one spot, or two?

We all know that larger, nicer vehicles need more space when parking, and will often take up two spaces when parking, often parking diagonally across the two of them (as opposed to straight on like the one in the picture), just so that they can make sure that no one even thinks about parking close enough to ding their door.


Well, I saw one that just confused me. It was obviously a fully parking lot, and a sedan that was nice looking for the most part, but already had a less than perfect paint-job, was diagonally parked across two spots. This wasn't just a sloppy parking job with a tire slightly over the line. It was intentional diagonal parking. I can only wonder why. Was the guy just being rude? Did it not occur to him that others might want to park there? Could he just not be bothered with parking straight?

update at the fuzzy farm

The Fuzzies are running around, alternately with each other and by themselves. They find empty oatmeal canisters to be lovely for trying to dig a larger opening.

James and I are planning to walk home from the U today, since the weather is supposed to be nice (cloudy, but warm). We might stop off at a running-shoe store on the way home to pick out some shoes for me now that it is starting to be warm enough to run outside again.

I've been really busy and had almost no free time, despite the fact that most of my classes aren't meeting this week. Go figure. It's Thursday, and I haven't actually started on my projects for the week. Oh well...there's always the weekend.

Ratboy/Chaos is cute. Fuzzball is more or less fuzzy.

Please double space!

When you're writing a composition in an American foreign language class, please double-space! Trying to correct a D paper that's single-spaced is horrible!

Fuzzball's blood-sugar

I took blood from Fuzzball to check her blood-sugar level on Monday, and she took blood from my chin. Anyway, her count was 90, which is a bit low, but not dangerously so. I've had her off of the steroid for about a week now, I think.

doh!

Newscaster: A woman has gone to trial for killing her husband.

James: Oh, I heard about that. (Looks at TV) What? They're white?!

Me: No James, not just black people commit crimes!

(For those wondering, my good friend James is himself of African descent.)

It was rather amusing to be there. Of course, if you stop and think about why the assumption was that the domestic violence was in a black family, it's probably not quite as funny. On the other hand, maybe this incident's causes are not so ominous. A white person hears that someone did something and probably envisions a white person. Why shouldn't a black person, then, on hearing that a person did something envision a black person? The world may never know.

The teaching of science

I'm listening to an interview with Raymond Kessel on Wisconsin Public Radio. This is a program in which they are discussing the "problem" with science teaching in public education. Basically, his thesis is that the problem with science education is that students are taught to get the "right" answer, rather than exploring with a sense of wonder. Rather than saying, "I wonder why the sky is blue," they ask "What is the answer to #4?" In this manner, students tend to retain terminology, but have no way of applying it actual scientific practice. He suggests that traditional testing, such as standardized testing, is problematic, because it encourages teachers to teach to the test rather than teaching children how to think and follow the scientific method.

Curiosity, creativity, ingenuity.

Actually, this is applicable to just about any field. In my case, as a foreign language teacher, it's difficult to teach students German, because most of them don't see it at as something useful to them. They memorize the forms (sometimes), but they don't put them together into the big picture. The question is, how do you get the students excited about it? How do you get them to make it their own?

It's something to think about.

James and Chaos

James is an integral part of our little ferret household. He helps me trim the ferrets' toenails and welcomes the ferrets into his home when I come to visit. Here's a picture of him holding Chaos at my place.

Fuzzball and James

Here's a picture of Fuzzball poking her head out from under a skirt.

It was kinda cute, really. She was curled up under the skirt and she uncoiled in such a way that her front half was no longer covered.















And here is a picture of James scratching her chin.

Ratbaby's tummy

Here's picture from this morning of Fuzzball's tummy.

The dark patches are scabs. Most have already fallen away. There is a bit of the end of the surgical thread sticking out of one end of the incision. I've emailed the vet to get his opinion on whether I should do anything about it or not.

jogging uphill sucks

I decided that it was time to start jogging again, something that I hadn't done since the weather got nasty in the fall. I figured that I would go out and explore a bit, so I went down some roads that I didn't know, hoping to hook up with some other roads that I do know. Well, one of them put me at the bottom of a rather steep, block-long hill. I was already huffing and puffing, so I am forced to admit that the hill ended my run. I got to the top and started walking home. So, I guess I only jogged for about 10 minutes. On the other hand, I am the heaviest that I have ever been and completely out of shape, so 10 minutes is probably respectable enough. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it up to 20 minutes in the next month or so, though time and inclination to jog may be lacking. Over the summer, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to do half an hour, hopefully more. We'll see what happens. I'm carrying about 20 or 30 pounds more at the moment than I was last summer when I was going on 30 minute jogs with hour long cool downs. I've been toying with the idea of actually getting running shoes, but I'm feeling decidedly poor, so we'll see what happens there too.

evil computer

I'm trying to back-up my harddrive onto the external harddrive that I bought, but for some reason, it's not working the way it is supposed to. I decided to try reinstalling the backup software, but now my CD drive isn't reading anything. *grumbles*

I'm not really sure what to do at this point, other than to copy folder by folder.

Badger badger badger badger...mushroom...a snake!

Yes, I live on Badger Rd.

The backlight on my laptop is out, so I had to call the tech guy to get them to send me a box to pack my computer in to send it in for warranty repair. Of course, I had to verify my address. Yes, I still live on Badger Rd and will for the next 30 days. At this point, the tech guy starts chanting "Badger badger badger badger...mushroom...a snake!" So, is it more scary that some random tech guy starts chanting an in-joke to a customer on the phone, or that I'm in on the in-joke with a total stranger?

On ending the call he said "Thank you for using (the warranty service) and for getting the badger song stuck in my head. Badger badger badger badger...." That's the point at which I hung up...I have to get to bed at some point!

FYI, the backlight actually went out for a short time last night, so I called the tech people then and talked with a techie who had been a GI in Germany in the mid 60s. Very interesting fellow. He told me all about his experiences in Germany in the mid 60s...for some reason it took half an hour on his end to get everything entered into the computer...and he still had brain power to chat about Germany...go figure. After getting off the phone with him, I hooked my laptop up to another monitor and tried turning it on and the laptop screen actually worked, so I called and cancelled the order for the repair box, but as stated above, it went out again tonight, so I had to call Badger Boy.

the continuing Fuzzball saga

For those of you continuing the Fuzzball saga, she isn't completely healed up yet, but I couldn't leave them in the little cage any longer. Chaos was trying to bust his way out, and I was afraid he was going to break off his remaining fang! Late Thursday night, I decided that rather than putting him in the big cage and leaving Fuzzball alone in the rabbit hutch, that the best thing to do would be to put both of them in the big cage with the bed, the litter pan, food and water on the bottom level so that Fuzzball wouldn't have to climb up and down to take care of her needs. Well, she climbed up to the top anyway. She doesn't seem any worse for wear. I'll post a photo of her tummy later.

How small is small?

(Mine is red)

As I was getting off of the bus this morning, I once again noticed the sign on a parking meter where I parked once last week. "Small vehicles only". I drive a 1997 Ford Escort wagon. The wheel base is 98.4 inches (2.5 meters) and the length is 174.7 inches (4.4 meters). I wasn't sure if I could park my car there or not. Well, I did, and it fit with plenty of room inside the painted lines delineating the spot.

My thoughts are so: In Europe, one would say that I drive a large car. In America, I thought it would be mid-size, but apparently it's small enough for the purposes of parking in the "small car only" spot. This means, that our large cars are way too large, I think!

Because nothing says Sweet Dreams like...

...a face plant in the litter-pan.

Cautiously optimisic

After I gave Fuzzball her medicine, she didn't fidget when I pet her. She even started licking my arm. I repositioned her and she started licking my face while I was petting her. She seems to have gotten much more affectionate. Hopefully this is just the start of a better relationship!

Taxes

I'm watching the presidential news conference at the moment. He's speaking out against raising taxes.

Taxes. Everybody hates them. Having more take-home money is always nice.

On the other hand, I really like the postal service. I like the interstate. I like public buildings. I like public parks. I like it when the road gets plowed. I also think that it is good for a government to care for the human needs of people, such as housing, food, and healthcare. Without tax-income, the government is unable to provide these services.

Of course, if we bought a few less aircraft carriers, made less bombs and fought less wars, we could provide all of these services and more without any raises in taxes.

Here are a couple of different charts showing where our tax dollars go...they don't exactly agree, but you can go to the source website to read about that.

All happy on the Fuzzball front

Babygirl seems to be doing just fine. She is anxious to get back into the multilevel cage. I've seen her trying to claw her way in. As soon as the external incision is completely healed, I'll let the ferrets back into their larger home.

What I learned from "Super Nanny"

I was watching Super Nanny last night and I found yet another reason not to have children.

I consider my ferrets to be test cases for having kids. The ferrets and I do pretty well. I sit on the couch working on my computer and the ferrets run around amusing themselves and finding cozy places to curl up and take a nap. On Super Nanny, there was footage of a lady with 5 kids who just sat on the couch while the kids ran around and played. That's apparently a big no-no. The mom is supposed to take a much more active role. Reason 243 not to have children!

Odd conversation!

So, I was talking to my friend on the phone last night. Shortly before hanging up last night, she asked me if I was going to be alright.

Me: I'm fine now; it comes and goes.

Her: Well, you can hug your ferret, anyway.

Me: I was hugging my ferret when I started crying.

Her: That's it! That's what caused it. It was the trauma of being violated by your ferret. That's why you're crying!

Me: Oh my...

Her: This is just wrong on so many levels...but somehow seems right...

Yeah...it really was past our bedtimes. We should have been asleep, rather than having this conversation.

Feeling better at the moment

I called my friend and she chatted with me for a while. She distracted me and now I feel better. I'm still kinda worried about the bout of crying, though.

Getting teary-eyed

Christ...I'm getting emotional. I'm watching this 60 Minutes show on donor children. My eyes just started tearing up. This is not a good sign. Crying for no reason! Yikes!

The nap goes on

Well, Chaos toddled off to his carrier after a brief stop at the water bottle to continue his nap. Fuzzball stayed in the covered cat-bed.















She too sleeps in funny positions.

ferrets napping together

There just isn't much to be said...ferrets sleep in odd positions, often under blankets...how they breathe, I don't know! Chaos was napping and Fuzzball joined him.

Fuzzball's blood sugar

Well, I decided to test Fuzzball's blood sugar level today. That was an adventure. First I had trouble getting the monitor to the right screen, because I kept hitting the button to turn it on, instead of just putting in the strip. Once I got the right screen, I tried to use the pin-prick thing to get blood from Fuzzball. Nothing doing. Then I thought, OK, how about a sewing needle, so I tried that. Still nothing. I remembered that I had one sharp, so I drew a little blood and finally was able to get a reading, after having wasted one reading strip through so much handling. Fortunately, Fuzzball didn't seem to notice much of the pricking, except for the sewing needle and the sharp. Now I know how to do it faster the next time!

Anyway, her reading was 150, which is a bit higher than average, but well within normal female ferret range! I've been progressively giving her less and less of the steroid. I think she'll be completely off of it in another week or so. I have a friend who can keep me in clean sharps, so I'll be able to test her level periodically.

Behavior-wise, she seems to be pretty much back to normal. She's running around and seems to be napping much less than before.

She even has shown improvement: She used the litterbox!

Government versus Religion

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, Will, the other day on the phone, and he gave a good explanation of why religion and government should be kept separate. It went something like this:

The government is of the people, by the people, for the people.

The government is there to serve the people.

Religion is there to serve God.

Those in government should be serving the people, even if such service would not be in line with their view of how one serves God.
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Just a note, the "government of the people, by the people, for the people" is per Lincoln - though he also states that it is under God.

Anyway, Will's argument presents the interesting other side of the coin, making a similar argument, but from an agnostic perspective as the Bible:

Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." (although here it is specifically talking about money versus God)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=MATT%206;&version=31;

Matthew 22:21 "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." (Again in regard to money)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=MATT%2022;&version=31;

Will might not approve of how I've explained this. If this is the case, then most likely, there will be a comment to set me straight!

Fuzzball is really tearing it up this morning!

Well, there doesn't seem to be any lack of energy on Fuzzball's part. She seems really happy to be able to run around. It's kinda weird; she has her tail all bottle-brushed as if she didn't know the apartment anymore, but nothing has changed in here since last week. Weird.

Ah...she just found her favorite shawl to curl up in behind the chair. Good for her.

Chaos is currently cleaning himself in my lap. I bathed him yesterday, and he left me a token in exchange. I've decided that angry ferret urine is much more potent than happy ferret urine and thus much more difficult to get out of the carpet.

Hardware still functioning

I was petting Chaos while he was napping and felt something hard on his otherwise soft belly. I realized that he is still able to do the deed (it feels like a 1/2 inch uncooked curved spaghetti noodle, for those who want to know). I imagine that he was dreaming about someone small, dark and fuzzy. He twitched a lot, anyway.

They meet again

After consulting with the vet, I decided to reunite Chaos and Fuzzball.
































Chaos wasn't all that interested. Fuzzball approached him and they wrestled for a few seconds, ending in someone yelping and each of them going their separate ways.















Chaos went into the bed, and I put Fuzzball in with him. He got up and left. I put him back in and blocked the door. He calmed down and I got this picture. They stayed together until I decided to bring them back to my apartment.

They'll be staying in the rabbit hutch together for the next few days until Fuzzball is ready for the multi-level cage.

Fuzzball is healing nicely

Fuzzball's bruising has really gone down.

The Ferret Report

Fuzzball:

Looking better, still in solitary. Monday, I'm supposed to be able to put her back together with Chaos, though I think I'll put him in with her in the small cage so that she doesn't have to climb from floor to floor for a while yet. I'm going to email the vet to get his opinion on this. She lapped up her steroid and pink stuff, with the help of FerreTone, right off the spoon, but I still had to force feed her the pain killer. It looks and smells kinda like soy-sauce, but tastes horrible! (What can I say...a drop was on my finger, so I tried it.) I pulled the pain killer/FerreTone mix back up into the syringe and squirted it into her mouth. *sighs* Fortunately for me, and perhaps for her as well, there is only one more dose of the painkiller left, so we won't have to fight over it anymore after tomorrow morning. Hopefully she is healed up well enough that it will be OK for her not to have any pain killer left over!

Chaos:

I had started taking the ferrets outside last week. Since Fuzzball's surgery, she's stayed home, but I've been taking Chaos out. On Wednesday morning, Mom (oh yeah...Mom and Dad were here for a few days, but now they're in Mexico) and I took him to the park. He really enjoyed that! Today, I had him up on campus. We walked around and he smelled a lot of probably new things. I think he was scared by the crows, though. He flattened himself on the sidewalk and looked up at the trees and about three crows started cawing at him (at least I think it was at him!). I decided to pick him up and carry him until we were out of range of the trees!

Of course, walking a ferret draws a lot of attention. Whenever we go out, people always want to see him and pet him. Fortunately, he's good natured enough that I don't have to be afraid of him scratching or biting anyone! I don't trust Fuzzball in that respect!

We came home and he took several naps, one of which on my chest while I read an article and another while I watched "The Motorcycle Diaries". Then he put himself to bed. I had to pull him out of his cage to take his belled harness off of him for the night!

(Footnote: Charlie is eating just fine - just thought I'd mention him, even though he's a fish and not a ferret!)

I just watched "The Motorcycle Diaries"

None of the film "The Motorcycle Diaries" takes place in Bolivia, the part of Latin America where I've spent the most time. It was based on diaries from 1952 in Argentina, Chile and Peru. It looks so familiar, though. It makes me sad to see how the situation of the indigenous people shown hasn't really changed much since then.

It's no surprise that Ernesto "Che" Guevara wanted to start a revolution after his travels. Sure, this is a fictionalized representation of his travels in 1952, but I would suggest that the situations portrayed were real enough. Uno se queda triste a verlo.

Smoking ban

Smoking is now banned in most public places, indoors and out, except for in designated areas in Calabasas, CA. There is a $500 fine for repeated disobedience.

One article about it.

Official ordinance.

In my personal opinion, smoking should be banned everywhere, because it is a health risk for the smoker and is additionally a dangerous annoyance to others in the area. Of course, a friend of mine pointed out to me that there is a degree of hypocrisy to this argument, since the same argument can be made against cars, but I'm not willing to give up driving. It will be interesting to see how this smoking ban plays out. I must say; it's nice to know that you can go out without coming home smelling like cigarettes! I hate having to wash my hair before going to bed.

In other news, the town where I live has a ban in bars and pubs. One bar owner is currently involved in legal problems because he has allowed patrons to smoke on two occasions. He says that he can't put his employees in danger by asking them to confront smokers.

Charlie the Betta

I've been pet-sitting Charlie while James is home for spring break. Charlie hadn't been eating for quite some time. We were starting to wonder if something was wrong with him. I suspect that it was the water temperature, and perhaps the bleach fumes in the air. Anyway, I've been leaving the window cracked and a lamp on him. He started eating Wednesday morning and has eaten everything that I've given to him ever since, even eating multiple times a day. Go Charlie!

It's official: Fuzzball hates me

While being resistant, Fuzzball has been civil up until now with the whole forced feeding of medicine thing. Today, however, things got a bit worse. She had gotten a bunch of nastiness out of her litter pan stuck to her foot, so I had to wash her feet. I put her in a sink with about a half an inch of warm water in it. Have I mentioned lately that Fuzzball hates being bathed? After washing her feet, I force fed her the rest of her morning medicine. I put her back in her cage, but wanted to take her out for something else. Anyway, when I reached my hand in, she bit me. She's never just bitten like that before. (In the past, it's always been a sort of love nip following licks.) I suspect that she'll never forgive me!

Sore fingers!

I've played more guitar in the last hour than I had in the last six months! I picked this guitar up in Germany at a discount store, kinda like the dollar store (except of course with Euros), but they also had some things for more than a euro. This was only 35 €. This was one of my best purchases, I think!

Ratbaby doesn't like her medicine

Yesterday, Fuzzball lapped up her medicine without any problems. Today, I had to actually use the syringe to squirt it into her mouth. She's still pretty well drugged up. I'm hoping that she's not in any pain. Her belly is still pretty bruised up. Poor baby girl!

Ratboy really likes the Perkins bag

Apparently, the Perkins take-out bag is a special thing. It's made out of a bit stiffer plastic than your average plastic grocery bag. Chaos seems really, really, really happy to be thrashing around in it. Fun crinkly sounds. Unfortunately, a still photo just doesn't do it justice, but here is what I can offer.

The Public Museum

After dropping Fuzzball off for her surgery, we had some time to kill, so we went to the Public Museum. It was a pretty nice place, really, with three floors of exhibits. It was visually very rich.

My major complaint with it, is that while there were a number of cultural artifacts from all around the world, there was very little text discussing them. The text that there was dealt specifically with the artifacts and not with the people who created them. Many of the items were rather stereotypical, appropriate for a folk festival, however not very representative of the cultures at large. I am concerned that such an exhibit simply reinforces stereotypes about the cultures portrayed. Also, many of them blended the human produced artifacts with dioramas of wildlife. There was almost the suggestion that animals and people were really just the same (in an "other"=animal/simplistic sense), rather than pointing out the complexities of the various peoples.

So, very visually appealing. Not so educationally multicultural.

Fuzzball's surgery

Well, Fuzzball has had her surgery. The doctor said that he removed her left adrenal gland, but that the right one looked fine. He also didn't see any insulinomas and said that her blood sugar was fine this morning.

I've borrowed a blood-sugar meter from my dad, so I'll be testing her blood-sugar level periodically. The vet suggested that it might be possible/desireable to ween her off of the steroid that the other vet put her on for her low blood-sugar.

He predicts a full recovery.


She is supposed to be kept quiet for a couple of days, so she's in the rabbit hutch with lots of soft blankets, food, water, and a litter pan. She's already started eating again, though it took some coaxing to make her remember that she likes her food. Her appetite seems to be quite healthy.

Since my apartment is so small and James is out of town for the week, he's agreed to let me keep her in his apartment until she is able to be re-united with Chaos.

The doctor gave me amoxicillin (the pink stuff!) and a pain reliever to give to her for the next week or so. She doesn't like the flavor of either of them, but she really dislikes the pain-killer. I have to mix it with A LOT of FerreTone to get her to lap it up.

The poor dear is so drugged up right now that she stayed in my lap quietly enough to not only let me take the above picture, but also long enough for me to prepare her medicines. Usually, she is way too fidgety!

red politics

Ever notice that both the Republican Party and the Communist Party have red as their color?

"borrowing"

I have this ex-roomate who "borrowed" money from me. (Actually, he ran up a $300 phone bill and said he'd pay it back. That was about 6 years ago. He still owes me $150.) I recently found out that his mother had passed away and that he got a rather sizeable life insurance award. I was kinda hoping that he might decide that this was the time to pay back the money. So far, I haven't seen a penny. In his case, that's annoying but OK. Him not being in my life is worth the loss of $150.

More frustrating by far would be if he were actually a friend of mine. Can you imagine if you had a friend who borrowed money from you, had the money to pay you back, but didn't??? That would be really awkward, especially if said friend ever wanted to borrow money from you again!

I usually try not to borrow large amounts from people. If they lend me a buck, I get it back to them as soon as I have it, usually the next day. Often times they say not to worry about it, but I try to pay it back anyway, just to make sure that I don't end up taking advantage of the person.

I've collected money before. I've asked people for donations to buy mutual friends plane tickets to Germany. I've also asked for donations to cover the cost of my rescued ferret's operation. However, this was never ever termed as borrowing. People who gave knew that there would be no financial return, just the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing you helped. It wasn't borrowing, though.

My neighbor James and I often lend money back and forth. It's usually a matter of "hey, do you have a $10 or $20 to put money on the laundry card?" or "oh, we're going to that store that only takes cash. Do you have any on you?" I'm more than happy to lend to James, because he always pays it back as soon as he makes it to an ATM, even if I tell him that he doesn't have to. It's a kind of trust thing.

Of course the greatest thing that happens with lent money is when the borrower remembers to pay you back, even after you yourself have forgotten about it. That's always good!

It's kinda weird how we use the term "borrow", at least in this part of the country. People say "can you borrow/lend me a sheet of paper?" In this case, it is possible that you will give the person a sheet of paper later to replace the one that you've "borrowed", but really, how often does that happen? There's almost never a 1:1 correspondence with these things. Worse of course, is when someone asks to borrow some Kleenex. No one expects a return of a "borrowed" Kleenex! (Used Kleenex=bad thing)

Rather than asking if someone will borrow me a sheet of paper (another fun thing...using "borrow" to express the "lending" side of the transaction - very common throughout language history, though), I ask if I can HAVE a sheet of paper. That signals that I don't intend giving it back, and that the person will have to ask me for a sheet of paper if that is the expectation. (Pleases and thank yous are of course still appropriate!)

I'm all for clarity of terms. If you don't plan to give it back, don't say you're borrowing it. If you asked to borrow something, then please, give it back!

More cuddling with Chaos

More cuddling with the Ratboy.










His little sandpaper tongue is making my nose raw!

Have I mentioned lately that Chaos likes chewing on plastic/rubber/vinyl?

So, I've got this dryer-hose for the ferrets to run through, but there's a slight problem. Chaos can't help but chew on everything that is anywhere in the neighborhood of plastic, rubber, or vinyl. He was chewing up the ends of the "tunnel", which was problematic, because little bits of the vinyl were breaking off and could theoretically get stuck in his digestive tract and kill him. I tried putting tape on the end of the hose, but Ratboy also likes to eat tape. So, just before giving up and throwing it out, I decided to sew some fabric around the end of the tube. This works. He chews on the fabric, but not on the vinyl! Chaos can now chew to his heart's content without hurting himself.

My fuzzy baby boy

Ratboy is such a cuddler. There's nothing like sitting back with this little bundle of fur against you chest, supported by your arm, much as you might recline with a baby. It's quite relaxing. I am a bit concerned about the little dear's health, though, because he always prefers to lick my nose rather than my chin or cheek, so he's exposed to every cold I get!

Male reproductive rights

I was just reading my friend's blog.

http://darkestgreens.blogspot.com/2006/03/parental-responsibility-for-men.html

She brought up the question of the rights of the father during a pregnancy. A woman can decide to keep a fetus or abort it, and the man is obligated to be a father and/or pay child support or not based on that decision. How much say does/should a man have when it comes to becoming a parent relative to a woman?

Charlie

The night before last, James and I went out shopping. We went to the petstore looking for litter for the ferrets. We looked at the beta fish, because James wanted a beta. They were kinda ugly. We then went grocery shopping. After grocery shopping, I offered to take James to Petsmart. He said he didn't really want to go. I asked him what he wanted to name the fish. He decided on Charlie. So, I told him that we'd go to the store and look for Charlie. If Charlie was there, we'd take him home. If not, we'd leave it. Well there was a large number of beta fish. James said Charlie was blue, so we looked at all the blue fish. After looking at every beta in the store, we found a beautiful deep blue beta with red tipped fins, kinda like this one, though with less red and more blue. We bought it and the lady put it in a bag in its little cup of water.


When we got Charlie home and got ready to put him in his new home. We took him out of the bag and found that he was not really as blue as we thought. Here's a picture of Charlie in his bowl at James' apartment.

We think it was the difference in lighting, but we never imagined that the blue fish would really be red!

Chaos either has a short memory or is a masochist.

Ratboy was just bathed a bit ago, but he's still trying to dig his way through the bathroom door. You'd think he'd associate the bathroom with horrible things. Go figure.

Ferrets don't like bathing

Ferrets don't particularly like being bathed. In fact, if it weren't for the slippery nature of wet porcelain, they would have jumped out of the tub and run away just as quick as their little legs could carry them. However, Chaos smelled like he'd gotten into something less than clean, so I decided to bathe him and Fuzzball too.


Most of Fuzzball's new fur is white/blonde, so when she is wet, she looks naked.



I like to consider this the chinese dragon ferret.













































Yeah...they really weren't all that happy with me. I thought that maybe if I bathed them together, they wouldn't hate it as much.



































































Chaos must be thinking: Does this water make me look fat? What do you think about the new hair-do?
























After I released them back into the wild...uh livingroom, one of them left me a calling card, telling me in no uncertain terms that they found the bath just crappy. Fortunately, the papers that he/she chose for this little present were the rough draft of the last exam that my students had to take and were therefore trash-bound at any rate. This just got the papers there that much quicker.


Such is life in a ferret home.