What do you mean "they" cut the power? They're animals.

I worked late last night and turned on the radio on the way home. Big mistake. That old guy droning on about stuff with his nasally voice almost put me to sleep behind the wheel. That guy is the John Tesh of politicians.

So here's the final series of pics from Animal Blogging Week featuring photos we've taken of critters. Today it's animals we've either seen or eaten. Actually those aren't exclusive.

Deer that wandered into our campsite a couple of weeks ago.

Had a cool moment at about five in the morning. We camped close to town because I couldn't get out of work and one morning I'd just gotten back from the shower and dressed for work and was sitting by the campsite drinking coffee when this same deer walked right up to me and checked me out. I just kept thinking "I'm going to be in a shiny, high tech office in a couple of hours and right now I'm hanging with a deer."

Took this picture at the zoo obviously. I loved how Doctor Zaius, ahem, this Orangutan came right up to us to chat. I think he was thinking "someday you're going to be on the other side of this glass and I'm going to watch YOU throw your poop at your friends."

Shark from the Oregon Aquarium. We needed a bigger boat.

Giant Dungeoness crab. I've crabbed for fun for most of my life and most of the time we get crabs that are barely keepers according to regulations. Wouldn't you know the first time I take the kids out on a boat we catch this giant. It's pretty rare to see a crab this size in the bay as the commercial fishermen get them first. He was delicious.

D'oh. He was also delicious. (jk)

A seal watching us crab. No crabz 4 U.

Zoo again. I think it's fair to say this zebra rarely misses a meal. He's not exactly in sleek, jungle form.

For some reason I hate elephants after the last week.

Hungry like Duran Duran.

Just a cute little bundle... of trouble.

Animal Blogging (Mini) Week Day 2. Since there's nothing else of any importance going on this week here are some of the animals we've lived with. Mostly dogs for you friends of the canine.

This is my wife's dog Spike. I say it's my wife's dog because, even though I love dogs, I'm not a fan of little yappy dogs. Of course he's pretty attached to me. If you waterboarded me I just might admit I like the little monster.

This is the same dog as a puppy. Runt of the litter. Best way to go.

This is Willie. We adopted him but have to give him away to some dog-loving friends. Willie had an unfortunate habit of catching and violently killing small animals. We have a lot of wild rabbits on the property and you can just imagine the psychological damage that was doing to our kids. Now he lives at a spot where there aren't as many targets of opportunity.

This is Spike and Mathilda. Mathilda's Norwegian Elk Hound/ Australian Shepherd. We were lucky to get her as the list at the Humane Society had about twenty people who wanted to adopt her besides us. She's just about the best dog I've ever owned. Even tempered and sweet.


Little Joe the Supergoat. He's the Rasputin of goats. He's survived wasp attacks, dog attacks, deadly viruses and toddlers.


Awww. Of course the next moment he's humping her leg.


This is Sheba. We're watching her for a friend. Going on about three years now. Every evening I throw my variation of the Dread Pirate Roberts from the Princess Bride at her when I tell her "so long, I'll most likely get rid of you in the morning." Even if I wanted to do that #1Animefan is quite attached to her so it ain't gonna happen.


This is why little dogs hate the world so much.

Sorry, it looks like you're involved.

Since nothing was really going on this week in the news other than the hurricane which seems to have passed without too much damage I had planned on declaring this week Animal Blogging Week and posting nothing but pictures of critters that I've run across or own.

The week sort of got away from me but nevertheless I'm going to spend today and the next couple of days doing just that. We'll start with the weird varieties of creatures we saw this last weekend at the Kumoricon.

(In order to get the flavor of this thing you should start the video below. You don't have to watch it, just play the music. This song was played non-stop from boom boxes everywhere you went at this convention.)

We had a really long wait in line. REALLY long. I checked their attendance numbers afterwords and in the five years they've been doing this it's grown from roughly 1,000 people to around 3,500 attendees last year. There were over 10,000 people at this thing. The hotel freaked out.


All the people in line had a mini-scare after about three hours in line when organizers announced the hotel wouldn't let anyone else in. There was talk of a riot. You haven't lived until you've watched a woman in a pink Princess Peach gown throw down a string of obscenities that would make Dick Cheney blush. I think she was the one that ultimately got them to change their minds.

It's hard to see but Batman's Harley Quinn was watching us from that balcony. Creepy.

Not sure what Davey Jones has to do with Anime but this costume was impressive.

Swag. Lots of it.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out artist Phil Foglio was there. Anybody that read the Dragon magazine when they were kids knows who he is. I thanked him for all the "chuckles" as a boy.

Found him!

I'd like to know how they eat out of those costumes.

Harley again.

Clone trooper robs Red Bull mini cooper. Mmmm Red Bull.

Yoshi and some other guy.

"Red Rover, Red Rover send Pikachu right over!"

Dancing the Carmelldansen.

Now I see this clearly. My whole life is pointed in one direction.

More bits...

I don't know why and I don't even know what it is but I really wanted the Arte y Pico award and was really tickled when Doctor Zaius tapped me to win it.



The origin of the award is here.

Because I'm always the bridesmaid when this is passed around I think I'm just about the last one on our little circle of friends that recieved this thing. As such I really don't think there's anybody on my blogroll that hasn't been to this dance already. If I'm wrong please let me know and I'll tap you right away.

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Hillary Clinton's speech was great. The only thing I would've liked was more digs on McCain. That problem isn't isolated to Clinton. It's something I've been complaining about regarding the convention since before it began.

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Having said that- Clinton and Montana Gov. Schweitzer and two of the stand out lines with regards to McCain. Clinton had the great "Twin Cities" jab and Schweitzer had a good line with regards to drilling for oil in John McCain's back yards "if he could remember where they are."

Humor is great but the fact of the matter is negative ads work and the Republicans are going to turn their entire four day convention into one big negative ad against Obama. I guess it's up to Biden tonight to go for the throat because there's no doubt Obama won't throw much red meat into his speech tomorrow night.

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I'm muting the network hosts altogether. They're worthless and it just gets my blood pressure up.

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I can't find the article now but I read something yesterday that labeled House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer as a "partisan firebrand." I got a chuckle out of that. Most of know Hoyer as the chief capitulator representing the Blue Dogs. He's all hat and no cattle.

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At an outside press conference Nancy Pelosi was confronted by a group of McCain supporters shouting "drill now!" Her response? "Can I drill your brain?" Sure it's juvenile but I like it.

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I won't be watching the Republican convention. Their candidate, and their party, are bankrupt in every sense of the word. I'll be declaring next week Animal Blogging Week and in honor of that I'll post some great pictures of a doe and her fawns that wandered into our camp while we were camping a couple of weeks ago.