More fun than a barrel of monkeys?

Today, Mr. Wonderful (who I shall henceforth refer to as BH, which are his initials) and I bravely accompanied The Geej and her entire class to The Austin Zoo for a field trip.

Let me start out by telling you that I am pretty creeped out and depressed by zoos in general. I know the keepers and zoologists do admirable work, but seeing animals in cages does not make me happy. I'd never been to the Austin Zoo due to this fact about myself, even though I know it's an "all rescue" zoo. So this was a first for both me and BH. However, The Geej had been there before with Dah.

Anyway, enough background.

I'd volunteered to drive myself and at least 2 young ones (in addition to the Geej), but instead I ended up actually riding in the passenger seat of another mom's car while Geej and this gal's son rode in the back.Poor BH had to ride with a father of one of Geej's classmates, this guy's son and two other four year-old boys. Yeah...I'm not sure he realized what he was getting himself into. (Apparently this dad was something of a douchebag, but I won't go into that right now.)

The weather was overcast and coolish, but not the least bit cold. We basically strolled the grounds of the zoo and checked out the animals at our own pace. My favorites? The marmosets and the tigers. BH also liked the marmosets. Geej? She was all about the cats, as in the two felis domesticus who roamed the grounds of the zoo. In fact, she declared most of the animals "Yuck" and proclaimed that "It's stinky" several times during our time a the zoo. What a diva. Her least favorite? The bears. She and Stephen Colbert would have a lot to talk about...

We took the train ride around the zoo, and she seemed to like that just fine.

Afterward, we had a picnic among the peacocks and...of course...the friendly zoo cats.

I think after this trip to the zoo, I finally deeply understand what the term, "Stoned as a goat" means. Seriously: Look at this dude's eyes. He's TOTALLY baked.

On the way back to school, Geej's back seat partner declared that he didn't want to play with her anymore when they got back to school because she's "so boring." Oh, okay, Mr. Excitement. Whatever you say. God. Kids can be such jerks.

Got back to school, and it was nap time, so BH and I made our exit.

All in all, a pretty fun time.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Yesterday, The Geej and I were lucky enought to attend La Turista's youngest's birthday hoedown at the Little Buckaroo ranch just outside of town. It was a knee-slappin', high-falootin', barn-bustin' good time. Here are just some of the things The Geej got to do:

Act sassy in her cowgirl gear.

Swing on a recycled tire horse.

Touch some fish.

Water the (miniature) horses. [This picture was snapped immediately prior to her declaring, "There are too many people. It's getting on my nerves!" and dropping the hose.]

Pet a bunny.

Get up close and personal with a little rooster.

Feed some friendly goats.

• Take a little hay ride.
• Groom a minature horse.
• Get honked at by a cranky goose. (Are there any other kind, by the way?)

And...drum roll please...RIDE A PONY for the first time! Yaaaaaaaahoo!

All of this was topped off with Hawaiian Punch (a first for her), veggie dogs cooked over an open fire, and birthday cake.

Wow. Sometimes it's really freakin' cool to be three.

Ahh...spring.

When I moved to Birmingham, AL in 1994 (I know!! I can't believe it was that long ago either!), one of the things I was amazed to discover was that--gasp--B'ham had 4 actual seasons. Holy crap! That whole "spring/summer/winter/fall" thing I'd been hearing about during my entire life spent in Texas was actually true!! I couldn't believe it. It's sort of like finding out there are actually "Martians" living on Mars. But not really.

What I DID discover was:

The autumns were long and colorful.

The winters really were cold and had ice and snow and shit. (Which, of course, was still rare enough to hold that "Snow Day!" charm. And as we all know, "snow day charm" totally rules.)

The springs were glorious and lingered for months, punctuated with mad dogwoods, commandeering the forests and roadside medians. (Yeah, I went all "romance novel" on you bitches. But really...it was gorgeous.)

The summers were warm, but not horrible. Totally bearable, but definitely noticable.

Then I moved to Chicago in the autumn of 1997, and I discovered that the winters (and the gloom that accompanied them) started in October and lasted until late April. Roughly 6 fucking months, people. And the remaining 6 months of the year? Springsummerfall. Although they were short they were enjoyable. However, the dominance of winter did not make me happy.

So I moved back to Austin in October, 1999. And the first September I was here, we broke a Labor Day weekend record that still holds: 110, 112, and finally 114 degrees in a ten-day stretch during which every day topped out over three digits. Clearly, I was back in the land that was the mirror image of Chicago, with 6 months of summer, and then fallwinterspring all quick and shit.

Not so, this spring.

I'm happy to report that our spring has actually been wet and green and cool and filled with wildflowers and epic Texas storms. In short, absolutely lovely and authentic. It's actually been "spring."

Which brings me to this...

Strawberry perfection. (Which would make a great nail polish color/stripper name, by the way.)

I bought a carton of strawberries a few days ago at Whole Foods, and today when I was cutting some up for The Geej, I discovered this gem. How amazingly perfect is it? Wow. The shape, the color, the ripeness. This is spring in fruit form.

A springtime trip to the farm:

Thanks to Jaye and her alert attention to The Chronicle, she prompted us to go to Pure Luck Farms today to, you know, pet baby goats. Other than the fact that Jaye and I TOTALLY looked like the principal cast members of "The Geej has Two Mommies" (not that there's anything wrong with that), we had a nice time.

Of course there were goat babies to be fed and petted.

Then there were adult goats (also known as "Big Goats" to industry insiders) to be admired.

All I've got to say about this is, if there are actually any heterosexual males who read this blog on a regular basis (which I kind of doubt), you guys should HOPE to come back in another life as a Pure Luck Farms buck. Dude!! 20 females to 1 male. Your only job? Eat, stay healthy, and have sex while living in an idyllic setting surrounded by people who care for you and WANT you to impregnate as many females as possible.

I'm just saying, seems like a pretty sweet deal to me.

Oh. Where was I before I got distracted with goat reincarnation/sex? Oh yes...

We also petted goats with twins on board that needed to be sympathized with. (Bless her heart. She's all kinds of knocked up with twins and just lying there praying for labor while the other not-so-pregnant goats are frolicking about.)

And of course we petted any farm cats (and dogs) that showed up. (Sorry, no photos of "Lucy" and "Queso" the farm dogs, but trust me, they were cute).

And there were gorgeous horses to be ogled.

And electric fences to be shocked by. (Sorry, Jaye.)

And later, at lunch (The Geej loves "Aunt Jaye," can't you tell?)we bonded with a four-letter word spouting bird to be admired.

We like spring is all I'm sayin'.

More, please!!