by the sea

Oh, gee -- how I spent my vacation, huh? LOL ! :lol: Not as bad as all that, Carol. Surgical strides have kept this particular procedure from being debilitating for most people. There was a little thing that required a bit more invasion, but it wasn't especially painful and I was doing laundry the day after surgery. It was four weeks yesterday and it's like it never happened ... except for the restructured belly button, of course ! :D Debbie

Happy to see the cute animals have been keeping up with the Holiday Season. I'm back ... BTW. Had the pesky gallbladder removed on Dec 16th and managed to gather enough time off for a three week recovery. Got back to work last Monday to a dead hard drive and couldn't find you ! :o Saw a very sad NATURE concerning the habitat of koalas, with biologists building animal access underpasses for Australian highways so the poor little creatures wouldn't be picked off crossing the roads trying to find some viable living space. I can hear Freddy Mercury ... is this the world we created ?? Anyway ... I'm off to find Zooborns so I can start to rebuild my cute animal collection. Debbie

Chipmunks are adorable. They seem to be the more refined members of the rodent family ... quiet, curious but not pushy and very handsome in their striped suits. We see them from time to time at my white lilac ... Rocky the Red Squirrel's usual haunt. We have some lovely, wooded parkland around town and while walking my late, lamented Little Hairy Hamish we'd often see a chipmunk or two in the woods. Hamish would take off like a shot (always on his leash, of course, in the park !) and the chipmunks would quite literally disappear. Poor Hamish would be standing there with his "which way did they go ?" expression but always more vigilant for the experience. Creature-spotting is a lot of fun ! :D Debbie

LOL ! :lol: :lol: Dissed by a New York squirrel ! Go figure !! :lol: :lol:

Yeah, gray squirrels seem to like to keep a little distance between themselves and the people they're chastising. Red squirrels are like small people ... they're more feisty ! :D I'm a fairly large person myself ... I'm not being disrespectful or channeling Randy Newman's "Short People" ... Honest !! :lol: Debbie Gawd ... now I keep hearing ol' Randy in my head ...

You all must live in more open spaces than I do. Of course, our neighbourhood backs onto the grounds of the largest oil refinery in Canada, so maybe the creatures stay away to protest the diminishing of their habitat by the exploiters of fossil fuels. Or maybe they just hate the smell ! ;) Debbie

Wow ! Makes me glad I have a garage ! :D Debbie

Babysitting my friends' dog until Saturday. She's a sweet girl but she's 13 now and not happy with extreme cold and super wetness ... so guess what ? On Sunday through Monday the windchill was -26 C ! We're expecting our 10,000th Nor'Easter of this illustrious climatically challenged year and they're calling for "torrential" rain over the next three days ( three days !!) . My friends are in Nassau. I think I'll train the dog to bite them when they get back ! ;) Debbie

I saw one of these little guys in Zooborns yesterday. So cute ! I never cease to be amazed by the many incredible animals I've never seen or heard of before. You can sometimes lose track of nature's diversity ... it's good to be reminded. My new "kids" arrived from the WWF today. I can hardly wait to get home and see them !

Since it's getting close to Holiday Season (see ... I'm being politically correct ! ), don't forget that you can help endangered animals buy adopting a species at risk from The World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It's not prohibitively expensive and the cuddly stuffed-toy replicas of your animal will delight children and adults alike ! I sponsored a polar bear last year and this year couldn't decide between a hippopotamus or a hedgehog (some of you might be familiar with my personal affinity for hedgehogs ! LOL ! ) ... so I got both ! Remember the creatures ! Debbie

I used to think I'd miss the curls but now I'm not so sure. I've grown accustomed to Mr. Cumberbatch with his short, neat hair and I like it ! Debbie

Wowsers ! Shiny ! I don't imagine he had to use the payment plan they indicated in the ad. ! Debbie

My house in Ontario had a screened-in sun porch and some summer mornings it was almost possible to see the yard through the squirrels literally hanging off the screens. Squirrels aren't fond of Terriers, though ... even ancient ones like my sweet, little Angus was then ... and they dispersed pretty quickly when the dog stepped onto the deck ! Here in New Brunswick, my neighbor saw a bull moose ambling down the street, but we have very few squirrels and many of them are red squirrels ... the little ones ... as opposed to the grey squirrels ... much bigger ... that were prevalent in Ontario. The only one I see regularly is Rocky ... a red squirrel who lives in a missing block space in my neighbour's retaining wall at the end of my south driveway. He loves my bird feeders and seems to live in perfect harmony with the goldfinches and chickadees. Maybe we should make him Prime Minister ! Debbie

I know I do, Arcadia. Opened my kitchen door and there was Mr. Raccoon staring me in the face and not even remotely scared of me, even though I'm WAY bigger'n he is. No lemurs, though. Debbie

BTW ... the question was on the previous page ... a PVR is the same as a DVR. My cable provider refers to them as PVRs ... so Personal Video Recorder is the same as Digital Video Recorder if you subscribe to Rogers Cable here in Canada. Been kinda busy lately and my viewing inventory is piling up so if it snows this weekend I'm gonna watch TV ! (Sold my snowblower last night and have no shovels in the house ... they're in the shed and I lent the key for the shed to my neighbour and I can't find him. So, while I'm not clearing snow, I can spend some happy viewing time with my PVR ! ) Debbie

Piece of cake for those of us who worship at the altar of the PVR ! Debbie

I'm none of those things ... well, maybe one . Should I be looking for a new hero ? Debbie

Baby Sea Otter ! How adorable. You must think I'm very fickle ... when I'm not near the cute, cuddly, adorable creature I love, I love the cute, cuddly, adorable creature I'm near ! Debbie

It says in the article that Ms. Hunter was in an episode of Midsomer Murders ... I just looked it up and don't actually remember it ... but maybe that's why I find her face familiar. Now that I've given up on the Smart TV Wi-Fi thingie and have purchased a good HDMI cable, I'm streaming Acorn, so it should be easy to review it. Debbie

Here's an interesting article : http://time.com/3558561/benedict-cumberbatch-engaged-sophie-hunter-george-clooney/ Debbie

Is it just me, or does Ms. Hunter actually resemble Mr. Cumberbatch is a small way ? And ... she also looks really familiar ! Hmmm. Debbie

I think "bans" have something to do with church, don't they ? I'm not very well versed in these matters. I was engaged once and that was enough for me ! Congratulations to the happy couple ! Lovely news and what little information I've seen about the bride-to-be seems to indicate a smart and accomplished lady. I hope they're very happy . Debbie

Ha ! I was waiting for this ! LOL !

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014 INTERNATIONAL WOMBAT DAY !! Take a wombat to lunch !! Debbie

LOL ! Happy to oblige. Here are some more things your son might like to know about wombats ... but was afraid to ask ! http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/09/wombat-poop-is-cubic-and-other-fascinating-wombat-facts/ Debbie