Hip, hip, hooray, Blogger fixed the problem I was having with posting by email! I never did hear back from their tech support, but something told me to just TRY sending the kind of post that was causing problems a few days ago.

FWIW, the photo of the trailer hauling a bunch of yellow taxi cabs is one that I took the day before I left for the AADB convention. I'd just finished making a deposit at the ATM, and noticed that the truck transporting all the taxis was pulled over for I Know Not What Reason. It made for an interesting sight, so out came the camera phone and I took a few pictures of it from different angles. (Since I had to pass the truck on my way out of the parking lot anyway.)

So, since blogging by email appears to be repaired, here's a comment that I've wanted to send for the past couple of days. This week, the Flyers' longtime defenseman Eric Desjardins retired. I tip my cap to him for being a complete credit to the Orange and Black, both on and off the ice, for the past 11 years. I can't say enough about how I respect him as a player, for being our best defenseman for years, and as a person for being the epitome of class, be it during games or in Real Life. If every athlete was like him, there'd never be another bad headline about another sports figure, ever.

Right now, I'm watching Captain and Stanley figure out what to do with a bagful of old cat toys I found, toys that had belonged to Melody and Harmony. I'm sure that at least some of the toys are catnip-scented, even after all this time, because the moment I set the bag down, the boys made a beeline for it.

Captain has been knocking toys out of the bag one by one, and the kitties have commenced cautiously sniffing each toy as it makes its appearance. I can't help but laugh. Right now, they're sitting in the midst of five or six toys, trying to decide which one to play with first. I think they've had their fill of retrieving toys from the bag, in fact, or at least Captain has. As it is, they're already outnumbered about three to one by new (to them) toys strewn on the floor near the stairs and I think that's about as much unfamiliar sensory input as they can deal with for the moment.

Hmmm. As I look at the toys they've retrieved from the bag, I'm thinking that I will have to take that cloth mouse's tail off before I really let them play with it. Both of the cats have been known to eat the tails off toy mice, and we REALLY don't need an unexpected major vet visit.

Oh, and speaking of cat toys. Remember that I posted a few days ago that the new vertical blinds had passed the Captain Test? Well, not only is he not intimidated by them, but he's quite willing to bap them into submission when he needs to. See, when he jumps on the windowsill, sometimes his arrival sets the vertical blinds swinging like a bunch of pendulums. (Or is that "pendula"?) Of course, when he does this. the blinds will then swing back and bump into Captain. When the blinds swat HIM, he swats them right back. Not surprisingly, this causes a chain reaction where Captain ends up jumping around and bapping various blinds that are bumping into him from every direction. I don't know when I've laughed so hard. :o)

The blinds are taking a bit longer to pass the Stanley Test, however. This could be partly because Stanley takes longer to adapt to new things. It's also probably due in part to the fact that Captain has figured out how to hide behind the blinds when Stanley comes and sits on the window ledge or near it. Then Captain comes pouncing, seemingly out of nowhere, through the blinds and onto his brother. I think Stanley will acclimate to the blinds more easily once he figures out how to detect when the Captainator is lurking behind them.

What a pair of fuzzy comedians. I should just videotape them all day. They're far more entertaining to watch than a lot of the series on TV these days. :o)