San Diego Zoo, Part 2 - Fuzzy Animals

In unfortunate news, the wireless internet on my laptop randomly stopped working... so I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be fixable when I take it in today. Oh, and the battery dies almost immediately when the laptop is unplugged. Sooo that + the fact that it's about 4 years old & I use it at least a few hours every day might mean it's time for a new laptop. =( Anyway...

Seemed like about time for another San Diego Zoo post! If you missed the first one, it was birds and reptiles. Today, I decided to share some of the fuzzy/furry animals we saw!

One of the best animals in existence, in my humble opinion. Definitely drawn comics/stories featuring them before and a friend once gave me a stuffed blue llama. Best present ever! They just crack me up.

I hear koala's are actually not particularly nice, but they do look pretty darn cuddly!

I forget what these were called (let me know if you know!) but they are cute!

EDIT// Apparently these fuzzy darlings are called Takins - thanks, Carrie!

And... a few of the smaller fuzzy ones.

Monkeys are fuzzy too.

Check out this guy. He even had a bio - supposedly he's quite the "player." Bet the zookeepers had a fun time writing that one up!

Can't forget the pandas! San Diego Zoo has a whole section for them. Lucky for us, our panda friend was hungry and violently chowing down. It was fun to watch. I would not want to be that piece of bamboo.

More pictures to come! Seriously, this zoo was really, really big. Have you been there?

Happy Birthday, Corbin!

This is a two part post, the second of which which will be posted on the blog shortly. Both parts are very, very important to me, so I really hope you take the time to read it through!

Part One - The Story

First off, I want to wish my brilliant little brother a happy birthday! Corbin turns 23 today.

 Me and Corbin in Roatan, Honduras - Winter 2010

 Me and Corbin in Costa Maya, Mexico - Winter 2010

Since Corbin is only two years younger than me, we really grew up together. As with any siblings, we’ve had plenty of fights over the years, but ultimately, Corbin is one of the people I care most about in the world. He and I used to play legos a lot – for years, we grew our collection. He wanted to build cool things like planes... with mismatched brick colors, which drove me nuts. I, on the other hand, cared more about the personalities of our lego characters. We also loved books. Both of us devoured tons of books growing up, sharing our favorites and recommending series and authors to each other. When we got a new book, sometimes we’d fight for who got to read it first. I am a very fast reader, but Corbin goes through things at lightning speed. He’d remember every detail too. I know because I’d set up quizzes for him and his friends, where I would be the host – game show style. They would have to answer questions about the Star Wars universe or whatever the latest popular series was. The winner would get a prize from me – usually a hand-drawn trading card (yeah, we were nerdy) or something else I had fashioned.

Corbin is also a chess wiz. I really mean that. He’s won lots of state and national tournaments. He teaches summer camps and does private tutoring. He’s worked hard to learn a lot about chess, but he's also a natural. I was actually the one to receive a chess set as a child with a book on how to play. But Corbin was the one who became interested in the game. Even when he was little, he was so good… when I beat him once, so far into forever ago that I have no idea how old we were… I was so obnoxious about it because it was a huge accomplishment. I actually drew a chess board, drew the pieces in my winning position, and posted it on the wall for everyone to see (probably with the title “Kelsea Beats Corbin”, although I can’t quite remember). Terrible, I know.

Yoda and Corbin at the Mardi Gras Museum in New Orleans - Winter 2010

In high school, Corbin started flying out to major chess tournaments on his own. One day, he didn’t wake up for a round despite numerous phone calls from his friend to his hotel room, alarms, etc. We were all stunned and frustrated with him. How could he possibly miss something so important?

Later, we would find out that he has heart disease and has probably been suffering from it for years before we knew. The day we found out through a rather traumatic event which ended up with him in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), my dad happened to be in Bellingham, a city 90 miles north of Seattle, on a cycling trip. I picked up my dad and we drove down to visit Corbin at the hospital in Portland.

See, when Corbin was 13 months old and a tiny little fussy baby (our parents said he was really fussy), he had open heart surgery to fix a hole in his heart. He healed up nicely and other than taking medicine before going to the dentist and a scar on his chest that grew as he grew, there were no signs of any damaging effects. We had no idea it would strike years later.

Corbin is a fairly private person, and for his sake, I won’t go into the details of heart disease symptoms, along with the symptoms of other things he has since contracted, including diabetes. But know that he has talked to me about some of it – probably not all, but enough for me to be totally at a loss to truly understand. I can’t imagine feeling sick constantly, having to take dangerous medicines daily, and having to worry about mortality in my late teens and early twenties. Being sick for years and years and years. It just seems so unfair.

In chess, there are several coveted titles. One of them is Master. Corbin’s rating from tournaments is so close to what he needs for the title. But he also has to take a daily medicine that makes his brain cloudy. It makes it harder for him to concentrate – something devastating to a mind as brilliant as his. He can see sixteen moves ahead in chess - that is no exaggeration. I can’t even imagine how much thinking power that takes. His current rating is 2157, which is 43 points away from the rating needed for a Master title. But the medicine makes it difficult to think straight and there’s no choice of taking it or not – it’s a life or death pill. So we still have strong hopes that he can make it to Master someday, but with the side effects of the medicine, it isn’t going to be easy.

Unfortunately, Corbin is far from the only one suffering from heart disease. It is America's number one killer. Most people have a cause that is near and dear to them – something they care immensely about. Mine is heart disease. Each year, I participate in the Heart Walk, which  benefits the American Heart Association (AHA), and I ask a few friends and family for donations. I never want anyone to feel obligated or guilt-tripped into donating, so I always feel a little uncomfortable asking. I thought hard about what I could do this year other than just ask for money. I decided to sweeten the deal. In a month, on October 20, I will be walking in the Heart Walk, and I hope to have more money raised this year than in the past.

As such, I'm going to announce the details of the Help a Heart Event here on the blog very soon. Hoping to get the final preparations done this weekend and announce it by Monday. Thank you so, so much for reading through this, and please stay tuned for the details of the event.

Also, I just want to say that I reached 100 followers today via Google Friend Connect, and I am so grateful to each and everyone one of you! Whether you follow Pink Wonderland regularly via GFC or Bloglovin', click in through Facebook or Twitter, drop by the blog occasionally, stopped in from Pinterest, or are just reading for the first time today, thank you! I'm considering doing a giveaway to celebrate... any interest?

Coldstone Ice Cream Cupcakes

One day, while we were packing up everything in our old house, I caught an ice cream cake craving. Now this is nothing unusual... but it was a persistent one. Know the feeling? Well, after talking about it for two days, Jacob figured out that this one was serious. He has a few gift cards, courtesy of his mom, so we grabbed one and headed to Coldstone.

Now here's the thing about me and Jacob. We have very, very different palettes. He loves Oreos and chocolate chocolate everything. I happen to be much pickier about my chocolate - I pretty much only like pure dark chocolate (unless desperate, I prefer no milk chocolate, no chocolate ice cream, no chocolate cake). I also love cookie dough and all sorts of ice cream flavors he won't eat. This made it very difficult for us to agree on a flavor.

Behold! The Coldstone cupcake six pack! Three flavors, two cupcakes of each flavor. Sweet cream, cake batter deluxe, and oreo. I've been eyeing the cupcakes whenever we're at Coldstone, but we always end up with a full ice cream cake. We decided to try it this time, agreeing that he would take both chocolate cupcakes, I'd take both cake batter cupcakes, and we'd each take one sweet cream cupcake.

Left to right: sweet cream, cake batter deluxe, double chocolate devotion

The cupcakes consist of a crisp dark chocolate edible wrapper, encasing a very thin layer of cake, then a scoop of ice cream, topped with frosting that had the consistency of whipped cream, and sprinkles, chocolate shavings, or half a chocolate-covered Oreo.

Our thoughts? Jacob absolutely loved the chocolate cupcakes and he was a fan of the sweet cream. For me, they were mostly good, but the cake batter deluxe and sweet cream cupcakes were just too sweet. Too much frosting/whipped cream and the ice cream was very sugary, even for me. That is usually my issue with Coldstone in general - it's not my favorite ice cream place due to the super-sweetness. However, the chocolate shell was absolutely divine. Anyone know where to buy those? Or maybe I could find a mold and make them myself... so good!

Anyway, that was my first experience with ice cream cupcakes. I also just tried a strawberry one from The Ram, a brewery. It was delicious! I would love to try making my own version of ice cream cupcakes sometime. I feel like it would be less daunting than another ice cream cake.

Have you tried ice cream cupcakes? What did you think?

P.S. Due to the hectic process of moving in, I'll be skipping a few features this week. Unfortunately, I still haven't found my art journal yet (I put them in a "super safe spot" and then promptly forgot where that was), and I won't have time for Thoughts & Things Thursday tomorrow. I really, really hope to start them both up again next week! This weekend will involve catching up on blog reading, unpacking and getting things ready. I've set up/built most of the furniture in my studio and I'm ready to make it mine! Stay tuned for a big post on Friday!