Faces of Fiona #38

It's Tuesday----Fiona Day! Went to the Aquarium-it was another cold, clear, unbelievably DRY day. Here she is squealing loudly and pointing at the harbor seal tank from an inside vantage point. - There was a visitor today , one of the Northern Fur Seals (Just couldn't get her and the seals in the same pix - but rather like this pattern on the right...even tho you can't see the mountains that were clear out there...). When we got to the Fur seals tank, there was only one, Commodore, swimming around. there used to be 4, and more recently 3, so I asked the staff person there where his friends were - (Fiona is on to somewhere else by now)
After explaining that one older one was in with the harbor seals for now as Commodore is a bit too aggressive for her, she quietly told me that Al, the other older fur seal, just died this morning! ! Oh, it made me sad. Now there are only 11 of them left in Aquariums in the US. When we got home, there was an email from theAquarium telling us about Al, with good pictures. If you are interested in reading about him, you could go here.

Fortunately Fiona was tired out and took a nap so I could make the bread pudding with peaches and rum sauce for the Book Club Holiday party tonight. No book to discuss - just "white elephant" books to exchange as gifts. - the rules to the game keep changing every year and is the most hilarious part of the evening (which comes after the wine and the rum sauce.)

I've edited this pix later to include the book club portrait also -because it was very unusual to have every person there, including spouses, and I want to record this phenomenon in case it never happens again.