Peace is apparently anti-Christian and anti-American

This is a wreath on the house of Lisa Jensen in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

A Pagosa Springs resident is resisting an order by her homeowners'
association to remove a peace symbol-shaped wreath from an exterior wall of her
home.

"I just wanted to put a message of peace out there," said Lisa Jensen, who
hung the wreath Nov. 19. She said Wednesday she didn't intend the wreath as a
statement against the Iraq war.

"I was really trying to be in favor of something - peace," Jensen said.

She was informed by letter from the Loma Linda Homeowners' Association that "Loma Linda residents are offended by the Peace Sign displayed on the front of your house."

The letter, citing a use-restriction banning "signs, billboards or
advertising structures of any kind" within the subdivision without prior
approval, said the wreath had to come down by Friday, or Jensen and husband,
Bill Trimarco, would face a $25-per-day fine.

...

Homeowners' Association President Bob Kearns said Wednesday that the board had required another resident to remove peace symbols a week before, and that property owner complied.

The above quote is from The Durango Herald.

Can you believe it? A peace sign is being condemned!

(Thanks to Anomalous Data and Eclectics Anonymous for the story!)

Dzur has appeared

Well, I was at the mall yesterday, very late in the day, after 7pm and wandered into the Barnes & Noble. There on the shelf sat 5 shiny hard cover copies of Steven Brust's new book DZUR. I almost bought it. I must admit, I just finished re-reading all of the Vlad Taltos series that has been decorating my bookshelf for so long. Then I looked at the price and decided that I could wait until either someone gets it for me for Christmas (*wink, wink, nudge, nudge*) or until it comes out in paperback. Well, at least I have something to look forward to!

That's what I said!

So, research has finally backed up what I said a long time ago. (Granted, I only posted on it 5 months ago, but still...)

Basically, Americans need to walk more, and our cities need to be made more pedestrian/cyclist friendly. Our cities are built for cars and not for people who choose to walk or ride bike.

This article at CNN talks about this very issue: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/11/17/activity.friendly.reut/index.html

Cute fuzzy sleepy babies

Sleeping ferrets caught on camera! (OK...so that's about the only time that you can be sure to catch them on camera.)

Images of Women

There's a Keri Shea Butter ad on TV that shows living women in the place of the painted women in famous paintings. However, the living women are much slimmer than the women depicted in the actual paintings. (The proportions are actually off visually, since the women don't take up enough of the canvas.) So...just what does this say??? At the time that the paintings were painted, the women with a fuller body were considered beautiful. Now, they are replaced with skinny women. *grumbles* What was wrong with the original beauty?

The little Minion of Darkness

Chaos has been rather destructive today. This morning, he has already terrorized a cardboard box and the Olive Garden bag. Those have got to be among the cheapest ferret toys known to man.

I decided to snuggle into the oversuffed chair and make a phone call to a friend of mine. While we were talking, Chaos decided that he really needed to help organize my students' exams. I had three neat piles of exam components on the couch, plus a stack of more or less organized green folders. Well, Chaos apparently didn't approve of my organizational decisions. I could have gotten up and redirected him, but I just wanted to recline in the chair and not worry about it for a few minutes. Well, now most of it is on the floor.

When I finally did get up, I found that either I had left the top section of my backpack unzipped, or he had figured out how to open it. *grumbles*

He's a very inquisitive little boy. He's cute and fuzzy. If he weren't so cute and fuzzy, he'd have been gone long ago...Dammit...I love the little guy, despite (or maybe because of) his little escapades.

Chocolate is bad for ferrets

So, around 6:30, I went down to put a note on the outside door for a delivery person. Chaos followed me out into the hallway. I figured that it was no big deal because all the doors to the hall were closed. Surprisingly, he didn't follow me to the front door. I found him in front of a neighbor's door with a coin's size of chocolate in his mouth. I pulled the rest out of his mouth. He had chocolate breath.

I don't know how much he actually ate, but I had heard that chocolate could be toxic, so I called the vet. She told me that we couldn't know how toxic the chocolate would be, since we didn't know what kind of chocolate it was or how much he'd had. She suggested that I give him half a tablespoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide since it should make him vomit up anything he'd eaten. So, I gave it to him. He didn't vomit. I called back and she suggested that I try giving him water. So I force fed him water with a syringe. He still didn't comply. Then I called the vet again, and she said that I should try giving him something to eat, so I did. He still didn't do anything. So, I called the vet again, and she said that I could give him another dose. I spent about two hours keeping him in the tub in hopes that he would vomit. I shook him up and down (after 4-6 oz of water, he sounded like a water balloon), massaged his tummy, tried to hit his gag reflex.

This all just resulted in a very upset and confused, but rather well hydrated, ferret. I finally put him into his cage, in the hope that he would go to sleep, but he just ran around like crazy. So, I took him back out and held him until he calmed down. I think he forgave me, though. He licked my nose. He seems fine today. Thank goodness!

Once more not so fuzzy Fuzzball

Well, the swelling on Fuzzball's vulva never did go down after her surgery. I noticed yesterday that she is starting to lose fur around her groin / inner thighs. I've made an appointment to take both Chaos and Fuzzball in to the vet tomorrow for their standard shots and to see what we can do to keep Fuzzball fuzzy. Apparently she's in the 40 percent that relapses after the operation.

I'm a believer

Well, on James' advice, I finally bought some Febreze Pet Odor Remover. It's wonderful! One spray and all ferretiness is gone from the room! All I have to do is spritz the litter box, and you can't smell any of the ferret droppings!

:)

Makes me very happy!

I had been hesitant to buy it, because I had read that most pet odor removers don't work for ferrets. I'm proud to report having found an exception!

Just a drug overdose or something...

In case anyone is wondering, the guy that was found dead here was ruled-out as a murder, at least according to the lady at town hall when I registered to vote.

Ratboy: Where's my bed???

So, I did laundry today. When I got home and was replacing the blankets and stuff in the ferret cage, I realized that something very important was missing; Ratboy's hammock. He doesn't sleep in it all the time, but more often than not. After emptying all the laundry that I'd brought back from the laundromat, I found nothing. I decided that I had to head back to the laundromat. I found it in the washer, plastered to the drum. I threw it in the dryer for 10 minutes to get the worst of the moisture out of it and then came home again. Chaos will be pleased.