1:00 p.m. - 2007-12-28
This is a long one
Well,the monkey experience was all we could have hoped for and more. Kevin was totally surprised - he had no idea. I mean, how could you guess that your wife is taking you an hour away to the middle of nowhere to visit with a japanese monkey. The owner of the Monkey is also the owner of numerous exotic animals. Wewere just in one building and we saw 3 adult leopards, a hyena, a giant crazy looking animal that looks like it should be a creature in a Lord of The Rings movie called a bearcat, a baby leopard and about 25 dogs os various breeds including the biggest floppiest puppy I have ever seen that is going to turn into a vicious watch dog called a Russian St. Bernard or something like that. He was really young but already almost 75 pounds.
The monkey was amazing. He was 17 months old, grey and weighed about 10 pounds. I forget his name - we were so mesmorized by him when we fist saw him I wasn't paying attention then. We got to go into his very large cage that had lots of ropes and structures and toys for him to play on. Kevin got to feed him a bottle. He tried to steal my camera and really enjoyed using Kevin as a climbing gym, flipping around, hanging upside down, etc, and he also enjoyed pulling on my hair. At one point, he jumped on my shoulder and groomed me, picking out hopefully nothing. He would stand on the ground next to us and grab one of our hands and try to get us to come with him under his little shelf like a little kid when they want you to sit under a table and play with them. So sweet! He was also a little naughty, and would get a litle wild, kind of slapping at us or jumping onto us from on top of the cage. Grant, the owner, said he responded really well to us and that he wasn't displaying any aggresive behavior which was good - he had said that if he became aggressive we would have to only visit from outside the cage. We stayed in there for almost an hour. Grant was really wonderful and gave us all the time we wanted. He is very knowledgable and very education/conservation focused. His animals all have very large, clean cages, like 12 feet by 12 feet for the smaller ones like monkeys and 25 feet by 15 feet for the bigger ones like leopards, with lots of logs and branches and hiding places - definitely better than the zoo. It was a little daunting, having just read that morning about the tiger attack at that zoo in California. I actually got to pet an adult leopard. Grant distracted him at his head while I pet him on his rear end through the fence. It was amazing, the relationship he has with each animal. He travels all over the country with them doing educational shows and he also runs the wildlife center at the Nemacolin resort where my mom and I go once a year or so for the spa.
OK back to 07 recapping.
JUNE
June may have been the best month of the year because I got to go to Hawaii with my husband. It was amazing. It might have been a wee bit better if I had a friend with me during the days Kevin was working - you know I don't do well by myself for long periods of time. But we saw gorgeous sights and at incredible food - the best shrimp i have ever ever ever had, for example. Everyone should do this if possible.
June also brought with it the delivery of Amy and Scott to the Burgh. Sometimes I am not sure how long they will stick around because Amy kind of hates everything here. Her job does seem pretty hellish but I am hoping the new year brings about some reasons to stick around because when we do see them, I really enjoy their company.
With June also came my first week of summer camp at work. Yikes. I am still recovering, and now i have to start thinking about planning this summer. Ugh. A full day of kids for 8 whole weeks is really too much.
I have to stick July in here now too or else there is no way I am going to meet my goal of recapping each month.
JULY
Sandcastle galore. I had some of the best times of the summer lounging poolside and drinking whatever beer was on special. We rode the waterslides and got great tans. It was lovely.
Fourth of July was pretty fun although we did the majority of our celebrating at my parents' house the night before. We stayed home and watched fireworks on tv on the actual 4th.
Kevin's birthday came and went with a bit of fanfare. We tried Jerome Bettis' restaurant and were mildly disappointed but definitely full of food afterwards. Two words: Large Portions.
The mega-drama break up of 2007 happened in this month. Haley and her fairly new live-in boyfriend broke up and moved out of their amazing apartment and Haley became our part time roommate. Haley has since resettled in Monroeville which is good but we don't see her as often.
Also in July, i discovered perhaps the most amusing tidbit of 2007. Haley is totally phobic about deodorant and especially watching other people apply it. This has come up many times since then and it makes me laugh every time.
Perhaps most significantly, Iris Claire entered the world this month and I love her to pieces. There are people who should not reproduce - like Britney Spears and her seemingly middle-school aged sister. But there are those who are so great they should expand the population with reckless abandon, like the Cookes.
OK, I'm on a roll. Let's do August too.
AUGUST
First there was the emergency at the roller rink where i had the most hectic morning ever running around trying to buy socks for the sockless children. When I finally arrived, I had to take a child to the emergency room because her hand had a pretty serious cut that was bleeding A LOT. I spent half my day attending to this kid and then her mother calls and bitches at me the following Monday to say she was angry I hadn't called them at home over the weekend to check on her. Sigh.
We went to the beach with my family which was a really wonderful vacation. We were only planning on staying for 5 days but the talked us into 6 because we were having such a nice time. The beach was perfect every day but one. We really lucked out. My coworker went the week after me to the same beach and he said that they did not have one single good beach day. Way to go Uncle Bob for choosing a great week!
And September, ok?
SEPTEMBER
I got to meet Iris Cooke for the first time which was pretty amazing. What a cute little lady she is.
We went to Niagara Falls for our anniversary. We ate the most expensive dinner of our lives and got to see various marine life at Marineland. We also each bought each other a digital picture frame which I couldn't share earlier because that is what I got my mom for Christmas.
The after school program started back up again after the break following summer camp. It is sooooo much easier to have the kids for 4 hours a day.
Some of my staff and kids found a snake outside at work and I kept him for about a month before i set him free in our back yard.
