Saturday’s just being kinda bleh. Even the zoo was completely boring except for a car fire in the parking lot. Spinner’s off being judgmental, and Diego’s finally tired with the puppy toys and is pushing my water polo ball around the room like the big dog he thinks he is. Maybe I should get him one of the hats for Halloween. He’s got the attitude to pull it off. Got some site maintenance to do, and some Netflix to watch, but having trouble getting motivated enough to get off the couch to do either. Wireless: a curse and a godsend.

Yep, I’m 44 now.  Three days of being taken out for food and opening cards have come to an end, and I have to accept the date on the calendar.

Spent yesterday morning at the zoo, where I watched this bear for a while.  He seems to be summing up how I’m feeling today.  I’m so over this.  Not the birthday celebration stuff – that was great.  The other stuff.  The running a law practice in a recession stuff.  The old age pains and injuries stuff.  That kind of stuff.

San Diego gets new bears, and from Idaho at that.  Two new grizzly bears will be serving their time locally after they developed a bit of a taste for the forbidden picnic baskets up north.

I’ve been in San Diego six years now and just had my first Night Zoo experience.  Apparantly, just like in the wild, the cool animals do the interesting stuff in the dark.

Instead of floating like a rock, the hippo was doing high-speed laps by running underwater on her toes in a scene that brought the original Fantasia to life.  The wild puppies were running around and fighting over a bush instead of looking for ways to beat the heat.  Monkeys, gazelles and a poor lone polar bear were ‘doing things like they do on the Discovery Channel.’  The giraffes were moping around like their turn-down service was running late, and a peacock was prancing around the grounds of the Horn and Hoof Mesa mocking the caged land animals with both his freedom and his plumage. 

But despite all those sights and spectables, all those examples of the wonderful diversity of the animal kingdom, probably the most memorable experience of the evening was enjoying a young tour bus driver entertaining the pedestrians near his empty vehicle by singing sea shanties as he made his required but pointless rounds.  So, what would you do with a drunken sailor?   Remember, it is Pride this weekend in San Diego.

Margaritas are quickly having the desired effects as ribs sizzle on the grill.  Time for our first outdoor dinner of the season, with soundtrack by Jack Johnson.  For a day that started off with me running to the zoo because jackhammers were working next door, this is turning out all right.

So, while stalking the African Wild Dogs at the local zoo, one stumbles on this:

Does one alert the zookeepers? Does one investigate cautiously like the introductory characters of so many horror movies? Or does one find a bench and adjust the camera settings for carnage and gore in gleeful hope? Just curious.

Too depressing around here lately. Time to break out some snacks and blow-up the pool toys and unwind a bit.

A good party will have to start off with good snacking opportunities. Lots of variety, because everyone likes something different. Bamboo shoots might work for some, but the rest of us need chips and dip and cool, refreshing umbrella drinks. Given enough time, we would bring in Snackmaster Micky for a consult. The bacon-wrapped waterchestnuts he recommended for a Christmas party last year are still fondly remembered; the man is a genius.

Since this is a summer party, guests will want to get wet too. Especially since there’s no A/C here at casa. Plenty of floaty toys will have to be inflated, in case guests get a tad possessive. Rumor has it the such things can happen, especially if the umbrella drinks have been effective.

Proper guest selection is also important. Someone a bit flighty can keep things entertaining, especially if they’re someone who has named themselves after their breasts. Inviting people who like to get naked is important too. As long as they’re the ones others enjoy seeing naked, it helps everyone have a better time. The umbrella drinks can help on this point too – more umbrella drinks lead to less fabric. Some research may have to be done to determine the optimum ratio, but in the end, the outcome should be worth the effort invested.

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Maybe the sensation that my shoulder is self-destructing is a small price to pay for the meditative aspects of swimming. Needed to do some laps today, but kept it nice and slow. Even if the benefits are worth the price, I have no problems fighting for a discount. I actually might have ended up with a freebie, but I won’t know for certain until tomorrow.

Frustrated sitting in a holding pattern, even though I haven’t flown commercially since 1998 or so. I need distractions and I need people to get back to me and I need things to come to pass. The inertia in what’s left of the brain is building up and needs an outlet that isn’t available right now. Maybe I should go the the zoo and watch the pandas for a while – they seem to have figured things out. Relax and wait for the next round of snacks. Except I’m not that good at being passive. Maybe I was once, but not now. I could watch the polar bears – they seem to know how to relax while still being able to get big and be tough when the time is right.  And fuzzy is good in some things.

Thumbboy stopped in to check out the cousins while downtown this morning. It seems the reason they blew off my birthday party last Monday is their spacious new electrified enclosure. Some nonsense about not being able to get free.

They were all frisky and running about, probably in anticipation of some Cinco de Mayo party. Wild Dogs are all about the fiestas. Not really into guac and chips, but if they bring in some pork rinds and bacon-wrapped thingees, I’m sure the cousins will give those zoo critters a party to talk about even after we’re long extinct.

Tied down by the cube’s tether this weekend, but I managed to catch some water polo Friday night and had a great time just hanging with some friends on Saturday. We would have considered going to the Polish Festival here Saturday, but after their snub of the world’s most beloved Polish-American, it just didn’t seem right. Today’s just been pretty much chill, with a stroll around the zoo and some grocery shopping, and a bit of the online shopping too.

Won’t be depressed and bored forever though: a client got me some VIP passes for the Miramar Air Show next weekend, so some friends and I will go and see the jets go fast and stuff, and in fifteen excruciatingly long short days Civilization IV, the sequel to the greatest time-suckers of the last decade or so of my life, will be released.

Yep, I played the original Civ on a Commodore Amiga, Civ II on the Mac, and Civ III on the PC. The kiddies today don’t know how rough we had it back then – the decision to quit and start again is a lot more difficult when it takes thirty minutes to come up with a new world, let me tell you. OK, not as bad as walking to school for eight miles in the blizzard, but even geeks can have rough early adulthoods. Hopefully I’ll live long enough to lead the Big Surians to global domination on Civ XVIII in my home holosuite, for I am truly an addict.