A day at the zoo, and a night at the theatre

I slept in this morning, something I've really been looking forward to, since every day last weekend I was up at seven to go skiing. When I came downstairs, thinking about a leisurely breakfast, my phone was ringing. "It's a free day at the zoo. Want to go? We'll pick you up in five minutes." So I ate my bagel in the car instead. It was a great zoo day, probably fifty degrees and super sunny. Not too crowded when we got there at ten, but my goodness, I think I may never have seen so many strollers and children under five in one place. It brought back lots of safari memories, and I told lots of stories as we strolled around the main loop. One of the friends I was with grew up here, so he punctuated our visit with tidbits like, "oh, this is where the polar bears used to be." It's a pretty nice zoo, lots of naturalistic-looking habitats, good information posted, etc, although it's not all that large. (A is a zoo snob, having grown up in DC, but he is in Las Vegas at a tournament this weekend, so we didn't have to hear his ... opinions.) Still, it's got most of the main zoo draws: elephants, cheetahs, polar bears, wolves, penguins, giraffes, seals, and lots of monkeys. In the summer some of the animals are more active and visible -- the monkeys in particular have a large outdoor play area, and are allowed to roam fairly freely between it and a big stand of nearby trees -- but in the summer it is usually just too hot to comfortably walk around for three hours. It was such a fun and unexpected outing -- the best kind. I enjoy being spontaneous when I can, and hey, what's waiting for me at home but a stack of papers to be graded?

Last night was also a fun outing -- I took two of my friends to see the DSA production of Comedy of Errors. It's a great play, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays mostly by dint of being fairly short and completely ridiculous. Short synopsis: not one but two pairs of identical twins, separated shortly after birth, happen to be given the same names (two are Antipholus, two are Dromio -- the latter are servants for the former). One pair go off looking for the other pair when they turn twenty-ish, and end up in the same town, where, of course, there are repeatedly instances of mistaken identity -- the comedy of errors in the title. Everything is resolved neatly in the end. Anyway, it is hilarious, which the director's choice of Dr. Seuss-ian costumes and scenery just perfect. The live music, all created by a series of Orff instruments, xylophones, and PVC pipes, was equally fabulous.

Now I am off to a Sculpey (sp?) party..... the delights of this weekend appear to be unending.