Sunset and Animals

 

Today I worked from home. My boss said the powers that be denied my promotion because there isn't a raise to go with it, which struck us both as very weird: how many people have complained that all they got was a title change and no raise? So clearly it happens all the time. I asked if they could give me a penny an hour raise and that would suffice, and my boss admitted that he hadn't thought of that but it might be worth pursuing. We were both hoping this would happen before I'm subsumed into the FART, because who knows if my new boss at that point would give me the promotion? The thing is that I was originally supposed to be classified a grade higher, but my previous boss for some reason talked the powers that be down a grade, so this isn't even so much a promotion as a correction. Everyone else in the FART is at least one grade above me, so it will be very disheartening to be the one person at a lower grade. And now I can't even run off to Panama if I get tired of the whole thing, because the Evil Orange Thing is threatening to invade Panama. As Peter Tosh warned us, "Sorry for MAGA dog, him gone turn round bite you!"

As promised, here are Travalon's zoo and sunset photos from Thursday.

And here are the animals: lions, alpacas, flamingos, a meerkat, and Travalon's favorite, the red pandas.

As usual, the aardvark was asleep.

The only birds he saw in the bird house were these macaws.

I don't remember seeing these murals before, so maybe they're new.

Our zoo doesn't have a baby pygmy hippo like one in Virginia does. Oh my goodness, is she adorable for something that would kill you once it's full-grown! I've seen videos of hippos chasing people in boats. Shudder!

What time is it? You know what time it is - time for some DuoLingo bragging!

I'm surprised that I have that many perfect lessons in the Music course, because the app has a tendency to ask you to play songs you think you know, but then change them up weirdly, like adding a random minor-key section to "Three Blind Mice" or whatever. However, first it has you practice with colors designating the notes, and then it has you practice with actual notes, and finally it has you perform it for Oscar, a grumpy character in the DuoLingo universe, so you have three chances to learn it. Then you're supposed to play along to some popular song you may never have heard before, and that's always a challenge because it goes very fast. If you don't do well, they hardly toss any roses in the air afterwards, and they cheer quietly. If you do an acceptable job, they toss more roses in the air and cheer louder. If you do a perfect job, they even toss a whole bouquet of roses among all the single flowers, and they cheer raucously. That's what you're aiming for - the whole bouquet.

So much for all my complaining that you can't get near the health club in January... Travalon and I went there tonight, and there were the normal number of cars in the parking lot. The locker room was pretty empty, and only a few other people were in the pool. Maybe people have made resolutions not to make resolutions this year.

Famous Hat