Altivo

Here is the new snow leopard I've mentioned. He is a 15-inch sitting snow leopard from Wild Republic, but not a "Cuddlekins."



Very dignified, don't you think? Much above cuddling and all that, but handsome nonetheless. I'm going to take him to work and let him serve a shift as my windowsill plush, giving the two okapi that have been there much of the summer some time off.

Here's a detail shot of his face, showing the nice detail they put into it.



Sunset is suddenly coming very early, by around 6:30, and it gets dark quickly, even though we're still on [ridiculous] daylight saving time until November. I hope to get some sleep tonight. No more deadlines for a while, so no need to be up late at night.

It's raining outside. On top of the mountains of snow. Yuck.

I see that Kyell Gold made it into the finals for the Shorty awards on Twitter, right behind J.K. Rowling in fact. That's pretty amazing.

Leo Magna brought his Fur-Piled comic to a close this week, just in time for Valentine's Day. Well, almost. It's a happy ending for the main characters, but leaves me with hanging questions about several of the peripheral ones, such as Car (Husky's high school squeeze, the blond hyena) and Saetto's brother (who I still think is the same as the lion that Andy cruised in the supermarket and probably the same as the one who shook him up so badly and sent him into near suicidal depression.) And there's that odd lion with the sun visor who made several mysterious appearances. Who was that masked man? What did he stand for? Still, the strip is a masterful job and lasted what, almost five years? Worthy of his Ursa Major, I say.

I need to get weaving, as a new deadline date for finishing those blocks has been set, and it's just two weeks away. I feel like going to bed right now, though. Thank goodness this is going to be a three day weekend.

Gary gave me a nice big cuddly plush pony for Valentine's. He's probably from the same place as the black mare (we call her Nightmare) that I've had for several years, but slightly smaller. I'll get around to photographing him soon.

About 3°F at the moment, going down. Brrr.

Went to Crystal Lake this afternoon, where we had lunch (good) and shopped several stores looking mostly for plushies. I got some cash gifts and after buying a couple of books I wanted, thought I'd put the rest into toys. After all, it's a gift. Who wants to get new underwear and socks or whatever as a gift? I did buy a pair of slippers, actually. But I was hoping to find plush huskies at Target like the ones Kaysho mentioned last weekend. No such luck. Not only that, but the total of their plush toy stock seemed to consist of those overpriced and non-cuddly "animated" plush toys that require batteries in order to wag their tails, bark, meow, or say obnoxious things. Not what I wanted.

OK, ToysRUs is just down the road, let's try them. Same story. They had a very small (like half a dozen four foot shelves) of actual plush, most of them the smallish kind (under a foot tall.) And they had lots and lots of those non-cuddly animated toys. I really wanted a husky, or a wolf, or a pony (though I have lots of ponies) and there were no good ones at all. On the way home, we stopped at the feed store in Woodstock to buy the expensive dry dog food our spoiled pooches get, and I looked at their selection. They always have horse plush because they stock a lot of Breyer toys. Breyer, for those who don't know the name, specializes in overpriced plastic castings of horses, many different breeds, in various poses. In recent years they have branched into Christmas tree ornaments and plush toys (also overpriced.) Some of their horses were cute, but priced too high for their size (small.) So we came home, without any new plushies, but full of lunch.

I don't know how my plush collecting friends do it. They're always posting photos of great plushies they "rescue" from various stores. Apparently Illinois is a plush wasteland. I could look all year and find little other than football team mascots and red teddy bears with gold hearts embroidered on them. Generally I resort to mail order, but the trouble with that is that you can't touch or squeeze the toys first. I like soft, huggable plush. Some of the prettiest looking ones are stuffed with hard fillings and made of fur that is nearly prickly, so judging by photos is risky. I have a very cute Clydesdale about a foot high who was that sort of disappointment. She's hard as a rock. Target's web site lists more than a thousand plush toy items, but their stores around here stock almost nothing. They have huge numbers of toys leftover from Christmas, but almost all of them are plastic action figures and dolls that tie into television cartoons or kids' movies. Apparently the local management thinks plush is out of fashion. FAO Schwarz doesn't have stores in this area any more. I think KayBee is gone too. So, it's back to the web and mail order, I guess.

Just came in from walking out back with Gary because he thought he heard a fox and wanted to make sure it wasn't in his live trap by the burrow under the arena. It wasn't.

"The moon was as bright as a reading light" as the song says, even though it isn't yet full. It is casting clear shadows. Unfortunately, when it is really full we are probably going to be under dense cloud cover according to the weather service.

Completed the spinners' newsletter and sent out notifications this morning. Went to sit in on one of Gary's rehearsal sessions, and at his insistence took my flute, which was nice enough. Car got its oil changed this morning, and we stopped in to see the new Tractor Supply Co. store in Harvard. It's nice to see a farm store that still has farm goods in it. The more local chain, Farm and Fleet, is all clothes and kids' toys now, with very little agricultural supplies. I got a soft plush pony about 3 feet long for $9.99, which is a pretty good price. I'm on vacation, so I get to splurge a bit.