Ostrich and Camel Races

Last Saturday, I went to Ellis Park raceway with Barry and Tyler. When I heard there was going to be Ostrich and Camel races, how ever could I turn it down? Of course, we stayed for four horse races, and I came out ahead by $1 for the day. I don't think I did too bad, and I had fun.

The exotic races were just for fun and lasted way less than a quarter mile around the track. The camels all came to a dead stop a few yards from the finish line, where they stood looking proud of themselves as the crowd 'Ahhh'ed and cheered. Above, you see them all taking a break BEFORE crossing the finsh, which is the white thing to the right. The jockey on #2 looks like he's falling off, but actually he was sliding back and forth, trying his dangdest to get his camel to move.

The Ostrich races were my favorite, and hilarious! They actually had jockeys riding these poor birds, but the cool thing was every rider had been thrown off by the time the birds got done crossing the finish line. When they were loading them back up into their transport, the Renegade Bird above escaped and ran back toward the starting gate. Then he stopped to stare into his crowd of admirers and I got the picture above. Next, his buddies saw what was going on and decided to go and join him. See the picture below. You couldn't hear any announcements by then, because everyone was laughing their asses off, including me. The ostriches stole a good fifteen minutes of showtime, pretty remarkable for the showoffs considering their 'race' only lasted about 10 seconds.

The New Harry Potter Movie

I saw the new Harry Potter Movie, the Half-Blood Prince, today with two of the kids. It kicked ass and we loved it. A cool thing was there were people there of all ages there, childless unembarrassed adults even. :) I think this one conforms most closely to the actual book, and it had really nice visual effects and comedic parts.

It'll be interesting, as always, to see what sort of HP inspired knitting patterns pop up. Anyway, the movie just opened today and I highly recommend seeing it.

Maizy's Birthday Video

Click on the above to see a video of Maizy ripping into her presents on her 9th birthday, which was on June 30th but I'm just now figuring out how to upload. :) The charm necklace she's wearing was another of her gifts.

I love getting stuff in the mail

I get a big kick from getting packages in the mail, even stuff I pick out and pay for myself. :) The maillady left this in my mailbox a few days ago: Sock Innovation book, two skeins of KnitPicks Essential in Pumpkin (which were on sale!) and a darning egg. Okay, so I have absolutely no idea how to use it, but it was cute and I guess I can figure it out the next time I have a holey sock. I'm gonna make a summer shrug from the yarn, as soon as I finish the yoga socks I'm working on now.

View from the Zoo

One of my favorite places to go is the zoo. I LOVE animals and Mesker Zoo in Evansville, IN is so much fun. My family and I went yesterday so I thought I'd post some 'View from the Zoo' pics.

Above is Donna the Hippo. She just celebrated her 58th birthday!!

The Jaguar is behind glass (explains the blurs) in a huge room. He can walk outside through the door behind his butt, where he has a waterfall and two pools of water to play in, plus a huge yard. This is a beautiful animal.

This Zebra stands just almost close enough for people to touch. There's another one in the far right corner, but you can't really see him.


I'm not sure what the heck these things are, but they're part of the new Amazonia exibit. They look kinda like a beaver, but more humpy.

I love peacocks and they are running loose all over the zoo. There is nothing prettier than seeing them roosting in trees with their long tails trailing down from the branches. If you look closely at this guy, his head is bent over his back preening.