Shadee’s Blog

So this week has sucked so far.

Monday: It was pretty stormy and I woke up all mucusy with a sore throat so I started the day slow. I was sitting at my desk playing WoW when I suddenly heard this loud cracking sound. My first thought was that it might be either a tree snapping or possibly lightning. About a second later the power went out. So I got up, looked outside and saw that one of the electrical poles across the street had snapped in two. Figured I’d call the electric company until I started seeing smoke… and weird flashing colors. Turns out the wire was still live, hanging low over the road and setting the neighbors’ bushes on fire. Or trying to anyway, it was pouring down pretty hard but the sparks didn’t stop and neither did the smoke.

So since I couldn’t see much in the dark I figured: “Screw finding the power company’s number” and I called 911 instead. I didn’t want people driving their cars into that live wire on their way out to work or the neighbor’s house catching fire. Turns out someone had already called it in and both the electric co. and a fire truck were already on their way. Unfortunately it took them all freaking day to get the power back on. They had to replace the pole and were doing work down the street too so I guess a lot got blown out. So yeah, the day was spent with a fire going and me trying to keep myself entertained with candles, a blanket, my camera and my DS. I’ve changed my mind about electric stoves being handy after that day No microwave, no stove and no heat made for a very lousy tea and soup-less Flu day.

Tuesday: I’d forgotten about our dentist appointment. So meh, after the day before I so wasn’t in the mood but decided to go anyway and get it over with. Ended up with half my face numb. We decided to at least have a nice lunch after. I got my fav. at the sushi place nearby, Beef Negimaki (what can I say, I’m not much of a raw fish person :P). Unfortunately with half my face numb it was a huge pain to actually manage to eat and then I ended up swallowing a crunchy piece of beef which I thought I’d chewed properly but hadn’t so it felt like a little razor blade sliding down my throat. Had trouble eating and even just swallowing in general for the rest of the day. That combined with my flu not getting any better = +100 points on my “Oh boy aren’t we having fun today!”-meter.

So anyway, today’s Wednesday and even though the flu is still going I’m hoping the day will be nice and uneventful.

Wish me luck

-Dee.

PS. Workmen and vehicles in the dark + camera + shaky flu arms makes for pretty abstract photo art

Some of you already know that we haven’t had the best start of the new year. Mord’s mentioned what’s been going on to people here and there. Aside from the nasty flu we both had/have I haven’t really mentioned anything myself yet. I guess it’s mainly because it sucked and I’d much rather just move past it instead of getting into it. I didn’t even really know what to say about it. So that’s why I hadn’t posted any new blog entries since the last one. But now that I’m looking at my blog and trying to come up with something silly to post I’m held back by a certain amount of guilt too. Just blatantly skipping it and posting something funny seems kinda wrong.

So in a nutshell (yeah right), our cat had an ear infection so we decided to take her to the vet. Besides the ear infection she’s always had a bit of a whistle when breathing, she was a stray for many many years before we took her in to give her a cozy retirement. It’s a condition she’d already grown used to and it didn’t stop her from being an otherwise happy, active and affectionate kitty. She ate well, drank well, jumped up on the windowsill to sit in the sun, up on our laps for pets, chased her toys, stole the dog bed, everything normal cats do. So anyway, back to the day we took her to the vet. The vet noticed the breathing thing (which is a lot worse when she’s stressed, and being stuffed in a cat carrier and taken to a vet = stress, duh). But they were worried, wanted to take x-rays, put her in an oxygen tank for a while, give her a steroid injection etc. We figured, hey, they know what they’re doing right? Our previous vet had said nothing could be done about it but who knows, maybe these guys could finally fix the whistling breathing and cure her completely.

Wrong.

Her health went downhill really fast when we took her home that day, so bad that we ended up taking her to an emergency vet in the middle of the night where we were told that they thought the best thing was to put her down right then and there. Of course this came as a complete shock, we’d taken a happy active cat to the vet for a freaking ear infection and by the end of the day she needs to be put down?? So we decided to take her home. If a relative’s health goes downhill after treatment you don’t give up on them and have the doctors pull life support that same day, you give them a chance to recover. So that’s what we did. We made her comfortable, gave her nice canned food, some meds the emergency vet gave us to open up her airways a bit and the following week things started to gradually get better. She was starting to get her strength back, was starting to do her regular things again, sun, cuddles, happy things. She wasn’t ready to give up yet at all. It’s not hard to tell when animals are ready to go, I’ve seen it before, and I certainly wasn’t seeing it in her. But unfortunately by the end of last week things went south again and Friday night I knew it was time, and I sat with her until she passed away.

Fucking vets (I know, they probably did things right by textbook standards, and it’s not their fault it didn’t go the way it was supposed to, but being in the position I’m in now I feel like I deserve to be a little pissed off).

And you know what really kills me?
Our dog had an ear infection last year. They gave us ear cleaner and medication. I actually looked at it when the cat got her ear infection but the medication bottle said it was to be used on dogs only, so I was afraid to use it on the cat and didn’t.

The day we took her in they sent us home with 2 new bottles of the exact same meds they gave us for the dog…

Lots of could have, would have and should have’s in this.
But I can go over it till I drop, can’t change things now.

So RIP Kitty.

Hope there’s lots of mice and catnip up there.

-Dee.

As some of you already know, our cat tends to have certain bouts of insanity where she becomes this absolutely insufferable whiny meowing monster. Sometimes it lasts a few days, sometimes a week, we kinda wrote it off as it probably just being her “monthly thing” but I’m starting to think she’s either going a bit senile from time to time or that she’s doing it just to piss me off.

When it happens it’s usually her meowing this loud annoying meow over and over and over. Sometimes during the day, but mainly during the night because she makes sure to get a good amount of sleep in during the day so she can keep me up at night. But apart from that behavior she’s perfectly fine. She eats, drinks, plays, runs around like mad chasing toys, it’s just that she has this strange urge to serenade us with this horrid constant meowing sometimes. And it’s pretty random when it starts, sometimes it’s because we leave, sometimes it’s to announce that she just took a crap or that she ate something, sometimes it’s just completely random. And when it happens she just gets this blank stare on her face and just goes to town. And when you look at her angrily when she’s doing it she stops for a sec, and just glares at you as if she knows you don’t approve and she’s trying to kill you with her laser beam eyes. Then later when she snaps out of it for a while she’s the sweetest most affectionate kitty in the world and comes up to you for cuddles as if none of it ever happened.

And I could handle it if it weren’t for her being at her worst during the night…
Mord sleeps like a log and doesn’t wake up at all but I’m a really light sleeper so whenever she starts, I’m awake. And whenever she stops for a few seconds, instead of trying to go back to sleep I just know she’s gonna start again so I’m just lying there waiting for it and feeling the anger rise lol. And of course I’m always right and when she does start again and doesn’t stop I get up, open the bedroom door and go “CAT! STFU!!” And then she does stop for a little while. But in the mornings I usually wake up still tired or not having had any sleep at all.

So today I made it my mission to make sure the little turd didn’t get any sleep at all today in the hope that it’ll tire her out enough for her to actually sleep when we do tonight. It’s been a struggle though. I keep having to tip her out of her little kitty bed or a bean bag chair she tends to sleep in every 20 mins or so. And man has she been giving me nasty looks whenever I wake her up. Needless to say it’s been very satisfying

After a while I got tired of it too though, and I had to go upstairs to do some ironing, so I figured I’d lean both her bed and the beanbag against the wall vertically so she couldn’t get into them at all. But when I came downstairs I found this:

I should’ve known… she hasn’t been in the dog bed for a long time but it’s not the first time it’s happened. So meh, she found a way to outsmart me for a few minutes. Or so she thought anyway. My response to that was to go: “Sophie! Are you a good girl? Yes you are aren’t you? Awww yeah you’re such a good puppy! :D” Which resulted in the cat getting smacked in the face with a big ol’ wagging tail and had her bolting out of there immediately just like I wanted

So tonight we’ll see whether I got the last laugh or if she’s going to give me the worst sleepless night ever…

-Dee.

Isn’t it horrible?
Cartoon characters beating each other over the head with frying pans and high speed ADD over the top martial arts fights in cartoons like Dragonball Z. Swords in Mulan and Mickey using his broom as a weapon in Fantasia. It’s absolutely horrid what kids these days watch in terms of violence. OMG! It must be traumatizing and completely warping their minds!

Back in my day when I was a kid and watched TV we were never exposed to that kind of violence.
We watched nice harmless cartoons, with cute things, like bunnies…

(JC… I’d forgotten how horrid Watership Down was ’till I found this compilation of the bad scenes on the net and watched it lol. Now I know why the song “Bright eyes” always made me depressed without me really knowing why :P)

-Dee(sensitized?).

oooOOooooOooo.
Yes, this entry is about a strange phenomenon which has been happening in our back yard.

Almost every morning, when I let the dog out I notice that the lid of our garbage can is covered in little poos. Now it’s a bear proof garbage can, since we have bears in the area. What that means is that it’s not a loose lid which you can just easily pull off. It’s actually a screw top. and it’s got a pretty air tight seal to it. So there’s nothing to be had there food wise. And because of the seal there’s no smells coming out either. None that I can smell anyway and my sense of smell is pretty good, just ask Mord. I’ll complain cause I smell the cat’s bad breath from across the room lol.

So anyway, it’s a pain in the butt to have to clean the lid every day and I’ve been wondering wth it is that keeps crapping on our garbage can. The poos kinda look like mouse poo. So even though I’m usually not all that keen on killing things, I’m sick and tired of wiping off a lid full of crap every day just so I can put my garbage in the trashcan without getting my hands dirty, so I put a mousetrap on it. One of those instant kill things they have to get into and you don’t even have to deal with seeing them.

Of course the damn things been out there for weeks now and nothing’s gone in. And today, to put the icing on the cake I found that they’d even crapped on top of the damn mousetrap

So now I want to know why the hell “something” is having a conference on top of our garbage can every night. I don’t find the poo anywhere else, not on the deck either, just the garbage can lid. So tonight I’m going to put a cam next to the window and see if I can catch the little bastards on video, so I’ll at least know wtf I’m dealing with here.

So yes. Stay tuned for Mystery poo pt. 2.

-Dee.

Letting the dog out for a quick last pee in the evening on bare feet = bad idea.

This morning I found out that my feet are covered in mosquito bites
I always thought having a bite on your finger or hand is the worst place because they tend to start itching a lot when you pick things up and are doing every day stuff. But man was I wrong. At least when they’re on your hand you can try to avoid touching things with those particular fingers/places on your hand. But you can’t really avoid walking

So ya. Major pain in the butt (well, feet). Especially since the bastards didn’t just get the top but also managed to get a few bites out of the very bottom of the side and the hollows of my feet (I was wearing a short sleeve T-shirt btw, so why they had to go for those near impossible places instead of my bare arms is beyond me).

So blah, I’m gonna put on some shorts. That way at least I’ll only be annoyed by the ones I’ll be walking on and not by my pant legs constantly making the top ones itch as well

-Itchy Dee.

That’s right.

I always liked my biological clock and the fact that it would wake me up when it needed to. When I used to have my alarm set for work I would always wake up a few minutes before it was set to go off, which was great, cause there’s no better way to ruin my day and get me in a horrible mood than to wake me up with that annoying alarm clock sound.

Yesterday however, my biological clock decided to be an asshole and try something new.
I was sleeping comfortably, when all of a sudden I heard what sounded like someone banging on a metal garage door a few times really hard… We don’t have a garage door. And come to think of it, none of our neighbors do either. Besides, it was so loud that it was more like what it would sound like if you were in the garage when it happened. So obviously it was something my brain produced while I was sleeping. So anyway, of course it scared the crap outta me and I sat right up. Looked at the clock and it was 6 AM. It was somewhat amusing (well it was after I was done being grumpy about having been woken up like that that morning anyway).

So this morning…

Again, I was sleeping comfortably, when all of a sudden I heard what sounded like a large dog barking loudly 3 times. Our dog hardly ever barks, and when she does it’s always just one bark. And again, it sounded way too loud for it to have come from downstairs. So again I get startled and woken up, I sit up, stare at the clock. 6 AM.

So of course I’m in an even shittier mood today, seeing as how it’s happened twice in a row now. I really hope this was the last of it. I didn’t really need to wake up that early on either of those days. Yesterday was trash day and today they pick up recyclable plastic, but they never show up very early. But I guess trying to remember to put both of those out might have been the cause of it.

Still annoying as hell though :/

-Cranky Dee.

Since my new camera and the fact that it’s just so much more awesome than my old one had really put me in the photography mood I went on-line to search for extra bits and pieces to actually make wildlife photography fun. The first thing I searched for was a telephoto zoom lens. The lens it came with is great for standard photography, but when you’re taking shots of skittish creatures it’s nice to have a long range option.

After a bit of research I decided to go with the… *takes a deep breath*… Canon Zoom Telephoto EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM Autofocus Lens (Oh yes, I copy and pasted that one). It’s a great lens and since it’s a bit of an older model it’s not as expensive as most either. So I figured it was a good choice all around and will be great for me to learn the ropes with. After already having ordered it I came across it on Amazon too and was amused by the fact that it seems to be the most bought lens in combination with the new camera I have. So I guess I did alright.

Also, a great tip for your avid gardeners btw:
If you want to keep unwanted pests and wildlife out of your yard, my advice would be to buy a new camera with the intention of taking wildlife shots and get excited about testing it out on “insert any and all local wildlife species” in your back yard.

I swear, everything’s been making a detour around our yard ever since I got the stinking lens Well, except for one squirrel. Unfortunately since it was my first attempt they all turned out blurry. Though I was very much amused by the fact that I managed to get the stereotypical newbie photographer shot of the blurry back end of a squirrel as it’s darting out of the frame lol.

Unfortunately the rest of mother nature refuses to humor me too. It’s supposed to be nasty and rainy all weekend So no fun trips to test the camera out yet I’m afraid.

-Dee.

From the very first time I saw the movie teaser poster (with no text, but just a little robot) for the new Disney-Pixar movie Wall-E I went… “ehr… there’s gonna be a new Short Circuit movie?” and “WTH did they do to poor Number 5!?”.

But apparently this isn’t Number 5… It’s Wall-E.
And he’s completely different… yeah.

Number 5 doesn’t seem too convinced though…

Apart from that it seems like it might be a cute movie though. The previews did seem amusing. But I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed that they weren’t a tad more original in his design. They could’ve made him to be a bit less of an obvious Number 5 derivation and have less of the people who grew up watching Short Circuit cringe at the idea.

Because Number 5 is alive!
He is in my childhood memories at least.

-Dee.

Hey… pssst!… Dee’s got a new blog entry… pass it on to the person next to you!…
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Hey… pssst!… Dee’s got a new blog entry… pass it on to the person next to you!…
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Hey… pssst!… Dee’s got a new blog entry… pass it on to the person next to you!…

heheh, no I don’t really have any news, I just happened to check out my maploco map and found the pattern it had on it today oddly amusing.

-Dee.

(PS, if you thought you were secretly stalking me all this time but weren’t aware of my maploco map and are freaking out right now, is’ alriiight… don’t worry about it, you’re allowed to lurk and I won’t ruin your creepy fun. )