Umbrella-mouth Gulper

London ~ February 20, 2010

Natural History Museum

I was so excited to find this critter swimming in the air behind glass. Partly I was excited because it's just weird, and partly because at the time I had one in my online store (see below). Note the teenie eyes up near the nose. This eel was about 18 inches long, I think.

This is the plastic gulper eel I had in the store. I've said it in past tense because, unfortunately, we don't have this guy around anymore. Like so many wonderful realistic toy animals, the manufacturer discontinued it. What can they have been thinking?

My Web Page: tapirback.com

What I do for a living

Astoria, Oregon ~ January 11, 2010

Say "Aaaaaaah!" Sometimes the customers want to know things such as, "What's inside the shark's mouth? Can we drill it and pour in grenadine? Is it hard plastic, or soft?"

A toy animal's portrait usually looks more like this. It lets customers know what they're getting, but maybe it's a little boring. Hmm. I think I just got an idea :)

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

My new blog, first post: Homage to the Megatherium

Megatherium Model

Astoria, Oregon ~ The Animal Store

This extinct giant ground sloth is one of my favorite collectible toys from my online animal store, and sadly, we sold the last one a couple of days ago. It's been discontinued by the manufacturer, which I think is a shame. We do have an extinct giant ground sloth puzzle, but it will also soon be gone and will be taken offline. It has a different kind of charm from the creature above. So many good animal toys are being discontinued! When one of my favorites goes, it makes me sad. I'm keeping a gallery to remember them by, and today's image just happens to be this defunct sloth. We keep getting new good stuff, but for some old favorites, there is no replacement.

"So, Sheryl, you already have five working blogs and three empty ones you'll take down when you've moved the photos, so what gives? Why another one?"

It will be different for me. I've been thinking about this for months and have finally decided to go for it. I'm a fan of daily photo blogs, including the concept of City Daily Photo blogs (I have one of Astoria, Oregon, and Lee has one of Bend). In addition, I really enjoy two offshoots of this theme by two of my blogosphere friends: Vogon Poet and Cieldequimper. It was mostly these last two blogs that inspired me. The reason I gave it so much thought is that 1) It's a commitment, and 2) I realized I did not want to limit myself to locations. But if not, why not simply post more often on my personal blog as I used to do (and will again)? Finally, it came to me.

My other blogs are keyed to dates or subject matter. I will continue them, but I like the idea of playing with a random image for the day. After posting Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo since April 23, 2009, I have no illusions that a single-image post can't be as time-consuming as a multi-photo post. Often it takes me longer.

But the occasion to reach into time and subject once a day without the restrictions I've imposed on my other blogs won me over. Naturally, some of my favorite themes and places will emerge over time.

People often ask me how I have time to blog so much. I'm happy to say that besides being a passion, blogging is part of my work. Due to the interconnected workings of the Web, any time I work on one of my blogs, it helps boost our sales in the online store. If I work on four or five blogs in a day, even better. It's not the subject matter, so much as the mysterious connectivity of the bits and bytes and how they affect associated Web presence. As they say, "It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it." I do other stuff, too, but this is the best part.

Enjoy, I hope. I love comments, and I'll get back to you. This will be fun.