Dreams, Glitter and Tears

I suck so bad.


So ok, updates and stuff... cliffnotes version:

Darling and I met in October on 2 occasions, more to come on that, orlly just logs of what i downloaded in channel.

Holy shit. He's amazing. What don't I love? pfft.

I got a promotion and raise at work, FINALLY. GAH.

James and I are doing pretty good, although he gets jealous at times. I dunno how to soothe his ego any more than I am, yet anything i do gets shot down instantly. Sunuvabeech.

Darling's Roommate, Eskimo started talking to me during his visit and she and I have become closer than I have come to any other woman, ever. I love her dearly. I've been waiting so long to really connect to another woman the way I do with her. It was totally worth the wait.


Winter has come and along with it the deepest depression I have felt in a long time. wish i had a street pharmacist available to get prozac from. or something. anything. I have turned to old habits and curse myself daily for them.

I have lost a substantial amount of weight, at Darlings encouragement. I don't know how to begin thanking him for that.

I learned just today that I lost a neighbor, and I am reminded that only a few days ago was the 1 year mark of losing my Great Grandfather, the one man that truly loved me, yet abused me horribly. *sigh* A couple of beloved pets have passed as well.

Day to day life is a struggle, but the benefits of surviving is debatable yet overwhelmingly joyous.

Shit happens.

Writing from the library again. They block messaging and chat sites, otherwise I would have gotten on IRC or AIM by now to let people know that we are ok, just are dealing with a dark house at night.

Life without power is BORING. I feel highly UNDERstimulated and agitated. It sucks.

Today, I went to a POD and got more ration boxes, they didn't give me nearly as many as they did when I had the kids with me, they seem to be less understanding to the fact that the kids are in school, even though I showed them my last tax return, drivers lisence and a picture of the 5 kids. We did get more water and ice though, which was good. I stopped by the store and purchased an extra cooler to put more of our food in. I got some canned goods and a few pork chops to cook tonight for James' birthday.

I got home and  cleaned out the freezer, which was leaking all over the kitchen floor. I got a call from the school and picked a sick Laura up early. shit- that reminds me, I need to text Emily to tell her where Laura is. doing so now...

I am trying to find someone that will let me borrow their oven for a couple of hours, I'd like to surprise James with the brownies I promised him, with 40 candles on them, just like he wanted. Hopefully, things will work out.

To my friends reading this, I miss chatting with you and just being silly having fun with you. I am guessing it might be a week or so before I am back online, but when I do, we will celebrate!
To Darling, thank you for the phone calls and texts, when life is so still and silent, the phone ringing is a gift from above.

Until I can steal away to the library again...

PS. For those keeping track of when Darling and I meet, the dates have changed a little- he is coming through TWICE, on the 16th AND on the 18th. I plan to meet with him both times. I am on the countdown and have already started to save towards the car rental. (even though it is only across Houston, it's too far to take the Duster, which is literally being held together in places with baling wire and duct tape) EXCITED isn't the word for it!! :D

I am writing my entries from now on from the public library. I attempted to go to mibbit to chat with my friends on freenode but the bastards at the library blocked it.

School began again yesterday for the kids and they were excited to go. Kay is the last one to leave on any normal day and she was getting ready. I was chatting with a friend, who has a new lady-interest. (Good going, and I look forward to hearing about her when I get back online!!)

We heard a *BOOM* and the power went out. Oh, damn. A transformer exploded and it was a close one. We are gussing at this point that it was the one in the back yard next to ours, but we aren't sure, it could have been the one in our back yard...

It sounded like someone shot a gun outside my window. Kay and I looked at eachother in surprise and I told her "We aren't going to get power back today. Not for a long while." My logic is that the work crews came through about a week ago to restore power to my neighborhood after Ike, they have moved on and are busy with other areas that haven't been restored yet. After all, half a million people are still waiting for their power, why should they double back just for us. It's only 35 houses, we are a low priority.

We called and they told us that crews are working 24/7 and it will be a while before they have time to come back to fix ours again. Well, damn.

I already miss my friends and Darling.

But today is only the beginning.

2 exciting things happened today, aside from the MRE goodness:

1: James worked today, first time in over a week! They got a generator at the shop and he was even able to get his most recent paycheck! YAY!

2: Darling told me that he has an upcoming work conference in California and will have a flight layover in Houston! 4 hours to snuggle and enjoy eachother's company. I can't wait!! The tentative date is October 18th.

Many of my regular readers know that a while back I submitted a picture to Cute Overload and it was published there

mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2007/08/full-bodied-wit.html

Well, the owner of the site asked me if I would be ok with her publishing the photo in her 2009 calendar and of course I said yes.

Today I got a box

 

In the box was

November 29 is my picture!!






My Deviant Art page shows the original

pogovina.deviantart.com/art/Have-a-cup-of-cuteness-12589063

Darling and I are doing well, his phone calls have really become something I enjoy. Not to say that I never did before but it's quickly becoming one of my favorite late night habits. I enjoy talking with him and lulling him to sleep with my sweet voice. I especially love it when he falls asleep on the phone and I whisper little things to him. Most of all, he is enriching in his encouragement and playful teasing. I look forward to that the most, I think.
I still want him to collar me and I wrote him a letter telling him what i need and wat out of life. It was good for him to know but it was especially good for me to think about it. I have spent many years of my life no longer knowing what I wanted out of it. For me to really reevaluate my needs vs my desires is so good for me. I thank Darling every day that I think about myself rather than being a slave to others needs. He doesn't know I do, but it's true nonetheless.

Other things in life, in a month, I will be at my job a year. That feels fantastic, especially after several short lived jobs and James telling me I wasn't capapble of holding a job. I just needed something that made me happy. As mundane as it is, I enjoy seeing my regular customers and hearing about what is new in their lives. It's a highly social job which is perfect for me. I spent too many years without proper social interaction and I now realize how badly I was hurting for it.

Romance at home not to be forgotten, James and I are doing well. He snuggled me tonight for quite some time, petting and running his hands over my hair. Given that he is still quite distant in general, it was nice. He has increased his snuggling and hugging in general, which makes me happy.

The kids are good, getting ready to go to school. I'm not ready but they are, emotionally and mentally.

Nicholas passed away, which saddened us all but it was his time, he was getting old. We will bury him under the tree in the back yard.

In all, life is good. For once I am happy, truly happy. I'm glad I finally came forth with some secrets that had been haunting me, the truth really does make everything in life better.

Ok, so I decided I've fucked off enough and want to get back to journalling regularly. Honestly I missed doing it but between work, home and pure laziness I've managed to stop writing all together. At first I had a good excuse though- I had sketchy internet connections and writing days of private and friends-only entries from scratch was a real bitch. I couldn't leave them on text documents on my computer because of suspicions of snooping. BLAH. Life.

So the short of what's been going on since I wrote regularly? I'm certain I will forget a lot and some will be out of order but here goes a checklist:

One of my female  rats, Juliette (my first in this house and my first female) has a tumor. It's on her left shoulder and over the past 8 months it has grown to be almost 2/3 her body size. The vet says that it would have been more dangerous to put her under anesthesia to remove it than to just let it stay, and that she may just get another one where she removed the alst. As long as it doesnt impede her eating and breathing and take away from her quality of life, it's ok to leave. I hate to do so but Juliette is getting old and she still to this day frolicks and plays, gives tons of kisses and enjoys being held.... There's just more of her to love.  I do feel sorry for the poor girl though. And angry at the breeder that assured me that tumors did not run in her bloodline.

My big boy, Donnie, passed away the day of Emily's surgery. I came to the conclusion that James was right once again (he's always right, damnit) and Donnie was much older than I guessed him to be. He slowed down in his last few days and lost some weight so we saw it coming and most of us were able to say our goodbyes. Donnie now resides in a large pot of daffodils on our front porch, his name painted on the pot.

So Emily had her surgery, that was an aventure. I talked a lot about it in my last entry though so I won't get too into it. The highlight for me was her waking up from anesthesia, pointing to me with a dopey smile and saying "Rita!" She repeated with James and Laura. Poor Laura thought that they fucked her brain up and cried, scared for her big sis. I explained that she was just really really high and we wanted her that way. Kids, don't do drugs, it scares the shit out of your loved ones. Emily is prescribed truth.

What else? Emily's recovery was longer than she'd like and she still can't do everything she wants to physically but she can breathe better and the pressure is off her heart and lungs. That's all that really matters. Oh and she's taller. She loves that.

About a month ago, my other original female rattie, Annika started growing a tumor on her right hind leg. It's growing quickly but again the vet says she should be fine without surgery. Annika is Juliette's sister and is mother to Balthier, Jacob, Duck and Ophelia, along with other babies that found new homes last year. I now worry for the babies. I am trying to contact everyone that took one, but i have deleted most of their information unfortunately. If any of you read this, please email me.

I got a fish tank this summer, something I picked up off Freecycle.org. It seems we saved the one fish that was living in it, the conditions were just awful. We now have a few happy swimmers in the living room.

School is due to start August 25th. Almost everyone is mentall ready although we have yet to scramble for school supplies at the last minute... it costs a lot to get stuff for 5 kids. Laura will be joining Emily in HS this year and is going to be in ROTC. I worry that she will not stick with it long but we will see. I hope for the best, I think the structure would do her some good. Either way, it should be interesting.

So yeah, Em and Laura have gone to and come back from TN. It was rather uneventful from what I hear. To be expected. Emily and James texted eachother a lot during the time they were gone so we didn't talk on the phone as much as I would have liked. And I wrote them a letter but neither of them wrote back. Poo. Emily did mention that her mother, who claimed "Don't get baptised, I'll spend the summer reading the Book of Mormon with you and discussing it with you, then you can decide whether or not to get baptised." did absolutely dick with Emily on that subject. Emily said that every time it even began to possibly come up, her mom would tense up and get a look in her eye, obviously angered by the subject being even thought of. So they didn't talk about it. They didn't read. And Em didn't tell her mom she already did get baptised. I knew this was going to be the outcome of that situation, and I am ashamed for her mother, who calls herself and open minded person acting the way she has about this. It's not as though Emily was going to be a porn star or wanted a baby, or does drugs. It's religion! Something a 16 year old should have the right to choose for themselves. Heaven forbid Emily or Laura have something that is really worth getting upset over come up in their lives, they have no reason to believe that their own mother would support them and their right to decide for themselves. I am so happy that I am so supportive of them growing into lovely young ladies, making wise choices for themselves. Even James, who is totally not into "this church thing" is silently supportive, rather than blatantly opposed. According to James, Kristen (their mom, his ex) gave him the evil eye when he picked them up. So much for being civil. Aparently Mike (stepdad) was friendlier than Kristen, which is saying a lot since he hates us with a firey passion.

In work news, I am about to hit my one year anniversary at my job. Woo! On the bad side of the coin, due to a fuckup by one of James' coworkers, he has lost 65%+ of his workload permenantly. Sometimes they couldn't keep him busy anyway so this royally sucks. We are re-budgeting currently.

In my personal life, things have gotten a bit complicated but are really good. More about that in another entry.

I can't think of anything else right now but I hope that I stick with this a little better this time.

So much has been going on lately. I've been keeping a cliff-notes version journal on my computer and I plan to back-post as soon as I possibly can.

Here at home, things are going well. Emilys surgery on 12/4 was successful.
She is recovering very quickly and has impressed the doctors. She was supposed to be in the "Step-Down" unit (Shriners version of an ICU) for 3 days but she only needed to be there for 18 hours. She was walking 1 day after surgery with assistance, and was even playing her violin again by day 4 post-surgically. She even did a little dance for the doctors when they came to see how she was doing. They were quite amused. She was supposed to stay in the hospital until the 14th
but got out on Monday evening. She is adjusting to living at home pretty well, sleeping on the couch and her mattress on the floor since her bed is a "loft" style, kind of like a bunk bed with the top bunk only. (Her and Laura's computer and desk are underneath the bed. She still wakes every 3.5 to 4 hours for more pain medication but is sleeping less fitfully when she does sleep, meaning that James and I can as well. We have been sleeping on the floor in the living room next to her in case she needs anything. Today I had to leave her at home alone for a few hours while I was
working and I was relieved to return home to find her sleeping comfortably. She will have a tutor assigned by the school come to our home twice a week to help her with her school work but we have to the rest of the time. It won't be too terribly hard with the exception of her Japanese class. James and I speak very very little Japanese. Hopefully her tutor will specialize in Japanese. We expect Emily to return to school mid January. The timing of the surgery really couldn't have been better. Her classes are doing a lot of review right now in preparation for mid-terms. She also has the holiday break during her recovery time so she will be missing less school. We are so happy with her recovery, she has been so very strong through all of this.

In other news, Donnie, my original male rat passed away on the day of Emilys surgery. He was apparently older than I had originally thought. I hate it when James is right. Darnit. My Great Grandfather, Leslie, also passed away, on the 8th. He was 94. His health had been deteriorating and in the last few days, the family that was with him said that he really didn't look good. From what I know, he went peacefully though, so that's all that really matters. He was a great influence in my life.

here is a link to his obituary: http://legacy.com/cjonline/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=99248299

He was a really great man.

There's a ton more to write about but I'm afraid I need some sleep as I have to work in the early morning. I'll try to update soon.

Work has been going well, I have been working full time hours so far, so much for a part time job. This next week, they have me scheduled for 37.5 hours, so I guess they are trying to give me part time hours, or something.

I've discovered an irritation I have with people on welfare. I've found that a lot of people on food stamps buy a lot of junk food. Damnit. I can't even buy genuine meals for my family let alone 20 pounds of ding dongs, twinkies and chocolate bars. Urgh! I don't even want to buy premium cuts of meat like a lot of the other people on welfare do, I just want regular old hamburger, hot dogs and sammich bread, maybe some 10 for a dollar ramen noodles. sheesh. Is that too much to ask for? tell the government, they keep saying that my family isn't eligible for such things because James has a job and we are married. What kind of backwards thinking is that? If someone has a "baby daddy" and is otherwise legally single, and sits on their ass watching soaps all day instead of bettering themselves and getting at least a minimum wage job and trying to support themselves, they can get money for food and bills, free medical care and the government is FINE with this!? UGH!! This is not all of the US that is this way, in Kansas, if you proved that you were at least trying to find work and that you had a genuine need for assistance, you were helped regardless of your marital situation. Denial based on legal marriage is retarded. If anyone out there in Texas is married and has welfare, please for gods sake tell me how you did it, or at least that the lazy bitch at the welfare office just lied to me or something because I've had it up to *here* with my snooty next door neighbor getting welfare, driving a brand new SUV and sending her brats to PRIVATE school just because her loser of a husband beat her and ended up in jail so she divorced his lame ass. fuck. I couldn't even get help for my family when I had hip surgery, couldn't walk, let alone care for myself or my kids, James had to take off of weeks of work to care for them and we racked up thousands and thousands of dollars in medical bills, and credit cards just to pay for living while he was taking care of the kids instead of working.

Why am I ranting about this here? I should make this my next Franky Rita entry. I might just do that tonight...

anyway, people on welfare that don't try to take care of their families themselves fucking suck. more later on that. :)

So work is great, I'm learning buttloads of produce codes and didn't realize that my fingers could move so fast on a 10-key. I only have to remember the right sequence of numbers in addition to remembering the right numbers themselves. One thing at a time. My bosses are impressed with me, except Michael, who couldn't be impressed with anything in his godawful excuse for a life if it depended on it- he is OBVIOUSLY depressed that he didn't make more of his life, hates his job and it shows on his face every painful waking moment of his day.
When I applied for the job and interviewed, I wanted daytime hours, from before school to when school gets out- 3:00. So I could be with my family at night, of course. Working sucks if you're alone all day at home while everyone is gone and then you work when they're all home. Since I covered a dayshift for someone at the last minute and do such and fantastic job of keeping my till even (is that really hard? Making sure I have the right amount of money in my till at the end of my shift is super easy. tonight I was .01 short because I accidentally dropped a penny into the check printing machine- oops!), I got great hours this next week. I work 5 days, which is more than I really wanted, and have 37.5 hours scheduled, which may as well be full time, but 4 of the 5 days are early morning to early afternoon shifts, even on the weekend- which is great because most of the heavy shopping is done in the mid afternoon to evening. I wish I was getting off of work a smidge earlier than 3:00 so I could meet the kids at school at 3:00 instead of risking being a few minutes late (which the school will NOT tolerate, the snobby fuckers) but overall, I'm overjoyed with the schedule. I get Tuesday and Wednesday off, which is cool because I can get appointments and stuff done then, which normal working peeps don't have the luxury of doing! Ha!

I got some Dr scholls insoles for my shoes, not the gel kind, which were kinda cool but a kind with arch support and a really padded heel, which was what was hurting me so badly by the end of my shifts. They even state that they help with lower back pain, which I have because of holding my body in a new and weird way to work the turntable system that brings the groceries to me. Between the insoles and 600mg of ibuprofen midway throughout my shift, I am in signifigantly less pain than I was before.

I still haven't lost any weight due to my continued muscle gain from biking all over hell and creation. But I have fantastically stronger, firmer, shaplier legs! If only James was a leg man, right? Haha! I wish I could train that into him, I've always had pretty great legs if I should toot my own horn. Specially in 5" or taller heels! HA!

Anywho, I feel better than I have in weeks, I'm making a decent income to suppliment James' and soon we will be able to do nice things like take the family out to a buffet or go on a date, or just buy myself something while I'm out running errands! Freedom! Now just to get my old credit issues taken care of so I can get my credit score up high enough to get myself a bank account again. It's been so long, people take those things for granted! I want to have my own checking account so badly so I can write my own checks for bills and can balance my own checkbook and do my own debit card purchases!! Such little things that please me!

More about life in general later, as I'm playing with my rats as I write this and they are climbing all over the keyboard and are driving me nuts with it! They even saved my entry halfway through once!! sheesh, crazy ratties!

Today we had more training... which was basically throwing us on a register and having us work. I did great minus those damn produce codes. I thought there was an appropriate sticker on every piece of fruit and every veggie, but that simply isnt the case. I need to memorize these things!

In other news, today is my brothers birthday. he's 21 now.
In rat news, Aurora is HUGELY pregnant. her belly drags on the ground when she walks. She will definately be having a lot of babies. Carol should be getting Rudy, Remy and Rasputin on Sunday and Ashley still hasn't contacted me about getting Duck, I'm starting to worry. I introduced Nicholas to the other boys but he is aggressive to them so I put him back in with Aurora for a few days until I get another water bottle. It looks like Nick will live alone. Shame, he's so sweet to people.

Ok, I need sleep. more tomorrow!

Today was TABC certification. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Comission, for those not in Texas.
It was a breeze but took forever. It was completely computerized and on the internet, I could have done it at home. The best part was that I worked from noon to 4, so I got to be home with the fam.
I still feel sick so I rested for the evening.

I also got another letter from Jamie, 2 of them actually. He said he will be sending another letter in about a week with a check. This will be the first child support I've gotten in almost 9 years! he only makes about $70 a month though so I don't expect it to be much.

I had more training today. It was actually on the register, mainly just how to sign into the register, secure it for breaks and then sign out. We learned how to do WIC too.Then we had a test, which was easy. The hardest part is that we have to memorize produce codes, which totally sucks because there are a lot of them to remember. I sat next to Vanessa and I can safely say she didn't pass the test. I was the first one to finish so I went home first.
I have tomorrow off and I think I'm getting a cold, so I am not going to do an entry for tomorrow. I'm just going to sleep!

Also, today is my wedding anniversary! Happy 6 years to James and I.

Remember the manager that gave me a horrible interview, was mean and nasty, etc?

I promised I'd call him today to tell him yes or no on the job, so he would know whether or not to expect me Monday. I called the business first.

"Yes, I'm trying to reach Aman"
"Who?"
"Aman"
"Oh, he doesn't work here anymore"

I'm not terribly surprised, the guy was a real asshole and couldn't even read/interpret his own applications. I'm glad I didn't take the job, one may not have been waiting there for me Monday had I decided to start there. It would have sucked to turn down an easier job for $6.55 to think I had a harder one for $6.00 and then not get it either. Good choosing, me!

Yesterday and today, I had interviews with 2 different places to get a survival job. For those that don't know, a survival job is what you get when you are too damn poor to wait for a nice cushy job. You get it to survive, and until that nice job comes along. Yesterdays interview was with a chicken place really close to my house. Todays was the local grocery store. Why places so close to home? Because I walk or ride my bike until my job gets my car fixed, remember?

Yesterdays interview was crap. The manager saw my bike and looked at me with disdain. Then he said "Is THAT how you'll be getting to work?" I lied and told him that I bike for health... which I guess isn't exactly a lie, I am getting some health benefit out of it, but lets face it, I'd rather be driving. He then sat down with me and told me everything he "hated" about my application, lectured me, then offered me the job- for nighttime hours. I was looking for daytime hours. He said the rat of pay would be $6.00 an hour but could increase with time, good performance and advances at the job. Like YAY, I want to be a fast food manager. Not really. What am I doing here again? I told him I would let him know on Saturday if I wanted to take the position. I knew I had an interview with the store today and would much rather work as a cashier at the store than frying chicken.

Todays interview was great. The manager was pleasant and asked me about myself, what my strengths and weaknesses are, normal interview questions. She admitted that she was impressed with me, that I was highly overqualified for the job but that she understood that I had a financial need and that I was serious about getting and keeping a job. She also admitted that she knew she wanted to hire me the minute she met me. *beams* The hours aren't what I wanted though, it would be 2-9:30 pm, sometimes 10 pm. I won't see James or the kids on the days that I work, which would be Thursday through Sunday, I think. I hate working weekends but it sure would make the week run more smoothly. I took the job. I have to buy a white polo shirt for the uniform but otherwise I have everything else I need. I hope I can handle standing for 8 hours a day. Oh please please please I hope I can. Stupid hip, don't fail me now.

I have to call the manager for the other store tomorrow to tell him I took a position with another company. Based on the interview, I'm guessing he will be pissed but I dont think I want to work for someone that is so pissy anyway.

Kays birthday is tomorrow, she will be 11. :)

Rat Haiku

Bruxing quietly
My rat is in love with me
My husband, jealous


They climb the walls and
If i do not pet them, they
Squeak in sadness


Car Haiku

I was towed to home
Now I walk, hot and sweaty
Everywhere I go


Oh car, I miss you
Soon, my job will pay for parts
Until then, I walk


Marriage and Family Haiku

Sneaky teenagers
Think they get away with it
Parents know better


Hubby, my dearest
Gimme a kiss, my snookem
MWAH! and a hug too!

Stop fighting, you kids
But mom, she started it first
Now, I'm ending it!

:)

and one for the ladies:

That time of the month
My uterus is weeping
Someone kill me already

I went job hunting today. It officially sucks to do on foot. Walking in the heat makes my face all red and me all sweaty. Who wants to hire a red faced, sweaty chubby woman? Chubby alone makes it hard to get a job. Everyone wants someone that looks good, it makes your company look good.
And before I get "well walking will make you less chubby, dumbass" I know that. I've been walking for weeks now and it has made me GAIN weight. I know some of it is water weight, as it's string week, but some HAS to be muscle too, right? This is frustrating as hell.
Thankfully, my buddy Peter woke me up at 12:50 am (on the 19th) to tell me some shit about winning money at the gameroom he's always at. I asked him if he'd take me jobhunting sometime soon and he said yes. I'll pay him with cigs, James got some for me to bribe my smoking friends with. Nice.

Sorry I haven't posted any pics of ratties lately. My kiddos have been taking turns being sick, baby James being the latest. I got a fantastic new toy for the rats, and they all love it, but when I went to take some pics and video of the rats playing in it, I found this:



I couldn't bear to wake him, poor little guy. You know he's sick when he takes a nap, otherwise he's a nuclear reactor.
More pics of the rats soon.

I tried to dye my hair today. It didnt work out like I expected. Damn developer wasnt strong enough.



This is the color I was shooting for. Pretty red!


Before, dark auburn-brownish


After, still kinda dark and auburn-brownish. And my eyes are crossed. *wince*

I forgot to post this picture yesterday, it's so cute. I caught Annika and Juliette spooning :)




Today, James and I borrowed the NICE neighbor's power washer and made our driveway and sidewalks look all spiffy and nice. Our next door neighbors on both sides had done theirs last week and it made ours look like shit, frankly. I'm sure that one of them will actually appreciate it a little bit, it gives their house some curb appeal. She is trying to sell it, thank gawd. I hope she does too, she's a psychotic mean ol thing. As a wonderful gent put it yesterday when my car broke down and he was towing me home with what looked like a childrens jump rope (and she happened by and asked what happened, then didn't bother to lift a finger to help but shot me a nasty "ha-ha" smile), "Nosy neighbors are allowed to be so, but only if they are helpful neighbors." He also said that she seemed like an awful person based on that smile she gave me. I agree. Here's to selling that house! *raises wine glass*

Anywho, because I was making my house have better curb appeal too, just to keep up with the other neighbors (and to keep the home owners association off my tail), I didn't have time to take pics of the rats outside, as I normally do. Instead, I decided that they are over a month old now and it's time they played in some water, so that they wouldn't be afraid of bathing later in life- or fishing for peas, etc. We took a video of that, which is amusing at the end because James nearly beats down the door trying to get me to answer the phone, as my friend B was on the line. We had to go pick up an amplifier for James to fix but B was at another friends house so I had to go so that James knew how to get there... so the bath was cut short. I snapped a few pics, dried and caged the babies and ran out the door. 

Under the cut is a video and a few pics of very wet rats that decided to pile into the boat we put in the tub to escape the water. The blurring in the pics is movement, mostly ratties shaking like dogs to get the water off.

So, we have some trees in our back yard. One by the pond that I hate because it tosses these awful ball seed things into the pond... on purpose!! One small oak tree, one maple tree that lost 1/3rd of itself a few months ago in that nasty storm and a pine tree. James LOVES the pine tree.

Lately, he comes out in the morning and finds foot long pine branches everywhere, and they look like they've been chewed off of the tree. In 7 years of living here, this has never happened. He picks them up and the next day, BAM! Again with the pine branches everywhere.

He brought them to me one day last week and asked me what on earth could be causing it... because I know everything about nature, I must because I adore animals and am allergic to about everything with 6 legs. Or something.
My diagnoses?

Rabid Tree Beavers. They tunnel underground from the bayou to our back yard, pop up out of a trap door of grass so we don't see the entrance, climb the tree and gnaw away. How do I know they're rabid? Because the neighborhood cats no longer come into the back yard and those wild rats by the shed have disappeared. We are the next logical meal option, they are just making their plans. I think they are trying to figure out how to work the grill, after that is figured out, we are screwed. I hope they start with me so they can suffer broken buck teeth from gnawing on my titanium bionic leg. The fuckers.

Ok, so we figured it out the other day. It's goddamn squirrels. They're gnawing the branches and knocking them down so they can go to the ground and eat the immature pinecones while they are still yummy and green. They don't just knock the pinecones down, NOOOOOOO. They are tearing the tree apart.

James lies in wait with his trusty BB gun. Kay weeps in the corner for the cute fuzzy squirrels. I consider redneck recipes. More to come.