Alzbeta Michalik

Bunnies

Mon, 07 May 2007 21:35:46 GMT

A few weeks ago I noticed a rabbit building a nest against our foundation. Two weeks ago or so I noticed that the nest was flat, so I thought that the heavy rains had collapsed it. Then I noticed it was moving and realized that there was a nest of baby bunnies in our yard. Last week I checked on them, moving the grass aside with a stick, and they had their eyes open. There were at least six of them (that's all I could see at one time, since they were moving around so much). Today, Mike told me he saw one of them moving around the yard, so I went to check out the nest again.

Four of the bunnies never made it out of the nest. Three of them were very small, and possibly hadn't gotten old enough to open their eyes. The fourth was bigger. As I was going back inside to tell Mike, I saw one of the live ones. I think it might be old enough to have been weaned, but it's hard to tell with rabbits. Mike removed the dead rabbits and I covered the nest back over. I doubt the mother or living babies will return to it, since it smells like death.

I wasn't foolish enough to get attached to them, but I'm still bummed.

Toilet Humor

Wed, 02 May 2007 15:42:05 GMT

But not the type you expect.

On Monday I went to use the facilities at work and was greeted by a sign saying "Please be considerate of the person after you. Please flush after use." I find this humorous because we have those annoying automatic flushing toilets. On average, for me the toilets flush two times, when I stand up and when I leave the stall. There was actually one time that it flushed four times, when I entered the stall, when I sat down, when I stood up, and when I left the stall. I can't imagine how the toilets aren't flushing for some people, when they flush so often for me (ironically destroying any water conservation that the autotoilet is supposed to help with).

It just struck me as funny, which goes to show how being at work damages my brain.

Meeting Last Night

Tue, 01 May 2007 11:58:47 GMT

We were at the first meeting of the Pre-Proto-Incipient Group up in Princeton last night. My impression was overall positive. There were six other people there. The woman who has done most of the legwork so far and her husband are from Caid, so they have some exposure to the SCA. I'm not sure how much actual experience they have, but that's something we can talk about over the next few weeks. The group wants to do things right, even if that means moving pretty slowly. They're willing to ask for advice, and they asked good questions.

Mike set them 3 or 4 goals to achieve before their next meeting. This will be the first test of how willing they are to follow through. The warning signs I had seen regarding choosing the Seneschal didn't develop past the sign stage, which was a relief.

I'll be at practice tonight if anyone has any questions or wants more details on my impression of the group.

Internet

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 21:48:39 GMT

Hooray! Our internet is working again. It's more than a little disturbing how much I've come to rely on it. I can't say how many times last night I thought, "I'll just look that up on the internet" and then realized that I couldn't.

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:16:10 GMT

The gaming convention was this weekend. It was very poorly attended, but we barely made enough money that we can put it on again next year. Hopefully we’ll be able to advertise better next year and get more people. I ran one session of “Kobolds Ate My Baby!” on Saturday which was fun.

Sunday I discovered that we have no internet. SBC says that there is an outage in our area, but I suspect that our modem has kicked the bucket. The outage was supposedly first reported on the 25^th, and the ticket was still open, which is why he thought that was our problem. Since we had internet on the 28^th, but not the 29^th, I am skeptical that this is our problem. We’ve been having some problems with the modem recently, and it’s pretty old. I’m supposed to call SBC back today if we still can’t connect.

Tonight we’re heading up to Princeton for the first meeting of the potential new SCA group up there. It should prove interesting. At the convention on Saturday, we talked to the owner of the game shop where the meeting is taking place. I’ll be honest, I have some serious reservations about this, and he didn’t really make me feel much better. I guess we’ll have a better idea what we’re getting into tonight.

Rat Silliness

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:43:37 GMT

Mike and I have the habit of anthropomorphizing our pets. The following is an example of a running joke we have about our rats, Hershey and Zero.

These are the words of Skaven the Good, first prophet of Skavenblight, for whom that city is named:

“There shall come a time when the Providers shall turn Their backs upon the Ratsies and abandon Skavenblight. And there shall be no new food, nor scampering, nor treats. This shall be known as the Time of Sorrow. Darkness shall fall upon the faces of the Ratsies. Their lamentations shall be heard throughout Skavenblight and beyond.

But, lo! The cries of the Ratsies shall soften the hearts of the Providers. And They shall return, bringing with them new food. Treats shall fall from the heavens. And the hearts of the Ratsies shall be glad, and they shall scamper.”

There are several different interpretations of the Time of Sorrow. Hershey believes that the Time of Sorrow refers to the times when we have left for the weekend, and they have had to go without treats for several days. It may also refer to that terrible time when we ran out of treats.

Zero believes that the Time of Sorrow refers to the hours and hours between their afternoon treat and their evening treat. It is common to hear him exclaim, “Hershey, it is the time of the Prophecy!” when we put them back into their cage after their evening scamper.

Good Weekend

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 22:59:21 GMT

First things first, I've posted a picture of Thomas. It's not very good, but we don't have an actual digital camera, so my phone had to do. Did I mention he has no tail?

Yesterday, Mike and I went out to Wildlife Prairie Park. Once again, I have missed the Bison Ground Blessing. Something always interferes with me getting to it (this year it was me thinking it was a different day). We walked the Floodplain Trail, which the map says is 4 miles, but I'm positive is not. We strolled, and we made it to the end in just over 1 hour. We saw two large deer running across the trail. Once we got to the end, we walked through the farm area, which was frustratingly devoid of animals. Then, as we were walking through the bear/cougar area, we saw a fox trotting down one of the access roads. The wild animals were much more interesting than the captive ones! I came home with a sunburn, and Mike came home with a tick (which luckily hadn't attached, but did make us both paranoid for the rest of the evening).

Today we went out to Chester's to work on the trailer. He, Rob, and Dave did a fabulous job fabricating the roof supports. With our limited help, they got them primed and welded to the frame. Our friends rock! I came home with a worse sunburn, and probably windburn. Holy crap, it was windy!

Thomas' Trip to the Vet

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:17:23 GMT

We just got back from Thomas' vet appointment. He's very healthy. His teeth are in extremely good shape for an 8 year old cat. His heart is fine.

28.5 pounds!!!!

We have to take him back to get him weighed in a month. They're hoping he'll have lost a pound by then, with the ultimate goal of losing 8.5 pounds.

Oog

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:27:03 GMT

I got sick at work yesterday and had to come home early. I'm home again today. Ugh. I hate being sick.

The cats had another meeting last night. They seem to be settling into avoidance. Thomas has his vet appointment tomorrow, so we'll soon know what his official weight is. I think he's already lost some, though.

We hope to start work on the trailer this weekend. I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

First Meeting

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 02:08:49 GMT

Imp and Thomas had their first real meeting tonight. After some hissing and growling, they had settled down to mutual watchful avoidance. Thomas was in a chair while Impy was on the back of the couch. Thomas started making some hairball noises, so Mike moved over to soothe him. Thomas had enough of Mike petting him, so he yowled and swatted at him. Impy immediately yowled and lunged at Thomas, knocking some stuff off the table beside the couch, making a large noise and scaring himself into stopping his lunge. There was a tense few minutes during which every time Thomas yowled and moved aggressively against Mike, Imp yowled and moved aggressively against Thomas. So, apparently Imp is feeling he needs to protect us from the new invader. After Imp backed down, I grabbed him (getting several scratches), and Mike herded Thomas back up to the guest room.

I'm not sure if I'm encouraged or not.

I just got done watching a show about a man in Britain who raised three wolves by living with them and being the alpha of the pack. He's crazy, but it was a really cool show.

Thomas

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 18:20:33 GMT

It's official, we're now the proud owners of a new cat, Thomas. I had estimated him as being 1.5 the size of Impy, which would make him 22.5 pounds. I was wrong. We haven't been able to weigh him yet, but PAWS estimated his weight as 26 pounds. His rolls of fat have rolls of fat! He's still adjusting, so we have him shut in our guest bedroom for now. Impy isn't reacting very well to having another cat, but hopefully we'll be able to integrate them okay.

We found out today that Thomas has no claws at all. I had already make an appointment to get his front claws removed, since his records indicated that he still had them, and we didn't want him hurting Bast and Imp. I would never have had his back claws removed.

I really hope we haven't made a huge mistake...

Today's (actually yesterday's) Highlight: All the people at PetSmart saying, "Oh! Are you adopting the big guy? He's my favorite!"

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:53:18 GMT

I got to have sushi tonight! My tummy is very happy.

Today I decided to increase the treadmill speed during my workout, which strangely enough made the workout seem to go faster. I'm not really sure why. In the middle of the workout, a rabbit hopped right up to the basement window three feet from my head.

It stared at me.
I stared at it.
It stared at me.
I stared at it.

Then it hopped away. It was probably wondering how I was walking without getting anywhere.

Last night we saw a cat at PetSmart that was about 1.5 the size of Impy! It was gi-normous. We may end up with a third cat if we aren't careful...

Today's Highlight: Sushi!!!

Various Random Thoughts

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 02:09:19 GMT

It's official, I've been sucked into a Six Sigma project on urea quality. Being a chemist is so glamorous... *Sigh*

Got the new Dresden Files book today! Woo hoo!

I still have a bruise on the top of my foot from the throne falling on it while I was taking it apart after Rites of Spring. Mike would say that the throne was telling me to let "my people" take it apart. Humph. He keeps saying I need retainers. I think the next time he tells me that I'll dig out my old retainers from when I had braces.

Future Weapons is a scary show.

Today's Highlight: Learning what a bunch of work I've been doing actually means.

River Station

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 21:33:59 GMT

Mike gave up restaurants for Lent, and since I don't like going out on my own, that meant that I pretty much gave them up too. Today, we celebrated Easter (and the end of Lent) by taking MIke's friend and her boyfriend to brunch at the newly-reopened River Station. We have a soft spot in our hearts for River Station, since that's where we went to dinner the night that Mike proposed almost nine years ago. So, when we heard it was reopening, we knew we had to go there as soon as we could.

The food in the brunch was just a good as I remember. However, it's obvious that they haven't shaken all the bugs out of their system yet. From what I remember of the brunch from before, the first station was the omelet station, followed by the carving station, and finally the rest of the buffet section, which you could go on both sides of. So, if you didn't want to wait for an omelet or sliced meat, you could skip ahead to everything else. Now, you can only walk down one side of the buffet, and the omelet and carving stations are in the middle of the buffet, causing backups. In fact, by noon, the line for the buffet was all the way out of the brunch room, down the hall (getting in the way of the kitchens), and out to the entryway. It's only their third Sunday brunch since reopening, and Easter Sunday at that, so I would imagine that there will be some reorganization after today.

I'm so glad Lent is over. I've really missed sushi...

Today's Highlight: Chocolate mousse on a Oreo, topped with shaved dark chocolate. mmmmm

Sci Fi/Fantasy Geeking

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 02:43:07 GMT

I just found out that the first season of "Robin of Sherwood" has been put out here in the US. It was a BBC program that they used to show on HBO when I was growing up. I've been waiting for it to come out for years now. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a disappointment like "V" did. Oog, I'm ashamed that I liked that piece of crap.

The visit is going well. Impy hissed for the very first time today at Mike's friend's shih tzu (who Imp outweighs by five pounds).

Today's Highlight: Yay, "Robin of Sherwood"! *Happy Dance*

First Milestone!

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:05:43 GMT

A little over a month ago I started what I've been referring to as the "eat less, exercise more diet". I haven't changed what I eat, just how much. When I get home from work, instead of sitting in front of the tv with a snack, I go down to the basement and walk on the treadmill for 45 minutes. (45 minutes is the length of an hour tv show on dvd. Right now I'm watching "La Femme Nikita" which is part of the overwhelming "chicks kicking *ss" theme of our collection. More on that another time.) Exercise, besides the normal benefits, also acts as an appetite-killer for me, so it works out pretty well. The best thing about this "diet" is that I can see this being a lifestyle change rather than a temporary weight-loss regiment. It's slow, but I can keep it up easily.

As of today, I'm down 10 pounds. I don't really see a difference, but I can definately feel it in the way my clothes fit. Yay!

As a contract employee, I had to have specific approval from my Cat supervisor to work today, even though my company doesn't consider it a holiday. My supervisor refused. So, I have the day off, unpaid. Oh well, it gives me a chance to clean up before Mike's friend gets here tonight.

Today's Highlight: So far, getting on the scale this morning, but it's only 11AM...

More About Not Much of Anything

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:34:36 GMT

I was planning to post yesterday, but I was so sleepy I ended up going to bed early (and got almost 10 hours of sleep). The reason I was so sleepy?

My cat, Impudite Andrealphus (aka: Imp, Impy, Impus, Impybutt, Impidity-Doo-Dah, Giganticat, Stupid, Dumb*ss, F*cking Cat, Count Conehead, Baron Baldbottom). He decided to pounce on my face while I was sleeping Tuesday night. All 15 pounds of him. More on him some other day.

The last two days at work have been pleasantly busy. Yesterday I was given a mini-task of weighing a certain amount of urea into three different sized containers, which were to put into a 400°C oven for 30 minutes. After roughly 5 minutes, the temperature of the oven had risen to 600°C from the reaction happening inside it. I opened the door to let some heat out and a large white cloud of (most likely toxic) gas came billowing out. I spent the next hour hunting down an oven that would allow air to be blown through it in the hopes of avoiding this happening again.

Today, not only did I run the experiment as planned in the new oven, but I was also given the task of running a second experiment almost identical except that I had to take the containers out every five minutes, cool them, and weigh them so I could track the rate of decomposition in each container.

Why did this need to be done? I haven't the faintest clue. But, he had a charge number (two in fact), so whatever he wanted done was fine with me. I'll post my railing against the Cat concept of "yellow dollars" some other time.

Business meeting tonight. I have a bunch of crap to get together for it. Better get on it...

Today's Highlight: Belkar's shoulder angel in a straightjacket saying, "He's a halfling, he's supposed to be jolly. Why isn't he jolly? WHY ISN'T HE JOLLY???" (What is it about psychotic hobbits that amuses me so?)

I'll Give It a Try...

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 02:48:46 GMT

Well, my life really isn't all that interesting, but I think keeping a journal will be good for me. We'll see how long it lasts...

Yesterday, I was walking into work with one of my coworkers, and he realized he had forgotten his badge. I thought to myself, "I'm so glad I've never forgotten my badge." So this morning I forgot my badge. I was able to get a temporary badge to get me into the building, but one of the main labs I work in is badge-access only, for which the temporary didn't work. To make matters worse, I didn't have very much to do today, so I was really bored. The project I've been working on can't move forward until one of my coworkers can run the samples I've already produced. Plus, for the past few weeks we've been trying to connect some of our instruments to a new program. Every day the vendor reps come in and say it's going to work, and every day it doesn't. Once it finally works, I have to start training on it. This means I can't get too involved in anything else because I have to be able to drop everything once they're ready to go. *Sigh* Hopefully tomorrow will be better. At least I did get to finally move my computer out of the lab and into our new office area, which means I can drink soda while working on the computer again. Who would have thought I would be looking forward to moving out of my own room and into cubicle-land?

I actually wanted to go to fighter practice tonight. My stress levels have dropped after the event, so I really felt up to getting into armor. But, Cathy, Mike's friend from college, is coming down to stay with us this weekend, and I had to clean out the guest room. With Mike gaming tonight and the business meeting on Thursday, tonight and tomorrow night are all I have to get everything squared away. It took two hours, but I finally got all our garb organized and put away. Tomorrow it will take both of us to get the explosion from doing feast cleaned up.

That's enough for today...

Today's Highlight: Producing one bright yellow and two bright green solutions in my project. (I'm a terrible chemistry geek.)