Something Squirrelly

No, I’m not referring to happenings at the lair…although I do believe that you are due an appy-polly-logy for yet another Friday come and gone and nary a Flashback Friday in sight. Do have pity on me, though, denizens. I was still in the glorious throes of food coma this past Friday, being the day after Thanksgiving and all. And the food was well worth the coma, let me tell you! Loba is indeed spoiled by a cousin with mad culinary skillz.

Besides eating, however, I did have several chances to try out my latest gadget. Seems that, after slightly more than six years of rather strenuous use, my lovely little point-and-click Kodak digital camera has decided it is time to rest. I’ve been so impressed by it throughout the years, that I decided to replace it with a new Kodak. I went for the EasyShare C195. Yes, I have the purple one. I didn’t order it in purple, but it was a lovely surprise and didn’t cost me anything extra. So I stuck with it.

I haven’t given this new camera a proper workout yet, but what I have done with it so far has been all right. Nothing mind-blowing, which I suppose isn’t the greatest review, eh? I find that I miss the ease of my old Kodak’s setting wheel when choosing different photo scenes. I also miss a view finder. That great big 3-inch LCD screen is lovely for reviewing photos, but nothing beats setting up a shot the old-fashioned way. Plus, I can see from the battery icon that this little camera is going to devour power like Augustus Gloop on speed!

However, it was quite reasonably priced, has lots of new photo scene options and, at 14 megapixels, I’m hoping it’s going to provide me with some great high-resolution shots. I just have to get used to it. (I also need to download the full manual, which apparently only is available online…yay for tree-saving!) So I’ve been carrying it with me to visit family, taking all the prerequisite animal photos that my family is required by genetics to take. This includes these lovely shots of two chubby, fluffy visitors to my aunt’s deck:

I know that my British compatriots are not fans of the American gray squirrel. I remember on my first trip across the pond, I was wandering through St. James’s Park, snapping photos of the wildlife. A rather large gray squirrel ran across my path and began to follow the woman slightly ahead of me and to my right. She was eating some sort of delightfully gooey-looking pastry, which the squirrel was obviously trying to charm her into sharing. Instead, she audibly “tsk”ed the squirrel, looked over at me, and said, “Cheeky little bugger, innit?”

I laughed but said nothing more, for fear that she would hear my blatantly Yankee twang and order me to take this fat, demanding American squirrel with me when I left. He was, indeed, cheeky…just like these voracious little visitors sneaking about, consuming anything they could shovel into their chubby little faces. Still, look at them! They’re so cute. I do have a soft spot for squirrels, obnoxious little tree rats that they are. I am sorry that they’re such bullies to their smaller British red cousins…but what can I say? They’re American 😉