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Sat, 01 Jun 2013 09:01:04 PDTWeekly Mail Check-in Okay, need to get back to those replies, notecards and letters! |
Sat, 08 Jun 2013 08:11:42 PDTWeekly Mail Check-in |
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Lucy and Ethel
sat 8 June 2013 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130608.html |
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Ethel and Lucy are Abyssinian guinea pigs, and they have cowlicks and swirls in their fur all over their body, including their heads. They were abandoned... left in their cage on the door step of a local veterinary clinic. So we have no history on them, and they had to guess at their ages: Ethel is about 2 and Lucy is about 1. (Guinea pigs live to be about 5 or 6 years old.) Lucy and Ethel are super sweet, easy to pick up and are not shy at all! They are quite talkative... I love to hear them talking to each other as they walk around their new house, and even when I pick one up they still talk to each other! This morning, I came down the stairs and sat next to the gp house to say "Good Morning" and Ethel came running up to greet me. Lucy was a bit slower, but she said Hello as well. They are wonderful. I am definitely not a complete person without a furry one in my life. With pets in the house, I am back to being Real! |
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garden
sun 9 june 2013 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130609.html |
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But I think we have turned over a new leaf, because all but one of the plants we replaced last weekend are still alive!
So, the current plant list:
Currently missing (because they have died several times over) are Lemon Cucumber and Basil. Will try again with those next weekend. The guinea pigs are not allowed in the garden!
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new piggie routine
fri 14 june 2013 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130614.html |
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But first, I clean their house. The new bedding is towels, so I just roll it up and shake it out in the trash. easy! And then the strawberries come out. Lucy loves strawberries! Ethel, just eats them because Lucy is eating them. I fill up their dish with kibble and give them a good pile of hay, and rinse out the water bottle and set it up with fresh vitamin C water. Before I leave for work, I pick them up, one at a time and sit with the one and the other on the couch. Ethel is impatient with lap time, she squirms and wants to walk around... and meantime Lucy is running back and forth and anxiously chewing on the fence. Other way around: Ethel couldn't care less if she's alone in the house, and Lucy sits quietly in my lap enjoying my attention. Funny girls.
I come home from work and give pats. I eat dinner then clean their house again. Maybe baby carrots or some celery slices. And they can run around on the floor for a few minutes. They run a couple laps around the coffee table. Next, they make investigations in other parts of the living room. They have yet to get very far, but it won't be long before they are wandering thru the kitchen. Later in the evening, I've been attempting some teaching time. Lucy and Ethel are very easy to pick up... but I'd like to make it even easier by teaching them to climb up on my hand! A couple carrots guiding the way, and Ethel understands the new trick. Lucy is a bit more wary about being picked up, but she loves carrots too, so it's just a matter of time! I go to bed at a decent hour, but Significant Other stays up all night and gives out celery or carrots capriciously! |
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rnd +pics
sun 16 june 2013 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130616.html |
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I did save a couple handfuls of plants, tho. The strawberries were so yummy, I could not imagine the garden without them!
The rest of the garden is coming along nicely. Blossoms showing up, here and there. I ate a good handful of sweet snap peas. I should probably not go to the garden, hungry. I can't bring it home if I've already eaten it all!
I am a happy user of the Google Reader... and like the strawberry patch, we will say a sad farewell to Reader on July 1st. Not because of weeds, and not because of... well, actually, I'm not sure why the Reader is going away. Google is just dumb I guess. Anyway. I have been patiently awaiting the Digg Reader to be built. But, with just two weeks left, and no current updates... I'm getting a little concerned. sighs. Yes, I must have a reader. a decent one. that looks good. and functions like the Google Reader. I have already determined that I don't like Feedly, which is the most popular rss reader after google. And with that, I gave up on the free readers. FeedBin looks like it will work for me. But, if I have to pay, I'd like to wait and see what the Digg Reader will look like (since it'll probably be pay as well).
ha! I almost forgot the squirrel at work...
ha! |
Sat, 22 Jun 2013 09:35:04 PDTTwo Weeks of Mail Check-in |
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first garden bounty
sat 22 june 2013 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130622.html |
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The rest of the garden is still in growing mode.
And I am still in weed killing mode:
The borage plants are companions to all the "fruit" vegetable plants. Those beautiful star-shaped flowers attract bees like crazy. And bees are necessary if you want tomatoes, cucumbers or zucchini! As we were leaving the garden today...
singing a beautiful song! |
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animal thoughts
sun 23 june 2013 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130623.html |
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Here's Lucy. She's mostly black... and look at her cute little left hand: black hand, white fingers!
And here's Ethel, drinking water. She's mostly white, and she's the more easy-going of the pair.
I went for a walk on the bike path this week, and saw my first dragonflies of the season. And I'm pretty sure the mournful squawking I heard this morning was the baby crow that I've been waiting for! Maybe he or she was mournful because it's the first time being left alone? It didn't last long, maybe 15 minutes, and then there was a different crow speech: Here I am, you don't have to be sad! |
Sat, 29 Jun 2013 08:55:49 PDTWeekly Mail Check-in |
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yay vegan
sat 29 june 2013 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130629.html |
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His wife got type 2 diabetes a couple years ago... but apparently something scary happened recently. And now they are both very gung-ho about a plant-based diet! He highly recommended the documentary Forks Over Knives. And told us how type 2 diabetes can be reversed, just by diet: no meat and nothing over 25% fat. He is fully supporting his wife in the new eating plan and he hopes to lose a bit of his gut. And, yeah, he totally noticed that I'm grinning thru his whole spiel... You have to understand: Ron gives me hope for humanity! Ron has been a distant acquaintance since I started my current job in Oct 2008. He is beyond retirement age, overweight, and has teased me about being vegan. In a friendly manner: he is a salesman, after all! All these things, and now he is excited about his new plant-based diet. Do you know how wonderful this is?! Granted, he's not vegan. And as soon as his wife is healthier, they will go back to their non-plant-based ways. But still. It's such a great step in the correct direction. And! Based on what Ron said, another co-worker, my friend S, thinks she would like to try a plant-based diet for a month. She doesn't need to lose weight, but her live-in diabetic sister does. Plus, the three kids could be healthier too. I remembered seeing a vegan program online that sent daily email tips and stuff... ∞ 21 Day Vegan Kickstart by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine I'm thinking about signing up myself, just to see what it's like. Hope to watch Forks over Knives, soon, too! |
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weekend odds and ends
sun 30 june 2013 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130630.html |
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I print all my postcards on my printer. A slow month is 60 postcards. A good month is over 100. All those postcards are printed on that over-used, under-appreciated Canon i9900. And in the past week or so, it has reluctantly printed a couple of pages. And I'm worried that it is about to die in a permanent way. A new print head is $160 and comes only from China and I'm not sure that is the actual problem. A new printer of the same kind is $1050. not exactly in the budget. But it might be necessary for my soul. As of tonight, Google Reader is deleted forever. Damn them. The new Digg Reader came out on thursday. I used it for a few days, discovered it was not updating some of my feeds, and went looking for something more established. *sighs* I think I've settled on The Old Reader. It's still clean, but much prettier. It's free, but if my feeds stay updated, I will be sending them a yearly donation. I am thrilled that I found something that works for me! Last november, we seeded the entire community garden plot with a cover crop... Berseem Clover. Since the plot is too large for us to handle, we've let the clover take over in a section. I think it is beautiful. Plus, it is a good nitrogen fixer, so it's good for future plants!
We harvested 1.8 pounds of sweet snap peas on saturday! Yay! The first zucchinis are growing... And the cucumbers and tomatoes are blooming like crazy. And the first sunflowers in the community garden... a portrait with the waning moon. :)
I can't wait for my own sunflowers! Oh! I also found a volunteer tomato plant next to all the snap peas. Last year, in that area, we had the hybrid Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes, Cascade Tomatoes and Oregon Spring Tomatoes... I don't remember the difference between the second two toms, the sweet 100 were smaller. I am happy about the volunteer tom plant. I doubt it will give us any tomatoes. But I am wonderfully curious about it! |
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