Blibber Blabber

No rhyme, no reason

 

One of the funny things about going home and looking through old pictures is discovering that you have almost the exact same style of glasses that you wore when you were four:

Weeeeeird.

It's snowing right now.  Kids are out of school.  Cats don't like their butts wet.

posted by: athenawj at 07:54 | link | comments (5) |
photography, snow, memories

We had a big scare with Pogo yesterday.  He was sluggish, his eyes were barely open, and he kept gagging, unable to really eat.  After some research, we found that rats cannot vomit or burp-  they have a flap in their throat that prevents this, and he most likely had something lodged in his throat.  Sometimes they can work it out, but of course, sometimes not.

Our small animal vet wasn't open, and NONE of the emergency hospitals we called knew how to care for rats.  Even the ones we called out of town.  And I'm not afraid to admit I started crying out of frustration (I'm wont to do this anyway). In a city this size, only one vet knows how to care for rodents???  Makes me wonder what's going on in vet school.  And yeah, I got upset because I was afraid my baby would choke.

Anyway, it took awhile, but Pogo slowly seemed to improve, and when we checked him this morning, he was up and around, eyes wide open, sniffing us and the air, and  he could climb back into his cage. We're still calling the vet when he opens, though, to find out what to do next time.  No one wants to see their pet suffer (mostly.  I've watched "Animal Cops".).

Their was one nice thing about all this.  Kiwi took good care of his brother: grooming him, following him around, nestling with him... rats become extremely close to their companions, and I'm sure Kiwi knew Pogo was sick.  It made me feel better to know Kiwi was keeping an eye on him, too.

***

We sat through "American Gangster" (while taking breaks to watch Pogo).  It was... okay.  A good story that could have been cut down by an hour.  Too.  Damn.  Long.  Though I love me some Russell Crowe, his backstory could have been cut out of the movie, because it didn't really belong there.  The last hour was much better than the first.  But I thought Denzel Washington was a much better bad guy in "Training Day".

posted by: athenawj at 06:34 | link | comments (2) |

Trip Home

I'm back.  Had a very good trip home.  The best part was all the snow.  Okay, only three inches, but it's a helluva lot more than what I get here.  My mom and I went out walking in it, and along the way I: fell (a given); built a little snowman and carried him three blocks back to my parents house (I imagine some of the people passing by in cars wondered why I was carrying a snowman); had a conversation with a half-grown tabby cat (yes, the cat talked back-- he said he was cold and it was time to go inside); watched a half-grown black lab chew on some old tissue paper; watched as my mom rolled up a carpet of snow into a huge roll of "toilet paper"; and peeked into a burned out building to find that the owners had my old couches.  The couches were miraculously untouched.

I also almost exclusively took ttv pictures.  It was so cold that not too many people were out to wonder why I was taking pictures with an Apple Jacks box.  You can find them at my flickr page.

I looked through a bunch of old photographs and found that the glasses I wear now are exactly the same shape as the ones I had when I was four (fyi, I've been wearing glasses since I was two.  Far-sighted here).  I'm scanning them all; maybe I'll post some soon.

A good trip. :)

ETA: My mom and I went to see "No Country for Old Men" Friday night.  I was blown away by Javier Bardem.  My goodness, but they made him ugly for that movie.  A lot of questions for me, and I didn't mind the ending like others apparently did, but it was really good.  I'm going to read the book so hopefully those questions are cleared up.

posted by: athenawj at 06:32 | link | comments (4) |
photography, snow, vacation

The March of the Sickies continue on...

OD participated in an honors wind and percussion concert series in Cookeville yesterday.  She spent Thursday, Friday and yesterday there, but yesterday morning she called to say she had the same thing that YD and Mr. Calm had.  Poor thing ended up not being able to make it to the bathroom in between rehearsals, and had to throw up in a garbage can in front of everyone.  One father made the joke that she shouldn't let her nerves get the best of her, heh.  After the concert, we stopped at CVS and got her some Pepto, but that came right up.  She was able to make it out of the car, thank goodness.

She's feeling better now.  I'm due to hit the road for WV on Tuesday... we'll see what happens with me.  I just knocked on wood.

The concert was good.  I wish I could tell you the names of the pieces, but I loved the second and third songs-- faster in tempo, what I like.  The third song made me think of the music that accompanies the "Soarin'" ride at Disney.  Afterward, OD said that she thought it sounded just like the "Soarin'" music, which made me laugh.  Great minds thinking alike.

The last song featured oboe and trumpet solos.  Um.  I don't know why the oboeist was handed a solo.  It was... awful.  Truly.  Awful.  Perhaps it was nerves.  Yes, let's chalk it up to that.  The audience was rude (not to the oboeist).  I've never heard such lukewarm applause at a concert.  What the hell?  The woman beside me didn't even clap until the end of the concert.  She was too busy constantly flapping through the program.

Mr. Calm and I had a bit of a talk last night.  I'm on my last nerve, and it's good that I'm taking a little break.  There's only so much a person can do, and then it's the other person's turn.  It may be that we spend too much time together.  And then there's the business, here in our home.  I do like that his clients trust  him, and like him, but there's that, and then there's the calls at seven a.m. or eleven at night; Sundays constantly disrupted (used to be our Family Day... not anymore); being told to shush while he's on the phone; the constant phone calls wherever we go, and the talks while we're trying to eat, shop, do anything....

He's not a fucking doctor!  He's not delivering your baby!  Your toilet is not spewing shit!  He is your web designer!

Get it?  Many of these people don't.  Why do they not get that if the phone isn't answered the first time, that doesn't give them leave to call three, four, five times in a row?

Financially, it's brought us a better life, but there are many hassles.  Mo' money, mo' problems.  They ought to feel lucky I'm not around them to verbally smack them upside their heads.

(insert Big.  Heavy. Sigh.  here.)

Rant over.

 

 

posted by: athenawj at 08:10 | link | comments (2) |

How could I forget?  I watched "The Descent" this past week, too.  Mistake #1: beginning to watch it at eleven at night.  Mistake #2: watching a horror movie at all, no matter how good it is.  With my overactive imagination and fear of the dark (yes, coming out here), I shouldn't watch anything remotely scary.

Good it was, but man, I jumped so much-- even pulled the blanket I was huddled under over my head at one point.  Lots of nods to other horror films, but still, it worked.  Claustrophobic, dark, bloody, freaky, scary-- a very good film.  Best of all, I liked that it didn't pander to a particular demographic or possible box office- possibly because it wasn't made by a U.S. studio.

And, alas, the antho I'm in didn't make it to the final ballot of the Stokers.  But I was thinking the other day, even if I don't ever get published again, this is a good way to go out: with a well-written story that people enjoy and that was well reviewed.  Right? :)

posted by: athenawj at 07:52 | link | comments (1) |

It's Sicky Time around here.  YD was down with the stomach flu earlier in the week, and Mr. Calm suffered with it yesterday.  I've only had it once in my life-- felt sick as hell for half a day.  I remember a friend being kind enough to pick milk up for me at the store, and right after she arrived I had to run to the bathroom to upchuck (lovely).  And then I felt better.  Is that the way it goes?

The snow we got the other day is all gone.  It was fun while it lasted-- maybe three-quarters of an inch.  I bundled up and went outside with my TTV contraption while it was still snowing and took pictures.  Ollie accompanied me.  Cats are so much fun when they love to follow you around.  Very unfortunately, I realized a skunk had sprayed somewhere in the bushes that front the house, so I didn't stay there very long.  Oh, the wildlife.  We've even had a fox in the yard before-- Mr. Calm spied him in the wee hours one morning.  My favorites, besides all my birdies that I feed, are the wild turkeys across the road that fly up from the farm valley.  Monsters, they are.

I go to WV next week to help my mom start a business; teach her some internet ins and outs.  I'm thinking I'm just going to do the TTV thing with pictures.  I think my uncle, a professional photographer, will get a kick out of my contraption.

While I'm holding off on doing anything til I get back, I was totally inspired by Project Runway to sketch out a dress inspired by the black plague.  Heh.  Their last assignment was to visit three rooms at the MMA and be inspired by one of the artworks.  Hey, there was a whole new movement in art after the plague of the Middle Ages, so I'm not so wacko.

By the way, years ago, OD won third place in the county for her social studies project on the black plague.  Guess who suggested the subject? ;)

I'm totally digging Law & Order-- the original, this season.  After over a decade, I quit watching it last year because the new cast members SUCKED, and so did the stories.  But one of the old exec. producers is back, Linus Roache and Jeremy Sisto are now in the cast, and Sam Waterston is rocking the D.A. role.  It's really excellent again, and the cast has gelled beautifully.  If you left the show, return!

Yesterday I fully saw that some rats are totally unafraid.  Ollie's taken up the irritating habit of getting close to the rat cage (they live in YD's room part of the time, and up front in the living room from 3-midnight), and many times Pogo will creep close to stare at him, and sometimes make this funny lunging motion that makes Ollie run away.  Yesterday, Pogo kept stretching himself to his full height and making these loud chuffing noises.  I *think* he was warning Ollie, and establishing his territory.  What a little man! ;)  Ollie needs to watch out, what with rats having over 2,000 pounds of pressure behind their bites.

I finally watched "The Last King of Scotland" yesterday.  What a powerful movie.  You really do forget you're watching actors.  My only quibble with it would be the reactions-- James McAvoy was in it *more* than Forrest Whittaker, but his performance was completely overshadowed.  A shame, for he was really good.

posted by: athenawj at 06:45 | link | comments (2) |
art , photography, movies, television, snow, crazy kitties, rats

Yeah, down to 0/0.  Time for another post.

Nothing much doing, though.  New fun jewelry over at Groovin' Pop!  We had tiny spits of snow yesterday.  It's cold here.

I'm still tapping.  Finally mastered the shuffle-hop-step last night, a move that I usually tripped up on after two shuffles.  I'm now dancing a little, and it's so much damn fun.  The next section on the dvd is a complete dance-- I tried to keep up last night, but it'll take a few rewinds and watches to get it all down.  I look forward to it. :)

I finally started making sales again this week, though one was a reserve for a repeat customer.  I've been promoting the hell out of myself, but it doesn't seem to be working.  Even though I'm loathe to do it-- I'm shy, and sitting around all day at the farmer's market doesn't much appeal to me-- I may end up doing a craft show or two just to unload this stuff.

I'm waiting on two old but working cameras to arrive- my little splurge last weekend (along with the film).  A Polaroid Colorpack land camera-- one of the old ones that you pull the film out yourself (I'd like to experiment with transfers), and an Ansco Shur-Shot box camera that takes 120 film. More oldie-but-goodie fun!

posted by: athenawj at 07:46 | link | comments (3) |
art , photography