Break's over.

My friend, Lynn, sent me an unexpected surprise gift in the mail this week.  This very cute shirt showed up on Thursday, and I love the mix of the adorable lamb with the offensive text.  I wore it right away on Friday.  It's so nice to get that rare item in the mail that isn't a bill or "spam".  

I wonder how many pounds of marketing material AT&T Uverse sends out to each household per year.  I get several big packets and mailings from them each week and have for years, though you couldn't pay me to get on their crappy Uverse package.  I'm sure it would cost their customers a lot less if they stopped sending the slick, glossy, expensive marketing materials.  It's so irresponsible to waste so many resources. They are phenomenally environmentally destructive--one of many reasons I greatly dislike the company.

I did not end up getting sick over break, despite feeling unwell as of my previous post.  I felt a little icky for a couple of days, but it was nothing more than a very minor head cold. It never turned into anything significant, so I'm feeling pretty lucky about that.

I go back to school Monday morning.  I'm ready for school but not ready for getting up early and going out in the cold.  I miss the students and am excited to get back to classes. I have all my my materials loaded onto D2L (the online interface for our classes) and feel pretty prepared for all of my classes for the semester.  

This semester I have a female student in my Java class, and that was a totally unexpected surprise.  It's a non-traditional student who I've had in a few classes already, and she's smart, together, and she will be real asset to the class.  I have some other repeat students in there, and it's going to be a fun group! It's much smaller than my last Java class, which was overwhelmingly large, and this class size is optimal for a programming class.

One of my classes has a wait list, and I'm glad it's only one this semester.  I stress out over my waitlists, because I hate to have to tell anybody I can't get them in.  All of my classes require computers, so I am limited by the number of computers in the lab.  I can squeeze another one or two in if they have a laptop.  I have my fingers crossed that I will be able to work in at least a couple from the waitlist.

I'm returning to school with a little frustration that, yet again, I didn't get nearly as much done as I had planned.  I had several house projects that I wanted done before returning to school but they are not done, and my house is still in chaos.  

We had planned to rip out the carpet in our bedroom (the last carpeted room in the house) and refinish the floor, but M's long bout with the flu derailed that project.  We may get it done over my spring break, but doubtful, as M's workload is pretty unrelenting that time of year.

Some of my minor projects didn't go so well and ended up taking much more time than I had anticipated.  I had what should have been a ten-minute task on my list--retouching paint in our side-entry way.  I took the numbers in from the original paint color, and had Menards mix a pint of the same for touchups.  I spent 15 minutes or so touching up any chips/scratches (most of them courtesy of the dogs' claws) and realized when the paint dried that it was not at all the original green.  It was significantly darker and more saturated.  I had to repaint the entire area with the new color, as there was no way to blend in the new color.  I'm a messy, slow painter, so it took me several hours and then a couple more touchups when the bright sunny days arrived and revealed the imperfections.  We all found that we like the new green better than the previous green, so it turned out well in the end.

Another small, minor project that didn't go so was my effort at dyeing my white jeans.  I LOVE those jeans, and they are one of about three pairs that actually fits well, but I ended up with some mystery stains (bright yellow) that would not launder out.  Even multiple bleachings did nothing to help with the stains.  I figured by dyeing, I could still keep a pair of jeans that fit, though I had to give up on them being white.  I tried to dye them navy blue.  They were beautiful--I loved the color, except that the color of the blue was several shades lighter on the areas where the original stains were.  WTF?!?  So, I then tried to bleach out the color and start over, but it turned out exactly the same.  My husband pointed out that had I just replaced the jeans when I found the miserable stain, I would have a nice pair of jeans and the whole Saturday afternoon I spent wrestling with the dye process (Rit dye STINKS, by the way!)  As much as I loved having the white jeans for the few months they lasted, I guess I've learned my lesson (again).  I do not have the ability to wear white.

The big mess is focused in our dining room.  I started removing wallpaper, and the plan was to use our steamer instead of Dif.  I feel better about using steam than chemicals.  It's slow work, though, and my damn hands don't work very well, so I can only work in limited time blocks rather than knocking it out in a weekend as I would like.  We've picked out the paint for the room (the darkest of the two colors on the wall), and I've already painted the trim, so I'm anxious to get the paint on the walls.  I'll have to keep plugging away at that, but I have less time for projects now that I'm back to work.

My baby is now a TEEN

Last Sunday, I went with my friend Julie to pick up some rabbits for the sanctuary she had built.  She's wanted to have a rabbit colony for quite some time, and now that she's retired, she was ready for the rabbits.  Introducing rabbits is dicey--they can be quite violent with one another, despite their cute, innocent bunny appearance.  The hope was that introducing them in the back of a car (a neutral environment) while returning from Oshkosh (a shared slightly traumatic experience) would help bond them without the fights.

We were planning to pick up two groups of rabbits from two different locations, for a total of eight rabbits.  We picked up four from the first stop and three from the second.  The car trip was surprisingly successful.  They happily split into two groups--timid and not timid--and munched hay and were generally adorable.

The next step was to get them all in their new living space (inside with outdoor access) and hope the peace continued.  We hung out with them for quite a while, watching them get settled in and making sure they were getting along.  Things seemed pretty stable when I left to come back to my babies and chores at home.  It didn't remain that way, though, and by the next day, she had to pull two of the girls out of the colony area, and upstairs into their own private room, as they were instigating some violent battles with the others.

We had some additions to our crew this week also.  I've been watching for parakeets for a while, as poor Simran has been sad and lonely since our Sagan didn't pull through his respiratory illness.  I don't go to pet stores, and I wouldn't buy an animal any more than I would buy a human, so I have been watching rescues/humane societies and feeling horrible that I couldn't find a friend for Simi.  This week, we found four parakeets at DCHS.  One was an adult female who was seized from a violent home.  She was depressed and lethargic there, but healthy.  I would estimate that she is over five years old.  There were also three boys--bonded, about 2-3 years old (my estimate), whose human had died.

Fortunately, parakeets are much easier to introduce than rabbits.  They love to have friends of their own kind and are generally thrilled to meet new friends and share their space.  We named the little girl (very light blue/white) Sajni, and the boys are Dawkins & Hitchens (the blue, though I'm working on learning to tell them apart) and PZ (green).  All five of them are the best of friends now, and the bird room sounds so much happier than it did before they came.  They settled right in and seem perfectly at home and happy, and I am so relieved Simran has friends.  Birds absolutely hate being alone, and though she had cockatiels, doves, and the lovebird from hell, it's just not the same as other parakeets.  I feel very strongly that keeping a bird as a singleton (on a long term basis) is cruel and abusive to the bird.

L turned 13 this week, so when she campaigned to adopt a lonely little rat, we couldn't say no (because she has the space and does a really good job with the rats she has).  She's been watching a group of three baby sister rats who came into DCHS a couple of months ago.  They were dumbo rats and were very precious.  She was very sad to see then that two of the three sisters (the "cuter", non-white girls) had been adopted out, leaving the less desirable (to shallow assholes) girl alone.  Rats also bond deeply, mourn the loss of friends/family, and are miserable without others of their kind.  This little remaining girl was faring particularly poorly.  She wasn't eating, was lethargic, and just not thriving.

She came home with us, and we put her in a large cage (temporarily) alone, because she's very tiny and very timid, and it would not be a good idea to throw her in with the other rats unsupervised at this point.  She was still not eating well and was quite lethargic.  Then we introduced her to each of the girls, one at a time.  The boys are currently 3 times her size and love her, but they are a little intimidating to her at this point.  She immediately perked up when we put her with Flower.  She started eating, running around, playing, and acting like a normal young rat.  That poor baby was just heartbroken and lonely.  She is so happy to have sisters again!  She came with the name, Star, and L has decided to keep that name.

I'm unhappy to say I am unwell today.  I have a cold and am feeling pretty nasty right now.  I'm hoping it's just a few-day cold, and not the two-week flu (?) that Mark has had.  I was really thinking I would miss this one, too, but no luck.  So far the worst of it is that I'm not breathing well enough to get through a workout.  I worked out last night and knew I was coming down with it, and I couldn't breath well, felt light-headed, and got ridiculously hot, so I'm not going to try it today.  It makes me very unhappy to miss it, and I'm going to have to find a way to get through it tomorrow, because I'm not missing another day for this rotten virus!

Kids at the rotunda

L had a dance performance (two actually) Saturday at the Overture Center.  Kalaanjali performs every year.  They do three shows (9:30, 11, & 1), so it's a long day for all of us, but especially for the dancers.  The shows are always packed, which makes the girls a bit nervous.  They all did a good job!

I was backstage mom for the last show of the day, and it really makes me appreciate what those kids go through.  It's hot back there and very tight quarters.  All of the girls who are not dancing on stage have to be backstage throughout the show.  They either stand or sit on the floor, with nothing to do but wait.  And giggle, and run up and down the ramp, and bump into the stage curtains.  It's a little like herding cats--adorable, giggly cats.  :)   Many of them are quite nervous about the performances, especially considering the very large audience.

Both sets of grandparents, Uncle Dan & Beth, as well as D & Russ came to the show.  We went out for dinner to celebrate her birthday (which is actually this week) with M's side of the family.

2013!

Last year at this time, I had just finished reading The Reality of Weight Loss by Theresa Bondora—an e-book that really gave me the motivation I needed to get myself on the path back to health.  In 2012, I changed my eating habits drastically as well as modifying the meals I make for the family to be more focused on real food, eschewing processed food and any food without good nutritional value.  We all had improved health from that, and M even lost a little weight.  I also made workouts a part of my daily life (six days per week) and can’t imagine how or why I even functioned without them.  Working out is usually the best part of my day, and I feel sanest and happiest right after a good workout.  


For this picture, I busted out the skinny jeans I was wearing before my 2012 health initiative.

I was not sick in 2012 at all, and I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say that of another year.  That’s a major accomplishment for me.  I still have the migraines but got nothing worse than a minor head cold, which M & L also had but theirs was much worse.  I am certain that my improved health is due to the diet and exercise changes.  Poor Mark has had the flu for a week now and is still feeling crappy.  So far, I'm still healthy, and fingers are crossed that I'll stay that way!

I definitely don’t want to lose any more weight this year and will be more focused on gaining muscle mass.  I have some definite fitness goals for the year, though, and it’s going to take a fair amount of effort:  15 (unassisted) pull ups; 15 toes-to-bar; 10 hand-stand pushups; and a six minute plank.

My friend gave me a nice, large mirror that she didn't need anymore, and I was really excited to put it up in my workout room.  I had wanted a mirror in there to help me work on my form.  I hung it in the perfect spot only to realize once it was up that I am most definitely not yet able to look at myself while I work out.  I try to avoid looking unless I'm really trying to see and adjust my form in a particular move or lift, and then I usually recoil in horror.  I apparently still struggle with some degree of dysmorphia, because within any one given day, I can look in the mirror and think I'm too skinny and at another point in the day, look in the same mirror and think I'm too fat.  In all cases, the mirror reflects the body of the forty-something I am rather than the twenty-something I would like to look like (but not be).  What I would like to see when I look in the mirror is a body like Serena Williams', but as long as we're still bound by the laws of physics, that's not an option that's available to me.  :-)

I also read the book, “Wheat Belly”, which was incredibly informative and disturbing.  I am still quite unsettled after reading it.  Because of the disgusting health implications of modern wheat, I am also trying to reduce/eliminate wheat from our diet as much as possible.  That is a lot of restriction for vegans, but I will do my best.  I highly recommend this book and would be happy to loan it.  It is information that everyone should have!

That book also activated a slight obsessive fear of (Type 2) diabetes that I’ve been trying to suppress for years.  It’s all over in my family and has been all my life. The diabetics in my family handle it like 6-yr olds, however, and just refuse to make any dietary or lifestyle changes.  They just eat as much crap as they think they can get away with (as if they can sneak it in without their bodies 'noticing') and then take their very expensive pharmaceuticals to counteract the damage they can’t seem to stop inflicting.  I fully believe everyone with Type 2 diabetes has earned it and worked very hard to get it.  I see the disease as a badge of weakness and irresponsibility, and it is something I fear greatly.  I would be horrified and repulsed if I got it, which makes me spend way too much time thinking about it and worrying about it and keeping track of what I eat and how it affects my blood sugar. I would also NOT take insulin or any other drug for it, because I am morally opposed to taking drugs (the easy way out of personal responsibility) for something I’ve brought on with bad choices.  It would have to be cured with lifestyle or I would die.  I would actually like to get a tester, so I can monitor my blood sugar and really track how various foods affect it, but my “team of advisors” (friends & relatives who I trust to let me know when I’m going off the deep end) assure me that that is going too far.  I am trying to not think about it.

This year, in addition to continuing to improve my health and fitness, I am focusing on being as plastic-free as possible.  I am currently reading Plastic-Free, by Beth Terry, and this is my inspiration and guidebook for my efforts.  I’ve been having major guilt problems about plastic/plastic waste and our environmental footprint (which, though smaller than most Americans, is still larger than I am comfortable with), as well as the consumerist culture.  When I do spend money, I my goals are to keep all money possible out of the hands of the 1%, consume as little as possible, and eliminate as much plastic as possible from our lives.

Once I finish reading the book, I will come up with an action plan to get started on the plastic elimination/reduction.  Then I will see how much buy in I can get from the rest of the family.  That may be the most challenging part.  At this point in the book, I'm feeling pretty discouraged and hopeless, so I'm anxious to get to the portion that gives me information on how to minimize my plastic dependency.

Home for the Holidays

I finished grading and got all of my grades entered the afternoon of the 24^th.   I spent several days in my room doing nothing but grading.  It was not pleasant. It is always a good feeling to be (almost) done with a semester; after grades are entered, there is usually a handful of student emails with questions about their grades or projects.  That phase is almost wrapped up.  Next week I will start prepping for the spring semester, which starts right after MLK day. 

As always, I miss my students when the semester ends.  I get used to seeing them, talking with them.  I spend most of my work time with them, rather than colleagues, so I always feel the loss when they're gone.  It's so nice to hear from them over break via email and FB.  I do look forward to the spring semester (already) and getting back to the students.  

This was one of the least stressful holidays I’ve had.  The non-consumerist Xmas is really the way to go.  We were all in agreement and will definitely continue it in the future.  All the time and energy normally spent on shopping and stressing out over what to get for people who have too much already, wrapping, opening, cleaning up after opening, finding places for the gifts we didn’t need, etc., was all freed up for accomplishing tasks or visiting with friends/family.

We knew we were getting paintings from L, but were all eager to see what she had chosen for each of our pictures.  She always puts a lot of thought into what animal/creature she will paint for each person.  I hope she got photos of Dej & Russ's, because mine didn't turn out.  I will either get them from her and post them later, or I'll have to have D & R take photos for me--either way, those will be coming in the near future.

Our traditional pre-family get-together with Denny & Susan was very enjoyable, and I was much less frazzled and tired this year and able to enjoy visiting with them.  I added two new drinks to the options this year, inspired by the delicious peach mimosa I had at the comedy club last month.  Peach and pear mimosas were both available, and the pear mimosa was a big hit.  We were so anxious to try the pear, we never made it to the peach.  Maybe we’ll get to it on New Year’s.  (Yes, that is a big-ass Bible he's reading from.)

Sophie had her first surgery on Friday.  They removed all but ten of her teeth.  They were in very bad shape, and most of the teeth removed had also abscessed, and some of the abscesses were so deep they had gone into her nasal passages and sinuses.  They flushed a lot of grossness out, and that has helped her labored breathing immensely.  She will probably always retain her little pig-snort noise, because her left nasal passage is essentially closed, it’s so small, leaving her with one functional nostril.  That’s not something they can’t fix, though.  She has lots of stitches in her mouth from the removals, but it’s still clear that she is feeling much better already.

I got to babysit for her yesterday while the kids attended a funeral out of town.  She had good pain meds and seemed to feel just fine.  She played, hung out with the other dogs, and ate her soft food very well.  She had a good day, and it was fun to have some extra time with her.

Daisy is improving with her.  She didn’t try to hump her or “T” her but was still a little vigorous and irritating with her butt sniffing. It’s always something with Daisy.  She’s such a strange little being.

First holiday gathering of the season

This year, our holiday get together with M's family was on the early side.  Normally they come a little later in the month, and traditionally we eat, go to the light show, and have a small gift exchange.  Schedules were crazy this month, so they came on Saturday, we ate, and had a very small gift exchange (as per mutual agreement in an effort to end the consumer culture).  

L gave each of M's parents and his brother & wife a canvas watercolor.  As always, I loved her art and was sad to see it go, but at least I have pictures of it.  We really enjoyed the minimalistic gift exchange, and look forward to the same with my family and friends.  

We're all on the same page with this--even the kids.  I know M & I are feeling so much less stress about the holiday season than usual, and I think the rest of the crew is too.   Gifts of time and service and gifts that are hand made are so much better than any other kinds!So far the only shopping I've done is for giving tree items, and I'm not planning to do much more--maybe and hour or so for stocking stuffers. 

Great news!

I've become a grandma again.  Sophie came to live with her mom & dad (D & R) yesterday.  We were all in love with her before we met her.  We knew she:  was a beagle mix, had been dumped in an outdoor kennel on a cold night at an animal control facility that couldn't provide her the necessary care or keep her, was 9-10 yrs old, had been significantly abused, had mammary tumors, was heartworm positive.  Though that all sounds awful, I had previous experience with a dog with mammary tumors and one with heartworm.  Both had also been significantly abused and were between 6-9 yrs old at the time of the disease.  Both survived their disease, recovered and lived many healthy years beyond.  With D, R, M & I supporting this effort, and Sophie illustrating an amazing, beautiful being with a desire to live, the odds are in our favor.

When we picked her up yesterday, we found that she was much tinier than we had pictured.  She's only 13 pounds.  She's afraid of everything, and belly crawls timidly (though she doesn't do that in her home) , but she's a complete lover.  She rode the entire three-hour trip home in the back seat sitting between D & R.  She really bonded with them and quickly started to hide her head in the crook of R's arm whenever she got nervous or frightened.  She's quite a daddy's girl already.

We became increasingly concerned by her not eating.  We weren't too worried last night, because she had a big day with a long car ride and a lot of stress (which makes sense given how her last car trip ended).  Dej couldn't get her to eat today and felt by watching that she was having problems with her teeth.  She also had a snort/snarffle thing going on, and I was quite worried that it indicated heart damage, though I kept that to myself.  D found she would eat soft food, so put her dog food in hot water and she scarfs it right down.   

She had a vet appt this afternoon, after my first final (student presentations) of the week end.  She had xrays, bloodwork, and a thorough examination.  I was so relieved to find that she didn't have heart damage.  The reason for the strange noises was something above the larynx--maybe a polyp, a sinus infection--we will find out when she is anesthetized to have her teeth taken care of.  The few teeth she has left are pretty nasty--some broken, infected. She has a big raw, scabby patch which is infected.  Poor baby.  She is on Clavamox right now, which should help the mouth infection, may help the sinus infection, and will also help the skin infection.  She will be feeling like a new dog within the next two days.  Her prognosis is actually better than any of us expected it would be.

When all of her blood results are back tomorrow, we will schedule her surgery and also determine what will be done in this surgery.  She has to have her teeth taken care of, exploration on the sinus issue, get spayed, and have the mammary tumor(s) removed.  Doc  wants to look at all of the results and prioritize and determine what she can handle.  Her organs and overall health are pretty good, so that helps a lot.  The heartworm is actually the easy part; she will take antibiotics and a heartworm preventive until they are gone.  [I mean "easy" in the comparative sense, not in that it's really an "easy" or minor thing.  All dogs are at risk for HW if not taking a preventive consistently during the season.]  

We learned at the vet today that she tolerates absolutely anything without any aggression at all.  He called her a "gentle soul."   She seemed to feel at home as soon as the kids put her down in their dining room.  She ran around with her tail wagging, sniffing (and snarffling) like a puppy!  She met the cats, and there was no aggression from anybody.  She and Sparta (mommy cat) have already become snuggle buddies.  She spent last night on the bed snuggled up with the kids and sometime cats.  She's already selected a favorite spot on the couch.  She's made herself at home and settled in surprisingly well.  We're so happy things have gone so smoothly!

It's been a very busy couple of days, so not nearly enough pictures yet.  There will be many, soon.

Rotary Botanical Gardens Holiday Light Show Hurts Animals

The next several days for me will be filled with student presentations and grading.  Grading programming projects takes FOREVER, so it will be a very long week.  

M's time has been and will continue to be dominated by the Rotary Gardens' Holiday Light Show.  We normal attend with M's family, and often again with a group of friends.  This year, we will not be attending.  When we go, we pay (of course), as it's a fundraiser for the gardens.  Despite the fact that the last three months of my husband's life have been dedicated to this show, we can no longer support the show, and I am asking my family & friends to follow suit, as it is now includes animal mistreatment.

They have a group of exploitative humans bringing in reindeer and camels (CAMELS--WTF do camels have to do with a holiday light show and what kind of fucking idiots think camels belong anywhere near a WI winter?) to entertain those who attend the show and are not bothered by stressed, nervous, uncomfortable animals in unnatural and pointless displays.  They brought the animals in last year, despite having the cruel conditions and impact to the animals explained, and despite the fact that my husband asked them.  Apparently the countless hours (which add up to years) of his life he routinely donates to the gardens and his countless personal sacrifices  are not enough for them to respect a request for empathy and morality.

While he will continue to work there for as long as he is happy, we will have nothing to do with the place, nor will any of my income be involved in any way until the cease to be animal exploiters.

We will have to enjoy the very inferior light show at Olin Park in Madison, which I believe is free, and does not cause any animal suffering.  

This whole situation just sucks, and I am so very disappointed with their lack of kindness and empathy toward the animals and the complete and utter lack of respect for my husband and the massive amount of work he does.  His Holiday Light Show has gotten better every year since he started it at RBG.  It stands alone.  It does not need animal cruelty to draw people in--it is the best light show within at least a two-hundred mile radius, or it was before the added animal cruelty.

Since I won't have light show pictures to add beauty to an ugly post, I have to rely on some ratty cuteness.

Chop Suey

I thought I would have more time to blog this last week, but student projects dictate my life right now.  We celebrated M’s birthday last weekend (though his birthday was actually during the week), and I tried a new recipe.  He doesn’t really have a sweet tooth (and I resent everyone who doesn’t), but if he does eat sweets, he enjoys peanut-butter-flavored goodies.  Since my friend Marina’s peanut butter cup pie got such raves at the AFA Annual Chili Cookoff, I decided to try that.

Have I mentioned before that I do not enjoy cooking/baking or anything else that takes place in the kitchen?  Have I also mentioned that I get stressed over anything new or unknown to me?  All that is to say that I don’t particularly enjoy the process of trying new recipes the first time or debuting my efforts at a party (even a small informal one).  There were a lot of phases to this recipe.

I screwed up right off the bat with the crust, which was painfully easy and wouldn’t have happened at all, had I read through the entire recipe carefully first.  Instead of using two cups of chocolate cookies (as called for), I processed the cookies first and used two cups of chocolate cookie crumbs.  I realized when I mixed in the vegan butter that I had made a huge error and had far, far too many cookie crumbs for the butter.  Since I’m cheap and refuse to waste cookie crumbs or Earth Balance, I just tried to manually adjust by removing about half the bread crumbs and adding in a little extra E.B.  It did not work very well, leaving us with an extremely crumbly crust that didn’t hold together well.  It tasted fine, and the taste of the finished pie as a whole was out of this world, but I was extremely irritated with myself for the screw up.

Most of my kitchen encounters end with some type of disaster—either a giant spill or a significant wound.  This time I went with the significant wound.  I was washing dishes between each phase of pie prep, as each layer needs time to cool and set.  While washing the food processor, the blade sliced through my thumb quite deeply, and it proceeded to bleed off and on for the next 2-3 days.  It’s finally sealed up and healing now. 

All that said, I really enjoyed the pie, though.  It was fantastic, and I will probably make it again.  It’s actually even healthy-ish as far as a dessert goes.   Beside the cookie crumb crust, it’s made from tofu, peanut butter, and some semi-sweet chocolate chips, with no added sugar.  It’s still very high calorie due to the tofu and peanut butter, but at least it’s not empty calories—there is some nutritional value there.  That made it easier for me to enjoy, since the guilt of consuming nutritionally devoid calories now takes away from my nomming pleasure.

The week brought some challenges, first with one of Daisy’s severe “episodes”.  We are still not totally sure what’s going on with her.  We’ve discussed it at length with our vet, and based on what we’ve described to him, our working theory is seizures.  If that’s the case, our only option would be to put her on preventive meds, which are very hard on her liver, so we are putting that off as long as possible.  Her episode occurred on Tuesday night, and she was still very shakey and unsteady on Weds morning.  The little spark in her eyes is gone when she’s suffering the post-episode phase; her tail droops; her ears droop; she is very confused, afraid, and clingy.  I had a very hard time leaving her home on Weds., because though she has Jezi and Chloe with her, and she loves them, she is very insecure when she can’t be with us when she has these episodes.  My Weds. morning class is a once-a-week class, though, so I didn’t feel like I could just cancel it and lose that time so late in the semester.  She did fine while we were gone—we hope she slept most of the time.  By Thurs. night, she seemed back to her normal spazzy, goofy self.

Additionally, I came home from classes this week to do my afternoon chores and found Vivi (guinea pig) dead.  She had been fine with no indications of illness, discomfort, or anything unusual.  She was fairly old for a piggy, but still. L  We’re fairly certain, based on where she was, etc., that it was quite sudden and she didn’t suffer.  Those little critters just don’t live long enough, and it’s so hard to take when they go.

L & I finished up Mark Danielewski's newest book, The Fifty Year Sword.  I LOVE House of Leaves (also by him) and consider it one of the top five fiction books ever.  TFYS is also unique and done in his "experimental fiction" style, but it was a short as HoL is long.  It was interesting, and I will probably read it again on my own, as I catch a lot more while reading independently that when I'm reading aloud and trying to keep track of voices and such.  It was good fiction, but somewhat disappointing in that I was hoping for another book I love passionately and need to reread every few years.  If I can ever get HoL back from Dej, I will read it again.  It's time.

We've switched back to this ancient, brittle compilation of creepy stories that we've been working through.  I got this book used--either at an AAUW sale or at a used book exchange (can't remember which)--when I was a teen and just loved it.  Dej also read through it and loved it, and now I'm sharing it with L.  We all really like the dark, thriller type of stories, and this compilation is full of the classics.  It was my first exposure to my all-time favorite short story in the world, The Yellow Wallpaper.

Today's cuteness is provided by the photos of Oliver (the most perfect cat ever) and of Poppy bird (front and center and now almost 14 months old) along with her parents, Hurley and Darwin.  They've remained very much a family unit, spending their time with each other, and often including Hurley's sister, Hazel.  I love their family togetherness.