Posted in navy life, photography, tagged 365, navy, pictures, work, zoo on March 4, 2012 | 3 Comments »
This week has been one in which I accomplished a lot and worked very hard on several projects. My photos are mostly of things related to them, with a handful of other randomness.
Monday I cleaned the bedroom and started getting things together to make a deployment shadowbox and scrapbook for J. He collected some patches, so I had them spread out on the bed… and Caspian decided they were his.
Posted in Joanna problems, the funny stuff, tagged dare to be pointless, funny, work on January 29, 2011 | 1 Comment »
A funny thing happened to me the other morning.
On Thursday evening a new-to-the-ship friend emailed me to ask if I wanted to join her for “something fun” on Friday morning. As she’s a professional photographer, I thought it must be something along those lines; maybe she needed me to help her carry equipment or maybe she was hiking to a new photo spot and wanted company. I agreed and she said she’d pick me up at 6:30 Friday morning, and gave me a short list of things to bring, including a bathing suit, a towel, sunscreen, etc.
Friday morning I packed a beach bag and my point and shoot camera and she picked me up and we headed for the leeward side of the island. I don’t go over there much, not only because it’s a long drive, but because it’s one of those places you need to know where you’re going before you start. We had an address, though, so I wasn’t worried. After about 40 minutes, we got to a beach house with a big sign out front and a lot of other cars.
And then I found out about the “something fun.”
She’d signed us up to be extras in a Pepsi Max commercial.
I am not kidding.
Not only that, but there were a couple of very well-known pro football players there as the “talent,” since they’re all here for the Pro Bowl on Sunday.
Again, I am not kidding.
We spent the day being at a “beach party” until… Well, I’ll wait until it’s online (as it’s part of an online campaign) and let you see for yourself. I’m hoping it will be funny.
[update]
I would like to add to this that this job (because I definitely got paid $100 for a day’s work) is the first paying job I’ve had since I moved to Hawaii. Oh, the irony.
Posted in Joanna problems, the funny stuff, zoo stuff, tagged funny, work, zoo on June 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I also thought about calling this “Customers Say the Darndest Things,” but it was a little long…
I was going to write about hiking yesterday, but after a couple of strange conversations at the zoo today, I decided to share with you some of the more, well, I’ll call them “creative” questions I’ve been asked by zoo guests and park patrons I’ve encountered over the years.
“What do you feed those gorillas?” (Asked when looking at siamangs.)
“What are the names of all of those llamas?” (Asked when looking at goats.)
“How hard was it to bottle feed those tiger cubs?” I had to explain that most captive-born cubs are raised by their mothers, and it’s only in unusual circumstances that they get bottle fed.
“Are you going to feed that to the tigers?” I was standing by the tiger exhibit, where we have a vegetable enrichment garden (for the primates), holding a couple of bell peppers that I’d just picked. “No, ma’am,” I replied, “they only eat meat.” She had the decency to look embarrassed.
“What do you think of Steve Irwin?” This one was asked today by an Australian man. I think he was trying to ask, in a more creative way than usual, the daily query: “Do you go in and play with the tigers?”
“Do you fry it or bake it?” (Asked when told that we feed captive birds of prey chicken. We had to explain about frozen dead chicks. You can imagine how that went.)
“How often will a turtle change its shell in its lifetime?” (They were trying to ask an intelligent question, really, but it just didn’t work.)
The latest also happened today, but I need to give you the whole context. I was walking along the front edge of the tiger exhibit, cleaning. A man stopped to ask me when the tigers would be back outside, so I told him in a few minutes (they were eating and I was, as I said, cleaning).
“Oh, okay,” he said. He paused. Then, “You know those Jackson’s chameleons?”
“Yes?” I said.
“You have them here?”
Thinking he meant at the zoo, I replied, “No, not on exhibit. They’re wild over on the windward side of the island, though.”
“Oh. Well, do you have Madagascar day geckos on the island?”
“Um, I don’t think so,” I said, starting to feel confused. I was, after all, standing in the tiger exhibit. “We have gold dust day geckos, though, and then a bunch of really small ones.”
“Oh. Well, do you think the zoo would sell me one of the geckos here? You know, to keep as a pet?”
What?! I thought. I said, “No, sir, they’re for exhibit only and not for sale.”
What I wanted to say was, “Sure, and maybe they’ll throw in an elephant to go with it!”
Yikes.
Posted in navy life, updates, tagged moving, navy, work, zoo on July 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Well, tomorrow may very well be my last day of work. It’s hard to say for sure, as I might get called in next week (someone has already called out at the Zoo and doesn’t seem to have found a replacement…), but really, tomorrow is my last scheduled day.
If we get extended (which is looking slightly more likely; thank you US Navy), I might work the last week of August at Back 2 Nature camp. Well, except for Monday of that week, which is when the movers come and I have to be here to supervise them.
So there are some definitely if’s associated with it, but the point is I’m nearing the end and so ready for it. This week has been especially exhausting.
In the meantime, our condo is going to start being shown tomorrow, so I have to have it at least mostly clean, while still organizing things for the move. Juggle, much?
I think I’m going to throw a Mathom Party; it’s a bit of freecycling, if you will (though not through that organization). The tentative date is August 14 (or, two Fridays from now), so if you’re local and reading this, come have some of my stuff. It’ll mostly be paperback books, extra DVDs, duplicates of things, lotion I haven’t used, maybe some of my Yankee Candles, some of my winter wear (I have a ton of sweaters!), maybe some of my barely-used shoes… Things like that. If you can use it, please come take it. I don’t want to trash it but I also don’t want to carry it around with me indefinitely.
I’ve got to sign off for now. We have people coming over for dinner in about 30 minutes. I’m making cupcakes in honor of Harry Potter’s birthday tomorrow. I make them every year on September 22, too. ~_^
Posted in navy life, this and that, tagged moving, navy, work on July 26, 2009 | 4 Comments »
So… J’s orders may or may not have changed. Thanks to the wonderful US Navy that can’t do ANYthing efficiently, we’re not really sure. We might still be leaving at the end of August, or it might be closer to mid-September. We’ll have to see, I guess. This is why we say that in the Navy, everything is written in Jello.
The second week of nature camp is now over and it was exhausting, but good. I had 21 kids (ages 9 to 12) for the week, and they were definitely a handful. We had fun, though, despite a lot of crazy stuff happening behind the scenes. Imagine showing up to your camp location to find that the port-a-johns you ordered aren’t there and instead you find half a dozen pieces of heavy equipment meant to spend the day tearing out fencing and leveling the parking lot, while you have 41 kids (many of them tiny 6 year olds…) to keep out of their way. Loads of fun, no? It wound up going more smoothly than we thought it would, but still…
Last night we went to a fundraiser for Hope House, which is a local organization that helps special needs adults. They had a raffle and I won a workout tank for J, and he won free yoga for a month for me. We had good food, good music, and a good time with friends.
Today, if we can ever get out the door, we’re heading out to Busch Gardens to play a little bit. We’ve also scheduled one of their behind the scenes days for August 8– we’ll get to meet wolf trainers (and the wolves), see the Clydesdales up close, and meet some of their education animals. I’m excited about that. ^_^
In the meantime, I have at least one week of camp left at the zoo. Might work the first week of August as well, depending on how I’m feeling at the end of this week. Then I’m just about done with everything for work. August is for packing and switching furniture between our place and my folks’ place, and then for getting rid of everything not going to HI with us. Fun stuff.
I’ll be sending out this link to more people very soon, so I’ll also start updating more frequently… and if you’re here for the first time, welcome! ^_^
