Now Showing at the Atlanta Aquarium

I took the day off work today for a couple of reasons. First, work has been busy as shit and I need a break. Second, I had a few things to do that I knew I could never get done unless I took a day off.
I needed to renew my concealed weapons permit. This involves going to the gigantic GWINNETT COUNTY JUSTICE AND ADMINISTRATION CENTER. Or as I call it, Castle Versailles.
To her credit, the woman that waited on me couldn't have been nicer. The county no longer allows renewals, so you have to go through the whole process all over again. After filling out the paperwork with the nice woman, I had to drive to a different building to get my fingerprints done. Again. What happened to my last set of prints, I don't know. The fingerprint woman didn't look at me the entire time she was taking my prints. This involves her holding my hand over the electronic scanner for all ten of my fingers, then repeating the process with ink and paper on all ten fingers and a 'group shot' of my four fingers on each hand. No speaking, no eye contact. Nice.
After that, we drove downtown to the Georgia Aquarium. The Aquarium is great. I highly recommend going there. What I could do without is the army of Meemaws and Peepaws pushing their giant, empty strollers while their grandkids run amok. The aquarium has a number of curving passageways, and getting this mob of near zombies the fuck out of the way was no small feat. Jeebus, people, I can't help but see this as further wussification of our country. Make the kid walk!
That, and the screaming hoards of latch-key kids on field trips with the Dekalb County Parks and Recreation Field trip, also known as future carjackers.
The big attractions were ok: the beluga whales and the nurse sharks. I think I enjoyed the penguins and the otters more. Also, we got to pet sea rays, which was cool, except they are slimy creatures.
Just as we finished seeing everything, my sensei met us for lunch. We walked to Ray's in the City for lunch (excellent).