Hoppy New Year!

No, no, no. It’s not the Chinese Year of the Frog. (According to the Chinese zodiac, it’s the Year of the Rat.)
Amphibian Ark has declared it the Year of the Frog, to call attention to the “amphibian extinction crisis which represents the greatest species conservation challenge in the history of humanity.”
(The journalist in me feels I must tell you that Amphibian Ark is a joint effort of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) of the IUCN/SSC (World Conservation Union/Species Survival Commission) and the IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG).)

So have a hoppy new year—and remember, it’s a leap year so there will be a leapfrog day.

Also remember: Time’s fun when you’re having flies.

Happy New Year’s Eve!

It’s probably best to keep wishes for the new year separate from those for new year’s eve since they are two quite distinct, although related, events.

So, Happy New Year’s Eve!
To all: Don’t drink and drive.

To mathematicians: Don’t drink and derive.
To critics: Don’t drink and deride.
To surgeons: Don’t drink and debride. (Yes, I know it’s not pronounced that way.)
To politicians: Don’t drink da bribe.
To reporters: Don’t drink and describe.
To oppressors: Don’t drink and deprive.
To protesters: Don’t drink and decry.
To refusers: Don’t drink and decline.
To judges: Don’t drink and decide.

You get the idea.

House guests

My sister is visiting. She is not in this picture.
The dog—Landon, the Sheltie—is visiting too. That’s him in the picture. Euripides, my Siamese, is enjoying his company. As much as a cat can enjoy the company of a dog, but Rippy seems glad of having a male pal.

New Year’s resolutions

Having a parking gate come crashing down on your head is a little like making New Year’s resolutions, isn’t it?
Aw, it’s the holidays. I just put up a picture and write some words. Sometimes they match.

Writers’ strike

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Murray Christmas!

A musician hanging out in our Christmas tree.
More later — Santa came and we’re checking out what’s under the tree.
In the meantime, Murray Christmas (an old family joke) to you all!

Believe

Again, I did NOT PhotoShop the red nose into this picture. I shot this outside Tucson, Ariz. I saw two of these signs – the other was on the other side of the highway.
I shit you not.
If you don’t believe me, Rudolph will bypass your house completely and you won’t even get a lump of coal!

Buy the book

Are online sales down this year, or below expectations? If not, then why am I getting e-mail after e-mail, imploring me to buy more and more? And for myself?
On the 16th, I received the following from Amazon.ca:
“As someone who has shopped at Amazon.ca, you might like to know it’s not too late to treat yourself to a little something to enjoy as you’re recovering from the holidays.
“Maybe you got everything on your holiday list taken care of early, and it’s time to relax with that mystery you’ve wanted to read or a few new DVDs.”
But it’s not just Amazon. I received a similar pitch from Dover, the publisher, yesterday!
The biggest gift-giving holiday of the year is about to happen and I’m supposed to buy *myself* stuff now? And to help me recover from the holidays that haven’t happened yet? Or to reward myself for finishing my shopping and decorating and baking early? Are they nuts? As if anyone is going to have time to read a book between now and Christmas! Unless they’re a recluse, shut-in, orphan, on welfare or on life support – and in all of those cases I’m sure a book or DVD is farthest from their minds.

P.S. The picture above is from San Francisco. I made a note of the building, but it’s not to hand and I am just too swamped getting the house ready for my sister’s* arrival to look it up. If you’re really interested in knowing the building, e-mail me and I’ll look it up for you… after Boxing Day.
*Not Marge, the sister whose Christmas present I read before mailing it to her. The visiting sister is Roxe, from Ottawa.

Rear window

The “picture” I posted of our snow the other day was pretty lame. This might make up for it.
I was working in my home office on Monday. It looks out on the back of the house and although I was concentrating on what I was writing, I became aware, in my peripheral vision, of a flying white lump of something. It was an across-the-lane neighbour shovelling her snow.
Well, it wasn’t the neighbour — it was the snow she was shovelling.
When she was clearing the walkway between her house and the next-door one, she’d just heave each shovelful over the fence, and sometimes she’d achieve remarkable height.
This isn’t the best example of that, but it’s the best I could capture shooting through the window.
Today it rained and the temperature went above 0C. We still have lots of snow on the ground, but less than before.