May 2006 Archives

I've been having an ongoing battle with Kory involving the grass. For some reason, out of the 500 different chores there are to do around the house, Kory has decided that cutting the grass is HIS job. Because of this, he will not show me how to use the lawn mower. He's told me many times that it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm a girl, it's just that he has picked that to be his job, and he's going to do it. But he doesn't do it. He claims that it's been raining too much, and the lawn mower was broken, and now it works, but only for five feet and then it turns off.

Well, the other night I put my foot down and said, "Hey! I'm sick of all this talk and no action! You're going to show me how to use the lawn mower and I'm going to cut the grass even if it takes me five hours!" And he gave in and I cut the grass! And guess what? After I actually used the lawn mower for more than two minutes, it stopped being junky and ran just fine!

Now I have a huge raw spot on my thumb to show that I've won the battle. And I also have a huge mosquito bite on another finger, and my finger nails need to be cut, and my hand looks like the grossest hand in the world. But that's okay, because now I can run through the grass without fear of stepping on dog poop that I wouldn't have seen if the grass was long!

AND I caught a different species of crane fly to give to Dr. Foote, with my hand, while I was walking around picking up sticks before I cut the grass.

Now that I've taken over Kory's one duty, he better find a different one, like taking the garbage out.

Atrayou and Sunni chase each other around, Atrayou dominates Sunni every time they catch up with each other, and then Brooke, being the perfect dog, is somewhere off on her own watching the birds and squirrels. This happens every time we go outside.

The second application that was put in for Sunni didn't work out, but now there's a third, so I'm hoping that this one works out!

Actually, he could be a girl, I'll probably never know. It was beautiful out today so he sat up on a chair by the open window and soaked up some sun while he tried to destroy the string for the blinds. He's probably the most well-behaved conure I've ever met, I'm lucky he fell into my hands.

In other bird news, I saw a pileated woodpecker fly across the road at Jenning's today, and it was so amazing and beautiful and BIG. I've never actually had a good look at one in person, usually they're flying away way up in the treetops. But I saw this one pretty well even if it was only for a few seconds and it was awesome.

If you like hummingbirds, which everyone does, you should look at a few of Mon@rch's photos here and here.

And everyone should take a look at this Bird Friendly Shopper's Guide and rethink your paper product purchases! Make sure you read the second page of the pdf.

Jess and I met up with Dr. Foote on Wednesday so we could discuss a project that he wants us to work on. We're going to be sampling flies from probably seven or eight dominant plant species in the marsh that he's been doing research in. We went out to the marsh and he was showing me the way that he samples, the "messy" way. He doesn't use killing jars, he just dumps whatever he catches into a bowl of alcohol. Transferring flying flies from a net and into a bowl of alcohol isn't very easy! I guess it's faster than using a killing jar though. We're pretty much only going to focus on the flies that are specific to one plant species only, the specialists, because they're the important ones.

So we're going to work on that. I need to get some waders because for some of the plants we have to go out into the middle of the marsh. Some of the marsh is really mucky, and I know I'm going to end up getting stuck. Dr. Foote "walked out of his shoe" yesterday and that was just when we were walking around the perimeter. And it's even worse when you have waders on because they're so big and clunky.

After Dr. Foote left, Jess and I walked around the woods trying to collect crane flies for him. I'm not sure what he's doing with them, but he's been talking about getting us out to collect them for a while. I only managed to find four in about an hour, but I got three different species. Apparently Jess found a really rare crane fly the other day. Dr. Foote said he's only caught one, ever. So she's really excited about that. We're going to go out to Jennings' on Saturday to look for some more!

I don't know why, but Kory and I were talking about this the other day. And if I'm just imagining these things, you must tell me because who knows what other memories I could be making up.

• When I was in Michigan visiting my grandparents I always used to take bubble baths. I can't remember a single time I took a bath without bubbles. Things I remember about my grandparents' bathroom: huge stained glass bird (peacock?) hanging from the ceiling, dentures in a glass on the sink, one of those things you hang on the doorknob that probably said something like, "Stay away, the QUEEN is taking her bubble bath," and had Miss Piggy on it.
• When I had to take my boring bubble-less baths at home, my dad would hold me above his head and fly me around the house like a super hero afterwards.
• I didn't really take baths at my Grandma Schnebelin's. Instead she would make me sit on top of a hamper, and then she would just wash my face and arms with a washcloth. Oh, the lovely smell of well water!
• My first shower: I didn't take my first shower until I was OLD. Really, I don't know how old I was, but I was old. The only thing I can think of is that I remember playing with Little Mermaid toys in the bathtub, and I would have been at least 8 then, so I was older than 8. Anyway, I was scared to death to take a shower, but one day Kevin decided it was time that I started taking one. The only reason I decided to finally take one is because Kevin got me a pair of goggles to wear. Yes, I stepped into the shower with goggles on, and I remember yelling to Kevin about how the water was going to rip the skin off my back. Anyone who has taken a shower at my dad's can attest to how insane the water pressure in his shower is. Now after having lived in places with terrible water pressure I know how lucky I used to be!

Here are some photos of Atrayou, my sweet boy whom I love even though he had half a bag of potatoes chewed to bits when I came tonight.

I'm just so sick of the clutter of the old design, not to mention it's a million years old. But don't worry, it will probably be back in a week or so because I'm never happy with anything I make.

There are a few things that aren't quite working right yet, hopefully you won't stumble upon them until I've had a chance to fix them.

Mom, when you're up at 2 in the morning writing your essays, you can come look at this bright white page to wake yourself up.

Heidi, do you remember this baby?

Kory and I had to go to Lowe's yesterday to buy new sanding bands for our Dremel. While we were on our way there we were having this intense conversation and I turned into the wrong driveway and ended up at Top's instead. So I found my way back to the right driveway, still talking the whole time, and parked my car in almost the most amazing parking spot ever. We got out of the car, walked into the entrance of the store, and stopped. We both must have thought in our heads, "This doesn't seem like Lowe's!" because guess what, it wasn't! It was Wal-Mart! Apparently I can't talk while I drive because not only did I pass up the driveway, but I also parked at the wrong store and even walked into the wrong store without noticing the big ugly blue "Wal-Mart" letters.

Best line from yesterday: "Maaannnnn, Lowe's has got some games up in here!" Said by Kory of course as he admired the vast array of claw machines at Wal-Mart.

Amy: If the rain ever stops, we can go bug hunting! Nice that you and Jessica are willing to work with me. The Senecio is now in bloom, so we can start with that project anytime. I will contact you and Jessica as to when we can wander off to Senecio land. Trust that the Finals went OK. BAF.

I came home tonight to one of my sweaters all ripped up. It was originally upstairs in the bathroom, inside a bag. Kory and I forgot to block off the upstairs when we left, so some thief snuck into the bathroom and grabbed it out of the bag and took it back downstairs to chew up (probably so she could show it off to the other two hounds.)

So of course we made her wear the sweater for a while. And then we made her dance in the sweater.

Just so you know: Dylan is doing much better, he's getting subcutaneous fluids and meds everyday. My car is also doing much better. Instead of the transmission it was the spark plugs, so I got those changed, and I also get new tires so now I'll just have a panic attack instead of a heart attack when I have to drive home from work in the rain. Oh yes, and I graduated. At least I hope I did, we'll see in a few weeks when my diploma is supposed to come in the mail.

Here are some photos of the hounds. Christine and I are doing a home visit soon to a lady who is interested in either Sunni or one of Christine's fosters, Destiny. Hopefully it goes well because we need to start moving some greyhounds!

A while ago Christine adopted one of the greyhounds that came on the haul with Atrayou, his name is Dylan. He's such a sweet beautiful boy and right now he's at the vets with renal failure. He's young too, I think he's only about five. Things aren't looking very good at all, I really hope he pulls through. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. Here's a picture of sweet Dylan that I took out of Christine's e-mail so you could see him.

Here are some photos from my last vertebrate zoology field trip. We went to a beaver pond in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and saw lots of water snakes, turtles, and birds. We even saw two water snakes mating, which I guess you don't see very often.

I know it's been forever since I've updated, things have just been really busy. Things that have been going on:

• School, ugh. This is my last week of being an undergraduate ever, aside from finals next week. Things I have to do this week:
• Rehearse for my monotreme presentation on Wednesday.
• Study for my vertebrate zoology lab final this Thursday (Identify 30+ mammals, 20+ reptiles, mammal skulls, and ecology).
• Study for my ornithology lab final this Thursday (Identify 30+ birds by sight and song/call).
• Write a four page report on the wood duck, due Thursday.
• Rewrite my field notes from ornithology and add pictures and descriptions, due Thursday (Lame, field notes are supposed to be done in the field, but she never told us what we needed in them, so everyone has to do them over).
• Heidi sent me a present in the mail last week! It's an awesome key chain of a greyhound's head that says "I love my greyhound" on the back. I took photos of it to put up, but they're still on my camera.
• All the animals are doing well. They've had a million visitors in the past few weeks because of the kids in my group coming over to work on our project.
• I think my car might be dying, probably the transmission. I need to call today to set up a time to take it in.
• My computer monitor died last night while I was working on printing out photos for my ornithology field notes. It's a really old monitor, and it served me well, but yay, now I have a new beautiful monitor!
• My one-year wedding anniversary is in 16 days!