New Beginnings

I haven't really done anything with my hair since 2005 or 2006. I've just let it grow and grow and grow. I hadn't even trimmed it in a good year or more. So no surprise that my hair was long - it fell to my waist - and was frequently tangled (that's what split ends will do, I suppose - and my hair was full of them, thanks to not being trimmed). It had reached the point that most days I just ignored my hair - pulling it back into a pony tail to keep it out of my face and putting on a beret. Needless to say, it was time for a change.

I've been talking about cutting my hair for, oh, six months? I keep mentioning it and thinking "Oh, I'll get around to it." I've known what I wanted my hair to look like, I just haven't actually done anything about it.

And then I did.

Yes, that's right. I finally cut my hair, and I didn't pull any punches when I did either.

Best part? I absolutely love it.

I know you can't see too well in the picture (flash messed it up), but it's really short, and it flares out all cute (if I style it appropriately, of course). I think my straightener is finally going to get some mileage on it.

Other things that I'm working on, and I guess this is the perfect time of year for it, are a Happiness Project, and being more organized.

I've simply come to the conclusion that I'm sick of tired of being sick and tired. And so far doctors, in their various forms, have been mostly unable to help me out. So, I'm going to try to take my happiness (or unhappiness) into my own hands, and see if I can't start to feel better about the world.

I have a whiteboard, which I've been referring to as my Scrum Board (Tene gave me the name). It's basically an interactive to-do list. I use post-it notes to symbolise tasks, and they get moved from the "To Do" Column to the "In Progress" Column as I begin working on them, and then go into the "Completed" box once I'm done. I also have a section for things that I'm not quite ready to start on, but that I need to look in to (my "Planning" section). So far it's been really helpful, and I think it will only become more so as I get into the habit of using it. I admit: It doesn't hurt that the post-it notes are all different colors.

I bought myself a sewing machine. I've yet to even unpack it, but I finally did buy one. Now I'm working on making some space in my workroom for it.

I wanted make sure to thank those of our family who sent Tene and I such nice gifts. My dad and stepmom got him some interesting books, and got me some nice photography equipment (which should come in handy soon as I start to take something from the planning stage to the implementation stage). We got some nice dishes from Tene's older sister, and I hope his younger sister and her family enjoys the books we sent (a phonecall from her points to "Yes"). Tene's mother and grandparents also sent us some things, as did my mom and stepdad. So thank you all!

The last big thing is that I'm going to upgrade the cage the girls are in. Having helped a little with the North Star Rescue, I've been able to see the Ferret Nation cages in use - and I must say I'm really happy about them. So, I've decided to get one for myself. Well, almost. The Ferret Nation cages are made, as the name implies, for ferrets. The bars are wider spaced apart than is entirely comfortable, is the main problem I've been able to find. A lot of people at the animal forum I frequent (and the people at the rescue) have discussed wrapping the cages with hardware cloth. I've decided that unless I can find a really inexpensive Ferret Nation cage, I'll instead get the more rattie appropriate Critter Nation cage.

I'm also pretty set on adopting two new girls from the San Jose hoarding case. I know they'll come with their own set of health problems - but I can at least give a good, safe home to two more girls.

Moe

Late into the evening on Monday I went to check on my girls before bed. I found that Moe had the bald patch that you can see in the picture and some bloodied ears. I freaked out, because I wasn't certain what was going on. Moe seemed less active but otherwise normal.

Then I took her out of the cage. She was limping awkwardly - more just ignoring one of her legs than avoiding using it. This seemed odd but not too horrible.

I put her in a separate cage for the night, and checked on her the next morning.

Her limp was more pronounced and she was more lethargic. She wasn't moving much, just laying in her hammock. I decided to take some video of her limp to see what the great folks over at the Goosemoose Pet Portal Rats Rule forums thought. I had previously had a thread about her baldness.

This is the video.




They urged me to take Moe into the vet as soon as possible. So I called and made an appointment - this morning at 7:00AM. I took Moe over to the Adobe Animal Hospital, and met with the vet there. Moe had worsened greatly from yesterday - now almost completely listless, only wanting to be in the darkest corner of the carrying case, and not using either of her front paws. She was off balance and seems extremely confused.

The vet didn't have anything really comforting to say (the official diagnoses of the two vets who observed Moe was "I don't know") and gave me the standard regime of Baytril and Metacam to give to her.

It's my belief from the symptoms I've observed that Moe has a pituitary tumor and has at most a few months to live, and that only if the medication helps. I'm hoping it does - and I'm also hoping that my diagnosis is wrong and the vets are correct; that Moe is far too young to have a pituitary tumor, that it has to be something else, that PT doesn't cause the skin condition she has, and since the two appeared together they must be related, if it is PT that the medication will help and she'll have some happy time left ... but I'm bracing for the worst.

EDIT: Around Sunday (December 5) she began showing signs of an upper respiratory infection. Then, in the early hours of the morning of 7 December 2010, Moe passed away. Her death was not unexpected, but was extremely tragic, and she will be very missed by her cagemates, and by myself.

Thanks Giving. Thiving.

I decided to go all out on Thursday and make Tene and myself a proper Thanksgiving feast. I think it turned out well!

The meal itself was completely Paleo, sticking with our newish diet. I was really proud of myself for being able to find so many tasty paleo dishes - and for making them all!

We also got to talk to my family over Skype, after some initial connectivity issues (due to my laptop running Linux, Tene had to help me set it up properly so it could use the microphone, and there were some troubles on my mother's end as well, but I'm not actually certain what those were). It was nice to see my grandparents and the step-siblings who were still around, even if it was just through a webcam. My grandmother tried to get me to promise to visit over Christmas - we're still working out what our plans are going to be for then.

But the feast! It was a marvelous feast, and I was quite proud of it (we still have leftovers!)

I started out with an appetizer (told you it was a feast) of spinach stuffed mushrooms - the recipe I used asked for panko bread crumbs, which I substituted out for a little bit of almond meal (which has almost the same consistency). These were gone by that night, 30 of them, eaten by Tene and me! They were really delicious, and are definitely something I want to try again.

Then for the main meal, we had the turkey (of course, what's Thanksgiving without a turkey?) that I roasted myself (first time I have ever tried to do anything like that). My first observation when I started doing stuff with the turkey, though, was a not entirely pleasant realization. Turkey is gross.

I find most raw meat to be unpleasant, but for my first time working with a whole bird ... well, I can't choose anything else except that turkey - as a whole - is nasty. Especially since they store the "giblets" and neck inside the thing for selling. I didn't want anything to do with those. And cleaning the turkey out? Yuck. That's definitely something I'm willing to not do very often.

But the turkey ended up very nice! I used a cheap roasting pan for it, put a couple of pieces of onion (amounting to about a half) and some fresh thyme inside, covered the thing with butter and salt and pepper, and then stuck it in the oven for three hours. It was still moist and was cooked all the way through and was just tasty.

I also made roasted Brussel's sprouts (a standby that I'm glad is a normal part of our eating habits), some baked honey carrots and oranges, asparagus with an interesting bacon vinaigrette, and another of our standbys - sweet potatoes and onions. None used any extra sugar (the carrots had a little bit of honey added, and I put some agave nectar on the sweet potatoes), and all ended up really delicious.

And then I broke Paleo for our desert - a really tasty, very dark chocolate and rich flourless chocolate cake. Because it didn't use flour I'm pretty sure it was gluten free - making our Thanksgiving definitely friendly to those who can't have gluten. The cake had an added cup of sugar in it, plus the slight dusting of powdered sugar on top. Then there was the whipped cream (whipped by Tene) made from sour cream, heavy cream, and some more powdered sugar.

Unfortunately I didn't bake the cake quite long enough. It was still delicious (and we ate the whole thing), but next time I'll need to remember to leave it in the oven a little longer - either that or flourless cakes are just normally a bit thicker, I'm not sure which.

I think I should add an electric mixer to the list of things I want, if only to save Tene's arm from all of that stirring and beating.

After having a lot of fun cooking all of this and feeling proud of myself for a job well done, I started thinking - I think I might want to host a dinner like this once a month, invite people to come and eat some good food and hang out. It would give me a chance to really practice my cooking and baking skills, and it would help Tene and I strengthen our social circle here, both of which are good things, I think. It would also be somewhat of a challenge (for me) to find the recipes I want to make, and then cook them and have them done in time for people to come share with us. The Thanksgiving meal I made was delicious, and I'm glad I did it, but I started late and we didn't actually get around to eating it until seven or eight Thursday night. Time management just isn't one of my strong suits.

The joke in today's title comes from a series called Look Around You, in which it is an ongoing thing. Specifically from the Water module. Bless you, ants. Blants.

Letters Letters Everywhere!

NaNoWriMo is going well. I'm a two days behind, but I'm planning on spending most, if not all, of tomorrow writing up a storm (finally got Pandora and Rdio onto my cellphone, so I don't even need my laptop to be connected to the internet!), and hopefully I'll get back on track. I must write the life of this intriguing mail carrier!

I fell behind because of two things: One, I got tired of my story and plot. So I time warped into the future of my character, added a second character, and stuck them in a Gaslamp Romance. It's turning into a cute love story - and is going to include some themes about what I want from my own life. Second, I'm sick. I picked up a cold somewhere and I've felt more or less terrible. I've also been less than stellar emotionally, and I really should go see a doctor soon for recommendations to ... a lot of things (gyno, sleep therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, a doctor (or dentist, but a doctor is preferred) specializing in the jaw ... the list never ends).

Speaking of health, I went to the dentist two weeks ago and found out that my life of no cavities ever was over. I had five of the little buggers. One for each of my back-most molars, with one of them having two! Well, I scheduled a visit to have them taken care of (and a deep cleaning). I was scared and nervous about two things - the shot, and the drill.

Before the first appointment to take care of the right side of my mouth I had never been conscious for a shot in my mouth. I've been numbed before, but always under sedation - once when my wisdom teeth were removed (I was 15 or 16 at the time), and nearly two years ago when I had my front gum repaired, both times I was put under sedation before I ever saw the needle come at my mouth. After talking to some friends I was less worried (apparently Novocaine is different then whatever the used to numb my eyelid for that surgery/biopsy, which burned before numbing), but still a little anxious about the thought of a needle piercing my gums. More than that, I was worried I would freak out at the sound of the drill - and of the drill drilling away my teeth.

I did the best I could to explain my fears to the dentist, who ended up prescribing me some Valium, which I took, and which allowed me to get through my appointments with few problems (my iPod helped too). I've decided that Valium is fine and good for serious circumstances that make me feel really anxious, but it's quite overkill. I ended up coming home and sleeping it off afterward.

After the break I'm going to type up some letter to people I've noticed while driving around Palo Alto and Mountain View, otherwise, that's it!

NaNoWriMo 2010 ....

Yep, despite failing the last three years, I'm going to be attempting NaNoWriMo again this year.

So, as usual, starting Monday the first of November, 2010, I'll be attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That's almost 1700 words a day. I'm nervous, but I know I have plenty of time to do that (7 pages a day? Totally within reason, I think). I'm more nervous that I'm *also* going to be doing some other things: making Christmas presents for people being the Big Thing that I'm thinking about right now. Every year I start on such gifts too late in the season to get people their gifts by Christmas ... or I just give up. This year I've decided I'm going to start working on some of them tomorrow - and my plan is to have them given away or shipped off by 1 December (except in the case of one friend, Zoie, who I'm sending her gift to by 15 November, because she's leaving for Japan in early December).

This year I've decided to do some preparation work. Writing by the seat of my pants has failed me miserably the past three years, so it's time to try something new. I'm planning on having a rough outline, characters, and setting and plot built before November first, so that if/when I get stuck on things I'll have a way out. Less writers block is my intended goal, and I'm really hoping it works out the way I want it to.