Animals at the National Zoo

Some video from our stroll through the National Zoo: alpacas, donkeys, goats, prairie dogs, jellyfish, cuttlefish, lobster, crested partridges, burrowing owl, pygmy falcon, and sloth bears, all taken after our Rock Creek Hike. I’d like to draw attention especially to the jellyfish in the invertebrate house, which I’ve uploaded by itself to Flickr:

Brief Rock Creek Hike

We went hiking around Rock Creek Park on Saturday, walking the Melvin Hazen Trail from Connecticut Ave to Rock Creek itself, down the bike path along Beach Drive to the zoo, and up through the Zoo to look at animals. Some photos from along the way:

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Full Rock Creek Park photoset here.

While in the zoo, we made the mistake of eating at the “Mane Restaurant,” where slow, unfriendly staff served us chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and french fries scattered across a wet, haphazardly cleaned tray, all in a disorganized, noisy environment where a napkin dispenser touched a garbage can and a spray bottle of cleaning fluid rested abandoned on a dining table within easy reach of one of dozens of screaming brats running around the place. Not eating there again.

I’ll have a zoo video up later, but I must point out this sign we saw at the aviary, which made me insanely happy to see:

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Update: Hurrah, I am noted in DCBlogs.com, and my zoo video is up.

Caturday!

It’s my first video Caturday! In this epic, sweeping 30 second drama, our lovely feline heroine Pandora meows twice, does a wide meow-yawn, then returns to luxuriating on her new scratching rug. Playing faintly in the background is “At the Airport” by Scott Andrew.

Accidental Metro “Panorama”

Accidental Metro Panorama

I had intended to get a video clip of the latest Metro tunnel ad, but I put my phone camera in panorama mode rather than video mode, so it started stitching this disjointed panorama as best it could from the walls of the Metro station as the train accelerated. My reflected hands are visible.

Makes a good entry for the Metro Abstract Set.

Pile of Air Conditioners

Our apartment recently had window upgrades for all units, and the process included removing the old air conditioners and putting in fresh new ones. The old aircons were discarded, stacked in a pile down in the basement; so much cooling potentiality now gathering dust in a forgotten corner.

Free Cone Day 2008

Free Cone Day today, so kingkool68 and skunkgal and I took a break from work to go down to Ben and Jerry’s in Georgetown and avail ourselves of the frozen dairy giveaway. Some quick phone snaps from while we stood in the considerable line:

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I got my standard default order when I don’t know what to get at B&J’s: Cherry Garcia. (Not a Dead Head, but it’s good ice cream.) This is an improvement over Free Cone Day 2006’s Chunky Monkey. Have you gotten your free cone yet? What flavor?

More Weekend Photos

A few more photos of note from the weekend:

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In sequence, those are Amy in the Sculpture Garden, a flower macro from the Haupt Garden, guy in a Renaissance costume (an actor from the Folger, perhaps?) striding towards Union Station Metro, and a Sunday sushi meetup in Woodley Park with Gabe and Andre, two friends I’ve known since fourth grade.

Water in Motion

While strolling around the Haupt Garden over the weekend, Amy and I paused at the fountain to watch birds bathing, and I tried my hand at high speed photos of the water, setting my camera to ISO 1600, lowest exposure, macro on when up close. The results are rather grainy, but it looks like the SD1000 does a pretty good job of capturing water in motion:

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