Sunday, May 31, 2009

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Fish is stupid

I learned today that fish will chase a laser dot about as good as a kitty. They try to bite it, it looks like. And not just the males; the females were doing it too. That'll learn me to try and get the temperature of the tank with a laser thermometer.


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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Tidbits

- I got a shipment of superworms today. They must like the 60F weather, because there were zero dead in the 1000. And three freshies! (no shell = no chitin)

- I recently discovered that there are mockingbirds here. There is a bird with a particularly annoying and grating squawk. I thought it was a grackle, but it's mockingbirds:

Anyway, I was able to tell what kind of bird it was from one of my iPhone apps. It's been advertised on TV, and it's awesome. You can search a type of bird by location, how often you should expect it at your bird feeder, it's colors, multiple subgroups of its call, and many other qualifiers. And then when you have a bird selected you can see the drawing of it, or some submitted pictures of it. The most awesome part: you can play its song. And if you put the phone on loud you could probably attract one.

- Saffron is a lazy kitty. But a rabbit in the yard finally got her attention after chomping on the clover for a long long time. It must know it's safe. Well, Biscuit at least catches stuff.
hey buddy. what chu munchin on?

Come back! Please? I'm lonely.

- Saffron is a dirty and disgusting animal. She rolls in dirt and doesn't groom herself. Also, she has a skin condition. So that all combines into a short hair cat having a bad mat problem. I've given her a nice bald spot on her back by cutting out some of the worst offenders, but I'm probably not even half done.

- I thought I had 14 fry in my cichlid tank. I count every time I look in the basket, and keep coming up with 13. So, I figured one died. I discovered a rogue in the rocks, who must have escaped during a recent transfer when I was cleaning. So I am back up to 14! Well, was, before I discovered a dead fry in the basket. The other fish on the outside of the box suck the food through the mesh, and he must have gotten in the way. So, back to 13.

- Gravy is doing very well. I think I'll be able to move her into the cat room this weekend, as Biscuit and Gravy are on the verge of starting to play together. When Biscuit isn't too annoyed to, that is.

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

My latest creation

I stole the colors and general idea from a set at the coffee shop a few stores up from the pottery place. I have a sneaking suspicion that some one paints all the pottery (there was lots: plates, bowls, sets) at the pottery place and then sells at their coffee shop. Maybe I should do that. I have actually thought of that, but I need to come up with some trademark style or design or something. Also, I wouldn't buy this stuff at the price I would have to set to make a profit. That may pose a problem!




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Monday, May 25, 2009

Barbeques are great and all...

...except for when you get a mosquito bite right on your ass.


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Monday, May 18, 2009

Ooooh! A survey! Do I get money?

Scratch that. Not a survey, but a census! Yuk! And the best part? It's for small businesses and the self-employed (thanks a pantload, Battelle). It's 82 questions long, and of the ones I've skimmed, pretty in-depth. But it's OK, because there should be no information I don't know off the top of my head (e.g. Is less than half the company's stock owned by me? Well, this is easy because I'm fairly certain I haven't sold any of my holdings in Maya Papapaya, Inc.) So no time wasted having to look shit up to give truthful answers! At least it's something. I promise O'Bama I'll give this all the attention it deserves.


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Sunday, May 17, 2009

Yay cat video!




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I think they're following us

Should I be worried that two days in a row we went into a place of business while it was pleasantly quite, and then not one minute later like 20 more people were in there? Yesterday it was a girls field hockey team after a game at the local pizza joint, today it was (hopefully) more than one family with kids and babies at Dairy Queen. I just want to eat in peace! Guess I need to learn how to cook.


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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Rhubarb search = PASS

And I got a new word for the ol' lexicon: rutabarb (like rutabaga + rhubarb, I guess)

I'll put that right next to boobarb. It was prolly even the same snot nosed kid as last year. [thought I had a post from last summer to link to about a kid trying to "help" us find some rhubarb. He says bleary eyed "boobarb?" when we asked if they had any. The manager who was closer to our age knew what we were talking about at least.]

Anyway, Safeway had a ton and I got two pies' worth of this thing I hate, but am totally excited to have gotten my hands on.


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Sunday, May 10, 2009

For my mommy

Anyone who could produce this cute thing isn't all bad.

Happy Mother's Day!!


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Rhubarb search = FAIL

My rhubarb I planted last week is a dead rotten mess. Maybe it was the three straight days of rain immediately after planting that did it? So I went looking at Home Depot at their vegetable seed collection (along with their little seed pots you plant directly in the ground once they get going) and scanning the alphabetized list: ocre...parsnips...radishes...uh...spinach?? Where Rhubarb? Poopfaces.


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More Gravy Goodness


So Gravy has been here for, what, 4 days now? She's getting better about being out and about, but runs whenever someone enters the room. I took her to the vet the day after I brought her home, and she's good to go: no FIV or Feline Leukemia. She may have been a little wormy, and had a little bit of ear mites, and got medicine for both. She got one vaccine, instead of the two or three, because she's so small. And she gobbled up the dewormer like it was candy! (Usually everyone in the room gets covered in yellow goop.)

So I've still got her locked up in the main floor bathroom, while Biscuit sulks.
Biscuit sulking


He's OK when he doesn't see her, but starts hissing if she's within eyesight. Gravy is starting to play, but is still concerned about being out in the open. So her play is one part pawing at the toy, and another part realizing she not under cover and running for a hidey hole.
Gravy in a hidey hole


Not much else going on: medicating the fish for fin rot. This antibiotic was Tetracycline, which seems to do a lot better than the Maracyn II I used last problem. The water turns yellow-orange, but it's still clear. The Maracyn II made the water totally gunked up and I couldn't even see when all the fish died, It was horrible. So Yay Tetracycline! Got a batch of 14 babies from one female!! They eat the flake food well, and I hope all 14 make it (of the 20some the mom spit out)



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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Introducing...Gravy!

Look how cute she is! Six weeks old, female, looks healthy but have to get her checked.


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Monday, May 4, 2009

Random

1) My fish are sick, and I've only have horrible luck with the antibiotics. On the bright side, one of the females just dropped 20someodd babies! How'd they all fit in there??? Of those, 10ish were dead when I finally checked on them, so I pulled them out of the breeder box and fed them to the adults. Bad idea to give them the taste for fish? I'm pretty sure they've been snacking on babies for a while now. So there's another 10 or so swimming up towards the surface of the breeder box, and they seem to know how to eat flake food. I'm hoping for just a couple to survive, but with the coming Apocalypse (medication that will kill them) and then Rapture (me flushing them) following, I may need as many free fish as possible to repopulate their universe.

2) The little lizard I got last week seems to be doing fine; I have yet to see with my own eyes him eating any food. But when I look at him in the evening, the lettuce seems to be less (aside from the fact it's all dried out). He doesn't do a whole lot: he was thoroughly uninterested when I put in a crickie. Could be he's never seen one before.

3) A guy at work had a feral cat give birth in the window well of his basement. There are four kittens, he says about 5 weeks old (but still nursing). He's going to try to capture one for me, and I shall hug him and squeeze him and call him Gravy. Get it? Biscuit and Gravy? Yes, there is a strong likelihood I'm retarded.

4) I ordered new jammies today. The ones I'm wearing right this second are actually falling apart.

5) I had the phone outside while I was clearing a patch of dandelion garden to plant a tiny sprout of rhubarb. So with he phone outside I put the volume on 11. That was Saturday. Monday morning at 6 am I could sense that thing taking a deep breath to belt out level 11 alarm noise. Scared the shit out of Hubby, and I was lucky to not fumble the thing across the room while trying to silence it.

6) About that tiny little sprout of rhubarb. Hubby's mom sent two pieces of rhubarb Friday. One was the itty bitty sprout, with one tiny little yellow leaf on it. The other had some stalks with leaves. I thought what she was sending was some theat and some to plant. Upon reflection, I think I was supposed to plant both. The amount of usable materiel (I consider this shit something the Geneva Convention should cover) was very little. Nowhere near enough to make pie. So then I thought I'd make pielets in my muffin tin. Hubby said don't bother, we'll find some at the store and combine. So anyway, getting as much of the usable stalk as posible means I tore the everloving crap out of the rhizome or whatever rhubarb grows from. Had I used my brain, I would have a better chance of my back breaking labor on Saturday panning out. See above note about being retarded.


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