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I was outraged on the behalf of a blogger when I read her post about her frustration with the Michigan primary ballot. That anyone would be denied a chance to vote their conscience really ticked me off. Royally. And that I hadn’t heard about it ticked me off even more.

So I walked out into the living room to vent to my husband, at which time he pointed out that primaries aren’t really a vote. They are merely the process the political parties use to select their candidates. According to some accounts I hear, it’s tradition. Well so was making the little wife stay at home, pregnant and barefoot. Not a good argument, IMHO.

What the hell do you mean, “it’s not technically a vote?!” I ranted. When he sees the Crazy Eyes come out, he knows to retreat, so he suggested I read up on the history of primaries in the US. So I did.

But after reading Wikipedia, Scholastic, and the national Democratic party web site, I’m only sure of one thing: American politics are seriously F-ed up. I wish I could hire an election specialist (is there such a thing?) on retainer so they can help me understand all this mumbo-jumbo. The fact that a well educated and reasonably smart person (I’m referring to myself, BTW) can’t understand the process is my first clue. But I’m seriously disheartened to realize that all these years I thought I was exercising my right to vote, I was really essentially responding to, what, a survey?

Sadly, the people who run our political system can’t get past their own politics in order to give people a voice. My candidate is already out of the race because two states voted overwhelmingly for someone else. Wait, sorry, I forgot. It’s not a “vote.” In order to force order in the chaos they themselves help create, the Dems stripped votes from Michigan and Florida. Now how many of those Democrats won’t even be participating at all? And how many more voters will the Republicans drum up because they’re the only ones campaigning in those states? I shudder to think.

We had a weekend of lovely Spring-like weather. So to take full advantage of it, we spent Saturday at the Houston Zoo. What a blast! The weather was perfect, it wasn’t too crowded, and we got some good pictures. Well, Nathan got good pictures as photographer for the day. Though I was able to snap a shot of this giggle-inspiring bumper sticker in the zoo parking lot. After all these years in Houston, I’m still surprised to see anything resembling Left politics. Call me jaded.

I left my good camera at home on purpose, then forgot my point-and-shoot, so I just enjoyed the time. I find sometimes that if I’m going somewhere to take pictures, I get so caught up in the pictures that I don’t see everything. Like the little kid and the jaguar.

We walked up to the cats exhibit area to find the jaguar pacing in front of the glass. I don’t know what it is about seeing the big cats at zoos, but it just seemed so wrong that this stunning, beautiful creature should have to pace in front of his exhibit instead of running free. The young boy next to me was perplexed, too, but about stuff more fundamental than freedom and purpose.

“Daddy, how is he walking back and forth?”

“His muscles are making his bones move.”

“Look at his spots!”

“Yep.”

“Why is he orange?”

“That’s his color.”

“Is that his favorite color?”

LOL! I love catching these snippets of conversation!

The Houston Zoo has made some fantastic improvements over the last few years. It’s been a while since our last visit, so it was cool to see that they’re extending the elephant exhibit and creating an African section of the zoo. That should be totally cool when it opens–can’t wait! Our favorite exhibits are the giraffes (there’s a baby named Kiva!), the spectacled bears, orangutans (the baby is named Solaris), and meerkats.

And a couple more shots from our day in the park: