I think this might be my ultimate favorite video of 2011!

I can't resist the videos of baby animals. This is a nice collection of footage from little guys born in 2008 at the ZSL London and Whipsnade zoos.

ZSL Babies 2008

"Have a look at the various animal babies born in 2008 at ZSL London and Whipsnade Zoos!"

I'm going to chalk the last few days up as having been another great weekend.

When I was younger, I used to be really into baseball. There was a park less than a block away from my house, and my neighbor and I would go down and hit a few every once in awhile. I had a pretty sizeable card collection which, unfortunately, seems to have vanished. What took me away from baseball? I'm not sure, but I'm almost hooked on it again. Part of me is resisting.

Saturday I went to my first Cubs game and the second baseball game that I've ever gone to. We had excellent seats, and the game was pretty back and forth. If there was ever a perfect situation to stir up my hunger for baseball, this was it. And it did. I'm hungry. As usual, pictures will probably take a week for me to actually get uploaded to flickr.

Sunday consisted of a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo and then the Conservatory. Both were nice and I had a great time, and now I'm really looking forward to seeing the zoo in the summer when the trees are full of leaves and the flowers are in bloom.

I promised pictures from the zoo trip.. and I think it's about time to deliver. The pictures are all gonna be teeny-tiny thumbnails, which can be clicked on for the much bigger (not necessarily better) version.

If you recall, the main point of the trip was to see Chang Tan the red panda.. who decided to sleep his way through our visit. This is the best picture that I got of him:

Unfortunately, I didn't get a usable picture of the otter. But, there are some lions, bears, cotton-topped tamarins, snakes, crocs, and even a t-rex. I'll only post a few, the rest can be explored through my flickr page.

My Saturday visit with Chang Tan was less exciting than I had hoped for. Far less exciting. It turns out that the little red panda guy was much more keen on sleeping on top of a box near the ceiling.. which looked like it was right under an air vent. The amazing "super-glare glass" made pictures almost impossible. The best picture I took, you can see the lump of him, and maybe make out an ear. He was still cute.

I did get some pretty good video of the cotton-top tamarins though. They look like little gremlins. It's great. Hopefully I'll have them up on youtube by the end of the week.. but since I still don't have internet access at home.. no promises. There are also some good pictures of the lions, and polar bears, and a lizard of some sort that was only labeled as "The Rain Forest."

The highlight of the trip to the zoo was.. wait for it.. the river otter. He was the only animal that seemed excited to see us. Watching him flip off of the glass, follow our hands along the tank, and bail on the other zoo visitors to follow us to the other side of the tank. I don't know his name, but he was a lot more fun than a sleepy red panda.

But yeah.. videos and pictures eventually. 🙂