The 12 Days of HOLY SH*TMAS: Post #3

Today, we finally got the results of the hubby's biopsy. I mentioned this briefly back in this post. You know, the thing giving my hysteria hysterics.

The hubby got the call while he was out picking up cat food and immediately called me. Benign lesion! Benign! Benign!

Benign!

Nothing to worry about for us right now! BENIGN!

Let there be college football in HD and baked potato skins stuffed with cheese, sour cream, turkey bacon, and scallions, all in the name of HE'S GOING TO LIVE!

I keep randomly hugging the hubby and telling him, "YOU'RE GOING TO LIVE!"

He keeps laughing at me and saying, "I told you it was nothing to worry about."

YOU WERE RIGHT.

This may be the only time I am happy saying those 3 words.

Tomorrow, there shall be cake! Because YOU'RE GOING TO LIVE!

And today, the 3rd post from the 12 Days of HOLY SH*TMAS. Happy happy joy joy makes me think about my husband, and home, and pets, and penguins. So, penguins!

My family gave me a giant stuffed penguin (cue me copying the little girl from this movie) for the Christmas penguin tree/kitchen area. My brother gave me a funny/cute penguin book.

And my father, always going above and beyond, got me this very coveted (by me) Hallmark ornament that lights up, moves, and plays a Christmas song. I have many of the less expensive, older penguin ornaments from this series on my penguin tree but knew when this one came out that it was just too expensive to buy for myself. No matter how much I may have wanted it. My father shouldn't have but I'm glad he did! *Giddy claps*

When I turned it on, Pandora (obvious naughty one) and Aphrodite (hiding under the chair, not as obvious naughty one) came running to check it out. Very elaborate!

And by elaborate, I mean the ornament AND the kitties' evil plans. Which I guess involved just staring at it really closely, since that was all they seemed to want to do. Of course, I took it away from them before it could go any further than that. My penguins! Mine!

Penguin Date

Yesterday, the hubby took a vacation day from work for my birthday. We spent the morning at the St. Louis Zoo with a behind-the-scenes tour of the penguins. It was just myself, my husband, and our tour leader, Meg. She was super knowledgeable and kind. The first thing we did was spend time with the outside Humboldt penguins. This baby from last year caught my heart. He just kept closing and opening his eyes at us all adorably.

Then, this even younger baby rested in the sweetest way on the rocks. Notice how he has no stripe and no pink around his face. The penguin above had just molted into his more adult feathers. The little baby below hadn't molted out of the baby feathers yet.

It was ridiculously hot and humid already at 10 am. These penguins come from Peru and Chili, though, so they like the heat. Their water feature is really cold, so they can always take a swim. They're named Humboldt Penguins for the cold Humboldt current that runs through the waters off of that South American coast. I learned stuff. See? Still, I retained like 5% of all the things our tour leader taught us, so my pride is short lived.

I figured we'd then go inside the main area of the Penguin House. Instead, we took a long walk around back and went into the non-public part of the building. We learned some more information about penguins, saw the kitchen and how their meals are prepared, and walked through the giant room that is an engineer's wet dream. It had all the tubes and pipes that clean the water and stabilize the temperatures. The penguins inside need to be housed at 45 degrees, and serious problems happen if the temperature ever goes above 50. Their little lungs just can't take all the bacteria and fungus that is in that warmer air, and once they breathe it in, they can get sick. Also, the water needs to be cleaned pretty often. They're birds. They poop. A lot. The zoo keeps everything so clean. The husband, although a software engineer and not a hardware engineer, actually got left behind for a second because he was taking pictures of the room. Weirdo. Interesting, sure, but we're there for PENGUINS.

Then, we walked to another part of the building and sat down on the tile floor. And something amazing happened. Meg brought out 2 adorable Magellanic Penguins. To hang out with us. The second I saw them coming down the hall, my eyes filled up with tears. Emotions. I has them. Even my husband watched in awe.

Who does this? Who gets to do stuff like this? Not us! We're SO LUCKY!

THE ST. LOUIS ZOO ROCKS.

 

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER.

Penguins. Being all amazin' and stuff.

They walked all around us. It was incredible to be that close to them.

Once they were back in their penguin room with several other happy penguins, Meg attempted to talk in a very high pitched voice at them. She was trying to get them to "sing". She got them to make their "happy" noise for a minute (which DOES NOT sound happy to human ears). Then, I tried. And, HOLY CRAP.

WhosAGoodLilPenguin?You'reAGooLilPenguin!HiLilPenguins!OooosshaBoooshaLilPenguins!OooBooBooLilGuys!

 Deafening. Awesome but deafening.

We then went out into the main Penguin House and got to see all the other penguins. They were incredible. They have a lot of types together. King, Gentoo, and Rockhopper are the other penguin species at the St. Louis Zoo.

I sing-songed "Rockhoppers above my head" as the hubby took the picture below. I think the other people at the zoo were not impressed. I didn't care. Happy Feet penguins above my head! They look like little punk rock penguins. Rock on, Lil Dudes.

The penguins also splash you. But you're not annoyed. Because the culprits are PENGUINS! I got such a big splash right all over the back of my shoulder after this was taken. People nearby actually made "ahhh" noises. And they weren't the ones hit. Of course I didn't care.

They also have a puffin exhibit in the penguin house (with 2 types of ducks from Alaska who are supposedly worth the most out of all the birds in the building. Crazy, no?). Those are some exciting ducks. Few other places have puffins (or these ducks) because their exhibit needs to be kept so cool (45 degrees like the penguins). Not the prettiest ducks, I have to say. Sorry, Alaskan ducks.

Puffins, on the other hand, super cute. As is the hubby.

See the puffin nesting in the rock? Awwwwww.

This one was making eyes at us. I hearted this puffin.

It was a great experience. Here's a little video the hubby made as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06wZAC3iLU4

Because it was so awful out (and I didn't wear sunscreen like a moron), we decided to save the rest of the zoo for another date. We went to Fritz's to end my birthday celebration. Good choice, Hubby, good choice. He got their famous turtle sundae...

And I got this masterpiece. Does it not scream, "It's my birthday!?!" Sprinkles and M&Ms.

The whole day was great. Unforgettable. It made leaving my 20s behind a little easier and made my hopes for the future brighter... Bigger... Penguin-y-er. Best birthday ever.