Wildcat Wrap up

I'm back. The Wildcats didn't make the Division III playoffs, but they posted another winning season with a record of 6-3. The Linfield College Wildcats football team has the longest unbroken streak of winning seasons at 53. Yes sir, that is 53 years! I've heard the grumbles in the stands about not making playoffs again this year, but I think the learning curve is probably pretty steep for a new head coach. Coach Smith's 4th year will coincide with my son's senior year at Linfield, so here's to hoping. #91 got his chance to contribute this year. As the starting tight end he did make one touchdown reception, however the bulk of his helpfulness was opening up big holes for the running backs with his superior blocking. Yeah!

I was able to attend two games this year. I went to Portland and watched the smackdown of Lewis and Clark. It wasn't even a close game (55-7). I must say the campus of Lewis and Clark is beautiful, though their seating at the games is weird because they didn't have room on the hill for opponent stands. So we had to sit all cozy-like together. I was polite and so was the L&C crowd. Contrast this to the horror of watching Linfield barely lose to the nasty and unsporting Western Oregon. Luckily we won't have to deal with those mofos next year. Here's what happened: They openly taunted our guys pregame, their players made fun of our running back when he went down during the game, they played dirty, and they danced around the "L" when they won. Meanwhile, in the stands, some WO fans sat right behind me and to the left of me and they were relentless douche bags during the whole game. (Yes, Linfield has stands on the opposite side of the field for opponent fans.) They talked smack about everything throughout the game. #91's little sister spent most of the game shooting the evil eye at them. I tried to ignore and I did, but I'm not so sure I wouldn't have shot those idiots myself if I'd had a gun in my purse. (That's a good argument for gun control, heh, heh.) Anyway, it was intense. Let me just say WO is a division II team with scholarships, red shirting and they recruit heavily from junior colleges so their average player age is 24. Well, bully for them, then if they can just barely manage to beat us. Jerks.

A Serendipitis Cat Bite Followed by a Blue Day

I'm happy! I'm bored. I'm depressed :(



I do so love Warrior Princess's cat, Tiger, but he's a little quirky. He cannot be overstimulated. So he bit me back in July- wasn't his fault! When I reached over to scatch behind his ear, little did I know that he had previously been hanging out with FootballPlayinMan for a bit of canoodling .

Ok, at the time I was seriously pissed because the bite got infected which led to a tetnus shot, an antibiotic shot in the ass and, ten days of horse pills (augmentin). Grrrr!


A few weeks prior to this I had been in to see the dentist because my f**king million dollar implant was loose. The implant which only has a 5% failure rate. He scheduled me to have it removed and have another round of grafting with an even larger implant. Grrr times 2!


At the end of August I went in for the procedure. Long story short -after trying to unscrew the thing from my jaw, an x-ray revealed the bone had grown around the threads of the screw. It was no longer loose. So I went home and gently but quickly kissed the little mofo cuz he saved me from dental surgery. Doctor Frankenstein theorized that all the antibiotics from the cat bite somehow stimulated bone growth. I don't care. I will get my tooth put back on in February (because it has to heal from all the ratcheting in August). One round of augmentin is good, another must be great, so I'm in for more ginormous pill swallowing. Besides the stinking cat bite wound is still healing, believe it or not! HappyHappyJoyJoy.


Less than a week later I'm spending the afternoon in the ER with TestCase.

He recently had a med increase due to seizures in July and August. One day into the new dosage (depakote), he called me and asked me to pick him up from work, he's feeling auras, he wants to get out of there. WTF?? This the middle of the day, he never has seizures in the middle of the day, he has never called me from work for a seizure. Aura-s -plural??

I picked him up. He was still experiencing auras, he felt dizzy. His speech was slurry and he looked droopy. He felt like he was going to have a seizure. Normally, I am calm. I know what to do. But this- This was Weird. I gave him another 100 mg of lamictal that I carry in my purse and took him to the ER. He was admitted, put in a padded bed, had blood drawn, IV inserted. We were in the hallway for at least 3 hours. That's ok because they were very, very busy and time is our friend in SeizureWorld. He slept for most of the time. He slept through bookends of mentally ill persons screaming about hypocrisy and people staring at them. He slept through at least 4 ambulance arrivals and the comings and goings of hords of people. It occurred to me that he probably had a seizure while waiting for me to pick him up in his truck, because he was sleeping so soundly. That's normal after a seizure. When the doc came, he was feeling better, no more auras. She consulted with his neurologist and they decided to give the med dosage increase some more time. He's been just fine ever since. I think we spent hours in the ER for no good reason. He just needed to sleep it off. I feel stupid. I don't usually take him in for a seizure unless he bashes his head and needs stitches. Like I said, time is our friend when dealing with seizures, but I was freaked out. I'm losing my touch, cuz I don't freak out. But I did, so I'm depressed about all this.

Rodent Population = x - 1

... or what the womenfolk have to do when the menfolk decamp for Oregon.

... or "New Miserable Experience"*

Warrior Princess and I took the dogs out for one last potty break last night. We observed approximately 5 rats in various positions on my bird feeder which is on a straight metal pole.

I set a trap, such as the one to the left or up (or where ever blogger puts the damn picture!). I went to bed and dreamed very bad things about squished rodents in traps.

Next morning, sure enough there is a seemingly dead rat in the grips of the 'rat snapper'. As I move in for a closer look -it moved! Holy living nightmare, Batman!

(I don't like animal suffering, even among disgusting, disease-carrying rats -Duh)

I did what the menfolk normally take care of: I delivered the kill shot via pellet gun. Can we getta eewww, eeewwww!? I tossed the body over the fence into the empty lot. The ants will take care of recycling, part one.

And while WP and I were just busy exclaiming, "yeah! We're free!"...

It seems we miss the menfolk after all.

*Gin Blossoms, I love you.

Our Town: So Environmentally Sensitive!

Inspired by Crummy Church Signs, I spotted a Crummy City Sign while at a swim meet this summer and I felt like sharing. Notice the electrical tower right behind the sign in the middle of all the brown grass.

To the left of this highly informative sign are houses and I'm betting they were built by Elliot Homes. Hmmm?

To the right is a city park with mowing strips and at least 3 soccer fields and a lighted softball field.

Right in the middle, near the street is a smallish puddle of gray water with iridescent white bubbles. There are oddly bent meager-looking fish in the water. On the other side of the street from this 'sensitive area' is a huge racquet club.

Now what part of this strip of land between houses and soccer fields is environmentally sensitive? God knows I have nothing against houses or sports fields. After all, I live in a house and my children have enjoyed the use of these fields over the years. But WTF is up with that sign? It's like putting a sign in front of a shark declaring it's an elephant. They should tell the truth. Something like this:

"No Trespassing because if you electricute yourself or fall into smelly water and drown, we do not want to be held responsible in a lawsuit. This is a narrow bit of land we couldn't develop due to power lines. It collects run off from people's chemically infested lawns and parks. We called it 'environmentally sensitive' in the plans so we could get a break on our developer fees from the city because we're showing just how much we care about the environment."

They probably felt sure that no one would walk past the grim gray water with the disordered fish and feel their sign was total rubbish.

They were right I suppose. If I had to look at this sign everyday, I might be tempted to knock it over.

Fallen Leaf Lake

Notice how this rock is embedded in the tree roots.

This is Taylor Creek. It connects Lake Tahoe and Fallen Leaf Lake.

A few weekends ago we went camping at Fallen Leaf Lake up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Lake Tahoe. I hiked to the lake one morning very early and became fascinated with all the upturned tree roots on the shores of the lake. It was dawn and the lighting was so gorgeous.

Can a Late Night Fried Egg Sandwich Help Stave Off Seizures?

I wish. Nine months. That's how long it's been. But he's been working long hours and not getting enough sleep, so... boom, boom.

There is an upside. Yes, really. TestCase felt an aura. He said, "No!". Brother FPM saw him turn his head, fade and watched his body stiffen. A mere 5 seconds later TestCase came to. He actually managed to derail the convulsive progression. Somehow. He was exhausted as usual, but didn't have a crushing headache.

So, a few days later he came home from work at 11:30 pm from another long day. I whipped up the old TestCase favorite- fried egg sandwich.

I wondered, could I "help" him make it go away?

(My friendly blogpals know that I write about this stuff as stress relief, not for sympathy, cuz Lord knows, things could be so much worse for him and I am profoundly grateful to modern pharmaceuticals. I'm a big picture, glass half- full kinda girl for the most part.)

Rattlesnake Bite or Broken Bone: You Decide

So hubby and I are on one of our thrice weekly bike rides down the American River bike trail, and for the second time in a week we see a rattlesnake sunning itself on the trail. We energetically veered around it. I wish no harm to come of it for it is the great consumer of pestilent rodents, however I wonder to myself to what extent I would inflict self harm in order to avoid the deadly Western Diamondback.

Next thing you know Pepe la Pew crosses our path. So again I wonder, what would I do to avoid being sprayed by an angry skunk? So I posed the question to my tandem partner. Here is what we decided:
To avoid the rattlesnake bite on the bike trail we would both be willing to lose some skin or break a bone.
To avoid the odoriferous renderings of Pepe, we would both be willing to suffer road rash. I went the additional measure of breaking any bone reasoning that skunk stink would make me throw up and I really hate to puke.

A few days later I'm reading the paper and I say to hubby, "OMG, there's an outbreak of rabid bats". He looked at me and asked, "Well, rabid bat or broken bone?"

Aw, hell no!

Thank you to the Lone Grey Squirrel for my first ever award! *blushes with delight*

Bombina orientalis

This post is for the Electric Orchid Hunter who requested pictures of the fire belly toadlets.
If you click on the first picture you will see mosquito larvae in the water. The babies gobble these up like candy. The biggest one is about the size of a quarter now. They are just starting to get their colors. I'll be glad when I can put them back in with their parents because that is a much bigger habitat and I can stop fishing for insect larvae in my turtle pond.

Plus:

I must have the ugliest hummingbirds in the world in my yard. They are quite simply, drab. I like them anyway.

Mini Book Review: Lavinia by Ursula LeGuin

Lavinia is a work of historical fiction, I think, by an author best known for her science fiction writing. We also have the ghost of a dead poet, oracles and ancient pagan rituals. The main character, Lavinia, tells us her version of her part in the tale told by the poet Vergil from The Aeneid. In Vergil's version she apparently only gets a mention in passing. Ursula LeGuin breaths life into Lavinia in such a way that you feel you are her closest confidant. These are the days when Rome was simply known as the place of seven hills and the Greeks had just recently won the war with the Trojans who are now scouting out locations for a new settlement. The arrival of the Trojans in Latium (Lavinia's hometown in ancient Italy) proves to be a major turning point in the novel. I liked the way LeGuin takes us back in time and inside Lavinia's head, so that we don't doubt her decisions. We have confidence in her trust of prophesies. She is steadfast, even stubborn and that is admirable because young beautiful women in her times are often used as political bargaining chips. This is not a complex story, it is easy to read, yet I know that Lavinia's story will stick with me and I will think of her for a long time.

No BFD

"Mom, my swim coach said 'bitch' today!", said the Warrior Princess.

"Would that be as in 'quit yer bitchin' or 'you are such a bitch'?" asked the mother (who has heard it all before).

"It was, 'quit yer bitchin'"

"Ha!, I bet a bunch of parents will call and complain about it. "
(Poor guy, he's kind of young, but otherwise doing a good job by my estimation)

"Nah, he said it to us 12 and ups and we already say bad words!"

Good to know, good to know...

Ducks Part 2: Pictures!

These pictures belong to the previous post. Mary emailed several pictures she took, so I thought I'd share. Three of the eggs hatched: SUPER CUTE!

Mary's dog Dexter didn't like having a duck in 'his' pool. He got his yard back July 4th.

All's well that ends well now that they are swimming free.

Make Way (for Freedom) for Ducklings

Jeez, I wish I had taken photos. I even have a new camera, but...

My neighbor called and asked for my help with a mama duck and three ducklings in her pool. The mom had built a nest in Mary's yard and three of the eggs hatched on July 3rd. That's no good because there is no food in a backyard swimming pool for ducks. We had many ideas. We tried capturing the babies, hoping that their peeping would cause momma to follow us as we walked to the reservoir. (side note on capturing newborn ducklings: They instinctively dive to the bottom of the pool when chased. It's very cool to see these little guys swim underwater. Also, on land, they will lay down flat, stay silent in the leaves and are very difficult to see) But as soon as we put the babies in the carrier they hunkered down and didn't emit a single peep. Back in the pool!

We settled on catching mom with a pool net. My son, FPM- home from college, was along to help with his finely tuned hand-eye coordination. We managed to scare mom into another neighbor's yard and scatter the babies into hiding.

Mary went to the other house to herd mom back to her yard. FPM and I gathered the babies and put them back in the pool, where they helpfully began peeping. Mother duck returned and joined her ducklings in the pool.

FPM and Mary, with dueling pool nets came at mom from opposite sides of the pool. Got her! -but how the heck to pull her out without letting her loose or drowning her? That's where I came in. I jumped in the pool with my clothes on and carefully extracted mother duck from the net. I put her in the pet carrier. FPM scooped up the babes with the net and they were reunited with mom.

Mary, FPM and I hopped in my car and drove to the "No Trespassing" Baldwin Dam reservoir. We had to hike in to a spot where we could get underneath the fence, then hike to another area of the lake where we could actually get to the water. The lake is low and there are a ton of reeds along the shore. Finally, we found it- a place where the reeds were mashed down! We set the carrier down, opened the door and moved away. Mother and her babies walked out, went to the water and swam away. Happy ending for ducks and the humans felt good too! Darn, I wish I had thought of my camera...

The Laundry List

I really thought after school was out that I'd blog more, not less! Here I must insert the gratuitous pictures of my puppy, Mia, and Crystal, her mentor in all things harmonious and dog-like.

My dear friends up and moved to Rochester, NY. I helped them a little in those last few days. It is a massive undertaking to move an entire household across the country. They gave me their aquarium and I 'm having a lot of fun watching the fish.

Anyone in central California knows about all the fires we have burning in every direction. The smoke is really awful. I'm waking at night coughing, unable to breathe well. Yuck!

My little tadpoles have turned into froglets. They eat wingless fruitflies now and soon will eat tiny crickets. They are so cute. As soon as they are big enough to avoid cannilbalistic attacks, I will put them back with their parents.

A high school friend of TestCase's just showed up for a visit -with her baby! Don't know too many particulars but I do know she's terribly young and not married. This girl's parents had a bad divorce when she was young. Then there were remarriages and new kids and she kind of got lost in the shuffle. I guess she just wants to have her own little family. I wish her luck, it will be a hard road. The baby is very cute, obviously healthy, and well cared for.

The last thing on the list involves a cell phone and a busy swimming schedule. Warrior Princess swims everyday for swim team and twice a week for water polo. She accidently left her phone in the locker room at the high school where her H2O polo matches were being played. Naturally, it wasn't turned in -it's gone. Hubby and I said, "Too bad you'll be without a phone". TestCase had the day off yesterday and he went out and bought her a new phone!

On one hand, we really wanted her to suffer the consequences. We were going to make her buy her own phone. Then again, that was a super sweet thing for big brother to do for her! I lectured them both. (and they heard, wah, wah, wah) I do think she'll be more careful with this one.

Three on a Match

I lost Ignatia today. Not lost, but died. She was just plain dead. Toby in February, Gray Kitty in March and now Iggs -all gone. She was ill in April, but I took her to the vet and she recovered. She was doing very well, or so I thought. I know she was somewhat old in iguana years, but I paid careful attention to her diet, so I thought she could have lived for many more years. I'm bummed that the pumpkin vine hadn't produced any flowers yet. Pumpkin flowers were her favorite treat. We buried her under a valley oak in our yard. Her bones and flesh will nourish the grand tree as it grows to its eventually enormity.

She was "just a lizard", but she had a very pleasant personality. Most people who met her liked her, especially the children. She was the vegetarian pet that I adopted for my manchildren, back when they were little boys. They wanted a snake in the worse way. Mama knows best and they got an iguana. Years after that we rescued a red-tailed boa that was starved. They got their snake after all. We fed the snake and Sandra became large and sleek. It was a distasteful process. The boys went to high school and forgot about Sandra. I found a home for her with a guy who absolutely loved her at first site. I kept my vegetarian Ignatia who was not a horror to feed, but a delight.
Till today, of course. And now she feeds the tree. R. I. P.

Stick a Fork in Me, I'm Done!

School's out for Summer! I am seriously dating myself here, but back in junior high my best friend and I used to sit in her room and sing Alice Cooper songs, burn incense and talk about boys. Now my daughter is in junior high and I think the current music craze might be Fall Out Boy. She doesn't burn incense, but she loves scented lotions. As for the the boy talk, I don't know and I am not sure I want to either. Today was the last day of school and I allowed her to "go out to lunch" with her friend to McDonald's. The plan was for them to walk there themselves and go on to the aquatic center afterwards for swim team practice. All of these places are located within about one half mile. This afternoon, the other kid's mom called my house to talk to her. Apparently she told her mom that she was going to our house after school (and nothing about the lunch plans). This mom's hair was on fire she was so mad. She drove all around looking for them and she found them. You see, the girls had extra time so they stopped at WalMart (next to the aquatic center) to look at bikinis (yikes!). Neither of them had their cell phones with them (by accident). I trust my kid and didn't see anything wrong with these plans. I didn't even think the side trip was that big of a deal. I think the other mom thinks I'm irresponsible as she would not have agreed for her kid to do this. I kind of feel bad, but WP knows that her freedom would go away the instant she is caught in a lie (she learned from watching her brothers make their way through the teenage years). What do you think? Am I horribly misguided or is the other mom overprotective? (btw- her kid is terrific, very down to earth and trustworthy in my opinion.)

Virginia is for Lovers...

At least that's what the slogan says and my dear newlywed little sister would probably agree except, technically, they got married in Maryland. I was there eating, drinking and making merry for about four days. We had the ladies luncheon and manicure, the rehearsal dinner, the bachelorette limo party through Virginia wine country and finally, the deluxe wedding complete with open bar, appetizers and a full dinner including palette cleansing between courses (and I don't want to forget the yummy amaretto wedding cake) . Yikes, my ass must be the size of Utah. But who could tell? - it was neatly covered by my floor length pink matron of honor gown.

Virginia wine country: somewhere west of D.C.

















This is the grounds of the Strong Mansion
on Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland:



Nieces as flower girls:


















Bridal party flowers:




Wedding Cake!




My sister married a great guy. He's a short red head (as is my sis) and he's an actual rocket scientist (sis is not a rocket scientist, but she's smart enough for government work)! A little dude with a giant throbbing brain. And he loves my sister and spared nothing to make her happy on their wedding day, so he's fan-flippin'-tastic in my book. Come to think of it, I was almost the tallest person in that wedding party with the only other tall person being my brother, who is also the bride's twin brother. He's an English professor, so he made a toast later involving the recital of a long, lovely romantic poem. I wish I could remember it but it flew out of my head in all the hubbub. Now, it's back to the salt mines for me.

Tagged by da Squirrel

Quirky rollercoaster of pain and love



I was tagged by the Lone Grey Squirrel to do a six word memoir. There you have it. It was easy to do, so I'm tagging Grundir the Implacable, G, Axe, Candace and the Electric Orchid Hunter. These are but a few of the many bloggers that I have enjoyed reading over the last year and a half.

Men in Skirts, Whites in Dreads and Oregon Drivers

We went to Oregon last weekend. I missed my canine baby so that I could visit my real and actual offspring. What is the deal with Oregon drivers? They are simultaneously highly annoying and quite charming. They all drive the speed limit or less, even in the left lane. If the speed limit is 30 through Newberg, you can bet some asswipe is crawling along at 25. OTOH, while walking around anywhere in McMinnville you can be damn sure you won't get run over. People are meticulous about pedestrian right of way (as well they should be). Even college dudes driving jacked up trucks bumpin' the tunes will stop at a crosswalk and wait until you make up your mind whether or not you're crossing. Here in dangerous Cali, you take your life in your own hands if you walk anywhere. Everyone's in a hurry, cuz they're so dang important. You can tell because they all have a Borg-like ear implant. Scary!




While I was away my fire belly toads made sweet amphibious love and *squeal* hatched some fine tadpoles! See picture below. I took them out of the parents' tank because toady hunger knows no bounds.
I was also gone a lot the previous weekend because the Warrior Princess has volunteered at The Grace Foundation.
It required a bit of training and she is so loving this outfit. I will do a separate post about this wonderful organization that saves neglected and abused horses while providing therapeutic riding for many different special needs children.


The tadpoles:

What is the deal with men wearing skirts? Honestly, it's not an attractive look, but we saw two different men in a single day while hanging out in Oregon. Ok, one dude was a goofy college kid that we've heard is known as "kilt guy". The other was an actual middle aged man in a restaurant and it was a freaking skirt, not a traditional Scottish kilt type outfit. Hmmm?

The final thing that bugged me about my trip up north was the frequency of white people with dreadlocks. I'm sorry but that just looks wrong. It just makes them look like crazy people who can't be bothered with personal hygiene. Eewww, especially you, woman at the Lewis and Clark College Track Invitational, rats could climb in there, build a nest and live happily ever after.


I leave you with this final image. Mother squirrel enjoying sunflower seeds at the bird bath. I sure hope she brings her babies by for a visit sometime. I guess if she's really a good squirrel mom she won't do that though.