Christmas of Errors

THERE was a great deal of trouble getting in today, which explains why I did not adopt my pinto horse. The site was down most of the day, but in the times it was up we got this lovely Christmas cover:

Christmas screen

And a special card (I'd just asked Belsnickel what he had done while I was gone, the wiseacre):

Look, a card!

Which opened to reveal this:

Webkinz 2007 Christmas card

Also, there was a note that Santa Kinz had arrived!:

Santa Kinz has come!

This is what was in the box that had been left:

Christmas gifts

Gnawable

WE saw some of the new interactive "Kookeys" today. Now we have seen the Russ "Shining Stars" and these are pretty cute stuffed animals. They even have a dragon, which Webkinz does not have. But I gotta say that the Kookeys I saw are really ugly, even if they do have a giraffe. They are of this fuzzy, ugly material and look a lot like dog toys.

Today's Humor

EITHER my attempt at gem searching has rendered Arte speechless or he has laryngitis.

Arte is speechless

Cute Screencap for the Day

AS this year's Hanukkah celebration draws to a close, Treve (in his autumn sweater, of course) takes a last look at the lighted menorahs.

Treve and Menorahs

Recent Adoptions

I seem to have an animal for every Sunday in Advent as well as other feast days. :-)

NeilMany years ago a fellow named Thorne Smith wrote a book named Topper describing an ordinary man's encounter with a married couple who lived hard and fast and died the same way, in a car accident, and who return to haunt him. It was made into a film starring Cary Grant, and then into a television series, with Leo G. Carroll (yes, "Mr. Waverly" himself) as Topper and Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys as the ghosts, George and Marion Kerby. In the TV series they died in an avelanche while skiing, along with a St. Bernard rescue dog. The dog, Neil, accompanied them on their hauntings; he was also a bit of a dipsomaniac. So it was natural that I'd name a Webkinz of the same breed after Neil.

(The joke continues: this was an adoption that included a Superbed; I picked the Movie Bed because some friends of ours have a teenage son with the same name, and he wants to become a filmmaker.)

BonfireNeil was my St. Nicholas Day adoption. For the second Sunday of Advent, the pet du jour was Bonfire, who is my "Hallowe'en cat"; she's living in the Hallowe'en "bed and breakfast."




TreveAnd then my long-awaited birthday gift, the cutest of them all, my collie, named after Albert Payson Terhune's "Treve." Terhune claimed Treve got this call name from his kennelman Robert Friend, who, when Terhune asked him about it, replied, "Well, a dog has got to know how to 'treve' before he can 'retrieve,' doesn't he?" I'm afraid I'm going to be playing favorites with this one, because not only is the stuffed animal adorable, but the avatar is equally cute!

Winter's Here!

IT snowed last night!

Well, in Webkinz World at least. (Here's it's supposed to be in the low 70s tomorrow through Tuesday. Ugh!) All the yards are covered in snow (but the crops are still growing and the trees in the background still green...very funny looking!).

[hands on hips] Okay, WHERE'S THE CHRISTMAS STUFF?

[a few minutes later] CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS!

Go-Go Goo-Goos

Goo-Goo BerryIN the game "Go-Go Googles," the white google and the pink google attempt to gobble goo-goo berries while also eating the nasty "buzzerflies," who arouse the poor goo-goo berry tree's allergies. Enough buzzerflies on the tree and it sneezes, your game being over.

Some time ago Webkinz had goo-goo berries floating across the screen in the manner of the leaves in Fall Festival and the chocolate medallions a few weeks ago. Well, the goo-goo berries are back, today through December 11; you click on them when they float by and you get a berry to feed to your pet.

Caught one while I was on briefly this morning before work. They certainly are big! The folks who complained about the tiny chocolate medallions will have no trouble seeing and clicking these!

A Hanukkah Glitch

Webkinz MenorahsWEBKINZ is celebrating Hanukkah with a series of three menorahs as they did last year; however, the silver menorah is a new one this year (last year's silver looked exactly like the gold one). They are all supposed to be animated, but when 6 p.m. arrived, only the silver one lit up.

I assume in the programming there is some date and time that tells them when to "light," since I hardly see the Webkinz support staff suddenly "turning them on" manually. I wonder if they forgot to change—or if the change didn't take—the date and times on the other two menorahs. That would certainly explain their darkness.

Christmas Adoption

BelsnickelFOR the First Sunday of Advent, an appropriate adoption: my reindeer (although it might have been more appropriate on St. Nicholas Day, but (a) I couldn't wait that long <g> and (b) St. Nicholas rides a white horse—or a donkey, depending on the country—not a reindeer). I wanted a unique name, so he is "Belsnickel," or "Nicky" for short. (Poor thing: he is best friends with "testcolour4," a very common adoption glitch these days.)

The real "Belsnickel" isn't as benevolent as the stuffed type. According to folklore, Belsnickel is "[a] German Christmas servant (and pseudo-precursor to Santa), his name comes from the two German words "Pelz" (fur) and "Nichol" (Nicholas), meaning "St. Nicholas dressed in fur". The Belsnickel has been variously described as thin or portly, and as a man or woman. His only truly consistent trait appears to be his commitment to justice over holiday good will." He was the one that kept the naughty and nice list and was quite capable over the years of leaving presents for the good children and awarding the naughty ones with coal, nothing, or even a switching!

The stout, vintage Santa decorations you see, with Santa in a robe instead of a suit, are often called "Belsnickels."

Here's the rest of the Belsnickel article.

And a fascinating article about 19th century "Belsnickeling" in Indiana.

Upcoming Fuzz and Other Tales

NO sooner had someone in Adultkinz sprung the news of a new grey wolf Webkinz (one that might be just a virtual pet without a corresponding stuffed animal), Webkinz Insider chimed in with news of four new upcoming stuffed animals: a black poodle, a "velvety" elephant, a grey Arabian, and a tie-dye frog. The black poodle looks like a dyed version of the white poodle, the grey Arabian just a rework of the brown Arabian. The elephant and the frog are a bit different than the other animals as they look a bit more "cartoony" than your regular Webkinz.

Menorahs for Hanukkah have already shown up in the W Shop since Hanukkah starts on the evening of December 4. The skinny on them is that one candle will light on the first night and then another light each night thereafter. Cool.

There is a new promotion in the vein of the Bee Movie promotion last month in which you clicked on the ad and received a bee costume or honey. This one is for the upcoming "Chipmunks" movie—yes, they are remaking yet another old icon, Alvin and the Chipmunks; the 'monks, of course, are CGI and David Seville is played by Jason Lee. Anyway, you click on an ad and receive a chipmunk nose and glasses (dark for Alvin and Theodore, clear for Simon) with one of three hoodies. Alvin's red hoodie also comes with a guitar. Or you get Theodore's favorite food, waffles. The ads were rotating frequently last night; I got at least two of each outfit (more of Theodore's) and eighteen waffles, one which I fed to the pet du jour. They appear scarce tonight.

There were also chocolate medallions floating around again today, in honor of POTM. I never saw a one, but James clicked several.

A Lucia Dog

LucindaSINCE I managed to find a chihuahua that didn't look as if its brains were busting out of the sides of its eyes (the large Webkinz chihuahuas are really bad about this; they have bulges over their eyes that are decidedly unattractive), I adopted one this morning since it is the Pet of the Month.

In deference to her ethnic heritage and also to December holidays, she's named Lucinda after St. Lucia, whose feast day is December 13, and who is celebrated in Scandinavia and also in Sicily. In several countries, Lucia is the gift-giver, not Santa Claus or St. Nicholas.

adoption giftsUnfortunately, I did lousy in the area of POTM adoption special gift: I said before I went into the adoption that the one thing I didn't want was a "Playful Picture." (It's a picture for your wall that moves. Gah.) The next was the candy-striped unicycle and after that was the virtual Newton's cradle and the steam-powered TV. I didn't get the picture, but I got stuck with the dopey unicycle. My top wishes for a POTM item would be a lighthouse or the snow machine, after that the crystalline pond, the star machine, the UFO, or the cuckoo clock. Even the space window, the telescope or the doughnut plant wouldn't be bad.

I stuck the unicycle in my new toy shop, where it will at least fit the decor. Yawn.

I also got the items at right, plus the usual adoption gifts of some food, the chihuahua's special chair, and a halfway decent special prize, the vortex hole.

I really don't plan to buy POTMs that I don't like (so no frogs) or that I already have, so my chances of getting a goody are going to be narrow anyway. Ah, well.

The Guardian of Fall

CiderON Thanksgiving Day I adopted a brown Arabian. Despite hints to name him "Lawrence"—::cough::—I decided that since he'd be living in Autumn Acres he needed an appropriate name.

Hence, "Cider."

And hence his choice of best friends—well, we'll see.

After much debate with myself, I also bought the December Pet of the Month. I have a LilKinz Chihuahua, but I didn't like the larger ones: they looked hydroencephalatic (water on the brain). I said if I found one that didn't look like that, I'd buy it. I did, and I did.

It's Pilgrim Hat Time!

HAPPY Thanksgiving from Webkinz World—a card and gift basket, too.

Didn't Clementine model the Hallowe'en gift, too? The girl gets around.

Thanksgiving basket

Thanksgiving card

Thanksgiving gifts

Clementine in hat

Lucky Seven

YAY! I've made it to seventh level in the Curio Shop, which means Artie now holds up a sign of what time a sale or a rare item is coming up. It's only taken me six months (but then I don't tip the old coot every day).

You'd think after buying a W10,000 bowling alley and a hot air balloon and much other stuff, he would have upped me sooner.

Chocolate...Kisses?

ACTUALLY, they were chocolate ribbons.

Today at six-minute intervals, just like the leaves during the fall festival, a blue ribbon floated across the screen if you were in your room.



If you clicked upon it, you were awarded a "chocolate ribbon" to feed your pet.

CarmichaelON Monday I adopted a polar bear. After deciding not to name him "Iorek" (he's too sweet looking to be a panserbjørn, after all), I instead named him "Carmichael." As part of his room decoration, he will have the gold safe, of course. :-)

(And if you're too young to understand the joke, check here.)

Right now he's sleeping in the winter park along with Kimi the husky; once all the Christmas stuff comes out I can decide where I want to put a room with all the polar animals (the reindeer which I won't activate until after Thanksgiving and also a seal if I can ever find one).

In other news, I finally broke 20,000 points in "Go-Go Googles." Still no trophy. Sigh.

I Had to Wait for the Corn to Die

YES, I "killed" four innocent corn plants to get the frostbitten harvest look I needed for my fall yard.

Welcome to the Autumn Acres Lodge. I'd planned to put my Autumn Paw Print window in here, but it looked sooooo nice in the den next to the fireplace I couldn't bear it. I settled for covering most of the wheat field window with golden elms to try to project the illusion of a fall window. Yes, those are the jack o'lantern tables turned around so they are now pumpkin tables.

I was going to have my collie bunk here, but now I'm wondering if the brown Arabian might work better. The blue ribbon picture would work perfectly over the bed!

Autumn Acres Lodge

Here's the Autumn Acres Pumpkin Patch with sunflowers ready for harvest, and of course the pumpkin patch—nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see! <g>—and the other harvest items. It's taken me so long to post these pictures because I've been waiting for the corn to die.

Autumn Acres Pumpkin Patch

And here's the Fall Shoppe where you can buy items to give your home that fall look. In the big refrigerator are cider and pumpkin soup, and the two wardrobes hold the leaf sweaters, autumn-colored toques, and apple hats. And again those pumpkin tables!

We have a big sale on corn dolls! :-)

Autumn Acres Fall Shoppe

Erm?

This is a sandwich?THIS has to be the funniest looking sandwich I've ever seen (it's one of the prizes on the Wheel of WOW at the moment) , although I have to admit it has two slices and a filling. It's a chocolate sandwich cake? :-)


G'Day, Mate!

RaffertyIN celebration of Daylight Savings Time being over, an event well worth celebrating, IMHO, I adopted my koala today.

He's named after Australian actor Chips Rafferty.

Schuyler seemed fascinated by him. I held him up to the bars of the cage and she nibbled on the black fur of his nose and pecked at the "claws" on his foreleg.

Anyway, as I sat looking at the events for the day, it dawned on me that I OWN a Pet of the Month. I can then do all the POTM activities; I just don't get the cool adoption gifts for adopting in November of this year. Cool as far as I'm concerned.

Webkinz Fall Screen

Fall opening screen

The image was clipped, as you can see in an earlier entry, into three ads for the Fall Festival.

Special Gifts

Barney stands next to the Monkey and Monkey dollYES, truly Googles can stand up! Here's Barney admiring the Monkey and Monkey dummy won on the Wheel of YUM. (No bananas today!)

Incidentally, James adopted the November Pet of the Month tonight, the black bear. He's named "Tupelov." Ganz added two new Pet of the Month gifts, and one was a flying saucer that looked too cool; well, Tupelov's special gift was a flying saucer. He was seen happily flying it around the airfield (the one with two hot-air balloons, an airplane and two flying carpets).

"Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet, Give Me Something Good to Eat..."

IT'S Hallowe'en time in Webkinz World: you can tell from the opening screen that went up a few weeks ago:

Webkinz Halloween cover

Not to mention the Hallowe'en things for sale in the W Shop.

Even the trivia questions for October had been building up to this picture:

Webkinz Halloween calendar trivia

This morning when one logged on, there was a Hallowe'en gift bag in your dock:

Webkinz Halloween gift announcement

And when you logged into your room, you had KinzMail...a card!

Webkinz Halloween card

When you opened your Hallowe'en bag, you got the first three foods, seen in the dock (the other two foods were given out at the fall festival). Maple LaMarsh, my Pet du jour, models the fourth gift, a Frankenstein's monster head.

Webkinz Halloween gifts

And now here's Maple, changed into the bee costume being given away courtesy clicks on ads for The Bee Movie, sitting in the Autumn Acres pumpkin patch—"sincerity as far as the eye can see!"—waiting for the Great Pumpkin.

Webkinz Halloween pumpkin patch

I never liked dolls or dressing them up, and I really don't dress my virtual Webkinz except for little shirts, so did not plan to buy any of the costumes, but James brought home a witch costume for Harry, which I think is adorable as a decoration, so here's Harry downstairs in the foyer waiting for Hallowe'en night on top of our "Great Pumpkin."

Webkinz Halloween Harry and pumpkin

A Name from the Past

I activated my German Shepherd yesterday. There's a bit of history behind his name.

We lived between two small libraries when I was small; the big central Cranston library on Sockanossett Road had not been built yet. Both of these tiny libraries were about a mile and a half away. Since my mom didn't drive and thus we didn't have a second car, I didn't get to either very often until I was old enough to walk the distance, unless I could persuade my dad to put off his Saturday bowling for an hour or two to take me there. I borrowed most of my books from the school libraries.

The Auburn Library was in a storefront next to our bank on Rolfe Street, near City Hall and the high school. They had newer books, but a very small childrens/young adult department. The Arlington Library was up on Cranston Street, going toward the Narragansett brewery. It was an old brick building next to an older wood frame structure, the Hamilton Building, which had once been a school. I got most of my polio boosters at the Hamilton Building, before it burned down and was replaced with an uninteresting modern building.

Arlington had two stories. Upstairs was the adults' library while the childrens' books were downstairs. Today we would not recognize it as being for kids: it was dark and quite adult; no bright colors or murals or plastic tables and chairs. The wooden tables, chairs and shelving were all of dark wood in a room with low lighting (no fluorescents here!).

Today I would give a lot for the old books that were in that downstairs room at Arlington. Possibly they had bound St. Nicholas or Wide Awake issues down there; I know they had the entire collection of Thornton W. Burgess' "Old Mother West Wind" books about forest animals, which I read because I was crazy about anything having to do with animals. I read books about people only reluctantly; I read books like Roller Skates, Little Women, etc. only as I got older. What I wanted to read back then was Walter Farley and Marguerite Henry and Jack O'Brien and Jim Kjelgaard—and Arlington, I remember complaining bitterly to my mother, had books so old that the newest of them had a girl driving a car with a running board! (I was quite scornful about this!)

FlaxHowever, one of the books, despite it being printed in 1931, met with my approval: it was called Flax: Police Dog and I loved it. I did not sound as if it had been written by an American author; I thought it was translated from the German until I did some research on the internet some years ago and found out it was from the Swedish instead.

So I thought it quite natural and proper that my German Shepherd be named after that hero of my youth.

Yesterday, I also found Flax: Police Dog available at a reasonable price from a bookseller in Germany, via ABEbooks.com, so I ordered it. We'll see if re-reading as an adult will be as engrossing, especially since I am now an aficionado of old books.

Heh...

::snort:: I now have so many corn husk dolls that you could call my autumn room "Valley of the Corn Dollies."

The Swift Crackle of Fall Festivals

LEAF collection continues. I missed a total of four yesterday, which was very frustrating. I am dying to do a fall cottage and fall field despite the limitations on Webkinz World, like no fall-colored trees. I think I can achieve my goal with enough wheat sheaves and potted elm trees (although the elms will not go outside) and some creativity, but I keep getting apple cider and toques. No help. The elms seem to be rare, although James managed to amass five so far. I haven't even gotten one yet; the elm I have was a gift from him.

Yesterday was quite funny because I spent a total of 90 minutes playing games with only one leaf spotted. Then about 10:50, I logged on to bowl a few games. For every game I got a leaf, for a total of three, bang-bang-bang one after the other. Amazing!

When Is a Headline Not a Headline?

WHEN it doesn't match the story!

Right now in the "What's New" section of the newspaper, there are three stories. The first talks about a new activity at the Academy.

The second headline announces "Lil' St. Bernard is Back", but talks about being the month of October and time to adopt the Pet of the Month, a frog.

So we come to the third headline, "Fabulous Fall Gifts," which instead talks about activities to do with your pet of the month!

Hellooooo! Wakey-wakey!

Watch for Falling Leaves!

THE Fall Festival started promptly at midnight on Saturday. Fifteen minutes into the hour I had my first gift, some pumpkin soup, and got another twenty minutes after that, the maple leaf sweater.

The leaves seem to be rather meager today. I was on for 90 minutes and only got some cider. Thanks to James giving me his second potted golden-leafed elm tree, however, I now have one of each gift: besides the four already mentioned, there is a funny looking apple hat, a fall toque, a fall poster, a shock of wheat, and a corn-husk cow doll. The food seems to be the most common, so I have two ciders and two soups.

To get these prizes, you must wait for a leaf, which is fairly large, to drift across your screen. It can be yellow, orange, or red (there are reports of brown ones). When you click on it, it makes a crunching sound like someone stepping in a pile of leaves and a prize is issued. The leaves do not seem to appear in the arcade, but are seen chiefly in the rooms, but occasionally at the employment office, in the curio shop, and at Quizzy's trivia area.

Excelsior!

FOUND reindeer today at the Learning Express at the Avenue at West Cobb. They still had some left after I bought two.

I don't think I want to activate mine until the Christmas season, and James' is a gift. So you won't be seeing them for awhile.

Bingoz!

NOT me, I don't play it anymore. But James had a ton of coupons from cards and I've been sending him mine every time there is a freebie. So he used them on two-ball Bingoz last night and got it with two coupons to spare.

Sigh...Just One Trophy, Mr. Scrooge? Please?

I'M terrible at the games compared to everyone else, and this shows because some people have roomfuls of trophies. One person is even making a chess game setup with his trophies.

Unfortunately they don't give trophies for mini-golf and Quizzy's word challenge.

So I'm still trying for a Go Go Googles trophy. I hit my highest score today, 18,001. Still pathetic compared to everyone else. Ah, well. Excelsior and all that.

Spook Brigade

GANZ distributed the remainder of the Hallowe'en theme today, including new wallpaper and floor from last year, and two different foods, pumpkin pops and bat cookies.

So my Hallowe'en "B & B" has undergone a facelift. I love the double windows; I have this capped just as the lightning flashes. Before the lightning flashes, you can see a tree tossing in the howling wind outside. And something lurks in that dungeon—see the red eyes and mouth?

Occasionally red eyes appear in the gaps under the floorboards as well.

Halloween room Mark 2

What's the "Fall Festival"?

WELL, we don't know, but here are the posters advertising it:

Fall festival posters

Last winter, however, they did a "winter festival," with snowflakes flying from "the sky." If you successfully clicked on a snowflake, you could get a snowflake sweater or toque, a hot chocolate, or perhaps even a Polar Plunge poster.

We surmise there will be leaves for fall festival, but not sure what the prizes will be: maybe a fall-colored turtleneck and some type of cap? Perhaps a decorative pumpkin for a room?

It would be too much to hope that they would have fall trees and fall yards/grass for sale...sigh. I'd love to have a "Fall Forever" yard or room!

"Bee Like Barry"

BACK on September 21, I commented on this:

Another item is something a user on WI found one day while doing daily KinzCare. An extra screen was visible. Recently, WW upgraded to a full-screen format. Instead of having the games and rooms be full screen, little "advertisements" for other games on WW appeared at the side of the screen. Some of the advertisements were PSAs, telling the kids playing to brush their teeth, eat fruit, go outside and play, etc.

On the page this person saw, there was a box you could check to get actual advertisements for real products in the spaces where the Webkinz World ads were. If you accepted advertisements, you would get an extra gift at the beginning of the month.
Well, an advertisement appeared this morning, without a checkbox appearing beforehand.

It was immediately noticeable, for The Bee Movie, which apparently has Jerry Seinfeld as a voice. Hm.

However, later in the day I checked out AdultKinz to see what folks were saying about the ad and someone had some surprising news: if you changed screens enough times eventually one of two white ads for The Bee Movie came up. One netted you a free pot of honey, the other a bee costume (shirt, pants, shoes and bee antenna headgear).

If Ganz wanted to test out if people would accept ads, I think they have their answer. People were crazy to have the bee costume. One adult clicked so many times she accumulated 57 costumes. Whoa.

I've been happy with one costume set and two pots of honey.

The movie doesn't open until November 2; it will be interesting to see if the ads—especially the freebie ones—stay up until that time.

Crown Me!

Neville models Crown of WonderMY God! Finally!

I turned up that darn "Volcano Viscose" this morning and finally have a Crown of Wonder. Since Neville was "on call" this morning, he gets to model it.

It doesn't do much. You can't even put it out for display. (Hey, Ganz! How about hat racks?)

But there it is.

Corrections Needed

QUIZZY'S has always been the place to "show your smarts" on Webkinz. It's a series of age-oriented questions in different subjects that you answer in groups of fifty. There is also a daily question on the calendar, plus a question of the day.

But whoever is doing the questions hasn't done their homework, we are finding. A few weeks ago there was a science question, "What causes lightning?" The correct answer was supposedly "thunder." Huh?

But today's question takes the cake: "Where is the Grand Canyon?" The correct answer was supposed to be "Colorado." Um, guys...it's in Arizona. I know not just because I can read a map, but because I've been there. Maybe the confusion stems from the fact that the Colorado River runs through the Grand Canyon, but it's not in Colorado. Sheesh.

The Hallowe'en B&B

DUFFY watches "Monkey & Monkey on the Mausoleum television.

I thought the greenery was appropriate since they are "spider plants." Heh.

Duffy watches TV in the Halloween B&B

In the Pink (And White)

SOME peculiar little creatures live in Webkinz World.

The Zingoz, who are vaguely teardrop or round in shape, come in various colors. Wacky is a masochistic little fellow who doesn't mind being booted with a club in order to "go the distance" or hit the target in various games. Zacky searches for treasure. Other Zingoz toss pies with abandon.

Zangoz are lumplike creatures who like to hit Zingoz.

Then there is a little critter called a google. Googles are mostly white, although a rare pink googles exists in the game "Go Go Googles," and look like ducks, with yellow beaks and webbed feet. However, they have no wings. A google asked to wave just gives you a cross look.

The stuffed version is darn cute.

BarneyWhich explains why I bought one.

Naturally, what would one name a google if one was interested in history? Correct: Barney, after "Barney Google," the big-eyed comic strip character that first appeared in 1919 and who had a song written about him in 1923. He was not the first comics character to become famous, but he was probably the first to have his own song. Barney Google owned a race horse named Spark Plug, who was called "Sparky" for short and who lent his nickname to one of the most famous of comic artists, Charles Schultz, creator of "Peanuts." You can read about Barney Google's career here.

Maple LaMarshI said when I adopted the Persian cat and named her "Hilary Booth" that I should buy a pink poodle, a most flamboyantly colored creature, and name her Maple LaMarsh, after the flamboyant organist/actress with the Brooklyn twang who kept the joint jumping on Remember WENN. So welcome also to "Mapes."

Fruity

A couple of days ago, someone noticed that the little ads at the side that said "eat fresh fruit" or "an apple a day" had "click here" tags on them. They reported that if you clicked the tag, you were sent somewhere and got free fruit.

So I was a bit frustrated this morning clicking on these links and having nothing happen. Except that when I looked in my dock this evening there were blueberries, a pear, three apples, and an orange that I didn't buy.

So I guess it works after all. LOL.

Long Down...But Back With Surprises

THE "surprise" coming in two weeks is here: Kinzville Academy. Your pet can try out three courses, and then sign up for three a day. Apparently during the winter there will be competitive games held and the courses taught at the academy will help you to compete.

If that wasn't enough to cause a flurry, most of the Hallowe'en items are up in the W Shop. I love the glass-topped pumpkin tables and the haunted organ.

Hmn. Wonder which pet should live in that room? I already have a wizarding them for Harry, my black cat.

A Wonderful Gift!

LOOK what a super user on Adultkinz sent me for my park—a beautiful fountain to complete it.

Hilary Booth admires something so cultured and aristocratic.

Snowman Park With a Fountain!

Growing Pains

THE first Webkinz "Pet of the Month" debuted today.

Let's say there were glitches. :-) About half the people that registered a frog this morning didn't get their "Pet of the Month" goodies.

I'm a little less enthusiastic about adopting a POTM now because it has been revealed that you don't get to pick your exclusive item; it's just assigned like a special adoption gift. I really want that snow machine for my winter park (and the crystalline pond would look cool in my fantasy forest; the star machine wouldn't be bad, either). Eh! reaction to "Donut Plant," unicycle, lurking pond, and moving picture. James wants the outer space window for his science room.

However, I did buy a pig due to the rumor of it being POTM for December. It really looks more like a Muppet pig, one of the ones from "Pigs in Space," especially the eyes.

Someone on Webkinz Insider reports finding the brown Arabian horse, which isn't officially released yet (the newest pet is the German Shepherd; the virtual pet comes with its own police car <g>) and its code won't work. The other official pet release right now is a Lil Kinz Basset Hound.

So Close and Yet So Far

TODAY'S Gem of the Day was the Booger Nugget (what a dreadful name for such a pretty iridescent stone!) and I actually found it. This is the next to the last gem I need for a Crown of Wonder.

Now if I can only find that wretched Volcano Viscose. Both of them have been eluding me since August.

Thieves

WE were in BJs this morning shopping for the essentials of life (read "milk" LOL) and stopped to look at their small collection of Webkinz. James picked up one of the Dalmatians and noticed someone had stolen the tag out of the plastic pouch.

(Incidentally, we reported this to the management and they didn't even know what the tag was for!)

Goin' to a Garden Party

ACTUALLY, it was out in the yard.

Webkinz informed me it was Peppercorn's birthday and sent her a slice of cake. We "threw a party" in the picnic area. Since in Webkinz you can't have your cake and eat it too, I cut and pasted her cake on the picnic table, not to mention cut and pasted the balloons as well. They cannot leave the rooms, which I find silly.

Weenie waves from the grill where she has taken over the cooking and Clementine is getting the Zingoz bubble blower to blow some bubbles. Kimi is of course seeking a cool seat! Meanwhile, Gibson checks out the sundial and pond. Sterling sits next to Peppercorn, Eclipse is across from her, and Cubby is seated across from Sterling.

Peppercorn's birthday

Home Before Dark

THIS is the new game that premiered today on Webkinz World. The object of the game is to get your pets home before the sun rises. It is a version of James' old favorite, Rocket Mania, on PopCap's game site.

Webkinz Are What Happens When You Make Other Plans

SO there we were at BJs Wholesale Club to get milk, spam, lunchmeat, shredded cheese, and SlimFast bars. (They didn't have them. I'm bummed.)

As we passed the toy aisle, we saw shelves of Webkinz. Wow. I didn't know any of the wholesale clubs would be carrying something like this. They had Dalmatians, hippos, rabbits, what they call a Yorkie that is really a Maltese, and pigs.

OliverWe were walking on toward the books when James said, "I'm going back for a leopard." Pause. "Do you want one?"

Well...yes. [eyes roll]

At first I looked at his beady black eyes and thought "Max." (I remember all the jokes on Get Smart! about Max's beady black eyes...LOL.) But when it finally came down to the adoption I named him "Oliver" instead. Why? I dunno. I liked the name Oliver.

I bought him a big jungle room behind the Fantasy Forest.

James named his leopard Spitfire.

So he goes off to his meeting and I run off with my Borders coupon and other Michael's coupon. When I get back the mail has run. Included in the loot is the package with the husky I ordered last week since I was tired of going from store to store looking for one. As is typical of life, I'm sure, huskies will start popping up in every store that sells Webkinz.

KimiSo I put the husky in today, too. She's staying in my Winter Park (which is really a room) for now until I figure out what I want to do with her.

And before you Susan Conant fans rebel, yes, I know the real Kimi is an Alaskan Malamute, not a husky. :-) I just thought it was a particularly cool name for an Arctic-type dog.

Up, Up and Away!

FINALLY! A hot-air balloon! I've been dying to own one.

Actually I bought three, hoping someone will trade for one. :-) One is in storage and the other two are parked "at the fairgrounds."

Since Webkinz doesn't have any type of fairground-type accessories, I've had to make up a lot.

In front Gaudior is taking a hot air balloon ride (there's a seat for the proprietor, of course; I just don't have anyone else there). To the right is the concession stand selling pinwheels and garden Zingoz (I wanted balloons there, too, but the Welcome balloons that come with each Webkinz don't go outside, darnit). In the back at right is a "stage" (the beach bench was the only big thing I found that would go outside) and some benches for watching the performance. There's a tower to survey the countryside and in the left corner the judging area for the flowers and the pumpkins (guess which pumpkin will win! LOL). The sandsculpture Ws are supposed to be the fairground gates.

Gaudior at the fairground

Balloon Dartz Again

LUCKILY I happened to read some posts in Adultkinz before doing Balloon Dartz—it's having conniptions again, from what I understand. I only aimed at the bottom row because apparently it was the only one working. Even then it was funny: I hit the balloon exactly in the middle and the balloon above it to the left was the one that burst—the one I hit stayed intact with the dart sticking in it!

Many, Many Things Going On

WEBKINZ World has been a busy place. First came this piece of news from Webkinz Insider, passed on to them directly by the folks at Ganz:

• There will be some Cheeky news in the new year, but no, we are NOT re-releasing the retired Cheeky Dog. Once retired, a pet stays retired.

• A major new area will be opening in Webkinz World in two weeks. It will be for everyone. It's not feature code related at all.

• Secure trading is on the way. No more KinzPost trading.


This sounds as if there may be some other Cheeky animals (the Cheeky Dog and Cat are presently retired, but the Cheeky Monkey is still in release) or perhaps a Lil Kinz Cheeky Dog or Cat).

The trading is a big step for Ganz. They have said in the past that they did not want any trading on Webkinz, but the fans have done it themselves via KinzPost. Unfortunately some people have been scammed, although many places have set up what they hope are secure trading sites, with traders getting reputation points when they participate in a good trade and being blacklisted if they cheat someone. I suppose they figure if Webkinz users are going to trade anyway, they will help supervise it. I have several things I would love to trade, but am still wary.

Yesterday WW was down until after 10 a.m. When it finally reopened, a new theme was unveiled—the first half of the "Atlantis" theme which is done in dark blues and golds, which I assume is preparatory for the marine pets coming out in November (the penguin, the seal, and the turtle)—and also a new tab was added to the dock area where your items and food can be kept: Actions. You can make your pet do three actions: smile, giggle, and wave, plus you can "record" these actions into repeatable sequences.

Also, in the "W Shop," you could see the exclusives that are supposed to come with the Pet of the Month.

This last was particularly interesting because for a while the items had prices on them and folks could buy them. Some people bought one of everything and several of one or two things before someone at Ganz realized the glitch and shut the site down again. When people returned, the exclusive items were gone and their KinzCash returned—except for a few folks who seemed to have escaped the purge by having the items enroute in KinzPost.

Several of the items looked pretty interesting, especially the snow-making machine—I'd really like that myself! I'm hoping that the two older animals I bought and put away may be POTM in the future so I may have it and also the crystalline pond and perhaps the star-making machine. Maybe it's even worth adopting my virtual frog pet for. :-) James is holding a bear for November and wants the outer-space window from the Dex Dangerous game (it has spaceships flitting around occasionally).

The second statement, about the new area, is particularly interesting because there is a user on one of the Webkinz forums who knows the particular programming language that Ganz uses for the website and also knows how to access the site. This person has discovered, for instance, the new avatars for the upcoming Webkinz and what looks like ideas for another theme (Japanese!). Some animations have been found online which closely tie in with the new "actions" and it looks like there will eventually be eighteen of them, including "dance" and "jump."

But this person also found some images referencing what looks like it is possibly the new area premiering in two weeks: it will be some type of school where the Kinz learn skills and earn more KinzCash. You can even hire a tutor. Perhaps the actions may be used in this school?

Another item is something a user on WI found one day while doing daily KinzCare. An extra screen was visible. Recently, WW upgraded to a full-screen format. Instead of having the games and rooms be full screen, little "advertisements" for other games on WW appeared at the side of the screen. Some of the advertisements were PSAs, telling the kids playing to brush their teeth, eat fruit, go outside and play, etc.

On the page this person saw, there was a box you could check to get actual advertisements for real products in the spaces where the Webkinz World ads were. If you accepted advertisements, you would get an extra gift at the beginning of the month.

I know many parents like Webkinz because there are no advertisements for other products. I know at least one parent who cancelled his child's account due to the WW advertisements now appearing on the right. I'm wondering how this move might go over with parents. Will the kids ask for the ads just to get the free item? Will enough parents allow it to make it feasible?

For my part I don't know if I would check the box or not. A free item sounds tempting and I rarely pay attention to advertisements anyway. Most television commercials go right over my head unless they are clever, and then I remember the commercial and not what it's advertising, so I'm a dead loss to advertisers! I'd be more worried that they would be loud or slow down Webkinz World.

"The Girls"

I'D considered not adopting my poodle for a while, until I might learn if it were a Pet of the Month. But since I already had the room fixed up for her and her roommate—what the heck!

These are "the girls" and they have a pink and pastel blue room full of all those girly things I hate. :-)

ClementineThe poodle is "Clementine," or "Clemmy" for short, and she is in part named after Winston Churchill's wife and in part named after...dare I call it a character?...in a book. In John Verney's Friday's Tunnel, February Callendar has a "green knitted poodle" made for her by the wife of the local doctor. This poodle is named "Clementine," and the illo of the toy, linked here, reminded me so much of the face of the Webkinz poodle that the name was a natural.

HilaryMiss Persian needed a very ladylike, aristocratic name and what better than the name of the diva of radio station WENN? She looks like picture hats and long satin gloves; if Hilary Booth was a cat, I could easily see her as a Persian (rather than Calico Jones, cat detective, that is!). (I used the full name so no one would think she was named after any other Hilary.)

Although...LOL...I don't think the real Miss Booth would be fond of going fishing.

I'm really, really not a pink person, but I'm so awfully tempted to adopt a pink poodle and name her "Maple LaMarsh." The color would be as flamboyant enough to go along with the pet!

There was a bit of anxiety after the adoption: just as I was adjusting a chair in the room, Webkinz World crashed. It had already been down until almost eleven o'clock (more about this later) and suddenly went down again. It's happened to other people before, so I was concerned that I might lose some of my adoption gifts. But all was well.