Friday Feast No. 102

07/14/2006 Nichole

Appetizer
Name one nice thing that you could do for someone else today.

Soup
When was the last time you were frightened by the weather?

A few months ago. There were tornados in our neighborhood, and we didn’t have a basement. So we hid out at our friends’ for a few hours. The storms missed our neighborhood entirely.

Salad
What would you say is the most useful Web site or blog that you visit?

Lifehacker

Main Course
Who was your favorite singer/group when you were a child?

My first records were Madonna and Michael Jackson.

Dessert
Do you have any rituals? If so, what are they?

Any rituals that I had have been entirely thrown off kilter in the last month. So much so that I don’t remember whether I have any. So. No, I guess.

The Friday Feast is a weekly meme intended to “feed your mind by asking thought-provoking, mind-stimulating questions.”

On the Road

The incredible shrinking zoo

07/14/2006 Nichole

Yesterday we went to the Children’s Zoo we used to go to when I was a kid. It was so much smaller than I remembered. The prairie dogs (my favorite) are still there, but their enclosure used to look like it really was the whole prairie. Now, somehow, it would fit into Dad’s garage, with room to spare. The p.d.’s don’t seem to mind, though, and they were just as cute as ever. Poppy was enthralled with them, too, so all is well.

I was a little conflicted to find that the zoo no longer has the same snake exhibit. It used to be on a little red boat in the middle of a lake, and you had to cross a neverending bridge to get to it. I hated the snake boat. It gave me nightmares. But I forced myself to cross that darn bridge and step into that little red boat every time.

Dopey kid.

I’m glad they’re updating things at the zoo, but I was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t able to say, “Hey Snake Boat! You’re not so scary! Your bridge is short, and your paint is peeling!” Now it will be forever terrifying to me.

Flotsam / Jetsam

Pool party

07/12/2006 Nichole

A group of interlopers took advantage of last night’s storm. Dad went out to clean the pool this morning and found 16 frogs in it. They were very cute, except for the one that was splayed out on the concrete next to the pool (too many daiquiris, Kermit?) and the one that was in the filter. He was, shall we say, not whole.

While Poppy napped, I saved the other 14 from certain death via the filter or the Lucy.