It's August already? Seriously???

Holy dang is this summer flying by. Be happy that you are not sitting in my living room with me right now because I have a peach cobbler in the oven and turning on the oven in my non-air-conditioned house on an August afternoon is just about the stupidest thing I can think to be doing right now, right up there with skydiving and crystal meth.

BUT. My mother (who is down here visiting) bought fresh peaches yesterday along Utah's Fruit Highway and expressed a wish for peach cobbler, so a peach cobbler she shall have. That is called love.

Also called love (or other chemical phenomenon) is this thing I saw recently at the Willow Park Zoo when we were there one night with the baby. This zoo is super, super tiny, but is great because it's inexpensive, never crowded, and it's perfect for taking little kids to because like they even know the difference. Most of the exhibits consist of water fowl. So, you know, pretty exotic.

We took the Tiny Dark Lord, who spent the whole time trying to do this:

Which is how he ended up back in here:

Gossner milk shout out!

Anyway, back to love. One of the male peacocks was trying so very desperately to woo a peahen, who was having none of it. Or, more specifically, she would ignore him until he looked like he was about to give up, then would act as though she were about to approach him but would then be like, "Oh, just kidding, I was only coming over here to eat the giant tortoise's lettuce," and then go back to ignoring him again. It was kind of sad.

I hadn't realized that in addition to showing all the feathers, that the peacocks also do this . . . quivering thing. His whole body just kept shaking and shaking. "Okay, it's my big feathers here! Also my tail, can you see the tail? I'm shaking it for you! This is me shaking! Double Dream Hands! " It was nuts, and put to my mind the Church of the Quivering Brethren from Cold Comfort Farm. ("The earth will burn but we will quiiiiiiiiiiverrrrrr . . . ")

Also? Some youths were at the park just outside the zoo with a chihuahua on a shoelace (that's right, not a leash but a shoelace). Later I saw said chihuahua, trailing its shoelace, roaming around inside the zoo, where dogs are definitely not supposed to be. Thinking that I would be helpful to both the dog and the owner, I waited until the animal got close to me and quick tried to grab the shoelace. Except the dog darted away and I lost my balance, tipped over, and landed all sprawled out on the sidewalk. Dumb youths with their chihuahuas.