Zoos

Last week, I took my older daughter (she's almost 5) to the zoo. That was an experience.

She's old enough now to start learning a bit about the animals, instead of just ooh-ing and ahh-ing at them, so as we walked through the zoo, bundled up in our coats, I told her some interesting facts about the animals we saw, and she told me what she knew about them.

"Daddy, a zebra can run very, very fast."

"An elephant nose is a trunk, so an elephant eats with his nose."

"If a snake bites you, you'll get blood, and it will hurt."

And of course, she had questions:

"Daddy, what is that baby camel doing?"

"It's nursing. Its mother is giving it milk."

"You mean like Mommy gave me milk, and gave my little sister milk?"

I was pretty impressed that she realized that it was the same thing, and I told her so. She's a smart cookie, that kid. As we started down the path, we heard a rooster crowing, but couldn't find it. Eventually we realized that it was up in a tree. Neither of us had ever seen a chicken in a tree before, so we sat on a bench and watched it for a while, until it flew down to get something to eat. Neither of us had ever seen a chicken fly before, either, but we have a pet bird at home, so my daughter knew all about flying birds. She told me how the chicken used its feathers to fly down. I'm just glad she didn't ask why it was in the tree in the first place.

All in all, it was a pretty great day.

Birthdays at the Office

Last week, we had the quarterly birthday celebration at work, and went out for lunch. I didn't know this, but our supervisor called ahead to the restaurant and arranged a cake, with candles and a singing waiter, to be delivered to our table. Apparently, that's just what they do, 4 times a year, to acknowledge the birthdays. It's good for office morale, especially for the relatively new guy like me, who's birthday is coming up in a few months.

It was a fun lunch, and the best part was, it came out of petty cash. We went to a Mongolian-style barbecue, took over 3 tables, and absolutely didn't talk shop. We told all the dirty jokes that we can't tell at the office, we talked about our vacation plans, we talked about our kids, and we came up with the weirdest possible combinations of ingredients to take to the grill.

That last was pretty good, actually. I don't know if you're familiar with Mongolian barbecue, but the way it works is this:

There are tables full of ingredients. One table for meat, poultry, and fish ingredients, one table for vegetable ingredients, and one table for spices and sauces. You pick up a bowl, fill it up with whatever you want, add the spices and sauces you want, and take it to the grill.

The grill is about 7 feet across, with 5 or 6 grillers, who take people's bowls on a first-come, first-served basis. They dump everything on the grill, and use long wooden sticks to stir and mix it. When it's done cooking, it goes back in the bowl and you go eat. There are dishes of tortillas at the tables.

Definately a good meal, and definitely party food. And if you don't like it, there's no one to blame but yourself.

One last note: I have no idea how much is genuinely Mongolian, or even if Mongolians like to barbecue. But it was a good birthday celebration.