Happy Thanksgiving

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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...

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

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!

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 know 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

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.

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.

Dandelions

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?