Disgruntled Owl

Fuzz and Freezing

2007-11-05T22:55:00.001-06:00

Guess who woke me up at 4am this morning because they wanted food and attention? And they thought it was 5am and time to wake me up? And who I wanted to sell to someone in China?

Today was a crappy day at work which then turned into a crappy evening at home because the furnace wasn't working and it was cold inside. The house heated up around 8pm finally. They are supposed to come back tomorrow and do more work. I'm going to sleep in a sweater just in case it craps out in the middle of the night. No frozen Beans. None!

And for something fun and not about cats nor furnaces - Here's a meme I pulled from iamshake -

Comment and I'll give you an honest compliment. Then post this in your journal and spread the love.

Sleepy Happy

2007-11-04T22:24:00.001-06:00

I had a really good weekend and made excellent time driving home tonight. Had two quick stops and still managed to make the whole drive in just under 3 hours and 15 minutes. Fastest yet for me :) Now I'm cuddling a cat and feeling like sleeping upright on the couch so I know it's time to tuck myself in. Good night everyone, have sweet dreams.

Also, I had falafel on Saturday that I've been craving for 2 weeks and now I want some again. Oh Noez!

Black Capped

2007-11-03T21:36:00.000-05:00

Today we went on a search for a bigger litter box for the cats. They are chubbier now and need more room. I was really happy because that meant I got to go to pet stores and peruse the selections of animals I wish I could take home right now. I'd have a zoo at home if I could.

When we were at Brenneman's I saw a cute terrier/sheltie mix who was black and white. He had a sweet face and looked really calm. Then we went to Petland and checked out all their lizards. Now we have to decide if we want a Water Dragon or a Savannah Monitor.

I played with a shrieky black capped conure who was out on a perch with a Cockatoo. I had the conure step up onto my finger and he walked up my arm to my shoulder. Then when Josh was taking him off my shoulder, he started walking up Josh's arm and I took him back quick because I definitely would have a harder time reaching up and plucking him off Josh's shoulder :)

Then we went to the Mall for some unrelated shopping and I had to check out Pet Central Station and their rescue cats. I love cats that are all white but have a colored tail or a spot of color on their back. They look silly. We saw two spunky cats like that. I couldn't convince Josh to take me back to Petland before we went home. *mock pout*

Pancakes Yum

2007-11-02T11:55:00.000-05:00

I had delicious Village Inn multigrain pancakes tonight. I ate half the stack and I'm saving some for tomorrow. I love leftovers. I never understood how people can refuse to keep or make leftovers. They are delicious once, why wouldn't they be delicious twice? And I saved a strip of bacon. mmmmmmmmmm.

I drove out to Iowa tonight so now I'm sleepy and full of pancakes :)

Yay It's NaBloPoMo!

2007-11-01T20:35:00.001-05:00

Yay It's NaBloPoMo!
Originally uploaded by beanzilla

I'm so excited my face distorted itself with glee!

I successfully avoided getting hopped up on leftover Halloween candy today. A few people brought candy and I picked out some twizzlers and starburst. I had my fill of chocolate yesterday. I did grab a thing of Rolo's that I'm saving for tomorrow. Since I don't have kids I don't get the fun of picking through their candy bags and taking the good stuff out.

I also "celebrated" my 3 year anniversary at my workplace today. I'm not really that excited about my job and I didn't remember that it was my anniversary until I was driving home. Teh excitement is killing me.
My Dad is celebrating his 21st year working at his company today. He's gone through mergers, moves, new management. Go Dad!

Tonight's dinner was so good I want more. I made a sauteed mushroom and colby jack omelet. I sauteed the mushrooms last night in salt and pepper and kept the leftovers. Heated them up in the pan first so they were a bit more carmelized. Nrom nrom nrom.

What did you have for dinner? Halloween candy?

Hallobean

2007-10-31T07:25:00.001-05:00

Hallobean
Originally uploaded by beanzilla

This is my costume. That I'm wearing at work. That I spent a $3.04 on to make last night. At 8pm :)

Oooooooooo booooooooooooo booooooooooooooooooooooo

Leopard!

2007-10-27T16:05:00.001-05:00

Day 89 - Leopard Style
Originally uploaded by beanzilla

We installed Leopard on our Mac's last night. Photo Booth has an option that allows you to take 4 pictures in quick sucsession like a ...well....photo booth. *hee hee* I had fun with this.

When your photo is done it shows up on the Photo Booth screen like this, all tilted with a shadow behind it. I think it's cute :) I'm having way too much fun exploring Leopard!

Hello!

2007-10-25T12:19:00.000-05:00

I came back to Blogger after an unexpected break. I started doing Flickr's 365 Day project and got burnt out on updating Flickr and a blog. I eventually slacked off on Flickr too :( I'm hoping to get back to both because I really enjoyed both so it is perfect that NaBloPoMo is back in a week!

What have I been up to? I started Weight Watchers May 25, 2007 and have lost 32 pounds so far. My husband has a new job and I'm still at the same ol place. I haven't volunteered at the zoo for over a month because I had nasty bronchitis. I have taken over moderating some forums on a bbs I'm on and created a clone of Survivor set in Japan. That was a really fun competition. Started crocheting some new projects including an alien baby doll with green skin I want to finish this weekend.

Expect to see more photos here as I'm going to take a photo a day for Nov. too.

Bailey

2007-03-24T08:13:00.000-05:00

I had a dream last night I was running a dating show where the contestants got matched up by my agency and had their first date somewhere between their two houses. This one couple, the guy was from New York and the girl was from Iowa so they had their date in the middle of Ohio. And when the date was ending they had to meet each other's parents. I matched up this tall skinny guy whose last name was Bailey and who named all his pets Bailey with Izzy Stevens from Grey's Anatomy. I guess in my dream she was from Iowa not Seattle.

The end of the dating show showed them married w/ kids owning an apartment complex in Maine that they rented out rooms to people taking music lessons.

And then I woke up *heh*

In other news - my workplace is fixing their A/C so we have no air circulation and they aren't expecting it to be finished until MAY! So I went out and bought some skirts to wear since we aren't allowed to wear shorts. And I'm trying to rig up some ways to be cooler since it was 40 outside yesterday and about 80 inside.

Other than that things are going pretty well. I bought my first pair of sandals of the year and some new skirts and underwear the other night. I'm on a search for inexpensive comfortable short sleeved business casual shirts to wear at work this summer. Lots of the shirts I've tried on recently are too low cut or not dressy enough. If you see anything cute, let me know!

Tamago!

2007-03-16T06:09:00.001-05:00

Yesterday afternoon Josh called to let me know he was doing an install right near my work and I was so excited because that meant I could ask him to go with me to one of my favorite places - Mitsuwa Marketplace! We met there for dinner. (Mitsuwa is this awesome Japanese grocery store w/ a food court, yum)

I had tempura and tamago (egg sushi) and some good miso. Josh had katsu over rice. And they opened up a new place in the food court called Re Leaf. It serves Matcha tea, desserts like mochi, and icecream! Woo! I had a scoop of black sesame and a scoop of lychee. Josh had ginger and green tea. The zing of the ginger w/ the mellow green tea was really really good. My lychee had bits of the fruit in it and was like a sorbet. Mmmm. We also bought some pastries and a Green Tea pound cake. I was hyper on sugar for most of the evening and ended up crashing - fell asleep on the couch watching TV. So worth it though :)

Mountain Ewww

2007-03-13T22:25:00.000-05:00

Last week I gave up caffiene. I was having trouble sleeping through the night and thought about my habits before bed and realized I was drinking Mountain Dew at 8 or 9pm. No wonder I couldn't fall asleep or woke up at 3 am to go to the bathroom and then lay staring at the ceiling. I weaned myself a bit by drinking less and less pop each day until last Tuesday evening I just drank water w/ lemon in it.

All day Wednesday I felt like a crap sandwich. My head hurt, my face hurt and was so heavy, and I felt really tired. I think I went to bed at 9pm that night. I couldn't stay awake (hey helped with the sleep problem right away, heh)

The next day, also felt really bad but I didn't give up. Friday I felt mostly human and started to feel bouncy as the afternoon went on. No more headache! I had heard that when you stopped drinking caffiene you got headaches but I had a whole face ache. As bad as it was, I am beginning to think it's worth it. I slept the whole night through Saturday even with the daylight saving time change.

Now, I'm feeling well and I see a difference in my skin too. I haven't used as much lotion. I also feel energetic when I wake up instead of groggy. Hopefully the good benefits will stay and I won't feel tempted to crack open a can of Mountain Dew.

Lovely

2007-03-05T22:49:00.000-06:00

I'm really tired but I had to put this picture up tonight. This is Arnieta. She was born Jan. 17th, 2007. She is so curious, I was about 3 feet from her when I took the picture and she kept coming over to look at me. Her skin looks so soft and kind of wrinkly still. I think petting her would feel like suede or velvet :)

Their momma is named Princess Leia

2007-03-05T22:32:00.000-06:00

I think everyone should get to play with baby goats at least once. Especially 1 1/2 week old goats. The one with the white ears is Muffin and she was 4 pounds last weekend and the all black is her sister Ginger who was 7 pounds. Their bodies are the size of house cats (if you are trying to picture how big they are) but with gangly legs and rubbery hooves. They are so little their hooves haven't hardened yet. When they are born their hooves are like marshmellows and when I asked as zookeeper why..she said "Would you want to have hard sharp pointy things inside your uterus? Really?" *heh* Yay evolution!

This was right before they got their bottles and after they both fell off the haybales 283 times playing Queens of the Mountain. Muffin makes more noise even though she's tinier - I think she's trying to make up for her size with LOUDNESS. And she nibbled on my shoe and pants and we are trying to teach her that pants aren't food. And neither are people fingers. Or her sister's foot. Or the wall. She's slowly learning.....maybe.

I'm alive!

2007-02-27T05:48:00.000-06:00

I got into a funk shortly after my last post and haven't made much crochet and skipped a day at the zoo. I was feeling all sorry for myself and being mopey. There is something just horridly depressing about February. I'm usually excited for Valentine's Day because we go out for a nice dinner and I look forward to that - this year we had an Indian Buffet. But then it snowed like crazy and I got sick and my nose, which is mostly healed, started hurting again and I let myself turn into a grump-o-saurus.

I picked up my DS Lite which I haven't played for ages and started playing Animal Crossing and Nintendogs and Brain Age again.
And I had another Zoo Day and took 80 billion pictures so I'm starting to cheer up again.

At the zoo this weekend I got to play with 2 baby goats that are less than 7 pounds each and barely 2 weeks old - imagine a fully grown house cat...they are smaller than that. I took a video of them romping and need to put it on YouTube. And the baby polar bear is getting bigger, and the zoo has a new dolphin, and I hugged a giant rabbit.

Life is better with tiny baby goats.

Early Valentine

2007-02-10T23:06:00.000-06:00

Here are the penguins I previously posted about! They are both custom orders for Valentine presents for a little girl and her Dad. I wrote the patterns for both of them and am trying to decide which pattern I like better. Please let me know which you think is cuter. The one on the right is supposed to look like the baby Emperor Penguins from the movie Happy Feet.

These penguins are about 6 inches tall, stuffed with Polyfil and have marbles in their feet for weight. Crocheted in a spiral - the black and white penguin body was crocheted in one part which was fun trying to figure out the decreases and increases in the middle of color changes - first time I tried that!

What sound does a penguin make?

2007-02-07T23:21:00.000-06:00

I am proud of me.

I'm writing my own pattern for a crocheted amigurumi baby penguin and I got it finished today and it's sooo cute. It's like a baby emperor penguin
(example - http://www.emperor-penguin.com/emperor-chick.jpg)
and now I get to make a big brother for it.

I have lots of projects to finish before Valentine's - I'll post pictures as soon as I'm done. I had some good time off work, my nose is healing well. Things are looking brighter :)

2007-02-02T06:05:00.000-06:00

My nose is healing - yesterday the swelling was way way down and I didn't whistle when I breathed. I am going to attempt to wear slightly less bandages today. Thanks for the well wishes. I'm calming down more about the fact I could scar on my face. I know it won't make me hideous to have a lil scar on my nose area but when you are saying "ow ow ow ow ow ow" all day it's kind of hard to think rationally.

I have Monday and Tuesday off work which is perfect because I really need some relaxation time.

Ow

2007-01-30T06:08:00.000-06:00

I opened a cabinet at work yesterday morning and one of the metal shelves fell out from about 2 feet up and knocked me on the floor. My nose got wacked pretty hard and my glasses knocked off my face.

I went to the hospital and got xrays and they don't think my nose is fractured but they are having a radiologist look over the films today. The cut is like half an inch right down the bridge of my nose and they had to glue it shut. I have glue nose.

Ow ow ow it still hurts.
ow
ow

My eyes are kind of swollen today too and it looks like someone punched me in the face.

I'm a pretty princess, right?

Tall and gangly

2007-01-28T21:37:00.000-06:00

Baby giraffe! Baby giraffe! *sing song* Baaaaby Giraaaffffeeeeeee!

At my zoo, on January 17th Franny the Giraffe gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and I got to see her Saturday. She's about 5 foot 5 and has the longest eyelashes and dark coloring. She was very inquisitive and it's hard to believe she is only 10 days old when you look at her. She is very brave and confident, exploring the building. Did you know giraffe's use their tongues like we use our hands? She kept licking the rope fencing and then licking the walls.

I saw her fold herself into a tiny giraffe ball and go to sleep when I saw her at lunchtime. I went back after my zoo shift was over to watch the baby for "a little while". An hour and 15 minutes later, I headed home. I have never seen something that looks graceful and awkward at the same time. She doesn't have a name yet, the public will get to nominate and vote on a name later in the spring. I am thinking of a few good ones. Her dad's name is Dusty and her sister is Jasiri. Any name suggestions?

Crocheting a Zoo

2007-01-22T21:19:00.000-06:00

Currently I'm making an elephant, two penguins, a platypus, a giraffe, and a punk rock rabbit complete with skulls and a few piercings. Yay! They are all commissions so I'm having fun and making some extra change. Well, one of the animals is technically free but I'm sending it to someone as payment for helping me think up cute things to make and sell on my etsy.com shop.

Thinkin

2007-01-17T21:08:00.000-06:00

The radiant Sari has tagged me with a meme, The Thinking Meme.

1. If you had to choose one vice in exclusion of all others, what would it be?

I would pick alcohol, especially Malibu Rum. I don't smoke and I've given up caffiene before and that wasn't to hard. But I'd miss getting tipsy on New Years on two wine coolers and a Malibu Rum and coke.

2. If you could change one specific thing about the world, what would it be?

I would want more people to give me presents. No no, really I'd want more people to understand that if you like something it doesn't mean every other person has to like it too. We don't need a world of clones - differences are good. Me liking cheese doesn't hurt the fact that you don't like cheese and I'm not going to force you to like cheese.

3. Name the cartoon character you identify with the most.

Bubbles from the Power Puff Girls, especially the episode where she has the crayons and is running around coloring everything *heh*

4. If you could live one day of your life over again, which one would it be?

The day I decided to stay at the college I went to instead of transfering. I was in the Art History program and was going to transfer to the University of Iowa to study Zoology but decided against it for some reason. I'd have maybe met my husband sooner since he was in Iowa City and I already knew the person that introduced us *heh* But it's tricky because I wouldn't want to mess up the space time continuum.

5. If you could go back in history and spend a day with one person, who would it be?

My Dad's grandpa. He talks so fondly about Elmer and I would love to have a chance to spend time with him and my Dad.

6. What is one thing you lost, sold or threw away that you wish you had back?

My toys from when I was little in the 80's. I think some My Little Ponies and Rainbow Bright dolls got tossed when I was in college and my mom went through a cleaning frenzy. I am feeling nostalgic tonight.

7. What is your one most important contribution to this world?

My artwork and when I have kids, my kids.

8. What is your one hidden talent that nearly no one knows about?

I can close one eye completely and leave the other eye completely open. Husband calls it the Dead Eye. It's pretty creepy.

9. What is your most cherished possession?

Just one thing? I cherish my kitties but they are family not possessions. I tend to cherish things that are alive more than possessions....I cherish my wedding ring because of what it means. This answer is boring... I cherish my yarn collection! *heh*

10. What one person influenced your life the most when growing up?

My Dad. He helped me see the silly in life, he showed me that you can cook wierd combinations of food and it turns out great, and he taught me how to be kind and thoughtful. My dad is the best.

11. What word describes you better than any other?

Excitable!

Teensy Bunny

2007-01-16T22:34:00.000-06:00

I decided to try and make my own little stuffed bunny last week, first thing I've made with no pattern. I pretty much winged it - the body came out looking like a tiny delicious pear. Then I added the ears and arms, got stuck for a day trying to figure out how to make feet....bun suddenly just doesn't need feet *heh* Feet aren't that important when you have a divot in your bum to keep you from falling over. Added the tail and face tonight and voila, Teensy Bun. His body is 3 inches tall with 1 inch ears and he's about 2 inches wide.

Can you believe I just taught myself to crochet in September? I'm so excited about this little guy.

Seriously Don't

2007-01-10T22:42:00.000-06:00

You know that song "Mama don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys..."

Well my song is "Mama, don't let your babies grow up to work in the insurance industry .... especially not when it's January and everyone's benefits renew for the year and everyone wants to check into the hospital at once and your baby has to work 10 hour days or longer just to barely keep upppppp" *twang twang guitar solo*

I'm really tired - today is the first day since 1/2/07 that I didn't work 10 hours or more. My "No Elevators" is still going strong even if I did want to fling myself down the stairs today because I was too tired to walk down them. I managed.

I'm crocheting a tiny bunny, one tiny body part at a time for some stress relief - last night I made an arm. Today, a foot.

This rambling post is brought to you by The S.D.W.I.I. Institute *

*S.eriously D.on't W.ork I.n I.nsurance

No easy ride

2007-01-02T22:28:00.000-06:00

I'm attempting to make 2007 the Year of No Elevators.

I won't take an elevator all year. I'll take the stairs both up and down 3 flights at work. I'll take the stairs instead of looking for an elevator and hopefully I'll be in better shape and less likely to want to die after a few flights of stairs. I can walk and walk and walk, but make me heave myself up some stairs and I'm Wheezy McWheezerstein.

Ambitious?

Christmas Presents I Made - Part 2: Camo Gloves

2007-01-01T18:26:00.000-06:00

I made these fingerless gloves for my Father-In-Law. When I was making a pair of fingerless gloves for myself in November he saw them and requested a pair. Since he hunts, these will be nice to use so his hands cam be warm but his fingers are free. My husband's hands just happen to be almost the same size as his Dad's so he was my "helper" when I was trying to make sure they fit. He's also modeling them here before I wrapped them. I used Red Heart Super Saver acrylic in their camo color and a I hook. This is the pattern I used - Wrist warmers

FIL really liked the gloves and they fit well. I didn't crochet the thumb part so I'd make sure they fit well. I think they turned out nicely and my gauge was even since both gloves were exactly the same size.

Christmas Presents I Made - Part 1: Cupcake Face

2006-12-28T20:18:00.000-06:00

Here is the amigurumi cupcake pin cushion I made for my sister for Christmas. It is life size so it fits in the palm of your hand and the needle stuck in it is a huge yarn needle (about 3 inches long). The vanilla cupcake was made with a shiny tan yarn for the vanilla cake part and worsted weight acrylic yarn for the frosting. Then I put multicolored sprinkles all over the top. I filled the bottom of the cupcake with a dry black beans for weight (they are wrapped in plastic so they don't get icky) and the top has stuffing inside. My sister really loved it and I already bought supplies to make another one with either white or pink frosting.

Cupcake butt!

Jingle Owls Jingle Owls Hoot Hoot Hoot Hoot Hoooot

2006-12-25T07:42:00.000-06:00

I am up and wrapping the last Christmas present to take with me to my parents this morning. The cats are celebrating by sitting on the wrapping paper and purring. I hope you are having a lovely morning wherever you are and if you don't celebrate Christmas I hope you are enjoying the day off work to do whatever you want :)

Slackerface McGee

2006-12-20T20:31:00.000-06:00

I am working so hard making Christmas presents that all sorts of other things in my house are suffering. Sorry messy kitchen, sorry laundry stacking up, sorry disheveled living room. At least I've managed to keep myself fed, the cats fed, and I've bathed regularly :) I am giving my sister a scarf and decided to crochet a container for it, so I'm making a giant purple and white cupcake to put it in. I had to adjust the pattern to make a lifesize cupcake into gigantor cupcake, but so far it's working out alright :)

Run around like a chicken

2006-12-16T22:57:00.000-06:00

I have been working overtime and making Christmas presents and not sleeping very well. How are you? I have had trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year but I think making 10 Snowman ornaments should help, right?

I was at the zoo today and they have carmel colored baby chicks! Just when I thought the chicks couldn't get cuter, they did. And there is a new zoo baby born Thursday night! I can't say what animal had a baby yet (they don't release the info to the public for a bit and I don't want to get into trouble) The baby Klipspringer was finally named - he is Nadir which is swahili for "rare". I think it fits him well. Within a 45 minute period I held Banana the Rat Snake, Michael the Rabbit, Zappyhead II the Guinea Pig, Ben the Rat, and Smokey the Cat. I was getting tested on my animal handling. We have to get check ups on our animal handling skills regularly so we can still be certified to hold them. I'm still certified for all of them, yay!

I'm thinking of getting a part time job at a pet store near by and maybe my experience at the zoo will help me get the position.

Currently

2006-12-12T22:33:00.000-06:00

I have crochet projects out the wazoo.

Last night I rewrote a ornament pattern to be smaller so I could make more before Christmas. Tonight I made an cadre of tiny black top hats. They go with the army of little snowman heads I'll be making this tomorrow. Then, I start on the fingerless camouflage gloves that will be a present for my father-in-law. Fortunately, Josh has the same size hands as his Dad so he can try them on as I make them. Then I'm making Josh a warm hat for winter. I'm also making cat toys on commission for some friends and a possible dog toy that looks like roadkill. Hoo-yah!

The Zoo Went Cuh-ray-zee

2006-12-10T22:33:00.000-06:00

Saturday night was Holiday Magic at the Zoo and I was stationed as a door greeter and counter for a half hour (5 to 5:30). 350 people came in during that time frame and by 8:30 at night we had over 3,000 guests (when we usually have a few hundred in that same amount) And we still had to show animals and do arts and crafts while being mobbed with kids wearing 30 layers of clothing. It was....interesting. *heh* I did get to meet one of the new baby corn snakes and take out Jim the Cat. Jim is so mellow - he's like a bag of pudding that purrs. He is unflappable, big and orange and very much like Garfield. I will be taking my camera next week to get pics of the ice carving and holiday lights.

Nothing says Christmas like 700 children singing Jingle Bells to the Tiger who sits there looking really really confused. They are going to sing carols to the bears next weekend. Crazy!

Bertie Botts Every Flavor Lipgloss?

2006-12-08T21:40:00.000-06:00

I got some new lip gloss from a friend and it smells so delicious. I had Josh smell it and guess the "flavor". He guessed butter and then popcorn. It was really Latte flavored. Mmmm coffee goodness. But then I got to thinking, would I buy butter lip gloss? I'm sure someone would get popcorn lipgloss for movie nights, right?

6 weird things about me

2006-12-07T20:52:00.000-06:00

Eva over at Sveedish tagged me to post 6 weird things about myself. I can think of more than 6 but I don't want to scare you all away now, do I?

[The rules...Each player of this game starts with the "6 Weird Things about You".People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you are tagged' in their blog.]

YAY WEIRD!

1. I walk and talk in my sleep and will talk back and have little sleepy conversations. My husband started recording me with our digital camera especially after the time he found me in the kitchen holding 8 forks in one hand and a can of bean sprouts in the other wailing that I was hungry because "All my dinner wore off." He wanted to show me how weird it was since I didn't always believe what he told me I was doing. Like the one time I tried to go outside in the middle of the night in my sleep to "walk the cow".

I also make up songs in my sleep. One morning I was humming in the shower and I couldn't figure out what the song was from and I hummed it to Josh and he said it was a song I was singing in my dream about a one-eyed pug dog wearing a top hat named Beauregarde. The song goes, "Walking into walls cause you've only got one eye, Beau-re-GARDE!!"

2. I think snakes and rats and bats are adorable. I love lizards and bugs like the zoo's praying mantises. They never scare me or spook me, even if they try to climb up my sleeve. I'd rather play with one of them than a large dog. Large dogs scare me. I get all nervous around them, maybe because I'm short and I worry about them knocking me over or jumping on me. I can't really think of many animals that make me nervous other than large dogs.

3. I have weird allergies. I'm allergic to wool. And sulfites - so I can't have wine or avocado or most antibiotics. I don't get the common allergies like peanuts, instead I have to make sure I don't hug someone wearing a wool suit or I'll get all hivey. If an avocado hugged me wearing wool...watch out! Super hive face!

4. I buy bubble wrap just to pop it. Sometimes I buy the kind with the big bubbles and stomp around on them.

5. Raw tomatoes squick me out, I don't even want to touch them or look at them and I can't stand to have them on my plate. I can't stand the goo and seeds around the tomato flesh. I will eat raw tomatoes if they are chopped up into little chunks and all that goo is removed (like in salsa or on a taco salad). I'm giving myself the heebie jeebies just typing this.

6. I always have a wet nap with me. Wet naps are an important part of life. They smell like lemons (which I love), they are in a tiny package (love tiny things), and because you can horde them and they don't take up a lot of room. And sometimes they have funny sayings (like Buffalo Wild Wings has the best). If they somehow merged bubble wrap and wet naps into a single product I'd buy a case a week.

I tag
Meno
Pappy's Fella (or Pappy if he wants to contribute)
Kate
3dogcache
Weaver

Chun Lee ... revealed!

2006-12-06T21:41:00.000-06:00

Here he is with a handsome scarf that I was inspired to make while watching Dr. Who. You can unbutton the scarf and take it off. I included some of the same tan yarn in the package when I sent him to my penpal so she could make him gloves or a hat. I tried to make him a tail but all attempts ended up looking like he had a tumor on his heinie so I gave up. Maybe if I knew how to make a really puffy tail instead that would work better. For my first stuffed animal made without using any pattern, I'm pretty proud of him.

Grahhh graah grahhhhhh

2006-12-05T22:46:00.000-06:00

If my coworker talks about any of her bodily functions, medical tests, or her recent surgery the first thing when I get into the office tomorrow morning I will stand up, pick up my chair, hurl it across the office and scream "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP GRAH GRAAAAAAAAAAH GRAH!"

And then I will calmly steal her chair, sit down, and continue working.

Live long and prosper

2006-12-04T23:09:00.000-06:00

My cat, Tater Tot, hordes paper. She plays fetch with wadded up scraps of paper - I never taught her to, she just started fetching things one day when she was teensy. She will drag receipts out of my purse and bring them to me so I can crinkle them up and fling them across the room. When she's done playing she stuffs her paper balls under the furniture. Lately she's started to bring me weirder bits of paper. She dragged one of those magazine subscription cards into the bathroom when I was brushing my hair. She brought me the backing sheet from the self-adhesive stamps I had just used up. But she saved the best for today.

I was sitting in the living room, waiting for my husband to come back from a business trip, feeling tired, achy from scraping snow off cars, grumpy, and kind of depressed from a Monday full of crap at work. Tater trots up to me, drops a tiny scrap of paper on the couch cushion and meows really, really loud. I look down and she brought me a fortune from a fortune cookie! I can't remember the last time I had a fortune cookie so she must have been hiding this lil scrap of paper for months.

It says "You will enjoy good health and financial independence."

Thanks for cheering me up, Tater Tot. I'll share my financial independence with you by giving you all my receipts :)

More Animals than People

2006-12-03T22:20:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I got to the Zoo and was scheduled in the Work Shop first, where we do arts and crafts with the kids. One kid came in. Then I moved over to finish making some of the Christmas decorations with the kids. No kids showed up to help so I was making a giant papermache dove by myself. I think my supervisor felt sorry for me since he said he'd take over with the dove and sent me over the the Children's Zoo Barn to see if they needed any help.

When I got to the barn, there were ..... no kids in the petting zoo area. They keep the baby chicks inside the barn in the winter, in a big open pen full of woodshavings and tiny bales of hay. The volunteers can step right inside the pen with them when you are trying to pick one up. I stepped into the pen and a dozen chicks swarmed my shoes, pecking at my shoelaces and one of them climbed up into my shoe and fell into the cuff of my khaki's. Too cute. They have some new black leghorn chicks that are a chocolate brown with yellow spots - imagine tiny dalmation chickens. I picked up a few of them - my favorite was the all brown chick with one yellow spot on it's face like an eye patch. He was very content to sit in my hand and look around until he fell asleep.

Then I went back to the Play Zoo, asked the two kids I saw there which animals they wanted to see and we took out Blizzard the Rat. He groomed my watch band and then fell asleep on my lap. The kid that picked out Blizzard thought he was boring and his little sister said "Well you're boring when you sleep plus you drooooool". *hah!* She picked the next animal, one of our new baby guinea pigs.

After they left I took out Lemon, the yellow rat snake. I love him - he's so mellow and he wraps himself around your hand and arm and just hangs out. Banana, the old rat snake, would try to launch himself out of your hand when you held him. Usually I get to take out one or two animals for handling but so far I had
3 baby chicks, a rat, a piggie, a snake, and a half hour to spare before I went home. There are a few housecats that live at the Play Zoo so I took Boots on his harness and leash for a walk around.

Supposedly, during Holiday Magic, people come to the zoo around 3 or 4 once it gets closer to being dark for the lights and the lazer show. I guess there isn't anything half bad about getting to spend more time with the animals because there are less guests.

[ edit = If anyone that reads this is in the Chicagoland area, (or wants to travel this way) I have a large stack of free passes to the Zoo that I can send you. 1 adult or 1 child free admission for each pass and they are good to use until Dec. 31. 2006. ]

Sugar buzz

2006-12-03T01:16:00.000-06:00

I was only home for about 3 hours today (Saturday) and I know the Date Stamp says Sunday but I haven't gone to bed yet so I'm counting today as Saturday Dec. 2nd still. I woke up at 7, was out the door to the zoo at 9:15, back home at 3:30, out the door again at 4:30 to drive to my parents house. There I met up with my mom and took her to part of her Christmas present. We went and saw Clay Aiken's Holiday show. Mind you, I didn't buy the tickets - she did. The present was me going with her so she could have a concert buddy.

Yes, my mom likes Clay alot but at least she's not an official Clay-mate or Clay-maniac or whatever middle aged women that like/love/obsess over Clay are calling themselves. I've not seen so many people 20 years older than me acting like 13 year old girls. I don't get it at all - he has a nice voice but I'm not going to scream his name and act like a goober when I see him. A local orchestra - The Bill Porter Orchestra - was his "band". The orchestra played a lovely set of music for 40 minutes, then Clay came out and sang for 2 hours. He picked on the woman in the 4th row that had binoculars, tilting his head back and telling her to get a good look up his nose. And there were women that follow him from concert to concert so he called some of them out by name. All in all it was a pretty good concert and Clay was dorky enough w/ his stage banter to amuse me.

After the show was over, we drove around trying to find a place to get something for the road and stopped at Steak N' Shake so now I'm buzzed on sugar from a Strawberry milkshake. I'll probably crash like a two-year old who didn't take a nap in about....5 minutes but I figure I'll enjoy the hyper feeling for now.

Today at the zoo I got to actually hold 7 different animals because there was no one around. We counted 12 people that came into our building the 4 hours I was there! I will be giving more details about that tomorrow - one of the animals I held climbed inside my cuff on my pants leg. Betcha can't guess the animal! *heh*

NaBloPoMo Winner

2006-12-01T20:53:00.000-06:00

A post everyday and sometimes I posted twice. Woot!

I think I'm going to continue trying to post everyday. I like getting a chance to post updates of my crocheting and such. And tomorrow is another Zoo shift so more good stuff to post about. How many people do you think will show up at the zoo at 10am on the day after it snowed 12 inches and closed down almost every school around? I wonder if people will stay home and play in the snow or come to the zoo because the kids drove them batty stuck at home all day Friday? Hmmm.....

Green Crochet Bear

2006-11-30T22:09:00.000-06:00

The Monster is now officially a Bear. A bear with half of a pink scarf and a teensy nubbin tail. I watched Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy while crocheting and thought briefly about making a tiny stethascope for him and naming him Dr. McCrochety.

I got sad news when I got home that Chun Lee passed away today. He was the oldest Asian small-clawed otter living in a North American zoo and he lived at my zoo. He was 19 years old and fathered 18 babies - he had some babies just this last year even. He liked to drag strips of burlap around and hide under them and generally be spunky, even while being arthritic and half deaf. I have certain animals I visit every single time I'm at the zoo and he was one of them. Sometimes when the zoo was really empty, I'd hang out at his enclosure talking to him and his "wife" Jordan. If you made just the right peeping noise, he'd peep back and waddle right up to you and turn his head sideways. I think he was saying "What are you peeping about? Get to work helping me build this kickass burlap fort!". I'll miss him.

I think I'll name the the green bear, Chun Lee in his honor.

Green Crochet Monster

2006-11-29T22:37:00.000-06:00

Here is my progress so far on my Pen Pal Exchange. The body of the stuffed animal is about 5 inches tall so he/she is turning out to be pretty big. I tried to make a neck so I could crochet a little scarf to wrap around it. I am still undecided if I want the critter to be a bunny with long floppy ears or a bear with big round ears. Ponder ponder ponder.

The black blobular item in the background of the photo is my cat, Neo. The back of that chair is her spot and I tried to move her to take the picture but she jumped back up. She's so photogenic...look at that blobbyness and out of focus designer fuzz.

Three Days Left of NaBloPoMo

2006-11-28T21:37:00.000-06:00

I feel like making up a song about NaBlo to the tune of "Partridge In A Pear Tree" but honestly I am really lazy and tired right now. I think I have the NaBlo Malaise. You can diagnose it by checking for the following symptoms.

1. Staring blankly at the screen
2. Fingers hovering over the keyboard but not touching the keys
3. Asking people around you "What should I post about?" and then ignoring them when they answer
4. Procrastinating on writing a post by doing household chores you normally avoid
5. Whining/Whinging

If you have any of these symptoms, please drink a large glass of water, hop up and down on one foot, and then suck it up and post. You've come this far, don't stop now! Go go go!

Pen Pal Exchange

2006-11-27T22:38:00.000-06:00

My pen pal and I are exchanging crocheted stuffed animals. She made a body and sent it to me, and I sent her a body. Now I am making the head and tail and will send it back to her so she can finish the arms and legs. She made a green animal and I'm trying to decide if I'm going to make it into a bunny or a turtle or a frog or a hippo or a blurfgalump. Oh...I shouldn't post when I'm tired, now I'm making up animal species.

What was the species of your favorite stuffed animal when you were growing up? Or your current favorite stuffed animal - I'm not knocking ya if you still dig the stuffed animals :)

Headless Owls

2006-11-27T21:54:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to make this image be my header on my blog and instead I'm getting owls with their heads chopped off and can't figure out why. Poor chopped off head owls. Could anyone help?

I'm making this second image to see if it works but I like the first one better because the image has better resolution ...

I've been messing with templates and Photoshop for about 2 hours, you know when the more you try to fix something the more you screw it up? I just can't walk away from the computer. Someone drag me away. Quick! It's for my own good!

Box o' cats

2006-11-26T21:55:00.000-06:00

I am so tired. Traveling is great but I'm totally worn out. So until I can get up the gumption to post something more intriguing here is a video of the 8 baby kittens I mentioned yesterday. There is one black calm one I named The Fonz and the rest are nameless but adorable. You can hear me talking in a weird high pitched voice I get when I talk to baby animals sometimes and my husband's in there too.

Resting

2006-11-25T12:09:00.000-06:00

I am in Iowa visiting family. In just a bit we're going to Grandma and Grandpa's farm to eat Thanksgiving leftovers. They have a new litter of barn cats - their one cat Amanda has had 17 kittens so far this year and this last litter was 8. Still have not been able to convince the Husband to let me bring home a bucket of kittens. Maybe I can sneak home a baby chick?

I realized I didn't post a photo on Friday so I'll do it now. Here is a photo of a weird crochet pattern I found this morning.

Tryptophaning the light fantastic

2006-11-24T14:08:00.000-06:00

Apple pie makes a great breakfast. Too bad I don't have leftover turkey to make sandwiches for lunch. Later this afternoon Josh and I are driving to Iowa to see his family. I printed up a bunch of crochet patterns and am going to try to crochet on the way over. I can read and ride in a car without getting car sick, I hope I can crochet while the car is moving and not feel wonky. Below is the next project I'm working on finishing. All I have left is the second ear and all the feet. The body can easily fit in the palm of my hand. I'm going to try and get some marbles or something to put in the feet to weight it down. Or maybe beans...or maybe pie. Mmmm. Pie.

Craftsgiving

2006-11-23T20:30:00.000-06:00

Today my sister, Roxy, and I each made one of these while we watched the parade and waited for the turkey to roast. I made mine with white and black yarn like the picture but Roxy made hers with a cream colored yarn for the face and dark green for the top hat. They both turned out really nice but we didn't read the pattern all the way before we started and the snowman faces turned out to be about the size of a tennis ball - still a good size for an large ornament but the top hat was almost 2 inches tall so that made a huge ornament. At least it's light and stuffed with fluff.

I'm waiting to eat my punkin pie. Mmmmmm Cool Whip...mountains of cooool whiiiiipppppp mmmmmmmm.

Mmmmmm

2006-11-22T21:30:00.000-06:00

My house smells so good right now.

Today The Cooking Husband made a pumpkin pie, green bean cassarole, and stuffing. The stuffing is full of sage, sausage, walnuts, celery and the green bean cassarole has roasted garlic in it this year. Mmmmmm. We'll be packing up the side dishes and take them a half hour away to my parents house tomorrow morning. There, The Cooking Husband will make the turkey and white cheddar mashed potatoes while my sister and I crochet small stuffed animals and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. My Dad will probably nap and hover around the kitchen. My mom works in a hospital so she's on shift until 3pm and we'll eat after she gets home. I am definitly looking forward to some relaxation, watching some goofy parade stuff, and eating delicious things.

Maybe I'll have to post a play by play of the Parade or something ... I haven't missed a Thanksgiving Parade yet :)

ZOMG!

2006-11-21T22:11:00.000-06:00

I was randomly surfing around and found this website - Pixelgirlshop The cuteness is eating my face! Eeeee! Yay!

I have to file it in my bookmark folder I have titled Adorable Things. Yes, that is my bookmark folder and does that surprise you? I also have Daily Blogs folder, Daily Comics, Crochet and Art, and newly added NaBloPoMo folder. I've found at least 20 new blogs that I really like and put them in there. I think I shall go post on each and every one that are still posting as part of their cheering section right now.

Monday kicks my heinie once again

2006-11-20T22:04:00.000-06:00

Nothing cures a bad day like pokin some baby chicken fuzz, right? Right!

They are so soft and fluffy that when you try to pet them your finger goes right through their fluff and pokes their tiny body and then they kind of flap and peep to get their balance back. And then you feel bad that you poked the chicken but they are so cute when they peep and flap that you stick your hand back in their enclosure and poke them again.

This weekend I got to take one of them out and held the lil guy in the palm of my hand. He settled in and peeped a few times then blinked and started to fall asleep. Very relaxing, yes. I need to go visit the zoo right now even though it isn't open but they won't mind if I sneak in and visit the Children's Zoo right? Okay, I'll just go to sleep with a soft blanket and try to think relaxing thoughts instead.

Owl....Disgruntled Owl

2006-11-19T22:15:00.000-06:00

The new Bond movie blows the old movies right out of the water. Usually when a movie is long I get antsy but not so with "Casino Royale". Just when you think the movie is over, it's not and I love that about it too. Had a good mix of humor and action.
Plus, eye candy! I think Daniel Craig made a much better Bond than Pierce Brosnan - his Bond wasn't as cheesy smarmy as Brosnan's. All around, I'd give it an A.

3

2006-11-18T21:35:00.000-06:00

Today at the zoo I held the yellow rat snake named Lemon, the slightly less giant 20 pound rabbit named Michael, and a hamster who had no name which I will now name.....Zappyhead. Lemon curled himself around my arm and didn't want to let go but I didn't mind because he's sweet. Michael however got spooked and tried to push off me and somehow scratched my boob with his rabbit foot. Ow! Owwwwwww. The hamster...was just a hamster. Nothing peed on me! I win!

In a few minutes I'm going to go to see the new Bond movie and I almost walked out the door without posting and then felt panic in realizing that I'd miss a post. Ack! Now, no Ack because I'm posting this short and lame post to be elaborated on tomorrow morning.

Woot!

Picture Friday

2006-11-17T22:19:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite birds to watch in the zoo are the Rainbow Lorikeets. I call them Loudikeets sometimes because you have to wear ear protection when you go in their indoor enclosure, big noise canceling headphones that are the same ones ground crews wear in airports. They are so loud that when they are in their outdoor enclosure you can hear them 2 building's over. Sometimes they get to screeching and the babboons screech back and then the lemurs start getting in on it and it gets really loud.

The zoo has a bunch of them, at least 8 adults and some new babies so they rotate on and off exhibit. This picture is of one of the bigger lorikeets in the indoor exhibit. There weren't many people at the zoo in the early morning so I sat and watched the keeper hose down the walls and floors. She filled a pan with water and this one, let's call him Flappy, just took a bath in it. I interrupted his preening. They have some tree branches suspended with ropes and he was sitting on one of the branches that moved around pretty freely. It's funny to watch a bird try to clean itself while on a swing and having another bird dive bomb him occasionally. In the background you can make out some shelves. Sometimes they line themselves up on them, two birds to a shelf. Why? I don't know? Maybe one of them has OCD and likes to organize the other's alphabetically in a lil bird library?

Zoo Baby

2006-11-16T21:38:00.000-06:00

In May 2005, one of the gorillas, Binti Jua, had a baby boy that the zoo guests named Bakari. He's a funny little guy. I've tried and tried to get a good picture of him but since he's so active I usually just have a gorgeous picture of blurry fur.

Until now! Here is a picture that doesn't look like I took it while hanging out the window of a moving car! I like how he's looking back at the crowd of people looking at him. Shortly after I snapped this he climbed down the the tree branch below him, then he grabbed the rope/vine and hung upside down on it.

One glove

2006-11-15T22:20:00.000-06:00

I get cold in our drafty apartment and while it is easy to curl up in a blanket, my hands are all chilled and exposed as I type away. I decided to make fingerless gloves with my new found crochet skills. Four days later I have....one glove! And I'm wearing it as I type. I'm using this pattern with a really soft acrylic yarn in a shimmery light tan color. When I was picking the color I stood in the aisle shoving my hands in part of the skein of yarn to see how soft it was. Some little old lady looked at me like I pooped and tried to hand it to her. Sorry lil old lady, don't mind me, I'm just feeling up the yarn, I'll get a room when I'm ready.

Soon I'm going to wear both gloves and flaunt my Crochet-fu. Hopefully they'll look pretty much the same...I'm still learning not to skip stitches. If I post pictures of one wrist length glove and one elbow length glove it will be because I made a stylistic choice to make them not match and not that something went horribly wrong.

P.S. On naming that sandwich from yesterday... A coworker suggested I call it "Rip Off On A McMuffin" and I took his red swingline stapler in protest.

Now with Less Sucking

2006-11-14T21:49:00.000-06:00

So today was better than yesterday by a bit. I wish I could have had a sundae and a foot rub like kate suggested but instead I had cinnamon rolls for dinner and some hugs. Pastries for dinner make everything better. It was only slighty rainy today, my coworkers were dumber than plain dirt instead of mud, and no one kicked me in the head. It's looking up!

This weekend I made a breakfast sandwich that I'm trying to think of a name for. First I heated up some deli turkey in a pan, slapped that on some wheat bread, made a fried egg, put that on the turkey, added a slice of sharp cheddar cheese, put some more butter in the pan and heated up the side of the sandwich the cheese was on. A kind of grilled cheese breakfast sandwich kind of thing. I suggested calling it "Double Poultry Delight" but the husband thought that an egg isn't really poultry. Suggestions?

Frak! Frakin frak!

2006-11-13T22:34:00.000-06:00

Today has been an Eeyore day. Gloomy drizzly rain, stupid as mud coworkers, endless paperwork, people not listening to me, frustrating computer issues - Yeah you Blogger you can frak my bum parts!

I got stuck in traffic on the way to dinner, got to the dinner place and their credit card machine was down so I had to go get cash. I felt this horrid despair wash over me and then made myself snap out of it by rolling down the windows, breathing in the fresh air and then screaming loud a few times as I drove. Going to the ATM shouldn't make me despair even if I did spend all day as the filling of a crap sandwich. So, now I'm here at home trying to stay calm and relaxed but if I dream about a bulldozer, the expressway, and my office...well that wouldn't be so bad....

Attempting

2006-11-12T22:32:00.000-06:00

I made more crocheted fishes today then got overconfident and tried to make a monkey. But I was half working off a pattern and half winging it. The monkey head got way too big and I got frustrated so I set the bugger aside and started making one of these
I'm making mine in white. The only other yarn colors I have right now are purple, turquoise and lime green. I think a purple and white mouse isn't that weird looking, right? I like these tiny little projects because I'm halfway through an afghan and I get tired of it after a few rows. I have a feeling I'm going to have a few UFO's floating around here if I don't concentrate on one thing at a time.

This highly exciting post is brought to you from the yarn aisle at Walmart as I stand there going "Hmmmmmmmm" trying to decide what kind of yarn to buy next.

UFO - UnFinished Objects - stolen from Stitch N Bitch

MMM bacon

2006-11-11T22:00:00.000-06:00

After breakfast out today, driving in the car.

What my husband heard me say "Nine Volt Basement."

What I really said "Now I'm full of bacon, yum."

We decided that Nine Volt Basement would make an awesome band name. I think the band would have an electric guitar, a keytar, an electric violin, and a drum machine. And the lead singer would be named Negative Terminal or Rechargable Joe. Alkaline ROCKS!

Picture Friday

2006-11-10T21:15:00.000-06:00

It's Daddy Okapi! The zoo recently had an okapi birth and the Dad is out on exhibit while Mom and Baby are in seclusion. There is a live feed showing the baby on a video monitor which is nice. Okapi births are rare in captivity and the zoo keepers found that females liked to leave the baby in a "nesting area" and then wander off quite a good distance away. This behavior (in my most educated guess) is probably to keep the baby safer in the wild as it would stay hidden for hours as the mother foraged.

Before figuring this out, zoos would house the Mom and Baby in a close area and they were having some troubles with the babies thriving. Changing the size of the seclusion enclosure to a large one was first suggested by the zoo I volunteer at. Makes me feel proud even though I had nothing to do with it. I'm just proud of my zoo in general.

Interesting Okapi (a.k.a. The Forest Giraffe) facts

1. They are native to the African country the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known as Zaire) and until the early 1900's European and American scientists didn't even know they existed as a species so there are still a lot of things to discover about them.

2. The white markings on their lower legs are known as "ankle stockings". Any animal that wears stockings is right by my book!

3. The make a funny bleating sound almost like a goat or a sheep. It's funny because when I first heard one I thought "Why the heck to they have a sheep on exhibit in Africa: The Forest?"

Squish

2006-11-09T22:27:00.000-06:00

Waking up and getting out of bed and immediately stepping on something wet is one of the worst ways to wake up I can imagine. I was scared to turn on the light...

I got halfway through making a cat toy last night so I put it away in a plastic bag before bed. Somehow my Thief-Kittens got the bag untied, stole the toy, got it soaking wet (probably from putting it in their waterbowl) and then left it by the side of the bed for me. Soaking wet lumpy yarn blob for teh WIN!

UGH! I ran hot hot water over it and then threw it in the dryer. I guess they realllly didn't want me to give it as a gift like I was going to - and it didn't even have cat nip in it yet!

Thief Kittens Thiefy thiefs!

Zoo

2006-11-08T23:04:00.000-06:00

I'm going to the Zoo tomorrow in the afternoon to turn in some paperwork and take pictures. It's so nice this time of year when no one is at the zoo in the middle of the week. I got so used to the crazy crowds in the summer that I'd work my shift and head straight home - tomorrow I get to visit my favorite animals and take some pictures. The cotton topped Tamarind's are my favorite because they like it when I talk to them and they get really close to the railing and I can always get good closeups of them. The two babies, Nick and Noodle, are about a year old now so they are starting to calm down a bit so my photos aren't just fuzzy monkey blurs. If anyone is reading this and would like pictures of certain animals, let me know. I'll definitly post them Friday.

I'm trying to decide if I'll make an entirely Zoo related blog or Crochet related. I thought I'd be posting about cranky ramblings because that's how I've been feeling the last few months, but so far November has been really cheerful.

Crinkle

2006-11-07T22:44:00.000-06:00

We had cherry pie and Cool Whip for desert. I saved the plastic crinkly safety seal from around the lip of the Cool Whip tub. Usually my cat, Tater Tot, steals the strip of plastic from the trash and sits crinkling it in her mouth and paws in the middle of the night. As I was getting ready to hide it I had a thought...Wouldn't that be awesome inside a cat toy?

So I searched around and found a pattern for these

I made her a yellow cotton crocheted fishie with a bit of crinkle inside (the yarn muffles the sound enough to not make it hideously annoying - yay!). I folded up half of the strip right into the body of the fish, so I still have more plastic to put in another one. I'm going to have to make another one soon because my other cat, Neo, almost never plays with toys and she stole Tater's toy tonight. Right now Tater is kicking the crap out of my shoe because she stuck the toy inside my shoe and is trying to get it back out. Awww crap kicking, how sweet :)

TB

2006-11-06T22:10:00.000-06:00

I had to get a TB skin test today, they are requiring all the zoo volunteers to get one this year. I keep staring at my arm trying to figure out if the test is having a reaction - even though I KNOW it's not supposed to be read until Thursday. How exciting is this post, eh? Look at my skin bump! I asked my husband what I should write today's post about and he said "TB" so I must have been checking out my skin bump often enough to annoy him.

I keep thinking of the all the ghost stories/ghost hunting television shows where they go to old abandoned tuberculosis hospitals and talk about the little kids that died there. So sad. I hope I have spooky dreams about nurses and old hospitals and seeing ghosts instead of spooky dreams of having strange maladies like Tuberculariamelanoma which I think is tb and malaria and melanoma combined.

Now he's asking me if the cats have TB...ZOMG OhNoes!

This highly boring post is brought to you by the letter H for Hypochondria and the number SKIN BUMP!

Frustrating

2006-11-05T22:51:00.000-06:00

You would think if you were meeting someone for the first time in person that you would disclose something important like "I'm completely deaf and won't understand anything you say to me".

I met someone today that I've known online for awhile and she always said she had "some hearing loss". So I go to her house w/ another friend and we're sitting there listening to her talk and talk and talk about their dog and I tried to say stuff and she didn't respond to anything I said, just ignored me and kept talking. Then I asked to use their bathroom and she shook their head no and shrugged. I was getting pretty pissed off until her husband came into the room and started finger spelling and using sign language. At that point, my friend started signing because she knew a bit and they had a conversation in sign while I just sat there. And at lunch she was on her Sidekick the whole time we were eating. Just awkward all around.

Why couldn't she say "I am deaf and only lip read and read sign and can't hear anything you say so please face towards me while talking."? It would have taken just a moment when we walked in. Instead, no one acknowledged that she couldn't understand me and I sat there in silence as other people had a conversation I was left out of completely. It sucked - why have me drive all the way there to visit if we can't have a visit?

Blaurhg!

Zoo Day

2006-11-04T21:17:00.000-06:00

I was at the zoo for most of the day. We rotate through different sections - Nature Projects, Animal Handling, Guinea Pig Playground, Lemur Leap.

Today I learned how to pick up Thumper the giant rabbit. Well, he's a 20 pound rabbit with wiggle-itis and a love for biting hard on fingers so maybe he seems bigger than he is. You have to kind of grab his back feet gently and the scoop him up between your forearms. His sides flop over your arms as you turn him around and cradle him like a football with his head tucked in by your elbow. If you aim his head as far away from fingers as you can get, you're usually safe. Did you know rabbits have to lift the front of their body up to move forwards? Their spines are curved and they lift up with their front feet and then use their back feet to launch themselves forwards - hippity hop! So if you want them to stay in one spot, hold your hand gently on their shoulder blades - they can tell you are dominant and they can't get the leverage to move upwards to move forwards. I am the giant rabbit tamer! We also learned the signs of animal stress so we can tell when to put the animals back in their enclosures.

Then I got to take out one of the guinea pigs who is about a pound and a half of squeaking fuzz. I had Chocolate out on my lap and he insisted on resting his back foot on my pinky finger, got really squeaky mad when I moved it. The armadillo was off exhibit this week and I couldn't find a zookeeper to tell me what was up with him.

On my lunch break I walked over Habitat Africa to see the baby mongooses (mongeese?) that just went on exhibit. For lack of a better size description, they are about the size of a hot dog with a face *hee hee* They definitely just waking up from a nap as they were climbing all over Mama as she sat blinking and looking groggy. I wonder what kinds of sounds they make?

I stayed an extra hour to help out even though we weren't really busy, this time of year is when attendance is down at the zoo. I don't mind too much as it gives me more time to take the animals out and it's less stressful on the animals too, with the lack of crowds.

Picture Friday Part Deuce

2006-11-03T23:25:00.000-06:00

Disgruntled Owl says "Don't interrupt my National Geographic beyotch! Can't you see I'm trying to find pictures of half naked ladies and all I see is Sir Alfred Explorerwhatever. Man!"

Picture Friday

2006-11-03T23:17:00.000-06:00

I took this at the Brookfield Zoo while I was still in Volunteer training. I think that's Kaya jumping for the ball. There are 4 male dolphins and 2 female in the show and I can never remember all their names. Baby Allyson is going to be part of the show soon, hopefully.

The Owl

2006-11-02T22:12:00.001-06:00

Last year I decided I wanted to start a website highlighting wierd things I liked or selling items I made. It took me weeks to come up with a name that wasn't taken or sounded too creepy or too precious. I started brainstorming and ended up listing all the animals I like visiting when I'm working at the zoo. First one was the owls in the Swamp exhibit. They are mostly cute and calm but when they are pissed off, you know it. Kind of like me *heh*

My husband once pointed out that the owls looked like they are going to bite your face if you get too close, like really angry when they puffed all their feathers up sitting on their perch. I said they were merely disgruntled and voila - Disgruntled_Owl. I'm still looking for that perfect disgruntled owl image... I have about 20 in my iPhoto library. I want to make a logo next. I used to be all hyper about the cute little fuzzy adorable baby animals at the zoo but now I bond more with the ones that are kind of standoffish or calm or slightly...let's use the word again... disgruntled. They seem more interesting than the rabbit or the geckos that everyone goes squeeeee over when they see them.

Every other weekend I go to the zoo and do programs with the kids, get to take some of the animals out of their enclosures and I am trying to get put on the rotation for the armadillo next. He can be a spaz, running back and forth and back and forth in his area but it's only because he's bored or neurotic. He's pretty funny when he notices you are coming towards the enclosures door. The kids think he looks like he's made of rocks and no one really wants to pet him. Poor left out neurotic armadillo.

Okay you know you need to go to bed when you start out trying to explain why you came up with your blog name and you end up talking about armadillos :) Good night.

Greetings

2006-11-01T20:31:00.000-06:00

Hello and welcome, I'm disgruntled_owl but today I'm feeling anything but disgruntled.

Last year I wrote 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo. I went each weekend to Write-In's at the local Barnes and Nobles. I had plot cards and outlines. I wrote at night and during work and let the dishes pile up and ignored my social life, except for going to meet with other writers and agonize over what we were writing. I did a sci-fi/fantasy novel which I may write about this month - the story ended but I never felt finished with it. I also never edited it so almost 60,000 words are just sitting on my flash drive. It's hybernating! I was going to do NaNo again this year but I couldn't get the enthusiasm up for it. I check fussy everyday and was excited to see what Mrs. Kennedy was organizing. Also, I don't have as much free time because I recently started a new hobby.

Crocheting. Yep, I can't stop crocheting. I've tried to learn how from books before and couldn't quite catch on. My younger sister wanted to make handmade Christmas presents together this year so we decided on learning it together. Checked out a video at the library with lessons from an adorable older lady who talks so sweet and calm, named Bev Dillon. As I'm trying to learn and I'm shouting at the tv "Slow Down Bev!" "Dammit I skiped a stitch!" I imagine Bev stopping, holding her crochet hook up and saying "Calm down hootchie and keep focused! Focus beyotch!". *heh*

I've made a scarf, a few presents for friends and started an afgan. I made some items from the Stitch and Bitch Happy Hooker book. I love being crafty but hate the mess most crafts leave in my small apartment. Crochet is mess free, just yarn and a hook and a pattern book.

So now I'm going to NaBloPoMo, crochet, and be happy curled up at home since it's really cold right now. Maybe tomorrow I'm be disgruntled.

NaBloPoMo

2006-10-20T21:22:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be using this blog to start out as my NaBloPoMo blog.