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.

A little more catch up

Sketch of a dog, followed by the 'scratching' (don't know the technical name) of it.
L & H attended College for Kids two weeks ago. As always they had a blast. Dej attended CfK every year that she was in the age group (as has L) and always loved it too. They do a great job with it there, and I only wished it were two weeks long instead of one.

L & H both took digital art (Photoshop) class in the morning, so they were in that together. H made this magazine cover. They chose different afternoon classes though. L took an art class and H took a rocket building class, and we got to go see his rocket launch on the last day.
L brought home all of her art creations. I photographed the whole pile, or so I thought. Now that I look at the photos, I notice that some of her pieces are mysteriously missing from the pile. Those must be works that she didn't like as well. Her tesselation is missing, and I liked it. She complained when she showed it to me that it was crappy because she made a mistake.

This week she's at dance (Bharatanatyam) camp, which makes a very, very long day for me. I have to drop her off in Verona, which is farther west than my work in Madison, go back to work for the day, then drive back to Verona to pick her up, then finally back home. Since I hit beltline traffic on all four trips, it makes for a much too much car time--3.5 hrs today.

Going vertical

My quest to examine my home from a cat's perspective has helped immensely. It's all about the vertical space, and as we add more of that, we get fewer arguments which means happier, less stressed cats and humans. We finally got our wall climbers hung (with the help of my brother-in-law), and they have been in heavy usage since. They LOVE these shelves!

They scamper up to the top and nap, watch the world, and feel like the ruler of the second floor territory. They also spend a lot of time up on the shelves playing--jumping back and forth, skittering across, around, over, and under the shelves.

The climbers are fairly expensive (though not overpriced), but they are handmade by animal lovers (yay! no corporate fat cats to collect my money) and they are remarkably sturdy and solid. I will definitely be ordering more as we can afford it--the peace and happiness they are bringing to our household are priceless! We ordered them from Crazy Cat Condos, and we started with 'package C'. It's fun to look at them and dream up fun and exciting configurations that will allow our little furballs to be jungle cats, peering down at the world from high in the tree tops.

Catch up

L & H got to spend a day with the animals at Heartland Farm Sanctuary for farm camp a couple of weeks ago. M & I were both off work that day, so we dropped the kids in Verone at the farm and got to meet all the animals. The kids had a great time and can't wait to go back. I want to go back too, soon, to visit my new animal friends. They were all just fantastic, and I've been thinking about them since we left!

We did attend the wedding I blogged about--the much-too-young bride. It was a very, very hot day and an outdoor wedding; my arm was really hurting. The heat tends to make it swell more, which increases the pain. I'm glad we went, though, because as it turns out, we were the only people there who were not closely related to the bride/groom. It was a very small wedding, and our absence would have been very noticed and very hurtful, and I would be absolutely sick about hurting any of them. They are so young and inexperienced! I really wish them the best, and hope the young bride beats the odds and finds happiness. She's a beautiful girl and was a gorgeous bride.

Dej came over a few days before the wedding with a new dress she had gotten to wear for it. She fell in love with the dress, but it was strapless. Busty girls and strapless tops are never a good mix, so she planned on having me fix it for her. With the condition of my right arm, however, that was impossible. I measured, we went out to JoAnn's and found some crochet lace that worked perfectly, as the dress already had crochet lace at the hem. I measured again, cut and pinned the straps and talked her through the sewing process. It was a success and the dress looked great on her! I briefly entertained the notion that she would be able to do her own mending after this (and the child rips clothes like nothing I've ever seen--I'm always repairing things for her). I was wrong. She brought two dresses over this week for repair. Her cats chewed the strap off on one side of each dress. They will be sitting here for a while before I am able to sew again!