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Conversations in our house
May. 12th, 2008 10:29 pm
SO: Why did you leave the doors open on the Scooby (= car)?
Me: Because it smelled of squirrels.
SO: ....
SO: Why did it smell of squirrels?
Me: Because it had a cage full of squirrels in it, why else?
Me: Because it smelled of squirrels.
SO: ....
SO: Why did it smell of squirrels?
Me: Because it had a cage full of squirrels in it, why else?
Summing up and Animal Spammage
Nov. 21st, 2007 07:24 pm
So I've been all quiet again recently. This is mostly because I haven't been doing anything remotely interesting. I've spent large chunks of three days out of the last seven in the enthralling environs of bathroom showrooms, as a result of which we have now selected our sinks (woot! Or something.) I've been spending many additional hours researching on the internet things far less interesting than porn, and I've narrowed down the bath to just three models, the final selection to be based on tiny bits of detailed information I now can't get till next week, since the Americans have this turkey thing going on a month early.
We did go to see Metropolis last weekend - there's a new print out combining the existing footage from all known edits and negatives, and SIFF cinema put on a whole weekend of screenings. There are short interspersed screens summarising the plot of missing sections, but they aren't intrusive at all - it's a silent film, so you're reading text on a black screen intermittently anyway, a bit more does no harm. I'd never seen it before, but the SO had, and he said this version with the explanations made a lot more sense!
I went half-expecting to be bored by a relic of historical interest only, but I really enjoyed it - even by modern standards, it had some moments of fabulous direction and choreography. I can only imagine how it must have blown people away in 1927. (It must have been extremely risque for its time too.)
In an attempt to make this post of even passsing interest, I'm tagging on
( a few more pics from the wildlife centre. )
And finally, my dear![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
evildrem - I got your package of goodness! They actually tried to deliver it last week when I was out, so I had to go to the PO to collect it. And they do work. Many thanks for the hot men :-)
We did go to see Metropolis last weekend - there's a new print out combining the existing footage from all known edits and negatives, and SIFF cinema put on a whole weekend of screenings. There are short interspersed screens summarising the plot of missing sections, but they aren't intrusive at all - it's a silent film, so you're reading text on a black screen intermittently anyway, a bit more does no harm. I'd never seen it before, but the SO had, and he said this version with the explanations made a lot more sense!
I went half-expecting to be bored by a relic of historical interest only, but I really enjoyed it - even by modern standards, it had some moments of fabulous direction and choreography. I can only imagine how it must have blown people away in 1927. (It must have been extremely risque for its time too.)
In an attempt to make this post of even passsing interest, I'm tagging on
( a few more pics from the wildlife centre. )
And finally, my dear
evildrem - I got your package of goodness! They actually tried to deliver it last week when I was out, so I had to go to the PO to collect it. And they do work. Many thanks for the hot men :-)More from the wildlife centre
Oct. 23rd, 2007 08:21 pm
Things have eased off seriously at the wildlife centre over the last few weeks. Instead of barely finishing (or just plain not finishing) in the baby mammal room by the time I leave, the last two weeks I've been running through both the mammal room and the bird room by myself, and I'm still left with time to spare. Which means I've had chance to visit the other inhabitants.
( Bobcat, anyone? )
( Bobcat, anyone? )
Wildlife babies
Aug. 8th, 2007 11:22 amI've thrown together a post of some of the inmates at the wildlife centre now that I've got enough photos to justify it. These pics contain absolutely no artistic merit whatsoever. They're not composed, they're snatched on the odd occasion of a less busy day when I find thirty seconds going spare I can waste. They're shot indoors under miserable lighting with the choice of using no flash and getting movement blur or using flash and over-exposing everything with horrible contrast.
( But having said all that, the animals are cute :-) )
( But having said all that, the animals are cute :-) )
Skunk alert!
Jul. 16th, 2007 04:20 pm
A young skunk was in at the wildlife centre today. It was very cute, and sadly the poor thing died, but not before it had sprayed its cage with Eau de Skunk, and that in a building where the windows can't be opened for fear of losing the inhabitants. I'd often wondered what skunk actually smells like, and now I know - it's not a deeply horrible smell per se, though it's not attractive; it's just incredibly strong and seems to ram itself up your nose. Especially when you have to stick around and work in it (though I obviously didn't find it as bad as the teenaged volunteer who ran outside for fresh air saying she felt sick).
The skunk didn't spray on me, but I did have to handle it after it sprayed, and the smell was definitely still with me in the car on the way home. I've had a bath, now, of course, though from what I've heard, I'm left wondering if I might still smell vaguely of skunk. I don't suppose I'd know if I did.
The skunk didn't spray on me, but I did have to handle it after it sprayed, and the smell was definitely still with me in the car on the way home. I've had a bath, now, of course, though from what I've heard, I'm left wondering if I might still smell vaguely of skunk. I don't suppose I'd know if I did.
I spent an hour this morning feeding just seven orphaned baby wood rats. They have hair, but they're so tiny they can't suck properly on even the tiniest little rubber teats the wildlife centre have, so it's a very slow process feeding just 1ml of milk formula to each of them. And they need feeding every four hours. Thank god feeding the squirrels is quicker!
Email service is back again in bulk, but whether we're getting everything I don't know - the odd message has been going AWOL for a while now.
Email service is back again in bulk, but whether we're getting everything I don't know - the odd message has been going AWOL for a while now.
Remember, folks - never volunteer!
Apr. 4th, 2007 05:36 pmI spent this morning at the Sarvey Wildlife Centre, where I took the bat. The bat's apparently doing well now, and is living with their Bat Care Lady eating mealworms until he's fully strong enough to go. Bizarrely, he turned out not to be a Little Brown Bat, as the lady who took it from me thought - he's the smallest fully adult Big Brown Bat they've ever heard of. The Bat Care Lady says she's never seen anything like him in 19 years. Trust us to find the bizarre runted mutant bat!
They were looking for volunteers to help out when I dropped off the bat, so I was doomed, and today was my Training Day. I got there a little early (they wanted me at 9, and I didn't have a clue how long it would take me to get there in rush hour traffic, since I normally make an effort to avoid it) and found my trainer for the day feeding tiny orphaned squirrels. 'Oh,' she said, 'you've fed infant mammals before, right?' On a variety of scales, but none of them were squirrels, but she told me to start on the next box along and I was straight in with the baby feeding, which is going to be a big feature of the next few months. So cute! Little wriggly squirrels, with dark eyes and big sucky lips and little grasping hands. I could squee all day. The main difficulty for me is we're not supposed to talk to the babies, just feed them and try not to get them too people-adjusted - hard when you're both animal-inclined and it's a professional habit to talk to the animals non-stop about nothing to reassure them all the time you're handling them. That's going to be a tough habit to break.
The three other trainees for the day then turned up, and we spent a couple of hours being shown round the facility and told the basics about the animals and what happens and where everything is (that last part I don't have a hope of remembering, the place is a maze as bits kept being added on as it expanded). Lots of feeding and cleaning cages, and learning the different ways of catching a Cooper's hawk vs a red-tailed Hawk - the Coopers escape if you try to treat them the same as a red-tail. In fact, the Coopers are fast little bird-hunting hawks and often escape even if you do it right, as this one proved, thus amply demonstrating that it's ex-dislocated shoulder was strengthening nicely before it was retrieved. I've also learned the way to pick up an opossum by holding the tail and body so it can't bite you, and the alternative way to pick up an opossum when it's in the corner of the cage with its tail tucked in and all its teeth showing. Getting even higher on the cuteness scale than baby squirrels - miniature opossums still in the pouch :-) Plus there are all kinds of interesting little snippets like that opossums love fruit, but you mustn't feed them banana, and raccoons can't have strawberries.
I was supposed to leave at 1pm, but somehow ended up staying and helping till 2.30, and I was hungry when I got home! I'm on the schedule now to help out every Monday morning, so that will be my bizarre-o fix for the near future. As an idiot volunteer, they're not going to be asking me to do anything with the bobcat or the black bear, but it's pretty cool that those things are there to look at - I think I'm perfectly happy not playing with them!
They were looking for volunteers to help out when I dropped off the bat, so I was doomed, and today was my Training Day. I got there a little early (they wanted me at 9, and I didn't have a clue how long it would take me to get there in rush hour traffic, since I normally make an effort to avoid it) and found my trainer for the day feeding tiny orphaned squirrels. 'Oh,' she said, 'you've fed infant mammals before, right?' On a variety of scales, but none of them were squirrels, but she told me to start on the next box along and I was straight in with the baby feeding, which is going to be a big feature of the next few months. So cute! Little wriggly squirrels, with dark eyes and big sucky lips and little grasping hands. I could squee all day. The main difficulty for me is we're not supposed to talk to the babies, just feed them and try not to get them too people-adjusted - hard when you're both animal-inclined and it's a professional habit to talk to the animals non-stop about nothing to reassure them all the time you're handling them. That's going to be a tough habit to break.
The three other trainees for the day then turned up, and we spent a couple of hours being shown round the facility and told the basics about the animals and what happens and where everything is (that last part I don't have a hope of remembering, the place is a maze as bits kept being added on as it expanded). Lots of feeding and cleaning cages, and learning the different ways of catching a Cooper's hawk vs a red-tailed Hawk - the Coopers escape if you try to treat them the same as a red-tail. In fact, the Coopers are fast little bird-hunting hawks and often escape even if you do it right, as this one proved, thus amply demonstrating that it's ex-dislocated shoulder was strengthening nicely before it was retrieved. I've also learned the way to pick up an opossum by holding the tail and body so it can't bite you, and the alternative way to pick up an opossum when it's in the corner of the cage with its tail tucked in and all its teeth showing. Getting even higher on the cuteness scale than baby squirrels - miniature opossums still in the pouch :-) Plus there are all kinds of interesting little snippets like that opossums love fruit, but you mustn't feed them banana, and raccoons can't have strawberries.
I was supposed to leave at 1pm, but somehow ended up staying and helping till 2.30, and I was hungry when I got home! I'm on the schedule now to help out every Monday morning, so that will be my bizarre-o fix for the near future. As an idiot volunteer, they're not going to be asking me to do anything with the bobcat or the black bear, but it's pretty cool that those things are there to look at - I think I'm perfectly happy not playing with them!
I feel so mean
Jul. 14th, 2006 08:36 pm
I found a flat garter snake on our driveway today. Poor thing - it was probably just lying there in the morning sun when we reversed out of the garage, and squish -
I like snakes, when they're not flat on my driveway.
I like snakes, when they're not flat on my driveway.
As of today, I am now officially in love with marmots as well as with my new camera. I mean, who wouldn't love a giant shaggy guinea pig with a tail that it stole from a squirrel?
( Hoary Marmots XD )
While I'm here, yet another meme, tagged byk_julia
( Geekdom, yay! )
( Hoary Marmots XD )
While I'm here, yet another meme, tagged by
k_julia( Geekdom, yay! )
