Okay, we all know that I am a bumbling idiot, so what is new you ask?  Well, nothing much really, except I need to much a correction.  A few days ago I posted a little story about how Holy, a friend who we had met in Fuyang, China, had come to visit us during his fall break. In that post I said that his name was pronounced like Holly.  While he was here though, and after I had made that post, I found out it, after nearly two years of knowing Holy, that is name is indeed pronounced Holy – as in holy shit, your kidding me! 🙂

You can imagine how stupid I felt.  I then tried to figure out how the confusion started.  Some point when he Holy met Phil, he told him his name and showed Phil how to spell it.  I am pretty sure Phil double checked and made sure it was what he meant, but I guess our English minds wanted to hear Holly, and so that is what we called him.  I asked Holy why he never corrected us and he said he didn’t know.   Perhaps it is was the same reason I never made the scores of Chinese people say my name correctly.  I knew calling me Gabrielle would be difficult, so I opted for Gabe.  To most people in China that year, I was known as Gabe-a.  I should have simplified it even more and gone by G.

I told Holy how hard it was going to be to retrain myself to actually say his name correctly.  The last few days he was here, I had to catch myself mid-name so many times.  Hopefully, it won’t take too long to learn.

On Saturday, Phil, Holy, and I went to the South Carolina State Fair.  Holy had never been to one, so we thought he may enjoy it, especially the food.  Fair food is the most fattening food in the world, but it tastes so good!  The food is the main reason why I go the fair every year, even though a foot long corn dog costs $6.00.  Yep, 6 buckoroos for a stick, a hot dog, and a light coating of fried bread.  I understand its the fair and all, but geeze, 6 bucks?  Anyway, when I was younger, though, I went mostly for the rides.  I can’t count the times I got sick riding them.  I remember riding Starship 2000, now called Starship 4000( year 2000 came and went, baby), until the world felt like it was spinning 10 minutes after I had gotten off the ride.  Ah, good times.

It was a little bit cold on Saturday, which is a bit unusual for October in South Carolina.  The wind was kicking and the skies threatened us with dark clouds all day, but thankfully never gave us a shower.  Our fall is usually more pleasant than that.  I’m just glad the day wasn’t a bust.  I would have been sad had Holy not had the oppurtunity to go to the State Fair.

Here are some pics and videos.  Enjoy.

I found this in the art building. It appears to be a bird made out of paint brushes. Strange.

I've been to the fair only about a half a dozen times, and I have never seen this sign. It made me laugh.

I just love this picture. It didn't take long for Holy to decide what food he wanted to try at the fair.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR6fXfhY3-w[/youtube]

My favorite part of the fair, besides the food, is the animals. Once the chicken eggs hatch, they put them on display. The food is put almost out of their reach, so when they go to stretch, they lose their footing and fall down into the stream of water.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqXngXKdzJs[/youtube]

I don’t know what to say about this other than I think it is creepy.  The kid screaming in the background makes the video ten times cooler.  🙂

Here you go guys.  Laugh all you want.  I have no shame.  🙂

This is why I should never fall asleep anywhere in the vicinity of Phil. As embarrassing as it is, I still laughed. I hope it makes you chuckle, too.

I told you that I took 195 some pictures when Phil and I went to Riverbanks Zoo this past weekend, so it should come as no surprise that all of these posts are zoo related.  I’ll get on to something new soon.  I just haven’t been taking any pictures or videos of anything interesting lately.  The zoo was the first time out and about with my camera in a long time.

I love cats, but I know if Morgan Rose had been this big, she would eaten me alive the first time I told her no.

Animals at the zoo seem to be in a perpetual state of sleep. Maybe the zoo keepers feed them sleeping pills.

I took 16 pictures of this stupid bird(hawk) while he was participating in a bird show, and this is the only one that didn't turn out blurry. His name is Houdini.

A pretty flower I stumbled across.

A sleepy Koala. Maybe he is dreaming of the wild he'll never get to live in.

I know that it is strange for me to say this, but my favorite part of Riverbanks Zoo is feeding the Lorikeets.  For a dollar I can walk in and feed the cute little birdies some nectar.  The nectar doesn’t last too long, but the birds usually come very close too you and will occasionally even sit on your arm.  This is one aspect that I really liked about the Hangzhou Safari Park in China.  I got to feed all sorts of animals there including Rhinos, Tigers, Monkeys and Lemurs.  The little Monkeys were just adorable.  I remember one trying to steal my water bottle out of my back pocket.  Aside from some of the animals being mistreated there, it is probably one of my favorite zoos.

Me feeding the Lorikeets at Riverbanks Zoo

Usually, the Lorikeets are much more active and will jump on me to get to the nectar when I go to the zoo, but it was late in the day on a Saturday, and they had been fed already by a score of visitors. Most of them were hiding in the foliage trying to avoid the crowd. I’m sure most of their bellies were about to bust.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOjkJhJHysw[/youtube]

Phil isn’t too pleased that I am posting these pictures of him because he doesn’t think they are good pictures.  I don’t think they are too bad.  I just thought it was neat that I had three different facial expressions with him sitting in the same place.  And besides, he took this picture of me once, and I posted it without any worries.  His pictures are tame compared to that one. Phil has a habit of taking pictures of me while I am sleeping.  Recently, he took a picture of me that is quite embarrassing, at least in my humble opinion.  Maybe I will churn up some courage and post it later.  Perhaps some comments will encourage me to do so.  🙂

The Calmer Side of Phil

The Crazier Side of Phil

A More Normal Side of Phil

Usually, when I go to the zoo, the turtles are just sitting there soaking up the sun, but on Saturday, we happened to show up shortly after they had been fed.  Lucky for us, turtles take a while to eat and I was able to snap a few pictures and a video.  In New Mexico, we had lots of turtles living in our backyard.  It was like a tropical paradise for them with all the plants we had.  They weren’t nearly as big as this guy, of course.  Isn’t he cute?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMXq6S8cF90[/youtube]