Parents here visiting, so blogging is likely to be eratic for the next few days.

OK, the possum is out there again. I usually keep the shade on that window closed -- I'm starting to wonder if he's been hanging out on that windowsill all winter. It's behind a bush, under a roof overhang, and probably pretty warm due to my lack of decent weather stripping. If I were a marsupial, that might be the sort of place I'd dig.

Still no camera, but he looks almost exactly like this guy.

Possum!

Just had a possum sitting on the window ledge right outside my bedroom window. Oblivious to the whole thing, the cat was sitting on the sill of the next window over. Eventually she noticed the possum and started meowing and pawing at the window. The possum didn't exactly seem to be intimidated -- he yawned twice and sat there for a while before eventually climbing down the bush and sauntering off. (This is East Nashville , after all. A possum's gotta maintain his tough-guy image if he's gonna make it on the street.)

I snapped some pictures, but I don't know if they'll turn out. And still being digitally impaired, I won't know until I finish the roll and take it to be developed. That's just how old-school we are here at Newton's Kumquat. (I have my eye on a Canon Powershot S45, though, so maybe I'll get with the digital program soon.)

Swimsuit issue coming soon!

The National Geographic swimsuit issue, that is. The sober-minded magazine is publishing a 100-year retrospective of the swimsuit, timed to roughly correspond with the publication of the better known swimsuit issue.

Sports Illustrated seems to be dealing with the competition well. "‘As the pioneers of the swimsuit genre," said Rick McCabe, "we welcome National Geographic into the fold."