calgary zoo- prehistoric park amendment

a big thanks to Blackie Lagoon and Cameron D. for pointing this out to me...

turns out when i said the calgary zoo's prehistoric park was closing in february of next year i was wrong!

rather then shutting down the old place, they are upgrading it with a bunch of new dinosaurs! as you can see from this photo of a nice new sauropod being helicoptered into position (photo borrowed from here). ironic given my last post touched on the many generations the prehistoric park has gone through.

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i'd made the assumption the park was closing due to hearing the prehistoric park was losing popularity in the post jurassic park and royal tyrrell museum world (the museum is very close to calgary after all, and is world famous). they have also been talking about building a new arctic exhibit at the zoo, and so i thought this explained why the park was closing. they were going to use the space to build the new arctic centre...
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in my defense, the only official line from the zoo on their website is "[The] Prehistoric Park will be closed until February 2010 to prepare for something BIG!!We apologize for any inconvenience."
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the morale of the story is don't announce guess work as fact... though to be fair the zoo could have given a few more hints then "BIG"... cause a new arctic centre would have been big.

not that i'm overly upset i'm wrong! cause this means not only is my childhood favourite still going to be around... but it'll have some new dinosaurs for me to check out!!!

Update! I'm a puppy! I'm on the news!

(Me as Blue Dog)

HI!

I've been BUSY! When I'm in rehearsals for a play it takes up all of my time, focus, energy, etc. I'm in the final stretch of "Go Dog Go" rehearsal before we open on December 4th. It is a 50 minute show FULL of action. Yes, it's a "kids show" but I don't think for one minute you *have* to be a kid to enjoy it. It is so adorable I can't stand it. It's fast moving, fancy, active, comedic, etc. It is fun to have a break from my super dramatic roles and do something so physical and cutesy. My youtube viewers would love to see this! I wish you all could! It is so much fun to do. One of those things where you pinch yourself and wonder how you're getting paid to have fun and work out?! ;)

BUT, I didn't anticipate how much hard work would go into this production...it takes extreme focus. We never leave the stage. I don't think I've sweated so much in my life! In fact, the other day it got a little scary... I had some kind of attack at the end of a run on friday. I hadn't eaten enough and didn't think about how much I am burning at our rehearsals. Rehearsals usually last 5 hours, weekends they're longer. Luckily I got a cookie and juice right away and slowly recovered. I was seeing stars, couldn't focus, was dizzy, couldn't take a deep breath. So scary. I've never had anything like that happen before. The next day I woke up feeling like my normal self :) I think I need to eat more than usual for extra energy?? I hope that's all it was.

I've also had some exciting things happen with a local news station! They asked me on the morning show for the "New Moon" opening at a local movie theater. I wasn't sure what I'd be doing, so I showed up prepared to play up to 4 characters. Honey Bee went first and it worked so well they kept me on for the whole morning show popping in & out improving, it was one of the most fun things I've ever done. I've uploaded the clips to my channel youtube.com/BeanerLaRue It went so well they've asked me back on for December 9th! KUTV2 news. I'm keeping it top secret... I'll reveal more soon enough!

I haven't had a free day in forever! Thanksgiving was great but went by too fast! Monday is our day off of rehearsal but I've had a photo shoot the last two mondays. Tomorrow is my first true free day in I don't know how long! As always, I can't be lazy, unfortunately. I need to get about 8 million things done! Wish me luck!

New videos coming soon, once the show is up and running!

There are so many little projects on the side too... I'll keep you posted as each comes up :)

Here are two preview articles on "Go Dog Go"

xo

Deena Marie

SLC Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_13867758

IN Magazine

http://www.inthisweek.com/view.php?id=1930483

2009 Christmas Greeting

2009 Christmas GreetingOur family is hip-hopping to it to wish you a Merry Christmas this year!.Send your own ElfYourself eCards.

fossil of the weekend! #52... one year of them!

who knew that after a year i'd have stuck with this whole posting a picture (nearly) every weekend successfully?!? not me... of the many weekly features I tried to kick off a year ago this is the only one i've managed to stick with the whole time (though i'm getting pretty good with my featured avian cousin of the week these days).

though i know you've seen them before, i went with my big discovery (well okay tony's) of francis slate's albertosaurus bonebed for the one year highlight. these two teeth were the most important and cool fossils i saw or encountered this year, and as of such they are the only ones that came to mind for this post...

so despite them being familiar to many of you, enjoy them again, and relive my excitement at finding them through the backlinks provided.

Getting a Jump on Holiday Decorating