silas the lemur

Yesterday I cuddled with a real live lemur.

It was probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

Source

The lemur's name was Silas. This picture isn't Silas, it's whatever I found on Wikipedia, but it looks just like him. Only Silas was only about six months old, so he was smaller and more adorable. Don't worry, I have plenty of pictures of Silas and I bonding...it's just that they're extremely blurry because LEMURS ARE EXTREMELY SPASTIC AND FAST.

It was Staff Fun Day at work. You may recall that back in March, we did some amazing pottery for SFD. This month we brought in a zoo. It's one of those hands on traveling zoo programs that normally visit elementary schools and summer camps...but one of the bosses here was absolutely dying to bring them in for us. I was skeptical at first. I was proven wrong.

I CUDDLED WITH A LEMUR. That's enough to change any stoic's heart.

There were lots of other animals, too- a baby kangaroo!! A spotted Asian baby deer! Some weird large rodenty thing! A (tiny) alligator! A constrictor! All of those things I also petted, although I did not cuddle with them. There was also some butt-ugly horn-beaked tropical bird thing that looked like a dead vulture. It was not cute and I backed up about twenty feet when it was 'petting time' because oh hell no I am not insane. That thing had CRAZY ATTACK BIRD written all over it.

Anyways. Then there was Silas the Lemur. Arguably the greatest animal on earth. I actually have been feeling really guilty ever since meeting Silas...doubting my devotion to my previous Favorite Animals (manatees and Lola, of course). But seriously. LOOK HOW CUTE HE IS!!!!

He was maybe the size of a smallish house cat. He was softer than those velvety blankets you give babies. He was as hyper and spastic as a two-year-old who drank a liter of Mountain Dew. He crawled all over me, tickling me with his tiny little monkey hands- they have fingernails, not claws, and they're short (like human nails...well, humans who keep their nails short), so they don't scratch you when they crawl on you. And their paws (hands/feet?) are really soft, too, like they have butter leather gloves on or something? It's really bizarre. I expected the paws to feel more like those of a declawed cat or something (kind of scratchy due to the pads?)...but it really felt like itty bitty leather gloved human hands. Totally crazy.

Silas perched on my shoulder and nibbled on my ear and earrings for a minute. It didn't hurt, but as you can see from the blurry pictures...it was just SO precious and hilarious, I was squirming around like a crazy person.

Silas's keeper kept him on a leash because he is REALLY fast and a REALLY good climber/jumper...he kept eyeing the shiny chandeliers in the room we were in. It's safe to guess that if he hadn't stayed leashed, we may have spent the rest of our Fun Day trying to capture him from the chandeliers. Which would have been fun...but not as fun as having him jump all over us.

So in conclusion, if you ever have the opportunity to cuddle with a lemur, DO IT. I'd go so far as to say you should try to make an opportunity to cuddle with one. Let it be your new life goal. It's kind of like a cross between a monkey, kitten, puppy, panda, and toddler human. In other words, the best thing ever.

PS. Requisite HP Status Update: I'm currently about halfway through Goblet of Fire (Book 4) and it is SO good!! The Quidditch World Cup was one of my favorite scenes/stories so far, particularly all the parts about interactions with Muggles, the anti-Muggle security systems, trying to camp with no magic, and all that. SO funny!

another weekend of reading, sunning, and flowers.

Seriously. Monday again?

I brought myself a bouquet of flowers to work today. I'm hoping this will somehow bring me zen and peace all week long...??? And/or trick me into thinking I'm actually at home in my garden and not stuck in an office...???

Zinnias and lavender make a very fast and pretty bouquet!

It was a lovely weekend. There were lots of soccer games to be watched by the folks that care about such things, which meant I had plenty of time left to my own devices. Any guesses as to how I spend my free time in the summer?

Not shocking.

So I'm almost done with Book 3, and I am looooovvvviiiinnnnggggg the series. I never really doubted that I'd like them, but it's still nice to find myself enjoying every minute of reading instead of grudgingly getting through it just to please my friends. :) Plus, pool time? Books + pool = Erika's personal nirvana.

Based on Saturday morning (okay, early afternoon) attendance, it appears that everyone at the gym has given up on their fitness goals for the summer. I say that as thought I'm any different. The fact is, if and when I drag myself to the gym on a Saturday, I typically 'reward' myself for my awesome life choice by totally phoning it in (as Jillian would call it). I time it so that I get there right on the hour (any hour) so that a show will be starting on HGTV and then I just zone out on the elliptical until the show ends. No circuits. No weights. Mindless cardio and someone else's home renovation is what a Saturday workout is all about. And I would feel guilty except for it's gotta be better than no workout, right? Right. So.

Since there was not a single soul besides me in the ladies' fitness area, I finally had my long-awaited chance to take loads of (blurry) pictures and selfies. Since guys aren't allowed in the ladies' area, Matt has never seen it! He's had to imagine it based on my verbal description alone!! (There are lots of...umm...weight things...and like...ellipticals...and a line of these other thingies??) So now we've remedied that situation. Whew.

Due to the extremely unbearable heat and humidity all weekend, we only got in a few good hours in the yard. It was long enough, however, to plant a new raspberry plant. We've been loving our raspberries so much (we planted one in April), it seemed like the smart thing to do. Hopefully our raspberry yield will catch up with our blueberries and blackberries and then we will be the most antioxidantated (real word, promise) people on earth. 

And now it's back to work. And tearing through HP! Have a great Monday!

finally giving in

Well, the World Cup started yesterday. Which means that my soccer widowhood has started. Luckily, your many helpful suggestions made my plight much easier to deal with and Operation World Cup Survival is off to a...well, magical...start.

World Cup: Night 1

It seems I've run out of excuses. After seventeen years of not getting around to reading Harry Potter...I'm getting around to it.

It should keep me plenty busy for the next month. And I know I'm missing two books here. Don't worry, I'll find them and read it all in order.

My friends Catherine and Mollyanne have been relentlessly pestering encouraging me to read the books for years now. They even plot schemes about how to get me to read them. So when I finally picked up the books and committed to giving them a try, I had to send them this picture. I'm guessing they're busy patting themselves on the back and high fiving for another convert or something.

So far I am 125 pages in and so far, so good! I stayed up later than I'd planned because I got sucked in, so I guess that's a good sign.

In other reading news, I finally finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I'd listened to about 70% of it on the audiobook on road trips, but finally had to return the CDs and I just borrowed the book from the library to finish the story. Then I ended up starting back at the beginning of the book because I think I fell asleep a few times during the audiobook, so I wanted to be sure I got the whole story.

Here's the thing. If I hadn't started with the audiobook (and had just picked up the book as a BOOK or ebook)...I'm pretty sure I never would have finished. The author took some serious liberties with the writing/style/format of the book. L.I.B.E.R.T.I.E.S. It started out by feeling a little different, a little intriguing...and quickly devolved to being obnoxious and overkill. Weird for the sake of being weird. I liked the story enough (well, Oskar's story. The grandma/grandpa parallel story didn't do anything for me) to stick with it, hoping there would be a good payoff at the end. But really...there wasn't. I don't know. It just ended. One of those where you flip back and forth a few times, sure you missed a concluding chapter or epilogue or something...but no, it's just...done. Well, okay then.

So I'd give it maybe 3 stars. Or 2.5. But I also think that like 80% of people would be too annoyed by the weirdness of the written version to get more than a few chapters in.

Although I'm looking forward to blazing through the HP over the next month(s?) or so, I'm going to have to pause whenever my book for book club this month comes in. We're reading The Program and I'm looking forward to it...but as per usual, the library is taking its sweet time getting it to me. 

And that's about all. I finally beat Challenge 25 on 2048. I was stuck on it for like three days, so it was a triumphant moment. At my current trajectory, with each challenge taking longer and longer to beat...this could take me the rest of the year. But I'll press on because I am not a quitter, and I'm also not dumber than a phone game. So between my reading schedule and my 2048 schedule...whew, this is one busy summer! ;)

Have a great weekend!! 

world cup game plan

Don't let the title fool you. I don't have a game plan just yet. But there are still 24 hours until the games start, so it's not too late yet.

In case you don't know, the World Cup starts tomorrow. If you are in the "this is news to me" camp, I can only assume you aren't married to Matt. (There are other clues that also lead me to believe you're not married to Matt, but this is a big one.) If you were married to Matt like I am, you would know. WORLD CUP!!! OH MY GOSH!!! EEEEKKKK!! WOOOOOO!!! 

Handsome husband, gorgeous hydrangeas. Hydrangeas courtesy of UGA...can't take credit for anything except admiring and appreciating them on a daily basis.

Matt has an excitement and passion about the World Cup that rivals my enthusiasm for Mexican food, nail polish, and reality TV...which is to say a lot. Unfortunately, soccer isn't one of our shared passions. This presents a problem for a month every fourth year, because what we do share is a single TV in our shared living room.

You can see the obvious issues here.

So now the time is upon us again and I'm finding that I neglected to remedy our soccer issues during the last four years (you know, by either becoming passionate about soccer myself, or convincing Matt to hate it). Clearly I'm going to need a survival game plan for the next month. I'm just not sure what it's going to be.

Here are some options:

1. Try to learn about soccer and get interested in it, which could possibly lead to actually enjoying the (endless) games on TV. This is extremely unlikely because it is a verified fact (9 out of 10 scientists agree!) that soccer is the most boring sport on earth. It is boring to play (all you do is run around) and it is boring to watch (all they do is run around). Since none of that has changed since the last time I tried to care about soccer, it's safe to say that I'm still going to find it boring this year. So...next!

2. Try to convince Matt he doesn't want to watch. Unfortunately, he is already brainwashed beyond help into thinking that soccer is both fun to watch and play (I know, right?? So sad). But perhaps I can find something about the World Cup itself that will be appalling enough to keep him from supporting? Like...some egregious scandal...or something?? This is a stretch, but I'm keeping my ears open for anything that could horrify him into a boycott.

3. Buy another TV. This seems drastic and expensive. Plus, we don't have another room to put a TV in (the laundry room? Kitchen? Garage?) since we're anti-TV-in-the-bedrooms. Also, it's not so much that I have so many important things that I'd rather be watching...I can always watch Netflix on a laptop if I really want to. It's more like...I just get annoyed by hearing soccer on the TV and not having a husband to hang out with because HE is busy watching soccer. So another TV isn't really going to help with any of that.

4. Take up a new hobby for a month. Maybe if I had something fun and distracting to focus on during the evenings (I'm guessing he'll be DVRing the games since they come on at like 1 and 4 pm or something and he won't be able to watch them live), hearing soccer on the TV and having an absentee husband wouldn't be so annoying. But I can't really think of any hobbies I'm dying to take up. I guess I could start a book series or something? Hmmm...

5. Distraction. Maybe I can make myself so annoying amusing and distracting that Matt will just get fed up and cut off the TV? Like...tap dancing while using power tools in the garage. Or something. It would be really loud and I doubt Matt could really concentrate on the TV if he were preoccupied with how I'm probably breaking his power tools and/or chopping off my own limbs. Also, who wouldn't prefer watching me tap dance over seeing random guys run around after a ball on TV? Exactly.

Ugh. These are all the plans I've thought of so far and none of them are really speaking to me. I'm leaning towards some combination of #4 and #5. A distracting new hobby. I have one day to figure out what, so wish me luck!