Okay, since comments are screened for the element of surprise on the Care Package Sent post, I give you... the Care Package Gush Post.

Post here if you just want to squee about your package.

Mostly, I'm just nosy, and curious as to what everyone received. :)

This makes me so angry.

The short version: family goes to the Minnesota zoo. They don't watch their 9 year old, who climbs over a rock barrier and a 4 foot glass barrier to get into the meerkat exhibit.

The meerkats get spooked, and one bites her.

The family refuses to have the daughter vaccinated for rabies, and as a result, the zoo kills five meerkats to have them tested-- two parents and three babes.

The entire family of meerkats was destroyed because it is unknown which one bit the girl, Fisher said, adding that there is little to no chance that the animals carried the disease.

That makes no sense! The stupid fucking bastards wouldn't test their child for rabies that her own stupidity might have caused, and so the animals have to suffer? What the fuck? If I were that zoo, I would plaster the city with pictures of that girl's parents and the salient little detail that they would not consent to their nine year old being vaccinated for rabies, and so five innocent creatures had to die. Better yet, I would have not killed the meerkats, because it was the humans' fault altogether.

I'm writing an angry letter. I know it's too late, but I am pissed off.

ETA:: It appears that the Minnesota Zoo had little choice in euthanizing the animals-- they were bound by law to do so after the child's parents refused to get their child tested/vaccinated. If you're going to write a letter (because I certainly am), you can write to the Minnesota Department of Public Health.

Dixie's out of town until next Thursday. I am home alone, watching the Gypsy bird. Which is generally fine, but I do have to admit that I get super creeped out at night.

It's a paranoia I have-- I'm worried that someone's gonna break in while I'm out at work and or in the shower. I think this stems from the time when I was a small child when our house was robbed by someone who'd been living in the basement walls. He'd constructed a faux-stone front, lived there for about two months, then robbed us blind. Anyway, I digress. There's a storage space door in my bedroom. It makes me nervous. This isn't the city, where I could scream and my neighbors would hear it through the walls. This is Pikesville, home of the unnaturally silent streets and the occasional creepy lurker. Maybe I should befriend the new neighbors.

So I've been turning lights on around the house at odd intervals. Taking very fast showers. Etc. I think I'm going to borrow a baseball bat when I visit my mom this weekend-- very handy to have near the bed. Luckily, I'm not staying here tomorrow night, and Yancy's coming over Saturday evening to watch The Shape of Things.

In other news, bellydance was challenging tonight. Lots of turning moves. I think Abby and I are going to ask our instructor to be more verbal when explaining a move. A demonstration is nice, from a mimicking perspective, but I'm not always sure I'm doing a move correctly. So there's that. Also, our body types are very different-- the instructor has a very long, sinewy torso. I have a very high waist and short torso-- I think it throws my mimicry a little off.

Also, my boss called me at 9pm to ask where some notes I took on a vendor were. Despite the fact that I wrote an entire memo about the findings on said vendor, and he must have just tossed it aside without reading it. Seriously. Who does that? If he can't finish taxes before he leaves for vacation tomorrow, it's his own damn fault for putting it off to the last minute. As usual.

For those of you wondering about dancing tomorrow night, I might not be there. The band sounds kinda slow, bluesy. Not really my thing for dancing. So, if the band's a stinker, Skyler and I are likely to cut out and go see Pulse.

And Ariel? You so ghetto, child.