tigertoy

Home from Windycon.  A pretty good time.  Only pretty good in large part because I seem to be allergic to the hotel -- watering eyes, sneezing, and much-increased congestion cut my filking pretty hard.  There were many concerts; I did not try to go to all of them, but I enjoyed what I did hear.  Hugs and companionship from a bunch of people, much appreciated.  I'm going to leave it at that, because keeping this short means I'll actually post it, instead of turning it into work.

Somehow I managed to go the whole weekend without hearing about Keris.  Coming home and finding that news on my LJ sort of makes my con report seem pointless.

I decided to bring my camera after all at the last minute, and took it to the Friday night concerts, so you can have a few pictures.  ( in here )

A few days ago, seanan_mcguire posted a contest to post pictures of your pet with one of her books.  She specifically mentioned hoping someone would give Feed to a tiger.  I do have a tiger (for certain values of "have", of course, he actually belongs to EFRC), a copy of Feed, and a camera.  I can't actually give him the book, since he might eat it, and no animals are to be harmed in the course of such endeavors as this, but I let him check it out through the fence.  Now, to wander over and see if the contest is still open.  (Even if it isn't, I still want to post the pic.)

I didn't realize that the JPEG quality setting had been set too high until I'd already uploaded these pix, but the files are twice the size they were supposed to be.  I wouldn't want one of them on my friends page since I'm on dialup; ergo, they all go behind the cut.

Yesterday was the annual Pumpkin Party at EFRC, so there are some funny pumpkin pictures in here.

( click for cat pictures )

We (that is, birder2 and myself) drove to Ohio on Friday.  It was a wet but otherwise uneventful drive, and I only mention it because my car passed a geeky milestone on the way over. ( explanation and photographic evidence cut )

We arrived at the con and, got badges, and went to dinner with robin_june at Aladdin's, where I started a trend that would continue through the weekend by eating way too much because it was so good.  We got back about halfway through the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.


I got this picture of the lovely vixyish (with tfabris on the right) while she wasn't looking.

( Friday continues behind this cut )

I felt pretty tired and sore, so I planned on a short hike today at Kickapoo.  I started on the Riverview trail that I've been on dozens of times, and after the first half mile I was sure I didn't want to go much farther.  But when I got up to Emerald Pond, I decided to do a little exploring, and I discovered that the peninsula that sticks out into the pond, that I thought was just a little fishing spot, is the start of a path that goes all the way across the pond (over a culvert that I thought was discarded junk) and then follows the river for a surprisingly long way.  I think it passes through the Twilight Zone, too.  I found myself in an almost familiar area, but a mowed trail that should have formed a loop just ended at a small trail into the woods, which went along a very steep hillside (it would have been impassible if the trail were even slightly wet) and came out at the spur of the Out and Back trail that joins the river.  The way it lined up, the almost-familiar area had to be new territory.  I backtracked along the mowed path that just ended and ended up coming out on the haul road.  Like some alternate universe, one end of the trail was well-known territory but the other end was just wrong.  I followed the Out and Back trail back out, and then completed the Clear Lake loop to return to my car, feeling better than I had half a mile into the day. I suspect my legs are not going to be on speaking terms with me for a couple of days, but I seem to have come back to the universe I started in.  I've got to find a map and see if I can make it make sense.

There are very few flowers left and I only saw a couple of butterflies all day.  We haven't had an official freeze, but the frosty mornings have pretty much ended the season.

That's most of the story, now here are the pictures.


Fall colors from the parking lot at the start of the Riverview Trail.

( more inside )

I headed to Kickapoo today, and I wanted to get to an area I haven't been to lately, around High Pond, or High Lake, depending on which sign you ask.  It's a nice area, a little out of the way, but (I thought) didn't have a whole lot of trails.  I discovered that there are more trails than I realized, allowing a circuit around the whole lake for a decent walk.


The view from the bridge over the Middlefork at the main entrance.

( click to join me on my expedition )

A few pictures from today.


Rocky the bobcat gets a drink the hard way.

( more inside )

It might be considered rude to have two back-to-back posts with an uncut picture in each one.  ( so I'll cut the whole thing )

Today's picture post is dedicated to Tecumseh, one of the Tell City cats.  He's not well; it appears to be a neurological problem.  I'm worried about him.


Because he's not being his usual active self, I didn't have much room to get pictures without fence, but I thought this was a nice shot.

( more pix under the cut )

Tigers Tony and Otay at the pet fair at Prairieland on Saturday.  They seem quite unconcerned about the strange surroundings.

( click for more pictures )