With my scanner again out of commission, and no luck finding the installation software, I'm unable to put up whale pictures.
This is a smoke ring from the firing of the cannon at the Gold Rush Sesquicentennial Celebration in Old Sacramento.

I lost one pound last week, walking 2.7 miles on Sunday and 2.5 on Tuesday. (Bad Jan!) Rich brought home 3 golf balls and one whiffle ball when he went walking another day. I got rid of 3 magazines and a whole lot of catalogs. I mailed out Hallowe'en packages to Vince (his last!) and Bernadette, and a birthday package to Al, and wrote one update. I also started to get serious about my Round Robin letter and came close to finishing it. (Page 4 of, maybe, 6) I even read some of my history!

I think wandering around the new Raleys should count for a health walk, anyway. One day last week I got megavitamins, and in the process I wandered through the Hallowe'en aisle. (I was looking for Tombstones, sort of sour candy with scary sayings on them like Valentine hearts. Of course, since I love them, no one makes them any more.) I found some wonderful things. I was especially enchanted with the bony arm, with a hole in the hand, a black bag with "Happy Hallowe'en" on it attached to the hole, and then, once you've collected the goodies, you press a button on the arm (I thought perhaps it was a flashlight) and a sepulchral voice intones "Thank You." The other thing that attracted me was a crow puppet, and you squeeze its stuffed beak and it caws.

However, I already had my Hallowe'en toy, the Legos. I made a bat and two jack-o-lanterns from it. Rich thinks I've lost my mind, but then he's the one who coined the "growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional" phrase for me, so he's not really surprised.

While looking for the scanner software (which, when I finally found it, still doesn't work all that well. I'd blamed my 'puters lack of memory before, when it was apparently a defective CD.) I found some Oz book duplicates, which I'd thought of giving to the same small boy who just had a birthday. However, no thank you from him, not even by e-mail, for the Robin Hood book, and I have lost interest. My mom would have had my hide if I didn't write thank yous. I tried to teach the kids the same, with mixed success.

And I downloaded the scanner driver online. The first one was like the line was constipated: a 10.3M file at 1.6K/second (when it was running). I did the math and found it would take 107 minutes, but Netcom hung up on me before that happened anyway. The third try worked, but the scanner still doesn't. Argh argh argh. It was fine last Saturday. Grumble. It's undoubtedly All My Fault for trying to get all the picture-type stuff onto the D: drive. But, but... you'd think reinstalling it would work! Moan, whine.

Roni wanted to set the record straight on George her rabbit:

George the bunny actually was a Giant American Chinchilla Rabbit. Her ears only flopped over out of laziness and the fact that the cage was short for her. Remember how big she was? She also was a "found" rabbit -- hopped up onto the deck of the ramshackle house in Santa Cruz, and I kept her in the downstairs bathroom. She enjoyed following people around, and could be counted on to chew through wiring, so she had to be supervised at all times! I never intended to get a rabbit, but she just kind of happened. I think about rabbits everytime I peel potatoes and have to throw away the peels...

It bucketed down rain yesterday and even snowed in the mountains. Thank goodness that wasn't last week with the whales! I was out in it learning the new book sorting guidelines for the Friends of the Library sale next May. I'll be doing this now. My brolly tried to break, but at home Rich managed to fix it. (The catch was jammed and it didn't stay open.)

Last night we went to the Parish Festival dinner where the totals are reported. The festival made $15000, which is good. My booth got $166, all profit, and the jumping house that blocked me LOST $96! As well as losing my goodwill. Yes, I'm still bitter. They can do without me next year.

Roni called last night to ask if the salmon were running. She wanted to show R.J., and when she saw them last year, in December, it was pretty disgusting, as most were dead. The answer was yes, so they came up and we walked from the Fair Oaks bridge to the Fish Hatchery and back. They were having the Salmon festival at the Hatchery. All along the walk, we could see the fishermen in lines, and the tired, knocked about fish. We saw one place where there's a rapid, and the fish jumping it. (I've only seen them at the fish ladder before.) We also saw mallards, pintails, a Mother Goose, acorn woodpeckers, gulls and turkey vultures after the dead fish, and some redtailed hawks and a smaller raptor. When we got to the Hatchery, R.J. was fascinated to see the water below the gate just boiling with salmon. You can almost walk across the River on them. The others were chugging up the ladder, ready to meet their doom tomorrow. There were many booths outdoors, lots and lots of kids and dogs. We were over at the ponds where the small fish are, and Sailor really really REALLY wanted one. He was hoping, as Roni was feeding them, that one would just jump into his mouth. Just a little tiny bit closer...

Total walk, 6.7 miles. They left right away, as soon as we got home. Roni and R.J. were really pleased at seeing so many fish, and it sounds like next year Rich and R.J. have a fishing date.