Wild Out of Control Animals

 First of all, welcome to my newest followers. I so appreciate every visitor.

We have a world class zoo. The children's section is amazing. I always loved going there to see the newborns in the nursery. There is an indoor building with caged small animals such as a desert fox etc. Outside there are uncaged parrots in trees and  a variety of animals in compounds.

When my daughter was four, she was heading to the outdoor slide by the goat pen. We passed a llama in an outdoor compound, and of course she wanted a better look. The llama obviously wanted a closer look at her. As if in slow motion they approached one another at the fence, and the llama reached over and snatched a plug of her blonde hair as if it were hay. Then it walked away chomping.

Grandson was eight years old. We were at Grant's Farm, the Busch (Anheuser-Busch) beer baron's estate in town, where they have a mini zoo, free to the public. Generations of St. Louisans have ridden a tram around their acreage where large wild animals roam freely. Ever seen a zonkey, cross between a zebra and donkey? A camel up close and personal?

My grandson walked up to the fence with his cup of Mountain Dew. He took one sip and the camel ran to him, leaned its head over the fence, snatched his cup, flipped it up and drained it, then dropped it at our feet. We were dumb-struck for a moment and then we laughed all the way home.

I'm thinking it's about time for another trip to the zoo.

 

What a potato head!

When Welsh farmer Ifor Edwards dropped his keys he called in a metal-detecting agency. They found the keys and also 14 medieval coins from the 14th and 15th centuries, according to a story published Monday in the Shropshire Star.

Can you even imagine? Well, I can. My son was digging in our back yard when he was a little boy and he found a partially corroded coin with an 1800's date. Someone advised us to place the coin into a slit, raw potato. We did and he put it in the fridge. Of course the potato shriveled and turned black around the area that was cut.

My mom was very helpful and often folded laundry or hand washed my dishes when she came for a visit. Can you imagine my son and his dad when they went to check out the coin in the potato and both were gone?

Mom thought she was tossing food-gone-bad. The trash truck was long gone and by then, so was Mom.

Do you want to know a secret? I am old enough to remember the first Mr. Potato Head game. The plastic pieces were inserted into a REAL potato. Eww, can you imagine storing that?

Better lawns and gardens

 

 

The weather has been unseasonably cool. We broke all records with a low of 56 degrees yesterday. The grass is greener than ever and the vegetable garden is gifting us with an abundance of crops.

 

We live in a neighborhood where all the men take pride in their lawns and generally mow on weekends. I love the green blanket of zoysia that stretches yard to yard, up and down the block. Our neighborhood can't measure up to this one, though.

 

We took a short cut the other day while driving and came upon this house with very little grass to cut. I yelled for hubby to stop, and I snapped this photo. The entire lawn was planted in petunias, I think.

I thought it was beautiful, Bill thought it was a little too much. What do you think? Would you like to be neighbors with this homeowner?

 

 

Mark your calendar!

I have been invited, and now I'm inviting YOU.

 

Won't you join me, please in the Central West End?
 

August 6th from 7-9:30

Dressel's Public House
419 N. Euclid
Saint Louis, Missouri 63108
...
Poems, Prose and Pints is proud to present Poets and Writers:

Jon Dressel
Taylored Poet
Julia Gordon-Bramer
Tony Renner
Linda O'Connell
More TBA

Musical Guest: Chris Ware

Emcee: Ben Moeller-Gaa

Hope you can stop by for a pint and to listen to some real talent!

This is no laughing matter

There is something wrong with me. It's not just the little things I forget, such as what I went into the closet for. Today my actions had my husband ready to commit me.

We went to lunch. I unwrapped the linen napkin and placed my silverware on the table.  I answered my cell phone "message received" and excitedly babbled on and on about my final acceptance notification from Chicken Soup Just Us Girls book.

Then, I went to take a bite of my food and got all flustered.

"Are you messing with me?"

He looked surprised as he shoveled a forkful into his mouth. "Nuuhnnn."

"You are! Aren't you? You saw me sit here and unwrap my silverware. Here's my knife and spoon...YOU took my fork!"

He never cracked a smile or uttered a word, just kept his eye trained on me as he ate.

"Just give me my fork. I need to eat this before it gets cold. If you didn't take it where is it?"

I finally saw it, the tines were buried in a huge scoop of the cheesiest macaroni and cheese in town, next to my tilapia and spinach. I HATE when that happens.

He never took his eyes off me as I blushed as crimson as my napkin.

"Uhmm, no, I didn't take your fork," he said as he wiped his mouth with his napkin.

It's that dry humor of his that makes me...love him. We laughed all the way home.

The rest of the story...

First two days we were at sea. We ate, lounged, went to comedy shows and live Broadway shows, the casino, watched outdoor movies at night on a drive-in theater size screen, napped, read, relaxed.

When we arrived in Freeport, Bahamas the remnants of tropical Storm Chantal was dumping, and it rained most of the morning. We walked around the shopping district and then went back onboard ship. No excursions. That night after the wonderful stage show, we returned to our cabin to find a note on the bed. What now!

Attention: The U.S. Embassy in Nassau has issued a tourist alert. Do not carry large sums of cash or wear flashy jewelry. GREAT! (Probably a bad experience for a tourist on the last cruise.) We don't have glam jewelry or large sums of money. We had purchased an excursion to Atlantis Water Park (but not the slides) that you see advertised on TV. It was delightful. We swam in the Caribbean, ate lunch, stopped for a few minutes in their massive casino, explored the remarkable underground cave-like aquarium where I fell in love with this little yellow sea horse. Look at the shrimp around the corner. There were people swimming with a manta ray the size of a Mini Cooper car, sting rays with their barbs snipped, humongous fish and all sorts of sea creatures and sea life. It was amazing!

 

Yes, there were some highs and lows of this vacation, but the highlight of our trip was a spontaneous moment as we set sail for home. We looked over our eighth floor balcony and saw "flying" fish darting across the water. Then to our surprise we looked down into the crystal clear turquoise sea and spied a pod of submerged gray bottle nose dolphins just below the surface dining on those flying fish. In the past I've seen dolphins breech and pass near us as we've sat on the beach, but never have I been able to view them like this.  MADE MY DAY! I didn't have my camera handy, so I didn't get a picture, but it will forever be ingrained in my mind.

We're thinking maybe next vacation will be by train or plane. 

 

The saga continues

Cruise Day 2

The river was still closed due to the sinking of a tug boat, and the cruise ships could not get into port. Passengers were directed to report at 8:00 a.m. to the  Port of New Orleans where we were to board motor coaches to be transported to the Mobile,Alabama Cruise Terrminal, which had been closed for two years.

 Bill and I were going to be first in line. We were up and on our way by 6:30. We joined a line of traffic and were directed to an unfamiliar New Orleans terminal and parking area by officials who didn't have a clue!   

Bill dropped me and the luggage at the front door where the security guard told us to wait for someone to let us in. There were a dozen families ahead of us. I couldn't get in line with four pieces of luggage, so I stood at the main entrance off to the side while Bill parked. The line continued to grow longer.

I watched as Big Bubba with his belly hanging out of his T shirt dropped off his mama and twenty pieces of luggage. I did a double take; she looked exactly like the late Irene Ryan, you know, Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies. She twanged just like her, too. She narrowed one eye and looked at me.

"I cain't get in line neither 'cause we're waitin' fer ALL the fam-i-ly. There's Orin, Mion and Urin, and they even in-vited the mother-in-law. Be daimned if they think I'm gettin' stuck with HER!"

Sometimes it's best to just smile and nod. I bobbed my head furiously and waved frantically when I saw Bill walking my way. I told him about the woman's kids' weird names, and then it hit me, she meant "Ours, Mine and Yours". I went to get in line while Bill entertained the idea of talking to her.

We watched with frustration through the glass front doors as people trailed into the terminal through the back doors. NOBODY knew which door should be the Customs entry point. Finally as the masses on our side of the demarcation line got restless and ticked off, an official woman came and fielded our questions with, "I don't know what's going on, but I'll find out."

 I told her we had found out that people were entering through the other door. I started to walk away and she said, "Stop! You can't go in there." At that point another woman came and told her that we should proceed to the back entrance. Bill and I trotted like race horses around the corner, went through Customs and right onto a bus for the scheduled ninety minute trip.

We arrived in sixty minutes. You do the math. State patrol had pulled three motor coaches over for exceeding the speed limit. We weren't one. Arrived at the Mobile Terminal which had been closed two years. An older man boarded the bus and said, "You all are sterile, so you can't get off until we figure out what's going on. Once you get off, do not stop to smoke a cigarette or you won't be sterile anymore."

WTH did smoking have to do with anything? He meant we had already passed through Customs and had to proceed directly through the terminal door and through a scanner. We waited twenty minutes on the bus while they scrambled to get full staff  from Port Canaveral in Florida to operate the closed Mobile terminal. It was utter chaos. They admitted THEY didn't know what was going on either.

Finally we embarked the ship and sat down to people-watch. The first indication that I might have seen one of Granny Clampett's kin was the obese woman strolling down the promenade wearing a shirt emblazoned with I BEAT ANOREXIA.

Having skipped breakfast, we headed upstairs to Guy's Burger Joint (from the Food Channel) and had one of Guy's  Famous Burgers. Yum! Worth the wait!

We found our cabin and no sooner settled in when someone rapped at the door. A bottle of complimentary wine. We don't drink. Another knock on the door. A large fruit and cheese basket (on a ship that is a rolling buffet), so we ate the humongous concord grapes and gave the rest to our Malaysian cabin steward who appreciated it, or hocked it, or whatever.

We walked out onto our balcony to watch the ship take off. What we saw was a fully staffed Coast Guard boat approach, weapons at the ready. When a small pleasure craft with a  family came too close to the ship, one of the guys ordered the boat to move away. Someone on a balcony above us shouted, "They're not terrorists!" In this day and age, I guess you don't know.

Overhead, local television news crews hovered in helicopters. Reporters lined the street with live cameras. Shhh! Maybe my 4:00 a.m. call to CNN did make a difference. Maybeeeeeeeee...THAT'S why we got wine and fruit. The CNN reporter thanked me for breaking the story as they had heard nothing about another Carnival incident. Granted, it was an unforseen accident, not due to Carnival Cruise line, but this was not a carnival atmosphere, let me tell you!

Bon Voyage! We needed a nap after the belly full of burgers and sights for sore eyes.