I saw a squirrel

It's true, I did. I went for a run this evening in the park and I saw a couple squirrels, as well as a great horned owl, and about 30 seconds later, a full grown black bear. First journey into Great Smokey National Park was quite interesting, and I cooked another turkey, this one was only about 12 lbs.

My new hero

This is, for lack of a better word, amazing

Sawfish

Today I got to feed the sawfish. They are some of the goofiest, most retarded looking animals in the world, but they are HUGE. The largest one is about 15 feet long and it's "teeth" are about 3 to 4 inches.

Yesterday I got to feed the eagle ray pups. They're about a foot from wingtip to wingtip, and their tails are about 3 feet long. They come up and eat out of your hand because the other reef fish won't let them get any of the food we throw in so we have to personally deliver it to them. They have a palate that can crush thru oysters and clams, but they are incredibly delicate when you let them suck shrimp and clams out of your fingers.

KWHAT!

Yes, the word Kwhat has begun to see daily usage in my life. Technically it is spelled "quat" as in "quatricide", but who cares?

I realize this is the first post since I started my new job just over a week ago, so here it goes:

The aquarium is amazing. They have so many sand tiger sharks in their big lagoon, as well as about 50 sting rays (cow nosed, spotted eagle, and brown) in a "touch bay" there are pacu that weigh at least 50 lbs, there is a tank with 23 cuttlefish, which are really cool, two giant pacific octupi (the male is not thru quarentine yet, but they hope to breed them) that are about 3 feet across, numerous poison dart frogs, japanese giant spider crabs, sea dragons, ...the list goes on. In January we will begin building the new changing exhibit, this one will be "Deadly Weapons" which means we will be working with blue-ringed octopus (venomous, can kill a person in about 5 minutes), cone snail (venomous, they launch a harpoon-like tooth to catch and kill fish, potentially fatal to humans) as well as stinging jellyfish, venomous fish, electric eels, and other fun animals. It starts in February some time if you want to come see it.

Hectic

Well, I landed in Newark and was greeted by
a)20 degree weather
2)snow
c)the fact that my bag got sidetracked in Seattle

My bag was returned to me the day I left West Virginia, and I spent the day driving, and I'm now in Tennessee. Crashing at my friend Kevin's apartment for a (hopefully)very short time because the water heater in the apartment I was going to rent exploded, so the floor is wet. Hopefully I can move in very shortly.

I spent a couple hours walking around my new job, and it looks AWESOME! There are several sharks about 10 feet long, some sawfish (which are one of the most amazing looking fish ever) that are 15 feet long, and in general, the place looks pretty amazing. I'm excited. Check out their website if you're curioius.