Rolling Hills Refuge

know I sent these via email, but I wanted to put them here as well.


Aldabra Tortoises




Amur Leopard




Andean (Spectacled) Bear




Bactrian Camel




Burmese Pythons




Chilean Flamingo




Cotton-top Tamarin




Feeding Giraffe




Joya--Indian Rhino




Joya--Indian Rhino (again)




Mandrill




Millie--White Rhino Female




Milt--White Rhino Male




Snow Leopards




Uzazi--Black Rhino Male




White Dromedary Camel




White Tiger





There's chance I might be going to the Sedgwick County Zoo next week sometime with Rolando. I can hardly wait to see the gorillas, but I hope I don't have an experience like Anita.

June Bonus Books -- Redux

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Started Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs this morning, but I need to get started on my NSF grant/general exam write-up.

I'm so excited!!!

Tomorrow, I'm going to Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure. I've been wanting to visit for years (ever since they opened) because I know they have so many wonderful animals and programs.

But my excitement is a million times the ordinary because I'm getting a PERSONAL TOUR OF THE RHINOS!!! A lady with whom my parents used to go to church met the rhino keeper a few months ago and told her all about how much I love rhinos. The keeper said she'd show me around personally, and TOMORROW'S THE DAY!!! I'm so excited I could just wet myself.

As if that weren't enough, the refuge has THREE species of rhino -- black, white, and Indian. I've seen two blacks at the Sedgwick County Zoo and two whites at the Memphis Zoo, but I've never ever ever seen an Indian. Oh boy, oh boy, OH BOY!!!

Did I mention I'm excited?

June Bonus Books -- Part Deux

Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs. Lots of great "now where does this piece fit"? Tempe and the super-sexy Lieutenant-Detective Andrew Ryan finally got where we all knew they were headed. Loved the part where Tempe's daughter referred to him as the "French Foreign Legion." More Boyd the super-bouncy chow (Tempe might as well keep him -- he spends more time with her than with her estranged hubby anyway). The more I read Reichs, the more I love her.

June Bonus Books

In the last week, I have read Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs. HP was read cover to cover on Saturday -- and why is my mother still so shocked that I can and will complete a book in one day? GS took me two days (yesterday and today) because I felt so ooky all day yesterday.

I'm now going to go consume a piece of my father's Father's Day banana cream pie. G'night!

When you explore linkies

I was catching up on The Gimp Parade today when I noticed a site she has listed on her blog roll -- Acsex. Their description of their site: "Acsex is an undergraduate thesis project on the design of assistive, accessible, and otherwise ergonomic sex toys for people all along the disability spectrum. Acsex is the brainchild of a kinky, queer, non-disabled student and his kinky, queer, disabled partner, whose efforts to have fun and comfortable sex inspired them to assist other people who want an empowered sex life."

In the words of my former attendant Marian -- rock on! Wonder where this guy goes to school.

I do have to make ONE comment about their logo. Personally, if I'm going to engage in that type of sexual activity, I'd rather not have my wheelchair still strapped to my butt. Call me kooky, call me crazy, but I think I have enough back problems at present. ::grin::

::whistles as she heads off to peruse site::

Oh, sweet justice

Yeah, I know everyone is talking about it, but I just have to say concerning spoiled rich bitch Paris "my poop should be bronzed" Hilton . . .

YES!! Serves you right!!

And a Dee-dee-dee award to whoever let her out for her alleged "medical condition." S/He will be lucky if s/he isn't fired after this.

And the DEE-DEE-DEE award goes to . . .

This kid. I mean, c'mon!

Makes me irritated that a dee-dee-dee is getting this much publicity for being a dee-dee-dee.

Gimp common-sense rule for crossing intersections #1 -- If the vehicle is five times bigger than you and the driver can't see you if you cross in front of him, wait for the next "Walk" after said vehicle passes.

*EDIT*

OK, I've since learned from an old camp friend who lives in the area where this happened that not only does this kid have Duchenne MD, but he also has Down's Syndrome and mild mental disability. So he is no longer the recipient of the DEE-DEE-DEE award -- but I have to give his attendant an honorary DEE-DEE-DEE award for not keeping up with him.

Review, recommendation, read

After what seems like 500,000 revisions, I am finally submitting my review article. I printed off one full copy and two extra Figure 1's night before last, then yesterdy Mom and I made two photocopies and got all of them collated and clipped. Dillons, though, only does international mailing if your delivery is small letter sized, so we have to take this package to the post office. Mom said she'll take it today, so everybody pray that this thing I have poured seventeen months of my life into gets accepted by the Cambridge Philosophical Society for print in Biological Reviews. ::bites nails::

Before doing all the photocopying, I had my neurology appointment. He didn't say anything about nerve conduction tests. He did say he wondered how extensively we wanted to dig into this. I told him my concerns about not getting reliable signals from my skin and how I like to monitor myself for pressure sores and the like. I told him I want to at least figure out what's wrong, THEN we can decide if it's worth correcting. He wants me to see a spine specialist. The good news is that the one he wants me to see "doesn't think he's God" and is an expert in scoliosis and such. The bad news is that he's at KU Medical Center in Kansas City and won't be down here until July 19th. I could probably see him earlier if I had a way to get to KC, but I don't. Mom and P are convinced the Wienie Wagon would never make it there and back. So I'm scheduled to see this guy in six or seven weeks, but there will be no time to do anything after that if we decide something needs to be done. Needless to say, I'm a little bummed about that last part.

As for my books of the month:

-- May was CSI: Sin City by Max Allan Collins. Given to me a while back from Anita, I thought it was very well done. Most of the characters were in line with those on TV, except that Sarah wasn't moody enough. Brass, though, was bang on.

-- June was The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton. The last few Anita Blake books have been quite different from the early ones that hooked me into the series. I've enjoyed them despite some people's complaints that there was more sex than plot (which I could argue for given what all was going on in the series). This book, though, I think will make those complainers happy. There were only three sex scenes in the book and all were relatively short and had their purpose (not that the others didn't . . .). The story was great, and something happened with two characters that has been needing to happen for a while but still hurt when it finally did (Do you like how I'm trying not to spoil anything?). I had heard rumors of ghost writers, especially for the AB series, but this latest book totally tasted of early LKH.

Please note: both these books were read in a week and a half after getting home to Kansas -- WHILE working on review revisions.

Now, I must return to my current book.

The good news is . . .

I don't have any herniated discs in my back. Not that I thought I did -- I figure I'd be in A LOT more pain if it was that.

Now on to a neurology appointment on Tuesday where Dr. M may set up nerve conduction tests. Sounds like fun, eh?