Still alive and a surprise

We've had a harder time than usual keeping up the last couple of weeks.  I'm not sure there is enough time to keep up with work, homeschooling, and the animals.  L had a dance performance yesterday, so we were making a few trips to Verona each week for extra practices.  That was time I didn't have to spare.  I feel rotten and panicky all of the time, because I can't keep up with this, but none of my commitments are optional.  So of course it would be just during this time period that my computer started misbehaving and ultimately dying.

The problems slowed my work down significantly for the past week, but I didn't have the time to deal with it, so I just kept working and hoping the computer would keep up.  It continued to get worse but still no time to do anything other than the most basic troubleshooting.  Long, long story short.  It failed.  I failed to fix it. I'm farther behind and more frustrated. My friend, O, is the recovery expert and will pick it up tomorrow.  Fingers are crossed!

L & H have had a nasty cold (that keeps getting worse!) for the last couple of weeks, while I've had a minor one.  Last night, mine became major and it's quite rotten.  I feel so bad that the poor children have had to suffer this!  I have an unbelievable amount of work that needs to be done, but I feel too foggy and crappy to give it the attention it deserves.  By blogging, I can at least cross a very overdue item off my list.  I'm hoping I feel better tomorrow and can be more focused.

So the pictures/video in this post are the other enormous monkey wrench that's been thrown into this mess.  Imagine my shock (and the pit that appeared in my stomach) when L informed me this morning that there was a freshly hatched cockatiel that wasn't there last night when I "tucked them in".  Our birds have laid eggs for decades and we've never had baby cockatiels.  The eggs are always infertile and eventually abandoned.  These two cockatiels have laid, perhaps ten clutches of eggs--none of which contained viable 'babies'.  Generally, cockatiels are picky breeders, requiring a nest box and very specific conditions.  Neither of these birds had ever bred/parented before.

They've always been faithful sitters, and this time was no exception, but none of us expected a live creature to emerge!  They were as shocked as we were, when a living creature emerged.  They fled the cage in which the  squeaky creature lay, and looked down at it very intently and trepidatiosly from up above.  The pathetic little creature was cold and was furiously squeaking for warmth and food.  The parents were frightened. L and I ran out to get handfeeding mix for birds.  I feed the baby, which was very tough the first time.  The beak is still quite soft--like skin.  The baby doesn't even know to open the beak yet, so it has to be gently pried apart.  You can see the little egg tooth in some of the images.  That will be gone soon.  We had to lure them to and close them in the cage, in an effort to push them into parenting, and then I tentatively placed the full, tired baby near them.

New c. parents often fail their first time.  They seem to take a round or so of experience to catch on. {I have never bred birds or experienced this but have researched the topic.}  Daddy immediately ran to cover and protect the egg from the squeaky creature.  Mommy (in the foreground of the video, with the 'pearls' on her back feathers) came over and watched the creature very curiously, and after a few minutes, came up and gently touchebd it with her beak.  She timidly started grooming the baby's fluff.  L and I watched her closely (partially out of curiosity, but mostly to make sure the baby didn't get injured in any way) and saw her increasingly gain confidence with her mothering, and we saw the moment the maternal instinct kicked in.  Mommy's expression changed, and she immediately--carefully and confidently--tucked the baby underneath her and then directed very protective body language toward us.  She let us know it was HER baby and we would have to get through her to get to that baby.

I've been feeding the quickly-growing baby every two hours and will have to continue to do so through the night.  UGH!  That means no Nyquil for cold relief. :-(  We're getting better at the feeding thing each time.  Baby can hold her head up for a few seconds at a time and opens the little beak most of the time during feeding.  Mommy and daddy are doing a spectacular job of keeping her clean and warm.  They hiss at me but ultimately let me remove baby for feedings.  I really, really wish they would figure out the feeding thing and take over.  I can tell by the size of baby's crop that they are not yet feeding her at all.  L told me earlier today, when the parents were still staring at the little creature with confusion, that she felt like she was watching "Sixteen and Pregnant" (which she's heard about but has not seen).

Nala

We had Nala for the day today, as my parents were out of town. She loves to run around our fenced-in backyard with our dogs. Unfortunately this afternoon, she found the smelly black sticky stuff (M's pretty sure that it's from mushrooms!) that Daisy occasionally rolls in. She also found a patch of burrs to roll in. She had a blast, but came back in the house looking and smelling like hell. I put her in the tub, scrubbed her, pulled and cut the burrs out, and wrapped her loosely in a towel and laid her on my bed. She lay that way without moving for about 15 minutes. Then she got up and ran around the house for a while. She had a big day!

Changes and Goodbyes

This weekend we lost our little gerbil, Botswana. It wasn't particularly a surprise, as he's been steadily going downhill since his vet visit. He enjoyed his unlimited blueberries and all of his other favorites right up until the end. He died, we hope in his sleep, in his favorite little spot. Saturday afternoon we buried him in the back garden. L was heartbroken, of course, but she knew it was coming and that he doesn't have any pain or suffering now, so is happy for him.

We miss him so much already, though! His cage is still in the same location as none of us is ready to take it down yet. Everytime I go in the herbivore room, I miss his little face! I loved our treat routine and the way he listened for the treat container and came charging out to see which type of produce I had brought in. He had so much personality tucked into his tiny little body.  We enjoyed every single minute we had with Botsi!

L went to pick up her rats Sunday afternoon, which turned out to be great timing. M drove her to the rescue in IL, while I stayed home to work on grading and making jambalaya. She's been so busy getting ready for them and then getting them acclimated that it's been a great distraction from her sadness over Botsi. Her three boys are very intrigued by everything in their new house. This is the first portion of their house. We will continue adding to it and expanding it, but we will let them adapt to each part first.


Quince


Walter

Womble

She has named the rats Walter, Womble, and Quince. I actually chose the name Walter, as that was part of the agreement--I would let her get the rats as long as one could be named Walter, after our hero-friend Walter Bond. I had other cute names, too, but she rejected them and stuck with her own.


The two bigger boys (Walter & Womble) remind us so much in personality of Basil & Charlie (the cats). Quince is smaller and more shy. They all love interaction and attention and have already learned to run to their door to come out to play. Walter & Womble both like to ride on her shoulder, which she loves! Quince loves to be out but is a little nervous up on a shoulder.


The cats are intrigued with them and watch and smell, but they are safely locked in L's room unless we are with them and actively watching them. Tica is the only cat who sleeps in L's room at night, but we're not worried about her. The big boys are almost as big as she is, and she's afraid of everything, so she just watches from afar.

You'll notice in these pictures that Walter has a green mark on his side, and Womble has red.  Until we learn their little faces, markings, and mannerisms, the dots help us tell the bigger boys apart. We are having so much fun with them!



They are super cute when they groom, and they often do parallel grooming. They are very tidy boys.

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!

Magic Mouse

The twins have always had a passion for their little red mousie toys. When they were kittens, Dej used to get the mousie toys in big packages with several colors, and each package contained two red mice. The red ones were always the hands-down favorite of the boys, though we were always a little puzzled as to why. The toys were identical in every single way except color. The red mice were usually mangled, destroyed and thrown away, as the boys were so rough with them.


The other mice often mysteriously disappeared before they were destroyed. We've never been totally clear on where they mice and other small cat toys went. Sometimes Daisy gets them and shreds them. Sometimes Jezi gets them and hides them in her bed. I'm sure there is a collection under our refrigerator and hidden in various strange places. Or perhaps they ended up in the other dimension in our house, where a series of both large and small items have completely vanished to never be seen again.


Last week, we found a red mouse. It just appeared one day--we have no idea where it's been for years. The boys were so happy to see it, especially Charlie. He loved that mouse with the special passion reserved only for the red ones. He played with it for hours on end.  He really loved to hide it under the yoga mat and then sneak up and pounce on it.  He carried it around in his mouth, prancing and trilling like the king of the jungle. He thumped it with his back feet until the seam ripped a bit and the poor mouse begged for mercy. He spent four or five rapturous days with his mousie love and then it disappeared as mysteriously as it came. Maybe Charlie has a special hiding place that he tucked it away for safe keeping. We may never know!


Last Sunday was my mom's birthday. We went out for dinner and came back to their house for pie and gifts. We all had a very nice time celebrating my mom's uh...45th. Here are some nice pics from that day. (Yes, I'm still very behind on everything!)

Nothing left but weeds and memories

I'm still working very hard at both jobs.  It will be rough for another couple of weeks, but things should start to normalize eventually!  We've squeezed some activities into our work-packed schedules though.  Last weekend M & L were out of town at M's cousin's wedding.  I stayed for a nice, long productive weekend.  H was with me for the first portion of it and was very chatty.  I did get a couple of days to myself though and managed to get a fair amount of work done.

Dej and I loved the dress L picked out for the wedding and wished we could find it in our sizes, though Dej is pretty sure she could squeeze into her sister's if given the opportunity.  L does not intend to give her that opportunity.  We had just gotten her a nice summer dress at the beginning of the summer.  She's not terribly into wearing dresses right now, but always needs to have one on hand so she has appropriate clothing for dressy events.  She has already outgrown that very cute dress, so we had to run out and get an emergency dress for this wedding. 

Yesterday we had to attend a family reunion immediately followed by the Heartland Farm Sanctuary Dinner & Auction.  We were all very tired from an action-packed weekend when we arrived last night, but we had a great time!  My friend, Kristin, coordinated this event.  We've been to so, so many fundraising dinner/auctions, but I've never seen one run quite so well.  I mean, I knew Kristin was a smart, fun, ball of energy, but now I'm a little intimidated by her kick-ass skills.  The girl is the flipping rock star of event planners!  Seriously, we were just blown away by what a fantastic job she did one absolutely everything. 

Dej & Russ attended with us.  We all had fun bidding on the TONS of awesome auction items, and I won the one item I most wanted and was sure I couldn't afford.  I adore these pigs and am eager to find the perfect spot to display them.

We (L, H, and I) also squeaked in a last-minute trip to Six Flags with my friend Orinda and her boys. We had great weather and it was a wonderful day. All four of the kids like the big rides and are up for riding anything they are big enough for. We got pictures of the kids and I on the Logger's Run and on Superman. Funny how Orinda managed to avoid being in any of the pictures.

Dance Camp for L and Big Changes for me!

Today was L's last day of dance camp, so the children showed us this afternoon what they've been doing all week. She showed two of the new steps she learned. They sang two songs, showed some yoga poses, told us some Hindu mythology stories, and showed the arts and crafts projects they made. She had a lot of fun and will go next year, but I'm glad the daily trips are over now for a while. That is just way too much time in the car every day!

M & I had date night a couple of weeks ago and went to the new (only) Indian restaurant that just opened in town here--Taj Mahal. It was good! Really good! We will be going back. We had perhaps the best pakoras ever, and I could live on those things! I'm so happy I can finally have delicious Indian food without driving to Madison or spending the whole day in the kitchen.

Another random item I almost forgot to mention... We went to our friends' annual garden party on the aforementioned date night. We were chatting with a woman at the party, when she started talking about her duck car. Our host heard and offered to walk us the five blocks or so to the woman's house, so we could see the duck car. It was quite a site and worth the five block walk. The rubber ducks are all glued to the car. She is planning to add ducks to the sides, too.

Finally, in addition to being slowed by my wrist's recovery (I think we've finally got the abscess/infection clearing out of my incision scar), I've been extraordinarily busy due to my changing job situation. I will be returning to teaching at a full load this semester at the college where I've been teaching one course per semester. The original intent was that when I started the semester, I would be done with my M-W job in Madison. I've been scrambling to get my four new classes designed and prepared and loaded to the student site. I'm spending every fee minute working on that, as Sep 6 is coming all too soon.

Instead of leaving my other job however, I will be working from home (not going in M-W anymore and not working 20 hrs/wk anymore) as much as I can. I will continue to do both jobs that way, in addition to homeschooling Luciana. It will be rough for the first few months, but once I get all my classes prepped and in my groove it will be fine. I will be happy to have a month off for winter break and summers off again. That will leave me lots of free time as well as time to spend on my other job.

I keep reminding myself when I panic over all that needs to be done in the next few weeks that I really am beyond lucky. I have two jobs that I enjoyed that I was trying to choose between. I know in this economic climate, that right there makes me quite lucky! The main thing I hated about my previous primary job was the commute. Now, I don't even have to choose between the jobs--I get to keep both, and just change the proportion of my time spent on each.