Oh, this has been a WONDERFUL day.

I really, REALLY appreciate a co-worker of mine now. W asked to take the on-call phone for the weekend for the fees. I was so glad to hand it over to him. Being nice to me was a side effect but I owe him one all the same.

But I appreciate him even more now than I did this morning. Why? Because today has been incredibly wonderful, all stuff I wouldn't have done if on call because it took me too far from home.

It's World Animal Festival at the Oregon Zoo this weekend, and we wanted to go. Knowing it would probably be VERY busy, we elected to show up at 9 when the zoo opens (the festival mostly doesn't start until 10), also in the hopes of seeing the caracal kittens active and playing (as the zoo web site notes they are most active early in the morning).

So, zoo memories from today:
* Zoolights are already being put in. It looked to me like it's mostly fences so far, although some leapers near the lions.
* The leopard lying down, tail toward the viewing glass, a couple feet from the viewing area. He then walked off and the other leopard walked right past the view glass, slowly, and then around to the far side of the pond. (Drew was fascinated!)
* The tigers, active and playing with a ball, tossing it in and out of the pond (until it floated in the middle, neither seemed to want to go get it then).
* The giraffe eating its breakfast in the enclosure inside, making it much more up-close viewable than when outside.
* Hippos having breakfast (and a couple of grade-school-age kids making jokes about 'hungry hungry hippos' which was actually at least as good entertainment as the hippos).
* The lionesses play-wrestling.
* As we came around to the other viewing area, one of the lionesses coming right up face-to-face with those of us at the glass there. I mean, arm's-reach close except for the glass. Wow.
* The caracals out and active. Got to see the kittens dashing about in a quick round of 'chase' down the log, up the hill, and to the edge. One of them hopped over another.
* Mongoose having breakfast in the little enclosure, then burrowing into its blanket. VERY up close view: inches away.
* The actual festival, including ribbon dancers, a balloon ball, a Chinese dance group (that was the only one we stayed for), freebies for members (collapsible water bottle; neat!).
* I missed it but Scott and Drew were very happy: close face-to-face with a polar bear! (I was worn out by then and sitting to rest. Alas.)

Then home. Drew was having trouble settling down to take his nap after lunch, so I took him for a quick car ride (quick because we didn't make it very far before he was out like a light), and back home. With a stop at Sonic because it was just a bit after 2 pm, and their drinks are half-priced 2-4 (though not at the mall Sonic, alas). Large lemonberry slush for $1.05? Yes please! :)

It was an incredibly good zoo trip and a good day so far. And had I been on call - I think Scott and Drew would've gone to the zoo still, but I'd've missed out on it. I'm glad I didn't. It was a blast.

Rest of the day was less wonderful but still okay.

Drew, having resisted and then taken his nap, woke up and continued out of sorts. ( Er, and I wax on about this, apparently. )

Meanwhile, I spent part of the evening ordering in the stuff we've had listed and settled on for Ian. Crib (Drew's is in use as a toddler bed and, anyway, was a drop-side crib), mattress, pump system for me (wore the old one pretty well out, and anyway it's not meant to be multi-person/multi-use), and initial contact re cloth diapers (have them, need to get some elastic work done on them). What I don't have yet is the car seat, as I'm waiting on an answer to a question from Graco about which of their car seats are compatible with the older (and just fine condition) stroller we have. I'm hoping I can buy one of the newer models and use it with this stroller. If not...I may switch to a Britax infant system if I'm going to have to buy the stroller anyway.

Either way, buying the stuff I did buy left me wincing at the cost. I'm not going for high-end boutique stuff (well, some might consider the mattress an exception: I don't skimp on that, babies spend a lot of time on their crib mattresses!), but youch. (Mattress: um, about twice the cost of the crib, actually, in this case. Heh.)

On the other hand, I COULD have bought a $2100 crib (I assure you, this would be way way WAY more than twice the price of the mattress I got) which...really just makes me stare. A lot. And back away slowly. (I only saw that because I glanced at cribs at the site where I got the mattress to see if they had one I wanted, at a price I wanted, as their shipping is free over a certain amount and the mattress put me over it. Still, that was cheaper than anywhere ELSE I could get that mattress, since the shipping was free. But the cribs...yikes.)

Folks, there are nursery sets out there that cost more than my CAR did.

And they can stay "out there" - if you have one, if you like it, that's great. But it's a bit pricy for me, and I'm sort of shocked all over again (went through this when putting together the wish list with Drew, but one forgets...or at least tries to...). Just saying.