My latest obsession: Tobecky and Wordgirl!

Okay, guys. Sorry, but I kinda gave up on the whole pet thing, I was getting a little bored. But here's a list of the other pets unlisted: Lola, dwarf hamster - gray, tiny, cute, nicknamed 'The Gray Menace'. Fish - Onyx, Glen, Amber, and Lollipop. A, O, & G are baby koi and Lollipop is a huge, brown, leopard-spotted sucker fish. Seaweed - fire-bellied toad, small, green, spotted, bright orange belly. Eats crickets by the dozen.

Anyway, now time for my new obsession - yet another children's cartoon!! WORDGIRL!!!! Wordgirl is "an affectionate Superman parody" and she is an alien from the planet Lexicon (haha, get it?)with super-strength, super-speed, the ability to defy gravity, and epic vocabulary skills, who now lives on Earth in an unnamed 'fair city'. Her sidekick is a monkey, also a Lexiconian, named Captain Huggyface/Bob, his secret identity. WG's secret identity is Becky Botsford. She is thought of as pretty(although she is unaware of this), and admired by many, most notably Tobey. She has a crush on reporter Todd 'Scoops' Ming, and her best friend is Violet Heaslip.

About the 'Tobecky' thing - Tobey is a boy genius who specializes in building giant robots(oddly enough, pronounced by many 'robuts' in the show) who destroy the city upon his command. He also has an obsessive crush on Wordgirl, and whereas he is a villain, he only destroys things to get Wordgirl's attention or try and win her heart, not being truly evil. He often demands that if he beats her in a contest of wits, she will tell him her secret identity or go out for ice cream with him. Unfortunately she does not return his clearly demonstrated affections, but she does have some compatibility with him(shown in episodes 'Have you seen the remote?' and 'Department store Tobey'), and where she won't say she had a good time with him here, she won't admit she doesn't, either.

Wow, I sound like a Wiki page!!! :O

Anyway, I'm a definite fan of Tobecky, and I've been doing a LOT of stuff on DeviantArt! My username there is Gingersnap821, in case anyone wants to stalk me. Here's one of the pics I did for DA.

Hope you like it, and have a great weekend!! 'Bye!!

Just a quick update--goodbyyyyyyye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, this isn't a real post, guys. Just a quick update to tell you that I am going to Maine tomorrow, so don't expect another post for at least ten days. And I am going TENT CAMPING, so no chance of me using a laptop. Wish me luck, and I'll post tons of epic pics when I get home(as long as I don't get mauled by a grizzly bear first!!)!

SO DO NOT WORRY. I AM NOT DEAD, just camping. :)  Bye!!

A break from the series..A cute felted Otter!!

This is what I felted today:

             
 Today was a thunderstorming mess of a Wednesday, like a raincloud choking on fire and lightning in a severe car accident in the middle of a tsunami(Go back and read that sentence again. It was a work of art.), so I decided to felt something. And after browsing through pictures of animals on the internet for about half an hour, I finally settled on a North American River Otter. After all, otters are cute, smart, playful, and can twist themselves into fun shapes! Who wouldn't felt an otter? And so it began.

Another brainstorm I had(after Rachel commented, "People would pay for that!") was to felt little endangered animal models, and then start selling them online. Then, I would donate most of the profit money to the WWF! Haha!! I would be doing good for my creativity and rare animals! What could be better?

So a thunderstorming mess of a Wednesday actually turned out to be good for something. And sorry I didn't do a pet post today, but I'll probably be doing Lola tomorrow. So stay tuned, and please comment if you like the WWF idea!


              

The Biggest, Grandest Freakazoid Feline That Ever Lived: Say hello To......

Bo, of course!

Presuming you have read my blog, you know all about Bo, mostly. If you don't know the basics, go to the September 2011 section in the archive first.

Now that you've read that, let me tell you how we got Bo(and Molly, for that matter.).

Molly and Bo are brother and sister, five years old, and this being a a home for defective pets, of course they're 'mutt' cats. We got them summer of 2007 after our beloved tabby cat Belle died tragically in the crawlspace. We were looking for a kitten to replace her, and Mom thought to look on Freecycle, so we wouldn't have to pay, of course! And she found an ad for 3-week-old kittens. The breeder was an accidental 'backyard breeder'(meaning she doesn't do it professionally for money)---her female cat wasn't spayed at one year old because she  "didn't know they could have kittens that young!" So we were looking and looking, and we loved Molly but Bo was the only male in a litter of four kittens, and splitting up siblings is so cruel, and so....yup, you guessed it, Molly and Bo both came home. They were absolutely adorable as kittens, with short little tabby--striped tails,big green eyes, and each with a unique pattern of black patches, which are also tabby striped.
They were also extremely crazy, and would run around pouncing on everything from dust balls to jingle bells, climb couches, hide in cabinets, sit on papers, and even at that tender age of one month, Bo somehow managed to scale the door to my parents' bedroom and sit balanced on the top(I'm NOT kidding.). Perhaps one of their most annoying antics was attacking our feet under the blankets when we would go to sleep.

Now Bo's most recent oddity is becoming a hermit. No, not a crab, he will just hide under the blankets in either my or my parents' bed and sleep there for days. No, he's not sick, just really, really lazy? The main problems with this operation are that  a) He gets fleas in my sheets, and b) I sometimes end up sitting on him.
Eventually he'll come downstairs to use the litter box, grab some food, and slurp a drink of water before creeping back up to his lair, but only about every three days. WTF?? So, living with Bo, the main question in my life has become, "What the ______ is wrong with this cat?"

A story of feathered friends...The Chickens!

As you all know, I have four chickens.

As you all know, I have four evil chickens.

As you all know, I have four evil chickens who break their eggs.

And as you all know, this is what I have called you here to discuss.

So. Here they are:


The white one is Penelope, and the brown one is my favorite, Buffy.

 The very speckley one is Daisy, and the black one is Sirius(YES like from Harry Potter, and I'm getting sick of explaining this to everyone.), and Buffy's in there too.

And here's a good picture of Buffy I got back in April.

So the main problem with chickens in general is that they're so messy. They are little pooping machines. Also(and I speak from experience), they will dig pits in the ground, wreak havoc among hoseboxes(Please don't ask!!), chase around cats, poop all over the patio and in your shoes if you leave them out, eat peonies, coriopsis, butterfly bush, roses, and are particularly fond of destroying lavender.
Our chickens also break their eggs.

Now, you'll ask, "What kind of cannabalistic freak chickens will break and eat their own eggs??" Now before you start, I'll say that it was not their fault. We go to Boston every year for my Dad's business trip, and they were locked in a tiny run for two weeks. And our boneheaded neighbor Matthew, who was supposed to be taking care of them, didn't bother to take a single egg out of the coop. For two weeks. WTF, Matthew??? Didn't I specifically ask you to put eggs in the fridge, and clean the coop?? AND I left you specific instructions on HOW!! So they were bored to death in their tiny prison and decided that eggs tasted good. That was last November. They have been doing it ever since then, with great sacrifices on my part!! For the past two months I've been getting up at five thirty in the morning to catch the eggs. And not only that, but I have to wait until they're LAYING the egg, standing around outside while they put up a royal racket for twenty minutes, then snatch the egg as soon as it's out. Penelope actually LURKS in the run while Buffy is laying in the coop, so that she can speed in there and eat it as soon as it's out of Buffy's--

OKAY, let's talk about their personalities for a minute.

Penelope: The head of the flock, the ringmaster, the hog of all food and treats. She is wild, sometimes mean, and will try to eat freckles off your legs. She is friends with Sirius and constantly driving the others away from food to get it all to herself. She is also the one who breaks the most eggs. Delaware.

Sirius Black: The regal peacemaker. Sirius is second in command and will hog the food a little bit, but she never pecks Daisy, and rarely Buffy. I like her looks because she has shiny black feathers, a high tail, blue feet, and brown eyes, which is rare for a chicken(they usually have orange.). Black Jersey Giant.

Daisy: The scaredy-cat. Daisy will run away if you get too close and is also the noisiest, clucking and trilling constantly to herself. Her scared personality is probably not helped by the fact that one time, we were leaving for Boston in, like, half an hour and Daisy escaped from the run, causing me to chase her around for twenty minutes, trying to catch her with a butterfly net. Silver-Laced Wyandott.

Buffy: The underdog. Buffy is a small chicken but, for some reason, lays the biggest eggs. She is bullied mostly because she's from a different flock, she is actually slightly older than the others. She is very pretty, but she has a white patch right behind her comb where the others peck her. I always have to feed her separately in the morning so she gets enough food. She is the friendliest and will come when I call her. Buff Orphington.


Anyway, they've gotten better about the eggs, especially when I get up early enough. And I love having chickens even if they are freaks of nature. So let's hear it for my most feathered pets..........the chickens!

Warning: This post is rated PG13 for sexual references....Blackberry

This is Blackberry.

And this.

And this:

While I'm giving you time to recover from the cuteness, let's talk a bit about my sweet little bunny.

As all of you who have read my blog from the beginning(or at least from February) know, Blackberry is a now-nine-month-old Holland Lop and NOT a girl, like I was once convinced of. He has always been such a little puffball that it's been impossible to judge scientifically before now. But NOW I can tell you that yes, certainly, Blackberry is definitely a boy. Also, as the title suggests, he has had lots of....issues for a few months. Let's just say you don't want to get anywhere near him in the spring.

For the first eleven years of my life, I was blissfully unaware of any of the most repulsive things of adulthood and naively assumed that when a couple was married, pop! one night a baby just magically appeared in the wife's belly and started growing, until, nine months later, there was a lot of fuss and shouting in a hospital or(like in my little sister's case) a nice lady with a black bag showed up at your house and helped pop the baby out. Then, a few hours later, a new small red scrap of humanity would join the family with a LOT of noise. My guess about animal reproduction was a lot closer--I knew even as a little kid that two animals needed to "mate" to make baby animals, but the knowledge from there was much like the human guess, just minus the midwife/hospital. I had absolutely no idea how the reproduction actually took place. And then came the revelation, when my sister gave me a book and a small and awkward talk. (I remember the first question out of my mouth was, "Why is it 'the birds and the bees'?") For the record, I DID NOT need to see the pictures in that book twice!! Anyway, when Blackberry started getting more destructive, and also started trying to, well, you know......Then I knew the awkward truth, as much as I wish it weren't true. Facts are facts, and the fact is, Blackberry is a boy. And you know what? I'm okay with that. BUT the other problem is that he hasn't been neutered and his....maturity gives him excessive energy. Here's his usual nightly agenda:

10:00pm---11:30pm: Eat newspaper from litter box. Also rip it up LOUDLY and stomp on the little pieces as hard as possible.

11:45pm---1:00am: Start trying to construct tunnel to Taiwan through bottom of cage.

1:00am---1:30am: Crawl into his box and jump up, thunking the box into every wall possible.

1:30am---3:00am: Sleep(the only quiet thing he does all night.).

3:15am---3:30am: Crunch food as loudly as possible.

3:30am---4:00am: Have a contest with Lola concerning who can drink faster and click water bottle the loudest(Blackberry usually wins these.).

4:00am---6:15am(when I get up): Sleep.

And it's not like I leave him in his cage all day, it's not that he's bored--he has a little play pen that we set up in grass and dirt so that he can hop around, munch on grass, dig in the dirt, etc., so don't say he's just bored all night. Not to mention the stick, tennis ball, toilet paper tube, empty cardboard tape roll, wooden mobile, salt lick, wooden box hideout, and sponge vegetables he has to keep him amused.

Anyway, even though he might be a pain in the _____ sometimes, I'm glad he's my pet and my nice birthday bunny. And I love him forever!

Mass Murderer On The Loose!!! Wait.....Lila?

Breaking News: In the quiet suburbs of New York, a mass murderer convict has escaped from prison and is on a rampage!!! Men, women and children are advised to bar doors and lock windows! Do not leave the safety of your home! NOWHERE IS SAFE!! The convict is accused of hundreds of grisly murders and smaller crimes that include vandalism of finished basements. The villain is a middle-aged female, with a pretty face and green eyes, about eighteen inches long, black fur and white paws, along with a white bib and paler whiskers.....wait, what? Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome toooo...Lila!

Lila was our christmas cat the December of 2007. She was received from my dad's friend from work, who was moving back to New Zealand and couldn't take her because of a misunderstanding: Even though she HAD, the vets were somehow convinced Lila hadn't had her shots and so she wasn't allowed on the plane, and it was too late to change plans, so Dad came home from work one night and greeted us, "Hi, guys! Do you want a cat?" So Lila arrived!

At first she lived in our cozy, dark basement/T.V. room/laundry room and was happy because it was twilit and warm, with plenty of places to hide. Of course, we were all over her in those first few days, and that was what she didn't like about the setup--only Mom(a cat person through and through) could coax her out of hiding for pets and cuddles. Of course, being seven, five, and three, Ben, Emma and I were hardly an appealing trio to a quiet and timid city cat adapting to her surroundings. We tried to "play" with her constantly--also known as tying some feathers, a twist tie, and a lone jingle bell to a ribbon and waving the whole torture device in her face--so you can see why she didn't like us very much initially! Over the course of a few months, I(being the animal handler in our family) was able to interact briefly with her by pretending to watch T.V. Then she would creep up and eventually end up on the couch next to me or on my lap.
                                 Then she started peeing.
No, not all over me or the couch, just in general. On the carpet, on the chair, on the pillows, the cushioned benches, the blankets, and yes on the couch actually. So what did we do? We dry cleaned the couch. We scrubbed the carpet. We washed the blankets. We took the covers off the pillows. We even took her to the vet to see if she was losing control of her bladder, she had always used the litter box before. But the vet detected nothing wrong and even suggested we feed her a different food. So what did we do then?
                                We tossed Lila outside.
Yes, that may sound rather heartless, but she was completely ruining our basement!! Also we let her into a cat carrier next to the radiator at night. She ate outside, drank outside, explored outside, played outside, killed outside. Yes, I did say killed. Days after we released her, we stepped outside to find a rather horribly killed robin on the door stoop--which poor little Ben promptly stepped in. We cleaned up the carnage, disinfected Ben's leg, and spent hours scrubbing feathers out of the welcome mat. Home sweet home. Soon after, Lila began leaving her little 'presents' all over the yard, patio, steps, doormat, and even in trees that she was fond of climbing. Her favorite kills are voles and small birds, but we've discovered a rather extensive collection, including jays, sparrows, half-developed eggs, moles, mice, snakes, squirrels, a few headless, dismembered, and generally unidentifiable creatures, and once even a baby rabbit. Needless to say, we've bought many bell collars and spare bells, and one seems to be sticking. To this day, you can find Lila prowling the neighborhood, beautiful in her tiny ferocity and really much friendlier than she was in the basement. But you had better be careful if you are a mouse.

Molly: A cat story

Hey guys, time for the second post in my epic saga of demento pets! Today I'll tell you all about Molly.

THIS is Molly:

 Molly's main problems are--One: She's pretty fat,

Two: When you pet her too much, she turns to extreme violence.


 Now the first one isn't really a problem, I mean, who doesn't like little butterball kitties? But her mini-obesity has resulted in....affectionate nicknames that we constantly annoy her with(for a period of time, she forgot her name was Molly because we called her Cow, Molly Monster, or just plain Fat.), which often result in grievous wounds. She also gets extremely irate for some reason when we tease her about her udder-see the flabby, furry lump that hangs down off her belly near her back legs. While she'd lay sprawled on the kitchen table, we'd squeal at her adorableness and take turns daring each other to dash up and touch the udder without getting maimed, mauled, or mutilated by her evil claws and needle-like fangs(yes folks, she does bite!), until her green eyes would get that maniacal gleam of fresh blood or she would unleash a low, long warning hiss of wwwwsssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! After which we would depart with heartfelt and oh so true cries of, "OH, shoot!!"
And then poor Molly, miffed, would stalk off to find a new place to sleep, preferably the fridge on which she is untouchable, and also where the food dish is conveniently located.

Yes, the reason everything is in past tense is because we stopped being so mean to poor little Molly, so now she is much nicer...........


But if you ever overstimulate her, watch out.

Julia Eager's Home For Defective Pets

Hi guys! Today (or rather over the course of many posts) we'll be covering the not-so-new topic of my many neurodic pets.

So what we'll do is: Every day I'll pick one pet to be in the limelight and give you an exclusive interview all about that pet. Oh and even though he's already had a whole post dedicated to him, Bo will probably still be appearing in one of these special 'interviews'. So today I thought we could start off with my biggest, fastest, and most faithful pet. Say hello toooooooo - Sophie!

Sophie is an eight-year-old collie-golden retriever mix and very cute. In case you've never met her, she has the color of a retriever, the dainty snout of a collie but with bigger, softer eyes, small triangular floppy ears, and is relatively small, only thirty pounds although she comes up to your mid-leg when she stands. I think being part-collie gave her extremely light bones, like a bird. And she also has a plumy long tail and beautiful, long, thick fur(when she has any.). That's right, when she has any.

Sophie's main problem is that she just chews, bites, and scratches her fur off. It seems to come in cycles - for a few months she'll have lovely thick golden fur, then bald patches, scabs, and greasy skin. It's really sad because sometimes people recoil from her when she's bald, because they don't know what a wonderful dog  she really is. This all started when she was about three years old. She was utterly adorable as a puppy, standing barely higher than a cat when we rescued her from the shelter. She kept all her fur for years, then she got one bad month of fleas, and BAM, even when the fleas were long gone, the scratching remained.

We thought it might be skin problems, because she's part retriever, and they have a long and infamous history of having skin allergies and issues. So we tried her on all-natural, no-wheat-no-corn snob dog diets, even feeding her just raw chicken at one point(hey, don't judge-we love our dog and will do anything for her!), but nothing seemed to work. Then we came to the conclusion that maybe she was bored and not getting enough exercise. So I would walk her at around six every morning and then later Ben, Emma and I would run around the yard with her, playing fetch or throwing tennis balls for her to bury under a bush. Our dog glowed with health, but the odd symptoms continued.

I am sad to say that we still haven't gotten to the bottom of our poor pup's mysterious fur loss, and we give her plenty of exercise, water, all-natural snob food, and most importantly, love. Love is the best medicine(or maybe laughter, I never was very good with those home remedies. ;)after all, so please give hope for Sophie! We love her and she loves us, no matter what she looks like.

Thing Of The Day: T.V. Rating: Not Awesome

Okay, T.V.   Today I come to you to settle a few wayward things about you that I do NOT appreciate. And I can assure you that this is not just my opinion, and that many good people agree with me on at least one of these points.

Number one: I'll start with the basics: Your name. Your FULL name. Television. "T.V." is a common abbrieviation, and most people just say "T.V." so that they're not constantly irritated by spewing a crazy word of four syllables. That's right, FOUR. What the @#**$% ? What kind of respectable object has a name that long?? Also, it's not like you're rare or precious in any way. Yeah, that's right, television, you are absolutely common and mediocre. If you look into any average American home you will see at least two televisions. Your real name suggests fancy culture and a 'high society' aspect, but the truth is, you are not special or amazing in any way......television. Hah!

Number two: Your hypnotic powers. Oh! I see you're looking surprised, maybe a bit puzzled, slightly indignant at such an accusation. You're a very good actor for an inatimate object, T.V. But I know the truth behind your innocently buzzing screen!! Your incoherent mumbling is just another small, subtle noise meant to shut down the brain and ensnare the senses in your meaningless jumble of "Modern Entertainment"! I've seen your evil forces at work. I've seen my little cousins, staring wide-eyed at the screen, my friend's 4-year-old sister turned to a listless little zombie under your controlling gaze. Oh, and don't worry, I'm not under the impression that your hypnotizing force only works on innocent little children! I've seen the adults too, sprawling on the couch, beer in hand and chips at side, not doing anything but allow themselves to be ensnared in your spell! Even I have been stuck in your enticing web occasionally! Oh, don't worry, T.V.  I'm always watching. No matter where I go, I'm always on the lookout for your evil forces at work.....

Number three: Your constant advertising. I find it very irritating to be watching 'River Monsters'(Which I only do very rarely!), and just when Jeremy Wade is about to catch the 300-pound catfish, an advertisement comes on telling me I absolutely need this new car, or this new toy, or this new _______ or this new ____
or this or this or this! You're all like, "Oh! You don't have this cute new dress yet" or "Hey! Why not go out and blow a couple hundred thousand bucks on this incredibly cool new Mercedes?" Not only is this constant babble incredibly annoying, it's also materialistic, degrading, and frankly, dangerous, because your commercials full of "perfect" people are fuel on the fire: Media has already convinced people that they need to be perfect to be accepted by society. So  "perfect" people endorsing these new products convince people to buy the junk to have a perfect house or perfect body or perfect fashion sense or whatever. In case you haven't gotten this through your evil thick skull yet, T.V., I'll summarize it very clearly: This is a bad thing. Got that yet? Okay, let's move on now.

Number four: You have no respect for traditional society. You are constantly moving on to the new wave of products or fashion in the sea of a rapidly changing world. You are willing to give up unique aspects and intense beauty to make things properly low enough for mass consumption: You don't care about ruining traditional culture if the new product is avant-garde enough to be suited for thousands of people to accept it and give you their money. Art and culture are rapidly evaporating in the face of new media!! What is this world coming to?

So. Television. I hope you learned some things from this little rant of mine:

Don't use a fake name to try and conceal your true low identity. It won't work.

It's bad to try and ensnare innocent people, whether child or adult, in your evil clutches. Also it's pointless, because I have the power to turn you off. Ha.

Advertisements are evil, irritating, and unappreciated.

Even if you're doing all in your power to defeat high art and traditional culture, I will always do my best to stop you.

And one last thing, Television. I am always watching.

Epic double rainbow!

Last night at dinner, it was raining dismally - not the good kind of soothing, pounding thunderstorm but an irritating drizzle with dampness and gray skies. But all of a sudden I noticed a patch of sunlight on the wall and realized out loud: "It's  rainbow weather!" So I dashed outside in my pajamas and looked around, at first disappointed by the rainbow(or lack thereof) - and noticed a huge, bright rainbow arcing across the sky! Rainbows usually appear in one place in our yard - from the tree silhouette of the distant neighborhood to Technical Difficulties - and this one was in the regular place, BUT it was so big I had to back up to the corner of the street opposite us to fit it in the viewer of my camera!

Then I noticed that not only was it a huge rainbow with the best colors I've ever seen, there was another faint stripe of color under the first! The first double rainbow I've ever seen! Unfortunately the small rainbow had almost faded by the time I could dig out the camera, but the big one was still amazing. Now naturally the photos weren't half as beautiful or magical as the real thing, but you get the picture - the idea. So I must have looked like a complete loon standing in the rain in my pajamas, but it was worth it - it was so, so worth it. Worth this:

(Just to give you an idea of where this was: Technical Difficulties is to the left, the magnolia tree is to the right, and the tiny square in the right bottom corner is  our chimney.)

By the way, this was also the first rainbow I've ever seen that actually had pink, yellow, green, blue, AND purple!

This was the last picture I got of the rainbow, you can see it's starting to disappear.

A formal apology

Okay. Here is the horse sketch NOT upside down. NOW are you happy?!

Here.

What shall I write about?

Today I was tired because I stayed up until midnight at my brother's play. He got a speaking part in a musical called The King and I(Improper grammar! :O)! Anyway he was great but the problem is I was getting stalked by his friend who is obsessed with asking me questions about the Hunger Games books. Then when we got home my rabbit was going crazy in his cage and I couldn't go to sleep until one in the morning.........I forget where I was going with this.........

On a completely different note, I'm also making this awesome little owl by whittling a block of pine and then gluing on fancy feathers. He'll be a coming-home present for my sister Rachel(For, who all you newcomers, is in a private school in Wisconsin),who is coming back to her loving family, yours truly, on June ninth!!!! Yay! And she says the only food she wants at the party in her honor is homemade pizza-NOT frozen from a box but with real dough and not-canned tomato sauce- because the food at the school stinks. And I guess being raised on homemade bread and wholesome dinners doesn't help when you're being tossed into a frontier of cheese quesadillas that are basically tortillas floating in a puddle of grease. So glad to have her almost back...at least she's survived so far! BUT when I was making the owl I sliced my finger with my Swiss Army knife, so she better like it! (Oh no improper grammar again!! :O)

...........................................(Long, awkward pause while I think of something to say).................................
Today I also went swimming in my neighbors' pool which was like fifty degrees! That was freezing but fun........And in case you're wondering I did NOT break into my neighbors' yard(I'm looking at you, Gwen!). Linda and Dennis are EXtremely generous people who miss having children in their pool and kind of adopted us as grandchildren since until recently they had none. So we were invited four  years ago to come over whenever we wanted to swim! (Rapturous sigh) It's so nice to have good neighbors.........

So, yeah....just an update on my random life! And because I don't really know how to end this post, here's a random sketch of a horse that I made (and has been sitting on my desk ever since!) like three months ago.




And yes, it is upside down. My scanner is screwed up.

Ouchie. OR What did I do to deserve this?!?!!?

This Monday, I had a minor ouch incident. I was walking my dog, right? Well, then the sidewalk decided to make me trip on a jutting part, therefore mauling my toe and sealing my fate as a cripple. Well, tripping on a sidewalk is no big deal, right? I mean, I didn't even fall down. Well, try tripping so hard your toe takes a chip out of the sidewalk. In flip flops. Yeah. So luckily I was in the ending part of our walk, and so I was relatively close to home. So I dragged my toe and dog Sophie home, bleeding all over the road. Oh, and this wasn't just a scrape on my skin(If you have aversions to blood, you probably don't want to read this part.) . This was a full-scale chunk ripped out of my big toe-or almost ripped out. When I tripped, a hunk of my toe was scraped off in one piece, only connected to my actual toe by a thin strip of skin, so it was flapping like a flag and looked like a trap door. And it was flinging blood all over the street.

Oh yeah, and then when I got home, my mom was mad at me for bleeding all over her wood floors. Well, I'll say this, Mom: At least we got the carpet torn up when we moved in.


So, beware sidewalks. And now I'm stuck in stinking sneakers until my toe heals up.

(Actually, I wrote this last week and published it today because I wanted an excuse not to write a real post. So, this was last Monday, and here's a picture of my toe taking an agonizingly long time to heal.)

So, yeah. Be careful of tripping. And I don't even care that that was probably the most obvious moral I could have put in.

Thing of the Day: iPod Rating: Awesome

iPod, you are truly amazing. You can hold megabite upon megabite of my favorite songs and only insist upon being charged every so often. You work hard, tirelessly pumping music into my ears morning and night just so I can have the pleasure of a few songs. I am extremely thankful for this.

I also love the way you look-1 square inch of shiny, lacquered silver metal with beautiful white buttons, and volume control, skip, fast forward, rewind, pause, play, power, shuffle, anything I could desire in an iPod. Not to mention how well you go with your partner the earbuds. White and silver is a very complimentary combination. I also appreciate how you seem to always keep yourself inexplainably clean-even the time when I accidentally left you in my book bag with the melted Jolly Rancher. You seem to know I like you clean and stay that way, somehow.

You even take the time to memorize my favorite songs, and even though I don't really act like it, I'm indescribably happy and grateful about this. I'll just be listening to my music and you'll say, "Oh, I know you like Green Day. How about 'Minority'? No? Okay, what about 'She'? No again? That's okay. What about this? Hmmm, not in the mood for Green Day? How about Joan Jett-here's 'Bad Reputation'. Yay, you like that, don't you! Here, let's try Green Day again. No? Okay, here's Party Rock." So then I listen to Party Rock eighteen times in a row and ruin it for myself for the next two days, and then after that you say, "Good, you like Party Rock! How about Green Day again? I guess that's a no. Here, try 'Dookie' by Green Day! That's a favorite, ri--guess not. How about Party Rock? No? I know! how about 'Welcome to Paradise'? That's by Green Day! Noooooooo.....Okay, let's try 'Minority' again. Okay, maybe not today.  Oooh, here's a good one-Party Rock!! No? That's fine. Here's 'Jaded' by Green Day! Alright, maybe not. how about Red Hot Chili Peppers? Not in the mood? Try Party Rock!" And although I act very impatient and snippy these times, it's really very nice that you took the time to do this for me. Memorizing my favorite songs is one of the many reasons I think you're wonderful.

When I'm listening to you, you never question my athority to change songs, listen to songs again, skip back, fast forward, shuffle, rewind, or any other things I do. You perform these orders to perfection-and not only that but you do it cheerfully. You execute every command to perfection and without complaint. This is another one of the many things I like about you. Another is that, as I mentioned earlier, you only demand a charge every once in a while. You are a frigging fighter- you go on tirelessly giving me music even to your last breath. It breaks my heart to see your little light turn red and hear those little sputtering gasps you make as you play my Green Day to the very end.

So this is a post of gratitude-this one is for you, iPod. For being my music champion. Thank you forever-you are truly awesome!

Is Georgia good luck for felting?

Yesterday, we were driving to Georgia to see my grandmother, and I felted what might be my favorite little thing I made! It's an adorable little mouse called Napoleon. He's the cutest thing EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also felted a little black mouse to go with him. Her name's Clover and she's really cute, but I still like Napoleon better(Don't tell her! ;)  )   I'm also really happy because my sister Rachel has been at a private school in Wisconsin since February, and today we finally get to see her again!
   So I'm really happy that a vacation triggered my creativity in felting-or maybe it had something to do with the eight-hour drive when I ran out of books!!
Since I can't really think of a good way to end this post, I'll just post a picture of Napoleon.


He's a work of art!

Why I wish time-travel were possible

I wish time-travel were possible because I could prevent times of endless stupidity when I was a lot younger that all ended with me getting:

-Mortally wounded


-Sick

-Actually getting an infection in my leg that actually could have led to blood poisoning


-cut


-stung


-bitten


-sliced by glass


-wet and silt-y from falling into a pond


-yelled at


and I could go on like this for a number of minutes, but the point is, I could avoid a LOT of pain, humiliation, and crushing embarassment  if time travel could be possible. Here are some of the things I would say to myself if I could time travel back a few years ago to warn myself about life-altering injuries:

1. Beach glass does not mean any old piece of a beer bottle you find on the beach. Beach glass means small pieces of  glass that have been washed smooth by the ocean over years. Beer bottles are sharp and can cut you.


2. (To 7-year-old Julia) Trying to ride a bike onto your patio down a path that is bordered by sharp, dry sunflower stems is a bad idea. Especially when you fall onto the stems and your leg gets punctured by a 2-inch piece. Then you get a horrible, pussy infection and you'll need antibiotics for two weeks. Antibiotics that look like the pus coming out of you leg.


3. Wearing bare feet and running through a field of summer clover might sound appealing, but it usually means you're going to get stung by a bee. Multiple times.



4. The neighbor's  cat does not appreciate being picked up by the armpits. Annoying a cat can result in scratches all over you. Also, it's not fair to complain to the neighbor about their " Viciousis monstery cat" since it's your own fault for picking up their cat under its armpits. Plus, for the future, cats have incredibly needle-like teeth.


5. (To 4-year-old Julia) Pretending to be a naked caveman in the rain in October can lead to a bad cold. Even a naked caveman might have figured that one out...


6. Your mom's face cream is not frosting.


7. For the fifth time, YOUR MOM'S FACE CREAM IS NOT FROSTING.


8. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??? For the last time, your mom's face cream is not frosting and will never be frosting no matter what it looks like or how many times you check.


9. Sewing kits tend to be sharp.


10. Your dad will tend to get angry when you put guinea pig food in the disc drive of the computer.


11. Cats do not enjoy being put in your baby sister's diapers. Oh, and in case you hadn't noticed, cats have claws.


12. Dog food doesn't taste like steak, even if there's a picture of a steak on the front of the bag.


13. And cat food doesn't taste like chicken.


14. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?? Guinea pig food does not taste like vegetables!


15. Trying to ride a scooter on the curb is probably going to result in a couple of scraped knees.


16. You are going to feel sick if you eat a tub of your mom's face cream. How many times do we need to go over this??


17. It is not a good idea to jump around the perimiter  of a pond, especially when the pond is bordered by slippery rocks.


Also, if I could time travel, I would be able to answer the ultimate question:
What was wrong with me when I was four?

Bunny Wars - and I SO have a cold!!!

Okay.

A bunny can't spend ALL her waking hours in a CAGE, right?!?!?!?!
Duh.
So, we obviously let Blackberry out to play all the time, usually twice a day, and to find a creative outlet for her insane hopping energy, we usually choose one room, block off the doorway to the other rooms (You see, our house is very open and airy-there aren't a lot of doors on the first floor, only doorways), and lay out fun little toys for her - a tunnel made of cardboard boxes, plastic balls, cardboard tubes, etc. It's a very fun time for people and bunnies alike, right?

Wrong.

At least, not anymore.
You see, recently, Blackberry decided she wanted to start escaping to under:


- Beds
- Couches
- Armchairs
- Pianos
- Sideboards
- Dressers

and many other equally annoying places that are  a) Hard to get her out of
and  b) No fun because she's hiding under a bed the whole time.
So the solution to that was obvious - "We can block it up with pillows! That'll be easy AND effective!"
But it's never that easy, is it?
Let's just say that because rabbits can compress themselves down until they only take up half a square inch of room and then squeeze into ANY SPACE THEY WANT, the pillows weren't actually a satisfactory solution.
So we started using more and more stuff to block up the spaces until the formula for keeping Blackberry where she was supposed be went something like this:

1 pillow, 1 blanket, 2 books = each sq. foot of blockaide space.

TOTALLY  annoying, right??

Well, we finally discovered a good way to keep Blackberry out from under the furniture, but then she decided she wanted to explore other rooms - the more electrocution hazards, the better! So we had to invent more effective doorway blockaids, which usually include some combination of trash cans, laundry baskets, book baskets, tote bags, bed pillows, couch pillows, blankets, and loose books, usually about four feet high.

Guess how high a teeny baby bunny can jump?


You got it.
So anyway, now we usually just use our pillows-under-the-couch technique  and let her run all over the first floor, like today.
So the lesson for today?
NEVER underestimate bunny power.

P.S.  You know how I said I totally have a cold?
Well, I find that when you wake up and your breathing makes it sound like your lungs got replaced by a buzz saw, you're probably going to have a bad day.

I'm so evil right now!!

My Bostonian dragon! And sorry I'm STILL blowing you off!

This is a post about the dragon picture I drew in Boston. It's a new style I tried after drawing a dragon in a resturaunt that looked like a yak. It's actually my first attempt at a semi-Chinese dragon, although it kind of looks like a hybrid between one of my regular dragon pictures and a Chinese dragon - for instance, my dragons typically have more horns and less hair, while a traditional Chinese dragon would have a shaggier mane and more of those wiggly whiskers. Anyway, I really like it and I hope you do too!
The scales took me three days because we had to do stuff (like sightseeing!).They were actually kind of a disappointment because it was supposed to turn out red, but the space between the scales made it look pink. Anyway, I still like it.


                                                Ta da!!!!!!!!!

And by the way, I'm sorry I'm STILL blowing you off about the vacation, but the camera is STILL dead!! >:(    Anyway, hope this will keep you satisfied until I charge that darn camera!!

FIRE DEMON!!! (In case you hadn't noticed, I'm SO HYPER!!!!!!!!)

This is a post about an awesome hyper drawing that I drew!!!!!!!!

Now, about this- I would be writing about our vacation in BOSTON!!!!!!!!!!! But it would be stupid if I had no pictures of the trip, and the camera has been dead since we got home Friday night. :(  So anyway, that's why I'm posting this awesome picture instead!!!!!!!!!!! Also I just ate a cupcake and now I'm hyper!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay for hyper...ness!!!!!!!!
I drew this picture because I was reading this weird book called 'Heck- where the bad kids go'. So I was all thinking about hell-demons and underworld stuff, and then I decided I wanted to draw something!!!!!!!!!!! Yaaaaaay!!!!!!! I'm SO HYPER  RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

......................Okay, I'm better now, a little bit.

And now I guess I'll show you the picture.
By the way, when I scan stuff, the colors and image is actually almost always better in the real drawing.

He4re it is!!!!!!!! And WTF to the random four!!!!!!!!!!

Yaaaaaay! It's a demon!!!!!!!!!!!!!


P.S. You know how I said I drew this because I was thinking of demons and underworld stuff?
Well, I was also thinking about my friend James, whose face inspired part of this lovely, lovely drawing.
HAHA!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm SO HYPER, James!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MLAATR- My newest obsession?

This is a random post about my newest obsession, an awesome (if rather sci-fi) TV show called 'My life as a teenage robot'. It's a random show about, well, a teenage robot called XJ-9 by her 'mother' (inventor), Dr. Nora Wakeman, but she renames herself Jenny in a futile effort to fit in and be like a normal girl. Her best friend Brad, who lives next door, is headstrong, wild, and always wants to tag along in Jenny's extreme battles and daily save-the-world missions into outer space/other planets. He saw Jenny as a great friend from the moment they met. On the other hand, his little brother Tuck was convinced, the first time he saw her, that Jenny was a murderous, unfeeling monster who would kill him or Brad at a moment's notice. As oppose to Brad, he prefers to stay on Earth surrounded by familiar faces than go running all over the galaxy. He also suffers multiple strange phobias. Sheldon, a stereotypical 'geek', is so smart he can do binary functions in his head and invent any robot/high-tech weapon/little random thing  under the sun.
He's a little odd-looking but kind  of cute, and maybe loves machines a little too much for his own good, and immediately falls for Jenny! While she likes to hang out with him as a friend, the thought of dating him makes her appliances hurt. He doesn't give up though (not by a long shot!) and is constantly showering her with ingenious gifts and little hints showing his huge crush. Sadly, Jenny is usually too busy saving the world to pay any attention to poor Sheldon, and spends any of her 'romance time' chasing after 'The Silver Shell', a mechanical suit actually invented by Sheldon, (episode 10)who sits inside him and uses a loudspeaker as a voice, when he wanted to show Jenny that robot boys are jerks by making Shell be mean to her, in one of the many fruitless attempts to make Jenny date him.
Dr. Wakeman is Jenny's "mom"/inventor, and while she's a genius-great at doing complicated formulas and scientific equations in her head, as well as inventing awesome robots, machines, and high-tech weapons, she's not so good at talking to Jenny about teenager things like boys, cliques at school, popularity problems, etc., and sometimes has a way of making Jenny feel left out, and also even more odd at not only being a robot but-

OKAY!!!!!!!!!! OKAY!!!!!!!!!! OKAY!!!!!!! I think I've blathered about this show and its characters long enough!!!! Sorry. Now is it easy to see how obsessed I am with this?!
I first saw this show three years ago when it was still on TV, at my cousin Pheobe's house the day before her wedding in Pittsburgh. I was immediately hooked! I don't even know why, but anyway, I forgot about it until a few days ago when I was just fooling around on Youtube and a video about it popped up randomly on the sidebar! I found a few episodes, including the first one I ever saw (Victim of Fashion, episode 24) . But there isn't coverage of all episodes on Youtube, and if you stay there you'll be missing some great ones! So what I did was found a list of all episodes on Wikipedia, and then Googled the ones that looked good. I'll post a link of the list in case anyone is interested:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_My_Life_as_a_Teenage_Robot_episodes
 There we go. That contains ALL episodes in all three seasons, descriptions included. I'll also see if I can post a video of the first episode to orientate you guys, and then you can do the rest for yourselves. Hold on a minute.

Okay, I'm really sorry but I can only upload videos from Youtube, and not Veoh where I found the first one. I'll just choose a good episode for you guys.

There  we go! Future Shock is a good one (episode 15) and also very funny. My favorite part is where Tuck states that 'He can be a big girl!!" ! Hope you guys watch this and share my obsession!

Blackberry

This is a post about my new pet, Blackberry.


She is a 3-month-old Holland Lop and practically the CUTEST THING THAT EVER LIVED!!!!!!!

I love her SOOOOO much!!

She was my birthday present on Feb. 2 (Not my real b-day, but close enough!) after we went out for Turkish food to celebrate my birthday and give my awesome sister Rachel a nice little send-off BECAUSE SHE WENT TO A PRIVATE SCHOOL IN WISCONSIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(pant pant) We really miss her but she's making new friends and having a big adventure, which I guess is good, but we REALLY miss her. At least she got to see Blackberry before she left! ;) 


So, here is the strange story behind Blackberry's arrival: We were going to see if Petco had any bunnies, because they were doing this adoption thing. So we were going to Petco anyway, to get dog food, and we talked to a staff member who said they weren't even DOING the adoption!!!! >:(  So then we decided to try Agway, because sometimes they have bunnies, but THEY said they didn't even get 'spring things' (bunnies/chicks) until MARCH, and there was NO WAY I was waiting that long!! So finally we tried Petland as a last resort, and lo and behold, they had two adorable 3-month-old baby bunnies!!! <3
One was all black with perky ears, a regular-sized, regular-shaped rabbit(cute, but still pooh!) AND THE OTHER WAS BLACKBERRY!!!! And the ironic thing is that a Holland Lop was the exact kind I wanted, but after looking all over I thought I would never find one, when all the time there was my dream bunny less than a half mile from my house!!!!!!! So we brought her home, fell in love with her, and are very, VERY happy!

*UPDATED*  Blackberry is settling in beautifully and is at this moment  hopping around my living room, getting some exercise time out of her cage. I <3 my baby!!

NYAN CAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is an awesome picture that I, yes, drew on Paint. I know I'm getting kind of obsessed, but I can't help it- Paint is SO AWESOME!!!!! :)

I'M IN LOVE WITH NYAN CAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm kind of freaked out right now.....

Okay. So I was bored and I randomly drew this on Paint. Now, look at it and tell me honestly whether or not you think I'm emotionally disturbed.


I really scared myself right now.

I KILL YOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you know what day it is?

Does anyone here know what a special day today is?




I bet you can guess.........

Just thought I'd share this piece of stupidity and hopefully bring a smile to your face! ............Happy Friday! ;)

Uber-Buffy

I just got these eggs today from my wonderfully annoying chickens....Mom sometimes says she wishes we had never laid eyes on them, but she changed her tune when she saw Buffy's egg this morning!!

The smaller one is a little bigger than a white store egg, and the monster one is Buffy's, of course.    Go chickens!! ;)

BRACES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(A dramatic story of death and despair)

Okay.


You probably know why I'm in the depths of despair right now, judging by the title.

But I just wanted to say that, yes, I. Am. Getting. BRACES!!!!!!!!! 

 So when the orthodontist told me, I was all like,

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then he was all like, YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I was all like, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then he said I was breaking his heart.

Our town is putting up with one darn sarcastic orthodontist.

Apparently, my bottom teeth are crooked, my molars are too big, and one molar is turned the wrong way, so they need to rotate that tooth and straighten out the bottom. :(   :(   :(  

So thanks to Dr. Gorenkoff, this about sums up my day:

What's with the flashlight......? I'm kind of afraid to ask

This is a real conversation that happened between my dad and sister two seconds ago:

Emma: "Dad, can I use that flashlight?"


Dad: "What do you want it for, honey?"


Emma:"Uuuuhh...no reason...(Evasive voice)



Dad: "What? Just say so."


Emma: "Mmm--mmm!" (Whiningly)



Dad: "Emma, I just want to know why you need a flashlight. That's all."


Emma: "Never mind." (VERY grouchily)


Dad: "Why won't you ju-"


Emma: "NEVER MIND!!!!!!!" 


Ben(Innocently entering the room): "Hey, why DO you need a flashlight, Em?"


Emma: (Turns on him with her most viciously irritated scowl (which is pretty intimidating) and says:) "RRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRrrRRrrRrRRR!!!"



Me: "C'mon, Em, just tell us! Please?"



Emma:  RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRR!!"



(Ben and I continue to pester her until she finally says:)

Emma:  "OKAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT A FLASHLIGHT BECAUSE I NEED A CERTAIN GREEN MARKER FROM THE BIN AND THE REASON WHY I JUST WANTED YOU TO SAY YES WAS SO THAT YOU WOULDN'T LAUGH BECAUSE I WANTED A FLASHLIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The marker bin lives with the crayons on a shelf in my parent's room, which is almost always pretty dark.






(Stunned silence for exactly three seconds)




Ben (very quietly): "But then.....why couldn't you have turned on the lamp in there?"



Me: "Or taken the bin in here where it's so bright?"




Emma then leaves the room promptly, comes back clutching a green marker, sits quietly at the table, and silently starts coloring something.


And that's an example of a typical evening at our house.

WTF Moments

                       OMG! IT'S A GOAT!

 1. ANTS!!!!!!!


2. Apparently fences in Montana are known for their excessive enthusiasm


3. I have a neighbor who has eight dauschunds and a tendancy to sit in her yard and go "Ay-Ay-Ay-Ay-Ay!!!" and talk to her dogs all day


4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0


5. Somebody farted farted farted farted farted


6. Snape snape severus snape DUMBLEDOR!!!!!



7. I <3 NY


8.I have scabs on my knee that are BLUE!!!!


9. Blind as a bat! Blind as a bat! Poor little mother is blind as a bat!


10. svnsbvmbgkchbmjbfmchbfvhbhbzkcbxnz./cmvj vnjbcm




                     THE    END!!!!!!