This week I signed up for Twitter, mainly because I wanted to scoff my name before some other Linda Zajac got their hands on it.  You can catch me at @LindaZajac.   I also added a Twitter link on the right hand side of this website.

Lately, I'm enjoying plenty of family time and writing time too.   

After getting this detailed email about Chasing Ice, I decided to go on Saturday 1/5 instead of Friday night, weather permitting.

Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor Street in Hartford, CT.

Showtimes:

Fri. 1/4: 5pm, 7pm       Sat. 1/5: 2pm, 5pm, 7pm*       Sun. 1/6: 2pm, 5pm, 7pm      Mon. 1/7: 5pm, 7pm**

Tues. 1/8: 4pm            Wed. 1/9: 5pm, 7pm            Thurs. 1/10: 5pm, 7pm 

*Post-film presentation and Q&A with Laurence Gould after the 7pm screening. 

Laurence Gould is a professor of physics at the University of Hartford. Gould was a keynote speaker at the Heartland Institute's 2009 International Conference on Climate Change 

**Post-film discussion with Brian Glenn and the Appalachian Mountain Club after the 7pm screening. 

Brian J. Glenn is a Research Fellow at the Dukakis Center for Public Policy at Northeastern University who studies how perceptions of political issues lead Americans to support certain policies and not others. The discussion will focus on how Chasing Ice presents the issue of global warming. What are the elements of a powerful argument? Is this movie convincing, and if so, why? 

  
My free public skating trip to Hartford turned out to be a costly one.  Not only did I hurt my back really bad when I fell only once, I also crippled my camera, which was in my pocket.  Brilliant.

Thankfully, the pulled muscle is back to normal, but the camera is not.  Thus I am now posting photos from the past.   This is a mountain lion we saw at San Diego Zoo this past summer.  It was a good thing it was in a cage because it was eying and growling at a young child.   

This morning the songbirds kept me company while I worked outside wrapped in a snuggie blanket. That was SO pleasant. Somewhere along the line my writing friends and I got our dates crossed as far as when we're meeting next. I think what may have happened is that we inadvertently set our meeting date an extra week ahead and one of my writing friends noticed this. Anyhow, my new self-inflicted deadline is June 1st.

My article is in really good shape. There's still plenty left undone, the final section and ending to untangle, all the quote stuff to contend with and the fine-tooth scrutinizing for accuracy. Aside from that it's an exciting topic that I'm enjoying and it's much less complex than others I've chosen.

Here's a shot of a sloth bear at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. They live in India and Sri Lanka and eat ants and termites. Delicious. Apparently they like cantaloupe too.

With about 25% of this article written, I'm trying very hard to stay on track. If there is one thing I've learned (the hard way) it is to write about the specific topic the editor wants me to write about and zero in on that. I'm still trying to make this a story by zeroing in on one scientist.

Here are photographs of two very different left hands. The top is an orangutan hand taken through a filthy window (at the National Zoo). The bottom is my hand holding a green tobacco hornworm at the National Museum of Natural History. This website details the difference between the tomato and the tobacco horn worm.

I'm posting three more photographs from the Rio Grande Zoo. The top one is a lappet faced vulture, a flasher opening his trench coat. The second photograph is a klipspringer, a small African antelope noted for its leaping abilities. The third photograph is a big hairy tarantula.

It's been a struggle to accomplish anything this week. Numerous people and a car have been dropped off and picked up all week long. Despite the distractions, I reworked the beginning of the article and hopefully now it "gets right to the problem." As I added sentences I dug up a few more research papers and added them to the growing bibliography. Although I spent a good portion of today on the rewrite, I'm about as far as I was before. Sigh.

I'm posting some photographs from the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque New Mexico. We had a last minute change of plans due to crummy weather. Instead of taking a tram ride into the rain clouds on Sandia Peak, we explored the zoo. That's Julia trying to wake the sleeping chimp. The cat exhibits were excellent. That growling mountain lion was closer then I've ever been to one of those big kitties.

I've been thinking about how to change the start of the article. But I must have burnt myself out on a 5-mile run this morning and ended up asleep next to my own kitty (who was growling and bloody defending her turf last night).

I spent a good portion of the day at the Beardsley Zoo with my daughter. The Prairie Dog family was very happy to pose. I was quite amused when one little boy asked if you could keep a wolf for a pet. Yes, they do look like doggies. The Brazilian Ocelot was born via artificial insemination, one of only three in the world. It was called the "miracle kitten." Too bad I didn't see it last year when it was very tiny. It looked so cute.