First off, I must give a big "F YOU" to the Seahawks for not showing up to the game today. And especially to Holmgren, for continuing to give Alexander playing time when it's clear that the soft cast interfered with his play. I think we owe that last fumble (and the GAME) to the cast - it got in the way, Alexander fumbled, Arizona recovered and scored, game over. You've really gotta be retarded not to realize from the first series or two that the cast seriously impacted his ability to catch/hold the ball. *headdesk*

Moving on... how do you scare the piss out of a zookeeper?
Radio call: Southeast Asia, anyone?
Us: Go ahead!
Radio call: Uh, we just had a guest report that something is coming out of one of your otters. They said it looks like it's having a baby.
Us: *craps pants*
See, we had a pregnant otter... or one we thought was pregnant. Unfortunately, small-clawed otters are prone to "pseudopregnancies," where their hormones are elevated like a pregnancy, their nipples protrude, and their belly gets big. I believe evolutionarily, it has to do with helping relatives nurse/care for their litters. According to the hormone spikes, our otter was "due" a couple of weeks ago... and since the window of opportunity had passed, we assumed it was a pseudo. So when we got the call, we started freaking out, thinking that she really HAD been pregnant, and now she was out on exhibit giving birth... instead, we got out there and, after careful inspection of the perfectly-normal otters, came to the conclusion that the guests had seen our male, Ralph's, wee-wee and thought it was a baby. Ah, good times! XD (We did bring the otters into holding after that, though, just in case)

( That 'Pluto attack' video... )

In happier news, I've been working on some Disney art, like a drawing based on the Share a Dream Come True Parade... I require Disney theme park motivation! :P
/SERIOUS withdrawls
//nothing but Disney theme park music plays in my car now

SNOW FOOTBALL! EEEE! The Seahawks just played their first ever snowy home game. And WON. Take that, Green Bay! :P Jerramy Stevens has begun to regain his credit with me by catching that two point conversion and the touchdown... if he can keep that up, I might consider discontinuing my "cut Jerramy Stevens" campaign. And if I'm not mistaken, this is not only the first snowy Seahawks game in Seattle, but also the first snow game this year in the NFL, correct?

So our little "flurries" this afternoon added up a bit more than predicted. And it's a MESS out there. My mom called me at work around 7 to say that snow was piling up on the streets, and that we had about an inch on the road. Luckily we had far more people than needed tonight, so I headed home a few hours early. It wasn't bad until I got halfway home... when suddenly there was snow and slush all over the roads, and the main road up to my house was closed. I had to go up the old way, up a winding, woodsy hill. Luckily enough other people had to do the same thing that it was more wet than snowy, but at the very top a car a few cars ahead of me spun out and I quickly turned down a side road. I ALMOST got stuck when I had to go up a small hill on the packed snow (which at this point, was 2-3" of snow completely covering the road) but managed to make it up the hill and slide home. Yaaaay! It was an adventure. I got a photo of my front yard when it started to snow just moments before I left for work this morning. I'll have to get an "after" picture tomorrow when it's light out!

ETA: It's after 10pm, and the major freeways (especially 405) are so bad that it's literally a standstill! And it's supposed to get even colder, and the roads are going to be sheer ice in the morning - glad it's my weekend! :P

ETA 2: 10:26pm, Bellevue to Federal Way, via I-405, travel time is listed at 143 minutes - a delay of 121 minutes. That's worse than our worst rush hour traffic.

So my Seahawks icon for my Seahawks win, as crazy as that ending was! Oh, man, that ending threatened to give me a heart attack. It shouldn't have been that much of a race to field goal range. We lost one time out to that STUPID challenge - honestly, Mike, why did you throw the red flag on that one?! The second timeout was that other stupid one where St. Louis was offsides and the play was blown dead just as Hasselbeck called for a timeout... but even though the play had been whistled dead we got stuck using the timeout. Ugh. Crappy clock management. We won, anyways, and that's what matters in the end!

Work is going great! I really love it. The people are great, and I have a blast seeing all the books that come through. Can't wait until I get my employee discount card - I'll be putting THAT to good use! I'm already pulling aside books that I want, and sticking them in my little cubby hole to buy later. :P

Speaking of things book-y, I finished Gregory Maguire's "Mirror Mirror" this week. Loved that one! It's basically a retelling of Snow White, set in early 16th century Italy. Like Wicked, he made it a bit more gritty and real than the classic fairytale, but I liked that he really put it into a historical context, too. Definitely reccommend that one! Right now I'm reading Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's "Good Omens," which is a riot. It's a lot like "Dogma" meets "Hitchhiker'sGuide to the Galaxy." Very much a Douglas Adams sense of humor, and I love it.

We had a scare with Latte over the last week... when we brought her into the vet for something unrelated, they found a softball-sized tumor on her spleen. We decided to have it removed ASAP... and ASAP turned out to be just in time. Apparently her spleen began to rupture as they were doing the surgery. It's scary to think about the fact that, had we waited even one more day, she may have either been in big trouble or even died... Anyways, she's back home now and doing okay, although she's pretty lethargic still. *huggles her... carefully*

Dear LJWorld,

On behalf of all Seahawks fans, I sincerely apologize for the pathetic showing they made on national television tonight. The offensive line shall be beaten until they show up to the next game, and the defensive secondary shall be forced to run windsprints for all eternity... or until they learn how to keep up with receivers. Whatever.

Thank you,
Management

Okay, I've been feeling the need to read good Wicked fic. Wicked fans on my f-list, point me at your reccommendations! I mainly like either gen or Elphaba/Fiyero, but I'm totally down with good Gelphie, too. Bookverse or musicalverse, doesn't matter to me. :)

I feel artsy. I wanna draw, but I don't know what I wanna draw. It's most annoying.

I really need to stop playing in the arcade at SM... it's addicting. The newest games? HOOKED. I can't stop playing IceHockey, Blast Billiards, and Seal Bounce. :P I skip between those as well as Queen's Jewels and Bejeweled. :P

Fantasy Football is going relatively well! I'm dominating the MiceChat league - and two of my best players have been totally benched so far! Once Steve Smith and Clinton Portis get back into the game, it will be a slaughter. :P In the VF league... I made an 'eh' showing last week... this week I did really weel point-wise... but lost by half a point. We're only two weeks into the season, though! No worries.

Another W for the Seahawks! It was a pretty pathetic show, indeed - the Hawks should have been able to squash Arizona into the turf. That game was far closer than it should have been. But what matters in the end is the win, and we're 2-0! The big test will be NY next week...

Oh, and that Miller Lite ad where they overflow each others' beer? It doesn't work too well unless you hit them pretty hard.

...not that we, like, tried that today or anything.

...it was in the name of science, I tell you!

ETA: HA! Just found this 2005 vid of the opening number of Cirque de la Mer (side poles only)... and you can totally see me sitting on the steps at the beginning.