2010-02-07

 

Moving over to a WP blog in response to the death of Blogger FTP. I'm not a big WP fan, but it's a ubiquitous enough solution that there's not much I have to do to get things going. New feed here. I'll keep this stuff here for awhile, but there won't be any changes from here on out.

posted by bethanye 3:01:00 PM    More Info

Comments: Post a Comment

2010-01-21

 

It's been a bad year for our tortoises.

After living with us for as long as we've been married - that's since 1996, for those of you who are counting - Natasha the tortoise died in July last year. This was a nasty, nasty shock. I expected her to outlive all of us. ALL of us. She was supposed to make it to 75 years old easy... and yet, suddenly, she was gone.

Here's the thing about Natasha: she was kind of loud to live with. The tortoise loved to dig. Unfortunately, her tank wasn't very deep, yet she persisted. This led to the droning, 1 Hz thump of Natasha attempting to dig through the bottom of her tank to deeper, cooler ground. She had laser-like focus on digging.

Thump.... Thump.... Thump....

And so on.

Visitors never failed to comment on it. We didn't really notice it after awhile, but on a warm day it was just constant thumping coming from Natasha's tank. Cory and Jen suggested that Natasha was actually my role model - following her lead, I was just as tenacious even in seemingly pointless situations. Thump... Thump... "We can be better than this, we just have to look at it from a different angle..." Thump...

I suppose they had a point.

One morning in July and without warning, The Boy went downstairs to feed the tortoises and Natasha was gone. Just gone. No warning, no symptoms we had noticed. It was sudden and terrible and heartbreaking. I didn't see her after it happened. The Boy cleaned everything up (my request) and by the time I came downstairs, both Natasha and her home for the past 13 years were cleared away.

Fast forward to December 2009. After living with us for 12 years, Nausicaa laid an egg -- and we knew she didn't have any boyfriend-tortoises. A visit to the vet said, "They just do that sometimes." After x-rays it turned out there were TWO more eggs in there, waiting to come out. Getting them out was important, because if they broke up inside and putrefied, that would be the end of our remaining tortoise-companion. He gave her hormone shots and sent her home, and the second egg came out a few days later.

We waited for the third.

When it still hadn't come out three weeks later, Nausicaa was back at the vet for another check-up. The egg was still in there, so another round of hormone shots was called for. This was serious. If that egg didn't come out, it was going to kill her.

In the end, that's what happened. Despite her excellent veterinary care and many baths, the egg broke up and poisoned her. It wasn't the total shock that we had with Natasha, but still terribly disappointing. For the first time in our marriage, there are no pet tortoises to nom up our leftover apple cores and lettuce hearts.

No idea when I'll be ready to bring home another tortoise. I'm just not ready to think about it yet.

Labels: beasts

posted by bethanye 10:55:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2009-07-07

 

Holy crap, thirteen years! That's how long we've been married. This also marks the end of our seventh year in the Bay Area. It's easy to say, "Wow, so much has happened." I find it's more interesting to think about what hasn't changed. Or maybe I just find it comforting. The Boy and I are closer than ever, and I suspect even more annoyingly cloying to be around for any amount of time. To celebrate, we went down to the Monterey Aquarium on Sunday morning -- the very best time to go, we discovered, is early Sunday morning. I highly recommend the seahorse exhibit. For the most part, though, we've spent this long weekend lounging and being near, and for me that is more than enough.

As for our tenure in the Bay Area, it's been good to us overall. We have friends and a comfortable lifestyle, and enjoy living in such a beautiful place. Oh, and did I mention that it's thirty degrees cooler here than in Dallas today? That takes some of the sting out of being far from family.

posted by bethanye 3:24:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2009-05-24

 

Blanket and cat on my lap - doing a bit of housekeeping on the blog. Deadliest Catch reruns on the TV is nice background noise.

posted by bethanye 1:28:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2009-03-22

 

Today was a lovely, relaxing day. You'd think that, what with no job to go to, every day would be lovely and relaxing but in fact you'd be wrong. Many days are just plain interminable -- a not-exactly-interesting mix of boredom tinged with sadness, with lots of little tasks to accomplish and random appointments thrown in for flavor. Some of the tasks and appointments are in and of themselves quite interesting, but it's not enough to keep me buoyed up. In short, I'm kind of bored, and though I know that there is still lots of work ahead of me on the job-search path, it doesn't have the same satisfaction of feeling connected to something larger than myself.
I mean, come on. How much knitting can I really do non-stop? Yes, I have been practicing drop-spindling -- emphasis on drop -- but I'm not seeing skill development yet.
So what was fab about today? Well for one thing, I met a ferry-friend for pedicures first-thing this morning, which was such a nice way to start the day. Once home, I knit for awhile and watched a movie, then finished sewing on a pair of pants I've had in-progress for way too long. They're kind of not so great, actually, so don't expect a pic of them. I did make some progress on the lace scarf I've been working on for a few months, though. I also had time to do some reading and generally laze in a sunbeam, before a delicious dinner of My Favorite Thing Ever -- a simple roast chicken. Chocolate cake for dessert. All in all, just one thing I enjoy after another. I felt very blissy.
Karen and James are coming in tomorrow night, and staying for (I think) a few days while getting ready to move into their new place. It will be such fun to have them here!

Labels: knitting

posted by bethanye 10:54:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment