Recent Events

So, I know I haven't posted in a while. I've been caught up in a few things. First, I've been trying to get my new site, Melampous, off the ground and have been giving it a lot of attention. Second, my work hours have increased lately and the computer I normally post from at work has been crappy lately. Third, my parents were in town for a week, so I didn't pay attention to much else while they were here.

Speaking of their visit, I thought I'd share some of the pics we took while they were here. We took a deluxe 3.5 hour Photo Caravan Safari at the Wild Animal Park. Here, my parents are feeding acacia leaves to Baringo Giraffes and I'm feeding apple slices to an Indian Rhino. Actually, my mom's getting slimed by giraffes.

After the caravan ride, we went up to where I work and I was able to bring out Akisa, our Madagascar Ground Boa. She's about 7.5 feet and 22 lbs. She's a sweet girl and sleeps most of the time when we have her out (she's nocturnal). At 10 years old, she is retired from a breeding program down at the zoo, where she also was an exhibit animal. Isn't she beautiful?


Another day, we visited the Birch Aquarium (Scripps Institute) at UCSD. Unfortunately, I got eaten by a shark. Actually, I was able to poke it in the eye and escape. In all seriousness, it's a small, but really great aquarium and we had an awesome time.

The final point of interest was the Maritime Museum downtown. It's pretty awesome. You can look through the ships they have and/or the museum exhibits, which are placed on the ships. They have:

The Star of India, a mid-19th century barque, which is the world's oldest active sailing ship

The HMS Surprise, a replica 24-gun frigate (the ship from Master and Commander)

The Berkeley, a steam ferryboat

The Medea, a steam-driven private yacht

The Californian, a replica tall ship

B-39, a Soviet diesel electric submarine

The ships are all cool. The sailing ships are fully rigged. You can go through the boiler area on the Berkeley. However, I think my favorite was actually the submarine. You go down inside and then from the fore to the aft torpedo rooms. The thing is huge but teeny. It's like hobbits lived inside. And we had to get through four of these water-tight doors.

Anyway, fun was had by all. On previous trips, we have visited the Zoo downtown, Disneyland, the Petersen Car Museum (LA), the Tutankhamun exhibit (when it was in LA), and the Anza-Borrego State Park (desert). The Dead Sea Scrolls are going to be in town starting in June. Comic Con is in July. So, if any of you want to visit, just let me know. I'll set you up!