Oooh, the incident!

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, for which there is much rejoicing in the Rasmussen World. Days off of school and work, lots of food, and time to relax. Hallelujah.

For my birthday, I got a couple of fun things:From my mother, the new pie plate. I think she noticed my comments here, and decided to fix it. Isn't it pretty? She got me a scarf, too, but it didn't look good on my fancy-schmancy table. I can't wait to try out Thanksgiving pie in it, too!

From Kyler, I received a gift card... for Dress Barn. Included in this gift was the offer of him coming with me, helping me shop as long as I wanted, and not complaining. He did a great job! Here is a picture of one thing I bought, and maybe someday I'll get the skirt I bought up here, too.
In case you were wondering, the dress in navy blue. I might be hard to tell in this picture.

And, now, we will discuss "The Incident." Last night, Kyler called me at about the time I was expecting him home and informed me he was stuck on the freeway. He's done this before, and always said there's an accident or really bad traffic or something. This time, though, his voice is shaking a little, and he goes on to tell me, "I lost a tire. Can you call AAA?" I'm freaking out a little, but I ask him all the good stuff, like which exit he's near and stuff. However, my freaking out is probably nothing to his freaking out, since he's still sitting in the middle of the freeway, and can't really move because a) there are cars driving fast around him and b) his tire is a hundred feet in front of him, not firmly attached to the wheel as it should be. Exciting.
AAA was really nice and got him a tow to our apartment (since I have the AAA membership, not him), and then I got to hear the whole story from Kyler. He's driving at, like, 70 MPH when suddenly the car starts to want to turn (like the front tire is flat and it's trying to pull that direction). He's trying to get over to the right side and off the freeway when he starts hearing weird/bad noises, and then he sees his tire rolling away in front of him. This all happened in, like, a minute. Now the boy is stuck in the left lane, and doesn't make it over to the side until a cop comes and helps him. There he stays until the tow truck gets there. The tire is still on the side of the freeway (the opposite side Kyler ended up on, he decided not to try to get it). And now, a picture or two of the carnage:There is no tire there! Just a little bit of rubber. The prognosis appears mostly good, though: Kyler didn't die. The car is completely fine. The rims appear undamaged. The tires are under warranty, though discontinued, so they gave us a used one to use until they order another one for us from some special place. All in all, things are well. Scary, though. Definitely scary.

Ooooh, the incident!

Zoo: applications, primary and the Zoo all qualify for the word.

So, Jeanettie's getting sick, so she decided to stay home from work. After all, we wouldn't want to get my co-workers (or the cancer patients) sick, and I want to not be ill anymore myself. Since I'm relaxing and drinking lots of water, dozing a little, and watching Gilmore Girls, it's a decent enough time to attempt to update the blog.

Last week:

1. Kyler took the GRE psych subject test. He thinks it went all right, but we'll have to see.
2. I ran the primary kids through a relay race for the primary activity. Surprisingly, most of the chitlins were afraid to pick up the baby dolls and sing a lullaby to them. Too bad for them.
3. Kyler, Liz, and I went to the zoo! Kyler took about a million pictures of everything, and sometimes even included people in said pictures.
4. It was the primary program on Sunday. Everything went well. The first counselor and I got to chase after a particularly fun 6-year-old during rehearsal... in heels. Everything else went great though, I passed out and collected sunbeams successfully, so what else do we need?
   

Coming attractions include:

1. Kyler is finishing his grad school applications. We will hear about interviews in January.
2. Kyler got travel and work permissions! Yay! We can officially head to Canada for Christmas.
3. The Olympics are still coming up, though we have no place to stay (we've contacted the Bishop of the Vancouver 1st Ward, so here's hoping) and we realized Kyler may or may not have grad school interviews. They may be over a long weekend in February... hopefully not that weekend in February. If it is, anyone want to come with me?
   

And now, for the pictures!
The first things we saw when we got to the zoo were the tiger cubs... triplet boy babies! They were adorable!
Here's one of them! Fuzzy and cute, all sleeping together.



And here is their pretty mommy. Not fuzzy, but sleek and shiny. And she could totally knock me out with a whap of her paw if she wanted to.



While we're talking about kittens, here's the snow leopard and her kitten. Cute, cute, cute.



Kyler took this picture. That is all I will say.



Baby giraffe! She's, like, 7 feet tall. I'm a midget.



We decided we couldn't not get a picture of the cougar! The mascot of Kyler's "alma mater," he said. Not yet, kid. Not for another month.



Do you live in Cougar Country?



Kyler and a zebra!



The zebra was kind of scruffy. That's against the Honor Code...



The baby elephant!



Look how little she is compared to mommy! And mommy wasn't that big of an elephant, honestly.



The penguin is preaching to his followers. The one in front does not agree with the him, apparently.



I'm kissing the camel. Thankfully, he didn't spit at me.



And, another baby! A white, adorable, hilarious as it was bouncing around trying to get in trouble, baby monkey!

The Jeanette-geek-out section:
Giraffe anatomy! This is an explanation of why all the blood doesn't rush to their heads, causing them to pass out, when they change their altitude drastically. Cool, huh?



With an elephant femur! It's the size of, like, my entire leg.



And an elephant skull! I love anatomy.

The playing with statues/signs section:
Hear no evil



See no evil



Speak no evil



Riding the rhino. Do not try this at home. We are experts, with years of experience that keep us safe.



Secrets, secrets. It's not very nice to keep secrets.



I think Kyler is going to lose this fight, but don't tell him that!


Kyler wishing he had the wingspan of an adult male orangutan.



I actually was pretty close to an adult female orangutan, though I am on my knees to make it work.



Liz, the adult female gorilla.



With the elephant! It made weird trumpet-y noises, and occasionally played "Baby Elephant Walk."

And, that is all the photographic pain I shall subject you to at this time. Consider yourself lucky.