The world mourns the passing of...

Rosa Parks. The civil rights activist died today at the age of 92. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this difficult time.

Rambling on about nothing in particular...

I was snooping around online to see if I could find a picture of one of my favorite shirts. It's got that little cat that Pepe Le Pew's always chasing after, with a caption that says, "Paws off". I didn't know she had a name until I found one site with a design that was close, but not exactly the same. Her name is Pussyfoot. I had no clue.

I've been looking for ideas on what to add to my Halloween costume. I was hoping that I could find any information about the dress I bought at the Renfaire, but the closest I could find was a 16th century dress that had the same basic idea to it that mine did. The difference is the pattern (celestial v. fleur de lis), the neckline (V-necked v. square), and the back if my dress does not tie like this one does. I have a blue "peasant" blouse I can wear, and I guess I can borrow the bodice/corset thing that came with my mom's tavern wench costume she wore last year. I'll probably just put my hair in a braid, and wear sandals or something. This costume is going to be just like the ones I've worn in the past: mediocre. Oh well. Maybe at next year's Renfaire I'll get some more garb and do this again next year...

Speaking of new babies...

What a day today was at work! We started four new babies and another new one starts tomorrow (three girls and two boys). We have two girls that were gonna move up next week (Sunshine and Iris), but it looks like they'll be moving up this week instead, and we'll still be one baby over. How they'll work that is beyond me, so we'll just have to wait and see.

New babies!

Mira picked me up from work yesterday, and we went to Petsmart to look at hammies. At first we saw a couple cute hammies; one even looked like Popcorn. But after a while,we started wondering whether or not we should get gerbils. The pros of hamsters and gerbils were tied, but one thing made me wonder. When we'd let Popcorn run around, he was kinda quick, but we could always catch him before we got too far. I noticed that the gerbils were very quick, and wondered if it would be harder to catch them if they were let out. So we got two hammies.

The first one we knew we wanted was a little gray one, and we decided to name him Soot. The other one is white, and we had a hard time trying to come up with a name for him, and we wanted to give him a name based on his personality. Well, he's very energetic, but a bit clumsy, so we named him Pinky. ^_^ We picked them from the same cage at the store, thinking they'd get along. They did okay last night, but we noticed that they did get into tiffs, but it didn't look serious, so we figured maybe they were playing.

Fast forward to this afternoon. I'm on the computer, checking the sites on my favorites list and waiting for Mira to get up (we were up pretty late), when I hear this squeaking coming from the tank. They were fighting again! I'd seperate them, and they'd be okay for a while, but then one would bump into the other and they'd start up again! I eventually gave them each a pellet, and they've been preocupied ever since. I'm wondering if we'll have to seperate them somehow. I'll have to talk it over with hubby.

Anyway, here they are. We'll wait and see how this pans out.

Rest in peace, litle guy

I felt Mira get up earlier than usual this morning.

"Well, I'm awake" he said, and went into the other room. I was hoping to get back to sleep, but then he came back in.

"T, I think Popcorn is dead. He's lying on his side and not moving."

For the longest time, I've held my breath when I've gone to see him, just in case. I wasn't sure how I was going to react, since he'd always been alive when I'd seen him. There was no mistaking that he had passed on when Mira brought him into the bedroom in his tube so I could see him.

I must have held him for a half hour or so, stroking his soft fur and talking to him, telling him how much I loved him, and reliving some of the moments I remember with him. Like when we took him outside this summer and let him run around.

We buried him in our yard in his cardboard tube, not far from the sliding glass door so I can look out and see his grave if I want. We may or may not get another hamster. I have a big bag of bedding, a wheel, a waterbottle, and a bag of seeds and a bag of pellets. I used to say that when he died, if I had a lot of stuff left (which I do), then we'd go ahead and get another one; but if I had a little bit left, I'd give it to Jess or somebody else with hammies. But now I'm not so sure. I think I want to wait a while to get another, but I don't want to wait too long so the food doesn't go bad. I guess we'd better decide soon.

Goodbye little guy. The year and almost three months we had together were fun (9 July 2004 - 3 October 2005). I'm gonna miss you.

Daddy, it's spooky!

Said one of the little girls down the hall at work as she saw the bulletin board with Halloween decorations on it.
Happy Scary Season!