Multitude of Randomness

Its been a while since blogging, but I have gone to the zoo twice to volunteer.  Last week I worked in the kidzone area (goat yard).  I helped open the yard by separating out the goats for feeding and then putting out the food.  Then I helped put up the intact male in a different part of the yard away from the other goats.  After that we opened the yard to guests, later on we had a guest tell us there was a turtle on the dock so I went and looked and told the zookeepers about it.  They relocated it to a less visitor populated area.

This alligator snapping turtle overlooking the pond

They also had a recent zoo baby born.  It is a little kid...Literally

This past week off days consisted of cleaning the house and washing the cat....hehe 

Oh the look of love from her...hehe

Today I went to the zoo and volunteered at the giraffe feeding station, but this morning the giraffes had an event where donors were allowed to feed the giraffes.  So in turn Caesar the male giraffe did not come down for food the entire 3 hours that I was there.  I did however help get a water bottle that a child dropped over a railing with a really tall grabber thing.  Then I went to the HR department and talked to them about my resume and if I had any prospects about getting a job.  Same stuff they always tell me "this job is very competitive"  yeah I bet it is when you hire people based on the fact that you know them and not the people who have more experience.....grrrrr.


Anyways trying a different route, emailing someone else at the zoo for advice/ anything.  


Also took pictures of the leopards today.  I miss working with cats....

So pretty

ugh love

Work, Volunteering, and joining organizations

So I havent talked about work in forever.....and I decided to post a blog now because cable went out while watching harry potter.....stupid comcast.....grrr.  Anyways work....where to begin????  I just had my 3 month review and I got a 10 cent raise.  We have been very busy these past few weeks because 1 week my manager and another pet care girl took off for the week leaving me and 1 other girl for the whole week.  7am to 10pm.......long day.  She would open the store and I closed, I wound up working 5 days for the past 2 weeks at 35 to 38 hours a week.  And then would volunteer on one of my off days at the zoo.  And on top of that we had the crazy storm/power outage.  I am pretty worn out to say the least.  


Also we have had some animal issues lately.  We have been getting chinchillas in and a few weeks after being here they mysteriously die.  We have sent the latest off for a professional necropsy to try to figure out what is happening.  Also some of the ball pythons decided to not eat and have been forcefed now for 3 weeks almost.


Other than that its the normal work things and people not listening to me when I tell them what all is needed for buying a certain pet.


ANYWAYS volunteered at the zoo today...it was 99 degrees with a heat index of 105.  Lets just say I am not used to that. I drank the water in my canteen and filled it up a total of 3 times.  I talked with the camel guy mostly since we didnt have a lot of people doing rides.  We talked about his children and my husband since he has a son in the military.  


After volunteering I came home and took a much needed shower and ate some broccoli for lunch.  Then I immediately headed out to the zoo again to go to the aazk meeting for the first time.  I liked it...need to meet more people there, but I met the president and talked with her after the meeting and she even drove me back up to my car.  I look forward to going and becoming more involved with the group.


Well figured out why the cable was out....we had an outstanding cable bill from the very first month when they billed us twice......paid and now have cable again!!!!

Firework pics:

Crazy storm and no power

Friday night after I got home from work around 10:30 we started to watch a movie when all of the sudden things started pelting the side of our house.  I thought it was hail, but looked out the window and saw branches flying by.  The power went out and we took our cat down to the basement just in case we had a tornado was near.  We immediately called family out of state to check on the weather to see what all was happening.  Then the sirens started going off over the loudspeaker system on base.  We stayed in the basement until we could tell the storm was calming down.  Then we looked outside to see devastation basically.  Entire trees were snapped in half, large branches were broken off trees, and debris was in the road.  Thankfully nothing happened to our house or our cars other than having no power.


Later we heard that the storm had hurricane force wind....at the airport they reported having 90 mph winds.


Here are some pictures I took of some trees 

across the street from our house

down the street, tree knocked into the front porch and took out the column

saw while driving on post

Need to get the tree in the field behind us, entire tree snapped in half.


So the first night without power wasnt too bad, took a somewhat hot shower and slept on top of the covers and was fine.  Only got 5 hours of sleep and then pretty much was up at 7am.  We drove around trying to find food and drove to my work so I could straighten my bangs then we learned that my husbands car was running hot.  He looked under the hood and noticed a white spray all over the engine.  We noticed a hole in one of the hoses for the coolant, so we had to find a autopart store and get some molding tape and more coolant so he could drive his car.  We began noticing how many places were without power.  I mean even a Mcdonalds was closed and thats saying something.  We got home and ryan cooked some burgers on the grill while i cooked ravioli on the stove.....yay for gas stoves!!!!!  Anyways I then went to work until 10pm and when I got home the house was 80 downstairs and 87 upstairs.  I tried to take a shower and it was so ice cold i didnt even do my hair, it was horrible.  I decided to sleep in our unfinished basement to stay cool.


Well the next morning at 4am I woke up feeling nauseous and weak.  I got up and got water and noticed I was shaking.  My husband slept upstairs in our room, but it was 91 and I couldnt do it.  Luckily he woke up at the same time and came to see me.  He wanted me to get out of the basement so we got out and sat in the car with the a/c for 20 minutes then decided we were going to get food so we got the cat and a blanket for me, but while in the house I threw up several times.  He helped me to the car and I sipped water.  We drove around and I looked up possible hotels for us to stay for the next night, because we couldn't bear to stay in our house again.  We booked a place by 5:30am for the night and ryan got food.  Then we went back to the house, when we got home I immediately felt sick and got out of the car to throw up again.  We went inside and wet towels to lay them on our legs and watched my dvd of scrubs on the computer.  I also fell asleep for a little nap.  After the siesta I got ready for work and had work until 7pm.  I felt so gross because my hair was greasy, I was sticky, and wearing clothes from the day before.  So I slept for 4 hours that day.  After work I got Mcdonalds for both of us and went to the hotel.  It was so nice to have a/c and a hot shower.


I slept for almost 11 hours and then woke up and got ready for the day and drove to check on the house....and we had power at 2pm!!!!!!  I went and started the dishwasher and my laundry.  Checked to make sure all the fans were on and closed curtains.  I then went and picked up my husbands glasses and then came back to the hotel to get ready for work.  We are staying at the hotel for one more night mainly because we missed the checkout time.  Tomorrow morning its back to the house, and then cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer.


Total time without power was 63 hours.  During a heat wave with highs in high 90s and low 100s.