Lions and tigers and bats. Oh my!

Saturday was a very full day. Andrew and Mary arrived Friday evening, and we watched "Jaws," a movie I've been longing to see again, but which Christine refuses to watch again. Not that I blame her: sometimes I still get freaked out in my sister's pool because of that movie.

Saturday morning, Christine had to work, so she set her alarm for 6:30 am, at which time, she shut off her alarm and went back to sleep. At ten to eight, I ask her what time she's supposed to get up, and she literally flies up the stairs and gets to her 8:00 shift only ten minutes late. Well done her.

Once things calmed down, the remaining three of us showered and had breakfast. I made cinnamon raisin French toast. I don't mind telling you, it was darned good. We printed directions to Brookfield Zoo and then drove there in less time than the map said. Take that Mapquest and traffic laws!

We couldn't have asked for a better day, or as Andrew pointed out, we could have asked, but we would not have gotten it. He's a Calvinist. The sky was overcast and the weather was warm and breezy. We were a little concerned at the amount of children at the zoo on Saturday, but we soon realized that children at the zoo are not obnoxious. Parents at the zoo are the problem, because all of them, at every exhibit, begin this train of babble that goes like this: "Do you see it? Do you see it? It's right there! Look! He's swimming! He's right there! Do you see him? Do you see? Ooh! He's big!" Now, I'm all for parental enthusiasm, and I don't think parents should be self conscious about how they're perceived by others, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! It's a zoo! Kids see animals, they look at animals, they move on. Your inane chatter doesn't enhance the experience for anyone!

My parents took me to the zoo when I was little, and that instilled a love for zoos that has never left me. When I was younger, I wanted to design animal homes in zoos. When I grew up, I realized that architecture requires math and decided to pursue other interests. When Microsoft released Zoo Tycoon, all of my dreams came true. One element of my experience at the zoo which is no longer possible in reality or cyberland is getting my head stuck between bars. This happened nearly every time I went to the zoo despite (and in some ways because of) my father's admonition not to stick my head between the bars. I would never have thought to stick my head between the bars had he not introduced the idea in my soon to be wedged head. Now they have ordinances and stuff to prevent that from happening. Maybe if parents had to spend their time warning their children not to stick their heads through bars and then prying their heads free, they wouldn't have to fill their time with, "Do you see it? It's right there! Look! Look!"

Brookfield has beautiful exhibits created by people who can actually do math without counting on their fingers. In the Fragile Rainforest exhibit, I beheld the cutest, most precious, adorable thing I have ever seen! And I don't just bandy those adjectives around adorably. Andrew is the sort of ADD person who has to play with the animals as much as he can and is always leaning over fences and calling to the animals (but never throwing anything in or tapping on glass). One exhibit housed several birds and small mammals. The spectators were separated by a wooden fence and a large mesh net. As a tiny Asian river otter bounded past, Andrew reached across the fence and held his finger out to the otter, who reached his furry little paw out in an ottery little high five before scurrying on to do other ottery things. I nearly melted.

We spent several hours at the zoo before returning home to feast on burgers, hot dogs, and chips and then go see "Batman Begins." I have now seen this movie twice with plans to see it in the IMAX this week. It is a great movie. I have been a Batman fan since I was 12 years old. I loved Tim Burton's films and then read the comics and realized that Burton's films fell short of the mark that Joel Schumacher didn't even seem aware of. Christopher Nolan's vision will now set the standard for comic book movies, a tremendous feat considering it followed Sam Raimi's Spider-man films and Bryan Singer's X-Men.

While the title leaves something to be desired, "Batman Begins" does everything right. the cast is superb, the story (which was almost non-existent from previous Bat-flicks) is well told, and the atmosphere is perfect. I was excited to see it the first time and equally excited when I saw it again the next day. This was not the case with the last movie I saw in the theatre two days in a row, the final chapter in the biggest cinematic letdown of all time, Star wars Episode III. OK, that wasn't that bad, but I still am not a fan of the prequels.

So good friends, good times, good food. Overall, I give this past weekend four stars.