Karyl Cunningham

A primer on pet rodents: rats and gerbils

2012-02-10T16:07:00.003-05:00

I know a do a lot of talking about cats and dogs on this blog, but did you know that rodents make great pets too? Usually when we think of rats and mice, we don't see them in a positive light. They chew holes in our walls, they carry disease - why would anyone willingly bring one into their home? But pet rodents are not the disease-carrying pests we wage war on every spring and fall. I myself have kept rats and gerbils, and so these are the two types of rodent I want to dicuss today.

Rats are often portrayed in cartoons as dirty, scruffy, vicious animals - often playing the role of the villain (exceptions, of course, being Master Splinter and the rats of NIMH). Pet rats, however, are quite the opposite. They are very fastidious creatures, and can in fact be very loving. The rats you find in the pet store are descendants of the wild Norway Rat, domesticated and bred with many coat patterns, including the plain brown you would expect in a wild rat. The sex of your rat can affect its personality to some degree - for example I tend to prefer females as they remain more active over their life span. All of the male rats I have known get a bit fatter and lazier as they age.

Rats are fairly easy to keep, but there are a few things you should know. First is that while they can be kept alone, most rats are social and prefer to be kept in groups. If you buy only one, you MUST be certain to spend plenty of time with your rat, as much like any other pet they are happiest when they have someone to play with. If you decide to get your rat a friend later rather than buy them all from the same place, you may wish to look up some articles to help make sure the transition goes smoothly. Here is a brief article with the basics on introducing new rats: http://ratguide.com/care/behavior/introducing_rats.php

Gerbils are another popular rodent in pet stores, and they, too, should never be kept alone. Gerbils are VERY social animals, and they tend to become vey unhappy very quickly when isolated. I recommend buying at least two from the same place - preferrably related. I had been told in the past that males get along easier than females, so I have had only male gerbils thus far. Remember that gerbils are nocturnal, so if a lot of noise at night will drive you crazy, I would recommend keeping them someplace other than the bedroom.

I always had two cages for my gerbils - the living cage and the play cage - but you may wish to instead have a larger home where they can always play. You don't want to just let them out on the floor like you can with most rats, as the gerbil is more likely to get loose by the sheer fact that it is smaller and quicker. Make sure to change up their play equipment often, as not only will they chew it up no matter what it's made of, but the change keeps them interested and active. They will readily use hamster balls and tubes, however if you use an exercise wheel make sure you buy one that does NOT have an open design, as the tail can get caught in the spaces and snap off. For this reason it is also very important that you not pick up your gerbil by the tail - if you have no other way to catch it, catch it by the base of the tail ONLY, never at the end, as much like a gecko a gerbil will sometimes allow its tail to break off as a defensive mechanism. Unlike a gecko, however, the gerbil's tail WILL NOT grow back.

Remember that all rodents are chewers, so keep anything you don't want chewed on out of reach, and make sure loose play is well supervised. Always have something in the cage for your rodents to chew on. Not only is it a natural instinct to chew, but much like rabbits, their teeth can get too long and start to cause problems if they do not have sufficient chew toys. Chewy treats are also a good idea - check with your breeder or veterinarian, or look online for lists of safe foods, but anything you see in their regular food mixes can also be fed as treats. My gerbils always loved banana chips and sunflower seeds, and would take them from my hand when offered.

The cage is another important thing to consider for both species. While a smaller cage or aquarium may be fine for gerbils, or rats if you plan to spend lots of time letting them out to play, if you are going to be gone for long stretches you may wish to invest in a larger ferret cage for your rats. This will allow them to have room to move around and explore without worrying that they might get out and get hurt, or chew on anything that they shouldn't. If using an aquarium or cage with a bedding pan, DO NOT use a sawdust bedding for any of your rodents. Common types of sawdust such as cedar and pine can cause severe respiratory problems in small mammals. I would recommend either corncob bedding, or aspen bedding which do not put off a lot of dust. Shredded cardboard or paper-based cat litters may also be used. I also recommend giving them either a tissue or a bit of cloth to chew up for nesting material, so they have something soft to curl up in and sleep.

Has anyone else out there had rodents for pets? What care tips can you offer for new rodent owners? What are your favorite pet rodents, and what stories can you tell about your pets?

Den size and crating

2011-07-29T12:19:00.004-04:00

Sometimes when I try to explain animal behavior to commenters on Youtube, I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall. Most often I find myself trying to explain things on a friend's channel - see, she has a fox. No, not from an "exotic pet" breeder. Hers is a fur farm rescue. She used to have two, but recently lost one due to old age. I do not often condone the owning of wild animals, however in some cases where it's clear they are being properly cared for, I do admire the caretaker's ability to bond with a non-domestic critter. This friend of mine is one of those people. She made a point of learning her foxes' habits and patterns, both in terms of how foxes in general act, and their individual personalities. And I do believe animals have to be treated as individuals.

To get back on the subject, the other day she posted a video showing her fox's sleeping quarters at night, telling her viewers that the fox got scared alone at night now that her companion is gone. The new sleeping quarters consist of a large dog crate with a few good inches of straw along the bottom. Naturally, one of the commenters started going on about how the cage was too small, and how did she know the fox got scared anyway?

Enter the animal behavior nut, who still has not gotten a response. I tried explaining first of all that if you know an animal and its normal behavior patterns, you also learn to know what abnormal behaviors mean. I don't know about you, but I find it VERY easy to determine when my animal companions are scared. Besides which, it is already a known fact that this particular fox has terrible separation anxiety.

As for the cage, it was plenty big enough for the fox to pace in a circle if she so wished. However, this is not her full time enclosure. This is her sleeping place. Unlike most foxes, this little oddball seems to have synced up to her human momma's diurnal sleep schedule. If anything, that cage is too BIG. Anxious animals tend to like close quarters. It's comforting. In the wild, a fox's den is only really big enough to stand up and turn around in. Even for a denning mother, babies only take up so much space. Sound familiar? Yes, that's exactly the guidelines you are given when picking out a dog crate. The smaller space feels like a den, which is where an animal goes to feel safe. So no, the cage is most certainly not too small for a nighttime sleeping arrangement.

Please, PLEASE, before you try and harass someone about how they keep their animals, take the time to both research what you're talking about, and to find out more about the person. A single video is only a small slice of the day. Trying to accuse people of abuse for things that are not will never help your cause. It diminishes the reality of actual abuse that goes on every day, and worries people that if they vote in favor of anti-abuse laws, that it will also ban perfectly acceptable practices that are misunderstood.

On an unrelated note, I am very proud of Anubis. For months we have been trying to show him that the other two litterboxes in the house are also his to use. Finally after this last time we dumped and hosed them out, he has started using the one in the middle of the house. It only took a few good cleanings and James putting him in it to tell him that he could go to the bathroom there. Part of the issue, we think, was that it smelled so overwhelmingly of Simba that he had written it off as her territory, and someplace he wasn't to go.

Writer's block=repost.

2011-04-06T20:44:00.001-04:00

I seem to be at a loss for anything to post lately, so instead I am reposting an entry from an old forgotten blog, posted back in January of 2007.

We had a slight adventure this morning.

Remember how dad and I stuffed the holes in the floor so the mice couldn't get in? Well we stuck glue traps just in case, so I could find out if they were able to get back in.

This morning I caught something.

See, I had gone into the cupboard to get a plastic baggie to take something to work. Wasn't in any rush to shut the door - cat seems afraid of going under there anyway. Go to put my shoes on, and finish with the first. I hear this frantic scraping noise. Get up to go look - it's coming from the cupboard. I duck down to peek inside, and out shoots the cat.

As soon as I noticed the glue trap was gone, I realized what had happened.

So, off I go, chasing the cat across the house with one shoe on. Cat runs into the spare bedroom and under the bed. I follow to try and catch her. Cat runs out of the bedroom - gets one of my shoes stuck to her somehow in addition to the mouse trap, and starts running faster.

The cat loses the shoe somewhere en route to the living room, and hides under a stand. Now that she's cornered I can finally grab her to pull the trap off her foot. Thankfully, these are the ones with what I call "snot glue" on them, rather than the flypaper type stuff, so it's fairly easy just to pull her foot out of the goop, and it sticks to itself so there's not much residue left on her paw.

That was my morning... all before breakfast. And with only one shoe on.

Hopefully my cat will forgive me for laughing at her expense.

Pets and stress

2011-02-12T15:56:00.003-05:00

"Into each life a little rain must fall" - or so the saying goes. No matter how well your life is going, there's bound to be some stressful moments. We all have them, and we all need to deal with them in one way or another. But many of us forget how our stress can affect our pets.

James and I are no exception. Both our cats are very good at sensing when something is wrong with either of us, and usually they take it in stride and try to stick by us with purrs and snuggles to try and make it all better. Lately, though, since we both manage to injure ourselves slipping around on the ice and snow, we haven't been able to get out and blow off steam with a good dose of exercise like we normally can. So, naturally, we've taken to ranting a bit while at home to air out complaints in private, whether they be about work, politics, or whatever happens to be going on. Now, this is a normal practice and one most wouldn't think anything of. It's not like we're yelling at or about each other, just grumping about those pet peeves that we can normally just walk off.

The trick comes when you've got a cat who, by our reckoning, seems to have the approximate intelligence of a human toddler. There's a reason most people don't like to let Junior see Mommy and Daddy yelling - it upsets him, and for a kid that young it can be hard to explain. Anubis is very much the same, except for him, it's impossible to explain given that you can't just sit down and have a talk with your cat to tell him what's going on. He may understand a bit of language (no, down, good kitty, food, that sort of thing - especially food, that's the important one), but he has his limits, it's just not within his scope.

Also much like a child, Anubis has a habit of acting out when he is confused and upset. Many animals do, in fact, for various reasons. The problem being that although a child can tell you what's wrong - your pet can't. So when Anubis started chasing after Simba when she was clearly done playing, and trying to play too rough, at first we couldn't understand why he had suddenly stopped being polite. More than this, he was not listening when daddy told him "no", which is a very rare occurrence.

It was just this morning that we discovered the reason, as we had the time to really notice the succession of events. We were having a good rant, raised voices and all and after staring back and forth between us for a moment, Anubis made his way straight toward Simba and started swatting at her. The light bulb turned on. He thought we were yelling at each other. Last time daddy got yelled at by somebody that much, daddy had to move. Besides which, he is used to seeing us quite a bit calmer around each other, so the change was cause for confusion. It was not normal, and not-normal things very often make pets very upset. So when he heard us yelling, he ran off to do something he knew would make daddy come get him. It was a predictable reaction, and one he had some degree of control over, as well as a way of getting attention. Of course, we have no way of explaining to him that we aren't really fighting and that his position in the household is not in danger, so in order to change his behavior, we have to change ours.

So we have decided from now on if there's something worth yelling about, it needs to be done outside of the house as much as possible so Anubis won't go taking his confusion and frustration out on Simba.

That's part of the trick of handling behavior problems in pets - the behavior doesn't always match the cause as much as you might think, you have to do a bit of sleuthing and really figure out what changed around the time the problem started. Sometimes it is as simple as pooping in your shoes because you suddenly started going to work or school every day again after a long time of being home. Sometimes it's more complicated. And from my experience, the smarter your pet is, the more complicated their problems can be, not least of which because they can come up with much more creative ways of getting into trouble.

Yet another overdue cat update

2010-11-08T21:39:00.001-05:00

The cats are getting along beautifully now. They even play with each other, which I never thought Simba would do. Even as a kitten she wasn't big on rough-and-tumble play with other cats so this was a pleasant surprise. She's getting real exercise again, and it seems her cystitis has gone away. She's more relaxed than I've seen her in a while, not least of which, I'm sure, because she now has somebody to keep her company when we're not home. Anubis is much the same. He still wants to spend time with daddy, and she still wants to spend time with momma, but they're not as desperate when we first get home now.

Today, though, we had our first miscommunication in a while. Simba seems to have a little bit of a bug - started getting a bit sluggish about the same time we did, when the weather changed to cold quite suddenly. Even indoors she feels it. Well, Anubis wants to play and with Simba not feeling well she kept trying to slink away from him quietly after a minor slap-fight by the box (which by the body language was play - she ran with him a couple times but she can't take much right now so after the little playfight she was done). He wouldn't take the hint - kept trying to chase. He cornered her under the window seat and she hissed at him. I had to remind him that means enough and it's time to be done playing for the night. So she made her way over to me, glanced at him a few times with that look she gives me when she thinks she's upset me and didn't mean to, so I reassured both of them and told him next time to listen when she says she's done. I know that last part sounds silly but he does understand a certain amount of human speech, and the tone clues him in to what I'm getting at if nothing else.

I'm trying to teach Simba now that he's learned her cue for being done with play is jumping onto the arm of the couch and curling up. If she does that he seems to leave her alone.

Overdue Kitty Update

2010-09-30T21:18:00.001-04:00

I suppose I owe you an update by now, since it's been a while. Between being busy and being ill (illness being the latest in delays) I haven't had much time to type up a blog post. However the antibiotics have kicked in and I think I'm up to at least offering a brief update on what has been going on.

Firstly, Simba's cystitis seems to have subsided for now, which is a relief. It isn't something that's serious or fatal, but it does cause her pain so of course I hate to see her like that. Thankfully my vet does not seem bothered at all by my requests for news on possible new treatments every time we're in his office. So far it still looks like Diazepam is her best option, though it only really treats the symptom and not the disease.

Simba has stopped hissing at Anubis almost entirely. She will still hiss every so often if he startles her (or runs over her when he has turned the hallways into a racetrack), and we had to chide her for hissing at him the other night without due cause. Well, I'm sure she considered it due cause - we had a large cardboard box sitting in the living room and she decided it belonged to her, and her alone. That was quickly corrected and she (perhaps a bit grudgingly) learned to share.

Anubis is now frequently found asleep on the bed. He and Simba seem to trade places - one on the bed, one on the cedar chest. On rare occasion they will both be on the bed. They have yet to curl up together, but they're coming closer.

It seems they have come to some sort of agreement about acceptable play, too. Rather than pouncing, Anubis has settled for playing something that looks like tag with her across the house. One cat will start poking at the other, at which point the second cat will take off running. They usually only chase back and forth a couple of times, but we're making progress.

All in all they seem very comfortable with each other now. Simba even uses Anubis' litterbox and drinks from his water bowl. I'm pretty sure I've caught Anubis eating from Simba's food bowl once or twice. He regularly goes into the bedroom, she regularly goes into the office - before they were very wary of entering each other's "safe zones". And sometimes when James and I go to sleep at night, Simba retreats to the office and curls up in Anubis' cat carrier, with him sleeping on the chair nearby.

Update on the cats

2010-07-05T20:59:00.001-04:00

Anubis and Simba are doing well, aside from a continued flareup of Simba's interstitial cystitis.

She has been to the vet to make sure she hasn't developed an infection, aside from that we just wait. She almost got past it, then the fireworks this weekend shot her stress levels up again so we're back to fighting it. Unfortunately our vet also advised me there is still no research that has shown any promise in prevention of her condition. The issue is apparently cause because the cat has holes in the glucosamine layer along the urinary tract - studies have at least shown this much. However the research also, sadly, shows that simply supplementing glucosamine into the diet does not repair these holes and therefore does not help the issue. He did tell me there is some current research into whether a daily glucosamine cath will help, but even if the research shows promise I don't think I'd ever use that method. Unless they found that a one-time cath of glucosamine would help, it's a matter of the cure being worse than the disease. For now, as much as she hates me scruffing and medicating her, the Diazepam does work.

Unfortunately the cystitis causes pain, and the pain causes Simba to be, I suspect, a bit moodier than she would otherwise be. We were making good strides in getting her to like Anubis, but now she's gotten to where she is confusing the heck out of him. Sometimes she doesn't mine him sitting next to her, sometimes she'll hiss. We're trying to give her a firm "no" anytime she hisses for no good reason (ie: he hasn't startled her or chased her or, his new odd habit, stared at her on the litterbox). We're getting there, but slowly.

It doesn't help that Anubis has decided that with James and I out of the house much of the day, he needs a new playmate, and Simba's it. Now, even as a kitten Simba wasn't much into rolling around playing with the other cats. She likes to play with toys, she likes to snuggle. But she's not big on the pounce-and-play with other kitties. Anubis, on the other hand, likes to roughhouse a bit. He doesn't understand why she keeps hissing at him for pouncing after her. After all, he wants to play, why shouldn't she? Unfortunately his boredom has reached levels where he's jumping out at her on her way to the litterbox, on the way to her food bowl... pretty much all the time if he sees her. Which, of course, means he gets hissed at again. For some reason, though, she's running instead of her normal approach I've seen her use with every other new animal I had in the house - standing her ground and swatting. We're quite convinced that all it would take is one warning swat for him to get the picture, but she just won't swat him. So the learning process is requiring us to catch him in the act and stop him, and make sure he knows we're saying no to him without her thinking we're telling HER no for something. It's all getting rather complex and confusing, but they're both smart cats, we just need to make sure we're consistent. It's not that he's doing anything BAD, just Simba won't scold him properly herself but she clearly wants him to back off, and if he wants to make a friend we have to teach him how to interact a bit more calmly.

See, Anubis has never had a kitty playmate before. Not since he was a kitten himself. So he doesn't really know his manners as well as he probably should. He knows not to be mean, he just doesn't know that other cats don't like to be pounced every second of every day.

On the upside, they have come nose to nose a few times. Once she walked right up and sniffed him while he was sleeping. Simba is still occasionally hissing for no reason (we assume the times she hisses are when she's in more pain), but it's happening less often now. Anubis has gotten brave enough to come into the bedroom once or twice a day now - Simba has yet to start wandering regularly into the office, but we're thinking we may have to carry her in there to get her to realize she's allowed in there again. The other day Simba walked right up to Anubis, they sniffed each other's faces.... then the neighbors shot off a firework and she thought it was his fault. So right back to hissing again. Two steps forward, one step back...

It's a slow process but we're getting there. It'll get better once James isn't interviewing constantly, we stop running around trying to pick up things to organize the house, and we settle into something that resembles routine so both cats can sort of figure out what's going on. Until then it's a little crazy, and they're still both doing much better than expected.

We're just mystified by the fact that the situation is reversed from what we expected. We seriously thought Anubis was the one who would have trouble getting along with another cat...

Introducing cats - Romeo

2010-06-05T18:54:00.001-04:00

It's official. Anubis is completely smitten with Simba.

Unfortunately Simba does not return these feelings at the moment. She's still not to sure about him. She'll be fine hearing and smelling him in the same room, but when she sees him she starts acting all defensive. I still think part of it is because she's not very used to fluffy cats and she thinks he's poofing his fur at her.

But last night we woke up to hissing again and looked down, there was Anubis on my side of the bed, Simba curled up next to me - Anubis was just staring up at her. Not like the dominating stare, but that cute little face he does when he wants attention. He seems desperate for her to like him and she just won't have any of it yet. We figure she'll take another week or so to get the idea that he isn't going to eat her.

But it's cute and sad. He's so determined. She was at the food bowl this evening, and he sat there with his nose right at her tail but wouldn't go any closer. He spends a lot of time at her favorite spots when she's not in them, sniffing and purring and rubbing his head all over.

We were out all day today, found Simba curled up on the bed where we left her and Anubis hanging out in the office. But I saw a clump of his fur in the bedroom that I hadn't seen before so looks like he tried to make friends again today while we were gone. Poor guy. But I have this feeling one of these days we'll come home and they'll be curled up together, once Simba gets over thinking he's out to get her. But for now it's like watching a little boy with his first crush on that girl who still thinks boys are icky and have cooties.

Introducing cats - tearing down the gate

2010-06-04T21:50:00.001-04:00

We had something unexpected last night. I fell asleep on the couch, and woke up to strange meowing. I thought it was Anubis at first, crying from behind the gate... but then I realized it was coming from the kitchen. It was an uneasy sound, I went to turn on a light. There was Simba, staring toward the gate. And there was Anubis, out in front of it. He'd jumped over.

We don't know if he's been jumping over for the last few nights or not. Either way I reassured Simba, who retreated to the bedroom, and Anubis jumped back over the gate.

I made my way back to the bedroom to finish the night out actually in a bed. Not sure how long I was asleep before I woke again, this time to soft growling. It was low and quiet enough I wasn't sure what it was at first. But then I started looking for Simba. She was curled up on the cedar chest at the foot of the bed, growling away. I grabbed a flashlight to try and see what she was on about.

There was Anubis, curled up quite casually in the doorway of the bedroom. None of Simba's fur was raised, Anubis showed no signs of aggression, but Simba's ears were halfway back, nervous style. I tried to reassure her. James tried to reassure Anubis who decided maybe he wasn't allowed in the bedroom after all and took off to head back behind the gate. Simba calmed down and started purring after he was gone.

We went back to sleep. The gate came down in the morning, unceremoniously. We made sure that no big deal was made about it, we acted as though nothing odd had happened. The gate simply came down, that was it.

Simba eyed the lack of gate rather heavily when she came out in the morning, but didn't run. Other than that, not much happened. Anubis came out to explore a few more times. Sometime later in the day James brought Anubis back to the bedroom to show him he's not forbidden from that space. Unfortunately Simba had crawled under the bed from the thunder. I lifted the dust ruffle to check on her, and Anubis peeked under with me. She hissed, so he took off again.

I did manage to coax her out but for at least half an hour she didn't seem interested in coming out of the bedroom. I was a little afraid the experience had scared her into hiding, but sure enough she came back out into the living room.

She fell asleep on her favorite pillow on the couch, and Anubis came out into the living room to play a little bit.

She seems somewhat reassured when I try to show her Anubis is allowed here, but she is still very wary of him, at least when she catches sight of him. She's been in the same room with him several times now, flopped on her favorite pillow. But as long as she doesn't look at him, she doesn't act out of the ordinary. I know she can hear and smell him, and that he's close. It's only when she sees him that she acts bothered. Amd she has, after all, started to peer down the hallway now - tail up high and curious instead of down and tense.

Here is where having two behaviorists in the house is a plus, since we can both bounce things off of each other. Even with all the things I catch, with all the things I know about my cat, I had missed something that should have been obvious. Happens to all of us, I'm just glad he thought to mention it because it puts things into perspective.

We were discussing the cats' personalities, going over again why we didn't feel there would be many fights. I mentioned that Simba, even outside with the other barn cats at my parents' house, had never been on top. Her mother ruled the roost until she died, then her sister took charge. Once said sister died, sometime toward the end of my time at OU, the hierarchy in the group changed again. By the time I finished college and came back home, Simba had been bumped down to the bottom rank. It had been as good a time as any for my parents to bring her to me in my new place.

I told all this to James - I had apparently not explained to him before that when she came to me she was at the bottom of the totem pole. He pointed out what I had missed.

The last time Simba was with other cats, she was the one getting pushed around. Now that suddenly she is faced with another cat again, she is probably a bit nervous she will get pushed around again. So it is very possible that she is posturing to try and make sure she's not stuck on the bottom again.

One way or another, I think once she realizes that Anubis isn't going to try and eat her, she'll be fine. For one, I think she thinks he's got his fur raised at her - she isn't used to cats quite so fluffy (and he has loooong fur). So once she realizes that she may calm down.

For now, I think it's simply best we don't push the issue. I have advised James that while it's okay to carry Anubis into the living room to show him it's his house too, we may wish to leave the bedroom alone since that's been Simba's "safe zone" with every other animal I've brought into this house (guests and foster doggies included). I want her to feel like we're not going to be carrying "invaders" in all the time. So at this point we just let them do what they do and let them work around each other and get used to things. It does seem clear now though that they're at least not going to hurt each other, just avoid each other, so we should be okay to leave the gate down now. We're keeping both of them handy just in case, but we don't expect issues. Tonight, really, will be the test, since Anubis is bolder now and we're just trying to let them be.

I am, of course, nervous even though I know I have no reason to be. Simba is my baby and I tend to be a little paranoid when it comes to her. We're heading out of the house for a few hours tomorrow which makes me uneasy even though I know they'll be okay.

Monday will be the real test, as James and I will both be out the entire day. Hopefully Simba will adjust soon. Go figure, we both thought Anubis would be the problem and he's been perfectly calm. I know she WILL adjust, it's just a matter of when. Hopefully another week at most. She seems to have my two week adjustment period.

Introducing cats - unexpected test

2010-06-03T20:59:00.002-04:00

Things have been progressing rather well in the household, cats are getting bolder and calmer - Anubis tried to walk past the gate last night when I moved it aside for James to carry something past.

But last night we had an unexpected test on Anubis' bravery and ability to adapt. There was a tornado warning. Now, my house is nice, it's big... but it's not the best place to be in storm season. Among other things I don't have a basement. So usually when the weather gets nasty I either pack up the cat and run next door to my grandparents' house till it passes (if it's a short storm), or I haul her over to my parents' house down the road and Simba and I stay in their guest room (if they're predicting dangerous weather all night). Simba has gotten used to this, and even seems to like the sleepovers. She is an extremely adaptable cat, and I love that about her. That ability to be uprooted and not bat an eye is rare among felines.

Anubis, however, we were rather worried about. And since he hasn't been here that long, there wasn't much time for James and I to make a game plan. We got the news that the tornado sirens were going off in town, James looked to me for the plan. Only plan I'd ever used was pack up the cat and run. So we did.

Anubis did surprisingly well. Especially since it was pouring when we made the dash next door and both kitties got a bit wet. Simba, of course, took it in stride and simply started to groom herself when we got inside my grandparents' house, casual as could be. Anubis was a little nervous but didn't seem to be outright freaking out. I suspect it helped that we sprayed a bit of the artificial pheremone into his carrier again to help calm him. He was a little nervous, but James opened the door to pet him and he calmed down a little. All the while Simba kept glancing over toward him looking a bit confused. I suspect she was wondering what the heck he was so fussy about. But Anubis was good (aside from trying to snake his way all the way out of the carrier), neither cat seemed bothered by being caged in such close proximity, and Anubis even let my Gram pet him.

So we came back once the storm blew past and let everybody out into their respective rooms. The night moved on and nobody seemed the worse for wear.

Today nothing much new happened.

Tomorrow the gate comes down. Here's hoping all goes as well as we expect it to.

Introducing cats - Day 3

2010-05-31T21:42:00.002-04:00

Not too much to tell today. The cats seem to be relaxing further, progressing steadily. There have been a few more encounters at the gate with no hissing or growling.

Last night was a bit rough as James actually slept in the bedroom instead of in the office with his cat, so there was a bit of yowling, but we ignored it and eventually it stopped and everyone got to sleep. I know this sounds mean to some people, but it actually is the best way to handle an animal who is crying when you know they're not hurt or sick. Going into the room every time they cry not only reinforces the behavior because you come when they wail, but it also doesn't allow them to find out that they are, in fact, going to be okay if they are left alone.

So there was one little call down the hall to let the cat know someone was still here, then we stayed silent the rest of the night.

Simba didn't seem bothered at all by the yowling. Slept through most of it from her cat bed in the living room, I assume, since she didn't even make her way back to the bedroom until much later and I heard not a peep from her. She didn't cry at all when she came back, just sat at the cedar chest at the foot of the bed and went back to sleep.

James left the house for a couple of hours today so I slipped in to spend a little time alone with Anubis, to make sure he knows even when James isn't here I am safe to be around. He's still wary but coming around. I'm sure part of it is a bit of backslide because the new surroundings smell like me, and I also smell like that other kitty that hissed at him. But I have been petting them both, going back and forth between the rooms and getting their scents on each other a little bit. I think that should help, if they smell it on themselves and come to realize the "other cat" smell isn't a threat.

But they don't seem to be acting completely scared of each other anymore, nor are they acting aggressive at all. Both cats do still act a little wary when they catch sight of each other, but nobody has been running away. They'll stare for a minute then turn and walk off. Every so often Simba still comes to me for reassurance that I still love her even though there's another kitty. But those times are becoming fewer and fewer as we go along.

Only 3 days in and everybody's making loads of progress. Which is a good thing, because I think "mom" and "dad" will be a LOT calmer once the cats have settled in. It's quite clear they are going to be fine, but it will definitely feel better once we've completed the process and everybody's comfortable.

Introducing cats - Day 2

2010-05-30T14:59:00.001-04:00

Day 2

The night seemed to go well (for the cats anyway, the people didn't do a whole lot of sleeping). Kitties had their first encounter this morning through the gate. Thought it was going okay, but Simba hissed and yowled. But most of her hair still laid flat and her ears didn't go back all the way so it could have gone much worse. It took Anubis a minute or so to hiss back. Simba took off for the bedroom, he retreated and James had to calm him down but everyone seemed to be okay within a few minutes (except me who is a nervous wreck - you can know all the steps and processes but when it's your own and emotions get involved it makes things rough).

Simba came back to the living room after a bit and ate a little, started to play with her toys so all is well again. We're not going to push the issue. They know there's another cat there, now we just have to let them do their thing and hopefully both will get nosy enough to meet again and maybe it'll go better next time.

I tried to feed Simba some treats in view of the gate. She started to pick them up and shake them but wouldn't actually eat them. She kept looking back toward the gate like something was going to come take her treats from her. But it's a start. And she's not used to me feeding her anyplace but beside her bowl anyhow. So I moved them back to her food bowl, she crunched them down and seemed fine.

She got back to playing again, and I noticed some little food bits around the bag of Anubis' food. Looks like somebody's been nosing in. No wonder her food bowl is still full this morning. She skipped right past her diet food for the good stuff.

Later in the day she actually played in front of the gate, and the two cats eyeballed each other - no hissing this time. I think Simba's primary issue is making sure she isn't going to be replaced. She is displaying some mild signs of separation anxiety - I tried to close the bedroom door to change and she started to cry loudly on the other end, so right now all doors must be open where I am.

All in all, it's been going much better much earlier than we expected. It looks like we may be able to take the gate down by next weekend, since they don't seem to be aggressive toward each other so much as wary and avoidant.

Wish us luck.

Introducing cats - day 1

2010-05-29T23:35:00.002-04:00

Over the last couple of days, I have been in the process of helping my other half move up to my place.

As of today, James' cat is moved up. As a bit of background, said cat is suspected to be part bobcat somewhere in his family history, and does not generally handle stress well. So we had spent a long time up to now mulling over how to handle the move.

We put some of the pheremone spray and a couple of James's old shirts in the carrier with him in the hopes of calming him down. We had tried the Comfort Zone diffusers and sprays with my cat with much success in reducing stress levels, but had thus far not tried its effects on any other cat.

Anubis panted and cried some in the car but James says that's MUCH better than he's ever done in a car ride, and that's even the longest one he's ever been on. He's in the front room now with James, he's already eaten, drank a bit, and rubbed his face on some of the furniture. Hasn't used the litterbox *yet* but we brought his old one with all the litter in it so we'll see by morning. He says he's doing better with this than he's EVER seen him do on a move before, so that's a good sign. We had planned ahead by not only putting a pheremone diffuser in the room, but also by trying to set up some familiar things before bringing him in. The desk was already set up, plus we also brought all his toys, his food and water dish from the old house, everything we could set up to make him feel at home. Familiarity is important, especially making sure there are still things that smell like the cat in the new house. This is why we kept the already "dirty" litter - totally dumping the box and refreshing it could slow the process.

My own cat, Simba seems to be doing okay. She was a bit clingy until she realized I was still going to pet her. I tried to push into my normal night routine and after that she seemed to be pretty much okay. She's a little tense, of course, but then again so are we and there's still boxes all over (we're going to start tackling those tomorrow). But she's locked eyes with Anubis at least a couple times - she put her ears halfway back like she does when she's not sure about something and wants me to tell her it's okay, but she hasn't poofed up or growled or acted like she wants to run from him. She seems curious more than anything, a little wary but he doesn't seem upset by her and she's MUCH calmer than she was with the dogs (and with Shaggy she even started to come out and get nosy about him after the first day). She is, as a general rule, an adaptable cat, but she does sometimes get a bit jealous and she is getting old and set in her ways, so I wasn't sure how she'd take it. She's not frantic, and doesn't seem to consider him a threat. Both of these things are very important.

So hopefully this is a good sign and all will go well. Simba's crashed in her kitty bed right now. So we seem to be okay as far as stress levels go. We're good for now, the next big hurdle is when we're ready to remove the gate, but we'll deal with that when we come to it. Right now, they can smell each other, they can see each other while James and I are up. He's going to sleep in the front room with his kitty tonight, so Simba can curl up with me tonight. That should help.

We're still nervous, but so far it's started off better than we expected it would so I think we're going to be okay. Now if we can just get some of this clutter pared down we'll be good. We're tackling that tomorrow.

That should help Simba relax a bit too, I think. She wasn't quite sure about the boxes that started to take over the house, so clearing that up should help.

The sad part is, I know all the steps, I've helped other people transition their pets before. I know the advice tends to work. But there's that extra layer of nerves when you're dealing with your own cats.

If the rest of the process goes as smoothly as tonight has gone, I think everyone will be okay.

Their welfare comes first right now.

We'll see where it goes.

One by One

2010-05-15T11:09:00.003-04:00

This is probably the most truly "artsy" piece I've ever done, and someday I will need to borrow use of a large format scanner and get a proper image. For now, this photo is the best I have.

This piece takes up most of a room, it's almost as big as I am, which is why the angle is so skewed. I was up on a stepstool just to get the whole thing in frame.

This was my final for my art class in college - we were told to pick a song. Just ONE SONG, listen to it, and draw whatever we see when we play said song. Only other requirement was that it had to be at or above a certain size.

I chose "One by One" by Lebo M. (Look it up and listen to it while you watch.) There's a few versions - the version I was listening to is from the Rhythm of the Pridelands CD. This link works for now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pIBEO740S0

I consider this my masterpiece. This is by far the best thing I have ever created, and the picture does NOT do it justice. Unfortunately I stored it improperly and the chalks smudged a bit here and there, but I still love it. I need a frame big enough to hold this monster.

The people are silhouettes partly because I can't draw human faces very well, and partly because I thought simple gestural type things would be more effective.

I only wish I had been able to do it on one solid canvas or piece of paper - at the time the only way I was able to meet the size requirements with the resources I had was by taping a ton of other pieces of paper together.

I've been waiting a LONG TIME to upload this one. I finally cleared enough space on my floor to get up and photo it. I WILL BE REUPLOADING once I can find someplace with a scanner big enough to fit a 5ft piece of art in it.

Traditional Media - a dying art?

2010-04-30T13:54:00.001-04:00

I know, I know, I'm normally posting about animals and nature-y things on my blog if I'm not just rattling off personal, but today you get an art post.

Something I've noticed over time, wading through art online and taking account of what seems to be the most popular, is that digital art is on the rise.

Now, this makes sense of course, seeing as how digital tools are getting better, it's a lot easier to layer and fix your mistakes than it is with paint or even pencil, and you can get flashier effects in general without as much fuss if you know what you're doing. A lot of emphasis on the knowing what you're doing part as I am currently a hopeless case when it comes to digital art. It evades me.

However, there seems to be this strange trend where traditional art gets overlooked. I tried to chalk it up to the fact that the well-known artists were all just switching to digital, and that a well-known artist who does a traditional piece will still get lots of views and comments and attention. But then something happened with my own artwork that threw off that idea completely.

Now, I am not a popular artist. I don't even consider myself a particularly good one, at least not lately as I have been terribly uninspired and not really inclined to push myself to improve. I have other things on my mind, simple fact of life, so I've put off improvement in that arena for later, when I have more time and energy to devote to my hobby. I do primarily traditional-media art, particularly colored pencil and watercolor pieces as it doesn't cost a whole lot or make much mess, so I can just sort of sit on the couch and doodle. I have a few pieces that I am quite proud of, most are just mediochre.

However a while back I uploaded a digital piece that I had done, in part to cheer somebody up but also just to toy around and see what I could do, since with all my art programs and photo editors I'm still not very good. The end result was, well... it wasn't good. At all. It was this godawful piece of work that I can't even compare to my traditional pen-and-paper drawings, and yet it got more attention than ANYTHING else in my gallery, including the professional photography work which is a far sight better than most of my drawings.

I have to admit, it made me a little sick.

Is this really what we've come to? How can it be that a terrible digital piece can get more favorable reviews than one that shows much more talent, but with watercolors and pencils?

I guess it's no wonder most online artists don't bother with actual paints these days. But I do think it's a shame. And it's a mystery to me why everyone automatically labels digital as "better" even in cases where it's not.

Do me a favor: next time you see a beautiful picture that was done in real paint, real watercolor, real colored pencils, pastels, and not touched up or painted on the computer, leave a comment. Digital art programs are a great and wonderful tool, they take a lot of talent to use, but never forget the talent and work it takes to use actual, physical paints on a real canvas or piece of paper. Those people are artists too.

Don't let them go out of style.

Bird discovery and rearranging

2010-04-10T09:25:00.003-04:00

First of all, pardon my dust while I try to rearrange my blog and make it looks a little more fitting. Trying to change things around, make them look a bit softer, so far I'm failing but I'm getting there. I think. lol

However I do think I have finally discovered my problem with birds. I knew it all boiled down to my being too nervoud around them, but I couldn't place WHY. Especially since I love birds, and have no less experience with them than I do with reptiles, which I do fine with. Then it hit me as I was helping my aunt feed the baby chickens last week (I won't say chicks because they were just starting to get some adult feathering).

When a bird looks at you, it is a rather intent stare. Head tilts side to side very rapidly, which makes sense as given the way their eyes are placed they have to do this to get a good look at something. And birds are very visual. Moreso, I daresay, than we are.

However, my primary experience in behavior is with mammals. Give me a mammal of almost any type and I can handle it, or so my experience thus far has taught me. But when a mammal looks at you in that intent manner, head jerking to look at little movements, it tends to be rather a hostile gesture. Cats do it when about to attack their favorite toy (or prey), or if you're ticking them off to the point where they're about to deliver a nice hearty whack with full claws. Dog, well, they do less of the head movement but an intent stare of that sort is still a sign you need to use caution. So naturally, since my instincts have developed to work with mammals, when birds stare at me like that it makes me a little uneasy. When really all they're doing is trying to get a good look at me.

Now that I've figured this out hopefully I can train myself to work with birds a little more easily.

Fox Run Soap & Sundries

2010-01-24T21:18:00.008-05:00

You know... something I realized tonight...

The new soap... it's dulling down some of my OCD.

Most people who know me know I've got a nasty germ phobia. I mean, I'm not quite Adrian Monk but I have my days where I come darn close. So, when I have to do things like clean a litterbox or some other mess my brain reads as "germ-ridden", I used to have to wash my hands several times, using dose after dose of regular soap. Over and over till I either felt clean enough, or had to consciously force myself to stop on the insistence that surely my hands must be clean by now even if I don't feel like it. Even with antibacterial soap I had this problem. Even with other bar soap I had this problem.

But now... this plain, old-fashioned, no-frills natural lye soap... moreso the regular bars I ordered than the floral scented one (psychological I suppose)... I clean up a mess... I wash my hands... once. MAYBE twice.

That's it.

No more.

My hands feel cleaner when I wash with it.

The soap itself washes cleaner, leaves less residue on my hands.

But I don't feel as germy.

Now, I know lye has certain natural antibacterial properties... but it's not that I think of it as an antibacterial soap.

It just feels cleaner. I don't know why. It just does.

Granted, I do have a certain compulsion at the moment to go use it. But not because I think my hands need cleaned. More because I just adore the feel of it, the muted, almost waxy smell of it. The creamy texture of the lather, so different from what I'm used to.

And it's okay.

Because it doesn't tear my hands up like other soaps. God already I can't wait to show James. He's seen how dry and cracked and bloody and chapped by hands can get in the middle of winter. Now... there's still a few dry spots, but nothing's flaking or cracking or scaly anymore. My hands are soft. They actually look like a woman's hands for a change.

And the bath oil/cream/soap, whatever you wish to call it (Blooming Bath is how it's listed on her site) - I had been bathing in olive oil before that to try and curb the dry skin and it didn't really last. Plus made the tub all slippery, made me all oily which was okay if I didn't have to go anywhere, less so if I didn't want everything sticking to me. But this stuff... the moisture stays... everything's less dry. EVERYTHING. And it doesn't leave that oily film all over my skin and my bath.

And every part of me just feels cleaner.

Hopefully James has no problems with it and won't put up much fuss (can't imagine he will) - I think the Fox Run products are going to be a permanent fixture in my home... I can't go back now... it's that good. For the Corner Gas fans out there: it's bumped me into a new soap bracket.

And I'm loving every minute of it.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/FoxRunSoaps

I've become a walking ad. lol

Freckles

2010-01-18T20:52:00.002-05:00

My parents put their dog down today. The one we brought home as a puppy after we found him running around my middle school... the one who reminded Jodi what being young was all about and extended her life a few more years. He wasn't my favorite dog in the world, but I at least owe him for that much.

Within the past year or so Freckles had developed a nasty rasping cough. It kept getting worse, so they took him tot he vet. Congestive heart failure. So, they've had him on meds for a while, kept having to up the dose further and further, until they couldn't up it anymore, and finally this winter he got bad enough they decided it was time.

Mom says he went peacefully, like he was ready to go. Makes it easier than Jodi's loss - she fought it the whole way down in spite of the fact that her arthritis pain wouldn't even let her walk. We figure she wasn't done teaching Freckles how to watch the family yet. She taught him how to bark at danger. She never did have time to teach him what NOT to bark at. So he barked at everything instead.

He was a dumb dog anyway, she didn't ever have much of a pupil to work with as we found out over the years with him. But he was a sweet dog and always meant well, even if he was pretty much an idiot.

He was most definitely dad's dog. He loved pretty much everyone (once he realized they weren't going to eat him, the big coward), but it was when dad went away that he was really lost.

Mom said they buried him right next to Jodi. As dad put it: close enough that she can reach over and bite him in the butt. She always did that. *chuckles* Normally you think of puppies pestering the older dog. Oh, no. That old fart would chase him around till he couldn't half stand it anymore when he was a pup. Completely backwards.

Seems strange that it's been that long... a whole canine lifetime since we lost her... and now he's gone too.

Don't know if they'll be getting another dog or not. I assume not yet, not for a little while at least. But I need to start spending more time at the humane society again... I suspect once they do decide to get another dog, I'll be called on to help. I've kind of become the official dog-finder for friends and family...

Correction

2009-12-15T00:54:00.003-05:00

It seems I got two songs confused.

The actual song that I was thinking of in my last post was the theme from Love Story (many thanks to those who helped me figure that out with a crudely made midi I plunked out at midnight after being woken by the nagging realization I'd gotten two songs confused).

See, it's not that the songs themselves are similar, but that they evoke a similar emotional response. And while one grandmother had Swan Lake on a music box, the one with the roses played the theme from Love Story.

While I love both, the particular arrangement of the song on that cheesy fiber-optic music box was by far the more beautiful. Problem being, it wasn't quite fully accurate to the song, so I'm not sure if all music boxes will play it that way should I order one, or if I am going to have to become a finicky pest and go on a hunt for the right version.

The song, for those unfamiliar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggP5ODvS81E

Swan Lake

2009-12-14T07:19:00.002-05:00

Don't ask me why I happened to remember this last night, but I'd like to share something. Perhaps it's something small and silly, but I feel the need to share it nonetheless.

When I was little, my grandmother used to have one of those little glassed-in fiber optics... the ones with the music box attached. Just this cheesy little fiber optic rose, but I thought it was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. Partly because I liked the lights. Partly because of the music it played.

It was the theme from Swan Lake. Of course, I didn't know it at the time. I just heard the music box, and thought it was pretty.

The memory lulled me to sleep last night. I will admit I miss that music box. The song is pretty in and of itself, but somehow the delicate notes of the music box just gave it something special.

I think I need to find a music box that plays that song again...

(The song, for those who aren't familiar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzpqM4THqZ8 )

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T21:12:00.002-05:00

I figure I'm due for another post since it's been since September. Not that I have much to say. The cat is still doing well. I've started raising guppies. And it's almost time to think about trying to better insulate this place for the winter.

Also, I was out sick for about two weeks with something that very nearly stopped me from breathing. Many thanks to the CNP who knew what she was doing well enough to prescribe me the right meds to avoid a hospital stay.

I am now off antibiotics and off steroids and back to breathing normally.

Not much news besides that. And even that isn't really news since it seems everybody else is suffering from the same ailment this season.

Buried

2009-09-25T20:35:00.004-04:00

So... I've been kind of showered with gifts. lol I believe I've mentioned James has a knack for finding amazing deals? Yes? Okay.

So...

He brought me a new pearl necklace, more casual than the last one (I don't have photos yet, sorry) so I can wear it every day. And some nice gloves/arm warmers just for fun. And the food dehydrator he had asked a while back if I wanted... I do a lot of soup I the winter, so I dry mushrooms and vegetables and whatnot since they keep better that way. Now I can dry a lot more stuff since I'll have the oven freed up for actual cooking, so it's great!

And thanks to his insane ability to find deals (mind you, some of them are planned by us as gifts for others since I can't use them all): several agate rings, some magnetic hematite rings (definitely keeping some of those since they're supposed to be good for arthritis), woven bracelets...

I feel rich. lol

I will admit, I took on the "ooh shiny" reaction and played with the rings for a while. Especially the magnetic ones. Sticking them together, stacking them up... which is funny because my mother said my little cousin would love the magnetic ones for the same reasons. lol

Yes, I will admit to the occasional childlike indulgence. I think, though, it can be healthy in moderation. Sometimes we all need to just let go and have fun with something silly for a while.

The crazy animal lady strikes again.

2009-09-22T21:25:00.003-04:00

Stopped into a shop on the way home.

The owner had her dog there (little yorkie). Which apparently pawed and pawed like it needed to go out to pee, but then instead of going to the door with said owner, she ran up to me, so I bent down to pet her, and she licked all over my face. The owner was in shock. Apparently the dog NEVER just goes right up to strangers like that.

I wasn't surprised. I get comments like that all the time with people's pets. Shy dogs from the avoidant to the fear-aggressive, cats who avoid and even scratch at unfamiliar people, pretty much any mammal that is untrusting of most people. I have no problems. Reptiles I'm okay with but don't have much experience. Birds don't like me unless they like *everybody*. I assume it's a body language thing, since none of my family ever had birds when I was growing up.

But mammals... any one I've ever met seems comfortable with me.

If I don't end up working with animals as a career, I need to find more time to put in volunteer hours.

Boardwalk

2009-09-11T17:08:00.002-04:00

I went out for a bit today... no real reason, just felt the need to be somewhere besides the house for a change. On the way back I stopped by the boardwalk in Galena. Nice little spot at the edge of Hoover Reservoir in an area known as the mudflats, because during dry summers it's pretty much mud instead of lake.

Usually on a day like this the boardwalk is crowded with fishermen.

Not today.

Today it was empty, quiet. So as I walked along the wooden planks, I could hear everything around me. A bird bathing at the water's edge several yards away, heard just as easily as though it were next to me.

There were herons everywhere. It's the first time in a while I've just been able to sit out in nature uninterrupted by other sounds. The boardwalk dead-ends partway out into the lake, so I just sort of stood there for a while, watching.

And the sight of the sun sparkling on the water holds a kind of beauty that brings tears to my eyes. Even knowing the science of it, reflection, refraction, properties of light and how it bounces off a surface... it's still magic to me. A thousand points of light dancing on the water's surface. Nothing quite compares to that.

The park doesn't close until 11:00 at night. I think sometime I should go after dark, to watch it in the moonlight.

Meet Loki

2009-09-05T15:11:00.001-04:00

The newest addition to my household:

Unfortunately the photo doesn't show his full range of colors. The teal and red you can see, but in the right light he also shows purple and cobalt blue.

The shop also had a midnight blue halfmoon betta which was insanely tempting, especially given that it was only about $20 when they sell from breeders for over $50 as a general rule (and by his size he WAS of breedable age) but I forced myself to resist. I can't afford to spend that on a fish right now. Besides, if I get a halfmoon I want an opaque white. Which means I'd better have some cash to throw around first because those run a pretty high price tag... so like, not until I have the setup to actually breed them.

Franklin Park Conservatory

2009-09-04T21:49:00.007-04:00

For the first time in years, I actually went to the conservatory for something other than the Asian Festival, meaning this was the first time I've been *inside* since I took my friend's senior portraits way back in my first year of college. Naturally, I had to bring the camera. Please pardon while I kill your bandwidth with a dozen or so photos.

Right now they have a lot of Chihuly glass on display (see http://www.chihuly.com/ for more of his work). All hand-blown. This is the ceiling of a small section of the Himalayan Mountain exhibit.

I am determined this is where they put the kids that misbehave. Talk about a time-out chair. Beat that, Supernanny!

They were setting up to do a wedding in the palm room. These are some of the lanterns.

Some glass on the Zen Terrace.

I swear this looks like a scene out of Willy Wonka.

Not quite what you usually think of when you hear the term "glass-bottom boat".

The picture didn't turn out quite as pretty as the actual view. I have a strange fondness for ivy.

They had some of the most bizarre orchids I've ever seen.

I also have a fondness for carnivorous plants.

Probably my favorite shot of the whole trip. One of these days I want to have a koi pond.

More of the glass.

One of the few good shots I got of the butterflies.

If anyone is interested in buying prints, let me know and I can direct you to where you can buy them. Only those NOT featuring the Chihuly glass are for sale, as without having permission or finding a blanket permission statement on the artist's website, I don't want to cause trouble. I know as an artist myself I wouldn't want people making money off my work without my permission, so there's a respect issue there.

Blind Betta

2009-08-02T21:11:00.005-04:00

To start off, normally my betta fish won't eat till after I walk away. Unlike most bettas I've known, he doesn't seem to "smell" or even feel the vibrations of food hitting the water, he only ever found his food by sight, so I have to walk far enough off so he can see the shadow of the pellets against the light on top of the water. Well, tonight after I fed him, I went back to see if he'd eaten yet so I could turn off the light.

The food pellets were still floating at the top.

Which seemed odd.

Well, I looked... and there were more food pellets nestled at the bottom.

Naturally, I wanted to check on the betta to make sure he was okay. Scooped him up in the cup he came from at the store (I kept it because it works quite nicely for scooping water out for changes - and for scooping up betta when I need to check on him). Held him up to the light for a proper look. His eyes were clouded over.

My betta is blind.

I mean, I guess it's not *too* surprising since he's nearing the end of his life anyway, I'm sure... I've had him for at least the last 2 years, no idea how old he was at the pet shop when I got him, and bettas aren't the most long-lived of fish... 5 years max, average 3 years and most pet store bettas are 6 months to a year old since they don't sell as well before the finnage is fully developed (ironically, after sexual maturity has come and gone).

But I need help... I've never had a fish go blind on me before. How do I get a blind betta, who only ever finds his food by sight, to eat?

Unfortunately he does not fall into the category of "smart bettas" (because they are normally one of the smarter species of fish). He is, quite frankly, the second dumbest betta I've ever owned. So I'm not sure if I'll be able to convince him to find food another way or not...

**EDIT**

Just got a tip from someone that it might be an eye cloud disease that Melafix should be able to clear up. Hope so, because I'd hate to just watch the poor thing starve to death.

Guard of the garden

2009-08-01T10:09:00.003-04:00

Went out to get the mail this morning, and decided to drop by the garden (read: weed pile with some lavendar in it - I've given up on weeding) to see how it was doing. My lavendar's blooming again, so I ran inside to grab something to put the flowers in (it seems to bloom again every time I pluck it so I think I can get a pretty good harvest this year, more than enough to last me through winter).

Went back outside with the basket I've been drying the last batch of flowers in, and bent down to start collecting the blossoms. One of the leaves in the garden moved, so naturally I looked to see what had caused it. At first I saw nothing. Then I noticed this little guy:

This was the best picture I got of him - he kept moving, chasing after a bumblebee that kept getting at the flowers (interestingly, he left the honeybee alone).

But I consider a mantis in the garden to be a very positive thing. They take out the unpleasant bugs, and they are considered by many people to be good luck.

It's just a little one... has some speckles on the tip of the abdomen, so I think it's rather young. But young or old, I am very happy that the mantis has chosen my sad excuse for a garden to live in.

The rest of the visit

2009-06-29T19:42:00.002-04:00

My oto catfish is still alive... it surprised me today when I went to feed the Betta. Good thing I didn't dump the whole bowl and wipe away the rest of the algae. I thought he was dead months ago, wondered why the heck I never found the body to get it out of there. It baffles me how a fish can hide in one gallon of water. *shakes head*

On top of that, I bought my cat a catnip plant. My grandparents' cat from next door tried to follow me in the house when he smelled it. My cat started whining until I took it back out of the house (set it up high enough that the other cat will leave it alone - he's old and too lazy to try for it apparently). She just stood under the table I'd put it on and bawled. Yeeeeeah. I need to find someplace better to put it where it will neither get swallowed whole, nor get me yowled at all day.

Anyway, moving on, time for the rest of the update from the visit.

Thursday evening was spent watching movies. Friday, we headed out to check out a discount store we'd heard about, to see if it was worth shopping at. Unfortunately it was a bit of a disappointment. Prices weren't great, and most of the stuff there was cheesy. Though there was a luggage set I was tempted by (pirate skulls... yes, I have a bit of a pirate obsession - ever since I was a kid). Hey, at least I'd be able to find my luggage at the airport. But it was a bit more than I wanted to pay at the moment, and I'm not planning any traveling anytime in the immediate future, so I'll just hunt for it later.

After the slight letdown we headed someplace else we'd heard about and wanted to try. This was MUCH less of a disappointment, and in fact we fully intend to go back. He'd found out about a place called Creole Kitchen, and was singing the praises of Po Boys for a while. So we went there. Shrimp po boys for each of us. It's seafood... in a sandwich. What's not to love? Either way, the food was VERY good (though the place has no dining room so we had to hunt for a place with air conditioning to sit - and the AC wasn't running very well in the one place we found - unfortunately heat seems to make me lose my appetite... I so wanted to finish my sandwich but my stomach said no). We both wondered where they get their shrimp. They were HUGE, and fell apart like good fish. In fact, we thought they'd mixed up our order and given us fish at first, except for the taste. They also make potato chips right there - I'm a fan. Definitely have to go back there. On a day when it's cooler.

We hung around in town for a bit due to some car issues - he needed to let the engine cool down to make sure the temp gage didn't flip out again, so we wandered in the 95-degree weather. Needless to say when we got back I was on the verge of collapse. He deals with the heat better than I do. Thanks to the car scare there was no more shopping, just in case. So there was a lot of couch time and movies until he had to leave Saturday evening.

Of course, at some point I was going through some old stuff and commenting on the scads of "kiddie jewelry" I never wear anymore that I have to get rid of. James made some comment on replacing it or something of the like.

"You know, we're going to have to find you someplace to put all the jewelry."
"Well, I have the box here, once I get rid of the old stuff there will be room for the stuff you've bought me."
"Nono, hon... it won't be big enough. I plan on buying you MORE."
"........."

Yeah I'm really not used to that. lol I suppose I'm going to have to get used to it, though. Because no amount of convincing seems to make him think he should stop spoiling me. I've tried. It's an argument I never win.

But it was nice to have him for a few days. It really was. Hopefully positive things will happen soon so we can do this sort of thing more often.

Day off

2009-06-25T19:55:00.004-04:00

Well, I took a vacation day today, met James in Polaris before his monthly .NET meeting. (I think? That's right isn't it? I think that's what he's programming in now. Like I know the difference.)

Anyway, met him at the mall, dressed up a bit since I don't have an excuse to do that often. Apparently long, form-fitting dresses suit me. There were a lot of heads turning.

In any case, I got my birthday gift a little early (okay, over a month early):

Agate, and they make a lovely bell-like ringing sound when they strike against each other. Naturally, I spent half the time we were wandering around the mall playing with them. lol There were also several moments where I just sort of fell into girlish giggles. I can't help it. As I put it to James:

"They're pretty. They're shiny. And they're MINE."

Of course, I had to grab him after and point out that so is he, after which point I got poked at for leaving him as an afterthought. lol

Not that this is his first gift of this nature. He has a good sense for finding things that will look good on me. A few years ago was this:

Which has its own story, but I won't go into it here. It involves my mother and scaring the daylights out of me and something that has become a favorite story for James to tease me with. lol Maybe some other time I'll tell it.

But pushy foreign guy was at the mall again. Apparently James had passed by him earlier before I got there (he beat me there, my timing was off, forgot to account for Polaris traffic). So when we passed him again, his face brightened up:

"HEY! YOU'RE BACK!"

We kept walking.

"...or not..."

At which point we both doubled over in fits of laughter. I dunno, maybe you had to be there... this guy just amuses us every time we're at the mall. He's so pushy... and so HAPPY about it... and somehow he's not annoying, just amusing. I don't know why. I really don't.

We mostly just meandered aimlessly.

But he's off at the meeting now, due back and then tomorrow we're running off for more shopping. It feels kind of nice to know we're going to be getting out for a bit. We spend a lot of time away from each other, and a lot of those "relationshippy" things just don't get to happen very often right now. Hopefully soon enough we'll get things worked around to where schedules mesh more often and he's living closer. That should make things easier.

But for now, I'll settle for being patient. He deserves that much, I think. But I'm biased. ;)

Sleepover

2009-06-20T09:31:00.005-04:00

Well, storm season is upon us, which means we're back to that time of year where I have to watch the skies, and the weather reports, and vacate the house at the first sign of a tornado warning.

As a general rule, I pack up the cat and head down the road to my parents' house, because they have a basement, as well as a room I can shut their cats away from. My grandparents have a basement too, but no doors to prevent Simba from wandering.

So last night, since the weather was supposed to get nasty around midnight, I hauled the cat down the road, and into my parents' guest room (which used to be my bedroom). It wasn't the first time we've been there, so Simba knew what to expect.

But something was wrong.

One of my family members was unloading a full bed, so my parents got rid of the twin in favor of a bigger one, for more sleeping space.

Simba spent the first hour crying and looking for the old bed.

But that wasn't what kept me awake all night. See, the new bed was raised up so they could put drawers underneath. Also, my cat is fat.

So about 20 times in the middle of the night, as she hopped down for food or to use the litterbox, there was a resounding "thud" that apparently could be heard through the entire house.

And if that didn't wake me up, when she came back onto the bed, rather than picking a spot where I wasn't, she had to make a flying leap and jump right on me to come back up and sleep.

So now we're back home, I'm wide awake, and what's the cat doing?

Sleeping, of course.

Why Karyl doesn't garden

2009-06-19T15:21:00.007-04:00

This is my garden:

Stop laughing.

I said stop laughing.

At least I can still tell where my lavendar is:

Though I find it interesting... I have one random onion growing there from the previous renter at this place. I've never seen it bloom before:

(If you're looking at the image filename, yes, I know that's not what "dongle" is, but for some reason when I think of that word, I think of like, the antennae with the round tips and stuff like that, hence, the onion dongle. Shush, it's just my mental imagery. :P)

Anyway, every other time today I had gone outside, it had been out the back door.

Finally went out to the front porch a few minutes ago, and found that apparently we got a serious amount of rain today. In the container where I keep my peppermint, not only was all the soil waterlogged, but there was a good 2 inches of water sitting on top.

This is what it looked like *after* I poured the excess out:

As you can see, there's still quite a bit of water, but some of the soil was starting to pur out with it, so I didn't dare go any further.

The mint seems happy about it though. Lots of random new growth since I last looked at it. Wish I could say the same of the spearmint. There's some sort of fungus keeps attacking every spearmint plant I try to care for. Doesn't touch the peppermint though. I dunno how to stop it. I've heard mix soap and water into a spray bottle. Does that actually work?

The saga of the fire alarms.

2009-06-12T01:30:00.003-04:00

Well, I figured I'd explain the slight comment rant I had in James' blog. See, when I first moved in, the original fire alarms were a bit gummed up and useless since everyone who's lived in this place for the past 10 years or more before me were smokers (it really is amazing how much mess that leaves behind... many thanks to my family who spent like a week cleaning the place before I even got here - before you say the landlord should have done it, the landlord is my uncle). So, first thing when I moved in, we had to get new alarms. And, since there were no CO alarms and I have gas appliances, this would have been important even if not for the existing fire alarms being worn out and whatnot.

The ones we got, I thought were great being a combination unit of CO and fire alarms. Two types of beeps rather than the annoying talking ones, which I preferred - I can still tell the difference in the middle of the night, on NyQuil and groggy. I'll get to that later.

Anyway, first month or so goes by fine. Then I start getting false alarms like mad. For one unit it was always the fire beep. For the other, the CO beep. The fire one was easy enough to figure out - sniff around, if nothing smells like it's burning, we're good, shut it up, go back to bed. For the other one, it was a bit more of a pain. Open the windows, make sure the furnace isn't on (thankfully on an ignitor, not a pilot light, so when it's off, it's off), open the oven to look down and check the pilot flame (since unfortunately it IS on a pilot light), check the burners to make sure everything's as it should be, shut the alarm up, shut the windows, go back to bed. Or, once when the alarm wouldn't shut off, pack up the cat, head down to parents' house, come back in the morning tired as hell.

After a few times of the CO alarm giving me false shrieks (because at that decibel level you can't really call it a beep), my dad came by, taught me how to check a 9volt battery on my tongue, and voila, I was now armed with the ability to shorten my checking time.

By now the alarm that always screamed fire when the battery died had gone kaput and given me the alert it was time to replace the entire unit (only maybe a year to a year and 1/2 after I bought the thing, and the first time I had EVER heard it actually chirp). So whenever the CO alarm went off, the first thing I checked was the battery. This cut down on my manic running around time, which is a plus since no matter when you change the battery, apparently there is some unspoken rule that says it must go off at 2am.

But about 2 months ago, it decided the battery was going to start draining every 2 weeks. I don't know if this was an issue with the alarm, the batteries, or both, but... I've lost a lot of sleep over the past several weeks, between alarms and allergies and whatnot.

Two nights ago, after I was already dead tired from allergy-related things waking me up, the alarm goes off again. Get up, check the oven, check the battery. Battery is dead. Go to put in another. Battery is dead right out of the box. Put in another. Go back to bed.

Alarm starts chirping.

And won't shut up.

Mind you this is now the only alarm in the house.

I decide it's not working right anyway, rip out the battery, and decide I'd rather sleep and risk dying of CO poisoning than get suck awake the rest of the night.

Of course, since I'm typing this, I obviously did not die. I now have new alarms (not the combination units anymore since apparently they only make the talking varieties now), of a DIFFERENT brand, with a 10-year guarantee.

And I will probably wake up tomorrow (assuming I ever fall asleep tonight) wondering why I wrote such a boring post.

Please keep in mind it's nearly 2am, I can't sleep, I'm very tired.... and forgive me. lol

Bromeliad

2009-06-05T10:15:00.003-04:00

From what I have read, silver vase bromeliads are supposed to die off/never bloom or sprout again once they have sprouted pups.

Apparently mine is not aware of this.

I went to water it today, and there is a second pup plant coming off of it. After mom's success with leaving hers attached, I have decided to leave this one with the mother, rather than cutting it away. I'm running out of pots, after all.

Apparently bromeliads are not on the list of plants I have a strange talent for killing.

So far, I have killed ivy, one spearmint plant (which I think was sickly before I got it because my new one is going NUTS), corsican mint, an african violet (which was fine until I started watering it here - apparently does not like softened water), and probably several others I'm forgetting.

However, I currently have a peace lily, what now amounts to 5 bromeliads (two different species, and it's 5 if you count all the pups), a spider plant, some lucky bamboo, aloe, spearmint, peppermint, and a recently-added start of oat grass for the cat.

Oh! And the lavendar. Can't forget that. It's started spiking up, should bloom any day now.

I have no idea what's going to happen when I move - right now the plants are all in my front room, which gets a TON of light, and they love it there. it's the one room I'll miss when I leave.

Anyway, just moved the mint to a bigger planter. I'm going to have to repot a few things when I leave, that or buy my grandmother some new pots and planters. lol I've used so many of hers now...

2009-06-05T07:29:00.002-04:00

Why are there suddenly two of me?

Because I have two gmail accounts, one I usually stay logged in at the desktop, one I stay logged into on the laptop. I use the laptop more, so I decided to add my other gmail account to the blog authors. lol

I wouldn't have had to add myself at all, except that since blogger and gmail are tied, I have to be signed into both with the same account at the same time, makes for a pain when trying to check my actual email and update the blog.

The other email account is just a random storage account. But it's where my original profile and all that is.

So now it looks like there are two of me on the sidebar. I can't seem to get rid of that to only show one, since I added the second profile to my editing permissions. If anybody knows how to fix that, let me know. I'd rather it just show my profile blurb like it used to.

Nice things

2009-05-30T12:54:00.005-04:00

Well, I can't say that I never get nice things.

James came to visit this weekend, and brought this for me:

Suitable for burning both incense sticks and resins. I haven't put any sand it in yet, though.

Also, as a side note, it appears Panther has now been adopted. So glad the pup finally got a home.

Panther still needs a home!

2009-05-01T16:30:00.005-04:00

I posted about this guy a while ago: http://fruitloup.blogspot.com/2009/03/panther.html

He's still at the shelter, and none of us no why! This is a great dog, absolutely sweet, a perfect gentleman - there is no reason he should not have a home yet.

I'd take him myself but I may be moving later this year so it's not a good time in my life to get a new dog.

I don't know whether people think he's "too big" (but big dogs are often more mellow, and you don't have much risk of this guy turning into a biter by any stretch of the imagination), or if they think he's too old (his muzzle may be graying but he's still got plenty of years left), or if they see he's missing a toe and freak out... which would just be silly.

But he really is an amazing dog, so if you live in the central Ohio area, or heck, are willing to travel there to see this guy, the Humane Society of Delaware County is having a special adoption event this weekend and they will be featuring him, along with bringing in dogs from several area shelters for the Adopt-A-Thon. The shelter will be open ALL NIGHT LONG for this event, so please consider stopping by, though I myself probably won't be able to make it.

For more information go to http://hsdcohio.org/

Nice Day

2009-04-26T07:22:00.002-04:00

Yesterday it was sunny, breezy, and over 80 degrees. No rain in sight, and I wanted to be outside.

By 10am I was out weeding the garden (by garden I mean that patch of dirt where my lavendar plants grow - I am a known plant killer, so there's not much I can keep and have it survive). Pulled all the thistles out, then took my grandfather's dog for a walk.

I even got my car washed. It still looks a bit beaten up, but it's not exactly in mint condition anyway. The standard rust around the bottom of the doors and whatnot that you inevitably get with a van that's over 10 years old, in a state that puts copious amounts of salt on the road in winter. This one's been fairly well cared for, though. And I'm fond of the old thing.

Spent the whole day going back and forth between inside and out - left the AC off and kept the windows open until evening when it finally got too hot and I needed to cool it down for sleep.

2009-04-24T16:42:00.004-04:00

Well, another visit with James has come and gone.

I have a new shiny. lol Silly little thing: some pyrite he found in the driveway. But I find that sort of thing cool. I used to hunt for cool rocks in my grandparents' drieway as a kid. lol Still probably have some of the collection somewhere.

I'm not exactly hard to please in that sense. lol

Never quite seems like we have enough time with each other, but hopefully soon enough that will change. We're working on dragging him up to Columbus still. lol

Until then, the visits seem too short and too far between - we're both busy all the time and the schedules don't often mesh. Though it's better now that he's been able to make it up monthly. At least now when he has to go, I pretty much know when I'll be seeing him again. That helps.

And we've toughed it out so far, so we should be alright until he finds something that will let him move up this way.

After all, he's worth the wait.

2009-04-15T19:49:00.001-04:00

That about sums it up...

Dandelions

2009-04-12T16:05:00.002-04:00

For the first time this year, I saw dandelion-filled yards on my way home.

I will admit, I quealed like a little girl when I saw them.

See, I've always been a fan of dandelions. While most people go out to wage war on them as soon as they appear in a yard, I actually find them pretty. Yeah, so they're a weed. But I've never understood the obsession with a perfect expanse of boring green yard. Those little spots of yellow brighten up the place. They are my first real sign that warmer weather is here, that summer's on its way soon.

Besides which, you can use them as a salad green. Now come on, how can you really hate free food?

Well this is new...

2009-04-06T18:53:00.000-04:00

Uh... I think my cat might want attention.

She just crawled under the coffee table where I keep her brushes, and dug with her paw until they all fell out onto the floor, then popped out and stared at me.

Twilight

2009-04-05T11:50:00.001-04:00

I think my mom summed it up best at the end of the movie:

"Well that was 2 hours of my life I'll never get back."

Yes, it was that bad. It was even worse than I thought it was going to be. Worst. Movie. Ever. And I've seen some bad movies. lol

My sister said it looks like the director tried to make the whole thing a music video.

I'm more inclined to think the entire movie was like a series of bad teaser trailers. Just pieces strung together, the movie didn't seam at all.

Oh, and let's not forget that they had to use every weird camera swoop in the book. That "whee let's go overhead and do a 360 view" thing was done in pretty much every scene.

And then, of course, there was the staring. Lots and lots and lots of Edward and Bella staring at each other. And not saying anything.

If I find it in a bargain bin somewhere (because I'm not going to pay any real amount of money for that) maybe I'll get it just to watch it and make fun of it through the whole thing. But for an actual watchable movie...

I mean, I was disappointed with the Harry Potter movies for cutting so much from the books, but at least once you got past that, they were still good movies on their own.

This... this was just a BAD MOVIE.

Of course, I had warned dad ahead of time that it was going to be a chick movie, because it's kinda a chick book (the book was 500 times better - even though the first book is the worst out of the series, the book was still 500 times better, this is how bad the movie was). He was sitting throught he whole movie going "so when's this guy going to bite somebody?"

I agree. The movie would have been vastly improved had Edward just eaten Bella and put us all out of our misery.

2009-04-05T09:16:00.004-04:00

"Why goofing off boosts productivity"

Interesting read. And, well, something I've known all along. I do much better when I can multitask with something non-work-related. I can't do that at my current job, and it causes a lot of burnout.

I've known a lot of people who do the same.

Many thanks to the friend who showed me this article. Been wondering how long it would take for somebody to publish research about this.

Kangaroos

2009-04-05T08:59:00.003-04:00

You know, it sort of boggles my mind... of all the animals at our local zoo that they don't let you inside the pen with... outside of the aviaries the only ones they do let you in with are the kangaroos.

Kangaroos can get pretty nasty. I'm really rather amazed no misbehaving kids have been kicked by one yet. I mean, it's one thing to get a light kick. But we're talking about animals that fight off their main predator, the dingo, by disemboweling it with their hind claws.

So naturally they let a bunch of screaming kids run around in there with them.

I really am amazed this has not ended in disaster yet. Though I have noticed for the most part the parents with screamy kids don't go in there...

Quote

2009-03-25T19:46:00.004-04:00

Thought I'd share one of the better quotes I've found recently, posted, of all places, on one of those lol sites.

"If perfection was the standard for determining the right to live, none of us would be here."

To put it into context: http://ihasahotdog.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/cute-puppy-pictures-new-legs.jpg

Somebody said of this picture that they wouldn't call that "love". Since the person never responded to the questions of why, it was naturally assumed that this person thought the dog should be put down rather than live without its legs.

Full text of the comment:

"If an animal isn’t suffering and has a decent quality of life, there’s no reason to euthanize just become some people are bothered by the animal’s imperfect appearance. I’ve known a lot of animals with injuries or birth defects that make them look odd or even a bit scary, and there’s always someone who comments that the animals should’ve been euthanized even though the animals function perfectly well and obviously are happy. If perfection was the standard for determining the right to live, none of us would be here."

On that note, something I've heard over and over from articles written by veterinary professionals is that people always assume it's going to be so horrible for their pet when it's lost a limb. But what they don't realize is that animals don't have these silly social hangups about these things. They don't think "oh no, my leg's gone, what do I do now?" They don't have to worry that people are going to think of them differently. They may struggle at first, but it doesn't take them long to adapt and function almost normally. It doesn't seem to cause them the same sort of distress it does to humans. They just compensate for it and move on. So if something happens to your pet that causes a need for amputation, try not to fret. One less leg (or sometimes two) isn't as big a drawback as you might think.

On that note, some of the sweetest cats at the humane society have been missing a limb. They seem to get stuck there longer, though... which is a shame. Why should your pet have to be "perfect"?

Panther

2009-03-06T16:03:00.003-05:00

Here's the petfinder listing (contact for HSDC included): http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=11556644

Panther is a brindle greyhound (full-sized, not the Italian greyhounds which are smaller). He comes about up to my waist, and is about 5 years old, but don't let the graying muzzle and large size put you off. 5 years of age is past that difficult "hyperactive" stage for most dogs, but it's still young enough to have plenty of good years in him. And he's not one to throw his weight around. Panther is very gentle.

As soon as I got this guy on a leash I fell in love. I have NO idea why he's been stuck there that long, all I can figure is they're either concerned about getting a large dog, or they see the grey nose and think he's too old. Which is a real shame. I started to walk with him, and unlike many of the other dogs who come in untrained and in serious need of basic training, Panther was very clearly leash-trained once before. He walked right with me, and if he got a little ahead (long legs will do that) and couldn't see me anymore, he'd stop and turn his head to make sure I was still following, and wait for me to get back beside him before walking again.

According to his profile he is good with kids, cats, and other dogs. He is low to mid energy - he'll go for a jog with you but afterward is perfectly content to curl up and sleep a while. Being a greyhound he would probably best as an indoor dog given Ohio's general climate - his fur isn't superthin but still not thick enough for him to be spending long hours out in winter. Besides which he very much strikes me as a dog who needs to spend a fair amount of time with his owner. Not all his time, but probably the sort to always want to know where you are. I've found I'm usually not wrong about these things, even when it comes to dogs I've only just met.

Though I'm not sure if Panther has separation anxiety, keep in mind that most, if not all, shelter dogs have a touch of it, at least when they are first brought home. Some have it worse than others, but definitely talk to the shelter about what you can do to alleviate it while the dog is adjusting to its new home.

I would take Panther myself if I could right now, but it's just not a good time for me to bring a dog into my life. So please, if you or anyone you know might like this dog, consider dropping by HSDC to check him out, and help him get a permanent home.

For those who have issues with kill shelters, I suppose I'll mention in case I haven't before or you're just passing by this blog without seenig my other entries, HSDC does not euthanize for space. You can find out more about them, and the animals up for adoption, at http://hsdcohio.org/

Spring at last

2009-03-06T15:56:00.002-05:00

First nice day I've had where it was warm, not raining, and I had a day off. So I went out for a while.

Headed out to Westerville first, nothing fancy... just an excuse to get out. Finaly used the gift card to Coldstone Creamery mom got me for my last birthday. I'll tell you, you don't want to assume the sizes are as puny as they look and go for the big one. The containers are very deceptive. There's... a lot of ice cream in there... like, a lot a lot. The biggest size is probably enough for two people. I got halfway through it, probably shouldn't have kept eating, but I had other places to go and wasn't about to waste it - by the halfway point I thought for sure I had to be almost through it, but shoved my spoon down in and there was still plenty more.

Good ice cream, too. They've got this chocolate cake batter flavor... wonderful stuff.

Stopped at home depot to pick up some zip ties - needed one to attach my flag properly to the flagpole since that season has come again.

No, no country flags. I fly a jolly roger off my porch. Pirate flag to you landlubber types. :P A Jack Rackham for those who know the difference. Favorite of all the standard designs.

Headed off to the humane society afterward. Lots of calico cats there right now... a few puppies, quite a few nice dogs. I have a favorite there already, one I'd have taken home myself if not for life being too hectic for me to have a dog right now (moneywise, stresswise, and the fact that, if all goes well, I'll be moving in a couple months and it'll already be stress enough to introduce the two cats to each other without throwing a dog into the mix). More on the dog in the next post - he deserves his own.

Things I forgot...

2009-02-28T20:00:00.002-05:00

Because James reminded me...

While at the mall the other day, we wandered by some guy dressed like a white pimp/rapper wannabe. Who reeeeeally can't pull off the look. Eyed me up and down, checking me out, then looked toward James... and the "I'm a tough guy" frown suddenly got deeper and he walked away. lol Yeah, keep walking. I'm with him. You have no chance.

In addition to Mr Frowny, we walked by one of those little booths in the middle of the aisleways... cosmetics. This little foreign dude (I thought he was french but james didn't think so - he's better with accents than me so I'll go with his judgement on that) comes running up to us trying to push free moisturizer samples on us.

I just sort of took mine, James refused (he has a lotion he's been using for some time and it works for him), and we started to walk off when the guy asks if my nails are real. I say yes and he pulls something out of his pocket - one of those buffing blocks. I tell the guy I already have one. "This one?" "Not that one exactly but something like it." "Well you didn't buy it here so it's not as good! Give me your hand, I'll show you." "No, mine's fine."

In fact, I have seen one exactly like he has - my mom and I went to some women's day free convention thing in Columbus several years back, all kinds of vendors and info booths with cosmetics, women's health topics, and things like that. One of the booths was selling exactly that same block, and did a demo on one of my nails. I promise you the cheaper one I later bought works exactly the same and just as well as the one they were trying to push on me. lol

Later, upstairs and looking down to the first floor, we saw some hapless man being sucked in by the pushy little salesman.

On the one hand, people like that annoy me. On the other, it was kinda funny.

Settling Down

2009-02-28T19:44:00.004-05:00

Not sure what it is that has posessed me to do this, and hopefully James won't mind, but for whatever reason I feel the need to repost one of his writings from a few years back. Something I think that is worth reposting:

I’m at that age where a lot of the people that I know have either gotten married or are getting married. I look at some of the couples, and see how some of them will work, how some will fall apart (either amicably or explosively), and how some will feel obligated to stay with each other for the rest of their lives because they said “I do” for the wrong reasons. The funny thing is that people are starting to look at me and ask when I am going to do the same.

Are you seeing anyone? Is it serious (which always sounds like they’re discussing a disease that you are afflicted by. He has what? Is it serious?)? When are you going to settle down?

I take offense at this. The very notion of “settling down” annoys me.

Let’s think about this on a word by word basis.

First off, I don’t want to settle for anything relationship-wise. I want to be in a serious relationship because I feel passionately about the person. Saying I have settled is downright insulting both to myself and the person, if any, I choose to marry. It implies that I’ve chosen to spend my life with that person because I can’t do any better or that I can’t get what I want.

Settling is what you tell yourself that you’re doing when what you have isn’t really what you want; when what you have doesn’t make you happy but is somewhat tolerable.

I refuse to do that. I would rather spend my life alone or simply having short relationships rather than settling on something I don’t want for the rest of my life. I was very close to marrying someone I loved very much several years ago, and I can guarantee you that I wasn’t settling for anything.

The person I marry will be someone that I want to see when I first wake up in the morning and the last thing I see when I go to sleep. This isn’t to say that I want to spend every waking moment with that person, because I don’t. I enjoy my time alone, and I would hope that she would too.

I want to be with someone who stand with me and whom I can stand with. I don’t want to be with someone who uses me as a crutch in order to prop themselves up for whatever reason.

I want to be with someone who has opinions and a mind of her own; someone I find attractive not only physically but intellectually and in other manners that aren’t as easy to quantify.

If I ever meet anyone that makes me feel that passionately again, then we’ll talk about my getting married. Until then, I’m going to enjoy life for the sake of life; not for what other people think I should do.

Let’s face it: I’m 25. It’s been a long and interesting trip so far, but I have, in theory at any rate, many years ahead of me on the path that I walk. To spend them with someone that I don’t truly love is just wrong in my opinion, and it amazes and insults me that my family seems to think that I should find my identity in someone else.

Now, for the second part – down.

As if settling for something that you don’t want isn’t bad enough, settling down is worse. It says that you are not only willing to spend your life with someone you don’t really want to, but that you are willing to spend your life with someone so far below what you want that it’s not even funny.

That, to me, is one of the worst things I can think of doing not only to myself but to the other person as well. It’s insulting to think that I would be happy “settling down” or that the other person would be happy either considering that the way I felt would affect our relationship.

Let’s face it. Nobody else can make you happy. You have to be happy with yourself or you’ll never be happy at all. To look to a relationship for validation or happiness is just insulting to everyone involved.

Learn to love yourself first for both your accomplishments and your faults. Look at yourself realistically but also with a humble pride (for lack of a better word at the moment), knowing both what you see as positive and negative about yourself. Accept yourself for who you are. If there is something you don’t like about yourself, think about why it bothers you. If the reason it bothers you is good, then work on changing whatever it is that bothers you about yourself.

It’s not easy, but things which are worthwhile rarely are.

Once you get to that point, you probably won’t want to “settle down” either.

When I first read it, it was definitely a glimpse into the type of man I was starting to fall for... the man I now love more deeply than I knew possible. Even then, in what I suppose is typical girlish fashion, I was both intimidated by what I thought I had to live up to, and warmed by the prospect that if someday he ever did ask, that would mean I am all those things.

The world has changed so much in those 3 1/2 years or so... and in true fashion to how so much of my life has worked, much of the changes have come all at once, in little floods where suddenly everything's turned on its side and the view is completely different than before.

It's strange, reading it again now...

I'm not so intimidated anymore.

Then again, I think I've gotten a bit better at enjoying things for what they are, instead of obsessing over what they could be. Fussing over what wasn't happened yet. Not that I never think about the what-ifs, think of what could be, but everyone does that to a certain degree.

Visit

2009-02-28T09:35:00.003-05:00

James was in town yesterday for programmery type stuff (yes, that is a technical term, thankyouverymuch lol), so I met him near Polaris and we spent some time out together for a bit. It was kind of nice to get *out* with him again for a change... usually lately we don't tend to have much time so it's spent hiding away in the house, watching movies and whatnot.

We opted for just wandering around the mall - he'd just spent a lot of drive time so didn't want to run around in the car again, and we only had a couple hours until he had to be at the MS building (which turned out to be right next to the mall so had we planned better we could have had a bit more time... oh well). We pulled into the parking lot, and sitting there was a limo.

Oh, but not just any limo.

This thing was, honest to god, Barbie pink with purple flowers all over it.

Turned out it belonged to one of the stores now attached to the mall... some sort of party spa thing for little girls (that age where they're still all obsessed with dressing like princesses and getting ponies for Christmas and the like). Which... kind of explained the pink but still, wow. lol

And I thought the pickup-truck limo I once saw was scary.

Later on we had a chance to spend the evening in - dinner wasn't fancy, just some of my leftovers (which, impressively, he survived - I'm no great shakes in the cooking department), kicked back and watched a movie...

He stayed until the next afternoon. Then after he left I ran over to my folks' house for movie night. One Hour Photo - not bad, though not as "omgthiswillscareyoutodeath" as people made it out to be. Then again, I'm interested in psychology, so "psychological thrillers" don't really get to me all that much, I guess. Criminal Minds I have to be careful about watching at certain times of the day, but I agree with my mom that it's more likely the combination of the psychological stuff and all the graphic gore and the like. Plus certain filming styles get to me more than others, I've noticed. The last I watched Criminal Minds, it was rather dark and grayed-out a lot of the time. It's interesting what color and light do to your psyche. One Hour Photo, on the other hand, was very pale and washed-out. Except for the photos. Intentional, I'm sure - the effect worked for the movie, but psychologically speaking, for someone like me that made it easier to watch without feeling the usual semi-panic of suspense.

Things I learned from the Karate Kid movies

2009-02-22T20:13:00.001-05:00

1. An 80s high school is a very dangerous place. There are big gangs of karate-fighting bullies all over the place, and the school officials will just watch and not stop them from beating you up.

2. 80s high schools regularly employ paramilitary groups just to hunt down students and get them in trouble. Because, you know, a regular hall monitor is just a sissy.

3. There are no police in the 80s. Everything is street justice. Somebody tries to kill you? No cops, have to learn karate to stop them.

4. All elderly Japanese men sound like they have been chain smoking for like 90 years.

5. In Japan, people speak broken English to each other instead of Japanese, even when the flighty American kid isn't around to need to understand them.

6. If you choke some kid in public, everyone will just stare and not do anything about it. Because, you know, choking kids is perfectly legal in the 80s.

7. Underage drinking is okay as long as it's sake, not beer.

8. 80s high schools conveniently have bird cages on the roof in case you find some injured hawk you want to hide or something.

9. Mr Miyagi is the only karate teacher in the known universe who isn't an arrogant jerk.

10. Maintenance guys at seedy apartment buildings can afford really awesome housing. Also, apparently once they start teaching Karate for free they don't have to show up at work anymore.

11. Being a karate instructor is exactly like being a mob boss. You get your own posse who pushes everybody around so you can pretty much own whole towns.

12. Japanese thugs kick harder than American ones.

13. Rich guys have nothing better to do than get revenge on complete strangers.

14. Shop doors in California obviously do not lock. Otherwise how would Daniel be dumb enough to leave it wide open for the bad guys to get in multiple times?

15. No seriously, there were no cops at all in the 80s. Nor were there insurance companies, so if your stuff gets stolen, you're screwed.

16. I stand corrected. There are cops, but they laugh at you when a crime is committed instead of doing their jobs.

17. Nobody can hear your evil laughter if you do it behind a wall.

And of course, the most important of all:

Don't mess with the old guy. He can kick your butt.

Um. what?

2009-02-18T07:23:00.003-05:00

So, heard on the news this morning that GM is asking for more money. And to try and convince the government to give it to them, they promise to cut costs by, among other things, lating off more people.

Uh... folks... the whole point of the bailout money is to keep the economy going. Know what's not good for the economy? More jobs going down the drain. There's a reason Obama's setting a cap on executive pay for those getting this money, and part of it is to try and get that money to be pushed tpward jobs, rather than concentrating it in the hands of the people who are already making enough.

Sorry, but if we're giving you money (yes we, that's MY money you're taking, mine, my parents', my neighbors'...) and you're STILL having to fire a bunch of people, you're obviously still doing something wrong and we're only delaying your inevitable death. Time to pull the plug, right?

I'd suggest you shape up, and fast. Firing some people and cutting benefits is NOT the fundamental chage to the business structure you need. The idea is to change to a sustainable practice. Get it through your thick heads.

Of course, what should I expect? Foreign car companies already create more jobs around here than you lot do. Almost willing to bet they pay better, too. How does is feel that the Japanese are quite possibly doing more for the American economy than an American car company?

Yes, I like to try and buy things made in America when I can to try and boost our own. But if I want a car that's made in America, well, I can go buy me a Honda that was made right here in Ohio.

Yay for dads

2009-02-09T18:42:00.002-05:00

Over the years, my dad has been my car mechanic, my hvac tech, my general handyman, my carpet installer, my bad-weather chauffer, my "bad guy" when I had to give the cat pills, my GPS system when I got lost (5 times) on the way to and from Chillicothe to visit James, my personal shopper for the occasional car part (I've busted two mirrors in the last year - one because a rock flung at it out of a snowblower, the other because I had to choose between hitting some idiot edging over the yellow line into my lane and hitting a trash can - I chose the trash can)...

Today he was my locksmith. I no longer have to beat the bejeezus out of my door to get it to shut properly. Apparently the freeze and thaw finally took its toll and something shifted all wonky. But it's all fixed now, thanks to my dad, who is talented at all things handyman-related and mechanical. And electrical, for that matter - he wired the basement when they finished it off into office and guest room space.

That's admittedly something that's been nice about having the family right around the corner. I want to ove further away eventually, but right now, when I've needed their help, they've been there to help me out quite a bit. Dad especially, because I'm pretty much at a loss when it comes to fixing things. Yeah, okay, I can check my oil, refill my wiper fluid, tighten screws back, hang a picture on the wall, that sort of thing... oh and apparently some guys at Home Depot were impressed (or flirting with me, could go either way) for actually changing my own air filters for the furnace. But had I tried to fix that door myself it'd probably somehow manage to be off the hinges and laying on the porch by now...

Yeah. Many thanks to my dad. Fixer of all things.

Though thinking about it, my house would probably be about as secure with no locks... I have a good security system. It's called "nosy grandfather with a shotgun". lol We call it the "grandpa alarm". You're on my porch? He doesn't know you? Invited or not, you can bet he's gonna ask you wtf you're doing there. Reasons I had to make sure to introduce him to James. I could just imagine the reports of him having to chase off some guy who was hanging around my house if I hadn't.

Oh, the shotgun? Yeah pretty much every house around here has one. Coyotes and raccoons and all that. Yes, there's the occasional threat of rabies too. Doesn't come up often, but you need something around just in case. I think I've seen one rabid animal in my entire life. Freakiest thing I've ever seen... dad aimed a shot next to it to try and scare it off, dang thing didn't flinch. That was pretty much the final tipoff that there was something seriously wrong with it... first being that it was out in the middle of the day and WAY too close to the house.

And before you start in with all the hillbilly jokes, both sets of grandparents are originally from Appalachia. :P

Wow.... ramble..... I need to go find dinner.

Waitaminnet

2009-02-06T09:43:00.003-05:00

Okay, some weatherman owes me an explanation.

It was supposed to be 40 today.

Why is the forecast now only set at 33, and the current temp at 20?

I was so hoping to make it outdoors today... maybe put in some volunteer hours at the humane society in the nice weather, which I haven't had energy to do in a while.

Looks like I'll be a shut-in for another day.

Weather.com says it's going to be almost 50 tomorrow. *glares threateningly* They'd better not be lying.

I am SO ready for spring.

This about says it all.

2009-01-31T19:43:00.004-05:00

Too cold....

2009-01-30T08:18:00.002-05:00

Yes, I realize I haven't been posting.

Between snowstorms and dealing with work, and the fact that winter generally doesn't agree with me (yes, like so many others, I am prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder - reasons I'd rather not move any futher north than I already am, much as I like Canada) - well, I'm feeling burnt out. And not much is going on anyway, so nothing to report. Even my Twitter feed has been dead for a while.

So yes, I'm still here. I am just seriously contemplating dressing up as a bear and going someplace to hibernate for the winter.

However I am open to any offers that will allow me to afford to move to the Bahamas. Any takers?

Relief finally in sight

2009-01-23T18:16:00.002-05:00

It is above freezing at last after a string of below-zero days.

Yes, I went outside. And about keeled over when I saw actual GRASS. Mind you, there's still a few places that haven't melted down and have a foot of snow on them, but holy crap there's actually grass in my yard....

Also, does anybody know of a way, besides spraying soapy water on the leaves, to stop moldy stuff from growing on your plants? Apparently I accidentally introduced a mold into the house (I think it came in on my mint plant... damn me for buying it at a grocery store instead of finding a good greenhouse) and I'm having trouble with some of my plants getting a little fuzzy. :(

Ugh

2009-01-16T15:22:00.002-05:00

It's too cold to be allowed. Would you believe, when I woke up this morning and checked the thermometer outside, it was sitting at TWENTY BELOW ZERO???

Would somebody be so kind as to offer me a winning lottery ticket or some other such thing that will allow me to buy a tiny remote island in the caribbean somewhere? Or at least enough money that I can hibernate all winter, every winter....

I don't want to deal with Ohio winters anymore. Too cold.

So, Vista, we meet again

2009-01-09T15:50:00.001-05:00

Well, looks like I'm stuck with Vista.

Basically the Compaq/HP website is VERY misleading, and seemed to imply that this laptop had XP drivers, when it does not. Their website failed me, as did calling tech support. Google also failed me, so I am reinstalling Vista.

I suppose I'll have to get used to it. The problem is, the software I have to use for work supposedly won't run on Vista. heh So I'll either have to hope they're wrong about that, or that I won't kill the desktop running my work crap on it. Sucky part is I'll have to use IE. *gags* Yep, virus scans and spyware scans will have to go back to a daily thing instead of weekly. It will make me cry.... with my newest Firefox addons, last time I scanned, I had 0 spyware infections. It was a thing of beauty.

So yeah, I'm a bit annoyed about this. But the laptop is still a good laptop, and I suppose once I get used to Vista I'll learn to live with it and maybe hate it less. But that doesn't change that I'm really rather angry that the website implied this model was XP compatible, when apparently it isn't. And so now I'm stuck with 32 bit Vista, which is the lesser form. I'm told the 64 bit speed is amazing. I just... am driven nuts by the fact that I spent roughly $500 on a computer and equipment that was supposed to be running XP by now.

Plus I just wasted my whole day waiting for my hard drive to be formatted and hunting down drivers to try and get my computer to work. Now I have to format it again (though it seems to be going faster this time...) and then remember how the heck to get Vista back to where I didn't puke at the sight of it.

Coconut Girl Raiju, queen of the wardrobe malfunction

2009-01-09T11:56:00.003-05:00

To give a bit of background before pasting the conversation, the other day the zipper to one of my nice pairs of slacks decided to bust. At work.

Mind you, a few years before while walking to class, the strap on one of my dresses decided to bust, exposing... well... my bust. *cough*

So the following conversation ensued after I explained the zipper issues to James:

Me: I seem to have these problems with clothing more frequently than most people...
James: I didn't do it. I swear...
Me: Suuure. :P
James: Yes, dear. Every time I'm at your place, I secretly weaken your zippers and buttons while you sleep. I confess :P
Me: I knew it!!!!!

Change of address

2009-01-06T19:59:00.001-05:00

Right, so as James just pointed out, I forgot to change my listed address on here. The old earthlink one no longer works. New one is now at the top of the screen.

For those who use my OU address, it's still fine - it forwards to the gmail.

2009-01-03T21:03:00.001-05:00

So I come home tongight and my cat is yowling. This is fairly normal. I feed her, she stops for a bit. I get out of the shower, she yowls some more. Also normal, except her yowl is a bit hoarser, making her sound like her mother. I pet her for a minute. Then she follows me into the living room, more yowling, and insisting on being petted. Being a bit more demanding than is usual for my cat.

A little while later she goes tearing back and forth through the house. Now, I had been doing something so had pulled the stepstool out of my "guest room" which is more aptly the "junk room" right now since it has all the stuff in it I need to weed through and clean up. The cat follows me in, and finally I found the source of all her yowling and insistence for extra attention.

See, I had removed an old mirror off the wall (cheap thing, it was here when I moved in and I never bothered to take it down) because it was in the way of a new shelf I was putting up. And sat it in the junk room.

The cat walked up to it, staring and sniffing, then got nose to nose with her reflection and took off running again.

I had to turn the mirror around to get her to stop. *headdesk*

Yes, apparently Simba thought I had gotten a new cat to replace her, and was getting upset.

Visit

2008-12-25T20:04:00.003-05:00

Well, Christmas is over. My DSL is all activated. James and I tried to figure out how to transfer my old emails to the new address... no luck. I'll have to do it the hard way - copy and paste archive. Earthlink's mailbox is apparently a pain to export from. We tried like 5 different methods and all failed.

Somewhat tired, but fairly content I'd say. I think James and I both needed the time together - life's been a bit weird lately and just having the chance to spend a couple days with him was nice. And I will admit, I rather like the feeling of coming home from work knowing he'll be there.

Spent this morning at my parents' place, fairly uneventful. But we now have some photos of the two of us, courtesy of my mother. We never actually had any before... and really no good recent ones of us separate either, so I'll have somethng to carry around now. I haven't actually seen the photos yet - mom's going to burn a CD.

He was going to wait and leave tomorrow, but given that the weather is supposed to get potentially nasty again by then, and there'll be more traffic from people heading home, he went ahead and left late this afternoon. I would have liked to have another night, but he has things to do, and keeping him in one piece is kind of on my priority list. Better for him to leave when we know the weather's clear than leave it to chance.

My cat is pouting now that he's left. Okay, so I am a bit too, but I think the cat is even more than I am. lol Hopefully we'll have more chances for quality time soon. Too many "have-to's" lately. But I do find that funny... the cat is sulking now. Yet much of the time he was here, she was snubbing him because he took her spot on the couch. And, of course, how dare anyone come into this house and take my attention away from the one thing worth paying attention to in the household. She is the Royal Fuzzball, and she demands your continuous worship. I mean, how dare he not pet her every second of his visit!

Anyway, the gifting and whatnot went nicely this year. Dad seemed to like the game I got him quite well - Sega Bass Fishing for Wii. The controls take a bit of getting used to, but it's pretty fun. Gave mom a gift card for lack of knowing what else to give her. Tea for my sister. James and I had agreed not to spend on each other this year (though I did get stocking stuffers because mom doesn't like having someone sit around with nothing to open - those were just a bunch of little things though). They gave him a set of photo frames, since I had told mom ahead of time that we wanted some photos taken. I have a new sweater, a nice new desk chair (hooray for having one that isn't like, ten years old and beat up - this one's nice and leather). Also got the full series of MASH - collector's edition - movie included. Which I will have to watch because I've never seen the movie. And, from my aunt and uncle, a nice oversized microplush throw.

And still the cat sulks.

Rain, rain, go away...

2008-12-23T07:14:00.000-05:00

At least for one more day... Don't want icy roads today. :\

You know you're animal lovers when...

2008-12-16T20:16:00.003-05:00

...you and your boyfriend both buy presents for each other's cat for the holidays.

And I've been taunting him all week with the fact that I got him the dorkiest stocking stuffers ever. And he knows he can't ask what they are because I won't tell him until he opens them. *snickers*

Why yes, I believe there is a little evil in me now and then.

Meanwhile, the dsl modem is on its way in the mail. Finally, finally I will have real internet. I'll tell you, going from a ridiculously fast connection in college, only to move back to your home "town" (because it's more field than town) and be stuck with no option but dialup, is just a big kick in the pants. Especially when you're an artist and used to browsing very image-heavy sites, along with uploading the occasional large-format file of your own work.

Having that take seconds rather than minutes or hours (yes, sometimes hours) will be a wonderful change. Hey, updating my programs won't take nearly as long! Especially when that new version of GIMP comes out with more bug fixes (and occasionally more bugs). I usually have to wait about 8 hours for that thing to download. And my dialup times out after 12 hours. Oh yeah. It's awesome.

No, as a matter of fact, I don't have Photoshop yet. One of these days I need to hunt down a used copy of PS7 (because I'm fond of the older program, since I learned on it and know all the controls), but for now I don't do enough digital art to really muck with it. Though that is changing now that I have a tablet... because GIMP rather likes to crash when I try to use my tablet. I don't know why it hates me so.

Anyway, enough rambling for one night. I think I'll go collapse on the couch with a nice cup of tea and relax for the evening.

Merry Christmas to me!

2008-12-15T18:30:00.002-05:00

Well, not only is James planning to come up for the holidays (all forces of nature and travel and whatnot willing), but I came home to a message in my answering machine tonight from the phone company. The DSL switch went live today. It only allows a limited number of connections for now since the techs have just been sort of installing on their own time, so it's not your standard fullblown yay let's connect the whole neighborhood kind of thing yet, but since dad and I have been pestering them about it for months, we have the first two slots provided we sign up soon enough. So dad's calling them tomorrow to get the details for me.

This will mean I can actually get my second computer and work from home this winter. This will also mean my internet will not suck anymore. Which is a very, very good thing. I'm so sick of dialup. It'll be nice to actually click on a website and have it, you know, load again. I miss that. lol

2008-12-14T07:46:00.002-05:00

You know, funny thing about problems.

You can run from them as much as you want, but eventually they will always catch up with you. And the longer you spend running and hiding, the harder they'll hit you in the end.

No, nothing on my end. Just kinda thinking about that lately. Only a fool doesn't learn from someone else's mistakes and all that.

back among the living... sort of

2008-12-13T01:03:00.002-05:00

Well, I had to format the hard drive and start over. *sighs* For those who know about my OCD, you know this is stressing me out more than a bit (granted there are other things stressing me out lately, but if you know anything about OCD you'll know that only makes the symptoms worse). Because it takes a while to reinstall everything as a general rule anyway. On dialup it's like pulling teeth. So it's gonna be a while before things feel quite back to normal on my computer.

But Firefox has been updated with some shiny new add-ons that, while a bit annoying, will be much less annoying in the long run than having nasty little keyloggers install themselves on my computer, run even in safe mode, and disable everything that can kill them.

grumbleshred

2008-12-06T11:13:00.000-05:00

So, I'm logging on from a library computer just to give a heads-up to folks that I won't be online for an unknown period of time. Apparently a realy nasty keylogger known as ISpyNow has installed itself on my machine, I assume somehow loaded itself through a script in an ad somewhere (once I fix this there will be some new plugins installed of Firefox to kill any and all scripts *grumbles*). But basically, it lets my computer be remotely viewed and controlled. Kicker - apparently, from what James has looked up, the thing is sold commercially. Anyway, it has disabled my spyware scanners and effectively blocked me from downloading new ones by blocking the websites of all the scanners I know of. It has caused my task manager to stop functioning properly (I can no longer view the "running processes" tab), my virus scanner can't access its update database, and I can't even find the files I'm supposed to be finding to delete.

So unless my last trick works (my uncle said something about running my hard drive as a slave drivfe to a non-infected computer to let it boot and run the scanners - I'm gonna see if he'll help me with that), I will have to back up all my files and completely format my hard drive, just start over. :\ Which means until I get everything sorted and saved and rebooted, I cannot be online because I don't want some jerk to read everything I'm doing on my machine.

So, I don't know how long it'll be before I can actually start posting again. I just don't have an extra machine to use as a backup until I get this all sorted. *sighs* Anyway, wish me luck....

Have to wonder what they were thinking...

2008-11-29T16:52:00.002-05:00

Apparently a Wal-Mart worker got trampled to death by shoppers on Black Friday this year. Nobody stopped or bothered to move around the guy when he fell. Apparently none of them bothered to help him either.

That rather disgusts me.

I am, however, happy to know they are treating it as a homicide case. There's no excuse for that. That guy, knowing where he worked, had no choice but to be there that day (sick or not). Couldn't have avoided the crowds by staying home (though people really shouldn't have to avoid being trampled just by going out shopping... if they want to be trampled they can go to Pamplona for the runnig of the bulls). And people were too greedy and busy to get their bargain shopping done, they didn't even stop to avoid hurting or killing somebody.

I am so disappointed in my fellow man.... No, it's beyond disappointed. I'm outraged. That people turn into that big of MORONS for a day of shopping... and it really is all greed, folks. That's not what this season is supposed to be about.

I hope those idiots are damn proud of themselves. I really do.

*shakes her head*

If you'll allow me a girly moment: Eeee pretty!

2008-11-28T17:08:00.003-05:00

The above image (click it to see a larger view) is what was going to be my Christmas present from James, it seems. I can't deny that he has good taste. Yes, it's a hairpin. White jade. Dragon's head at the top. I find it quite beautiful myself.

But alas, some idiot outbid him by a ridiculous amount. Probably mistaking it for a real antique instead of a replica. *rolls eyes* Oh well. There are more of them in existence, and surely we'll find another. He insists he will find me another one. The surprise part of it may be lost, but it's still certainly something I wouldn't mind having.

I swear, he's going to have me spoiled... really, he is. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I neither expect nor demand to be given gifts, but that does not stop me from squeeing over them.

And he really does have wonderful taste. A great sense of what I will like, and what will look good on me. I suspect my wardrobe is going to have some drastic changes to it once we've got the money to spare on such things. Right now the economy's got both of us sort of trying to hoarde and save a bit, but I think most people are feeling that sort of thing lately. Not that we've been dropped on our butts just yet, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious when there are so many companies doing major layoffs.

Correction

2008-11-27T19:24:00.002-05:00

Okay, well, I told my family about the chocolate covered diamonds thing today. A correction has been made by my sister.

She's heard the ad too. It's chocolate COLORED diamonds. That makes MUCH more sense.

But is far less funny.

Oh well.

Chocolate-covered wha?

2008-11-26T15:49:00.004-05:00

I think I may just have heard the worst gift idea of the holiday season.

Was listening to the radio on the way home, and an ad for some jeweler came on. Naturally, I tuned it out. Until I heard:

"Or check out our new cocoa diamonds!"

Now, even this didn't seem too attention-worthy, since I figured it was the name of some random color of diamond they were offering. But it went on:

"That's right! Chocolate-covered diamonds! What better gift to give your loved ones this holiday season?"

Uh... the heimlich maneuver? Trip to the dentist?

Can we say "lawsuit waiting to happen"? Yes, yes I think we can.

2008-11-21T08:52:00.000-05:00

Well, since it was recently pointed out on a forum that Olberman's speech is similar to a speech made several years ago by John Lewis, I figured I'd post that one up here as well:

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my friend and colleague for yielding me the time.

Let me say to the gentleman that when I was growing up in the south during the 1940s and the 1950s, the great majority of the people in that region believed that black people should not be able to enter places of public accommodation, and they felt that black people should not be able to register to vote, and many people felt that was right but that was wrong. I think as politicians, as elected officials, we should not only follow but we must lead, lead our districts, not put our fingers into the wind to see which way the air is blowing but be leaders.

Mr. Chairman, this is a mean bill. It is cruel. This bill seeks to divide our nation, turn Americans against Americans, sew the seeds of fear, hatred and intolerance. Let us remember the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths self-evident that all people are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This bill is a slap in the face of the Declaration of Independence. It denies gay men and women the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Marriage is a basic human right. You cannot tell people they cannot fall in love. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used to say when people talked about interracial marriage and I quote, ``Races do not fall in love and get married. Individuals fall in love and get married.''

Why do you not want your fellow men and women, your fellow Americans to be happy? Why do you attack them? Why do you want to destroy the love they hold in their hearts? Why do you want to crush their hopes, their dreams, their longings, their aspirations?

We are talking about human beings, people like you, people who want to get married, buy a house, and spend their lives with the one they love. They have done no wrong.

I will not turn my back on another American. I will not oppress my fellow human being. I have fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Mr. Chairman, I have known racism. I have known bigotry. This bill stinks of the same fear, hatred and intolerance. It should not be called the Defense of Marriage Act. It should be called the defense of mean-spirited bigots act.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, to have the courage to do what is right. This bill appeals to our worst fears and emotions. It encourages hatred of our fellow Americans for political advantage. Every word, every purpose, every message is wrong. It is not the right thing to do, to divide Americans.

We are moving toward the 21st century. Let us come together and create one nation, one people, one family, one house, the American house, the American family, the American nation.

Timing

2008-11-17T20:17:00.000-05:00

So, now that it's started snowing... now that we're getting frosty ground regularly and soon it will all be frozen over... now that it's probably a horrid time to plant....

I got my 11 free trees from the Arbor Day Foundation.

Thanks, guys. *headdesk*

Hopefully we'll find a way to keep them alive over the winter. Was planning to give them to my parents since they wanted more trees in their yard. That would suck if they all just up and died.

Blooming Tea

2008-11-15T16:19:00.003-05:00

I have always been amazed at arts like this... always wondered how the maker can possibly know that the end result will be so beautiful. Much like with fireworks... things that are not often noted as arts.

Yes, I took the bloom from my teapot and put it in a vase. And there it will stay until it loses cohesion and stops being beautiful. It's just a simple little thing... but worth preserving for as long as possible, for the work of art it really is.

You Don't Know What Love Is

2008-11-15T14:50:00.004-05:00

I've had this song rolling through my head quite a bit lately:

You Don't Know What Love Is
(The White Stripes)

In some respects I suspect
You've got a respectable side
When pushed and pulled and pressured
You seldom run and hide

But it's for someone else's benefit
Not for what you wanna do
Until I realize that you've realized
I'm gonna say these words to you

You don't know what love is
You do as you're told
Just as a child at ten might act
But you're far too old

You're not hopeless or helpless
And I hate to sound cold
But you don't know what love is...
You just do as you're told

I can see your man can't help but win
Any problems that may arise
But in his mind there can be no sin
If you never criticize

You just keep on repeating
All those empty "I love you's"
Until you say you deserve better
I'm gonna lay right into you

You don't know what love is
You just do as you're told
Just as a child of ten might act
But you're far too old

You're not hopeless or helpless
And I hate to sound cold
But you don't know what love is
No you don't know what love is
No you don't know what love is

You just do as you're told

2008-11-15T07:54:00.002-05:00

I wonder sometimes just how it's possible for so many people to ignore that which dances so freely before their very eyes.

2008-11-14T18:16:00.002-05:00

Something strange has happened....

For the first time since college, I've gotten hungry for ramen.

Except now I doctor it up so it's actually worth eating (granted I did like the Shin Ramyun spicy ramen they used to sell at the Asian grocery... oh how I miss that...).

Also, I finally found a tea shop near me that's well worth going to. I rather wondered how they stayed in business being so hard to find. Spoke to the lady inside - they've been there for about 6 years, and make most of their money through wholesale. They import several of their items directly from China....

I behaved myself. I only bought 3 things.

..... okay 4. But the sakura tea looked interesting and I couldn't resist.

Public Service Announcement

2008-11-12T13:23:00.001-05:00

The following transcript is something I feel is well worth posting:

[Keith Olbermann]
Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on the passage, last week, of Proposition Eight in California, which rescinded the right of same-sex couples to marry, and tilted the balance on this issue, from coast to coast.

Some parameters, as preface. This isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics, and this isn't really just about Prop-8. And I don't have a personal investment in this: I'm not gay, I had to strain to think of one member of even my very extended family who is, I have no personal stories of close friends or colleagues fighting the prejudice that still pervades their lives.

And yet to me this vote is horrible. Horrible. Because this isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics. This is about the human heart, and if that sounds corny, so be it.

If you voted for this Proposition or support those who did or the sentiment they expressed, I have some questions, because, truly, I do not understand. Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don't want to deny you yours. They don't want to take anything away from you. They want what you want—a chance to be a little less alone in the world.

Only now you are saying to them—no. You can't have it on these terms. Maybe something similar. If they behave. If they don't cause too much trouble. You'll even give them all the same legal rights—even as you're taking away the legal right, which they already had. A world around them, still anchored in love and marriage, and you are saying, no, you can't marry. What if somebody passed a law that said you couldn't marry?

I keep hearing this term "re-defining" marriage. If this country hadn't re-defined marriage, black people still couldn't marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal in 1967. 1967.

The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn't have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it's worse than that. If this country had not "re-defined" marriage, some black people still couldn't marry black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not "Until Death, Do You Part," but "Until Death or Distance, Do You Part." Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are gay.

And uncountable in our history are the number of men and women, forced by society into marrying the opposite sex, in sham marriages, or marriages of convenience, or just marriages of not knowing, centuries of men and women who have lived their lives in shame and unhappiness, and who have, through a lie to themselves or others, broken countless other lives, of spouses and children, all because we said a man couldn't marry another man, or a woman couldn't marry another woman. The sanctity of marriage.

How many marriages like that have there been and how on earth do they increase the "sanctity" of marriage rather than render the term, meaningless?

What is this, to you? Nobody is asking you to embrace their expression of love. But don't you, as human beings, have to embrace... that love? The world is barren enough.

It is stacked against love, and against hope, and against those very few and precious emotions that enable us to go forward. Your marriage only stands a 50-50 chance of lasting, no matter how much you feel and how hard you work.

And here are people overjoyed at the prospect of just that chance, and that work, just for the hope of having that feeling. With so much hate in the world, with so much meaningless division, and people pitted against people for no good reason, this is what your religion tells you to do? With your experience of life and this world and all its sadnesses, this is what your conscience tells you to do?

With your knowledge that life, with endless vigor, seems to tilt the playing field on which we all live, in favor of unhappiness and hate... this is what your heart tells you to do? You want to sanctify marriage? You want to honor your God and the universal love you believe he represents? Then Spread happiness—this tiny, symbolic, semantical grain of happiness—share it with all those who seek it. Quote me anything from your religious leader or book of choice telling you to stand against this. And then tell me how you can believe both that statement and another statement, another one which reads only "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

You are asked now, by your country, and perhaps by your creator, to stand on one side or another. You are asked now to stand, not on a question of politics, not on a question of religion, not on a question of gay or straight. You are asked now to stand, on a question of love. All you need do is stand, and let the tiny ember of love meet its own fate.

You don't have to help it, you don't have it applaud it, you don't have to fight for it. Just don't put it out. Just don't extinguish it. Because while it may at first look like that love is between two people you don't know and you don't understand and maybe you don't even want to know. It is, in fact, the ember of your love, for your fellow person just because this is the only world we have. And the other guy counts, too.

This is the second time in ten days I find myself concluding by turning to, of all things, the closing plea for mercy by Clarence Darrow in a murder trial.

But what he said, fits what is really at the heart of this: "I was reading last night of the aspiration of the old Persian poet, Omar-Khayyam," he told the judge. "It appealed to me as the highest that I can envision. I wish it was in my heart, and I wish it was in the hearts of all: So I be written in the Book of Love; I do not care about that Book above. Erase my name, or write it as you will, So I be written in the Book of Love."

Maybe, in that way, Prop 8 passing was a good thing.

No - hear me out!

See, Proposition 8 is just one more in a long line of state laws being passed that are terribly unconstitutional. My own state passed a law banning gay marriage a few years ago, which irked me to no end. But never once has it actually gotten national attention.

Until it happened in California. California, which has a large gay population. Which has Hollywood. Which has all these things we expect to be so progressive.

And yet this bill passed.

It was a wakeup call, and, terrible as the passing of this law is, it got everyone's attention.

Sometimes bad things need to happen to slap people in the face and make them say "enough is enough". It is a shame, but it's true.

Hopefully this will be that slap in the face this country needs. Hopefully we will rise up and tear down these laws that try to tell us it is wrong to love somebody.

I'll tell you something. Love may be hard, it may make us a little crazy sometimes, but real, true love is never wrong. How can it be? How can it possibly be? This, the purest and most unpoisoned of all emotions? I'm not talking about all the substitutes out there that are often mistaken for love, but love itself, true and genuine. How can that ever be wrong?

If there ever comes a day in this world when I feel in my heart that real, true love is wrong, then this will be a world I no longer want to live in.

2008-11-11T15:16:00.002-05:00

The hardships... those are the true test. The test that makes some people grow stronger and others cower away in weakness. The test that causes some bonds to forge and others to split.

So maybe that's why such things are necessary in every life. Only then are you truly laid bare to yourself, and forced to face you at last.

The question is, who do you find when you look that deep inside?

I feel so loved

2008-11-07T07:19:00.002-05:00

So, I came home early yesterday with a fever of 102.6 (yes, it is down somewhat today but not gone - yes, I will be going back to rest some more here soon).

I call my parents to let them know since that's rather high and I wanted somebody to be aware (well, somebody closer - James had been informed I was going home sick so called to check in on me already). They said to keep an eye on it, but not to worry because I always got high fevers growing up, and often hit fevers of 104 as a child. At which point I mentioned that that's a little scary since they say that a prolonged fever of 103 or higher can cause brain damage.

So how do my parents respond? With words of concern making sure I get my fever down ASAP? Telling me to lie down and drink lots of fluids and stay cool? Oh no. Dad immediately responds with:

"Oh, so *that's* what's wrong with you."

Gee thanks, Dad. I love you too. lol

Holy crap...

2008-11-05T18:37:00.001-05:00

I just found gas for $1.89 .... filled up my near-empty tank for under $30. I nearly died of shock.

2008-10-31T09:06:00.001-04:00

Has anybody else noticed the irony that our election day is held just a few days after a holiday we celebrate by dressing up and pretending to be someone we're not?

2008-10-24T19:25:00.003-04:00

"The courses of true love never did run smooth."
~William Shakespeare

It can be a wonderful thing, full of intense happiness and beautiful moments. But it isn't always roses and sunshine. Sometimes it's having your heart ripped out, piece by piece, often for things outside either partner's control, then, when you think you can't stand it anymore and the pain might just kill you, reaching in, tearing off another piece and saying "Here, take it. You need this more than I do."

And lovers must truly be fools, for they wouldn't have it any other way.

Good night. I love you. I'll see you in the morning.

2008-10-10T09:14:00.001-04:00

It's strange, what you think of in the dead of night when your brain is tired and just doesn't want to think anymore. When you think you're utterly sapped out and just need to drift off, but there's that one last thing floating in your mind.

This entry is a long time in coming. It's quite often over the past few years that I've pondered this very thing in the middle of the night, but never once did I post it.

Until now.

There are all too many things we take for granted in life. Doesn't matter how old we are. But it seems in childhood is when it happens the most. All too soon we want to grow up. Then when we do, we realize what we've lost. Or, at least, that's how it goes for those of us whose childhoods were, well, the way a childhood should be. But one thing I find myself missing is small, simple... just the utterance of three short phrases:

"Good night.
I love you.
I'll see you in the morning."

Every night for nearly 18 years (excluding, I suppose, when I was a baby since I wouldn't have understanded the words then), this was the last thing I heard before going to sleep. It's one of those little things you never realize you care about so much until you miss it.

"Good night" I'm sure we all keep hearing now and then. It's fairly common. That one we'll say to pretty much anyone as an evening "goodbye".

"I love you"... now there's something we hear less often. Even rarer if the person saying it well and truly means it. I suppose there must be those in the world who go their entire lives without hearing it. And for that, those of us who have heard it, I guess, ought to be grateful. Especially those of us who have heard it said and truly meant by someone outside our own family.

"I'll see you in the morning." Strange, isn't it, how that phrase is heard even less often than the other two. After we no longer get tucked in by our parents, it seems to go away entirely. There's plenty of "I'll see you tomorrow", but no "I'll see you in the morning."

Somehow, combined, the three phrases seem somehow more powerful. That strange comforting effect, perhaps just because it reminds us of a simpler time when we had fewer worries, when we were more sure of our place in the world.

Lately, at last, I have two of these phrases becoming more common in my life. "Good night" and "I love you." The latter, it seems, we went so long without saying, for whatever reason. But either way, it's nice to hear it again, and nice to hear it combined with a "good night".

Hearing all three together, I suppose, may never happen again. It's sort of limited, somehow, to tucking someone in. You have to say goodnight, leave them, and then expect to see them as soon as they wake up. I mean, I know some couples have taken to sleeping in separate bedrooms, but I rather find the practice somewhat silly myself. So your therapist told you the bedroom should only be for sleep and nothing else. Do people not like cuddling with their significant other in their sleep? Seems odd to me.

But it's strange, how much I miss that little triad sometimes.

But two out of three ain't bad.

New career?

2008-09-28T20:50:00.002-04:00

So... I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't just forget all else and take my creative pursuits in an odd direction to make money (with this economy it's tempting - the jobs I want either aren't hiring, or it's about impossible to get anything entry level with pay that I can afford - sad when you have to worry if you'll LOSE money by working at a place, just thanks to the gas prices).

I mean, I'm doing well where I am, but it's no secret to them that it's not where I want to be (which I suppose makes it that much more impressive to them that I'm doing this well... but just because I don't want to be there doesn't mean I won't do a good job while I AM there, and from what I'm told that makes me different from a lot of people, go figure). I find that funny actually... I apparently don't interview well because in spite of working on my confidence and social skills, when I'm new in a place (which includes interviews - can't be newer than that, right?) I'm still pretty awkward. But those who actually see through that to keep me tend to find out what an asset I am. My "worst" seems to be better than a lot of people's "average", and maybe even better than their "best" though I have no idea how many others are slacking off to be sure if they're even trying.

Of course I have to pause and make a tangent off my tangent to give a public thank you to Brian (dang, sorry, forgot your last name) of Tattletale Alarm. He's one of the most perceptive people I've ever met, and in an hour was able to tell me all about myself, down to the style of work I probably preferred. I don't believe he made a single mistake. At the time, though, I thought he had made one. At the end of the interview, he told me I'm a businesswoman. I disagreed, but he insisted I just didn't see it yet.

I think I'm starting to see it now.

Strangest interview I've ever had... was more like sitting down and chatting with friends by the end of it. Even if I was nervous as ever. Definitely the first interview I had where a dog was determined to get me hired. Ah well. Shame there wasn't a fit, but I guess that just means my life is leading me elsewhere. Or maybe that it just wasn't time yet. Who knows? Life's funny like that.

Anyway, back to the career change.

I tend to write instrumental music now and then for fun, that turns out well. But usually if I try to add lyrics to something, it ruins everything. I can write poetry, I can write music, but heaven forbid I try to put them together.

Unless they're utterly stupid, parody-ish songs (think stuff along the lines of "driving a truck with my high heels on", the vast majority of Denis Leary's songs - utterly ridiculous, most goodnatured jabs that might get my butt kicked by those with a less forgiving sense of humor). First was the infamous Pennsylvania Song that my parents got to listen to as we were getting lost in Pittsburgh. Invented on the spot based on the conversation, and things that actually happened.

Then there was the Canada Song which is not complete. Not necessarily a parody, but the lyrics are so corny it sounds much better if I pretend it was meant to be a goofy sort of song.

Today it was a love song involving a truck stop. Because on the way home from vacation there's a truck stop/gas station called "Love's", and dad made some comment that "love's truck stop" just made it sound wrong. I decided it sounded more like a bad country song.

I already have the first verse and need more.

Between the dumb songs and the book I'm trying to write, I'll have some material that may make some publishers think I'm out of my gourd here before long. lol No idea how long the book will take, but I WILL be finishing this one, and it's definitely getting pitched to someone.

On a final unrelated note, after a week of being away, my cat is VERY happy I'm home. Her babysitter for the week said she was an absolute pain within a few days of my leaving (thankfully didn't take long to give up her hunger strike), and I had a few stray messes to clean up. *shakes her head* My cat has separation anxiety... and gets jealous of any other animal in the house so I can't get her a buddy to play with. Can't afford kennel fees - no use though since she's not too big on strangers. She likes most of my family, but she's a bit warier than she used to be since whatever happened to her eye way back when, before she was an indoor kitty. So I don't have many options. She ignored the used shirt I left out for her to snuggle with.

Granted this time was worse than others, probably because of the power outages the same week I left. It disrupted our routine beforehand, then I disappeared for a week. She's now sittign here beside me, at least one eye open at all times to make sure I'm still here. Hopefully she won't go bananas when I leave for groceries tomorrow.... cats are easier than dogs to leave behind, I guess, but oy. Sad part is, if the drive weren't so long, I might have been able to take her with me. She actually adapts very well to new locations, as long as she knows where to find her food bowl, her litter box, and the bed. lol But she doesn't like the car.

Oh well...

Wild foods

2008-04-23T13:10:00.002-04:00

Was going to go out with my parents today, but decided today was too nice to let myself be stuck in stores. Stuck around at their place for a little bit afterward, their dog tagging along, and took a short walk along the creek there.

This was when I realized that, in addition to the fact that I spent more time outside when I was a kid and living with them, I have also been missing something from my diet since I moved out of there.

Wild foods.

Notice I didn't say natural foods. No, I'm not talking organic. I'm talking about honest to god, walk out into your backyard or the nearest forest where countless animals are bound to have peed on it kind of wild food. Best stuff in the world, I'm telling you.

See, it's not that the yard I share with my grandparents isn't nice, just for some reason between here and just 1/4 mile down the road the ecosystem is different. For one, up here I'd be more at risk of farm contaminants even if I did find something, since the fields right by me are crop fields. My parents live next to a cow pasture but that land is pretty much chemical-free. Yes, the creek also runs by my backyard too, but it doesn't have those low-slope banks, and just doesn't seem to have the same kind of soil. Here we have a few inedible weeds (okay, nettles are edible/make good teas after they dry, but are YOU going to pick them for me?). But there is a little spot right by my parents' creek that they never mow, that has wild onions, violets, and all sorts of things that are probably also edible if I cared to look them up.

And when I was a kid and spending so much time in the interesting diversity of my parents' yard, I would grab whatever plants were nearby and just munch on them, not even stopping to think of what kind they were. Various weeds I'd eat the shoots. Much to my mother's dismay I was fond of her daylily shoots too - didn't know at the time that daylily shoots and petals are, in fact, a perfectly edible food source. I just knew the little white bits tasted good.

So I wonder what nutrients are missing from my diet now that I don't just sit around outside and eat plants at random. Who knows what good I may have gotten from those? I certainly seemed healthy back then.

Of course, it was probably as much the sunlight as anything else.

Anyway, tonight I am planning to toss some chicken in the wok and stir fry it with some mushrooms, wild onions, and violets. Unfortunately the mushrooms are not wild - I forgot to ask my folks before they left if I could snatch some of the morels my other grandparents brought up from West Virginia. I'm not sure how many they have left anyway.

I suppose I'll give them a call and see if they want to do that for dinner and share with me.

2008-02-27T10:27:00.002-05:00

I have decided something...

A call center is probably not the best place to work if you're part Irish...

Too many things to set off the temper.

I think I hit them all last night. I'm sure it could be worse, but as tired as I've been on my shift from all the not sleeping, it just compounded. I think something in my brain may have burst.

Corner Gas

2008-02-22T13:55:00.002-05:00

I have to spread the addiction.

If you have access to cable (unlike me, who has to leech off my parents' DVDs), there's a Canadian show that's recently started airing in the US that, if you have ever lived in a small town, you can easily get addicted to:

http://www.cornergas.com/

Seriously. I can't get enough of this show. There's only 4 seasons on DVD right now... I just keep watching them over and over and over... it really is one of those shows you can watch over and over again without getting tired of it.

Seriously, go watch it. Then share the addiction with a friend once you're hooked.

Whose life is it, anyway?

2008-02-19T11:49:00.000-05:00

You know, I've come to a realization that probably many others before me have come to, but it's worth stating just the same.

We spend most of our lives on someone else's time.

Think about it... you spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at work... not counting the commute time, or the time at lunch that you're generally not paid for. All that time is dedicated to somebody else's crap, just so you can make some money to pay bills to get by - and I do mean get by, because most of us don't really have a ton of luxury at our salaries, I'm sure. When you get home, you spend maybe 4 or 5 hours awake before you go to sleep, so you can feel rested for being on somebody else's time for 8-10 hours again the next day. And unless you get really lucky or just happen to be in the right vocation where you can settle yourself a nice nest egg early and find an easier route to life, you continue on this way until retirement - the age of which is getting higher and higher. And even in retirement you'll probably have to have a job to keep some money coming in, so the cycle never ends.

Why do we accept this? Why do we accept so much of our lives belonging to somebody else? Don't we deserve better than that? Don't we deserve most of our time to be ours? What the hell is the point of it all then? We say we do these things so that somewhere down the road we'll have what we want. But do we ever really get there? Our prime years are wasted because we're saving up for a time in our lives when we'll probably be too damn tired to do anything fun with it.

That just sucks.

I guess the best we can hope for is that someday we'll have a job we actually enjoy, so that that time spent on somebody else's watch is fun for us too. But not many people get that. I only hope I do someday...

Public Service Announcement

2007-11-19T15:43:00.000-05:00

No matter what you see on TV, no matter what the pet store tells you:

GOLDFISH CAN NOT LIVE IN BOWLS!!!!

Thank you. That is all.

Does this mean people will stop thinking I'm anorexic?

2007-09-29T13:06:00.000-04:00

I have no idea if anybody reads this anymore, but if you do, you may be frightened to know....

Yesterday I weighed in at 120lbs.

Yes. She's finally the size of a normal person.

And it only took a year and quarter after graduation. How 'bout that?

Unfortunately, I now need new pants, and cannot afford new pants. Almost every pair I own is too small now.... O.o;

2007-08-10T13:04:00.000-04:00

What Form Would Your Patronus Take? (With 10 Excellent Results & Pictures)

Your Patronus would be a Wolf!
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Anyway, been over a month now, still hunting for a job. *heh* Have a couple interviews I'm hoping to hear back from but I have no idea how long that will be. In the meantime listings seem pretty slim in my area right now, and I can't really afford to move. Hurrah.

What, you can't hear my skin sizzling from where you are?

2007-07-02T16:29:00.000-04:00

Yeah, that sunscreen stuff?

Wear it.

Also, when you're out on your parents' pontoon boat.... make sure the SPF is high enough.

Here's a hint: if you're as pale as I am, SPF 15 is NOT high enough. Even if it does protect from both kinds of UV rays.

I look like a cooked lobster. My knees got the worst of it so I've been waddling around the house all day - thankfully I have at least a little bit of silk clothing, though not much - only thing I can wear without feeling like somebody's trying to sandpaper my skin off.

Another chapter closed...

2007-06-27T13:05:00.000-04:00

I sent my notice today. Just can't afford to go that far with that kind of reduction in hours.

I know it shouldn't take me long or anything. I was just hoping to have broken into something new by now. But nothing I'm interested in is open. So, back tot he same old stuff in the meantime.

Shouldn't take me long. But I still hate the process. Don't know many people who don't hate it. Just one of those necessities. I know people with no social anxieties whatsoever who still dread interviews and the like. I will never understand what it is exactly. Maybe just the scrutiny. The pressure.

Life is going to be weird for a bit....

Attention members of the medical profession:

2007-04-26T16:51:00.000-04:00

How about talking TO your patients instead of AT them. You know, do that thing called listening for a change? If you don't listen to us, we won't listen to you. I mean, how are we supposed to trust that you're treating our problem if you don't even pay attention to what that problem is?

For those of you who DO actually know how to, you know, act like proper human beings, thank you for not being mind-numbingly annoying.

That is all.

I'm doomed....

2007-04-14T19:04:00.000-04:00

I have discovered Aquabid. And there are bettas galore on that site.

I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque. I will not buy the super delta opaque.

But he's like.... $7.... as opposed to the $50+ they usually sell for.......... and neither of those include shipping.

No. I do NOT need to set up my 2.5 gallon right now. The one 10-gallon tank is enough. >.<;; Granted it is tempting to get a betta in the office. But I'd have to bowl it, which means no lights to heat it since our outlets are pretty much shot (3 of us are in an office built for one lol), and though we keep it pretty warm in there while we're around, it can get pretty dang cold in there when nobody's around. I suppose I could just take the fish home in the winter, and have him in the office during the summer.... but eh.

Yes, I admit it. Ever since I saw that one white betta in a store, I've been obsessed with the breed. Granted after Achilles the red terror I was rather fond of them, since I never realized before him that a fish could have so much personality. But man... I wish I had known at the store that his being white didn't mean he was sick. Should have had the sense to know, because it wasn't a dull white, this was iridescent. I found out they actually do come in white later, and could have kicked myself. I have never seen one in a fish store since.

I may be a bit fish-crazy right now. lol But I find it kinda relaxing to have the tank in here anyhow. And fish are fairly low-maintenance. I say this as I have a minor outbreak of ich... so tomorrow I get to run to the pet supply store nearby and grab some medicine. Need to stock my arsenal, since all I had was the stuff to help cure tears and fin rot for my betta. I've never had a fish get sick before now, but then I've also never had multiple fish at once, nor live plants. And supposedly ich is just a fact of life for most aquariums, so I'm not fussing too badly. Nobody's looking sickly yet, so the things haven't been attached to them long. I've joined a sort of discussion group online that's already given me some advice on it, and nobody else seems to think my fish are in real danger as long as I medicate them.

If only all medicine was as cheap as fish remedies...

I never did get to the pharmacy to see if anybody offers those stupid eyedrops at less than $100. *grumps* That much, just for something to stop my eyes from clouding when the weather turns cold. My immune system went haywire this year.

Fish

2007-04-05T22:04:00.000-04:00

So I have a fishtank. With fish in it.

Sure, I've had bettas before. But now I have a ten-gallon. Why? Because I kept being haunted by the images of Howie's at the pirate parties, a nice 10-gallon tank sitting there, where a betta was living peacefully with other fish. I decided, I had to try it. After some careful reading of about 20 different sites, I decided the ONLY consistency I was finding was that neon tetras and bottom-feeders will generally not be harmed by the betta, nor will they attack his fins. So, that's what I chose. I now have 5 neons (1 died on the way home by flinging himself against the bag.... not the brightest bulb in the box, that one), one male Betta splendens (who was aggression-tested before we left the store - though his scales and fins were in perfect shape, he didn't flare even at other bettas), and one golden dojo loach.

I also have a handful of live plants - jungle val and anacharis. Which, as I am told, puts me at risk for snails since I wasn't warned that even store-bought live plants where they do not keep snails to sell will have snail eggs. But the advantage I have is that loaches are egg-eaters. Even if the dojo is not as active as people claim that species is, and sits on the bottom all day until he sees food float by.

Well, the other day, I did indeed come home to eggs.

After posting to a fish forum, it appears that they were not snail eggs as I feared, but fish eggs! Whoops, guess I shoulda posted before feeding them to the loach. Oh well, with luck it will happen again. I have determined they probably belong to the tetras, though I don't know if the loach is a male or a female. But supposedly loach eggs are red. Those are definitely not red, and one of my tetras looks "fat" (compare the one on the far right to the others - you'll have to click on the pic and view the full size to notice the difference probably, but the ones to the left are more streamlined):

Also, notice the bubbles in the egg picture. There were many more of them when I looked at the tank again this afternoon, just before I knocked the eggs down for the dojo to eat. After a bit of poking around, my suspicion was confirmed. My betta apparently decided if there are eggs, they must belong to him, so he made a nest for them. Shame I don't have a breeding setup just now. It'd be nice to get a female and see how he does raising his own spawn.

But in any case, if those are, in fact, tetra eggs (I don't have an extra tank to move them to at the moment, so the fry will probably be eaten before they get big enough to tell for sure - though I guess if they hatch at all they're the tetras, since I doubt the loach can fertilize its own eggs), I am way luckier with fish than I thought. Why? Well, everything I've heard about neon tetras says they're nearly impossible to breed in an aquarium PERIOD, and especially not in a community tank with other species.

Karyl Cunningham

A primer on pet rodents: rats and gerbils

Den size and crating

Writer's block=repost.

Pets and stress

Yet another overdue cat update

Overdue Kitty Update

Update on the cats

Introducing cats - Romeo

Introducing cats - tearing down the gate

Introducing cats - unexpected test

Introducing cats - Day 3

Introducing cats - Day 2

Introducing cats - day 1

One by One

Traditional Media - a dying art?

Bird discovery and rearranging

Fox Run Soap & Sundries

Freckles

Correction

Swan Lake

Happy Thanksgiving

Buried

The crazy animal lady strikes again.

Boardwalk

Meet Loki

Franklin Park Conservatory

Blind Betta

Guard of the garden

The rest of the visit

Day off

Sleepover

Why Karyl doesn't garden

The saga of the fire alarms.

Bromeliad

Nice things

Panther still needs a home!

Nice Day

Dandelions

Well this is new...

Twilight

Kangaroos

Quote

Panther

Spring at last

Things I forgot...

Settling Down

Visit

Things I learned from the Karate Kid movies

Um. what?

Yay for dads

Waitaminnet

This about says it all.

Too cold....

Relief finally in sight

Ugh

So, Vista, we meet again

Coconut Girl Raiju, queen of the wardrobe malfunction

Change of address

Visit

Rain, rain, go away...

You know you're animal lovers when...

Merry Christmas to me!

back among the living... sort of

*grumbleshred*

Have to wonder what they were thinking...

If you'll allow me a girly moment: Eeee pretty!

Correction

Chocolate-covered wha?

Timing

Blooming Tea

You Don't Know What Love Is

Public Service Announcement

I feel so loved

Holy crap...

Good night. I love you. I'll see you in the morning.

New career?

Wild foods

Corner Gas

Whose life is it, anyway?

grumbleshred