Guess who's coming to dinner?

"Uh oh... now I'm 'possum toast!"

Opposums regularly visit our birdfeeders at night, and I happen to think they are very cute. Our dog Tara thinks they are fun to chase down the yard (but she is only interested in the chase! She doesn't get close enough to them to get bitten.) We have found a 'possum on our feeder several times, and every time he/she does the "FREEZE!" thing, sitting entirely motionless. It's not exactly playing dead, because how can you be dead if you're upright with your eyes wide open? (Okay, well, it works for George Bush. Oh wait, that's not dead, that's BRAIN DEAD!)

So Friday night, my hubby-bubby found 'possum on the feeder, and I decided it was about time to document the event. I felt bad about using flash photography in the pitch dark (I probably blinded the poor thing for a few minutes!), but dang, opossums are so cute. But then, we're speaking of the woman who would like a pet rat.

It was also raining when I took this, so we were all getting quite wet and I was doing my best to shield the camera from the downpour.

Learn more (yes, I keep trying to educate you people about the local wildlife, but I'm not sure if you're paying attention!):

http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/opossum.htm

Clint, unashamed to be a girly-man

My good friend Tarantula Pants has adopted Clint the Postal Poodle, a refugee from hurricane Katrina. Sadly, Tarantula Pants has been denying the fact that Clint is a gay cross-dresser, and proud of it! He desperately wants to be true to himself, and shouldn't we all? But Tarantula Pants, with her narrow mid-Western mind, steadfastly refuses to admit that her teeny little apricot poodle is anything but a manly man with balls of steel. She even named him after Clint Eastwood!

Clint can accept that name, although personally he would rather be known as Petunia Poodle. However, he can no longer contain his desire to dress in a pink tutu and twirl in circles. And so, I have allowed him space on my blog to be his own true self, the girly-man party-poodle he was always meant to be! You go, Clint!

PS Technically, Clint does not have balls of steel. In fact, he has no balls whatsoever. He is neutered, as all doggies (except those used by proper breeders, not backyard ones) should be. "Balls of steel" is a figure of speech. Perhaps "Weaponry Weenie" or "Thingie of Titanium" would be more apt.

Desk of a madwoman

As some of my friends (and my darling husband) will tell you , I am a bit of a neat freak. However, when I am being very productive creatively, my desk turns into a giant, uncharacteristic mess. I did clean up a bit last night because I kept losing my pencil sharpener underneath all the paper.

Here is my photographic essay on the Desk of a Madwoman (or creative genius, or something.) If you click on each photo, you'll get a larger version that will enable you to read the witty commentary.

Scarf baby

My friend's daughter accidentally left her doll, Baby Bape, at our house. I had a little bit of hand-dyed slub left over from my scarf project, so I decided that Baby Bape needed a nice scarf for those dark, wet nights of BC winter. I hope Malina likes it!

Our cat Zoë got up close and personal with Baby Bape too. Well, not of her own accord.

Nature moments

Our cat Julius loves to watch birds up close and personal-like at the window feeder in our kitchen. One day I left a box from the green grocer's on the counter and Julius, a bonafide box-lover, jumped right in. I think he figured he was well camouflaged.







































This wee fellow is a Pacific tree frog. He was sitting on the water hyacinth in our garden pond last summer. These little guys have INCREDIBLY loud "ribets", and in fact make the ribet you hear used in cartoons and movie soundtracks etc. I had one going at it outside our family room window one day, and I honestly thought he was in the room! They're very small and very cute. Their colours can vary from green and grey to brown and black. Wan more info? Go to:

http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/wld/frogwatch/whoswho/factshts/pactree.htm

Nostril Art

Back in December 2003, my husband and I, our three cats, dog and gecko drove across Canada from Nova Scotia to British Columbia in our Mazda Protege 5 hatchback. Journey of a lifetime to be sure. And today it occurred to me that I must do a webpage for that trip, because I have some amusing photos. Anyway, when you are bored in a car, why not take a self-portrait of your nostrils? Fortunately mine aren't terribly hairy. I can't say that this is my most flattering self-portrait, however.





Knitting is also a good driving activity. Okay, well, NOT if you are the actual driver! As you can see, I managed some socks on the cross-Canada tour. We were somewhere in Northern Ontario when I took this shot. I loooove knitting socks. Socks are good therapy! I even knit a pair of socks when we travelled through Cambodia and Vietnam last year. At the Vietnam airport, I had a nice group of older Korean ladies watching me intently as I knit. Then they shared their candies with us. :)


PS: Yes, my feet are big. They are size ten. And they rarely have nail polish on them like they do in this picture!

Danger - caustic!

Someone sorely lacking a sense of humour recently called my own humour "caustic". I don't plan to change my humour anytime soon, so consider yourself warned by the photo on the left. If you fear "caustic" do not, I repeat, do NOT peruse this blog. Your eyeballs could liquify and the skin melt from your very bones. Your delicate, sensitive heart may cease to beat as you read my "caustic" blogations. Consider this your only warning.

If ya don't like me, fine. So go look at the Care Bears or http://www.jesusdressup.com/ or maybe My Pretty Pony or something Hey, my own mother used to say, "Sarcasm does not become you!" I was ten at the time. I don't expect to change anytime soon.

A friend of mine (thank God somebody likes me, eh?!) sent me this wonderful gem:

Some people are like Slinkies...
They're not really good for anything,
but they still bring a smile to your face when
you push them down a flight of stairs