Five Acres with a View

The web site GoPetFriendly.com Pet Travel allows you to find hotels and other accommodations that allow pets.  Ideally, I think vacations are to give me a break from taking care of critters, but not everyone feels that way.  I did find Red Roof’s policy of allowing pets very handy when I drove three cats and an elderly Golden Retriever from Plano, TX to Colorado Springs.  Dairy Queens were also very useful, because they were spaced about every sixty miles in Texas, allowing me a break from driving, a refill of coffee, a bathroom (needed after all the coffee) and a chance to walk the dog.

The COSine Science Fiction Convention takes place this weekend in Colorado Springs, with L. E. Modesitt as the Guest of Honor.

Crayola’s Law:  The number of colors doubles every 28 years.

illustrated by a chart at crayons « Weather Sealed.

Charity Navigator – Help the Victims of the Haiti Earthquake has a list of highly rated charities and tips for giving to make sure that your money goes to helping disaster victims rather than scammers and con artists.

The exhibit on Genghis Khan at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science is over on February 7, 2010.

The New York Times writes about the psychology of restaurant menus.

We had a little snow here, but to really see snow go to Snowy scenes – The Big Picture at Boston.com.

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I don’t know what this spiky flower is supposed to represent, but I love it.  It is one of the first ornaments to go on the tree each year, and one of the first to come off.  (I try to handle the fragile ornaments when I am fresh, so I am not rushing to get done.)

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This is one of my favorite ornaments, and one of the ones that I have had the longest.  Years ago, I had this vision that someday I would have a tree with just white lights and gold ornaments, but then where would I put this little fellow?

One of my few regrets about our trip to Australia in 1999 is that we only had one day in Sydney.  Here, at least, is an Aerial Virtual tour of Sydney, Australia, though figuring out the navigation is a bit tricky.