The zoo is closed today, and non-essential staff aren’t coming to work, zoo spokeswoman Tara Henson said. However, some staff members still have to come to feed and care for the animals. Other info Henson said:

• The zoo closed early yesterday so staff had extra time to go home ahead of the winter weather.
• The ice isn’t so heavy that it’s breaking tree limbs. Broken trees and other horticulture is especially dangerous at a zoo. While the cleanup can be difficult and hazardous, broken tree limbs can provide an escape route over a fence. Damaged plants can also damage habitat fences.
• A few animals, such as sensitive bird species, are being kept inside.
• Other animals, particularly snow leopards, hoof-stock and and water fowl, are loving the cold temperatures.
• Zookeepers are spending more time with some animals who have limited outdoor time. They’re giving them more toys to play with and more mentally-stimulating activities to prevent boredom.
• Water habitats for seals, sea lions and other animals are temperature-controlled year-round.
• Backup generators guarantee power even during an outage.

This was a good move, according to American Atheists Inc. Obama’s decision to mention them along with religious folks sent a message of inclusion.

Read Religion Editor Carla Hinton’s blog about the topic.

“Katie and I woke up at 3:15am and gave each other HUGE hugs! We were ready. Ready to witness HISTORY! So we got dressed. Our layers consisted of tights, thermals (top and bottom), jeans, 2 pairs of socks, undershirt, turtleneck, norhtface fleece, and peacoat. Along with all that clothing we were armed with hot hands and toasty toes…multiple sets!

We arrived at the subway at 4am to realize we were not alone in waking up early. It was packed! There were already lines. So we bought a ton of copies of the Washington Post and kept trucking. We arrived at the lawn around 4:30am and there was a monstrous line. Luckily, we power walked it to the front and were able to snag spots on the front row. The front row of the non-ticket holders that is. It was FABULUOS! We were literally as close as one could get without having tickets. So then we had to wait it out — no bathroom breaks, no food, no water, nothing but the company of my good friend Katie and the people around us for the next 7 ½ hours. We were pumped! Luckily they began to play music for us to listen to and we had a blast singing and dancing. We also took pictures all throughout the morning b/c we were able to watch the sun rise behind the capital. Just before the ceremony begun they played the concert from Sunday. It was really amazing that they had so many screens so that people all the way down the mall could see what was going on.

Then it started!

They were announcing who was there and seating them and everyone began to get super pumped to see Obama! There were tons of people chanting, “woowing”, screaming, and just making a ton of noise in general. Then when Obama came out everyone cheered hysterically! The anticipation of the swearing in was so intense. When he fumbled his words as he was repeating the swearing in it was like it made him more human and his recovery was just so great and he remained perfectly poised. It was barely even noticeable. Then when he spoke there was complete silence among the crowd. In retrospect that seems so crazy because there were millions of people and we were all being quite to hear ONE man speak.

Then there was the aftermath.

Katie and I had a 6:30pm flight from the airport in Baltimore (23 miles outside of DC). We had to haul ourselves all the way to her cousin’s (2 miles from the capitol) to get our stuff then attempt public transportation back to the airport. We were so nervous about missing the flight. We didn’t want to do the metro because the lines were insane so we walked; however, we couldn’t walk to straight shoot because of the parade route. So then it turned into a 4 hour walk, which was only semi-miserable. Luckily we had already packed so all we had to do was grab and run. Then we made it to the airport and all was done.”

Read our Celebrity Gossip blog. There’s a video of the moment.

A few days ago, Jill Biden accidentally let slip that her husband was offered another position in Obama’s administration besides the VP job. He shushed her but the damage had been done.

Yikes.

The Obama team released a statement countering what Jill Biden had said. Read our Celebrity Gossip blog.

I’m predicting that will be her last time to go on Oprah.

Brazil

Canada

Colombia

Indonesia

The Netherlands

Poland

Puerto Rico

South Korea

Turkey

Staff Writer Carrie Coppernoll