Yesterday Ryan's family had to put their cat, Lucy, to sleep. Their other cat, Charcoal, was put to sleep last spring. Since I lived with those cats for many months, I grew attached to them very quickly, so the news saddens me. I can't handle any more animal deaths. In 2006, 6 animals I was close to died. And being that my profession is working with animals, I obviously love them, and it's a big deal to me.

"From the first time that you opened your eyes did you realize that you would be my savior? And the first breath that left your lips did you know that it would change this world forever" -Relient K

Happy Birthday, Jesus! Today I had to work but got out at 11:00. Ryan and I are about to open gifts now and then we are heading to our pastor and wife's house for dinner. It is not a white Christmas here...it's 45 degrees and raining. I can't complain since it was close to 70 the past few days.

And if you are wondering why you didn't get a Christmas card this year, is because we didn't send any out. I had made some and they are mostly completed, but Ryan and I just didn't feel like doing a letter and cards this year. Overall it's been a pretty crappy year, so neither of us could sound super positive in the letter. On a lighter note, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas.

Dolphin show @ Minnesota Zoo

I found this random file on-line of me during a show at MN Zoo. Notice when I throw the fish and it smacks the window.

There is a baboon at the zoo named Sudi. One day she discovered that a ball we use for enrichment can fit on her head. So, she wore it around for 4 days. We called it her "special helmet". A co-worker got some great video of it. Check it out... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx2jnJlpedU

Make sure you have sound.

Today we are having our Christmas party at work. We are grilling out and it is supposed to be 71 degrees. It is supposed to be in the 70's all this coming week...even up to 77 on Monday!

We finally decorated for Christmas. We put on a little "John Denver and the Muppets Christmas" and started the tree. We have so many ornaments and such a small tree. I love our ornaments though. Most of them have been gifts or else they were our ornaments from when we were children. They all have such a special meaning. It still doesn't really feel like the holiday season though. It's been cold enough here the past few days, but it is different without the white stuff. Although I don't miss the shoveling and cleaning the car off in the morning.

You will be missed, Ayla. You taught me a lot about patience and how to think more outside the box.  

My birthday was the week before Thanksgiving. I turned the big 2-5...quarter of century old! I had to work on my birthday, however there was a Thanksgiving dinner for the staff on that day, so at least I got a really good lunch. That night I opened cards and presents with Ryan. I don't remember what we did on Friday. On Saturday I went to a big pottery festival with Joy and 2 of her friends. After that Joy took me out to lunch. Yummy! On Sunday Ryan and I played disc golf, which was the first time I played and sucked. Then he surprised me with a picnic at a nearby park. Then that night we got all dressed up and went out to eat at P.F.Changs. Overall it was a nice birthday weekend.

On Thanksgiving our good friends from MN, Chad and Sarah, flew in. Ryan stayed home and cooked the turkey while I drove down to Charlotte to pick them up. When we got back home we cooked the rest of the goodies. Thor, Joy's boyfriend, also joined us as well. Right before we were about to pray I look at Sarah's hand and see a gigantic ring on her left hand. Apparently I was the last to notice, but in my defense, in the car I tried checking a couple times because we knew they'd be getting engaged in the future, but she kept sitting on her hands. It was very humorous and we are VERY excited for them. We had a good meal then watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. On Friday we left for the Asheville, NC area to go camping. We stayed in a cabin in the same campground that Ryan and I stayed at when we first moved here. We got our cabin set up then went to a little shop and got some cider. We got back to the cabin and had hotdogs, brats, and smores. It was REALLY cold out so we headed inside to play some cards and go to bed. The next day we went to Chimney Rock and hiked to the top of the waterfall. It was a very nice day out. T-shirt and jeans was good enough to wear. It was probably around 70 degrees. After the hike we went in the town of Chimney Rock for some lunch. When we got back home we went to church and then out to eat with people from church. On Sunday I had to work but they came to the zoo to visit me. I was able to show them around my building and we had lunch together. My first visitors! They flew out on Tuesday. It was so great to see people from home. I do miss it, I can't lie to you.

On Monday I noticed a rash that I had and ended up going to the doctor's on Thursday and found out I had a reaction to the rabies vaccination I had to get for work. So now I'm on a few drugs and hopefully it'll go away. I also was having joint pain in my hands in the morning, which is also a side effect to the vaccine. I started the medicine yesterday and didn't have the pain this morning, so hopefully it continues to work.

I was supposed to go to Maryland this weekend for the family Christmas party, but my grandma was in the hospital due to an irregular heart beat. She is out of the hospital and seems to be doing well, but they canceled the party.

Then to top off my already sucky week...I found out today that they had to put Ayla, a dolphin from MN Zoo, to sleep yesterday. She has basically been sick since June and hasn't been able to recover fully. It'd look like she's getting better and then decline again. In the past few weeks her blood work was messed up so they did some tests. She has been fighting a lung infection and they found bone spurs on her spine. She has scoliosis, so it already makes swimming difficult for her. In the past days she stopped eating and reacting to the medicine, so the zoo had to make a very very hard decision. I can't even imagine what they are going through. I'm not even there and I bawled. That is three dolphin deaths in a year. I don't think I can handle any more crappy stuff this year. Ayla was the first dolphin that I got to feed there. She was stubborn and picky, just like me. She had the most beautiful markings on her face. She loved her frisbees and aqua disks. She was very interested in things, but would often watch from afar. It took her a long time to warm up to you. I will miss you, Bo.

I know I haven't updated in a long time and I have a lot to catch up on. I'm tired now and don't want to do it, but I promise I will update in the next few days. Peace.