Saturday

I spent about four hours yesterday at the National Zoo. I enjoy visiting zoos, especially when the animals zoos exhibit are different from the Los Angeles Zoo.

The National Zoo is on Connecticut Avenue. There's a Metro stop a couple of blocks away - an uphill couple of blocks! By the time I got to the zoo entrance, I was exhausted and sweaty.

My first stop was the visitors' center, where I bought a map. I got directions to some of the animals I particularly wanted to see, but first I had to buy a hat. I didn't remember that it gets hot in the DC area, and it would behoove me to have a head-covering. Here I learned that my membership card in the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association would get me a 10 percent discount in the National Zoo's shops. There's no admission charge for the zoo, which is actually part of the Smithsonian Institution.

One thing I like about zoos is that there can be isolated areas where one is not competing with a million kids to look at animals. Various recreation facilities and day camps brought their charges to the zoo. Since all kids in each organization wore different-colored t-shirts, it was easy to keep track of who was where.

I had hoped to see the elephant behavior training demonstration up close, but I couldn't figure out how to get down to the elephant exhibit. A lot of people watched from a walkway above the exhibit. The keeper demonstrated how the elephants have been trained to present their feet for inspection (elephants actually walk on their toes, so keeping their feet healthy is an important part of zoo care), open their mouths, and perform other behavior that is part of a daily care regimen.

Of course, the giant pandas were the real attraction. There are three bears at the zoo. Since pandas are not social animals, they are kept apart. There's a male, a female, and their cub. One of them was practicing the number one job on the Panda Job Description: Sleeping. Another was in an enclosure and engaging in the number two job on the Panda Job Description: Looking cute.

I cruised by the Great Cats - lions and tigers. I didn't see the zoo's tiger cubs, although I could have asked someone. Other animals I saw included beavers (an animal we don't usually hear about in Southern California), golden lion tamarins (we were urged to hide food and drink, as the monkeys were free-ranging in a forest-like setting and could conceivably reach out and snatch someone's food!), sloth bears, and orangutans. I took pictures, and hope they come out.

By the time I staggered back to the hotel (I could barely walk; my back had seized up on me), I missed a meeting, and decided not to go out to dinner. My roommate, Patricia, and I decided to eat in the hotel. BIG mistake. For reasons known only to the kitchen it took more than an hour for us to get our food. Patricia headlined the problem to the restaurant manager, and we didn't have to pay for our dinner.

Today we started meetings. I was 45 minutes late for a meeting, since in the noteb00k-that-tells-me-when-to-breathe I carefully put down the wrong time :( After the meeting I stated my first trek through the exhibits. I am going to ask my doctor what can be done about my back. I don't know if I have a muscle problem, a disc, or a nerve, but when I can barely walk something must be done. I picked up a number of goodies: stuffed animals, a pillbox, and assorted other swag.

The Public Library Association's officers had a great idea: Hold all committee meetings at the same time and in the same room. There are a couple of problems with this: these meetings conflict with others, namely Council, and it's impossible to serve on more than one committee at a time. The Intellectual Freedom Committee, of which I am a member, decided that the all-committee meeting didn't work for us, and we arranged for a time outside all-committee. That was this afternoon. We discussed possible programming and heard a report from the chair, who attended the Freedom to Read Foundation, about issues pending there. Council will get a report from the FTRF president at the information session tomorrow.

Patricia and I went to a restaurant this evening which was veddy, veddy posh. When we finished our bread, the server whisked away our bread plates, and kept replacing silverware. We both had beef tenderloin, which came in a stack: onion rings, steak, and mashed potatoes, with delicious fresh asparagus and a fennel slaw. I went bonkers over dessert: Chocolate ice cream with chocolate chunks and mint. Mmmm.

I had to get a prescription refilled, and took Washington's Metro to the drug store. I staggered home (back still bothering me), and so to bed.