A Day At The Races. No, Seriously.

I swear to God, I didn't know this was going to happen.  See, I started writing my Pygmalion post in my head on the day we had our little party.  (That would be the 7th of August, for those of you playing at home.)  I totally knew what I wanted to name it because well, I enjoy attempting to be clever and I knew at least my mom would get the joke.  (And I know she's one of my limited readers so I may as well play to the crowd I have.)

At that point in time I had absolutely no idea that roughly a week later (and indeed, before I actually WROTE my Pygmalion post - even for the first time) Steve would turn to me and say something along the lines of "hey, you know what would be fun for my birthday?  Going to Canterbury and seeing the horses." I had to agree with him, that would be fun for his birthday.  And thus, last Sunday, we spent the day at the races.

We are not what you'd call "educated betters."  We tend to bet on the horse we feel has the coolest name.  We were once at Canterbury for the day and were totally psyched to bet on a horse named "Freckles O'Brian" only to lose him to a late scratch.  My favorite on Sunday was a horse named "Case in Point."  How do you not bet on a horse named Case in Point?  I mean, come on.  (He won us some money too, so that was pretty cool.)  Steve's parents, who joined us for the day, were a bit more scientific with their bets.  Tracking jockeys and following the odds and all kinds of stuff that's way less fun than picking the best name.  Of course, Steve's mom won in something like 6 of 8 races and his dad hit a trifecta in one race so theirs was probably a better plan.

Come to think of it, that kind of makes me feel like:

Get it?  That's a little horse humor for you there.  You have to admit though, as far as horses asses go, this one is awfully pretty.

Read More:

Fridays in the Park

Sooo... Remember the other day when I posted a picture of a unicyclist in Como Park and said it was pretty cool, but it was no monkey?  Yeah.  This is an effin' monkey!

His name is Michael and he is a monkey.  I assume, based on the shorts, that he plays basketball.

This is a monkey people!  In the park!  Totally random!  Monkey!

...And I took some other pictures too.  None of them are nearly as good as monkeys.

Coup in the Zoo III: Back to the Habitat

Our adventure at the zoo continued with some under-the-sea life:

I don't actually know if this is coral.  This sounds gross but it looked too flesh-like to be coral.

I'm pretty sure this is a Sea Anemone, it was kind of entrancing; just watching it undulating in around itself.

This one actually is coral, I'm reasonably certain.

Another water dragon.

And on to some bigger animals:

Big Coup in the Zoo, Part Two: Electric Boogaloo

Our adventure at the zoo continued as we went to visit the fishies.

Or... more specifically, the sharks.

There were actual fish too:

And There's a Big Coup in the Zoo

"I mock you with my monkey pants!"

Over Memorial Day weekend Steve and I went out to the Minnesota Zoo with some friends.  Hilarity ensued, of course.  One of the major themes of the day was seeing the animals... relieve themselves.  And since all four of us (including the two who are soon to be parents) are, oh, twelve on the inside a hearty bought of giggling followed each display.

Anyway, we had lots of fun visiting the animals.  And I personally think the animals had fun being our entertainment.

Let's start our with a Prairie Dog, shall we?  Everybody loves prairie dogs, right?  They're like chubby meerkats.  They're fantastic.  And look how polite this one is:

He has his pinkie up!

From there we'll move on to a very big kitty, prowling about.

And... kind of hiding behind a tree...

I personally am a big fan of turtles.  The Minnesota Zoo apparently doesn't have penguins (TOTAL CRAP, Minnesota Zoo.  Shape up and fly right!  Lose the penguin hate.  They're adorable and you should have them!) so turtles may be my second choice.  They're not too flashy, that's true, but they look really cool

And I love they're little faces.  They look like little old men :)

This dude was just hanging out, chillin'.  

Continued...

Fancy Camera

Somewhat randomly Steve had a very fancy camera in his possession for about 20 hours or so early this week. Some of those hours included our walk at Como Park on Monday so we took it along and I got to play a little bit.  Big fun.  Especially as there were just tons of puppies in the park that day.

If you look closely, there's a big ol' bumblebee on that flower.

 

There is a puppy hiding in those bushes!

Looking down at a bit of the man-made waterfall.

 

Some ivy or something growing on the rocks around the waterfall.

 

Some late afternoon light shining on this absolutely beautiful lily.

Look at how deep that red is.  Just gorgeous.

  

We always seem to see something completely random when we go to Como.  An unicyclist is no guy walking around with a full-grown monkey on his shoulder (oh how I wish I'd had my camera with me last week) but it's random enough for my tastes.

A very happy puppy.  I think I saw this dog "pulled over" about four different times so he could be pet by small children who were clearly in love with him.

 

A nice view of the lake.

 

A shot of a wild rose that was blooming a little way away from the bench where we were.

 

A cool looking plant that I was fascinated by a the time.

 

I liked the way the light was hitting the leaves on this tree.

 

An adorable little puppy that was very, very happy to see every single person that passed.

A cool lakeside house.

The actual waterfall (now that I've posted pictures of the stuff around the waterfall.)

This was such a pain in the butt.  It was still as can be until I decided I wanted to take this picture.  Then the wind started blowing like mad.  It figures.

 

Some cool sort-of back lit thistles.

 

An interesting collections of greens around the edges of the lake.  (Not shown: the disgusting, SMELLY scum/algae that's still covering a good portion of the lake.)

 

A nifty Birch tree.  I always try to take cool pictures of birch bark because I think it's super cool, the pictures usually turn out lame though.

 

Some very deeply veined bark.

This tree had some weird stuff hanging from its trunk.  It kind of looked like old clothes or something.  The sun was shining right on it so it was rather hard to tell.

 

Finally, a happy cloud!

Fun with a fancy camera!  Woo!

Great Blue

There's a Great Blue Heron that lives in Como Lake where Steve and I walk three times a week. He's usually flying around while we're there but the other day (while we were walking in the rain. again.) he was just chillin' out in the shallows. I'm trying to think of a name for him. Haven't thought of anything yet though. Bummer.