I mentioned, I think, that 
bunny_hugger spotted a raccoon hanging around our squirrel feeder. This is bothersome because he might bother the fish, which we don't want him to do. So we put the net, meant for catching leaves in autumn, over the pond. bunny_hugger also built a little shelter in which the fish could hide, by cutting some holes in a small laundry-type basket and tying plants around it and putting a piece of rock on top so it doesn't look so obviously out of place. We're not sure any fish are actually using it but the light rock did allow us to see the silhouette of the dark baby fish, which we hadn't seen in about a month and which we'd feared had died while being moved back outside. We're overjoyed to have the dark baby fish restored to life. Also the baby fish have just exploded in size the past month, to the point they're as large as some of the smallest adult fish were when we got them a year ago.
We finally set up the motion-sensitive wildlife camera, but over the course of several days and two locations all it's photographed has been us. We're not sure if we're pointing it wrongly or if there are just fewer animals prowling around than we expect. I'm kind of seriously suggesting we need to bring our pet rabbit out so he can play the part of a raccoon in screen tests.
Also, I spotted what I thought was a baby squirrel in the yard. It wasn't; it was a red squirrel. They're shy, compared to the grey (black) squirrels and fox squirrels who're so much more urbanized, so it was grand seeing one. And also seeing a red squirrel and several black and fox squirrels hanging around the yard, all eating, rather than chasing one another off. Obviously they're up to something, but what? Who knows.
Now, over in my humor blog, my big post this week is ``Things I Don't Understand About Another Ancient Greek'', which is drawn from a conversation I had with bunny_hugger which was just wonderful. This is also only a slice of it because the conversation had so, so much wonderful stuff to it. I hope you like.
Run since last week and ``Writing To Be Read'', which I hope you do because I think it's one of those subjects that just really connected exactly right, have been:
- Farmer Al Falfa: Magic Boots, one of those old cartoons that includes a mouse courtship and magic boots and the rings of Saturn and I just don't know.
- Statistics Saturday: Countries Which Have Sent Me A Prime Number Of Visitors This Past Quarter-Year, which is funny because it's complete and yet has no discernable gag.
- Math Comics and A Baffling Yet Funny Comic Strip, linking to the mathematics blog and sharing a New Adventures of Queen Victoria which I think is amusing yet requires a run-up to understand.
- Statistics Saturday on a Tuesday: June 2014 In Humor Blogging, actual data on how the humor blog did in the recently concluded month.
- How Our Pet Rabbit Celebrated His Birthday, which wasn't just by nibbling stuff and getting attention.
- What’s Happening In Town, a real problem faced by a seminar local to us.
Trivia: Over its first Fourth of July weekend, Luna Park recorded 142,000 visitors on Saturday and 103,000 on Sunday. The publicity department claimed five million paid to enter the gates in 1906. Source: The Kid Of Coney Island: Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusements, Woody Register.
Currently Reading: Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind The Myth, Marion Meade. (She sounds like a real piece of work, yet a fascinating one. I'm surprised I haven't seen more Blavatsky-stand-ins in movies or SFnal books or the like, but perhaps I just see the wrong ones. I thought it was strange nobody had made a movie about filibuster and burden-to-Nicaragua William Walker's life and it turns out they did, in 1987, after all, even if they apparently made a really weird one.)