So long 2007

This is a year I will not miss. 2006 & 2007 proved to be kind of tough and unpleasant. I have high hopes for 2008. Thank god it's the last year of the idiot despot's regime. It can only get better once he's out, so I'm really looking forward to 2009.

I got out of the shower and went into my bedroom to find Jasper in my bed cuddling a new friend. He usually likes to cuddle up to Luciana's old piggy, Ruby. Ruby lives on our bed, because Jasper always seeks her out and snuggles up for his naps. Well this morning, I noticed Ruby was by herself and Jaspy was snuggled up to someone and purring away. Upon closer inspection I found his cuddle buddy was a beheaded doll. Nice. I called both girls into the bedroom to a) have them enjoy the strange yet funny sight; and b) find out which of them was behind it. Dejanique's game face only held up for about 10 seconds before she started laughing uncontrollably. Mystery solved. She first gave it to Oliver, but he showed no interest. He prefers to cuddle up with Luciana's little ponies. Then she tried Jasper, and he took to it right away, rubbing his face on it and lying down next to it.

Now this begs the question of why we have this beheaded doll with her body painted in rainbow colors. L. found this miniature American Girl doll at Borders a few years ago, and we gave in a bought it for her. Nothing AG makes is cheap, so even this tiny six-inch doll was $20 or $25. Some time after that, my children came out of D's bedroom giggling and sporting a new necklace they had made together. Hanging on the necklace was the defiled head of Samantha, the AG doll. They did strange things to her eyes and it made a very Marilyn Manson-ish looking necklace. I was very annoyed that they had destroyed a very expensive collectible to make this stupid necklace, BUT they did it together, got along, and were laughing. Quality sister time was had by both, and that is priceless. I forgot about the doll. I had no idea the headless body (decorated by Luciana) was still around until it appeared this morning.

We will be going to my parents' for New Year's Eve celebration, as usual. D. will not be joining us. We eat chili and lots of good baked goodies, watch a movie, and play games. I try to catch little pieces of the Twilight Zone marathon throughout today and tonight. The girls, Mark, and I enjoy and look forward to it. I'm really sad that Dej won't be with us, but I understand that at 17, such a sober, boring New Year's Eve would be torture. She is attending a party at Brandon's (her ex-boyfriend) and taking a date. She will spend tomorrow with us, though, at least, having my dad's homemade pizza.

Our cockatiel, Ginger, has been sick--still is, although she is improving. We spent a good chunk of Saturday at our avian vet in South Beloit. There's always a long wait for him. As I had suspected, she has a respiratory illness, which is often fatal in birds. Usually, by the time they show any symptoms, it is too late and they are almost dead. I was very concerned that she wouldn't make it. We got a couple of prescriptions from him, and she has been showing tiny improvements each day. We have to keep the birdroom between 75-90 with 35% humidity. We've been running a steam vaporizer around the clock for her. I do know that birds should have a year-round temp of 75-90, but I've been trying to be more green and lowered my thermostat from 75 to 72. I'm trying to find ways to keep the bird room at 75 or above without having to keep the whole rest of the house that warm.

I'm so deeply sad and angry that Tatiana, the SF Zoo tiger, was killed because of human stupidity. How many zoo and circus animal 'attacks' do we have to have before people start to admit that this will always exist when animals are kept in captivity. They are not meant to live in cages, be on display, perform tricks. It's cruel, and they are angry. I personally feel that every single one of the animal to human 'attacks' is justified under the circumstances. Abused, captive animals are angry, and often insane, as we would be under similar circumstances. It's sickening that the first response is to unquestioningly kill the animals. How dare a mere animal take a precious human life--we are the chosen ones. Killing them for exhibiting natural behavior, when we are the ones who forced them into close proximity with humans--yeah, that's a fair solution. It's even more frustrating in the case of Tatiana, because the damn idiots taunted her and climbed over her wall. How dare she be killed because she was tormented and the very small area she could call her own was invaded. I feel no pity for the three humans involved in her justifiable 'attack'. None. The only thing they are worthy of is a Darwin award. The human gene pool could certainly use a lot more purging!

Whew!

We made it through another exhausting holiday season, well, through the craziest part anyway. New Year's is a pretty mellow event for us. The girls did well with their presents. We cut xmas back quite a bit this year, and we both felt much better for getting away from some of the materialism of the season. We were pleasantly surprised that our girls didn't complain--didn't even seem to notice. They were very happy, so we were very happy!

I spent the entire day, yes the ENTIRE day of the 23rd cooking. It was unpleasant, but it was wonderful to get up on xmas eve day and know that all my cooking was taken care of and all the wrapping was done. As per our tradition, Denny came over in the afternoon for our pre-family-party party. We had butterballs, as always. I had a migraine, which seriously impaired my ability to enjoy any part of the day or night. It was really crappy timing! Anyway, the butterballs were particularly delicious, if I do say so myself. We all went over to my mom's for the big family party. Again, other than the horrible migraine, that went well. As always, once the extended family left we had our xmas with Michael and family. They still had to drive back to Appleton that night, so they didn't stay too much longer. All the kids got to open their gifts from each other, and Michael's family opened all their gifts. We stayed a bit longer and then came home so the girls could each open their one gift and get to bed in time for Santa.

Luciana left a picture and a delicious chocolate vegan cupcake on the mantle for Santa.

Jasper supervises the gift opening from the newell post. He always relaxes in the weirdest positions!

L is eager to dig into the gifts!

Xmas morning, my parents came over for our traditional breakfast of tofu scrambler, biscuits & gravy, and sweet rolls. My children didn't eat much, as they were ready to get to the presents. Santa disregarded my wishes, as he so often does, and brought Luciana the moon sand that she has been wanting for so long. She was thrilled and has played with it quite a bit already. It is as messy as I feared--but fun. Dej was thrilled to receive the iPod she desperately wanted. Yes, another iPod. This time, however, we also gave her a hard acrylic case to protect it. In the spirit of cutting back, Mark and I didn't get gifts for each other. We got the LOST season 3 DVD set as our joint gift to each other, but we didn't exactly wait until xmas to start watching it. Luciana made wonderful gifts for both Mark and I, and Dej picked out nice gifts for us as well. My best gift, however, was a small piece of folded paper with a bow on it. I opened it to find a note from Mark stating that he was now a vegan. It's not an easy step at all to go from vegetarian to vegan. Now I only have to pick on Dej for eating pus cream and other such delights.

Dej gives me her ugly, fake camera smile, even though she is ecstatic about the iPod.

While we watched our traditional xmas movie, "A Christmas Story" (love it!!), Libby and Camille (two of my parents' cats) watch a rogue fly on the ceiling.

L. wearing a new outfit from Grandma C. & Grandpa J., posing by her triple doll beds. Grandpa (my dad) made these for her three American Girl dolls. They can be taken apart and stacked several different ways or left free standing. We went out tonight with her JoAnn's giftcard (again, from my parents) to select fabric to make bedding with.

The day after xmas, Mark and Luciana went to his parents' and just returned today. I stayed home to work on a consulting project. I spent some time trying to reclaim my messy house, but I still have work to do on that front. It's SO hard for all of us to leave town together, because of all the animals. My parents get stuck with tons of work. I feel guilty that they are stuck with the work and guilty that the animals aren't getting the attention and exercise they are used to and that they need. I really, really missed having my little girl around. It's especially hard at her bedtime, when I'm so used to reading and cuddling at that time. I talked to them (M & L) on the phone a couple of times. She told me she thought of me 13 times that day, mostly about funny things I do sometimes. I might want to get to the bottom of that one. I can't think of 13 funny things that I've done, so it makes me wonder what she was thinking about.

Lila got her stitches out, so she doesn't have to wear the collar anymore. She was so happy to have it off and hasn't slowed down since then. No more bobble-headed kitten to provide comic relief. Her little mouth ulcers seem to be clearing up, too, which means she's not super stenchy anymore. I'm so hoping she doesn't get them back. My mouth, however, has a new crop of nasty painful canker sores. They really suck. Here's a shot of our little bobble head relaxing in the xmas wrap box.

Holiday kindness

Please remember this holiday season, and throughout the cold weather, life is very hard for our outside friends. You can help make their lives infinitely easier by providing a little extra sustenance for them. Of course full birdfeeders are always helpful and greatly needed. The squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, possums, racoons, mice, voles, etc., all need to survive, too. Just throwing out a little extra food can make the difference between life and death, or even misery and comfort for a critter who is working their hardest to stay alive. I find the most consistently (and quickly) eaten are the peanut butter crackers I put out each night. I make 3-4 sandwiches, using multi-grain saltines and a very thick layer of peanut butter. This is healthy and provides much needed fat for them. Any past-prime bread, crackers, popcorn, etc. will be enjoyed. A lot of the slightly past-prime fruit and veggies are good too. I've had luck with apples and carrots. It takes so little time and energy, less than five minutes a day, to save and drastically improve someone else's quality of life--so why not?!

Also think of the shelters, especially this time of year. Any little extra you could spare makes a huge difference to them, and again, may mean the difference between life and death to an animal. Simply foregoing two or three Starbucks' (ridiculously priced) drinks gives you an extra $10. That's not much to most of us, but really adds up to those organizations who are providing shelter, food, and care to our homeless animal friends (who are there, of course, because of OUR species and not due to anything they have done). Almost all of us could scrape together a little extra to help others, with very little (to no) sacrifice required on our parts. If you aren't ready to make this a monthly occurence or way of life, at least try to do this over the holiday season. PLEASE!!

Luciana and I made our first batch of cupcakes from our "Vegan Cupcakes" book. We started out very simple--a chocolate cupcake with a fudge buttercream frosting. I'm suprised to say that they are good! Not that I doubted the book, but I doubted my ability to produce anything that looks that perfect and delicious. I've never made cupcakes, let alone made them from scratch. L. was a great helper. She was really looking forward to frosting the cupcakes, as we were using a pastry bag with a decorative tip. As it turned out, though, she didn't quite have the hand strength yet to make it work. I helped salve her disappointment with frequent frosting squeeze directly into her mouth. I'm pretty sure since they are vegan, they're not fattening. ;D

Tomorrow I will spend the entire day cooking for the xmas eve party at my mom's and for xmas breakfast, which is at my house. I'm hoping I can draft L. to help me, as it's so much more fun to have her with me than to spend the day in the kitchen alone. We'll be making swedish 'meatballs' (over pasta), and the gravy for them, tofu scrambler, biscuits and gravy, and sweet rolls.

We got the girls' gifts wrapped and under the tree today. It will be very nice not to have to worry about dealing with that on xmas eve!

Scraps, our latest adoption. She loves to sit on the couch with us; loves it even more if we pet her or give her forehead kisses!

Look at that adorable little face!

And here's Thumper, peeking out from his favorite little cave.

Birdroom art

Luciana drew this picture last night while we were in the birdroom. The bunny featured front and center is Scraps, holding a carrot. Scraps has a little fluffy pouch under her chin, which Luciana captured nicely. She is also white on the front half of her body and black on the back half, as shown here. Standing on Scraps' head is Tooky, our lovebird. Notice the detail L. captured in showing Tooky's right leg and foot, which grows sideways and twisted. In the upper lefthand corner is the window which looks into our birdroom from our living room. Hallie, our cat, is looking in the window watching everyone. She does this quite frequently, as do many of the cats, and she was peeking in while L. was drawing this picture. From there, we leave the reality-based portion of the picture and head into the creative license that the artist took. We do have a tree in the birdroom, but it doesn't look like this tree. L. has really gotten into drawing evergreens lately and is enamored with the way they look. She also added a waterfall. She works these into most of her pictures, and while I wish we had one in the birdroom, we do not. Then if you look carefully, right above Touky, she added Thumper to the picture. She didn't have a gray colored pencil, so she used blue. She also gave Thumper wings--not sure why.

I was at my parents for the evening, having our final consultation with Dr. Krebsbach, the cat behaviorist. She was quite pleased with the amazing progress Emmy and Camille have made. My parents will continue their hard work to keep the girls moving in the right direction. We are all so happy with how well the cats are doing. If you have any cat behavior issues, I would highly recommend Dr. Susan Krebsbach of Creature Counseling.

Rest in peace, our sweet Annabelle

Today has proven to be a very sad day! When Mark went into the birdroom tonight to refill water bottles for the rabbits & guinea pig, he found that our sweet little piggie, Annabelle, was dead. She died, seemingly peacefully, in her favorite purple igloo. She was old for a guinea pig, but had no visible signs of illness or even aging, really. We will all miss her, but Thumper and Luciana will suffer the greatest loss. L. was devastated of course, and it's always really hard to take when there was no warning or inclination. I hope that means her little heart just stopped and that she didn't suffer at all. We will have to wait until spring to select a special tree/plant for her and bury her under it. I feel horribly guilty, as I always do when we lose one of our babies. I wish I had known. I wish we had been with her at the end. I'm glad Thumpy was, but I still feel rotten. I also feel rotten because I have been meaning to take a really good picture of her and just never got around to it. She was a long-haired guinea, and I had to trim her rear 1/4, so it didn't get tangled and nasty. The last haircut, a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't find the good haircutting scissors (I'm sure they are in the abyss of Dej's room somewhere), so I had to use different scissors. She ended up looking rather choppy, so I thought I would wait for it to grow a bit before the photo session. Now it's too late.

Prior to that, we were having a nice family night. L. & Mark built an FM radio while I was cleaning up from dinner. Uncle Dan got it for L. for xmas. M's family was here yesterday, and being on top of everything as they always are, they brought all the xmas gifts. They were even wrapped this early! I have never been ready for xmas this early! Anyway, we let her open one gift from Uncle Dan & Beth and one from Grandma & Grandpa. She couldn't wait to assemble her radio, as she's really into electronic parts and disassembling and reassembling components (not reassembling them the way that they were, though!). They got it built, working, and were able to find several different radio stations on it. She is very excited to show Hunter--her partner in the gadget "repurposing". The gift she opened from Mark's parents was a game called Math Dice. It was invented by a sixth grader who wanted other kids to share his love of math. It's a very neat game. The three of us played that after dinner, and L. did quite well.

SUNDAY

Sunday was spent with Mark's parents, brother Dan and his girlfriend, Beth. They came up to visit and arrived around lunchtime. L. enjoyed playing games with everyone. Mark had to leave at 3 to start up the light show (Rotary Gardens' Winter Wonderland Walk). Carolyn brought enchiladas for dinner, which we ate after M. left for work. L. just wanted to get through the meal so she could get to the pumpkin bread that Carolyn brought. L. loves it! Ooh, and Beth brought us a gift of homemade chocolate candy. She's won my heart now! ;D After dinner, we all headed out to the light show. Dej met us there for a few minutes after work, but she wasn't dressed appropriately for the outdoor light show, so she went on home when we went outside. The lights were fabulous as always. We came in after we walked through the gardens, and L. had hot chocolate, while we all sat inside and visited. L. finally got the nerve to go visit Santa, after asking us all a zillion questions about him. He may or may not be the real Santa, as he had a real white beard and looked very Santa-like. We told L., that when you order a Santa from the Santa Network, you probably won't get the real Santa, but there's always a possibility. After chatting with him for quite a while, she thought he might be but probably wasn't because he referred to the woman taking photographs as "the boss". As she didn't really look the Mrs. Santa part, we didn't explain to her that "the boss" was his wife. The mystery is so much more enjoyable. She couldn't really think of anything she wanted to ask for for xmas, but she apparently chatted with him at length about the habits of all of our animals.

SATURDAY

We had a date night, and a snow storm. We were supposed to go to our friends' (Mike & Jim) holiday party in Madison, but the weather was very bad, and I wasn't feeling confident in the wisdom of going. Mark was up for the drive though, and it turned out fine. We went out for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant (in Madison), and it was very good. I think I prefer Thai food in general, though, as it's more spicy. From there we went to the party. We were the only breeders there. How embarassing! Even the (only) other straight couple there doesn't have children. I did impress Mike by drinking a whole beer, instead of my normal water. I figure if I have to stand out for being straight and a breeder, at least I could drink beer with them! :D I think Mark drank me "under the table" with his 2.5 beers. At about 10:30, I got a cell phone call from Dej, who was out with her friends.

Dej: OK mom, here's what happened. We're okay.

Me: What!

Dej: Well, we were in Chris' car, going to get some food, and he was turning, but it was slippery and he kind of slid into another car.

Me: But everyone is okay?

Dej: Yeah.

Me: Was anyone ticketed?

Dej: Ummm. Chris was for going too fast for conditions.

Apparently Chris' dad was not happy. Dej returned home (well actually to Grandma's where she was spending the night). Evening ended. UGH! Back to the party, but somehow not feeling very festive after that.

Saturday morning I was able to go pick Lila up from the vet. She was happy to see me and very happy to get back home. After about 10 minutes, it became clear that we had a problem. She was obsessed with chewing her stitches out. Not licking--chewing! Since Dej. was out xmas shopping already, I asked her to stop by the vet's and pick up an e-collar for our little girl. I've taken it off a few times since then, but she instantly goes right back to chewing the stitches. So for now, my poor tiny kitten is stuck in this big lampshade that she hates. It's heavy enough that her little head bobs from side to side when she walks. It's really very cute, but I feel so bad for her having to wear it. It has kept her out of the xmas tree, though, so for that small thing, I'm grateful.

Aaaaaww...How could anyone stay mad at Petey

My cute kids loving each other --->

And after he gets his love and cuddle fix, he can resume destroying the tree with Lila. Speaking of Lila, she goes in tomorrow morning to get spayed. I go through tremendous stress and nervousness whenever one of my babies has to go in for surgery. I especially worry about Lila, because she's so little and because of her respiratory problems. I will have to call throughout the day, to remind the vet assistants to clean out her eye and her nostrils so she can breathe. It really scares me for her to be anesthetized. I know the spay is necessary for her health and happiness, but I hate hate hate it! And the worst part is, she will have to stay overnight there. She's never been away from home or alone. We will visit her tomorrow night, but it doesn't help the sick feeling I get when I think of my little girl lying alone in a cage wondering where her family is.

We just got a call tonight about two kittens who come to Burger King, in Beloit, every night. The staff feeds them and thinks they are from a house nearby that burned down recently. We will try to work with them to catch the kittens before they freeze to death (or grow up and make more kittens) and are trying to line up foster care for them. It makes me heartsick to think of those cold babies, begging for scraps in a crappy area of a not-so-nice town.

Oh, and here's a special little tidbit I caught on the news yesterday. A four-year old boy shot and killed a very large black bear. This tiny boy, at four, has already used a large rifle of some kind (okay, so I know next to nothing about guns) and stole the life from a fellow being who was merely trying to survive. His family is so proud, they are going to have the bear stuffed. I'm sure it will look lovely in their trailer of inbreeding. Is this even legal to let a four-year old child hold and fire a GUN???!!! Oh, and where did this repulsive deed occur? Not in Wisconsin (though it wouldn't really surprise me). It was in ..... wait for it...

Arkansas. How very special. I'm sure our little warrior can look forward to a future job torturing and kicking chickens to death in one of the booming Tyson factories there.

Early winter--how long until spring?!

Luciana and the dogs have been in heaven with all the snow. They all love to frolic and roll around in it. L. enjoys eating snow and icicles and the dogs enjoy eating the special crunchy bunny "treats" that they find under the snow. They are very weird dogs. Dej is learning how to really drive in Wisconsin. We've had more snow and ice so far this year (and it's not even officially winter yet!) than we have for several years in the past. If she makes it through this winter safely, she'll be an old pro by the end of it. I worked from home today because the ice storm made the interstate to unsafe to travel. I have to go in tomorrow, though, so I'm hoping the plows and salt trucks work all night long!

I've spent the last two days steaming over the Michael Vick slap on the wrist. 23 months. He will serve 20 months. He will spend 20 months in prison, which is not nearly enough of a hardship for any violent criminal. He will be adored and worshipped by all the small minded immoral freaks in prison. Oh, what a "punishment". I'm shocked and appalled that the judge didn't even give him HALF of the maximum sentence of five years. Five years wouldn't even be close to enough for all the violence and cruelty that used douchebag has inflicted. The judge had a perfect opportunity with this high-profile case to send the message to society that the animal cruelty of dog fighting is completely inexcusable and will not be tolerated. He blew it. When you consider the number of dogs he had fighting, and the ridiculously high number of bait animals used to train all these fighting dogs, he is probably serving less than a day for each life he cruelly ended. I find it also quite disgusting that the use of bait animals was barely addressed, let alone considered in his slap on the wrist punishment. Yet another injustice goes basically unpunished. I am suffering more than the douchebag ever will. I have incredible amounts of rage and sadness as a result of this case and yet again nothing to do with it but keep it inside and let it slowly kill me. He, with no conscience, goes basically unscathed. What we as a society are missing with this is that he is an extremely dangerous person. He is callous and cruel and a sociopath. He is a danger to EVERY living being--all species. People who are capable of committing such atrocities never, ever limit the atrocities to one species. I'm willing to bet my life that he has left several battered women in his wake. I hope to god he is never left alone with children. Someone capable of inflicting pain and cruelty on the most innocent and helpless of beings will not come out of prison in 20 months as a better or reformed person. He will be more dangerous and more difficult to catch next time. What is wrong with the human species that we actually enjoy watching others suffer and die? What is wrong with the black community that they, who have been so intimately acquanted with oppression, powerlessness, and violence, that they would ever defend someone who put another being through that. I would expect the reaction to be more along the lines of: 'it is not acceptable to make any living being feel that way', not: 'it is not acceptable to do this to us, but we have the right to do it to others.' Yet again, I'm left shaking my head, saying WTF! UGH! Time to shut up, as I'm starting to ramble out of anger and frustration.

Spoiled Youngsters

Spent today redecorating the tree that we just got up yesterday. It looked really nice for about 20 minutes yesterday, but now that it's been demolished and repaired several times--not quite so nice. It's going to be a LONG holiday season, with both Petey and Lila hellbent on using the tree as their own personal playground. It's much, much worse than I anticipated it would be.

I helped Luciana make her holiday presents for people this evening, while Mark worked at the light show (freezing his arse off) and Dej gave new meaning to the phrase "lying around". She was so inactive today, after her weekend of debate and a friend's birthday party, that I believe she may have started to grow mold.

Got this in an e-mail and it amused me:

THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!

If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill BOTH ways.yadda, yadda, yadda! And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter ...with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ's usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids' and the graphics sucked! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE.

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel;and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little bastards!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire..... imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot. That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled!!!!!!!!! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Oh yeah, and a seatbelt was Mom throwing her arm across your chest every time she hit the brakes.

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

I just have to add my own little editorial to this, as there were some glaring differences between my childhood and the author's. Let me just say:

NO cable. Four channels. Rabbit ears!
Corded phones!

Oh, how I suffered.

Scraps, our new baby

With the virus from hell that has plagued our household and the subsequent catching up as a result of the VfH, I haven't had the chance to mention our newest adoption, Scraps the bunny. Scraps' family was moving cross country and unable to take her with, so we adopted her as a friend for Thumper. So far however, Thumper is being a bit of a spoiled brat. Although Thumpy has free reign in the bird room, he spends a good portion of his time in the large (hard plastic kiddy)pool with Annabelle, the guinea pig. They have quite a sweet relationship. He does manage to find time in his busy day, however to jump on the back of the couch, seemingly to stare at and taunt the very interested cats who like to watch through the window. Anyway, Thumpy rudely chases Scraps when she gets into the pool. Annabelle is very sweet to Scraps of course. He didn't attack or hurt her, but it did frighten her. So for now, she is in her very large cage when we are not in the room with them. We spend a lot of time in there with her/them, so she gets lots of cuddles and play time. I HATE leaving her in that cage when we aren't there, but until we get their relationship established, it's not worth the risk of a fight or fear induced heart attack. Rabbits are so delicate! Scraps doesn't seem to mind, but I sure do. Soon--very soon hopefully--she will be out and free all the time, and then I will feel much better. She's black and white, a dwarf--just like Thumper, very cute, and she loves nose and forehead kisses. I will get pictures of her soon, but with so many changes, I don't want to freak her out right now with a flash.

Tomorrow we are planning to put our tree up. We all finally feel well enough to tackle that. I have a bad feeling that it's not going to go well this year with Lila the naughty kitten. Normally the tree holds up fairly well, as long as we accept as fact that every single morning we will have to rehang most of the ornaments on the lower 1' of the tree, and a few random others that proved too tempting for the cats overnight. We're okay with that, it's like a newly decorated tree every day. Okay, it's really a PITA, but having seven cats requires us to have the ability to put a positive twist on the frequent disasters they cause and redecorating they do. Lila, at six months, is at about the peak of naughtiness, and I'm not sure the holiday decorations can withstand her. It will be an adventure, no doubt. On that note (and because I haven't had a chance to upload the latest pics from my camera) here's Ivan a few years ago. He has always enjoyed climbing up inside the tree, lying down, and peeking out, as if he were an ornament.

We're still alive!

And we've almost recovered from one of the nastiest stomach viruses we've ever had. Now I just have to catch up on housework, life, and all the other stuff that's been neglected throughout our sickness.

Here are the last of Dej's senior pics.

Too tired to type much!

Luciana is sleeping and seems to be back to normal. It was a long night, with her vomitting (or dry heaving for the last half) every 20-30 minutes until around 5:00 this morning. I'm not feeling well tonight--headache, cramps, and exhausted from being up all night. I'm hoping that's it and I'm not coming down with whatever she had.

Here are some pictures of Lila's latest hobby. She discovered that, from the highest spot on the cat tree, she can jump into the decorative bird cage that hangs in the corner of the dining room. She climbs right into it and while the cage swings wildly, she tries to pull and shred the florals inside of it. I worked hard to get the arrangement in that cage just the way I wanted it. It no longer resembles the lovely floral decoration it was supposed to be. It's now a cat toy. I guess I might as well just resign myself to the fact that EVERYTHING I own is ultimately just a cat toy! There's no winning with a cat. If they decide something is fun to play with/destroy, my choices are to remove it or just let them have at it. So, here's Lila, just having at it.

Happy Birthday Mark!

A few more senior pics...

My baby girl is sick--throwing up--again! At least she and M. got to play for a while with the birthday gift she couldn't wait to give him...a catapult. Off to spoil her.

Theory on Hunters ;D

Mark brought home the WI State Journal this morning, and I was happy to see the headlines: Fewer Hunters This Year. I'll take the good news, however minor it may be! My new friend, Lane, 'told' me a very funny story about a note she left a hunter, indicating that he hunted to make up for lack of size. The more I think about it, though, there may be some truth to that. I'm going to stick with that theory until proven otherwise. I have a couple of male friends, who hunted when much younger. They are both veggie/AR now and avidly oppose hunting. Anyway, they both started hunting in an effort to win the approval of their very macho fathers, who I'm pretty sure, had much smaller than average male members. Even as boys, they felt guilt and sadness when killing but remorsefully continued for several years. They bear lifelong guilt and anguish over their past murders. They are now however, great guys, who are very secure in their manhood. So there! ;)

Now for a totally different topic: Here are a few of Dej's senior pics. I will be posting the rest of them in future posts.

Everest Roofing in Janesville, WI

Don't use them. They put our roof on a few years ago, and we developed a few new leaks AFTER the new roof was put on. We tried to call them several times and left several messages. One time, they said they would come out to look at it but never showed. Our final phone call was never returned. So much for the warranty, huh? M & my dad looked at it to see if they could find the problem, and noticed that the portion of the roof outside the girls' bedroom windows was done incorrectly. M climbed up on the roof (and he does NOT like heights) and patched up the incorrect portions with some type of gooey tar (note that this is probably not the technical name for it). That seems to have done the trick. At any rate, they had been using us as a reference. So now I'm giving them a reference. They do not stand behind their work--or under it, as they would end up wet.


SATURDAY
Today was pretty low key. We got up this morning and went to Logan's 6th!! birthday party. I can't believe he's six already. The kids had a blast playing together, and the mom's were able to sit and chat with almost no referee duty. We got Logan a dragonology book--those books are so damn cool! Orinda made a veg-safe cake that was pretty good. We left at lunchtime, so Colton could take a nap and O. could work on her 20-page paper that's due on Monday (for her Master's). I really miss the classes and the learning part of being in grad school, but when I watch her try to get these ridiculously long and difficult assignments done while balancing work and kids, I don't miss it. It makes me really, really glad to be done! I still want to finish up with the PhD but I think I need to wait until my girls are out on their own, if for no other reason than I can't afford to pay for their college and mine! I guess for now, when I start to miss being in school a lot, I'll just watch O. and remind myself how unpleasant it can be at times. Thanks, Orinda. ;D


After the party, we came home and baked chocolate chip cookies. Luciana wanted to use cookie cutters to make fun shapes, but that doesn't work so well with choc. chip cookies. We gave up on that idea. They turned out well, and I think that (vegan) tollhouse cookies are the best in the world, so I'm pretty happy to have them around. We continued our Monopoly game after dinner. We actually started the game on Tuesday, but at bedtime we stopped and put it aside to finish later. We are still not done, so we'll probably be plugging away at it again tomorrow. L loves Monopoly, and I have her do a lot of the banker duties, so it's good math practice for her. She spends an inordinate amount of time during the game spreading her money out and arranging it in various ways. Mark was able to get the garage cleanup done today, so I can park my car in the garage again. He dropped his motorcycle, while trying to move it. Glad he didn't end up underneath it! I think the outside stuff is done now, so we're as ready for winter as I will ever be, considering that I HATE cold weather.


I have a cold/sore throat, which really sucks. What's really odd, though, is that nobody else in the household has a cold now, other than three of the cats. Oliver and Ivan have an extremely mild one, but Baxter is pretty miserable. He keeps sneezing and has a runny nose--the poor little guy. I've been babying him and giving him extra treats. It hasn't interfered with his appetite at all, which is a good sign.

FRIDAY
Hunter spent the day with us yesterday, so the kids spent a lot of time in their "spy lounge". I reminded them not to use the computers unless I was right there with them. I just cleaned up the second nasty malware infection left on our network from their last bout of surfing for spy gadgets online. They made some very cute mice out of paper, ribbon, decorative scissors, and lots of glitter, leaving a lovely tornado in the craft area for me to clean up. We then made some shrinky-dink xmas ornaments. H. had never seen or heard of shrinky dinks, so he was completely enamored of them, and really, who doesn't love shrinky dinks?! They are pretty damn cool! The kids ornaments turned out very cute, and L. is planning to make some s.-d. cat earrings---maybe tomorrow.

FRIDAY - THE EGGS
The kids found two eggs, lying atop the big food station cage in the bird room. Lexi (a cockatiel) is very old and has never show any interest in sitting. She also hasn't mated with her pair-bonded partner, Rex, since I got them several years ago. I had to rush out to pick them up in the middle of winter from an alcoholic ass who decided he didn't want them and was going to let them go outside. Anyway I knew she was laying last week. I was 99% sure they weren't fertile, but even if they were, they had been sitting unattended for several hours (the newest egg) and almost two days (the first egg), so if they had been fertile, they wouldn't have hatched after being unattended for so long. L & H decided that they really wanted baby cockatiel, so they made a nest and carried them around, thinking they were going to hatch in three weeks. I explained that the eggs were not kept warm enough, even in the great nest that they made for them, and that they have to be turned very regularly, and that hadn't been done. I hated to disappoint the very excited kids, but I always try to be respectful and honest, and it didn't seem fair to let them get their hopes up. We candled them to see for sure whether they were fertile. They were not. L. then asked if she could break them open to see what was inside. Of course it was just a miniature version of the chicken eggs people eat. I asked her (totally kidding of course) if she wanted me to mix up a little omlet. She looked at me in absolute horror and said NO WAY! She was pretty grossed out by the whole idea of people eating eggs. Ethically, I suppose I can't think of an objection to eating them (in this case), but eeewwwwwww. It's been so long since I've had eggs that the very thought of eating them--any kind of eggs--is as gross to me as it is to the lucky little girl who has never had them!

A VEGAN THANKSGIVING - MURDER FREE; EXPLOITATION FREE
We spent Thanksgiving day with my parents. My mom made vegan lasagna, green beans, and garlic bread. We all enjoyed a great meal! We had brownies for dessert. We were all a little bummed because we had no banana-nut bread. Banana-nut bread is a Thanksgiving & Xmas tradition, and my mom makes the best b-n bread. Neither my mom nor I had any ripe bananas, and there were no ripe bananas to be found in town this week.

WEDNESDAY - CAT COUNSELING
Weds. evening I spent several hours at my parents' house, meeting with a cat behaviorist about the problems Emmy is having with Camille. Camille has very poor cat manners and has been overbearing with trying to play with Emmy. Poor Emmy is so extremely shy and timid, and as a former feral, she tends to have a lot of little 'issues'. Camille had poor Emmy so intimidated (not from aggression, just from being overbearing with play/stalking) that she was afraid to leave the bedroom or use the litter box. She ended up with stress-induced colitis, and if you've ever had it, you know how incredibly miserable it is. Dr. Krebsbach talked to us for a long time, checked out the environment, and made some suggestions for moving things around a bit. She then taught us a couple of exercises to do each night with the girls to help their relationship. After their second "gentling session", performed by my parents on Thurs. morning, Emmy was downstairs on the couch, in the same room with Camille. It was a huge and unexpectedly quick improvement. It will take a lot of continued effort on my parents' part, but thank goodness they are the kind of people that are committed to their animals' happiness and well being, so they will do it. I really wish more people shared that kind of committment. I'm so sick to death of people giving animals away as if they were furniture that didn't quite match!

MORE DIRTY PUPPY MILL DEEDS
There's a big, notorious puppy mill in Sun Prairie, Puppy Haven. They have been running a classified ad in the Gazette, and I'm sure the Madison area papers as well, looking for people to sell puppies out of their homes. What an interesting move. It's obvious that puppy mills cannot have people coming on the property, as they would run screaming an horrified by the disgusting conditions these poor dogs are subjected to. Apparently, this is their new marketing idea--find some ignorant person who thinks puppies are cute, plop them off in a "normal" home as a front, and sell lots of them in time for xmas. This even cuts out having to pay Petland and their ilk their "cut" of the sale. Please keep an eye out for this type of ad in your local papers, and let me know if you see anything suspicious or if this is something you've seen done before.

Happy "Turkey Day"

...And lord, bless this meal that we are about to consume, with no thought whatsoever for the suffering we have made necessary, and let it make us healthy, wealthy, and wise...


I hate the month of November. It’s not because it’s usually cold, gray, and drizzly. It’s not because we are wondering where the hell we are supposed to get money to buy xmas presents for people who don’t really need anything. It’s not because I officially grow a year older. It’s not even because it is the month in which my beloved and daily missed grandmother died (not that I don’t love and miss my other grandparents!).

It’s because November seems to be the month in which excessive cruelty and barbarism are celebrated and enjoyed by all. The absolutely repulsive holiday, Thanksgiving, occurs, right along with hunting season. Somehow thanksgiving has become synonymous with gorging and overindulging (in the vile way that only Americans can) in a beautiful and fascinating bird—the turkey, along with a generous helping of other mostly unhealthy foods. Some of the “enlightened” Americans salve the guilt of their overindulgence by remembering briefly, before the large corpse is consumed, to be thankful for their excesses. Even fewer, may even be thoughtful enough to give to those in need, which allows them to overindulge with no guilt whatsoever. After all, “good” people deserve to be rewarded with all the excesses that money can provide for them.

It is no exaggeration to say that at all times that I am conscious, there is a constant loop that plays in my head, reminding me of how many animals are suffering at every given moment. The additional atrocities of the month of November are in my face constantly, and really, my head is already full of misery. I don’t need the constant visceral reminders that the humans among whom I live—and some who I even love—are the most vile, selfish, plague that this planet has ever experienced. That the vast majority are capable, due to some flaw in their ability to empathize, of committing and participating in cruelty and violence on a regular daily basis. Are there three species of humans, differentiated by some DNA variance that we haven’t yet identified? We seem to have the vegans—those for whom empathy is overwhelmingly and painfully present and who govern their lives based on this; the vegetarians/animal welfarists—those for whom empathy is present (especially if the animal is cute) when it doesn’t affect them too awfully much; the others—those who single-mindedly live for their own satisfaction and are largely unwilling to endure any inconvenience or personal discomfort despite the pain and misery others may have to endure as a result.

I’m musing honestly here and am fully aware that this comes across as judgmental and arrogant. So effing what. I am forced, every single day of my life, to interact pleasantly with people who are to me, the equivalent of serial killers. Sounds extreme? Probably to some, but that is exactly how it feels. I am usually alternating between sadness, anger, and despair as a result of this. It sucks. You don’t like to hear it? I am sorry for that, because if you’re reading this, you are probably someone I love. You are also probably someone for whom my love is deep, yet conflicted, and therefore soul-crushingly painful for me. How can I so deeply and loyally love and defend someone who has no moral compunction about torturing, killing, and consuming others who I love deeply? That’s another loop that plays in my head on a daily basis. There is no resolution for this situation, so I have resigned to living with yet one more source of deep sadness and pain. Is it any wonder, then, that I would willingly and proudly sacrifice my life and/or health for this movement? I would leave behind worlds of agony interspersed only briefly with happiness.

This is probably as raw as my blog will ever get. I have kept it very sanitized. Yes, for me, VERY sanitized. But I’m raw right now. I have had to endure too many deer corpses, displayed with no respect or regard on the backs of redneck vehicles that get less than 15 mpg. I have had to endure the intense rage that overwhelms me when I look at the way these deer were violated and are continued to be disrespected after death. THEY ARE BEINGS! With thoughts, feelings, emotions (yep. it’s been proven and can no longer be called anthropomorphism), and a desire to BE. What am I supposed to do with all the rage? I realize as I drive along I90, looking at the corpses displayed, that I have no thoughts at that time beyond pure, unadulterated rage. I want to kill these hunters, who find it so enjoyable and sporting to hide like pussies and shoot at an innocent (unarmed) creature, who is guilty of nothing more than trying to live. For every woman who has been raped or battered by men who like to assert their power over the innocent and vulnerable. For every child who has been beaten or raped by men who are only able to exert dominion over the smallest and weakest. For every animal who has been killed, tortured, or perhaps even worse—been completely disregarded and treated with complete ambivalence. I want these men (yes, a few women hunt, they’re included too) to suffer unspeakable cruelty. Worst of all, though, I want to make them feel like the nothings that they are. I am a proponent of nonviolence. How can I possibly entertain thoughts (and find pleasure in them) of making any living being suffer. I am disgusted by the fact that I have these feelings. I am even more angry with these worthless losers for even momentarily causing me to have the kind of thoughts that they turn into deeds.

Then I remember that while, in the month of November, these atrocities are very visible, as are the participants, they are not much different from the rest of society. Those who think that the momentary pleasant stimulation of their taste buds justify ending a life. For every single bite of flesh, dairy, or eggs, placed in the mouth makes a statement to the world. A statement that says your personal small pleasures are much more important than the life/lives that you have sentenced to death. Make no mistakes, in that small action—that small morsel that you enjoy but will soon flush down the toilet—you are an equal partner in the execution. If you can’t forego a small pleasure to spare the lives of others, please, at least take a moment to think about and appreciate the being who once was; the being who had their life taken for your palate. Since they received no kindness or appreciation in life, at least grant them a moment of gratitude in death. It’s the least you can do—really, I do mean the least.

I challenge anyone who is still talking to me at this point to watch this film. If you can make it all the way through, I will be SHOCKED beyond belief at your personal strength. Spend an hour or two in my world. If you're still sane... well, I really doubt I'll have any takers on this one. ;P Maybe you'll understand why I'm such a bitch!
I dare you!

AR people are the best ever!

I've had a crazy, busy few days, so I've been a remiss blogger. Our wonderful friend Anthony Marr arrived this week for a brief visit. We've had a lot of time to visit and just "hang out", which has been very nice. When he first arrived, he was quite ill, but after a couple of days of lying low and resting, he bounced right back. We took him to see Allegrea's art exhibit as soon as he was up to it. Her work is so beautiful, that I really enjoyed seeing it again and being able to share it with others. Dej was able to go with us as well, and as she's an artist also, she really appreciated it.

Thursday morning, Dej and I had to be at the nearest UW for her first college visit. This was a pretty easy one, as it's local, and also happens to be the college where I teach. She went to a class, American Government, and she seemed to enjoy it. She got to choose from several different classes, so I was glad she found one that was of interest to her. She was a little whiney about having to get up early to go to "school" and sit in a class on her day off. How the poor girl suffers. She really liked the big art studio/class room, and since she will probably spend a lot of time there, I was very happy about that.

Thursday night, Anthony, Allegrea, Luciana, Mark, and I went to the Puppy Mill Round Table in Madison. This was sponsored by the WI Puppy Mill Project, The Alliance for Animals, and the Dane County Humane Society. About 30-40% of the attendees were breeders. Of the 12 WI legislators invited, none bothered to attend. As our Federal government no longer even bothers to keep up the pretense of being "by the people, for the people", our state government seems to be following suit. The round table event became a bit heated and rowdy, as the breeders were ill mannered and heckling the speakers. A group of Amish puppy mill sadists were there as well. It quickly became clear that the breeders were there in an effort to align themselves with "the good guys" and distinguish themselves as being different from puppy mills--the "humane" choice. Strangely enough, though, these breeders who claimed to care so much for the animals they pimp and sell, were loathe to have any sort of regulations/inspections that would apply to them. It was actually a clever marketing ploy. No thanks, though, we don't care to be associated with them in any way. Many attendees brought their adopted dogs, victims of breeders/puppy mills, and we enjoyed visiting with them. They were so very damaged--both physically and emotionally--but absolutely precious! The dogs were an excellent visual reminder of why we were there. Luciana had fun with Allegrea and Anthony. She loves to talk to and play with them.

Here's the link to an article in the Capital Times about the puppy mill round table: http://www.madison.com/tct/news/257233

Friday night we had our get together in Anthony's honor. We had a great time with our AR friends and were happy to introduce those who hadn't yet met Anthony. Mark made his award-winning chili (the recipe from the first year he won), and I made a taco bar. There was plenty of good vegan food and drinks for everyone. We really enjoyed having so many of the friends, who we love and respect, all together. We were disappointed that Dej wasn't able to join us, but she spent Friday and Saturday in Sheboygan for a debate meet. L had Hunter stay overnight, so she had someone to play with while the "grown ups" talked.

By the time everyone left and we got things reasonably cleaned up enough to go to bed, it was around 2. The kids were asleep at that point. Shortly after 3, we were awakened by L telling us that H accidentally hit himself in the nose and they couldn't get it to stop bleeding. It was a sudden and rude awakening. We went down to find blood and bloody tissues on the floor, and H bleeding profusely. L told him to pinch his nose, but he thought it would hurt so he wouldn't try it. He let me pinch it though and then took over himself when he found it wasn't painful. It stopped bleeding after a few minutes of that. We got the room and H cleaned up, the kids settled again, and returned to bed at around 4. It was a very short night.

H stayed throughout the day on Saturday until it was time to drop L off at my parents' for date night. We were starting a bit early, meeting Anthony and some friends of his from Elkhorn for an early dinner. We ate at Nee's, which was as delicious as usual. M & I had lard na (which I always get because it's so good). We had some great conversation and really enjoyed getting to know Bev & Greg. They are also AR people, who we met briefly on Anthony's prior visit. I'm sure we will be seeing them again--hopefully for our next Petland protest.

Today was chore day, as Sundays usually are. Anthony came over for pizza and a last social visit before he had to start the drive to Denver (straight through!). H was here again today, and he & L played outside for quite a long time. They made pine cone/peanut butter/bird seed treats for the outside critters and made "carrot cake" for Annabelle (our guinea pig) and Thumper (our rabbit). They also did some work in the spy lounge (an area that they created for themselves in the workroom of our basement) and did some ghost hunting upstairs. They had quite a productive day. We were all sad to see Anthony go this evening!

Luciana's girl & boy owls

I’m still in shock that it’s Monday already, and I’m back to work. My four happy days (non-work days) went so very fast—even faster than they normally do!

SUNDAY

We left in the morning for Dwyers’ and arrived a bit before noon . Dej was unable to go with us, as she had to work. M’s aunt and uncle were visiting from Michigan , and his brother Dan came to join us for lunch. He brought the new girlfriend (who just moved in with him), Beth—also known as L’s competition for Uncle Dan’s attention. I was surprised and impressed, though, by L. She and Dan were building with Legos and all on her own, she asked Beth if she wanted to build with them. L seemed to have lots of fun with both of them, so maybe that will help alleviate some of her resentment toward “the interloper”. After lunch, we watched the video of Mark’s Garden Smart show, as his parents hadn’t yet seen it. Dan, Beth, Peggy, and Gene all had to leave a bit after that. After they left, L wanted to play a game of Clue with Grandma, M and me, so we played until it was time for dinner. We left there dinner, and returned home a little past L’s bedtime. Next thing I knew, it was Monday morning! UGH!

SATURDAY

We spent the bulk of Saturday getting Sunday chores done and catching up with our homeschooling work. We had a Petland protest at noon . After than, Les, Jason, L & I went to Raven’s Wish (I think that’s the name) Gallery to see Allegrea’s art. Her work is on exhibit there this month. It was absolutely gorgeous! There wasn’t a single piece that I didn’t want (but couldn’t afford, of course). And there was one in particular that would have been perfect in my living room—we all agreed that the colors and style were a perfect fit. M was not able to join us at the gallery.

While we were at the protest, Dej called to say she lost her car keys, so she needed M to come drop off an extra set for her. She had a debate meet that was Friday night and all day Saturday. She called us before the protest because she left the headlights on and needed Mark to come jump the car for her. Thank goodness this meet was in town. Most of them are not. She later found her keys (just after Mark left for the hardware store to get an extra set made), but sheepishly refused to tell us where she found them. She returned home after the meet with two friends, who were teasing her quite a bit about where she found the keys. I’m assuming it was someplace painfully obvious, like her pocket or something, but she hasn’t yet admitted where.

Now that it’s dark early and summer’s over, we are back to our family movie night on Sundays. Since we would be at M’s parents Sunday, we moved family movie night to Saturday for this week. We watched The Wizard of Oz, and L ate a lot of popcorn. She’s really into kettle corn lately and can eat obscene quantities of it. Dej was of course out with friends, so she didn’t join us. She doesn’t participate in family movie nights very often anymore.

FRIDAY

We celebrated Orinda ’s birthday Friday (even though it was on Thursday) at El Jardin’s. We both ordered strawberry margaritas. Since my birthday was the 3rd, and I didn’t make it to lunch last Friday (L was sick), we decided that margaritas were in order. I do love a good fruity margarita, but haven’t found one that I like since Chi Chi’s closed. I find that most places make them much stronger than I like. These were good though, weak and fruity, so I thoroughly enjoyed my treat. Since it was O’s almost-actual bday, we told our server who brought out a piece of chocolate cake, complete with a lit candle on top. L asked for the candle, once O had blown it out. My strange, D&D obsessed girl proceeded to remove a chunk of wax from the middle of the candle, and show me that she had made mini nunchucks. She then showed me how they work. Yet another special moment I never thought I would be sharing with my 7 year old daughter!

THURSDAY

Mark was off again this Thursday, so we planned some family activities. We got up and went bowling in the morning. We had fun and reconfirmed our knowledge that we are all sucky bowlers—even with bumpers up. We had a gift card that Mark had received for Rice Bowl, so we decided to go there for lunch. We had never been there and figured we would be able to find something good, as we all love Chinese food. We won’t go there again. There were fewer vegan options than we typically find, and the food was bland, at best.

Thursday night, Mark had to attend a visitation in Freeport for a man who used to work for him. Ray was a very, very nice man and quite intelligent, too. His death was a surprise. He was seemingly healthy, went to bed, and never woke up. He had a blood clot in his brain. I guess that’s about the best way to go, but it’s always sad to see someone so young (around 55) pass. My parents took L & I out for dinner, and then we killed some time at Target.

Another late tattoosday..at least I'm consistent ;D

Well I realized at 3:30 this morning that I forgot to do the last (for now anyway) tattoosday entry yesterday. I woke up (again!) at a little after 3:00, after having a bizarre dream about my two front teeth falling out. Dreams are just so weird! In my dream, I was reaching to get something, and something that looked like a tooth fell on the table/dresser(?) in front of me. At first I thought it was a fingernail (again, huh??), but then I noticed it was my front tooth, and the edges of it were black—eeeewwww!! I looked in the mirror and saw that my other front tooth was just hanging there, so I touched it and it came out also. In all of my dream wisdom, I decided that if I put in my retainer (to keep my lip from sinking in where the hole was) and didn’t smile much, maybe nobody would notice until I could get to the dentist. I woke up with two main thoughts. GROSS!! And WTH is wrong with my brain??! I mean really! Apparently I posses no logic whatsoever in my dream life. As absurd as the dream was, it left me with this icky, grossed out feeling that I couldn’t shake, and it took a really long time to get back to sleep. So it was in that wakeless gap that I realized I hadn’t blogged on Tuesday. It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of my horrible nightmare/night terrors and awakened my household with a scream or some other weird noise, so I can’t complain too much. It was a pretty strange dream though. I reminded me a lot of a recurrent dream I used to have for years when I was a teen. I had two birds at that time, and randomly had these dreams that I would be talking to or playing with one of them, and their whole beak would fall off, and they would bleed profusely. I don’t know where that weird dream came from either.

So after the dream, when I realized I needed to get up and go to the bathroom (again!), I began the required extrication process for leaving my bed. I removed Luciana’s arm and leg that were slung over me, gently removed Lila from my left thigh where she was sound asleep, slowly and gently slipped my left ankle out from under Baxter and my right ankle out from under Hallie, and finally—I was free to move. While the other four cats often sleep in our bed, they are content to stretch out near us, not on us. These three are typically on top of me for some or most of the night. Oliver makes it especially fun to sleep, as for whatever reason, he has decided that he can only jump on or off the bed from ONE spot. Unfortunately that spot is on my side of the bed, where my chest is when I’m lying down. Several times a night, he hoists himself up onto the bed, with a little chortling sound, walks his chubby self across my chest, lies down, and then later on, leaves by the same route. He does this whether I’m in bed or not. It drives me crazy, but with cats it’s easier to just accept it than to try to change it.

Alright, on to Mark’s last tattoo. It’s on his left—hmmm, I want to say breast, but I think since he’s manly and all, that I have to refer to it as his pec. It’s a rather cryptic symbol to most people, but I’m sure there are a few isolated nerds throughout the world to whom it is meaningful. ;) He wouldn’t tell me what it meant for the longest, while we were dating. I tried my best to identify it by looking on the Internet, but it’s kind of hard to search for a cryptic symbol in google when you don’t know anything about it. It is the initials of his favorite author, written the way J. R. R. Tolkein wrote them.

Seems I'm confined to the bedroom today. I'm getting a little stir crazy!! My baby girl woke up at around 7 this morning, radiating heat, crying that her head hurt, and OOPS--vomitting all over the floor. She's spent the day napping between vomitting, and wearing an ice pack on her head for the pain. Since she awoke from her last nap, she's kept down a piece of toast and a small baked potato. She's asking for mashed potatoes for dinner. She says her head is feeling a bit better, so maybe we're on the up side of this already. I keep thinking about my messy house and multitude of things I should be doing, but she definitely wants her mommy to be right next to her cuddling and babying her, and I will never pass that up! I have so few years left of her wanting to cuddle and being taken care of, that the messy house and work can wait!

Hallowe'en went very well--a little rushed, as always, but fun. We went to my mom's for our traditional chili dinner. Orinda dropped Logan & Colton off at 6 to go trick or treating with us. This is Colton's first year going out. We always have Logan with us. This is also the first year that Michael's boys haven't been in town to go. Mark and I set out with L & the boys.. As Colton is only two and it's his first year going, nobody was sure how well he would hold up. No need to worry at all! He walked almost all the way (despite my frequent offers to carry him) and kept right up with "the big kids". He did a great job walking right up to the door and saying "Trick or Treat" loud and clear. He even remembered his "Thank yous" fairly well. He liked the "scary guys", too. We have several adults in the neighborhood who like to dress up, have scary sounds/lights, etc. All three kids did great, had fun, and got lots of candy. I'm so glad they are able to come with us, as it is so much more fun for L. to have friends to go with than to go with just us.

Thursday was a field trip day. We went to Milwaukee in the morning to the Discovery World museum. They had a lot of great technology exhibits that we all enjoyed. Everything was hands-on, so we got to have fun while learning. They also have a very cool aquarium area. L & I could probably stay there for many hours longer than we did, just watching the fish and other cool creatures. We spent the afternoon at the art museum, which was also very educational and fun. I could also have spent a lot more time at the art museum than we did. I like to spend more time looking at some of the pieces than M & L do, so I end up feeling like I rushed through a bit. Some of the art I just LOVE. They had one of my favorite pieces there, Rodin's "The Kiss". It's so beautiful. There are always those sections/areas that I just walk through rolling my eyes--you know, the kind of "art" that is really a joke on shallow, rich people, that everyone gets but them. I only consider something art if I could not create it. It irritates me that some of those silly pieces of crap are in the same building as such masterpieces! I found a great art book in the gift shop that I picked up for art studies with L. It's published by Usborne and is one of their Internet linked books. It's a very good compilation of the major periods in art, and for each period, it provides several good examples of the art, discusses the social/political conditions of the time and how the movement related to that. It will be a lot of fun for both of us. I think we will start working on it after the holidays.

Almost Tattoosday

Okay, so I’m late for Tattoosday again. I was so busy finishing up work on the Alliance database that I lost track of time and forgot everything else. M (I’m embarrassed to type this) was at his friend’s last night playing video games. It still puzzles me and defies all logic that adults find such things entertaining. The only thing I can remotely find entertaining about it is trying to figure out the logic in the code behind the games. My computer geekness does sneak out every now and then, I guess. Anyway, he got home around 11, and I was just shipping off the final version of the database complete with the documentation (manual). I put the documentation off until the end (as always), because that’s my least favorite part. So M. asked if I had finished the blog entry. Since I’m still featuring his tats, he remembers Tattoosdays better than me apparently. I am so happy to have the database upgrade done, that I don’t even feel bad about my lateness! ;) Now I have to start working on the Service Master database, and then I still have one more in the queue to work on after that is done. Hopefully I will get a break then!

So this tattoo is pretty straightforward. It’s a sun on his left ankle. He likes the sun. I guess that’s a good thing, since it makes his career possible. He intends on getting some type of moon on his right ankle, but is planning the “green man” on his back before that. Allegrea is working on drawing the “green man” for him now.

Last week, I was horrified to see a letter to the editor, in our lovely local paper, maligning Peter Young and the reporter who wrote the article on him when he was in town. She did a great job, and Peter himself felt the article was very fair and accurate. The woman who wrote the crappy letter was the same obnoxious mink farmer who showed up at his talk (with her smelly—LITERALLY—heavy-mouth-breathing husband) and tried to jump Peter. It was clear from listening to them try to make him look bad there that they were not gifted with intelligence or quick thinking. He trounced them immediately, in the nicest of ways. She’s also the one with whom I exchanged some unpleasant words, after she mistook me for a sympathetic party. I’m still beyond insulted that she looked at me and somehow assumed that I would be her “buddy”. Do I really look like someone who would interact with a fur bitch (language cleaned up significantly for my sensitive readers ;D )??!! So her letter to the editor was equally disjointed and illogical enough to be quite harmless overall. However, she attacked Peter and his character, and I simply CANNOT let that one go. I sat down and drafted up my own letter to the editor, which was fabulous. Then I ran word count on it. It was nearly 200 words OVER the allowed 250 words. Seriously—250 words—that is just not enough. My initial draft was quite brief for me, considering all the points I needed to make. Then I spent then next hour trying to pare it down to 250 words, which I finally reached—exactly 250 words. So it was printed the next day, and I am happy. Peter’s honor has been restored. ;D