*gulp*

i just read an article in usatoday.com about the treasure hunt at the new york public library and saw something very interesting but at the same time, eww! i'm sure dickens had a reason for doing this but still! i love my cats so much and when they pass, i wouldn't do anything like this, that's for sure.

here's the link to the article:

N.Y. Public Library to host overnight treasure hunt

scroll down about halfway to find out what i'm talking about!

currently reading:

"the wives of henry oades"

i picked this book to read because a portion of this book took place in new zealand. i visited new zealand in 2006 and loved it. it's a gorgeous place! anyway, when i saw this book in a literary newsletter, i was intrigued by it. i did see maori people while i was in nz but they were nice. i guess a lot had changed since the story was based in late 1800's. this book is based on a real-life legal case of a husband having two wives. i have about 100 pages left and it's a good book to read. i cannot imagine losing peter and to have him come back eventually!

plot

When Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected—and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret and her children.

For months, Henry scours the surrounding wilderness, until all hope is lost and his wife and children are presumed dead. Grief-stricken, he books passage to California. There he marries Nancy Foreland, a young widow with a new baby, and it seems they’ve both found happiness in the midst of their mourning—until Henry’s first wife and children show up, alive and having finally escaped captivity.

postcrossing

www.postcrossing.com

i joined postcrossing in january after a friend of mine mentioned it on facebook. i knew right away that i should do it because i love to collect stamps and also thought it would be a great way to learn about other countries. after signing up, i received 5 addresses and went out to get some postcards. i wrote various info on them then went to the post office and mailed them. i started getting the postcards after people who received mine registered them at postcrossing.com. as of now, i have received 12 postcards and i LOVE it! i look forward to mailing more later this week...i need to go to the post office to get more stamps. i can't wait to get more beautiful postcards!!

here's the first postcard i received:

this cat, minnie belongs to the sender of the postcard.
the sender took this picture and had it printed into postcards.
what a great idea!

sent by allison from burlington in ontario, canada
registered on 2.16.11

more testing...

floridastamptestcropped

floridastampcropped

testing

stamps from sweden...

how does this look??

blackwater national wildlife refuge

life is sure super busy for me these days! i haven't been able to use my mac in the rabbits' room for several weeks now since i was always do-do-do-do-ing things. fridays are usually my free day so i tend to spend several hours on my mac but the past three fridays, i had plans so i wasn't able to blog. weekends are always bad since i always spend them with my sweet petey doing fun and not-so-fun things (house chores, etc.). today is the exception...peter's working on upgrading his '73 BMW R75/5 getting it ready for a trip this summer.

anyway, three fridays ago, i went to blackwater national wildlife refuge with ken, a deaf friend of mine who lives about 30 minutes north of where i live. we really enjoyed ourselves! we went for a drive on the wildlife drive and we pulled over quite many times to check out the animals. we saw ospreys, bald eagles, delmarva squirrel, pelicans, geese and carps. i'd love to visit this place again soon!

photo credit: ken samson
(he used my camera several times...hope he had fun using it!)

delmarva squirrel

osprey!!!
photo credit: ken samson

bald eagle
too bad i don't have a 800mm lens for my camera!
it's about $12K for one...i don't think so...at least not right now, ha ha!

osprey cam
you can find it at:
http://www.friendsofblackwater.org/camhtm.html

would you believe that we saw this bald eagle this close?!?
nah, we stopped by the visitor's center and saw this stuffed eagle.
it was really huge!!

inside the visitor's center, they have two tv monitors...
for osprey cam and eagle cam, a live feed for each!!
i wish it was like that on the internet, oh well.

osprey cam

a new quote

it's time for a new quote for my blog!

i saw this quote in "my life in france" by julia child and i LOVE it!! it was thérèse asche, a close friend of julia who said it:

"Une maison sans chat, c'est la vie sans soleil!"

in english:

"a house without a cat is like life without sunshine!"

this is true for me!!