Anyway, after a lovely night at Sarah's house (she has the exact same couch as us!) we all headed out to the Zoo. Abby pretty much wore all the barettes in her drawer just to be sure I didn't plan to wear any when she wasn't looking. I keep getting outsmarted by a two-year old. I'm not bitter.

However, at least the kid managed to stay awake for the whopping 20 minute Metro ride. Scott didn't fare so well. Of course, this doesn't even begin to top the time he fell asleep leaning against video poker in a busy Las Vegas Casino, but it's still pretty amusing.

Anyway, I don't really know where to start on the Zoo pictures, so we'll just jump right in and get the saddest animals out of the way. These kangaroos clearly miss their diet of steak and guiness pie, but I hadn't realized DC was so much more dreary than Australia. Perhaps they just aren't rorting enough.

One of my favorite things to see, ever:

There were zebras:

And shrews:

And something of the pygmy variety (possibly a marmoset, but I didn't take notes and apparently people get uptight when I err on my Geekday pages, so I won't make claims I can't backup!)

I have a thing for armadillos. I have a stuffed one someplace. They should all be stuffed, and then maybe they'd be a bit more resiliant to trucks in Texas. At least I know they aren't called armordillos.

Remember when Marge suggested Homer start an Emu farm when he was desperate for something crazy to do? Er, yeah, me neither.

Emus are not the same as cranes:

I saw some dam beavers.

And apparently, you don't get water from camels. But they are in the desert.

My friend Amy had a chinchilla as a pet when we were younger. Then one day it wanted to go see the world. I think it mostly got to see the furnace though. At least it wasn't a coat.

We got to see elephants and giraffes. I'll spare you all the pictures of the elephant's butt that Scott took. At least he was awake for that part. If you look closely, you can see the baby elephant underneath. What a poor choice of sleeping location. Even Scott probably wouldn't want to sleep directly under an elephant.

The hippos rocked. Scott scared them off and they retreated as soon as this picture was taken. My friend Amy used to confuse hippos with whales. Honest.

The doggies were in short supply this day, and we barely caught sight of a few of them sleeping. I think they were probably busy feeling inferior to the cats.

Speaking of which, there was no tiger shortage. I'm pretty sure they wanted to come home with me and be my friends. I'm gonna heist them soon. I'll have to remove that part after the heist though so that there's no evidence.

The tigers were hungry, but no one wanted to volunteer to be dinner (even in spite of the sign). Abby took control later that day and showed the tigers who's boss:

Briefly, I changed my name from Blazing Rebel (as seen on supermarket fireworks) to Bufflekill. Boy are they easy to kill:

I liked the lion. I'm not sure Scott got my joke about self-service, but the couple next to me seemed to enjoy it. This lion sleeps just like my cat.

More evidence I should never reproduce: We see the komodo dragon and the two-year old says "It's a monster!" What do i say? "It sure is."

This sign is almost as good as the dinner sign. I need a similar one to stick to my cat, Kilgore Trout.

I really liked the sloth bear, and I would've taken him home with me if Scott hadn't scared him off too.

Of course, nothing could compare to the Lemur, even though this wasn't my usual brand:

There were a lot of monkeys and apes, and I was pretty sad we didn't get to see any of the language and cognition experiments that went on in the Think Tank but at least we got to see the lab itself.

And the whole ape family themselves...

We also got to see some various kinds of marmosets and monkeys:

And let's not forget the rare Styrofoam Cup spawn, which is nice enough to share its space with some turtles and frogs.

At one point, Abby got mad at some other little girl who had barettes that were similar to hers, and she took swift and decisive action.

There were some very swank seals and sea lions, doing the sorts of things they're only supposed to do when no one is looking. (Like standing on 2 feet)

And then there were the Golden Lion Tamarins, which seemed to be everywhere we looked. There's even a part of the zoo where they're allowed to roam free and swing onto my shoulders, if they so choose. None of them did, so I had to ask the zookeepers for advice on how to entice them. Apparently, I need a fan on my shoulder and some McDonalds for them. I'll remember that when I come back to heist things. (Note to self: remove all heist comments before upload).

Have you ever wondered what the scariest, creepiest, cuddliest creature ever is? It's the Rock Hyrax. I suspect the rock part of his name comes from the fact that he never moves. He just stands there, all still and creepy like a rock. Or maybe it's because he'd make such a good pet, like rocks do.

KC wouldn't wrestle the crocs, even though I asked nicely.

There were also some eagles, but as usual I remain unimpressed by them.

Last but far from least, are the Giant Pandas. I wanted to hug them, repeatedly. I still do. Apparently, the zoo is leasing them from China. Way to make a spare buck, China!

I was so excited when I got to see them eat bamboo, because I got to see that radial sesamoid bone in action, just like Stephen Jay Gould promised me.

It turns out that the Zoo is sponsoring a Giant Panda Photo Contest. I want to submit the photo of the thumb just because it's such a miracle of modern evolution, but at the same time, I think Scott should be so very proud of this photo that he took:

And I think I'll just leave it at that!