I'll Take It!

So if you don't know already... I love panda bears! Tai Shan, the cutest baby panda here at the DC National Zoo is my super favorite animal. However... there's a new baby bear that's been getting a lot of attention lately: Knut, the baby polar bear. If you haven't seen him in the news or on CuteOverload (the funnest website ever!), you've been missing out on this new bear that's giving Tai Shan a run for his money-- maybe.

Knut was born at the Berlin zoo... however, his mom rejected him and so animal activists were demanding that the bear be killed. KILLED?! They think that if he were out in the wild and his mom rejected him, he would die. I love animals-- baby ones are the best-- and I wouldn't kill it just because it's mom can't or doesn't want to take care of it. So now the cutest little polar bear will be sent to a different zoo (wouldn't it be cool if it was the DC National Zoo???? Tai Shan and Knut could be BFF!). If they can't find a zoo to take little Knut in, I will. I would gladly raise a little polar bear (especially since I can't raise Tai Shan). I'd much rather have a baby bear (panda or polar) than a baby human, for sure.

Knut's got such a cutie face-- like a little grandpa. And who doesn't like baby animals? People without a heart, I'm sure. Enjoy the couple of videos of the cute Knut romping around and Tai Shan back when he was a mere babe.

Hockey at it's best

So maybe it wasn't the Flyers (oh how I loved the Lindros days), the Rangers (I liked them with Messier in the net), or even the Penguins (who doesn't like the Mario Lemeiux story???), but the Capitals game on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning was pretty exciting!

I've never been to a hockey game, though, I would say that I like the sport. I'm not one to follow the Stanley Cup finals or track draft picks (I don't even know if UNC had a hockey team-- I'm guessing not). Pretty much all I know about hockey, I picked up from the Mighty Ducks movies (classic!) and the Cutting Edge (another good one). The game on Sunday was pretty exciting-- and I wasn't bored at all. The score was 7-1 in the end, so there was even a lot of scoring (which you don't get at soccer games, or even all baseball games). I saw a guy get a hat trick (3 goals in one game) and saw another come close. We saw a fight-- what everyone wants from a live hockey game, but doesn't always get. I would have preferred a bench clearing fight, but those are pretty rare (and I'd rather see one in baseball anyway), so I'll be okay with only 2 guys fighting. :)

Another cool thing about the hockey game-- besides the W, the fight, and the hat trick-- the music is way better than at basketball and baseball games. It was kind of like listening to 106.5 the End (if you live near Charlotte, NC, you know what I'm talking about)-- all 90s alternative rock. I half expected to hear my favorite band of old Bush, but instead they played Prodigy and who doesn't like "Smack My B*tch Up"?

Gordon and I wondered if the Russian mafia shows up to Caps games. We're pretty sure they go to the Rangers games-- though looking at their roster, perhaps it's the Czech mafia that supports the team instead. There's a couple Russians on the Caps, but I don't know if there's enough of a Russian community around here for the mafia to be out and about. Either way, no one near us was part of any mafia that we could tell. There was a cute little girl though that had a ton of energy and really liked to spell C-A-P-S. I don't really see her as being a mob boss. :) We did however see a really cool Russian Ovechkin jersey (he plays left wing)-- it's always nice to get to use my Cyrillic skills! I think my favorite Capital is Olie Kolzig (the goalie from South Africa). He's getting on in hockey (and pro-sport) years-- he's almost 37!-- and been with the Capitals for 17 seasons!

Here's to some more hockey games while I'm still in DC. Go Caps!

O Say Can You See Fort McHenry?

So on a whim this past weekend, we decided to go to Baltimore. None of us are really fans of Baltimore-- their baseball sucks, it's not really (probably never was) the city that reads, and there's nothing much outside of the inner harbor. Besides, Gordon and I spent many nights in Baltimore sleeping in the Maryland Science Center with JrNYLC.

But it was a nice day... and we were restless. So we went to Baltimore and decided to go check out Fort McHenry. Some background information about Fort McHenry (for those of you that don't know):

During the War of 1812, the brick fort defended the Baltimore harbor and stopped a British advance into the city. Surrounded by water on three sides and far enough from Baltimore to provide protection without endangering the city, it was the valiant defense of the fort by 1,000 Americans that inspired Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and amateur poet, to compose the Star Spangled Banner, originally entitled Defense of Fort McHenry.

--http://www.baltimore.org/fort_mchenry.htm

Fort McHenry was pretty cool. It's a fort-- so it's very fort like. And there's actual ramparts, though we saw nothing bursting in air. We had a lot of fun posing with cannons and jail cells (see pictures to the left).

It's good to know that there's other fun things in Baltimore. You should check it out.

best band to see live...

Guster. Saw them a couple weeks ago at the 9:30 Club and once again, they put on a great live show. If you haven't been, you should go as soon as they get to your city. If you haven't heard of them, you should give them a listen. Going to their concert is like hanging out with your friends and having a sing along in the car on a long roadtrip. :) I wouldn't say that they are my favorite band, but I would say that they never disappoint. I've seen them 5 or 6 times now and I'll probably see them again whenever they come back again. I'd really like to see them in Boston (that's where they're from-- they all went to Tufts).

Anyway, check out their myspace page and go see a show.

http://www.myspace.com/guster

I actually did make it back from the PI

It's been forever since I posted here, but after the Philippines and Hong Kong it's been non-stop craziness! The Philippine Islands were great. The night in Hong Kong was really cool! I had a really fun time. I won't post the whole trip in here, but I will add the photos (there's like hundreds--I'm not kidding).

Things to remember: Religious festivals (Sinulog) in religious countries (the Philippines) may lead to human stampedes, everything's cheap in the Philippines, resort stays may be something to look into, throwing up on a plane is NEVER fun, who knew Hong Kong would be so cheap and cool and kind of cold, US Customs officers are NOT friendly, NOT courteous, and ARE jerks, and Viva Pit Senor!

Since the Philippines... Katie AND my parents came to visit (YAY!), it's been non-stop Peace Corps volunteer reunions, everyone and their mother comes to DC all at once, the Eastern Shore is very cool-- and very quiet. I've taken tons of pictures, so take a look if you really need to catch up with me. Or really catch up with me via email/phone/smoke signals/etc.

Peace Out... I'll be better at blogging.