Ugh! Another, but longer heat wave is on its way! We had upper 90s for a few days about 2 weeks ago. But it is suppose to be in the mid to low90s for about a week. With the humidity, we had heat indexes in the 100s.

Zoo Pictures

This was probably the saddest of everything we saw. This poor polar bear just constantly walked backwards and forward continuously.

This young kangaroo (joey) was so cute. The zookeeper fed him and told us about kangaroos. It was quite interesting. The female kangaroo is only pregnant for 30 days. Then the fetus or whatever they call it goes into the pouch and stays there for I forget how long.

Another interesting thing we learned was about the baboons. You know the monkey like creatures with the ugly behinds. Well one of the baboons had this really disgusting black and lumpy behind. It turns out that this is a sign that the female baboon is fertile. Guess this is a real turn-on for the male baboon. Gross!

This aardvark just wanted to play hide and seek.


Too bad the peacock didn't open his tail feathers. He still was very pretty or should I say handsome since he is a peacock, not a peahen.

Weekend Doings!

I was off Friday from work. I was going to take Thursday off too, but I have so much darn work that I decided to just work Thursday and take a day off in the future. After all, I'm taking a full week in early August when Kevin is off for 2 and a half weeks. I was also off earlt last month for a week and on July 3rd also. Maybe just a few days off to make a couple long weekends.

I slept in Friday to almost 8:30. It was great especially since the past couple days, I went in early to work and had to be up even earlier than usual to catch the 6:25 train. Kevin actually woke me to see if I wanted to go to Brookfield Zoo. As I was getting ready, it dawned on me that we had an appointment to get our taxes done, since back in April, we had to file an extension. So we got that done; owed Uncle Sam, but got it back and then a little from the State, so at least that's done. Just have to write out the check and mail it. We were told the direct deposit should come early in August, so will look forward to that of course. Unfortunately, it would be nice if it was more, but we haven't had a full year of mortgage interest and the previous owners paid the property taxes for the previous year, so next year, we will have property taxes too. Also, got ideas for a couple other things to keep track of.

So we ended up heading down to the zoo and picked up my mother along the way. All morning the weather was sunny and gorgeous. Sure enough, we get to the zoo and it starts drizzling. It had though been looking cloudy and overcast, but when I checked the hourly weather reports on the 'net, it showed no rain until 6, a good 4 hours away or more. But it was just a light on and off drizzle, so it didn't really ruin our day. I'll post some pics later; I better get the laundry out of the dryer and start dinner.

Look at them now!!

I can't believe how well these are doing! As I have said, this is my first year of planting flowers since we moved here last May from apartment living. Next year, I plan on having more flowers. I wasn't sure how well they would do. Sadly, our hanging baskets in the front aren't doing anywhere as well. They have either bit the dust are will shortly. Next time, we go to Home Depot, I think I will check out there nursery and see what hanging baskets they have on clearance or at least greatly reduced. After all unfortunately, summer is almost half over.
Does anyone know what this plant is? The upper left has some lambs ears & to the right are some of my petunias, but even my mother who is quite the gardener, does not know what this big maroonish green plant is, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Summer Flowers

Since we have officially been here a year, we planted some flowers this year. Here is how one of our celosia looked when I planted it.




And here is how it looked a few weeks ago.







When I first planted the petunias. There was one flower on each stem and a week ago, I took this picture!



OPnce I get the pictures I took today off my camera, I'll post more.

Divorce Decree

I can't believe how spotty I have been in keeping up this blog. There just is not enough time to get everything done that I want to. Since Kevin & I were both off work and we needed 2 certified copies of his divorce decree, which was at the Winnebago County courthouse about an hour west of us. Earlier in the week , I had called them & was told they didn't know how much all the copying would cost, but to send $25 for each complete copy and they would send a check back to us refunding what they didn't need. Since I am a paralegal, this didn't sound right that it should be this expensive. When we went today to get 2 certified copies, it came out to $8; now that is a lot more like what I thought it would be. After all, it was only the decree (judgment), not the entire file. So we left with 2 certified copies and a lot more money than if I had mailed in the request with a check. Also, who knows how long it would have taken to get it in the mail. Our marriafge certificates came back within a matter of days. But his birth certificate took 2 weeks for certified copies and 4 weeks for a certified copy along with a state seal and then there was my birth certificate that I went to get in person & got right away.