Insect Olympics

The Arena

Koi pond measuring 4'x3' filled with hungry fish!

       The Athlete

The Goal: To escape the imminent doom of being eaten by fish or drowning.

The Reward: Your life!

The Rules: All contestants must start on the side opposite the underwater pagoda (see orange roof in photo for reference). Once in the water you must swim to the other side and find a means to escape the icy grasp of Death.

1. If you exit the pond before reaching the other end you are disqualified.
2. If you get swallowed by a goldfish you are disqualified.
3. If you sink to the bottom and drown you are disqualified.

The Action

Almost there, does he have what it takes?

We have a winner!

*All waiting and no service makes Inari a bored girl.
Disclaimer: no insects, fish or Inaris were injured in the making of this blog.
The cricket was already in the pond when I arrived. 
I tried scooping it out to safety but it kept swimming away from me. 
So I took its picture instead.

I Am Livid

For the last several months I've had a family of sparrows living above the door at the shop. If you aren't aware, sparrows are my favorite bird and it's considered to be good luck if they nest near your home. So to have them nest right in front of the shop, I was delighted.

Every morning when we got to work I'd see daddy sparrow leave the nest to find food and you could hear mommy sparrow up there chirping to her babies and you could hear their tiny chirps back.

After a few weeks the babies would learn how to fly and then gradually leave the nest. Then we'd just have the parent sparrows hopping around the parking lot collecting new nesting material, little seeds and bugs, etc., until they laid more eggs and the cycle started over again.

They had raised three families in that nest.

I knew that one day the sparrows would need to be moved since the nest was near a light fixture, so we had planned on purchasing a cozy little birdhouse and mounting it on the storefront so the birds would find it more attractive and reconstruct their nest there. Because let's face it, man has interfered enough in nature's plan. The sparrows nest in buildings because we've cleared the forests for our stores, restraunts, and homes. They have to live somewhere and trees are becoming a little scarce in most cities. It's our fault, the least we could do is accommodate them.

Before we could put up the birdhouse the sparrows were evicted.

When I got to work this morning there was no chirping. Daddy sparrow was not sitting on the wire in front of the building. The light fixture had been gutted, all of the nesting material had been stripped out. The ground was littered with feathers and straw and the birds were gone.

...

Where did they go? What did they do with the baby birds? Yes, they did have chicks in the nest, hatched just a week or so ago... When the nest was cleared did they at least have the courtesy to take them to an animal shelter? I somehow doubt it.

The property owner can make up whatever justification he wants to help him sleep at night, but those birds had just as much right to be here as we do. I'm absolutely livid. The superiority complex most humans have over other creatures is disgusting.

Medicine is Icky

I'm still not completely better from my pneumonia several weeks ago and with lackluster test results from my blood work my doctor decided to put me on medication again (I apparently have a secondary infection).

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I cannot swallow pills. I'm physically incapable of it. My doctor is also aware of this and normally prescribes me a liquid based regimen. In the late 90's it was realized by drug manufacturers that the inability to swallow pills is actually pretty common. Thus everything began being created in two forms, pill and liquid. Whereas before liquid medications were only available in children's dosages. Very rarely do I wind up having to chew or crush pills these days.

This last week though I saw my doctor's associate, because my actual doctor was out of town. When she called in my prescription I ended up with pills. I've crushed and chewed pills before so I figured I'd just do the same again. Boy was I mistaken.

These pills are so disgusting I can't even think of another gross enough item to compare them to. I have never tasted anything this bad before, and I have chewed pills of all varieties! Up until this the worst tasting pill award belonged to Midol (which tastes suspiciously like acetone). This is at least 20x worse than that.

They are like little round spheres of icky death.

On top of that the side effects make me feel worse than I actually feel just being sick. Sick I'm fatigued and have some muscle aches and pains. When I take this medicine I have a headache, I am dizzy, my stomach hurts, I'm exhausted... What the hell, right? I'm usually pretty tolerant but this is pushing it.

Last night after I had taken the medication and it made me feel so bad that a friend took me -- at 1am -- to get a milk shake because it was the only thing anyone could think of that could possibly improve the situation.

I'll be talking to my doctor this afternoon and we're going to see if she can perscribe me something in a liquid. I mean, if I have to pony up and continue with these pills, I will, but I'd rather not have to. Either way, I'll just be happy when I'm not sick anymore!

Drive Safely

I see so many accidents here (in our shop) it's ridiculous. Driving is not that difficult. One peddle speeds you up, one peddle slows you down, and the giant wheel right in front of you steers the vehicle. It's not rocket science or brain surgery, guys. It's not the roads fault either. It's flat, the lines are well marked, there are working lights and turn lanes...

So why do you people keep trying to kill eachother?

Every day I see at least one accident or one near-accident, sometimes more than one a day. Is it too much to ask that you get off your cell phones and pay attention to what you're doing? Two of the more major accidents I've seen here were so easily avoidable it makes me wonder how in the hell they happened in the first place.

The first was some guy in a van trying to turn out of Big Boys. Without even looking he backs out of his parking spot and pulls right out of the driveway into oncoming traffic. Some poor older man in a small car plowed right into him, though it's not his fault -- he had the right of way. The guy in the van pulled out right into the guy in the car. There was less than 5 feet between them and traffic on this road travels at about 45-50 mph. There was no way that the guy in the van could accelerate fast enough to beat the speed of the car (or any other car on the road).

Impatient jackass. As if he couldn't have simply waited another 3 minutes for the light to turn red so that he could pull out safely. Now his van is half smashed and the innocent guy in the small car couldn't even get his vehicle to start up again. Thank whatever power that you believe in that no one was seriously injured.

The second accident was even worse than the first and twice as absurd.

There were two cars in the turn lane waiting for the light so that they could make their turns and a third guy slowed down to pull into the turn lane behind them -- the semi truck behind him however decided yielding to traffic was for sissies and smashed into him at 50 mph forcing the smaller car sideways into both of the other cars in the turn lane. Metal and glass went everywhere!

The guy who had been trying to merge lanes? His vehicle was smashed, what had been a small ford truck was now about the size of a pinto, having been smashed from behind, the side, and the front. The two cars in the turn lane, innocent by standers? Also smashed. The semi responsible? Not even a dent.

I had to call 911 due to the severity of the accident. 30 minutes later the rescue teams still could not get the merging guy safely out of his truck-pinto. Luckily everyone else walked away with minor injuries and only the guy in the totally demolished truck wound up in the ambulance. But why did the semi not break in the first place? What could that guy have possibly been doing that was more important than controlling his vehicle?

I should have gone out there and kicked him in the junk for being such an inconsiderate careless douchebag.

Every time I hear someone lay on their horn or breaks screech I think I'm about to witness yet another act of senseless negligence. I'm afraid one of these days we're going to be watching people sealed up in body bags. If you want to kill yourself do it at home, don't endanger others with your stupidity. The disregard is disgusting. Please, please drive safely.

New Addition to The Family

Hello, tiny Neelix.

As many of you know we have been looking since April for a new kitten. We've searched online ads, newspaper ads, the APL, local pet shops everyday and nothing. Strange right? I know.

What few ads we answered either never returned our calls, were trying to pass off 3+ year old cats as kittens, or had given/sold any kittens they may have at one point in time had.

We had just about given up looking and decided to just wait until next year. Then my friend Kristen forwarded me a link to an ad on Myspace for free kittens. I didn't even know Myspace had a classifieds section.

We went to visit them and fell in love with a small orange and white spotted one, whose mannerisms and personality I thought would get along well with Spock's. We brought him home and the two of them are getting along wonderfully. When we left for work this morning they were playing together in the living room.

Spock now has someone to keep her company while we're at work.

Happy 4th of July!

First mix the mango and the rum, then add a strawberry.

The strawberry sinks into the mango-rum slush.

The strawberry turns upside-down and shows you its heart.

Pneumonia Blues

I've been pretty sick for about 3 weeks now. It started with body aches and a fever at first then more flu-like symptoms followed, those passed and I was left with the fever and a cough. It's a weird cough, where every time I inhale it feels like my lungs are filled with cold air and constrict forcing all the air back out in 1 quick cough. I've been to the emergency room twice and to my physician twice. Apparently I've had Pneumonia all this time.

So I'm on bed rest and medication. Hopefully I'll start feeling a little better now, I'm so tired of being sick. Ugh.

Edit: Posted right at 6 PM, I win!