5/1/09 (Friday)

New month, new banner! This was created by the wonderful and talented Aly, who’s creating the majority of my banners these days!

Thanks, Aly!

If you want to give poor Aly a break and are feeling banner-creative, feel free to make me a banner – the only guidelines are that it shouldn’t be any bigger than, say, 800 pixels wide and 400 tall. I don’t pay for my banners (though Aly got a nice box o’ hot jams because she has made me a LOT of banners over the years!), but I’ll certainly link to you!

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

If things look weird around here for the next few days, it’s ’cause I had Fred download the updated version of my design, and I’m going to install that over the next few days, then fiddle around with it to make it look like I want it to look. I expect the sidebars will look mostly the same, though I might get rid of some of those links over there to the right (does anyone really need to know where to find me on Vox? I think not.)

The updated design will include threaded comments – which means that I will likely start responding to comments IN the comments rather than emailing a response (I’m pretty sure spamcatchers catch my emailed responses half the time, the thought of which drives me a little crazy).

If there’s any kind of information you’d like to see installed permanently in the sidebar, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

Those of you who’ve searched on the topic recently, here’s the information about the cameras I use:

I use the Sony DSLR-A100 most of the time – it takes pictures faster and I tend to get my best pictures with it, but it’s also heavy and bulky. For times when the DSLR-A100 won’t do (such as when I need to get the camera in tight spaces or I want to have both picture AND movie-taking capability, and also when I want to carry a camera around in my purse), I use a Sony DSC-W300.

I’ll try to remember to add that information to the sidebar at some point.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

I was wondering if there is a difference between incubator chicks and mama raised chicks, personality wise, I mean. I’m certain they all taste the same.

The ones raised by their mamas tend to be more skittish when we try to handle them – because their mamas keep them warm and teach them how to eat and all that good stuff, we don’t really have to pick them up and move them from place to place. The ones we hatch, we have to pick them up to move them from the brooder to outside on nice days, and we pick them up regularly to check and be sure they’re healthy. They’re not super friendly (with the rare exception), but they seem less freaked out when we approach than the ones raised by hens.

I think that the chicks who are hatched by hens tend to be healthier right from the start. The ones that just hatched look so alert and bright-eyed that it makes me want to only have hen-hatched babies from here on out. Of course, the problem is that they’ll only sit on the eggs if they’re broody, and they don’t always go broody when it’s convenient for us, damn them. 🙂

(Also, there’d eventually be an inbreeding issue, thus the reason we regularly add “new blood” to the flock.)

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

Robyn, did you make the quilt on the recliner? It’s pretty! I love one-patch quilts.

Actually, I have no quilting skillz (maybe that’s something I should consider taking up in my 40s!) – my mother made that little quilt a few years ago, specifically for the cats. I used to keep it on the end of my bed when we lived in Madison, and then when we moved here, it ended up on the recliner. Kara stretches out on it just about every night.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

I hate signing up for something anymore. When I first found the internet back in 1995 I was an AOL JUNKIE. That’s right …a JUNKIE. It was pay by the minute/hour back then and for months my AOL Bill was over $1000.00 per month. I am embarrassed to admit it but it was a new world. Anywhoodle …I have since had a few things that I have signed up for over the years that required a monthly commitment. Not anymore though …cause I used my fingers and toes to add up all the money I have spent over the years on the internet that I certainly did not get value for.

Yours as an example:

15.99 per month X 12 months = 191.88 per year.
Over a 9 year period = $1,726.92

Doesn’t sound like much monthly but that there is a vacation …or some pigs or chickens.

Well, when you put it like that IT MAKES ME WANT TO JUMP OFF A CLIFF. Man, what a waste of money. Even when we were mailing out a bunch of books a day or the (now defunct) giveaway page was in full force, the convenience of Stamps.com wasn’t worth wasting $1,700 over nine years.

GAH.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

[Regarding Stamps.com] All of a sudden, because you threaten to cancel, they can cut the service fee six dollars a month? So you were overpaying for nine years and no one bothered to tell you?

I suspect it’s kind of like the way credit card companies are – you know, you call them up and say “I wonder if you could lower the interest rate on my card?” and they say “Nope, sorry, can’t do it. It is what it is.” so you say “Okay then, cancel my account” and they say “Whoa, hold on there! I FORGOT, I can lower your interest rate to zero percent for a year!”

That is, I never would have found the $9.99 a month deal at Stamps.com on my own, it’s probably something they only offer to people they’re about to lose.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

“The Silkie is broody again,” Fred said. “Should I try to break her?” – makes Fred sound like some badass bounty hunter or prison guard something. Hee.

He is… duh duh DUH!!! THE BROODY BREAKER! More of a superhero than a bounty hunter or guard, I think. I see him in a mud-colored one-piece unitard with a chicken foot insignia on the chest.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

My mother has this one hen that keeps jumping the fence and digging up all of her strawberry plants. And she keeps doing all these ridiculous fencing things to keep the hen out, and I’m like, Why don’t you just get a lawn chair and sit in the shade and wait for her to jump the fence and then SNAP HER NECK and stew the damn bird, fer chrissake. Of course, my mother continues to fence the chicken out. Stupid f-ing chickens.

I’m wondering if we’re going to have an issue with Sassy McGee getting into the garden. I saw her poking around by the cucumbers the other day and mentioned it to Fred. If she starts messing with the vegetables, she will likely find her ass in freezer camp.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

Does anyone else love reading your previous years’ entries sequentially to see what story THEY tell? Today’s, for instance. Take out the year hyperlinks:

I love my cats, but sometimes I really HATE MY FUCKING CATS too.
KIND OF LIKE HERPES.
The mind boggles, does it not?

Yes, Robyn, it boggles indeed.

Kinda sounds like a poem, doesn’t it?

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

That chicken story was hilarious! I would have been afraid to pick them up, do they ever bite you?

I’ve actually only gotten bitten a couple of times – and it doesn’t really hurt, it’s mostly just a pinch and when you pull away they generally let go. It’s not physically painful, it’s EMOTIONALLY painful, because ALLS I’M DOING IS CHECKING FOR EGGS AND THEY GO AND BITE ME! Bitches. Fred’s gotten bitten more than I have (which makes sense since he deals with the chickens a lot more than I do), and once was bitten on that really tender area on the underside of his arm, and it left quite the nasty little bruise.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

“I sniffed the puddle to be sure it wasn’t cat urine.” I am reminded of a Cheech and Chong skit. I’m grateful you didn’t proceed with the rest of the script!

Fred thinks it’s funny when I sniff something to see if it’s been peed on, because I don’t just delicately sniff in the general area – I get RIGHT ON IT and sniff vigorously. Once or twice I’ve accidentally touched my nose TO the object that has been peed upon, which necessitates a washing of my entire face.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

the mess in your blue chicken coop sounds like the plot to a lifetime movie!

Oh, y’all have NO idea. It’s like a little Peyton Place over in that coop!

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

Newt naps in the tree? My cats are so goofy they’d probably fall out if they tried.

He doesn’t do it often, but every once in a while I’ll look out there and see him napping. I’m always afraid he’s going to roll over in his sleep and fall out, but I haven’t seen it happen yet!

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

You know, with all of these little pieces of Fred’s anatomy being posted on your blog and Fred’s, eventually we will have seen his entire body.

Oh, I’m just waiting for someone to put all the pieces together in a picture of him and post it on the internet! 🙂

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

I looooooove the fat little belly in the “stuffed animal” picture. I want to flubber it!!

Is that little fat belly not THE most adorable thing you’ve ever seen? I swear to god, she’s built like a softball with arms and legs. We flubber that little belly of hers ALL the time. She does NOT appreciate such shenanigans, though.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

Do all the swine flu news reports making you feel as if you are living in the beginning of Stephen King’s The Stand? They do make me feel that way sometimes. I saw a PBS special on the spanish flu pandemic of the 1920’s last fall. Pretty scary stuff-hope all these years in between make a huge difference.

Oh yeah, absolutely – I think everyone who’s read the book or seen the movie must be thinking that. Fred says the news is making him want to see the movie again. We’ve seen that movie at least three times, and I have to say, it holds up pretty well!

The Stand, by the way, is the book I’ve read most often. I don’t usually reread books (there are SO MANY books out there to be read!), but I’m actually thinking I might read The Stand again soon.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

Today, Jasper, Ezra, Elijah, Caleb (Troubles) and Phinneas are off to the pet store, hopefully to be adopted ASAP.

Yeah, I know it’s fast. When there’s room, there’s room – and these guys are ready to go, they’ve been neutered and have their id chips and shots. It’s a fact that the smaller they are, the faster they’re adopted, so hopefully they’ll go quickly.

Bessemer’s going to stay here to keep Beulah company for a few more weeks – we wouldn’t want the runt to get lonely, would we?

I made a short (30 second long) movie of Troubles doing his thing. Whenever he’s very sleepy or he’s just woken up, he has to cry about it for a little while.

Troubles from Robyn Anderson on Vimeo.

An illustration of just why we’re calling him “Troubles.”

This did not end well.

He fell asleep behind my monitor. Why not, right? It’s not like there are 300 cat beds scattered throughout the house!

Pretty Jasper.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

It looks like Tommy’s inside hanging out with Troubles, but in actuality he’s on the outside window ledge (Troubles is on the inside). He’s suddenly decided that he likes to hang out on the window ledge, so several times a day he jumps up there and startles me.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

Previously
2008: As of this very moment, we have six eight thirteen fourteen bebbe chickens and they are pretty freakin’ cute.
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?”