June 01, 2007

funeral for a laptop

my hard drive crashed today. oohhhh ouch. nononononoooooo.

May 31, 2007

blogger's creed

i wrote this someplace around here once upon a time. it still fits...

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The Blogger's Creed

what i don’t owe you/what you don’t owe me:

an out
a pat on the back
a lie
a kiss
a cover up
a glass half empty or half full
a snow globe
a flashlight
a mother
an intervention
kindness
30 lashes
anything flannel
the truth
Xanax or Ecstasy
bare naked ladies
fact checking
a sunny day
a snow cone
links
roses
a dozen or so Lincoln logs
a whipping boy/girl
six inches
smoldering embers
a reason

[ X ] clicking confirms your agreement. thank you.

May 29, 2007

OMG They are So in Love

Well, she moved into his house today. It is that simple. He had his house--it was his house and he loved it. She moved into his cage and started to eat his house (who had the idea of making an edible hamster house I do not know). Next, they fell in love and were doing the hamster dance all night, and now she has taken up residence in the house she once considered dinner.

All seems well.

I thought, what a joke to make a house out of food. A bizarre hamster fairy tale. Here is your house: it is made out of your favorite food. If you eat it, you are homeless. As if your life in a cage was not bad enough.

But things are looking up for old Marshmallow. He has a housemate and a wife. Sure her butt sticks out the doorway, but what an you do. At least she has stopped eating his house. I don't think anyone can ask for much more than that.

...

So far so good on the hamster front, what about ants

There's something peaceful and even funny about watching little animals -- their superfast miniature relationship building techniques not so different from ours. We still have an ant farm from Christmas that we haven't ordered ants for.

George and Jenna thought maybe we could collect ants from the yard, but the instructions tell a lot about different types of ants and how they behave and how getting the wrong kind of ant will either overpopulate the farm, or sometimes you get the very aggressive ants and then even the good ants you do want end up all fighting and killing each other and then you have no ants in the ant farm. Reminds me in some ways of the blogworld, and I'm not even sure how. But for $5 I guess it's worth ordering the right kind of ants that come with a queen so it's like a litte ant ecosystem in a box.

Fear is hard. I'm there too often. But things like hamsters and ants and writing about hamsters and ants seem to help. I suppose it's time to order some ants.

Going to not worry about writing for a while. Will be here as I can. Resting otherwise.

...

May 28, 2007

she ran calling wildfire

Five days post-op, six laps around the driveway today, plus plenty of steps. I was glad to get outside--the last two days have been Code Orange days in our area. Not terrorist threats, but smoke.

The smoke from the southeastern wildfires has been hanging over us for two days and folks with heath issues have been advised to stay inside. I went out to the mailbox and back yesterday, and it smelled like a worldwide backyard bonfire. The haze was pretty thick. But it lifted today enough to bring us down to yellow, so I had my driveway parade. It hurt some but wasn't too bad.

Pain is interesting. Or something like that. Mind you, what I'm going through is a drop in the bucket compared to others with chronic issues. At the hospital the nurses told me I was super for getting up and walking an hour after I got into my room. I made a point to walk a lot since walking is the best way to not get blood clots and helps fewer adhesions form. They kept pointing to the pain scale faces, and I think I hovered around 3 the whole time. They seemed pretty amazed I wasn't in more pain. I say, if you haven't woken up in the OR pre-pain-meds after a six-hour myomectomy, you don't know after-surgery pain. They are right about the laparoscopy--the pain is much less. I am so thankful for that. And good pain meds don't hurt. ;-)

All in all, so far so good. 5 days down. And counting.

Thank you one and all for your good wishes, emails, comments, and prayers. Some of you will believe me, some not, but whether you do or don't isn't the point. Before they took me into the OR, I actually heard and felt them. Straight up. We matter to each other and it matters when we get real. Real isn't always pretty. Can't sanitize it. Can't forget it. The Good Lord knows.

I am grateful to you more than I can say.

Now, it's back to the hamster action.

I just went down and had a look. Old Marshmallow hasn't been so active in a long while. He was even chewing on his wooden house. He hasn't chewed in forever. He was also chasing Cupcake around the cage. In a good way. They are both drinking from the water bottles like fish. Or something.

Hey, they have each other. They seem happy.

....

In the same cage tonight....

Muskrat, Muskrat, candle light
Doin' the town and doin' it right in the evenin'
It's pretty pleasin'
Muskrat Suzie, Muskrat Sam
Do the jitterbug at a Muskrat Land
And they shimmy, Sam is so skinny

And they whirl and they twirl and they tango
Singin' and jinglin' a jangle
Float like the heavens above
Looks like Muskrat Love

Nibblin' on bacon
Chewin' on cheese
Sam says to Suzie
Honey, would you please be my Mrs
Suzie says, yes, with her kisses
Now, he's ticklin' her fancy
Rubbin' her toes
Muzzle to muzzle
Now anything goes as they wriggle
Sue starts to giggle

And they whirled and they twirled and they tango
Singin' and jinglin' a jangle
Floatin' like the heavens above
Looks like muskrat love



..

May 27, 2007

when marshmallow met cupcake

thank you thank you thank you thank you for bein' here for my
six holes blues
grateful for walking talking stalking online funin' incision lovin'
six holes blues


Recuperation update: So far so good.

There's a new hamster in town. That's something. George and Jenna decided that my recovery would be more interesting if they brought home a female hamster to be a potential mate for the ancient three year old Max/Marshmallow we've had since Jenna was in first grade. Determined to carry on the line of the SuperHamster, they went to Pet Smart yesterday.

To wit, Vanilla Cupcake has joined the family. She has her own cage for now during this courtship phase. George thought it would be better for her to get used to her new home before introducing the two. Their cages are side by side. Last night they dined separately on special hamster popcorn. Who knew?

I enjoy sitting and watching the spry Miss Cupcake on her wheel. She is a wheel addict. Go cupcake, run for me and all of the cupcakes like me I left behind on floor 4.

For his part, Mr. Marshmallow came out and observed his new neighbor--it has been a while now since his entire family died off.

He took one look at her and went back in his house.

Not exactly a made for TV movie or Sunday night Animal Planet special. But we still have hope.

....