So I may have discovered what happened to poor Mr. Turtle’s shell.

You see, it’s become impossible to go into my backyard with some kind of protective gear on. In fact, as I sit here on my desk, I can hear little pops as my backyard is attacked.

What is the cuprit?

Acorns.

They hurt when they hit ya, but the squirrels are loving them.

Seriously, if the wind is blowing hard, it’s actually dangerous to go into the backyard. If the wind isn’t blowing there’s still a steady stream of acorn falling noises (but do they make a noise if I’m not here to hear them? Yes, and it scares the crap outta me when they hit something metal!).

You may thinkk it’s safe to go out when there’s no wind at all, but then the backyard turns into one big cartoon. I feel like I’m flailing when I’m trying to walk out there ’cause it’s like walking on marbles.

I need an army helmet or something - ooh, there went a gust of wind, lol.

So Saturday morning, we slept in like the lazy slugs we are. The hubby got up to take a shower while I meandered into the kitchen to find something to eat.

I look out the back window (sliding glass doors) and saw something surprising.

I screamed, “hubby, hubby, come here, you have to see this and you’re not going to beleive me if you don’t see it with your own eyes!”

He came running (minus pants) to see a turtle strolling through our backyard.

Now I’ve got a fair amount of wildlife around here - bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks, tons of birds, even a few deer. But this is the first time I’ve seen a turtle.

It was obvious that his shell was cracked (I didn’t get too close ’cause I’m the loser that would cry over something like a turtles cracked shell) but the hubby went out to take a closer look (he did put pants on). But it didn’t seem to hamper his movement.

While the hubby was in the shower Mr. Turtle made it across the backyard and halfway down the side yard. By the time I got out of the shower, he’d made it the whole way across the street (with hubby watching to make sure he didn’t get hit by a car or anything).

Shortly after the kids across the street found him and then our next door neighbors took him in.

That was my excitement for the weekend - a turtle.

Do you have a more exiting life than me?

So I was all prepared to actually get a little writing done yesterday (have a couple of edits I got this week). I was just about to sit down and get to work when my phone rang.

A friend of mine has her in-laws visiting. From Germany. Who don’t speak English.

So she invited me to go on a drive out to the south fork of Long Island with them. Because they don’t speak English. And while she says she doesn’t speak German I was pretty impressed.

Now I took 5 years of german in high school. But high school was a really long time ago and I don’t remember much. Especially much that you’d actually want to say to your friend’s in-laws.

But we struggled through and had a good time. It was a lovely day, not to hot, not too cold. We walked on the beach and at 4 o’clock they must have coffee so we went to Starbucks.

Aside from the language barrier (I could understand a lot of what they said, just couldn’t respond to it) it was a really nice day.

Of course that means twice the amount of work for today (and tonight we’re going to see my brother-in-law who’s in town on business).

Aye, it’s that time of year again…

International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

I was awoken this morning with orders to “Swab the deck” before the hubby gets home.

glitter-graphics.com

Have a pirate-y day!

As promised, more pictures…

I think this is my very favorite picture of all. Mr. Zebra stopped every car that went by and licked the window.

And the ostrich pecked at my window. I admit, it was a little bit scary having this big bird come at you that way, even through glass.

That’s all for the Lion Safari pictures (I have tons more but I think I shared the best ones). Now, moving on in the trip.

This is a raccoon in a trash can outside the Ontario Science center. It was taken through glass in the middle of the day. There were actually tons of raccoons running around the science center grouns. A little creepy if you ask me, but I’d never seen a racoon that close up before.

Next we went to the Toronto zoo. We obviously saw lots of animals but this was something I’d never seen before. The keepers were taking their camel for a walk around the zoo.

I have to upload more photos before I can share anymore but I’ll try to get to that today (even though I’ve been saying that for the last several days).

Did the weekend go way to fast for anyone else?

And I didn’t even really do anything (read, my house is still a disaster area).

But here’s more pictures to hopefully make your Monday a little more bearable.

In Hamilton, Ontario we went to an African Lion Safari park. They’ve got some animals in a zoo like thing, mostly birds and elephants, a train and a little boat. But the best part is the drive through safari part. They have a bus you can ride, or drive your own car.

This is a baby elephant playing soccer.

The safari part was really cool. There were double gates that opened automatically (or probably some random guy controled). It reminded me of jurassic park. And inside were signs that said “Tresspassers will be Eaten.”

It started out kinda lame, just some llama’s and deer like things. Then you got to the good stuff…

Like cheetahs…

And baboons that like to ride on cars.

Here’s one eating a pretzel while riding along on my side mirror.

At the end of the baboon section there was a woman standing there with a stick who would chase any remaining baboons off of your car.

I was going to try to do all the Lion Safari pictures today but there’s a few more that I really like and I don’t want to make this too long so I’ll share more tomorrow.

My brain is still on vacation!

I’ve done a whopping nothing so far this week. And it’s Friday so really why should I start now?

I did rouse myself from the couch to go to my bookclub last night and that was fun. It was nice to interact with someone other than the hubby for a change.

I’ve finally uploaded some of my vacation pictures, too!!

Niagra Falls - this is from the observation tower on the American side of the falls but you can see the Canadian side, too.

This is the American side of the falls (taken from Canadian side) at night. Well, it was really dusk but close enough.

I’ll share more over the next few days.

I’m back, but I’m not quite back at the same time.

I’m home but now I think I’m suffering from post vacation let down and aren’t feeling very well. I’ve spent the majority of the past few days on the couch just being a slug.

But now I’m really going to try to be on top of things. Really.

Although the couch is looking awfully tempting…

Two weeks is a really long time to be away but I’m back now.

Still trying to get a handle on everything I missed but doing okay. I have about 150 email messages to go through (I did manage to delete all the spam and everything that didn’t actually require a response).

I’m still working on getting all of my photo’s uploaded so it’ll be a few days before I actually have any to share.

But I want to hear everything I missed in the last two weeks? Anyone have any interesting news to share?

5 days of camping.

Luckily I’m so damn tired after the first part of the trip that I think I could sleep anywhere right now.

We rekaggered our trip a bit and after today we’re heading home-ish (via 5 days of camping). Not to worry, we’ve taken TONS of pictures which I will happily share once I get home to my own internet connection.

Today we’re off to see Anne of Green Gables’s house!! (Yes, I’m a dork, which the hubby keeps reminding me). Prince Edward Island even has a lisence plate with Anne on it! They really know how to milk what makes them famous.

Tomorrow we’ll head off to the Bay of Fundy (off of New Brunswick instead of Nova Scotia which we had originally planned) to see the worlds biggest tides.

Some campsites claim to have wireless internet access but I don’t know, even for me, who has never camped before, I’m not sure if that sits well. Doesn’t it take some of the wilderness out of camping. Anyway I may or may not check in again before I’m back in the states.

I can’t wait to get home and catch up on, well, everything!!