May 2008 – Page 4

5/8/08

Things that give me the blerghs*: 1. Milk I can have milk ON things (like cereal) or IN things (like pudding), but if I were required to sit down and drink a cup of milk? No way. Probably comes from drinking milk with dinner every night when I was growing up. Anyone who’s had to … Continue reading “5/8/08”

Things that give me the blerghs*:

1. Milk I can have milk ON things (like cereal) or IN things (like pudding), but if I were required to sit down and drink a cup of milk? No way. Probably comes from drinking milk with dinner every night when I was growing up. Anyone who’s had to drink half a cup of very warm milk (which got warm because I put off drinking it because GODDAMN MILK IS NASTY) can probably feel my pain.

2. Flies I literally cannot eat if there’s a fly buzzing around, anywhere in the room at all. It’s like I can see the waves of disease and destruction coming off them. Those goddamn things VOMIT on their food, did you know that? So if you have to shoo a fly away from your food IT HAS PROBABLY ALREADY VOMITED ON YOUR FOOD. You’re about to eat fly vomit! Tasty!

3. Kate and Jack on Lost I like the idea of strong, kick-ass Kate, but something about the execution of the character just annoys the everloving shit out of me. I like Jack, kinda (though I prefer Sawyer or Jin – MWROWR) but the idea of Jack and Kate together? Ugh. No. Zilch for chemistry between those two. In fact, can’t we get Kate killed off before the end of the season?

4. Too much mayo I like mayo. I like mayo mixed with things. I like egg salad with mayo, coleslaw, potato salad. I like sandwiches with mayo, but too much mayo? Blergh.

5. Ticks I hate goddamn ticks with their goddamn 6,000 legs. Fred brought Newt inside the other night because he saw a tick crawling on Newt and I had to grab the tick and pull it out of Newt’s fur and then I had to kill it, and the entire time I was dealing with it, my skin crawled right off my body and headed for less creepy crawly territory. For the record, I used a very sharp knife to cut that tick in half, then I flushed it down the drain. It BETTER NOT COME BACK FOR ME, is all I’ll say.

6. Dead things I just don’t like dead things. I’m okay with the fact that Newt and Miss Momma are overwhelmed with the urge to hunt and kill and eat. I just don’t want them to do it where I have to SEE the dead thing. And I don’t want them to leave dead things on my porch. And last week when I had to pick up a dead baby chick and remove it from the brooder? BLERGH.

7. Raw chicken I swear to god I can see the salmonella crawling around on raw chicken. I hate handling raw chicken, I hate putting the chicken-juice-covered packaging in my trash can, I hate the smell of raw chicken.

And yes, I’m aware that #6 and #7 are going to make chicken-slaughtering time a true blergh-fest.

9. Brains Brains belong in skulls. If brains come slipping out of skulls I DON’T NEED TO SEE THAT, THANKS, FILMMAKERS! Can’t we just show by the characters’ reactions that there was some brain visible? Like “Oh my god! Did you see his BRAIN?!”

10. Wasps Wasps mostly annoy me, and killing them with the fly-swatter or a rolled-up magazine or newspaper doesn’t bother me at all. But when there’s nothing else around and I have to grab the wasp with a piece of paper or tissue and I have to FEEL under my fingertips the hard wasp body and HEAR the crunch it makes as I squoosh it (yes, I could just toss it in the toilet, but really. I think we all know that wasps are evil enough to swim up from the depths of the septic system and seek their revenge.), it’s blerghsville all over the place.

*The blerghs: like the oogies, only with more shuddering.

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(pic) Look who got an apron made by the hands of one Knucklehead Conventioneer (aka “Nance”)! (She did not, however, make that dorky look on my face. I did that all by myself!)

(pic)

SO much more “me” than the red one I’ve been using. I love it!

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Kara and the babies continue to do well. The babies are starting to explore more – yesterday, River and Inara “discovered” the padded teepee located next to the box where they spend all their time. They aren’t going far, and they always end up back in the box – or in front of it – but I bet it won’t be long before they’re all the way across the room. I did a quick check of the room to make sure there was nothing they could hurt themselves on, and I think everything’s fine.

I have a couple of short movies to tide you over. I made them with my camera rather than the camcorder, so they’re horrible, but if you need to see some little bitty kitties, it should fit the bill.

The first one is River, nursing, when he was 12 days old:

The second is random kittens moving through the frame, and Inara stretching:

The last one is from last night. The kittens, at 20 days, nurse every 3.2 seconds. Hey, something’s got to keep those bellies big and round!

Sorry for the sucky quality, but y’know how it goes. Maybe there’ll be something a little better (and longer) tomorrow or Monday, we’ll see!

(pic) “Hey. Where’d THOSE come from?!”

(pic) I don’t know what was up yesterday, but the other kittens would NOT stop sniffing Zoe’s butt.

(pic) The most beautiful raccoon kitteh in the world!

More uploaded pictures over at Flickr.

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(pic) Every now and then, when she’s hanging out on top of the kitchen cupboards, Stinkerbelle spots this dark spot on the ceiling and she gets all excited. I think she thinks it’s a bug. She races over to the end of the cupboard and stares and stares at it.

(pic) She hangs so far over the edge that it makes me nervous and I stand beneath her and say “Stinky, stop! Stinky, get back. YOU ARE GOING TO FALL!”

(pic) She just ignores me, though.

(pic) I’m sure that one day she’s going to be doing this, and I’m going to be trying to convince her to back up, and she’s going to slip and fall and land on my head, and next thing I’ll be motoring around the back forty in a breath-controlled wheelchair. Between Stinkerbelle and Fred, I think it’s just a matter of time before I get that wheelchair.

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Previously
2007: Fred was PISSED because he’d been harboring a secret yen to stay in the Shalom in the Home trailer park, and he stomped off to sulk, thus making Nance and Rick uncomfortable and not in the mood to play Catch Phrase.
2006: I ran out the back door, yelling the entire way for Tommy to “Drop it! Drop it, Tommy! DROP IT!”
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: It’d certainly be interesting, at least until it came to blows, I’m sure.
2002: Of course, the mother of the bride is a total sobbing mess.
2001: My butt hurts.
2000: I meant to pick up the razors for Women with Big Asses.

5/7/08

Someone reminded me that I hadn’t mentioned the bird Joe Bob brought in the house after I said I’d left it in the plant pot on the front porch. Before I left for Wal-Mart, I glanced out, and it was bouncing across the front yard. It seemed to be having a little trouble flying, but … Continue reading “5/7/08”

I choose to believe it recovered and took flight.

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It was no problem at all getting Sugarbutt into the cat carrier yesterday morning. I brought the carrier downstairs an hour or so before we had to leave, and Sugarbutt ran and hid on top of the cupboards in the kitchen, and then he forgot why he was scared and he came down and jumped up on Fred’s desk chair and went to sleep, so ten minutes before his appointment I walked over, picked him up, and put him in the carrier. I don’t think he was completely awake until we were halfway to the vet’s office.

The vet tech grinned when she said Sugarbutt’s name and said that they’d all been guessing why that was his name, so I told her the story (for you newbies: Sugarbutt and Tommy are from the same litter; I got them when they were itty bitty – here’s baby Sugarbutt – I guess they were close to 3 months old when I got them, and Sugarbutt was just a mess. He had worms, he had horrible diarrhea that scalded the fur off the backs of his hinds legs, he had what we thought was a prolapsed rectum, and when I said to the shelter manager “What do I DO?”, she said “Well, I’ve heard that if you put sugar on a damp cloth and hold it to his back end, it will help the swelling a little.” and so I did, and there was really nowhere to go from there but to name him Sugarbutt. His “official” name was “Sad Eyes”, but we never called him anything but Sugarbutt after that. Also, it turned out that he didn’t have a prolapsed rectum, he had impacted anal glands. Poor baby.) and it turns out they’d guessed right.

Sugarbutt did the frozen-in-horror thing so that the vet was able to look closely at his nasty toes, and he said he thought there’d been some trauma to his toe, and he had to clean out between and behind his toes (there was a lot of litter and dirt caked behind his toes) and they found a small cut. He prescribed an antibiotic ointment, and put the ointment on Sugarbutt’s foot and then bandaged it up and said that if we can keep the bandage on him, we could put more ointment and a new bandage on once a day, but if he pulled the bandage off, we’d need to put ointment on more often and spray bitter apple on his foot to stop him from licking.

Since he wasn’t up to date on his vaccinations, they gave him his shots, and then we were out of there, all in less than 20 minutes.

Rather than going straight home I had to stop by Wal-Mart to get new litter. If he doesn’t keep the bandage on, we have to keep him off clumping litter (it’ll just irritate the sore) and so I had hoped to find some of that Yesterday’s News litter. Wal-Mart didn’t have any of that, so I bought some Feline Pine litter (which some of you have recommended in the past) and I was in the car headed for home, when I started thinking about it, and I couldn’t quite remember, but doesn’t Feline Pine break down into sawdust or pinedust or something? If so, that was something I didn’t particularly want Sugarbutt to get between his toes, so I went up the road to K-Mart to see if THEY had some Yesterday’s News, and they did so I bought a couple of bags.

When I got home, I ran inside and changed out all three of the litter boxes quickly before I brought Sugarbutt in and set him free. When I told Fred that I’d had to switch litter for a little while, he sighed and said “Let the bed-peeing begin!”

I haven’t found any urine outside of the litter boxes yet, but the day is young! I can’t say that I’m all that terribly impressed with this litter. It doesn’t hold back The Stink at all and rather than absorb urine it seems to just kind of fall apart. I don’t know, it’s only for a few days, so I just hope the little bastards keep using the boxes and don’t decide to pee elsewhere.

Also, I have to keep the back door shut so Sugarbutt can’t go out into the back yard and get dirt in his sore toes, so every time I walk anywhere near the back of the house, Joe Bob comes along and gives me the hopeful eyes. It’s killing him not to be able to go outside, and Tommy and even Miz Poo are hanging out by the back door an awful lot. I gave up around 4:00 yesterday afternoon and let them all outside, including Sugarbutt. I let everyone BUT Sugarbutt outside, but he gave me such the sad eyes that I couldn’t stand it. Today, I’m determined not to let them outside, but they certainly are all up in my shit, gathered around and giving me Looks.

If the new litter doesn’t make them pee on furniture or a rug, I’m sure not being able to go outside will!

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Recipes I have tried lately and consider worth sharing with you:

Friday for dinner, I made Pioneer Woman’s Marlboro Man’s Favorite Sandwich. I did NOT use as much butter as the recipe called for because, well, I thought I could get away with using less. And I did and I could and it worked out just fine! Basically, it’s just a steak and onion sandwich, and it is GOOD (though cutting the cube steak was a big pain in the ass – next time, I’ll leave the steak a little bit frozen for easier cutting) and she’s right, it would be good with mushrooms and (not for me, since I don’t like them) maybe peppers. I put cheese on mine and it was divine. Also, we used left over roasted red onion mayo and it was fabulous.

We enjoyed the sandwiches so much that we had them again for lunch on Saturday, and then again on Sunday and they were better each time.

Definitely recommended!

For dessert on Friday, I made Paula Deen’s Gooey Butter Cake. It was fairly easy to make, and while it was good, it wasn’t the kind of good that will require me to ever make it again in the future. It reminded me a lot of a caramel cake that we’ve gotten at the grocery store before. I had a piece and I enjoyed it, but if I never have it again I won’t be sorry.

AND THEN.

So we each ate what we wanted from the cake, and we put the rest in the refrigerator to feed to the pigs, and then next morning Fred broke off a piece and tried it and then he made me try it, and holy COW that stuff was good! Something about sitting in the refrigerator, I don’t know if it was just the flavors mingling or the act of being cold, or what, but man. REALLY GOOD.

(The pigs liked it a lot, too!)

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The other day when I whined about my uuuuuugly feet, a few of you recommended the Ped Egg. I’d never heard of the Ped Egg and didn’t know what it was, but I went and checked out the web site and thought that maybe I’d see about getting one of them, and then I completely forgot about it.

Then, Monday at Wal-Mart I was getting ready to check out and at the end of the checkout lane was, whattayaknow, a Ped Egg. I looked at it, considered the price, and tossed it in my cart.

(I’m the worst kind of impulse buyer, I know.)

I bought it, and then I drove by a CVS, and there was a sign advertising the Ped Egg, and I was all “Okay, I’m fine, I bought one, I get the idea!”, and THEN I drove by Walgreen’s, and there too was a sign advertising the Ped Egg and I was all “I GET IT! I need a Ped Egg! I got one! Jeez, stop harassing me!”

I haven’t used it yet, but I have high hopes for the deuglification of my ugly, ugly feet.

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Fred and I started watching Heroes the other night. We watched the first episode of it when it originally came on two years ago (or whenever the hell it started, I don’t remember), and after the one episode, we ended up deciding not to watch any more. Now, with nothing else to watch, we decided to give it a try again.

We’ve watched the first two episodes, and I think we’re going to keep on going. About halfway through episode 2, Greg Grunberg showed up.

“It’s Greg Grunberg!” I said excitedly. I love that guy.

“Who’s that?” Fred said.

“From Felicity!” I said. “The one-balled Jewish guy?” Fred never watched Felicity with me, but he wandered through the living room often enough to know that Sean had had a testicle removed and he was Jewish, so he began referring to him as the “One-balled Jewish guy” of course.

Fred considered the TV and said in confusion, “He… doesn’t look bald.”

One-balled, one bald. I SUPPOSE they sound alike.

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I would tell you how Kara and the bebbes are doing, but they’re doing just fine and I have no stories to share with you – except that I spent a long time in the foster kitten room yesterday bonding with Zoe while the other kittens slept and Kara snoozed in the middle of the room. Zoe and I had not spent much one-on-one time, and I’m pleased to announce that she is sweet and adorable and her belly feels like silk and she enjoys a good belly rub.

(pic) Inara.

(pic) Kaylee.

(pic) Zoe.

(pic) River. Best. Picture. EVER.

Tons of pictures up over at Flickr.

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Previously
2007: “GodDAMN I’m good-looking. Why am I taking orders from this old hag? Am I making enough money to put up with this over-polite shit*? I think NOT. GodDAMN I’m good-looking.”
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Questions answered, and a meme.
2003: Once again, pot-kettle-black.
2002: You can imagine the temper tantrum that followed.
2001: I would have preferred a candy bar, but unfortunately, we don’t got none o’ them ’round these parts.
2000: No entry.

5/6/08

So? How was your Cinco de Mayo? Did you eat Mexican food and drink tequila? Yeah, me either. Fred had to work late (but he gets off early on Friday, woo!), so I had a long day to myself. I prefer it when he gets home at 3:30. He’s usually outside somewhere puttering until about … Continue reading “5/6/08”

So? How was your Cinco de Mayo? Did you eat Mexican food and drink tequila? Yeah, me either.

Fred had to work late (but he gets off early on Friday, woo!), so I had a long day to myself. I prefer it when he gets home at 3:30. He’s usually outside somewhere puttering until about 6:30 or so, but I like having him home doing stuff so I can go out and see what he’s done, or tell him what the cats just did (he’s always just as fascinated as you might imagine when listening to the tale of Listen What Tommy Did Now!) or whatever.

Shaddup, I just like having him home.

Yesterday morning I didn’t even sleep ’til my usual 6:30, because we talked for a few minutes before he left for work and I was so peeved at what he’d told me (someone peed on his bed I WILL KILL ANY CAT THAT I FIND PEEING ON FURNITURE. Which is probably why they don’t do it when I’m around, now that I think about it.) that I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got up and put his peed-upon sheets in to wash and did all the usual morning crap. I was sitting at my desk captioning my Flickr pictures (I’m sure my captions are just fascinating. “Oh look, dear, she’s captioned another one with “Feeding Time”! Where DOES she get her innovative and creative captioning skillz?” I can’t help it, I feel bad if I leave them uncaptioned!) when something caught my eye and I looked out into the back yard to see Joe Bob flying through the air and then landing on the ground with a bird in his mouth. I swear to god, that bird must have been six feet off the ground when Joe Bob caught it. This isn’t the first time he’s caught a bird in mid-air, either. He’s quite the hunter, our Joe.

“Oh shit!” I yelled, kicked off my slippers, and ran out into the back yard. I stood over Joe Bob and bellowed “Drop it! Drop it, Joe!” But not only did Joe NOT drop it, he evaded me, did an end run, and flew into the house. I ran after him screaming “NOT IN THE HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUSE!”

I found Joe Bob, the bird in his mouth squealing like a pig, surrounded by cats, in the front room. He tried to evade me, but I was quicker than he’d expected, and I grabbed the bird out of his mouth. The bird – a young Cardinal – rewarded me by squealing like a pig a few more times and then biting me really hard on the hand.

“I’m trying to save you, stupid!” I said. I thought for a moment, then went onto the front porch and put the bird in one of the big plant pots on the porch. I figured either it would recover and fly away, or Newt or Maxi would come along and take care of it. It didn’t appear to be too badly hurt – more scared and stunned than anything – so I went back in the house and started picking up the trail of feathers. A few minutes later I looked out the front window and the bird was still there. As I watched, Newt jumped up on the porch, totally did NOT see the bird sitting there, and so I opened the door and called excitedly to him, and he ran inside.

On a side note, Newt is SUCH a good boy. If I open a door, he’ll go through it whether he was intending to or not. Maxi, on the other hand, does the “Do I waaaaaaaaaanna go out? Or stay in? Out or in? In or out? I cannot DECIDE… Let me stand here halfway in and halfway out and see how that feels.” I’ll put up with indecision from her for a few minutes before I bellow “IN OR OUT! One! Two! Three! Four! Five!” If she’s not out by the time I count to five, I push her out and shut the door.

Goddamn cats.

So then after I’d gotten some laundry hung out to dry and had given Kara her morning snack and done a few other things, it was time to head to Wal-Mart for a few things I’d forgotten to pick up on Saturday. After meaning to for weeks, I finally remembered to bring the camera with me. There’s this field of yellow flowers (weeds?) on the way to Wal-Mart that’s really pretty to look at, and I’ve wanted to get a picture of it for ages. After my trip through Wal-Mart, I stopped on the way home and did just that.

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The rest of the day was pretty peaceful. I watched the rest of Atonement, which I’d started on Friday. I usually like to cross-stitch when I’m watching TV or a movie, but I got lost a couple of times in the first few minutes and had to rewind, so finally gave up on the cross-stitching so I’d know what was going on. I ended up liking the movie a lot, despite the very sad ending and despite the fact that the way Keira Knightley talks annoys the snot out of me.

So, all in all, a pretty peaceful day.

Today, I get to snatch Sugarbutt up, toss him into a carrier and take him to the vet. He’s been licking between two of his toes and it’s gotten pretty bad. We’ve tried putting antibiotic ointment on it, but he just licks it off and then continues licking ’til his toe gets bloody and then he tracks blood all over the place. Poor Suggie. I hate to terrorize him by taking him to the vet, but he clearly needs some medical attention. Also, his shots.

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(pic) Is it just me, or do they appear to be posing for a picture? Like for the monthly Chicken newsletter or to hang in the front lobby? “Bob, please put down the coffee and get in here, the photographer doesn’t have all day and the Big Guy says we have to present a united front for this stupid picture. Anyone found giving the finger will be fired immediately!”

(pic) I was going to say that I really like the little red chickens who look like Rhode Island Reds, and then I was going to say that I really like the black ones with cream-colored markings, and then I was going to say that I really like the little yellow ones, but really? They’re all my favorites. I think they’re all just as pretty as can be. I can barely stand the beauty of the animals here at Crooked Acres.

Well, maybe except for this obnoxious ass:

(pic)

The pigs are so pushy and obnoxious that they have certainly not wormed their way into my heart at all – and I’m not being facetious. If Fred hadn’t called and reminded me that I needed to feed them yesterday, I would never have thought of it. I rarely go out there unless I have food for them, and I never ever enter the pig yard at all. They’re growing quickly, and anything they see, they try to eat – including clothes and boots – and I can totally imagine them knocking me down and chewing my face off. They’re certainly entertaining enough to watch, especially when they’re eating, but I’m not going to miss them when they’re gone.

Y’can’t love everyone, I suppose. They’re still spoiled as hell, as is every animal who steps onto our property, and will be ’til slaughtering day comes around.

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Kara and kittens are doing just fine. I have not squooshed a single kitten to death. YET.

(pic) “We iz sleepin pls leave alone thx.”

(pic) “Hey, wha – is it time to EAT? No one called ME. There better be some left for me, or I’ll be kicking ASS.”

More pictures over at Flickr.

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(pic) The hallway outside the guest bedroom is a busy, busy place.

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Previously
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: Hoverers make me want to just get the hell out of that store as soon as humanly possible.
2004: I think it’s a boy, though.
2003: He’s his usual Fancy self.
2002: “I can’t believe you let me go out in public like this!” I yelled at Fred.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.

5/5/08

Oh. My. God. I read over at Tessie’s that Center Stage 2 is in production. I cannot tell you how excited I got when I read that. I love the HELL out of Center Stage, I in fact OWN IT, and I’ve probably watched it 7 or 8 times. Pretty people dancing! The underdog kicking ass and taking names! The snotty princess telling her stage mother where to get off! Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows! Is there a better dancing movie in existence? I don’t think so.

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Late last week, the Saturday morning volunteer at the pet store sent out an email asking if anyone could cover Saturday for her. After some deliberation, I volunteered and decided to make it my big errand-running day. I hadn’t realized, when I was out on Thursday, that I needed all kinds of cat food and litter, and since I was going to be out anyway, I would stop for groceries so I wouldn’t have to get up Sunday morning and go get them. I could SLEEP IN.

So I got up Saturday morning and did my usual morning chores, took a shower, puttered around in front of the computer, and left the house at almost exactly 7:30. It takes me about an hour to get everything done at the pet store (probably the fact that I spend a lot of time kitty-snuggling is why it takes me so long), and so I’d wanted to get there no later than 8. The store opens at 9, and I don’t like to be in the cat room cleaning after the store opens, because people are always peering in at me or knocking on the door to ask questions.

Poor HG was still there, so I gave him some extra snuggling time, and he just about broke my heart when he rubbed his face on the sleeve of my shirt and then rested his head on my shoulder. He is SUCH a good boy and he so likes other cats, I hope he’s adopted soon, into a home with lots of other cats for him to befriend. He’s a little ambassador in training!

I got done cleaning and scooping (and snuggling) a few minutes after the pet store opened, so I bought two big bags of dry cat food for our cats, cheap cat food for the bowl on the front porch and a ton of canned adult and kitten food. Then, I drove down the road to Sam’s Club. Luckily, Sam’s opens on Saturdays at 9, so I didn’t have to kill time until it opened. Saturday morning is apparently THE time to go to Sam’s, because I don’t think there were 20 cars in the parking lot, and I was able to get in, get what I needed, and I didn’t even have to stand in line to check out. That has NEVER happened for me at Sam’s before, so now I know when to go!

I loaded my six 40-pound buckets of Fresh Step into the car (alongside the million pounds of cat food I’d bought at the pet store) and headed toward home. On the way, I realized that Bed, Bath and Beyond was open, so I stopped there to see if I could find an over-the-door towel bar (which a couple of you mentioned in my comments last week), and after some searching, I found one. Yay!

Then I headed for home and stopped on the way to get groceries. I swear to god, I can never remember from one trip to the next where the hell they keep the white vinegar (which I use as a fabric softener, and no – you can’t smell the vinegar on the laundry once it’s dry), but I finally located a bottle of it, and was on my way home.

Three and a half hours after I’d left the house, I was home again with a back seat full of buckets of litter and cat food (if I’d been thinking, I would have taken a picture of it. It sure did scream CRAZY CAT LADY.) and a trunk full of groceries. Fred and I unloaded the car, I made lunch, and then spent the next few hours recovering from my busy morning, spending time with Kara and the kittens, and just generally being a slacker.

Also, I cleaned up the kitchen, made hamburger patties, sliced tomatoes and onions, and chopped up strawberries for strawberry shortcake. I bought a big-ass container of locally-grown strawberries on my way home Thursday, and I decided to toss together some strawberry shortcake and then dehydrate the rest of the strawberries for snackin’. Unfortunately, once I had enough strawberries for the shortcake, I discovered that most of what was left had started to mold, so I tossed those in the pig bucket.

We started watching Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, watched about 20 minutes of it, and decided we weren’t all that interested in it, so turned it off. We watched Earl and Scrubs, and then since we didn’t have anything else to watch, we started watching the most recent episode of The Office again. I watched up until the opening credits played, then I fell asleep while Fred watched another ten minutes or so.

Then I was wide awake, and after Fred toddled off to bed I was all “Oh, I’ll read my Harlan Coben book for half an hour or so, then go to bed!”, only of course I couldn’t put the damn book down and I was like “One more chapter, then I’m turning the light off!” and I’d get to the end of the chapter and be all “OMG! What happens next?!” and kept on reading and it was close to midnight by the time I’d finished the book. I highly recommend it. Harlan Coben is definitely one of my favorite authors.

(THANK YOU, Dora, for sending it my way! You rock!)

Sunday morning I slept in ’til 7:30, which is an HOUR later than I’ve been getting up. During the week, Fred wakes me up around 5:45 to kiss me goodbye before he leaves for work (AWWWWW) and I go right back to sleep, then at 6:30 my eyes pop open and I think about everything I need to do, and there’s no hope of going back to bed. So I rolled out of bed at 7:30 feeling like I was way behind in doing what needed to be done, so before I even sat down at the computer, I put laundry in to wash, scooped the litter boxes, brought Kara her morning snack (she also gets a noontime snack and a dinnertime snack as well. She’s creating food for four very quickly growing babies, y’know. She particularly likes the Science Diet Kitten Turkey and Giblets canned food.), cleaned the kitchen, and took my shower.

By midmorning I’d done everything I needed to do (which included vacuuming and dusting the house) and so I sat down at my computer and put a bunch of stuff on eBay, mostly stuff I’d been meaning to put up for ages, along with CatIt filters (after cleaning the CatIt on Saturday, I was trying to screw the bottom part back onto the globe, but the part that you turn had popped off, and upon trying to force it back into place, I cracked the globe and then I was all “FUCK THIS!”, so I’m selling the filters I had on eBay and between that and the other stuff I’m selling, maybe I’ll make enough to get a damn Drinkwell, which appears to be much damn easier to clean.). I spent a lot of time with Kara and the kittens, finished my laundry, switched the couch cushions around. You know, fun stuff like that.

Fred spent all day making cages for the tomato plants (of which we now have 54. We gave the rest away to friends, because I imagine 54 plants will be more than enough for the two of us. One hopes, anyway.) and in the afternoon I held t-posts for him while he used a sledgehammer to pound them into the ground. One day our luck’s going to run out and that sledgehammer’s going to slip and I’m going to end up rolling around the back forty in a mouth-controlled wheelchair.

If that man cripples me with the sledgehammer, y’all make sure he gets me the LUXURY wheelchair.

Then I spent time with Kara and the kittens, and my GOD those kittens are SO freakin’ cute that I literally have to bite my tongue when I’m around them so that I don’t squish them to death and my tongue is pretty much shredded at this point. (I’m not sure how it works, that biting my tongue stops me from squishing kittens, but I don’t question it.)

In and amongst all that stuff was about 10,000 trips out to the garage to look at the baby chicks. Of the 22 we started out with once the hatching was over, one has died. It was the one Fred ended up “helping” out of his shell (with my encouragement) after it had made no progress after hours of trying, which indicates I SUPPOSE that mother nature – that heartless bitch – knows what she’s doing. If we’d left the chick alone, it would have died in the shell instead of stumbling around and then dying in the brooder in the garage, surrounded by perfectly healthy chicks and being PECKED as s/he died. Poor thing.

The 21 surviving chicks appear to be perfectly healthy, they’re eating and drinking and awfully cute. Hopefully they’ll all STAY alive.

(pic)

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These kittens, y’all. They are going to be the DEATH of me, they’re killing me with the cute. Inara and River love to have belly rubs, and will come right over to me for them.

All the kittens have their eyes open – all that worrying for nothing, but what am I if not a worrier? – River’s got one eye that’s still a little bit closed, but it’s open more every day, so I think he’s okay. They’ve all got those gorgeous dark-blue eyes and they’re still working on the focusing part. Inara spent a good five minutes yesterday trying to figure out how to touch my arm with her front paw and when she accomplished it, you could see the “So THAT’S how it’s done!” connections being made in her brain.

I made a video of them yesterday. I apologize profusely for the fact that I am a blithering goddamn idiot and apparently cannot shut my mouth to save my life. I watched the video after I’d uploaded it and just cringed. The horror lies not so much in the incessant talking as the incessant INANE talking in a baby voice. Ugh.

But anyway, admire the cute here, at YouTube:

or see it here, in MPG format.

It’s getting much easier to take pictures of them, because they’re spending so much more time out of the box. They sure are adorable little things.

(pic) Kaylee, waiting for the belly rub.

(pic) Inara, waiting for the belly rub.

(pic) Zoe, Inara, and River.

Buttloads of kitten pictures up over at Flickr.

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(pic) This is how Newt gets in and out of the back yard. He can’t figure out the cat door in the laundry room, so he asks to go out the side door, runs over to this fence post, climbs it, and jumps down into the yard. Bless his little heart.

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Previously
2007: No entry.
2006: “Motherfucker say WHAT? You wanna prance?”
2005: Did you know you could use it to relieve muscle soreness, as a plant fertilizer, and as a laxative?
2004: Okay, girlfriend? Just how fucking stupid ARE you?
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: God, please tell me when I was 19 I didn’t sound that much like an airhead…

5-2-08

I have a couple of videos for you. The first one is one I took of the incubator yesterday morning. If you look at the egg under the dark chicken, you’ll see a beak sticking out, opening and closing. I think it’s kind of neat. For the record, we now have 22 chicks out of … Continue reading “5-2-08”

For the record, we now have 22 chicks out of the 30 eggs Fred put in the incubator; three of those weren’t fertile and were discarded. There are still two eggs in the incubator, but I suspect that they aren’t going to hatch, but we’re giving them the day. I think, considering that this was the first time we’ve ever done this, that 22 out of 30 (really, 27) is REALLY good. Good thing I’m married to a man who researches the holy hell out of everything before he does it.

For the record, newly hatched chicks rapidly start to smell like wet dog. NOT a pleasant smell.

The other is a video I made of Kaylee and Kara when Kaylee was about four days old. Kaylee’s nursing and I’m talking to Kara and rubbing her belly, and then I was talking to Kara and she got all excited and got up to come over to me for a belly rub, so I left the room so Kaylee could eat, and then there’s another 3 1/2 minutes or so of poor Kaylee wanting NOTHING but to nurse, while Kara grooms herself and lays down on top of the other babies and completely ignores Kaylee. Kaylee finally finds her way to Kara and latches on, but it’s a struggle there for a while!

(Side note: If your heart doesn’t melt and pour out your belly button when Kara rubs her face against Kaylee, there is no hope for you.)

It’s 5 minutes long; sorry about that. I’ve mentioned before that I’m no movie editor, haven’t I?

You can download it from here (in MPG format), or watch it on YouTube here:

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(pic)

Are you really going to be able to eat those baby chickies? Aren’t they too cute?

Yeah, they’re way too cute right now, but in a few months, I think I’ll be able to MURDER THEM and eventually (after they’ve been in the freezer for a little while so I can put some mental distance between the things I MURDERED and the meat in the freezer) I should have no problem eating them.

I’ve never killed a chicken before, though, so only time will tell.

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Look at you Robyn, showin’ off your mad Paint Shop skillz! It’s a very cute logo! Does this mean me and the other Logo makers are out of work?

I think it’s a cute logo, but the way it’s kind of pixellated around the letters drives me nuts and I’m not sure how to fix that. So, no, my regular logo makers should feel free to keep on makin’ ’em!

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If you are eating or are weak-stomached, you don’t want to read this. Skip to the next one!

Forgive me if you have already ‘splained this (I’m a horrible skimmer), but I was wondering: I know that Mama Kitty will litter-train her babies when they are big enough, but in the meantime does she dispose of their little poops (poopettes?) herself?

I answered the question in a comment last week, but yes – Kara takes care of the poop and pee herself. To be a little more graphic than you might want, she uses her tongue to stimulate their… undercarriage, and when the feces and urine comes out, she consumes it. I usually head for the door when she starts sniffing around their hind ends, but sometimes I stay because she gets the MOST disgusted look on her face afterward. Can’t say as I blame her, either.

No wonder she’s so damn gassy all the time.

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I don’t know what kind of camera you are using but if you increase the ISO you might get a better picture since you are not wanting to use the flash. Don’t know how camera savy you are, maybe you are already doing this and so then tell me to shaddup!

I’ve been using my little Sony DSC-P200 because the “good camera” – the Sony Alpha A100 – is so big and noisy that it annoys Kara, and I don’t wanna do that.

I’ve futzed around with all the settings and hiked the ISO up, which is probably the only reason I was able to get any pictures at all. Now that the kittens are coming out of the box a little, it’s easier to get decent pictures of them even though I’m abstaining from using the flash.

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You know, the pigs would have LOVED that stinky broccoli! 🙂 We actually do a “pig mix” with our goat milk and grain. We have a big garbage can with a lid — fill with grain (whatever is cheapest) and then we dump milk in it and let it rot! More is dumped in daily to what is left. Man you rip the lid off that sucker on a 80 degree summer day — whoooooo. But they do great on it and love to eat it.

I just could not bring myself to feed them something that smelled like that, but next time I’ll plug my nose and run it right out to them.

I cannot imagine the smell of rotting milk and grain. And god willing, I’ll never have to smell it myself!

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Was that a jar of Heel of Approval I saw in one of your bins? I love that stuff! It works great if you remember to use it regularly (unlike me).

It was, indeed, a jar of Heel of Approval. I have some hideously ugly feet because I like to walk around barefoot as much as possible (inside, that is – I wear shoes outside, because I don’t relish the thought of tromping through chicken shit in bare feet). If I used the Heel of Approval with any regularity, I’m sure my feet would be less hideous, but once I put it on my feet, I have to put socks on, and I don’t like walking around with socks on all day because… I like walking around barefoot! And I can’t sleep with socks on. It’s a conundrum, it is. I’d like to have less ugly feet, but I don’t want to deal with the pain of walking around in socks all day. WOE.

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Hey, I wish Fred had gotten the “cam” he mentioned for the chicken egg brooding, then you could switch it to show us what’s happening 24/7 with the kittens like this cam: http://kkellogg.camstreams.com/

I wish like hell we had a web cam. It would have been neat to point it at the incubator Wednesday night so people could watch the chicks be born, and it would be neat to be able to keep it in the foster kitten room so y’all could watch the kittens!

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did you dip any marshmallows in the leftover bacon grease and then toast them? (KATG reference)

I am sad to report that dipping marshmallows in the bacon grease and toasting them never entered my mind – but probably only because they were mini marshmallows and it would have been hard to toast them. Otherwise, I’m sure I would have been there!

Speaking of Keith and the Girl, I’m about two weeks behind on my KATG listening, but just listened to the Chemda vs. McNally backstage show and DAMN, that was brutal to listen to. I like McNally, but he sure does strike me as a bit of a pain in the ass to be around.

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Survivor spoilers; skip this if you didn’t watch last night’s episode yet!

That was AWESOME. Seeing the looks on their faces when Amanda stood up with the Idol in her hand was AWESOME. This season is pretty freakin’ awesome; I love me a good blindside.

It SUCKS that James had to leave the game because of an injury to his hand. I like him a lot and I really wanted to see what would happen in an Amanda/ James final two.

This season is awesome, did I mention?

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The kittens’ eyes are slowly continuing to open. Inara now seems to kind of recognize me and will come over to be petted. River’s doing a lot more exploring – I walked into the room yesterday afternoon and Kara was laying in the middle of the floor, and River was nursing. I suspect he’d seen his Momma off in the distance and decided it was time to eat, so tracked her down. Zoe and Kaylee tend to spend more time in the box, but they’re exploring a little more, too.

I love this age, when they still flop around on their stomachs like seals, but respond to being petted (and they certainly do enjoy a good belly rub!) and are starting to see the world.

They kill me with the cute.

(pic) Inara, sitting next to Kara and peering up at…. me!

(pic) Inara and Zoe, coming out of the box.

(pic) River, on an exploratory mission.

Tons of pictures up over at Flickr.

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(pic) Suggie in the sun!

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Previously
2007: Nance knows that when she mentions something, I MUST immediately have one of whatever it is, too, because I am a lemming.
2006: I like my life to be conflict-free, thank you.
2005: …and then she smacks the shit out of him, and he closes his eyes and smacks blindly at her, never ever ever landing a single smack on the portly Poo.
2004: No entry.
2003: It appears that the mother of Crunchy, Chewy, and Cheesy had a hard-core craving for the Crunchy Gordita during her pregnancies, and thus (possibly when she wasn’t smoking crack with one hand and downing the hard liquor with the other, one assumes) named her children after it.
2002: We sure are some dish-using motherfuckers around here.
2001: As if the little bastard had said “Oh, can’t poo on Mom’s newspaper, don’t want to get it all nasty!”
2000: (Every entry won’t be a laundry list of my day, I promise. This not-working thing is still new to me!)

5-1-08

Happy May! New month, new logo. This one was created by yours truly, and it makes me giggle every time I look at the damn thing. The alternate version is here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, there’s all kinds of new life going on here at Crooked Acres. First, last week, the kittens. Then, last night, our … Continue reading “5-1-08”

Happy May! New month, new logo. This one was created by yours truly, and it makes me giggle every time I look at the damn thing.

The alternate version is here.

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So, there’s all kinds of new life going on here at Crooked Acres. First, last week, the kittens. Then, last night, our first chicken birth. Fred’s posted some pictures and the little movie I made, over at his site. Pictures from last night are here, and pictures from this morning are here. As of this very moment, we have ~~six~~ ~~eight~~ ~~thirteen~~ fourteen bebbe chickens and they are pretty freakin’ cute.

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Meme, stolen from… Kinzie, maybe?

-Would you kill your neighbor? No, why would I? She’s a good neighbor, minds her own business, keeps her lawn cut.

-What were you doing ten minutes ago? Scooping out the litter boxes.

-What did your last text message say? Nice phone! Are you feeling better? (to the Spud)

-Who have you talked to most today? Fred – though I babbled at the cats a lot, too.

-Do you carve pumpkins every year? No, I haven’t carved pumpkins in years.

-What are you wearing? An Ocoee River Whitewater Center hooded sweatshirt (it was Fred’s) and gray cotton pants.

-Who’s on speed dial 2? Fred at work.

-Whats your favorite season? Spring, followed closely by Fall.

~How are you feeling right now? Great! How are you?

~What did you do this past weekend? Cleaned, hung out with the cats, read. Napped. Not a lot, really.

~How many times have you moved? I probably don’t have this totally right, but I think… Bangor, Maine to Canada to Indiana to Michigan to Guam to Loring AFB, Maine to Lisbon Falls, Maine to Bath, Maine to Brunswick, Maine to Middletown, RI to Lisbon Falls, Maine to Middletown, RI to an apartment in Madison, Alabama to a house in Madison, Alabama to another house in Madison, Alabama to Smallville, Alabama. So that’s 16.

~What is the last thing you touched? My mouse.

~Would you do anything for someone else? This is an odd question and it makes me uncomfortable, so I’m going to say no.

Have you ever been called a punk? I doubt it.

Was yesterday better than today? Not really, yesterday was pretty good and I expect today will be more of the same.

~What is your ring tone? Depends on who’s calling. For Fred from work, it’s Shpadoinkle Day, if he calls from his cell phone, it’s Mahna Mahna, if anyone calls from our home number, it’s Sweet Home Alabama. If my sister calls, Cartman sings Best Friends. If Liz calls, Beavis and Butthead laugh. If my parents call, Surrender plays. Anyone else calls, the CTU internal ringtone plays.

~Do you have a favorite number? Nope.

~Do you hate anyone/anything? Not at the moment, but give me a few hours, I’m sure I’ll hate something or someone in that time.

~Does your best friend have a myspace? Yes.

~Last time you went out to lunch? I honestly can’t remember the last time I went out to lunch. We went out to dinner last night, though, does that count?

~Do you have any music you’re ashamed of? Nope; everyone has dorky music they own, why be ashamed? I’m too old to worry about being cool.

~Have you ever been in a physical fight with the opposite sex? Nope.

~How old will you be in 2 months? 40, still.

~Do you think you’ll be married by then? I think I’ll be married still, yes.

~Do you have one or more Britney Spears CDs? Do people own CDs anymore? I know I have some Britney songs in my iTunes, but not an entire album.

~What did you do last month? Waited for spring to get here!

~Do you have plans tonight? Survivor, kitten snuggling, reading in bed. That’s about it.

What’s your favorite movie? When Harry Met Sally.

~Do people ever spell your name wrong? All the time. It used to bother me, but not so much anymore.

~Can you sing? I can’t sing WELL, but that never stops me!

~Are you ever a freak about cleanliness or organization? Only if someone’s coming to visit, then it’s “Oh my god, I didn’t dust the baseboards and wash the windows ::freak::!”

~Have you ever been to South America or Africa? No.

~Do you know how to knit? I don’t have the patience. The thought of trying to knit makes me feel itchy and restless.

~What are you doing right now besides this survey? Trying to get the damn thing done so I can leave for the pet store!

~Do you know how to play poker? No, and I can’t say I’m missing out on anything.

~Baskin Robbins or Coldstone? Coldstone, but I haven’t been there since I was in Maine after Christmas. There’s one in South Huntsville, but I’m never near it when it’s open; that’s probably for the best. I do like Bruster’s, though I haven’t been there in months, either.

~Physics or chemistry? Neither?

~Do you wear any jewelry? Nope. Occasionally I’ll go through a stage where I wear earrings several days in a row, but those stages are few and far between. I need to get my engagement ring and wedding band sized down so I can wear them again, though.

~What color are your bedroom walls? Blue.

~When do you prefer to take a shower, morning or night? Morning. I might take a shower at night if I’ve been sweating or am grimy, but I still take a shower the next morning; I can’t stand to skip my morning shower.

~Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars? Harry Potter, I suppose.

~Fly or road trip? Depends on where I’m going, but I do enjoy a good road trip.

~Batman, Spiderman, Superman, Tanner Vineyard, or Shalayna Hatcher? None of the above.

~What’s your favorite Disney movie? The Fox and the Hound. That line at the end, when they play Tod saying “We’ll always be friends, right, Copper?” just gets me RIGHT THERE, every time.

~What are you excited about? Those goddamn kittens opening their eyes. OPEN SESAME, kittens!

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So, Inara’s eyes are definitely open. They’re a little goopy, though, so I’m putting terramycin in them to help with that. I’ve definitely seen glints of eyeball from Kaylee (both eyes) and River (one eye) and though I haven’t seen Zoe’s eyes yet, she seems to be reacting to light, so I think all is good. Fingers crossed!

I happened to hit a visit to the foster kitten room just right yesterday, and the kittens were feeling social and active. They climbed over and “fought” with each other (“fighting” at this age consists of rolling onto their backs and kicking at each other while whining that someone’s picking on them). Inara can definitely see SOMETHING out of those eyes, because she saw me laying outside the box (the only reason I don’t lay IN the box is ’cause it’s not big enough for me, you understand) and crawled over. I petted her and rubbed her little ears, and then she rolled over onto her back and let me rub her belly. She crawled back into the box, and then River crawled out to visit. Kaylee did, too, and it was very cool to have them come out and visit with me.

I don’t know how I didn’t pick them up and squeeze the hell out of them, though. GOD THEY ARE SO FREAKIN SWEET.

(pic)

(pic) “Hellew.”

Some bad (yet cute!) pictures up over at Flickr.

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(pic) “Ah hets porky little kittehs, but if I don’t make sure the back of his head is clean, who will? NOT YOU, THAT’S FOR SURE. As always, the scut work falls on ME.”

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Previously
2007: Repeat: NOT MY BOOKS.
2006: “Hey little Tom, is yer Daddy home, did he go and leave you all alone, uhn-huhn, I got a bad desaaaaaaaahr, whoa-oh-oh, ahm on fire,” I sang, Elvis-ly.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: Every time Madonna opens her self-important mouth these days, she just annoys the shit out of me.
2002: Thank god I vacuumed yesterday, so he won’t be eye-to-eye with a thousand rambling dust bunnies composed of cat fur.
2001: Who’s the dumbass now, huh? That’s right, me.
2000: I stood there and watched the bag go by, thinking to myself “How did he get it to keep going like that?”