, they are exhausting

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And once again, I disappear for several days at a time. I can't help it, my parents keep coming to visit, and they keep me absurdly busy.

This time, it was because I had off on Thursday for Veteran's Day, so my mom and I both took Friday off to make it a long weekend. I had my Remicade treatment on Thursday, and my mom took the bus and arrived around dinner time.

On Friday, we went to the National Zoo, which I haven't been to in years. We saw the pandas, of course, and a baby gorilla, but the coolest thing is the O line, a series of 50-foot-high towers connected by cables, which the orangutans are able to use to cross from one building to another. We actually saw one go across right over our heads (and then promptly peed on the tower, making us grateful that we weren't standing underneath the cable, lol).

My favorite are the big cats (I'm sure no one is surprised), so here's a couple pictures of lions, tigers, and... more tigers, lol. This is the first time I've tried to take pictures with my new cell phone, and I am reasonably impressed with the quality.



The lion was roaring up a storm - it was right around feeding time, so I suspect he was hungry. Either that or one of the tourists pissed him off! (There are two sets of lion cubs now at the zoo, but the moms and babies are still being kept inside, so we didn't get to see them. I guess we'll just have to go back!)



Tiger doing a Chelsea impression:



For comparison:



My dad came down on Saturday morning, and we went to the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show. TV stars like Bobby Flay, Paula Deen, and Rachael Ray were there, but it was much more expensive to get tickets for the celebrity events, so we stuck to wandering the merchant stalls and eating lots of yummy food in tiny, sample-size bites. We also got to watch cooking demonstrations and do some shopping. I came home with a new scarf, Christmas gift tags for wine bottles, a very tasty mustard, and a spice rack, which is going to be a Christmas gift for my aunt. That night, I took my parents out to dinner for their anniversary/my dad's birthday, and we went to a restaurant in Old Town called Bilbo Baggins, which I simply couldn't pass up with a name like that. :) The food was really good, and had some unusual flavor combinations. Not very hobbit-like, though.

Today we went to more open houses to look at condos. More reasonably priced than the ones we saw two weeks ago, but none with the Metro access and walkable neighborhood that I want, unless I want to live in a closet-sized condo. Such is real estate in the DC metro area - anything I like is usually out of my price range. :-P

I am way behind on TV. I've got Being Erica, The Vampire Diaries, Community, The Office, Fringe, and Burn Notice to catch up on, so there may be review/reaction posts forthcoming. I also have about a bazillion tabs to sort through, so if you've posted anything interesting in the last few days, let me know!

Comments

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

KITTIES! I love those pictures!

I won't flatter myself that I have posted anything interesting but you can come lol at how Angel and Lee Adama make me go all veiny and screechy. :)

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LOL! I have to admit, I am impressed by your foresight - all along, I have been wanting to comment on things you said that were totally dead on, but I didn't want to spoil you. So I saw your latest BSG posts and was all, "Yay! She's finally at the lawyer!Lee arc! See, he listened when you told him he needed to leave the military!"

[(Anonymous)]

The last time I went to the (local-ish) zoo, the lions and tigers were sleeping in their caves and refused to come out. :(

Definitely catch up on the TVD, but The Office can wait, IMO. :) And you MUST watch tonight's Dexter ASAP. OMG.

I posted some Dexter icons (http://goldenusagi.livejournal.com/293887.html), but I'm not sure if that's interesting, LOL.

GoldenUsagi

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Awww. We had really good luck with the animals this time.

Yay Dexter icons!

[mcmegan]

Animals are notorious for napping in the afternoon (which is when most people go to the zoo). When I worked at the zoo, a co-worker and I tried to use that argument to allow ourselves to nap in the afternoon. No such luck for people.

I'll go to the zoo with you to try and find lion babies! I never got to see the whole zoo when I was there. But will you go into the reptile house?

Also, seeing you mention your parents' anniversary made me panic and wonder if I had forgotten MY parents' anniversary. But that was last month, I had called my mom. All safe.

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Haha, yeah, although we went in the afternoon and had surprisingly good luck. I definitely support afternoon naps for people! While I was there, I thought about inquiring about a job for you, but I know you already have.

That's right! Our parents have the same anniversary. I'd planned to take them out to dinner instead of getting a present, but since my dad didn't come to visit last time, we had to postpone it.