Entropy sucks!

Tonight is the Alliance's Annual chili cookoff.  I have to run out this afternoon and pick up some supplies for that.  I also have about eight hours of grading (at least) that needs to be done today between now and five when we leave for the dinner.  So what does a responsible adult do in a situation like this?  She comes up ways to procrastinate the grading, of course!

My little Colorado river has not given up on her rat campaign.  In fact, she has stepped it up--writing me little essays about rats, essays on how much research she has done, stating how good her time management skills are, sending me constant links to cages, pictures of rats...  My husband has bailed, as he always does in such situations.  He knows he is helpless against her assaults, so he completely bows out and says something like, "it's up to mom".  He's also working so much he's a virtual non-entity in our home these days, so it's just the raging river and me, the mountain that will soon be the Grand Canyon.  Damn me and my logic-based democratic parenting!

We had to schedule a vet appointment for Botswana who has started to show some definite signs of aging.  He suddenly stopped eating his sunflower seed treats, which he usually can't eat fast enough.  He continued eating softer foods but has dropped some weight in the last couple of weeks.  We took him to our rodent specialist vet and he checked out okay.  He has no teeth or mouth problems, his heart sounds great, he has no growths or indication that there is anything wrong with him.  He was diagnosed as being a very geriatric gerbil. 

Of course there's no way to know with 100% certainty that he doesn't have some kind of cancer or organ issues--there just isn't any way to determine that without opening him up for surgery, and that is not an option.  That's the exact problem that haunts me--what if he's in some kind of horrible internal pain!  I don't want him to suffer at all, but there is no way to determine that.

 He's slowed down and is not coordinated, so I also was concerned about arthritis pain.  L has rearranged his cage to prevent falls from climbing, and she's added lots of padding, so if he does fall, he shouldn't be hurt.  The vet said that I can give him a small dose of baby aspirin (8 ml every four hours) to minimize pain and inflammation.  He's also on a softer diet and seems to be loving it.  We are giving him the small animal critical care mix with a syringe, and he chows that right down.  He holds the syringe in his little hands like a bottle!  We also got him (unsalted) sunflower seeds without the shell, and he is loving that.  Because he is old and his weight's down, he can have unlimited quantities of his favorite fruit, in addition to his daily veggie produce.  He seems to be very happy with being able to eat as many blueberries as he wants!  He is such an adorable little guy!

These photos are all from a 'session' L tried to do with him this summer.  It's hard to get good photos of a tiny guy who doesn't hold still!

Tempest and Touchdowns

We spent a wonderful night last night in Spring Green, watching American Players Theater's production of The Tempest (probably my third favorite Shakespearean play).  My overly generous friend, Julie, got tickets for us in her stubborn effort to repay a favor, despite being told repeatedly not to do so.  My friends don't listen to me any better than my husband does!  At any rate, M, L, Hunter, and I went to the play.  We were worried about getting rained out, but the weather held up.  It was a chilly night, but we dressed in lots of layers and were pretty comfortable through the performance.

The show was FAN-fucking-TASTIC! The setting was beautiful! I was really impressed by the actors--they must have been freezing but they never showed it!  All four of us enjoyed it so much.  I especially enjoyed the actor who played Ferdinand.  I liked his interpretation of the lovesick prince.  In the interest of full disclosure, in addition to enjoying his performance, I enjoyed the hell out of looking at him; he's beautiful and built quite nicely.  ;-) The actor who played Caliban did a very nice job, too (and with a difficult role).  The goodbye scene between Prospero and Aerial brought me to tears.  The whole thing was just top notch!

The kids absolutely loved the cross-dressed male performers in the role of the sprites/chorus.  They giggled every time the guys came out.  They caught and giggled at some of the jokes but missed some too.  They didn't catch on to the funniest (and bawdiest) of the jokes, which was probably good.

L and I were mesmerized by the many bats flying around throughout the performance.  They lived in the high wooden walls around the stage.  It was the perfect bat habitat and they fit well into the theme/setting of the play, which was set outside on a magical island.  They did a great job at keeping the place bug free.  They were constantly flying into and out of the stage walls, and would climb up the walls and slip through the cracks between the planks and out of sight.  They were coming out of the same area under the stage as the actors were and often came in very close contact with each other.  Bats flew across and around the stage all night, sometimes coming very close to the actors--in some cases I feared there would be a collision (there wasn't), but the actors never flinched or responded in any way.  The actors never missed a beat.  It was impressive. 

This morning we went to watch our friends Logan and Colton play football.  Logan played last year; this is Colton's first year.  He looks so cute with his tiny self in the huge football uniform!

As part of L's aggressive campaign to get me to allow her to adopt two rats, she has taken up drawing rats and making rat art.  She made these two 8x10 canvases and put them on my bedroom wall but has informed me that my keeping the pictures is contingent on how I respond to her rat endeavors.  She's enlisted her sister's help, as her sister has also always wanted rats and loves the idea of being able to visit and play with them but not having to do the associated work.  (By the way, I ADORE rats and would love to have them too, but for many reasons do not think this is the appropriate timing for that.) 

She is also working on enlisting my friend Allegrea in the rat campaign.  Allegrea understands both points of view and will remain neutral.  We went downtown this afternoon to see A working on her plaster sculpture outside (poor thing was so cold!) for Art Infusion.  I knew L would find a way to work her rat campaign in before we left.  The child is relentless!

Some nights, L brings a guinea pig upstairs to sit in her lap during reading time.  Last night she brought Luna.  We adopted Luna and her mommy when she was a tiny little piggy.  She grew up with us and is very self-confident outside of the herbivore room. 

Sometimes the cats ignore the piggies, and sometimes they are interested in sniffing. L and I are always very close and watching carefully, because it only takes a small scratch to allow fatal bacteria into the guinea pig's blood.  So far none of the cats have ever been aggressive, but we will always be very cautious and aware.

Oliver, Basil, and Tica thoroughly sniffed Luna, who continued her satisfied little almost-constant soft chortle unconcernedly.  Basil was pushy about his sniffing, which isn't surprising as he's pushy about everything.  When Tica finished sniffing Luna, Luna returned the favor.  As soon as L took her hand off Tica, she ran away frightened.

I like this shot of Basil and Tica--our biggest and smallest side by side.

Hot Dogs

I was planning to blog tonight, though with no idea as to what the topic(s) would be.  I've thought of very little other than school and getting through the first week of classes for quite a while now.  I made it through the first week.  Whew.  Now I only have fourteen weeks to go, and I'll be through the first semester.  The first week, first semester, and first year is always the toughest for me.  I don't love adjustments.  Getting through each of these firsts, for me, means that I'm adjusted and look forward to the feeling of being in my groove which makes everything easier.

We watched Taming of the Shrew (the BBC version w/Jon Cleese) tonight for our family movie night. It was the first time Luciana had seen it, and she laughed and seemed to enjoy it.  I left the subtitles on for her, as they speak very fast Brit, and can be hard to follow.  She said they were very helpful.

After the movie ended, L and I were chatting for a bit before she went to bed (not to sleep, but to bed), and she asked me if dogs have hot flashes after they are spayed.  I don't know why I never thought of that before!  So I looked it up, in several different ways and found that nobody seems to know for sure. 

Why wouldn't they experience them?  They are mammals who experience hormones much as we do. The ovaries and uterus are removed, causing the sudden cessation of estrogen production.  It's the same surgery I and countless other women have, which can indeed cause horrific hot flashes.  When I observe our girl dogs' behavior in that light, it really seems to indicate that two of the three do have behavior that is inline with what you would expect to see if they were experiencing hot flashes.  Random, climate-independent panting that both stops and starts suddenly--and on several ocassions, I have noticed that Chloe is hot to the touch.  Poor pups!