T-minus 48 hours

Today marks 2 days until we arrive in Texas. after months of planning and plan changing, we will finally arrive and get to enjoy the fruits of our labor. we get to see our BFFs, play in college station, see my mommy!!!!! eat delicious Texas foods that we have missed out on for 7-9 months (aka Chicken express...florida how do you live without it?), meet our nephew, and celebrate thanksgiving and christmas with the grimes side of the family.

That means that today (aka my day off) is filled with vacation preparation. conjunction junction. and to make my life even more easy, I signed up to take a test to progress at work tomorrow (so I have to study for that as well). But I have found ways to break up the day (thank you new episodes of toddlers and tiaras on netflix). I will defeat you suitcases and cleaning. I also already foresee myself missing Roscoe while we are gone.

last but not least, thank you to Alex Thomas who is the new best person I know. He agreed, without hesitation, to housesit for us....cat medication/baths and all. Alex Thomas: I appreciate you more than I could ever express to you in words. You are a really great young man, and we have loved getting to be a part of your family. Thank you for showing us love!

other news in the grimes household:
-we lowered our energy bill by 50%! how awesome is that! best month ever.
-once upon a time the catroom (guest bathroom) stunk bad. of course, there is a litterbox in a tight space, but it was an unbearable stench. after scrubbing and replacing all the litter, I discovered that the box could not be the source of the stench. low and behold, the toilet of stagnant water was moldy and disgusting and had gone untouched for over a month until it became disgusting. glad I discovered it finally. now it just smells like cat in there. bearable.
-I beat rhett in fantasy football last week.
-I made a strawberry cake on sunday night...and rhett's compliment for how it smelled/looked was "oh man I am going to do nasty things to that cake." A similar comment about my taco dinner last week was "oh man Roscoe I bet you wish you were a human right now so you could eat these tacos." his compliments make me giggle.
-I love it when I catch Rhett rewatching football games online that LITERALLY just ended on real TV.
-There was a particularly gross moment where the dog yawned, then I yawned, and he licked inside my mouth (gross enough, right?). well then Rhett felt compelled to say to me: "oh that's so gross, he was licking the bottom of my feet last night!". gag me.
-We have been taking morning walks together before work. It is easily the best part of my day.
-our friends the Somers finally brought home their 2 boys from ethiopia! What a glorious and celebratory week for them! We can't wait to take them to Aquatica for their first ever waterslides when we get back from Texas!
-a normal discussion in the grimes household: how much would someone have to pay you to lick your own armpit? can you even reach your own armpit?


other news on the pet front:can you spot her?
-we went to the dermatologist. the bill was depressing and the news was less than shocking. we are continuing treating for the things we already treated for. this better work dadgommit. I am so done with treating the same things with no results. fix my dang cat already!
-Roscoe has started quickly emptying and bringing over every toy in his toy bin any time he wants any attention at all. it makes for a very uncomfortable couch.

also in the news:
-what the what? did anybody see the man in Ohio who let 56 exotic animals (grizzlies, lions, cheetahs, bengal tigers, camels) free and then killed himself? good job guy, it's all your fault that 18 out of the 2500 remaining tigers of the world are now dead.
-matt wertz and michael buble both released christmas cd's this week. what to do?

and last but not least, everyone's (I'm sure) favorite: work stories and guest quotes:
NEWS:
-I had the privilege of staffing the sea lion area minutes after a sea lion pup was born. (then of course closing the area for a quick check up.) but still, awesome. seeing a 10 minute old sea lion= check.
-the word "penguin" is not in my phone. how can you be a zoologist's phone and not know the word penguin?
-I officially gave my first dolphin tour, first penguin talk, and second penguin talk all in the same week. a week of firsts, and a week of fun! so exciting!

these are a few of my FAVORITE THINGS:
-spray sunscreen: as much as I love your convenience, I would equally love a disclaimer on your bottle stating "lack of regard for other persons downwind or within a confined space may result in injury" thereby making it acceptable for me to throw punches.
-seeing a grown woman reach her foot over a 4' wall into a dolphin pool. classic.
-when a daddy says "look at all the mantas" to a child. we have not a single manta in SW.
-clearly, squirrels are the most awesome animals on the planet. because guests will turn their back on a manatee feeding to get one step closer to a squirrel.
-earlier in the week I opened up a drawer in our riddle box to discover....a roach. which then proceeded to scamper away. SICK. hopefully the nearest child wasn't traumatized.
-trick or treating at halloween spooktacular. bookoos of free candy.
-settling bets and dividing families: "is it a dolphin or a whale?"
-talking to little kids as they lather themselves in sunscreen, with no social regard for how silly they look lotioning themselves.

QUOTES:
after seeing a woman duck under a rope barrier at an overlook across the sea lion pool, I made my up to the overlook to tell her: "ma'am, I'm really sorry this area is closed off right now." woman says: "oops." like she stumbled across a closed area. it's not like you made a concerted effort to dodge the rules.

woman: "what will I see at dolphin cove?"
me thinking: 'dolphins.'

me holding a polar bear pawprint: "can you guess what animal this is from?
little girl: "a monster."

boy: "how do dolphins sleep?"
me: "they sleep half of their brains at a time, so they are always halfway awake. can you think why that might be important?"
boy: "so they can check for monsters under their bed?"

me: "do you know what polar bears eat?"
boy: "root beer?"

and I overheard this last one from a lifeguard. it's nice to know we are not the only ones who deal with silly questions.
man asked: "why did you breed dolphins and penguins?"

Zombie Cat

like our halloween decorations? we do too. we also made our mr. and mrs. potato head costumes. psyched to trick or treat with our nephews!! also, speaking of halloween, Rhett calls Aggie zombie cat. because she looks like a zombie, obviously. we officially go see the dermatologist on Monday. hopefully they tell us it was mange afterall...because she seemed to get better after last week (when she completely destroyed her face. our closet looked like a murder scene).

more about the pets:
-we bought their christmas gifts. can't wait 2 more months!!
-Rhett says the SPCA must have shown Roscoe videos on how to be an awesome dog. because he is.
-aggie's new allergen-free food makes her dooky smell NASTY. G-ross.


more things I like about Rhett:
-sleeping in until 10am last weekend when it rained ALL DAY. literally 3am until 10:30pm.
-waking up at 5am when the smoke detector decides to get a low battery. on an 11ft ceiling. boo.
-changing our oil and washing our cars together
-when he speaks my toothbrush language
-when he lays out my clothes for me in the morning when I don't want to get up and go to work

more things about work:
-it is officially desturbing to hear the key west music on the radio (music that plays on loop in dolphin cove all day long)
-I almost punched a young man in the face after watching him feed his cell phone to a pelican. do you have a brain sir?
-when you drive to work with no AC on, your "fuel range" actually increases. coolest feeling ever.
- I am officially tour trained!!! which made for the coolest week ever. touched a shark, touched a penguin, met a puffin, walked inside penguin encounter, saw a manatee xray, saw the top of shark encounter, went inside the infamous fish house, saw the surgical suite where frogs and manatees alike are treated, saw one day's worth of fish at SW (5,000 lb.) in the freezer, saw the rescued pilot whale...and generally enjoyed myself. can't wait to give tours so the guests can have such an awesome time as well.
-I also applied to cross-train as a reservationist. hopefully I have enough confrontational ability to deal with trouble guests.
-joking with coworkers about LRS-ing trouble guests. an LRS is what we do with our dolphins when they don't listen...ignore them for 3 seconds. I hate when complainy people get exactly what they want. so can't we just ignore them for 3 seconds too?
-our tour bus drivers are bob and larry....just like veggie tales!

and last, but certainly everyone's favorite: guest quotes.
-man approaching a trick-or-treat booth during our halloween spooktacular: "trick or treat I heard you have tootsie rolls."
-woman in all seriousness (because she is a SW employee's wife) in penguin encounter: "when the penguins get older and sick, do you ever give them to shamu?"
-mother to daughter: "look honey, it's a shark stingray thingy." real informative mom. good thing I was standing there.

Thank Shamu It's Friday

and what a nice weekend it has the potential to be!

all updates, big and small:

there was a mosquito inside our house that was literally the biggest mosquito I have seen in my life. like Godzilla mosquito. it was at least 1 cm long.

I hit a bucket in the road on my way to work one day. ugh.

we finally went swing dancing here in town! Our friends eric and shaina went with us...and man did I miss dancing! I had so much fun! I can't wait to go back again sometime.

I met a really nice couple at SW who I might have a future babysitting relationship with. crazy? maybe. but they were so cute!

I have applied to be a full time educator....and on another note, I begin tour training next week!! pictures to come! also, it is slightly disillusioning to see pictures of trainers partying. role models. disappointment.

orlando made it on the top 20 list of "sleepless US cities". I believe it. 3 out of the last 4 weeks I had a lot of trouble sleeping. I am finally just this week making up for all that lost sleep, and sleeping through the night. oh, and, not a single TX city made the list.

our laptop crashed, and our awesome computer friends in our small group fixed it. they are so awesomer than best buy.

Daddy came to visit!!! we went to downtown disney, and he came to have dinner at our house, and we went to seaworld. and we did everything in 5 hours. who knew that was even possible.

tired rhett strikes again...we got on the topic of ordering our food "a la carte" while we were at seaworld...and he said "I don't want it over ice cream." oh honey. that's a la mode.

so I'm not super great at fantasy football. but I'm learning, and trying. I finally won my first game this week!

and of course, the cat. it is very difficult and embarrassing to look at her, and see that she is worse. she looks horrible. and we still don't have a diagnosis. we are 2 weeks away from visiting the dermatologist 45 minutes and $400 away. the poor thing. she likes to sleep in roscoe's kennel, and he gets confused. especially when I ask him to go in there. he kind of lays down on top of her. we tried to treat her for food allergies, so far with no success. we are currently treating for scabies. next treatment is for pemphigus, which is autoimmune and basically her own body is telling her skin not to hold on to itself. bless her heart.

and on a lighter note...some guest quotes.

belugas: *vocalizing*
guest near walruses: "is that a child? that must be one sick child."

guest: "isn't the polar bear lonely?"
me: "actually polar bears are solitary animals."
guest: "you couldn't even give it a penguin buddy?"

guest: "who's skull is this?"
me: "well why don't you try and tell me what it looks like?"
guest: "i don't know:
me: "it's a bottlenose dolphin."
guest: "ohhh I was thinking tarantula."
what??

also, I saw a barracuda fart. awesome.