white cocks and black pussies

we've learned a lot in the past week. i for one, have learned that chickens are like pets. they have personality, and it's surprising to say some intelligence as well.... we have decided that we have 4 males and 5 females. in order of size from largest to smallest we have given the cocks the following names: Jerky, Roast, Pot Pie, and Stew(ie). We have named a few of the girls, from smallest to largest they are: Henrietta, Estelle, and Phyllis. there are two nameless girls, which i humbly request from my readers to help me name. Weezy, i know you got some good ones. so, yesterday morning while we were naming our poultry, we got footage of the chickens and cats co-existing somewhat peacefully.

everything was going swimmingly until i tried to go back into the fenced-in backyard to get some more chicken feed. syrus made a run for it and slipped past my legs and went straight for the nearest chicken, which was one of the girls - estelle maybe - and pinned her down by my garden. once that happened, bibi and louie were out of the gate in a flash and i whirled around in slow motion to see louie run straight into the coop and bibi tackle a big male under the tree. i thought massive bloodshed was surely going to happen but my screaming actually made the dogs stop attacking and i got them back inside the fence. syrus was guilty, and he knew it - but deep inside he was thrilled with himself. the chickens were fine. i gave them some food and they soon forgot all about it. they don't care for the table scraps as much, but i covered some watermelon rind in chicken feed and now they are eating it.

i also did something unexpected this weekend. i chopped off all my hair. it used to be halfway down my back and now it is just a touch longer than chin length. it's a dramatic difference. i've never had hair this short before in my life. well, my first year of college it was almost this short but not quite. i'm not 100% sure it suits me, but everyone seems to like it. plus, i don't have those ratty dead ends and my hair catching on everything. i don't have to worry about dragging my hair across my food at the table or getting it rolled up in the car window. i worry that i look like edna from the incredibles....

and we have decided to enter in some videos to america's funniest videos of louie trying to swim. he actually got it figured out today when we took the spoiled brats to the lake again. he's even beat bibi to the ball a couple of times. but we've got some good footage and i plan to take more videos of the dogs howling with my harmonica and louie wrestling with bibi from under a blanket. watch the videos below to see what i have to pick from to send in. tell me what you think by casting your vote in the poll to the right of the page. thanks!

louie swimming take 1:



here's take 2:



here's the original video i posted a while back, maybe this one will work?




oh, i almost forgot - here's a video of choco and moto, pretending not to notice the chickens, or pretending not to care... in truth, they're a little scared of them.....

bamboo shoots!

this year i have decided to document the amazing speed at which bamboo grows. last spring i saw a bamboo tree grow to 15' tall within a week. you have a pretty small window of opportunity to harvest the shoots, so timing is critical. this year, i plan to let a majority of the shoots grow into their full size so i can have some privacy from my neighbor, Marge. bamboo is actually a grass and there are many varieties - from black to purple and all kinds of sizes. i don't know the specific variety we have growing here, but they make for tasty grilling! my mom marinates these young bamboo shoots korean-style, with lots of red pepper paste (kochujang). right now is just about the perfect time to harvest, before they get more than about a foot high, but taller than 6". you just knock them over with your foot. there is rain in the forecast so i am betting that by this time next week, we'll have a lush bamboo forest. i think i will post a recipe for bamboo shoots - as a separate post.

for now, i wish to update on the status of bibi, our precious little furball. bibi had a follow-up appointment yesterday and the doc says she is doing good. although, she does lick her boo-boos too much. her is our beautiful little girl. doesn't she look happy? look at that grin! she has definitely been a lot happier dog, and spoiled rotten, too. sleeps in bed with us every night, curled up next to me with her blocky head on my pillow. she's one tough little cookie, though.

so yeah, so far we are relieved.

and even moto is looking better. he likes the new porch and most of all, he likes B. she stroked him so good the other day he drooled all over her lap. i think moto's in love.

oh, and my kinoki pads arrived!! that was actually faster than i though it would. if you have never heard of kinoki, they are "detoxifying" pads that you attach to the bottom of your feet while you sleep. it's supposed to draw out toxins through your body and out of your feet. i saw it on an infomercial. it's my guilty pleasure. every once in a while, i'll actually buy something i see advertised on tv just to see if it's really that great. (i know they are largely scams) so far i've gotten the miracle blade knife set, a couple of magic bullets, an aromatherapy showerhead, press-on accent lighting, and now these pads. i think they were about $24. i have yet to try them out, but i'll keep you posted.

oh, and it came with a free eye patch thing - it's korean! i probably could have bought this at the flea market on buford hwy....

oh the joy of cameras!!

choco sniffing the forsythias; louie getting his big head right in the middle of my shot...

yesterday i went ahead and borrowed my old camera back from my stepdad to use while johnny and i are on vacation next weekend. i forgot how much i missed taking pictures and couldn't resist snapping a few early spring photos around my house. well, i got a little carried away and ended up doing full panoramas of every corner of my yard. i even got on the roof.

it was a beautiful day yesterday and there was plenty to take pictures of, but i wont bore you with pictures of random trees and wood siding. so, here are a few highlights. feast your eyes upon this:

my sorry compost pile with chicken pen/seedling cold frame made of bamboo... beautiful background, though!

one of my new blackberry bushlings, waiting to be planted....

fruits of my labor last year, i think i planted these

while still in a cast....

moto and choco, stalking me in the side yard where

i plan to build the chicken pen.

the curtain i made a couple weeks ago for my closet,

i took out the closet door because it was always open

and took up too much space.

this is my shame....how can i get anything done with an

office that looks like this?? there's material everywhere!!

i have nowhere to put anything - please help!!

a random corner in my bedroom, i thought the bright

orange looked cool against the aqua blue walls. yes, my

bedroom really is this color and i freakin LOVE it.

aaahhhh.... wasn't that nice? pictures to look at! it's been too long....

the rest of the weekend actually sucked. johnny got sick and was miserable, neither one of us got any sleep despite getting a brand new king sized pillowtop 10 year non pro-rated warranty chiropractic approved 10 guage spring memory foam bed. we took apart the evil ikea bed and put it in the shed and actually went to american signature and bought a whole new bedroom suite, but then i decided (in the middle of the night) to cancel the bedroom furniture and just use the antique furniture that johnny is refinishing. thank god i came to my senses. spending that much money on furniture is ridiculous, what was i thinking? oh yea, that we could actually afford it....silly me. i would rather have a happy carefree existence unburdened by debt, thank you very much.

back from the dead

yes, i'm talking about choco. i really figured he was either dead or living with some other family or probably dead. well, yesterday moto snuck out when nobody was looking so we let him play outside for a while. then when it was time for us to leave, i called moto to come inside and just out of habit i called choco's name, too. to my complete surprise i heard choco answer my call with his distinctive meow. for a mintue i thought it may have been moto, but he hardly ever meows and he's never done it when i called his name like that. sure enough, over in my mom's garden, i see a black cat with a white patch on his chest meowing at me. i immediately went over and sure enough it was choco. i couldn't believe it. i haven't seen that cat in many weeks. i think the last time i saw him was sometime in june. he looked pretty good, fat with a thick coat. his ears looked a little chewed up but otherwise he was in good shape. i petted him, gave him some whiskas and water. moto came around because i has said the magic word, but as soon as he saw choco, he hissed and ran away. i guess they had a falling out. they don't seem to liek each other at all anymore. so johnny and i went to petco (which is having a store closing clearance) and i got choco a reflective orange collar and an i.d. tag. we also got new collars for the dogs and some fancy cat and dog food.

so now the dilemna is what to do with choco. he is no longer a housecat. he is wild. living off of squirrels and birds probably. i can't really leave food out for him because that attracts rats, possums, and 'coons. i want to feed him, though. he wont come inside and even if he did, he would fight with moto and generally raise hell because the dogs will go nuts with another cat in the house. but i also don't want to leave him out all winter. i don't know what to do. for now, he can stay out, i'll feed him and he has i.d. so hopefully he will be ok - he's survived this long. i can only imagine what he's been through.

last night was really chilly and the dogs were shivering a bit so i decided to break out an extra blanket for them and they all piled onto the futon and curled up while i tucked them in. it was so damn cute i had to take pictures.

Labor Day Weekend

I've wasted enough time on cuteoverload so from henceforth I shall not mention that website anymore. This is a long weekend - especially for me because I've been to work for ONE day in the past 8. I essentially took a vacation. But now I am going to have to make up those hours so this weekend I am going to get as much stuff done as possible because next week will be overtime week.
I've decided to rehabilitate poor Moto. He is such a sweet cat and it breaks my heart to see him look so wretched. He is already happier, I think. I got him some high-quality food, a new scratcher, litterbox (going to use enviro-friendly litter now), and some new toys. He must have been dehydrated because he drinks two full bowls of water everyday. Moto knows what it's like to fend for himself and now I think he will enjoy being a housecat again. He has been sleeping on his fuzzy blanket in the closet practically non-stop. I've been petting him and trying to play but he just wants to sleep, eat, and drink. He still gives me hugs, though. Today at 3pm he is going to Banfield. Yes, I know I hate Banfield sometimes but it's practical to spend $60 to get all vaccines, deworm, tests and exams rather than getting them seperately for twice as much. He will be fat and healthy by the end of the year.
Speaking of enviro-friendly, I have made a decision to phase out my non-enviro friendly products and switch over to the more organic stuff. I used to be all about that in college but just fell out of it. I remember not too long ago being totally against milk, deoderant, cleaning products, synthetics, etc. I am going to order all that stuff through the united foods catalog now that mom is going to open another herb store. I still can't find my favorite soap of all time - it haunts me still. The only person who MIGHT know which soap it is is Mira, but I don't think she really remembers every type of soap she sold at earth baby. It was the most exquisite lemongrass soap ever - with little bits of almond to exfoliate. If I ever find that soap again I am going to buy a lifetime supply on the spot. The only thing I remember is that it came in a brown paper wrapper and the soap was shaped in a perfect square, with ridges on the sides. Please, god help me find that soap.
Speaking of soap, I heard that Lush was coming to town. I don't know if I can handle it. I spent hours inside of Lush in Toronto, just drooling over soap.
I hate it when people drive around with their bass blasting. I want to run out and attack them.
Well, enough babble for now. One day I promise I'll write something worth reading. It's just too soon for me now - I'm shy. Just kidding - I really just don't have anything important to say at the moment.

In the beginning.....

Wow. My very first blog. I feel....like my first day of school. I remember walking down the sidewalk, wearing my yellow raincoat and carrying my purple umbrella with the fuzzy hair handle and my lunchbox. My mom taking pictures of me like a dork and feeling - like I'm watching all of this from the sky. Okay, maybe it doesn't quite feel like my first day of school but it's close. I don't really know what to do with myself, which is strange because normally I can't shut myself up. I fear that this blog may facilitate my well-masked obsessive rambling tendency that should probably remain obscured. Too late now - the floodgates have been released. Or maybe not. Who the hell really has the time to blog??? I certainly don't! Plus, I can never remember user names and passwords. This is probably just an exercise in futility. I love that phrase. Never get to use it much. Well, I suppose I should at least attempt to spare friends and family (and the occasional stranger) from my long drawn-out emails so perhaps this blog will serve as an outlet for my ramblings. I'm more of a letter writer and forum poster. I guess it's only natural for me to become a blogger.

So, should I catch myself up for the past decade or so that I have missed blogging? I could start at my earliest childhood memories....No that's just not normal. I have to keep it current. Well, currently I have the FLU. I've had it since saturday night about 2:30 a.m. when I woke up from a dead sleep feeling like I was burning in hell. I had a fever and I felt like the birthday pinata of some rich South American druglord's spoiled 6 year old daughter. I didn't even hesitate to wake Johnny - which I tried to do as unalarmingly as possible by whispering into his ear "honey, I think I need to go to the hospital" which had the same effect as if I were to blast into a megaphone "911!!!" He was instantly awake and asked me what I needed. So he went to the drugstore to get a thermometer and some medicine. I wont go into great detail about Johnny's errand making abilities but lets just say I nearly DIED before he came back. Of course, without a thermometer. Fortunately he found an old one, actually 3 old ones, one of which was not working, the other was unreliable at best and the last one was the old fashioned mercury thermometer which I hate using. After taking my temperature about a dozen times we estimated my fever at about 101.8 degrees.

The next few days were a blur of sweat, fever, chills, body aches, mild delerium, and constipation. I didn't go to work monday. I hate calling in sick cause I always feel like I'm obviously lying even when I'm not. I went in on Tuesday but succumbed to the skull splitting headache and went to the doctor. Yay! I have a viral infection - confirmed.

So now it's Wednesday and I'm still at home and I actually have SPARE TIME. What an incredible thing it is to have spare time. I can't remember the last time I had that was spare. Well, maybe when I broke my ankle but I don't count extreme pain and disability as spare time because I'm too busy being miserable.

Which brings me to my next thought...I'm slowly falling apart. It seems to have started with my previous engagement from hell to a person I wish I could just forget entirely. I think the stress of that "relationship" really messed me up. I became hysterical and my health was compromised. I snapped my ankle like a chopstick while walking (down a muddy path), I got some kind of flesh-eating infection on my toe, I got chaffing and skin infection in ungodly places, and now my very bone structure needs to be rehabilitated. Let this be a lesson to all young women out there: don't put up with his shit!

Well, I'm anxious to see how this blog looks so I'll stop the nonsense here.