So, Tuesday I took my mom to the zoo. We had a fantastic time; we got along really well all day (wonder of wonders) and just in general had a splendid time. I need to pull the pictures off the camera. It took less than an hour to get from their house to the zoo, even with stopping for gas and cutting through the country.

We wandered around the end of North America, looking at the swamp area and the polar bears and sea lions and such before stopping for an early picnic lunch (I'd packed chicken salad and chips and fruit.) We got ice cream from the zoo for dessert (mom's one real request for the day had been that we get ice cream, so we did.) After lunch, we hopped on the tram (which had a lift for the wheelchair, which pleased me greatly) and zipped over to the bird aviary, which was definitely mom's favorite thing and probably mine too. We then walked back to the North American parking, taking in everything along the way (the bobcats were so cute.) At that point, she was out of energy (and I was getting there; pushing someone around a hilly park in a wheelchair is, well, exercise :) ) so we agreed to leave Africa for another day and make our way home.

All in all, much fun. Also, I did go ahead and join, so I get myself and a guest in free (and $2 off any additional tickets) until the end of next September. Anyone want to go to the zoo? :)

The rest of the week has been quiet. Teaching, work, grading. My mood went south sometime around Wednesday evening for no good reason and didn't come back up for air until yesterday.

We watched the debates last night - well, Jeff watched on his computer, and I listened. It's been forever since I've watched a debate¹ - I always know who I'm voting for, and a debate isn't going to do much more than annoy me. However, this year's election has been a little trainwrecky and more than a little weird, so I was curious. And... eh. They both did all right - McCain, better than I expected - and neither one did really, really well. I think that technocracygirl is right and that Obama flummoxed McCain - that McCain didn't quite know what to do with this guy who didn't get rattled (other than an annoying tendency towards interruptions, but I guess a debate in this format is made for interruptions) and who just quietly kept answering questions. If someone kept saying to me "You just don't understand", I would eventually get pissed off, but Obama didn't. I think if you've already picked a horse, last night just made you feel better about yours, and if you haven't, I'm not sure what last night did for you (then again, I'm not undecided. If there's anyone around here who is undecided and is still willing to discuss the election with people and who watched the debate last night, I'm curious.)

Obama was in town this morning. I would have loved to have gone and seen him - a bunch of my grad school friends were - but I was not up to the crowd that was going to be drawn. There's been some sitting in the B&N cafe drinking hot chocolate and grading instead, Chik-fil-a for lunch, more grading, and napping. Not a bad day.

1. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever watched a debate, though I may have as a kid. My memories of watching political stuff are pretty few and far between. I did watch the Berlin Wall come down live on the news as a kid. I also remember watching the RNC as a kid one year - one of my folks must have had it on - and yelling at Pat Robertson, go figure.