Archive for pets
Cheep!
So…
I got eight of these:
Then I made the mistake of calling the feed store and ended up with one of these:
And now I have a total of nine of these:
“The Plan” was to keep three for egg layers…the rest would be butchered for meat. Mom said I wouldn’t be able to do it and she’s right. (See? I admit that.) I cannot keep all nine though. I’m standing by that…really.
I think two are roosters. In the last picture it’s the one with its head up the highest (red in color) and the black one in the very front. They cannot stay no matter what.
That would leave seven. In theory I could have seven, but I don’t think I want seven. As I decide to keep them ‘for sure’ they get names. The pale yellow one is Lucille. The black and white one to the far left is Cora. I know the youngest one (in the middle picture) is staying, and she has attitude. She is two weeks younger than the rest, but she can definitely hold her own. She is an easter egger-she should lay blue or green eggs. I haven’t decided on a name for her yet. One of the rhode island red hens likes her belly scratched, but I haven’t named her yet either.
It has been an experience having baby chicks around. I’m ready for them to get out of the house though…but I have another month of them being inside. I do enjoy them a lot though.
Happy 4th Birthday Gurney
Today to celebrate Gurney’s birthday (yes, I celebrate the dog’s birthday) we went to Cincinnati to go to the Morrow dog park and to Petsmart.
I debated going to the dog park with his history of getting bitten, but as I pulled up to the park there were two people walking in and no one already there. The people walking in had a boxer mix and an english setter mix (strangely enough).
At first Gurney was nervous when they were smelling him, but he got over it pretty quick. Once he was off his leash he only stuck around a couple seconds anyway.
Afterwards we went to Petsmart and bought some squeaky tennis balls and Gravy Milk-Bones.
Izzie…The New Addition!
This is Izzie. She’s only about 6 weeks old.
Paul hasn’t warmed up to her yet and Gurney is still scared of her.
I said I’d never have a female cat, but she’s just so dang cute.
A New Year
So I don’t think I did too badly on my goals for the past year.
•I managed to decorate for all the holidays I have decorations for.
•Instead of finishing my dollhouse I started another, but the first is mostly covered in bricks, so that’s a plus.
•Blogging well…I was aiming for once a week, but I only managed 31 posts…21 short. Let’s chalk it up to life changes and move on…
What’s going on now:
•I’m now single after four and a half years. That’s not what or where I planned to be at all, but maybe it is for the best?
•I’m in the process of buying this:
Not the greatest looking house in the world but it will be -my- house. Plus I’m getting a home renovation loan, so that should help. The seller has accepted my offer and I signed a ton of paperwork at the bank today. Finding contractors to fix it is my next step.
•Gurney and Paul are still mine. The cat was never an issue, but I would’ve fought for this had I needed to:
•I spent the last month of 2008 in and out of doctor’s offices and the hospital due to a spider bite. If you’re not queasy you can click here. I’m warning you, they’re gross pictures. I am now released from the wound center at the hospital though and I’m told it should look normal again within six months.
For the future year:
•I’m going to try and blog, I really am.
•I want to create more things. I wasn’t so hot in the crafting sense last year. If I get this house though, I will have a permanent crafting room.
•Gurney will have a yard for the first time ever. He should be happy.
•Paul will have a house that is not on a highway, so he can go outside. He should be happy.
•I need to get serious about my diet and menus and start doing weekend cooking again. Weekend cooking=less stopping on the way home for something. I have also, for the most part, cut High Fructose Corn Syrup out of my diet. I’ve lost almost ten pounds by doing that alone.
I’m heading to bed now, but Happy New Year to anyone who reads this.
Just some stuff…
Saturday Mom and I finished painting a baby nursery. The designs were taken from a Pottery Barn Kids quilt. We added touches of ‘ceiling’ glitter to the clouds and bugs.
Meijer had these giant dog biscuits and I had to get some just for the novelty. After I took the pictures I gave Gurney one of them and went to the living room. I had forgotten about the other being on the edge of the table and a bit later heard a thump from the kitchen. Gurney doesn’t often steal things from tables and counters, but when he does normally he eats it to quick to get it taken away (like bacon). I took the bone from him though til the next morning.
I talked to Tana this morning (one of my cousins) and she wants to do stuff together on Saturday. She wants to go yard-saling in the morning and scrapbook the rest of the day. I won’t be scrapbooking, probably working on stuff for a festival I agreed to do in November. On the subject of yard sales…Mom and I went to one on Saturday and I think the lady just wanted to get rid of stuff. For $10 I got a solid oak coffee table and end table of the mission style. She threw in a wooden box that mom wanted and a new set of oil pastels for free. The tables had some water damage (discoloration) about an inch up the legs, but no matter as I don’t like light oak anyway. I sanded them down and painted them black. They are drying in pieces in the dining room right now. This weekend I will polyurethane them. When I was telling Ryan that they had ‘these oak tables for $5 apiece’ he commented, “And you had to buy them didn’t you?” Of course I did and he knows that perfectly well.
He will be coming home at the end of October and that makes me very happy. It also makes me happy that the new GI Bill will most likely pass, that will make life easier once he is home on the monetary front.
*yawn*
I’ve been so tired lately and I can’t quite place why.
I’ve also been pushing the blog to the back burner and I need to stop doing that, because blogging is something I really do enjoy doing.
Camping was fun last weekend. I learned to build a campfire. Sunday it was pretty warm so I let Gurney get in the lake on a 20 foot leash (no pictures of that though, I’d be highly upset if he pulled me and a camera in the lake).
He spent some time on a leash at the bottom of the hill in front of my parents’ camper, but he was pretty clingy all weekend. I had another leash that allowed him to be on the deck and just off of it. He was pretty content with that and slept on the deck a lot, until he would see a bird or a kid on a bike. He was wearing a coat because it was still pretty chilly in the mornings (and as my dad says, ‘He’s a wuss’).
Gurney took to doing something I had never seen him (or any real dog for that matter) do. I gave him a treat bone figuring it would occupy him for awhile-which it did, just not in the way I expected. He took it off the deck, dug a hole and buried it. He was then very diligent about reburying it in a different location every couple of hours. I gave him a milk-bone at one point and he buried that too. He dug the milk-bone up and ate it, but the bone is still buried down there, I lost track of where it was and couldn’t dig it up to bring it home.
My parents have one of the best campsites at the lake and it has nice scenery right beside it. This little stream is nice in the spring, but it will dry up soon and just be a dry bed.
We ended up leaving early on Monday. I made the decision to stop at Wal-Mart to see if they had any more Wii Fit’s in stock. I figured they wouldn’t, but they had one left. I didn’t need to spend the money, but I did and I am extremely happy with the thing. I told Ryan though, I’ve never had a video game make me feel guilty, but that one does. I’ve used it every day though and my weight has gone down and I can see that my muscles are getting toned. I spent a lot of my week messing with that.
Saturday of this weekend I went to Waynesville to go fabric shopping. I needed something for a cover for my moleskin sketchbook. I didn’t end up actually making it, but I did get a few different fabric choices.
Most of the rest of the weekend I have spent doing some major organizing/getting rid of crap/laundry. I put away the winter bed clothes and flipped/rotated the mattress.
I made homemade granola tonight which got a little dark, but luckily I didn’t burn it.
Well I’m off to go clean some more before work tomorrow.
In preparation for visiting the lake…
- I’m doing a couple loads of laundry.
- I’m looking for Gurney’s raincoat (already packed his heavier coat).
- I baked Ghirardelli turtle brownies.
- I’ve put Revolution on Gurney.
- I’ve packed more than enough clothes for myself.
- I’ve packed treats/food/an extra leash/an old towel/toys for Gurney.
- I need to feed the guinea pigs and fill their water bottles.
- I need to change Paul’s litterbox, might wait til tomorrow to do that though.
- I need to pack art supplies and whatever else I am going to do.
I’m sure there is a ton more to do and it is already 10:30, but this is how I function lately. Everything last minute. It seems that Gurney needs more stuff than I do. The house is also a wreck, but it is going to have to stay that way.
Gurney is following me around the house watching me collect his stuff and put it in a bag. Total confusion. We’ve never gone away for this long before.
So anyway, I’ll be back Monday sometime. Have a happy Memorial Day.
Eh…
Paul got to come home today. He’s touchy and sore. He’s hopped up on the couch once. I finally had to take a newspaper to Gurney to get him to leave Paul alone. Gurney was trying to get him to play, but Paul does not feel like playing.
I forgot I have a doll house swap due to be postmarked by this Thursday. The theme is gardening. So now I have a bunch of mulberry paper with wires embedded between two sheets drying on the coffee table. I am going to make boston ferns. This month I need to make five things.
As for media…
I uploaded two videos to YouTube. One is of Miles and Max meeting for the first time, the other is of Miles chirping because he was upset. (I only have three movies on YouTube now, which are sadly, probably only of interest to me. Although a video of Gurney after a bath has been viewed four times.)
I uploaded pictures to Kodak Gallery (I didn’t get to Flickr, I’ll do that tomorrow). To prove how far behind I’ve been on uploading…I uploaded pictures from March.
Also of note…
After my rant about Quark yesterday-they released to the news that this fall they will be introducing Quark 8. Really? What would make them think that the offices who switched to 7, then back to 6 are going to say, “Oh sure, here’s more money for 8.” I say if Adobe were to come out with a new version of InDesign at the same time and sell Creative Suite at a promotional price they would make a killing.
I am thinking about canceling my WoW account. I have not been in the mood to play for about two months now. I log on, but no one is ever on to socialize with (in my guild I mean, there are always people logged in to the game). Still thinking about it though.
Life Is Hectic…
I’ve been really busy the past couple of weeks between work and everything not-work.
One of the big things: Paul had surgery today to remove three large bladder stones and whatever small ones the x-ray didn’t pick up. Now, if you would have asked me two weeks ago, I would have said, “No, I would not spend that much money on a cat to have surgery.” Right. I did. $51 for the first vet trip, $35 for the second, $70 for the third and $250-300 for today. He is staying overnight at the veterinarian for observation, but they said he used the litter box after he woke up, which is a good thing (no blockage). He also has to stay on a special food now to prevent recurrence. Apparently some cats get them and some cats don’t.
Earlier I started to yell at Gurney and Paul to stop rough-housing, then I realized it was Gurney rough-housing by himself.
Another big thing: Our office switched over to Quark 7 two weeks ago. This week they are using 6.52 again. There was one day that I just dropped everything I needed to do and spent half the day with the open question, “So what is your problem?” x 20 people. That program (in my opinion) is a piece of crap. They are just begging people to switch to InDesign. In order for us to switch to InDesign though, we need to get the programmers from American Color in to see how well the database program works with what we do compared to what it will do with InDesign.
Lately, getting ready for work in the morning has been a trial because I have nothing to wear. Most of my clothes are winter clothes with the exception of about three work appropriate shirts. I’ve been wearing a lot of tank tops and sweater cardigans. Ryan told me to go buy clothes then as I was ranting about this last Monday on the phone while trying to find something to wear to a church dinner. Most girls would say, “Sure!” I for one, Hate Shopping For Clothes. It isn’t that things don’t fit (sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t), it is that with the current style trends I can a.) look pregnant b.) wear tie dye c.) buy pre-worn out clothing d.) any number of things I’m not paying money for.
Saturday I went with my aunt Teresa to the Dayton Mall (she had to return eyeglasses). Between a variety of stores I bought a t-shirt (not for work), a button up oxford shirt and a white tank top out of a nice fabric. I tried on lots and lots of shirts, but that is what worked.
Today I went to the outlet mall at 9am only to realize they didn’t open til 10. I wasn’t going to wait around until they did open, so I headed to Beavercreek to go to Goodwill which is where I actually wanted to go on Saturday. Normally at that particular Goodwill I can find tons of clothing in almost new condition. Even there though, there wasn’t a lot of good work clothes. I ended up getting two button up shirts. On my way home I went through Xenia and stopped at that Goodwill and found another.
I also went to Kohl’s. My mom could tell you how desperate I must be if I ventured in there. I found a pair of Lee jeans ($20) and a pair of Croft & Barrow dress pants ($8!).
So I guess I have a few more things to be wearing now. I am quite aware I wouldn’t have this problem if I would make it a point to let’s say, buy one shirt a month, but as previously stated, I don’t like clothes shopping.
In addition to buying clothes, I of course bought some other fun stuff:
I was being lazy and made the collage all one picture, instead of a bunch of little ones… 1. New Moleskins. I keep my ‘ideas of things to make’ magazine clippings in a set of small kraft cover, grid paged moleskins. Lately though I have found the need for a sketchbook again, so I bought the medium sized ones with blank pages. 2. Reader’s Digest Complete Guide To Needlework. Slowly I am finding the books that were staples of my childhood once I could check out ‘adult’ library books-mind you, they were mostly craft related. 3. Hamburger & Fry Baskets. These are from the Target Dollar section. There have been times I have wanted them in the past, now I have six. 4. Iron On Vinyl. I did not know such a thing existed, now I do. 5. Shish Kabob! So cute, this is from PetsMart’s new summer collection. The ‘meat’ pieces squeak and the red and yellow things crinkle. 6. Produce ball. I’m sure that has another name, but I don’t know it. Technically I also bought that last weekend, but I needed another picture. 7. Ice Cube Drink Stirrers. This is in Target’s summer section. Normally they are expensive, but this one was $2.99. 8. Wind Chime. This was in Target’s Dollar section too. 9. Bath & Body Works Shampoo & Conditioner. I did not know they started making hair care products again. I’ve used it once so far and am pretty pleased with it.
One last thing before I go to bed. Last weekend I needed to fit something new into one of the drawers in my kitchen, but it just wasn’t going to happen (see first picture). I took a three drawer storage container from my sewing room and repurposed it for the kitchen. Now the top drawer has cake/cookie decorating supplies. The middle drawer has sandwich/drink supplies. The bottom drawer has cupcake liners and treat bags. Cleaning that drawer out also enabled me to realize I could get rid of some of the stuff. Yay for organizing.
Tomorrow night I am going to try and upload all of the pictures and movies I haven’t messed with in the last month…
I should be in bed…
It’s strange, but for the past couple weeks, I haven’t been able to get myself in bed before eleven, let alone midnight… That isn’t good when you should get up at 5am in the morning to get ready for work. And when you are up until midnight, that 5am slowly turns to 5:30, then 6, then…
Anyway…
Mom and I went to IKEA last Monday. I was very excited and I wasn’t let down. I only spent $30 but got a lot of stuff. Here are four things I did get (I bought more, but they didn’t have pictures online).
Those aren’t in any sort of scale. For the dog leash hook, I got the black one to match the picture frames by the kitchen door where Gurney’s leash normally hangs. The multi colored boxes were missing their cellophane wrapper and were clearanced for only fifty cents.
We also had breakfast there which I thought was very reasonably priced and tasty. Dad though, pointed out that they certainly made their money back by the time Mom and I left.
Sunday Dad came over and tilled up my garden. He broke two bolts on the tiller before calling it done. Because of the broken bolts my brick sidewalk gained two more bricks (plus two more from planting marigolds earlier in the day).
I planted a window box again for the kitchen window and I will really try to remember to water it this year…
I also tried to get some good shots of Gurney. Gurney does not like cameras though and I think there was only one good one of him actually looking towards the lens… I really like this one though:
All of these pictures (except the IKEA ones) were taken with a Canon PowerShot A550. It is my grandpa’s camera that he said doesn’t take as good of pictures as his HP. I’m tempted to agree with him after one day of using it. The shutter speed seems laggy. It has a manual feature on it, but most of the time, I just want a camera to take a picture and be done with it. At one point I had to turn it off and turn it back on to get it to use the flash. Every time I held the button down for it to focus an icon would pop up telling me that the camera would shake too much if I took the picture (i.e. it should have been ok since I was outside, otherwise it should have used flash, what I was doing had no need of a tripod). Many of my pictures of Gurney turned out blurry anyhow. There is a setting called ‘Kids & Pets’ but I don’t want to have to switch from setting to setting all the time. My Kodak camera does not have that issue. I think it also goes into digital zoom too easy as well. I will mess with it some more, but from a day of using it, I don’t think I would want one.
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