Zoo, non-fiction thoughts, and cleaning spree

After singing two church services this morning, I went to the Indianapolis Zoo to see the new Oceans exhibit. I'm a member and just went to the zoo with Stephan a few days ago, so I didn't feel compelled to see everything again. Though since you never know just what the animals will be up to, it is seldom boring to see the same old critters again.Some of the highlights of the last visit included seeing a tiny baby ring-tailed lemur frolicking about, the small-clawed otters burrowing under the turf (and causing general mayhem in their enclosure), and seeing the baby elephant, a year and a half old now, flop over onto his side while he continued to eat grass.Today I saw the elephant show, where they had two of the older elephants (39 and 32) displaying different behaviors, and the baby wandering around just for show. He can't really respond to commands yet, but he was very curious, and the trainers had to keep him from putting his trunk over the fence to touch people on more than one occasion.The new oceans exhibit was crowded. The big feature is a pool with small shark that you can touch as they swim by. I didn't indulge in this, because I can always go back on a less crowded day. I'm sure it's nice to have this new exhibit, but they seem to have gotten rid of the octopus and cuttlefish, which makes me sad. I know, an octopus mostly curls up in a ball somewhere that you can barely see it, but I've had the good fortune to be eye to eye with it and see its tentacles swirling against the glass.I have a special fondness for the octopus because one of the very first tot's books I read was about an octopus. The drawings were realistic, not cartoonish, and it was simply a day in the life of an octopus going about her life, then laying eggs, which hatched into a confetti of tiny babies. So naturally, for my second Christmas, I asked for an octopus. My grandparents found a pink stuffed one, but it only had six legs, and my parents knew I would know that wasn't right. So they made me a brown stuffed octopus, which I gave the un-inventive name of "Brownie." I still have him.Since I visit the zoo regularly, I'm toying with the idea of making a book proposal to them. I'd like to write a non-fiction guide to the zoo including more information about the animals than can go on the signs, stories from zookeepers about the various animals, some history, etc. I'm very good at thinking up ideas and not as good at follow-through, but I know this is something I could do well. In fact, if I really wanted to make money writing, I'd turn to non-fiction. This is one thing the professionals who have critiqued my writing always comment positively about - my prose is clean and readable. I don't know how many booklets I've picked up in state parks or about local history where this is not the case!I spent the rest of the afternoon on a cleaning spree. Stephan won't believe his eyes when he gets home. I totally reorganized the pantry off of the garage where there are shelves we both fling stuff onto when we come in the door. I felt like an archaeologist going through some of the piles of stuff. It looks great now, but now I have a pile of stuff I brought upstairs to deal with by finding a place to store it in my study. *Sigh* cleaning is never really done, it always just leads to more. I guess that is why I'm so reluctant to even get started most of the time.