LAST CALL: The whale-watching season is two-thirds...

LAST CALL: The whale-watching season is two-thirds over, but there are still plenty of the gentle giants to be seen (F1A). Despite recent rains, the season is going swimmingly, says Mark Connally, who owns Island Packer Cruises. . . . The worst year for weather was 1995, when the company canceled 85% of its January cruises. This year, the cancellation rate is about 20%. Connally’s worst-case scenario “is when we call it wrong, then have to turn around and come back. But another worst case is if I call it off and it’s a beautiful day out there.�

ANCIENT HISTORY: They’re not as plentiful as they used to be, but there are still fossils to discover around Ventura County (F1A). And if you can’t find any the old-fashioned way, you can buy some this weekend at the Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show at the fairgrounds. . . . Meanwhile, the area’s most notable fossil, the Pygmy mammoth found two years ago on Santa Rosa Island, is still being prepared for exhibit in South Dakota. Scientists are nearing completion of the process, said Don Morris, an archeologist with the Channel Islands National Park.

THE BIG 1-0: Marie Anderson turns 10 today. That’s 40 to those of us not born on Leap Year Day. Anderson, a secretary at Community Memorial Hospital, plans to celebrate this weekend with her twin sister. . . . The year the sisters turned 16, their mother threw a surprise party and had all the participants dress like 4-year-olds, Anderson said. . . . The leap-year birthday “is kind of making turning 40 a little less traumatic.�