Red Panda

What a wonderful, jam-packed weekend in Chicago. I didn't know what to call this entry because we did so much and saw so many people! And animals, including an adorable red panda at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Our son, whose birthday we were celebrating, told us the red panda was a model for the orange fox creature on the Mozilla Firefox web browser, but he might have been joshing with us. Gullible is my middle name.

But the red panda does look a bit like a fox, and a bit like a squirrel, and a lot like a raccoon, and a little (the middle, black part) like a bear, and sort of like a cat, especially when grooming. One of its names is "shining cat."

Thanks to Greg Hume for this red panda descending a tree, and to Wikipedia for both of these free-use images.

We were also celebrating the 50th birthday of an old friend, and saw many other old friends, as well as new friends, at her surprise party, along with all her siblings. What a joy.

Walked briefly through Printers Row Lit Fest to pick up some metal printer's type--the "5" and the "0"--to help her celebrate.

Ran into Ellen Wade Beals in a shared tent, with her first place medal on display for her anthology Solace! Picked a free contributor's copy of After Hours, but, alas, missed RHINO. If only I had clicked the Big Horn Blog before going, I'd have known they were at Table 122.

But we saw a rhino at the zoo! And a giraffe! And a tiger! And a lion! And apes. And birds. And a beaver. And many endangered, protected species. And a rain forest.