The Nysaverse

A little late, I guess. But this past weekend Jenny and I became members at the Minnesota Zoo! So far in the past year we’ve joined the Science Museum of Minnesota, the University of Minnesota’s Landscape Arboretum, and now the Minnesota Zoo! At least Jenny doesn’t mind that I tote the camera around when we visit (thanks, Honey!)!

In any case, we spent this past Saturday at the zoo — me trying to get up-close with the animals using my telephoto lens, plus a borrowed 1.4x extender (thanks, Tony!). I feel like I’ve neglected telephoto — my telephoto shots are clearly weaker. The more macro-oriented shots I did in the butterfly tent turned out just generally much better — better composed, sharper, etc. Perhaps I just need to park out there someday with the telephoto and work it…

One of the more amusing things from the zoo, though — we witnessed the handling of a Prairie Dog jailbreak! Apparently some of the prairie dogs had dug under the gate, and made it out into the surrounding animal pens (some buffalo and deer — they weren’t in much danger of becoming tiger-food). They had lots and lots of zoo staff and volunteers rushing over with traps, and the non-escaped prairie dogs freaked out over the intrusion of their territory by these tall invaders!

And the new Russia’s Grizzly Coast exhibit provided some nice bear-sightings! Actually, they had dropped some lettuce into the water by the glassed-in viewing area, and one bear was swimming right up to the glass to get his meal. His paws kept landing against the glass, giving us a great view of their immense size (and the claws!). It was interesting how the fur floated around in the water, plus the bear did a great job keeping its ears dry… Not sure if it always does that, or it just happened to not get them wet, or what!

There’s still lots for us to see — we didn’t make it to the dolphin show, or The Tropics area, and I’m sure there’ll be days when the animals provide better viewing. But now that we’re members, we can make as many visits as we want :-)

So, it’s been a while and Jenny’s been prodding me to post something new so the little rhyme I’d altered the last time didn’t keep getting stuck in her head (who knew I had a hit on my hands!).

This evening I took on the job of cat-sitting my brother’s cat, Gus (full name, Asparagus Rex) — something my parents have been doing, but as their out of town for a bit, the position’s fallen to me. The big problem is that he’s un-fixed and I unfortunately anticipate a bout of two of spraying, on his part. Oh, and he has a peculiar and nearly constant meow which, after a while, can get pretty irritating. But otherwise it’s looking to be an interesting foray into maintaining a cat, some aspects of which I’ve almost forgotten in the almost-year since Amadeus. But my brother returns this weekend, and will take Gus back home (and end Gus’s confusion on being transferred from home to home).

Medalist’s summer rehearsals started this week — after a very short two week break (the second week of which was Memorial Day, which we’d have had off anyway). Summer’s coming quickly! We joined Jenny’s parents to watch the first summer concert-in-the-park near Jenny’s condo this weekend (something that feels strange since we’re normally in the band onstage).

Work is work, and we’ll hopefully finish up our major project soon, and not interfere with our planned summer travel… We’re heading out to California briefly for the SSP 50th anniversary reunion (and to visit with some close friends in Pasadena) in July, and shortly afterwards to Door County, WI with Jenny’s family for the annual retreat… Perhaps I’ll remember to make another posting before then! ;-)

I’ve been fairly absorbed with photography, and have a lengthy queue built up for my photoblog, mwyman.com. Jenny got us a membership at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, where I’m hoping we can visit regularly and photograph the changing seasons (and several wonderful pictures from which will soon appear on the photoblog!). That and the Science Museum, and some travel… Often feels like there’s barely enough time to do everything! (and sometimes there’s not!).

Well… hopefully I can remember to post before our trips… I know it’s been a while!

Cheers! (now I’m off to comfort a confused, and very vocal, kitty)