Topics--and high speed internet connection

I am always fascinated in the variety of topics collected by all of you. The sheer number of unique collecting ideas that everyone comes up with just proves that philately is a completely individualized pursuit.
Collecting a topic or a theme can be pursued in a very specialized manner, or in a more lighthearted way as a diversion perhaps from one's more specialized country or other collections. Within my own family, my children and I collect or have collected at various times, horses, giraffes, medical/health, dragons, Lunar New Years/Eastern zodiac, turtles, items depicting the settlement of Western North America, World War II, and I'm sure I'm probably missing a few.
Amongst the collectors I trade with, I have met over the years collectors who fancy women on stamps, chess, music and ballet, trains, monkeys, Bible- related art, Jewish history, orchids, dinosaurs, Madonna and Child artwork, and many other varied topics. While pondering this plethora of creative collecting themes, I thought it might be fun to see what sites I could find that are related to specific topics, and list some of them here for you.

Here are a few excellent topical references that I came across:

Prehistoric Animals:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/delacroix/

Birds (this one is very comprehensive):
http://www.bird-stamps.org/

Famous Women:
http://www.geocities.com/ZOMIRP/st-galer-aa-okvir.htm

Chess:
http://www.faulquemont.com/phil.html

Sea Turtles:
http://www.2xtreme.net/~nlinsley/

There are many, many more sites about topicals, and I chose these for their breadth of subject and because they all dealt with topics which I had mentioned above.
I would love to hear about everyone's topics, especially any unique or highly creative ones.


The other thing I wanted to mention is that our little dead end road on the mountaintop finally has DSL high speed internet connection. That is why I haven't posted in over a week. They've been working on the phone lines on our street and my service has been spotty at best. But that should all be over now, and I am finally set up with a DSL connection and a wireless router so that the whole family can use the net. My dear friend Bryan went out of his way to come over today just as the phone technician was finishing installing the filters on our connection box. He gave us the router we needed, set everything up, and made sure it was all working properly. He has a computer company, and built and maintains 4 computers for our family. Thanks, Bryan! :o) That should allow me to post pictures here much more easily, and keep in touch with everyone as well.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com