Not for the faint of heart (ie don't read this one Matty)

I burned my hand on the toaster oven at home yesterday. I hadn't really realized how badly I burned it until today. I didn't do any of the right things I usually do like run it under cold water because I really thought I moved fast enough to not have burned it. I didn't move fast enough. There is a distinct line across my left hand/thumb area just below the joint. That's not the gross part. The gross part... it's blistered and there's fluid.

Ferrets!

As you know I adopted Tess & Rigby from a shelter. I decided today to send them an update about the babies. They posted it on their site! You can view it here to see the pics too, but here's what I wrote:

Greetings!

It's been about 6 months since Tess & Rigby joined me in my little apartment on First Hill and I thought I'd send an update about how they are doing. In the pics Rigby is flopped on the sidewalk because she gets bored, or tired or annoyed by the confines of the leash I'm not sure which, and just stops walking. Tess is ready to go home and will pull me there by the sheer force of her mighty will.

I adopted Tess & Rigby after my 2nd ferret, Baxter died. I had originally been hesitant to get another ferret and considered getting a cat or just going animalless, but after about a week of all aloneness in my apartment I decided a little bundle of fur was just what I was looking for. When I got to the shelter I had originally made up my mind that I would only adopt 1. Famous last thoughts. I spoke with the volunteers just checking out the ferrets and they mentioned that Tess & Rigby were cagemates and had been there already a year. They weren't kits anymore and that made them harder to place. That made up my mind for me. They came home with me that day. It's been 6 months and I think we are all fairly happy. Tess is still a little bit skittish sometimes, but seeks me out in the morning to wrassle with her. She has an incredible curiosity and a penchant for digging in my potted plants. I've given up on the health of the plants and just let Tess do her thing. Apparently the dig box with dirt from the plants is not the same thing at all. I've been most excited recently to find Tess curled up on my bed in the morning. Not every morning, but the mornings she does make me so happy. That was always one of my favorite things Baxter would do, sleep in a little warm ball next to my knees. Rigby is my trouble girl. She is into everything! She has found that by climbing on the trash can in the bathroom she can fall into the tub and join me in the shower. She's usually happy with that until she realizes she's getting wet. Then she discovers that the walls of the tub are too tall and slippery for her and she jumps around like a spastic squirrel until I rescue her. She's like a little puppy sometimes, following me all over the apartment to see what I'm doing and where I'm going. Our one disagreement is her tendency to bite my feet. She gets a little time out when she does it and a lot of praise when she sniffs around my feet without the little love nip. She also seems to like being on the leash in the great outdoors more than Tess does. Although once she gets bored or tired (who knows?) she just flops down wherever we are and that's it, we're done I have to scoop her up and carry her home. We go to a park near my house and they can scurry in the grass and dig in the dirt. Tess historically has been very upset when I take her outside so I don't force it and then this is just time for Rigby and me. They both get to be free roam in the apartment and have explored all the corners. Tess has found some balls of fur that she has claimed as her toys. She carries them around the apartment and hides them in hidey holes. She will wrassle the big hand to death if I try to take them away from her. Rigby has claimed all the cheweasels as hers and has collected them all into my carrier that they both came home in. She found about 5 of them floating around the apartment. Apparently I was under the misguided impression that Baxter actually ate them. She didn't, just hid them. They are providing me a great deal of joy and humor every day. Even when I'm cursing them for walking across my head at 3:00 AM or knocking a fresh can of soda off the bookshelf I find myself smiling because it is far better than no little fuzzy friend at all.

Observances

1 - Chocolate cake is good. You should eat it often.

2 - Men on the bus with long fingernails freak me out. Men in general with long fingernails freak me out. Especially when only like 1 fingernail is long. I saw a guy on the bus today with 2 extremely long (longer than my 'active' length) nails and I think his pinky was really long too. That's just weird.

3 - Matty P & I were in Starbucks partaking of a beverage. In case you care I took Peeved Michelle's friend Michael's advice and tried a pumpkin spice frapp, creme formula since I hate coffee. It is pretty good although a little heavy on the nutmeg. Totally not the point of the story though. There were 2 law students at the next table. They each had a laptop out and a cell phone sitting on the table. One had a rather large Coach bag sitting open on the floor. I think it was real, Matty thought perhaps it was a knock-off. Moot point. The other had a nice little case that looked like it was probably a wallet of some sort also by Coach. At one point in the evening both girls gathered up their coffees and stepped outside for a smoke break. Leaving everything out and open on the table just like that. Not only that, they didn't seem to be anywhere they could see all that crap. I could've just walked out with any of that stuff. Just ridiculous. Matty and I were both a little surprised about THAT level of trust in one's gear. Matt did point out that there are cameras all over the place, which is a fair thing to say. But I suspect an experienced thief could walk up to that table, drop his or her napkin and without even raising an eyebrow have reached into the open coach tote and snagged the wallet and the cameras would be barely the wiser. If the cameras are even hooked up to anything. I used to know someone who worked at one of the big chain stores and he told me that although there are domes all over the store, not all of them have cameras in them. It's just a ploy to make us think we're being watched. He said the public would actually be surprised at how few of them have the cameras. Not that I want to test the theory to find out, but for my kidnapping plans I find that good to know. :)

4 - I have a theory of relative naivete, with regards to sex. It goes something like this, if I meet a person and become friends with the person I will assume that their sexual experiences or whatever are similar to mine. It isn't something I'll say outloud or even actively think, it is more of a passive thing. But if I were to hear later that that person especially enjoyed something like having sex on the sledding hill behind Patty Center (in Alaska) in the snow, that would shock me because whilst I know that people have sex in public, it would never enter into my realm of consciousness that someone I know would have sex in public. Conversely, it would never dawn on me that anyone I know is a virgin, despite my current friendship with several. Matty & I talked about this today. He seems to think that I may have something there. If only some of my other theories would pan out. :)

It's a jolly holiday with you!

I'm back at work today. I survived the sickness. Although I'm now moving into phase 2 of the sickness where I have a cough like I'm dying only I'm not. It usually alarms those around me far more than me.

Today's a Disney day at work I've decided. I loaded all my Disney CDs* onto the computer last night (an effort that took far longer than it should have). I then moved them to my MP3 player which I have plugged in to my speakers to play me a wide selection of my favorites.

Just in case you didn't know... Everybody's got a laughing place. :)

*I say all my Disney CDs like I have a ton of them. I only loaded the 5 Disney Classic CDs. I don't have too many others besides them. I have Tarzan and The Little Mermaid and one I got from McDonalds and that's about it.

Sometimes I overshare

I eat while sitting on the sofa at home, not at a proper table. I live alone. Sometimes when I'm eating food I know I'll be messy with, or just when I'm wearing a shirt I actually like and don't want to ruin, I'll just pull it off and eat in just a bra. I live alone, who cares. Except every once in awhile I have to return to the kitchen or wander around the apartment. Because I have plants on all my window sills I don't have the blinds shut all the way. So apparently I'm probably giving the hospice next door quite a show. Sometimes I should think more. Also, tonight while eating pizza this was a brilliant idea because I dropped a big glob of sauce and it just hit me not my very white shirt. Except I got a lot of pizza crumbs in my bra and that was not good.

Silly things to say today :)

Firstly, the flexcar I was so excited about finding is parked in a very tight spot. I am neurotic about driving the flexcars so it took me about 20 minutes to pull out of the spot. That's just ridiculous. I was just so afraid of hitting one of the cars parked on either side of me or the one right behind me that I inched my way out of it.

Secondly, Matty & I went to lunch at my favorite restaurant. I had a pretty good time eating lunch. There was a couple at the next table who was totally eavesdropping on us. That wasn't hard since they were inches away. And Matty & I tend to talk about interesting (to muggles at least) topics when we're together. We mostly talked about his love life, although I refrained from asking him all the specific questions I wanted to ask until we were safely in the car. The girl's hair would've curled had I asked what I really wanted to ask within her earshot. The best part of the whole field trip... I got some more GF baked goods! I love that they bake essentially crap food GF and don't make the assumption that just because I eat gluten free I also don't use refined sugars and I like carob and all that rock & twig crap. There's another bakery here in town that makes a bunch of GF foods, but I don't like them as much because they are "all natural." Blech. :) (And yes, Matty, I am eating my cookie right now!) :D

Thirdly, I bought the babies new treats and now Tess is greedily gobbling up the few I tossed on the floor for her. Rig is still sleeping, although I did call for her and shake the treat bags so she would come. She didn't. They had been following me all morning long, driving me nuts and dancing under my feet in the hopes that I'll give them what they want.

I think that's about all I gots for now. Obviously I'm spending today making up for all of my sickness time. :D

Hot damn!

There's a new flexcar in an apartment complex that's even closer than any of the other flexcars! I'm so excited about that. (Yeah, it doesn't take much.)

Take out the papers and the trash..

I swear if I could get a handle on the recycling crap I create that would eliminate about 57.4% of my mess. I have a theory that if I had 3 trash bins besides my normal trash can this would help me out. I could have 1 for glass (because glass can't be thrown with the other recyclables), 1 for aluminum cans and 1 for everything else. I just took out an embarrassing number of bags of soda cans, 1 bag of glass, 2 bags of paper and 1 bag of plastic containers. I think if I were to take these other 2 kitchen chairs that I don't use down into storage, I could set up a whole little recycling station in my kitchen as opposed to where the recycling currently piles up which is in my living room in front of the radiator and then under the unused kitchen table that's also in the living room.

Keys!

I've found my keys! Yay! And Michelle (as always) was right. She sent me a link about how to find lost objects. It was 100% correct. The keys usually live on the sewing table with my MP3 player and wallet. They were underneath the sewing table in a bag of stuff that was under there. I personally think that Tess & Rigby were responsible for this, but I'm probably wrong.

In other thoughts, Bon Jovi can still rock and I think I like 'em. Plus still seriously hot.

Finally, is it wrong that I want to have kids not so much because I want to have kids, but because I want someone to excuse my love of toys and I just want someone to play with? I have a new plan about kids. I think I'm going to kidnap* one. It is a long running joke between my coworker friends (who I went camping with) about the ideal age a child should be if I want to kidnap him/her. Two is that age in case you care. About the age I start liking children but not old enough to be verbal enough to say 'Hey this chick isn't my mom!' I scope them out every once in a while, but damn those parents, they keep a tight hand hold on their kids...


*Ok I'm kidding. No, really, seriously. I have absolutely no intention of kidnapping a child. That would cause so much guilt I wouldn't know how to cope.

Yoohoo I'll make ya famous!

Tess & Rig were made famous on Jeopardy tonight. Well, their kind was. The answer to one of the Jeopardy questions under the catagory unusual pets was ferret. And 2 out of the 3 contestants got it wrong. They are not smart. It was the young one who finally got it right.

I really need to eat more than one meal on Saturdays. I'm so starving I could die by the time I made dinner. But a yummy dinner I made. Roast beef and twice baked potato. YUM!

Hey! A book that Lunacy mentioned was also a clue. Babycatcher is a story of a modern day one of these. I got it right even if the real contestants didn't.

Many things

I am officially going to visit my family. I know I've been bitching about it for months. I know I've been fretting over it. But I have finally bought my ticket. I emailed my mother my itinerary and surprisingly enough she didn't bitch about it. I leave on the 24th and return on the 30th. She did ask if I got buddy passes from my sister. Two things about this... 1 - I've never gotten buddy passes from my sister and 2 - I am so not stupid enough to fly standby during the holidays. That's just asking to spend an extra month in Phoenix. Or, more accurately, to never arrive there to begin with. Hmm... Why didn't I think of that sooner?

You know how when you've been sick you start to feel better so you overdo it? I did that today. I've been in the house since Thursday afternoon and needed groceries so I ventured out. On foot even. Walking home I was so exhausted I wanted to just curl up on the sidewalk and nap.

I think tomorrow I am going to my restaurant for lunch. That will make me happy. :)

Yay Keys!

Yay! Apartment manager just brought by another set of keys for me. I am very happy about that. Now I can take a nap. :) I have given in to the sickness and just stayed home today rather than try to fight it.

Just one of those mornings...

I'm still sick. Rather sick. But this morning I convinced myself to come to work so I could have our meeting with the girls tonight. That's not happening though, since I can barely function right now. I am planning on leaving after my 12:15 appointment. Here's the high drama though. I've lost my apartment keys. They are in my apartment. I spent an hour searching for them so that I was late to work anyway. I cried. You know how when you're sick EVERYTHING is high drama? Finding these keys was high drama for me. So now my front door is unlocked but I am locked out of the main building. I'm hoping when I go home either my landlord will be around or someone will be entering or leaving the building to let me in. Sigh.

I must be high

This cold must be effecting my brain. I do believe I just agreed on a family vacation next spring break time. With MY family. With MY family who I'm already dreading visiting in December. We would all be descending upon Southern California (interesting how when I lived there they never visited) and doing the SoCal citypass. It is my little sister's idea. I think she wants us to be closer as a family. (Now I know my cold is effecting my brain... since duh that's fairly obvious.) I am slightly shocked that my mother is going along with it since the trip will include: 3 days at my holy land (Disneyland), 1 day at Knott's Berry Farm (it is hard for me to find food there), 1 day at Sea World and 1 day at either the San Diego zoo or the Wild Animal Park. I'm so driving... :) (As the least bad of all the drivers, and the one who is at least partially used to LA traffic. Oh and I've been to all of these places to boot.)

Voting?

There are 2 issues that are coming up for me to vote on in the next election. I don't know the right answer for either of them. I've read the pamphlet the election people put out. Is it better to not vote on an issue or to research an issue as best I can and make a decision even though I'm not 100% positive it is the right one? (And no, Matty, it isn't the smoking ban proposition.) :)

Buh-Bye Zicame

I just took my 2nd Zicame quick dissolve pill. I was about 1/2 way through it when it made me gag and then I wanted to throw up and had to spit the rest of it out. Clearly, stuffing a q-tip up my nose or spritzing my throat (or really anything) is infinitely preferrable to my reaction to those quick dissolve tablets.

Fuckit!

The good/bad balance of this evening is odd at best.

Good - I bought some groceries to make enchiladas tonight for dinner. This will allow me to have lunch the rest of the week.
Bad - I saw the bus go by as I was walking out of the store which prompted me to go to the ATM to get cash so that I could buy a RealChange* newspaper for $1.00 from the vendor.

Good - I got some cash to buy a RealChange newspaper.
Bad - I needed to break the $20 so I went back into QFC to do so. I figured the service counter would be quick so I got in line to buy a lottery ticket, and thus break my 20. Apparently of the 5 people ahead of me in line, 2 were doing transactions that required a person with a special key. That person was not at the register, she was at the U-Scan. Is it me or is that completely illogical? So I waited a lifetime for my lottery ticket. And when I got outside the RealChange guy was gone, so no newspaper for me. And I saw the bus go by so I missed another round.

Good - (relatively) I capitulated to the rock & twig freaks out there and bought some Zicam to fight my pending cold.
Bad - Have you ever had these things?? Really?? My choices were: nasal spray, nose swab, quick dissolve tablet or throat spray. I went with quick dissolve tablet. Because the other options were grosser. For future reference, the quick dissolve tablet is beyond nasty. I don't like to chew weird chalky things in my mouth like Tums. The Zicam quick dissolve tablets were not good and that texture. I finished at Bartell and went out to catch the bus... yes I missed yet another one. So I walked home. Despite the instructions not to. I also didn't make it to the library to return my overdue books. I have to go tomorrow now.

Also in the bad catagory, no convo lately with WC. I know I say it on a regular basis, but I really need to find a new one.

*RealChange newspapers support the homeless. They buy one for 35 cents then sell them for $1.00. (Ok I don't know how many they have to sell at a 65 cent profit to actually do any good, but whatever.) The articles are frequently about homelessness issues. I find it kind of interesting.

Visitation

I really don't want to visit my family over the holidays. There's no nice way of saying this. The more I think about it the more anxious I get. By the time I'm supposed to leave I'll be on a bajillion milligrams of Paxil just to get through. (Of course Group Health would have to consider me crazy enough for me to even see a shrink to get my bajillion milligrams of Paxil, and since that isn't likely I guess I won't get my bajillion milligrams of Paxil and I will have to self medicate with the Cabana Boy. There's a whole side story here involving me and a trip to a shrink at Group Health back in maybe February or March of this year. I was having a bit of depression, situational not chemical, and just wanted to hash some things out. Since I wasn't a threat to anyone and I don't have a condition that is treatable, just the blues, they sent me away apparently until I do get a condition that is treatable... I still find that funny as hell, even though I really shouldn't.) Wow, did I digress! Oh so I'll be self medicating with Cabana Boy Cherry rum and lemonade or with Malibu Pineapple and OJ (or both... probably both). I'm very different from the child I was when growing up. I'm very different from my family now. And spending time with them means I'm always on my guard. This is a chore for me, not a joy and I wish I didn't feel like that. Even just purchasing the plane ticket to go see them is stressing me out. But it has been more than 3 years and I did hurt my dad's feelings the last time Christmas came up and I went to CA instead of to visit them so I go because I am the dutiful daughter. Even if I need an intervention in January from all the drinking. Matty, you and Michelle go ahead and start planning that. :)

Volunteer day 2

Today I volunteered again at the Pacific Science Center. It wasn't quite as fun today as usual because I spent more time at treat stations than trick stations. Treat Stations are what they sound like... stations where they could get candy. Trick stations were arts & crafts stations. I like them more because they give me a chance to interact with the kids a little bit more and help them out. Just giving them a piece or 2 of candy isn't so fun to me. But it was still good. I may do some more event volunteering for them. I would volunteer regulary for the PSC, but they want 4 hrs per week and that's a lot of a commitment.

I grabbed some dinner in the Center House. Mmm a burger and fries. :) I ended up spending more than I wanted to there because I was having a dessert difficulty. Nothing I bought made me happy so after about 5 sips of an Orange Julius it ended up in the trash. And about 3/4ths of a chocolate shake ended up in the trash. They just weren't what I wanted.

I forgot in my story about the cornmaze... I only had a chicken breast from QFC for dinner that night. Again, nothing was making me happy. :S So that was all I had before we headed out mazing. After we went through the corn maze, we stopped at Dicks for burgers and all that. I had a chocolate shake and french fries. Damn were they both good. Exactly what I needed at that moment...

Random other thought... I had a dream the other morning that for some reason has stuck with me since yesterday. I dreamt that I was in a restaurant and picked up this guy who was cute in a geeky way. He gave me his number and I was kind of excited. And then someone I know came up behind me and did the hug from behind thing people do. Except he kept putting his hands on my tits. In front of cute geeky guy that I was into. So I kept moving his hands away and he kept putting them back until we were walking with my hands behind my back holding his hands to keep them from touching me. It was so weird.

Final thought... I was watching Logo just now. (Logo is the new network for the gays. I like Priscilla Queen of the Desert which is what I was watching.) The movie ended and this news program came on. The news reporter was so god awful I couldn't believe it. It was beyond belief and I had to change the channel.

Yesterday, a recap

Yesterday was my first day volunteering at the Pacific Science Center's Halloween Extravaganza. I think their official title is Tricks & Treats & Science Feats. With only one exception, I was the oldest one there... by a lot! They were mostly high school and college kids fulfilling their service learning requirements for their various groups. Not that it would've effected me since I was a Girl Scout leader in high school, but damn I'm glad they didn't have these requirements when I went. Of course in Arizona, it still may not be a requirement. It wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't. I had fun, though, like I always do. There were 3 craft stations and 3 treat stations. The craft stations were much more fun than the treat stations. I think my favorite craft was the thermotrope, which is one of those pictures that trick your eyes. You put part of the picture on one side and part on the other and then put it on a stick. If you spin it around it looks like the 2 pics are joined. It is pretty cool. We were also making masks and bloody finger boxes. I've discovered there are 2 different schools of thought with regards to the crafts. I say let the kids cut out their own stuff, a lot of others have pre-cut supplies out. Hell that's half the project. I wandered around the Who done it? Exhibit. That one's very cool, the kids are trying to solve a robbery and murder. There's fingerprinting and DNA and exhibits about bones and facial reconstruction. It's all very interesting. I'm excited to go back today.