Chris and I have been watching a few episodes of Zorro every night. It's so fun to watch those again. These were great and from the time when Disney was still good. Walt was still alive after all. I want to get season 2, but they're expensive. We're slowly getting through Moby Dick as well. I was telling someone that the reason it's such a difficult book to read is because Ishmael rambles on about everything between story chapters that have to do with whales and the history of sailing. He's a very arrogant guy. Why fate chose to spare him is beyond me. I think it's poor Starbuck that should have been spared. It's funny how in the movies they make Ishmael timid and shy. He wasn't. I'm going to quote some very outlandish parts from chapter 82 The Honor and Glory of Whaling. Ishmael really believes that his profession is the best and his whales are the best and anyone that disagrees with his deluge of facts be damned to Hell. In this chapter he tries to claim famous historical and fictinal characters into the long line of whale men. His reasoning is so rediculous too.

--is the famous story of St. George and the Dragon; which dragon I maintain to have been a whale; for in many old chronicles whales and dragons are strangely jumbled together...

Notice how in a list he puts whales first. How many stories can you think of where whales and dragons are mixed together? I can't think of any.

"Thou art as a lion of the waters, and as a dragon of the sea," saith Ezekiel; hereby, plainly meaning a whale;

YES! Ishmael has single handedly clarified the Bible. Yes plainly! How can you not see it when we don't even know what Ezekiel is addressing. Religious scholars even argue among themselves about what some things are in the Bible. It's never clear, except to Ishmael.

Besides, it would much subtract from the glory of the exploit had St. George but encountered a crawling reptile of the land, instead of doing battle with the great monster of the deep. Any man may kill a snake, but only a Perseus, a St. George, a Coffin have the heart in them to march boldly up to a whale.

So the traditional story is not exciting enough for Ishmael because the dragon is a land animal and to him merely a snake. Nothing can compare to a whale, specifically a Sperm Whale. Even when the talks about other whales he always mentions how they are inferior. Earlier in the chapter he said I am transported with the reflection that I myself belong, though but subordinantly, to so emblazoned a fraternity.

I don't think he thinks himself so subordinate when only people like him and these heros can walk up to a whale. Wait there's more!

Let not the modern paintings of this scene mislead us...though the battle is depicted on land and the saint on horseback, yet considering the great ignorance of those times, when the true form of the whale was unknown to artists...St. George's whale might have crawled up out of the sea on the beach; and considering that animal ridden by St. George might have been only a large seal or seahorse

WTF? For someone that considers himself a thinking man he sure doesn't want to look at the facts. Ignoring that this is a fictional story of course he ignores the paintings. Ignorance of the day? I think people knew a horse when they saw one since horses were the cars of that time period. I'll give him a whale could have beached himself, but the thought of St. George riding a seal had me cracking up. Can you imagine him entering his castle on his noble seal? HAHA, what's he doing feeding the whale? A seal isn't a good choice of animal to face a toothed whale with. And a seahorse? Oh my gosh, is he grasping or what?

Thus, then one of our own noble stamp, even a whaleman, is the tutelary guardian of England...Let not the knights of that honorable company (none of whom, I venture to say, have ever had to do with a whale like their great patron), let them never eye a Nantucketer with disdain, since even in our woollen frocks and tarred trowsers we are much bettter entitiled to St. George's decoration than they.

Holy cow! That's one of the worst lines yet. I'm just going to skip to the end. You'll have to read the other outlandish examples yourself.

Perseus, St. George, Hercules, Jonah and Vishnoo! There's a member-roll for you! What club but the whaleman's can head off like that?

I'd call it Ishmael's club.

Anyway, I got my 7th dragon. I'm very excited!


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I'm still flip flopping about what to do for my last dragon. I have decided to go with a female this time and name it Raksha. Raksha was the name of Mowgli's wolf mother and it means The Demon. Even though I liked the bird in Riki Tikki Tavi, the name Drazee is too cute for my taste. Raksha is pretty sweet. Buuuut...the problem is now I'm not sure about the color. I wanted white because I don't have a white raptor. But now I'm wondering if I should make her gold to have two large aura producers. Gold seems to trade very well both on the resource and items markets. I'm not so sure now. Regardless I will start off with her being white. Hum, perhaps I should stick with my guns and just go with the original plan for white. I don't know if gold will devalue since so many people have it. That's something to consider.

I've started playing Oblivion on Xbox. You can see the icon in my sidebar under gaming. I really only started so I could put pumpkins everywhere and I made so many in the room of my castle. It was halarious. I'm definitely not into RPG's so I'm not going to play for story or try to beat this. I just want to level up and do some fun and crazy things. And I've already done something that Chris is amazed I did. "How do you do these things?" is something I hear him say a lot. When we first started gaming I told him I have a knack for "breaking" games. It really isn't that I set out to break games. I think I just ask the right questions then try them out. It all started with the original Mario on NES for me when I jumped in one of the castle levels and got stuck in the wall and found out you could go through the bricks without breaking them and beat the whole level that way.

In this game I bought a horse and managed to scare some deer into the castle. I got off quick and shut the gate behind me and trapped them in there. One disappeared but I managed to scare one into the horse pen and now I have a pet deer. I recorded it too as proof since lots of people don't believe it when I say I've done these weird things. I think one of the best things I've done was on Game Cube's Simpsons Road Rage where I learned how to go through the walls and fly around the levels outside of the map. I had made a whole website dedicated to my wackiness on that game. I guess because when I play I ask myself things like, "What happens if I go in there?" "I'm know I'm not supposed to go there but I think I can." What would happen if I stepped on that?" "What would happen if I killed that guy?" "Would I die if I touch that?" Testing these questions has produced some really funn results, like Cope on his bike in Saints Row 2.

Chris is still recovering. He's doing much better. It's orange season again. I think the farm down the road will have those big black buckets out again. Our organes are out too. I've picked several for Chris already. We bought a cheap little juicer yesterday and it's fun. It's one where you put the orange half on it and turn and it makes juice. I made a little bit yesterday so that was fun. I also made more pumpkin pancakes since I still had puree left over in the fridge.

I'm actually looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. I want to make some pies to take to dinner. I'm not into parties or social gatherings, but around every two or three years I do get the urge for it. This is the first time I've felt this way since we've lived in our house. I just hope there won't be too many people. We'll see how long I last before my introversion freaks me out.

I finished reading The Seven Daughters of Eve and really enjoyed it up until the last chapter. It was going wonderfully until the author got all sappy and emotional and even a bit feminist on me. WTF? I had never noticed and it never bothered me about nature documentaries how at the end nearlly all will preach to you about man destroying the world. It never bothered me but now I'm aware of it and try to find less preachy videos for him. But now I know how he feels as it's been happening in my science books. The Toes, Thumbs and Tear book ended with the author freaking out about robots replacing mankind. A Monk in the Garden ended up freaking out about Frankensteins because of genetics. And now this guy goes feminist and emotional over his genetics. I hate this trend. If I read a science book just give me the facts. Don't save the last chapter for an opinion fest. I'll make up my own mind damn it! For me a bad last chapter can easily ruin the whole book. Unfortunately I think I'm out of factual books to read. I'm only reading Moby Dick at the moment but it's funny too because Ishmael is so darn opinionated that I can't seem to escape it even in fiction. But he's so funny about too that I wish he were real and I could grab him and shake him and say, "No damn it! Look this is the way it really is!!" The reason the book is so long is because most of the chapters are about history and Ishmael talking about how sperm whales are the best of all whales superior to everything else and why whalers know more even than naturalists on the subject. Oh and whalers are the best sailors more so than the navys, the merchant sailors, etc. And if you disagree with him and the tons of facts he's thrown at you you're a fool. Haha, it's great. Don't you just love S types? I've pegged Ishmael as ISTP. The thought process of an ST is so different and interesting to look at though.

Ok time for budgies. They're all nearly full grown now.



Here they all are. I like the youngest neon green and yellow baby. The pictures dont' do him justice of how bring he is.

( More budgies behind cut )
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Quick update on the flame war. You can see how it ended in a ban Here for those of you that were following from last time. I love the attempted insults like I really would care. The conversation with Chris is funny too. I had frozen the original thread but she just couldn't resist. That's a loser for you and like I said I wasn't going to put up with it anymore. Oh and as for the lame excuse about the lack of capitals, she has none. I have a disorder (dyslexia) and I can still do better than her. There's just no excuse hehe.

Today is an anniversary! Chris and I had a wonderful day. I love that our family life is great and really have no troubles on the social front. Let's see that makes a total of 13 years 8 months now.

We read a funny chapter of Moby Dick that I must quote from as it's very cool and so appropriate. It's from chapter 64, Stubb's Supper. Stubb the second mate had just killed a whale and it was tied along side to the ship and sharks were feasting on it in a feeding frenzy.

The few sleepers below in their bunks were often startled by the sharp slapping of their tails against the hull, within a few inches of the sleepers' hearts.

That had to be so cool and scary too. This next paragraph I just loved about the men eating the whale meat while the sharks also ate.

Though amid all the smoking horror and diabolism of the sea fight, sharks will be seen longingly gazing up the ship's decks, like hungry dogs round a table where red meat is being carved, ready to bolt down every killed man that is tossed to them; and though, while the valiant butchers over the deck-table are thus cannibally carving each other's live meat with carving knives all gilded and taselled, the sharks also, with their jewel-hilted mouths, are quarrelsomely carving away under the table at the dead meat; and though, were we to turn the whole affair upside down, it would still be pretty much the same thing, that is to say, a shocking sharkish business enough for all parties;

Ishmael is the master of the run on sentence and comma semi-colon combo! But I love that word picture of how the sharks and sailors are one in the same even if you turn the ship upside down and put the sharks on top. Aye, it's a sharkish business. That phrase is used many times in the book. I love it!

Chris got the game Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the 360. It's cool having so many Sega games that we grew up with there are around 50 games on it. He's been playing that. I showed him the first two Sonic games since I grew up on that and Sonic Spinball which he liked. I showed him Ecco the Dolphin too which looked great for its time was so darn frustrating because of the time limits and vaugness of what you're supposed to do. I never got past the second level because of that.

We got some ingredients to make another pumpkin pie. I will be posting the recipe for it again so you all can use it. You have to try it, it really is a winning forumula. Once cold other pies just don't compare.

I put Seagrass in the different cage today and she still got out. I don't know what I'm going to do with that little budgie hen. If we had two doors on the screen I'd just let her live free on the patio, but I fear she'll fly out when the door opens so I need to find somewhere to put her.

I've done some major reworking of my Youtube site. I made some playlists to organize all my similar videos. I also shortened and updated my profile on there. I realize I need to reinstall Sony Vegas Movie Studio if I want to make another video to upload. I watched some of my gardening videos and gosh do I need to get back into it. The garden is a disaster right now and to see how nice I had it, especially last year makes me realize I need to take better care of it. Of course having a hurt knee hasn't helped matters since I can do so little per day out there. But Chris is going to help me and we need to cut down the jungle that has grown over everything.

Every night I read a few chapters of Moby Dick to Chris. I'm so glad he's enjoying this book so much though occassionally the old English leaves me wondering what the Hell I just said. Doesn't happen often but it did tonight. When Ishmael goes into one of his historical rants I sometimes get lost. But now he's caught up to where I had left off on my own. So I probably won't read ahead and just have the chapters be new again for me. I did read the book a few years back but I don't remember all the details.

Ok time for budgies and a drink.



This is the older blue budgie. He decided to get too close to the camera. It's funny. These guys have such colorful pastel feathers already that I wonder if they'll be rainbows? Well Peep's mom Seagrass was a rainbow hen.

( Budgies and a drink )
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I think Ismael is an ISTP. I'm fairly sure of it now. He's an S because he goes into huge detail and description about things. He met a sea captain and said there wasn't much to tell then went on to describe how he had microscopic wrinkles that gave him a mean look and other things just from observing him for a few paragraphs. Haha that's his not much? He uses his senses to do things and describe things as well. He's a T in that he goes through a thought process then comes to a conclusion. He trys to weigh all his options before making a decision. I love how him being a Christian reasoned himself into idolatry to help his friend Queequeg. I need to quote this because it's a great example of thinking logic.

I was a good Christian; born and bred in the bosom of the infallible Presbyterian Church. How then could I unite with this wild idolator in worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I. Do you suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and earth--pagans and all included--can possibly be jealous of an insignificant bit of black wood? Impossible! But what is worship?--to do the will of God--THAT is worship. And what is the will of God?--to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man to do to me--THAT is the will of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellow man. And what do I wish that this Queequeg would do to me? Why, unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of worship. Consequently, I must then unite with him in his; ergo, I must turn idolator.

I was cracking up when I read this. And this is typical of a thinking type. Ishmael also has trepidations often and second guesses himself at times which is a typical P trait. He tries to see things from more than one point of view so I get a P vibe from him. ALso ISTP is know as the daredevil and he really wanted to go out and hunt whales which was very dangerous but exciting at the same time.

Speaking of thinking types I had a great NT conversation with Chris today. The phone rang and I picked up.

Des: Hello?
Chris: Green or Gold?
Des: *pause to think a second* Green.
Chris: Ok, Bye.
Des: Bye.

There was no useless small talk. We didn't ask how we were feeling. That had already been established in an earlier convresation. Chris was at the feed store picking up pigeon food and they sell two types. He wanted to know if I wanted the green or the gold. I knew he was going to the feed store so there was no need for extra words like, "I'm here at the store and which type of pellets do you want? There's green and there's gold." What a waste of time it is to say all that. We're straight to the point and a conversation like this would so offend and extroverted feeling type because we didn't stop to chat and ask them how they were. Thank goodness we didn't have to do that. Yeah, it's great when INTP's and INTJ's don't know they're in a relationship.
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Well that wild budgie didn't come back, but I do have some very good news! One of the eggs hatched after all!! I'm so glad despite them being such an odd shape. I hope the last three will also hatch. This is the first Phage and Gaus cross. It's too soon to tell if it's a male or a female but in about a week I should know. I'm very happy that Phage's line is going into 3rd generation...or is it 2nd? I was always confused by that. These are his grand kids so which generation is that? Do you count the original birds as a generation?

I've updated my sidebar. I've started to read Moby Dick again. This will be my second time through the book. It's fun because I'm trying to type the characters. So far all I know is that Ishmael is ST with a very strong S. Don't know if he's E or I yet or J or P. And Queequeg is an Introvert but don't know anything else about him yet. Ahab hasn't shown up yet but since I think about him often I'm fairly sure he's ISFJ.

I've started to play Sims 3 again. I'm working with the Cope family and am trying to fulfill their life wishes. I have a weird glitch with that family though. Children aren't supposed to have life wishes, but Max sometimes gets a Lifewish with gold trim and all appear in his normal wish list. I'm tempted to click one and see if I can fulfill it. BUt it can't be a job related one because he can't work. Chess Master came up and I could do that but I didn't get it in time since I had no free slots and really wanted to work on the ones I had. I'm also afriad that if I accept a Life Wish as a Normal Wish it will mess up my game, but I'm curious at the same time. I should save as a new game if I do that then. So that means I will start posting the Four Bad Boys Sim story again.

EDIT: I want These budgies. Too bad they are just patterns. I can't sow or croche so someone would have to make it for me.
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On this day 13 years ago a very special man asked me to be his girlfriend. That is after I encouraged him by saying, "Is there something you want to ask me?" We'd been going out for a while now and we got along so well. I knew he wanted to ask me out but he was afraid. I would talk to one of my friends and tell her, "I know he's going to ask me out soon. If he doesn't I'm getting tired of waiting and will help him out." And I did. And it's been a wonderful ride ever since then. That day was freezing cold and he was picking me up in his truck from my mother's house. We went out every weekend so it's likely that this was a Saturday. We sat in the cold truck waiting for the heater to start when I encouraged him to ask me. We both felt triumphant that day. I find it interesting that after several warm Februarys that this one on this day is cold again though not as cold as it was 13 years ago. Currently it's 45 degrees F. It's supposed to drop to 26!! tonight. Egad, is that cold enough for snow? I hope not!!

Well we have covered the window to the pigeons so they should be safe and warm and I covered the patio birds too and brought in the budgies. I also covered one of the baby trees. I hope all the plants will be ok. We've got two nasty nights of this in the 20s stuff. Man I hate the cold.

We went out today and we noticed that all the oranges were being picked on one of the orange groves. I LOVE the huge buckets they use to fill with oranges. These things are huge. You can fit three people in them.



Click for full size. See the black bucket? It's full of oranges. And notice the ladders on the trees. There were so many ladders like this. Then they fill up these huge trucks til they are literally over flowing. During orange harvest which is now you'll always see oranges all over the roads from trucks that drop them. The more we drove the more we saw oranges being picked everywhere. I bet they are harvesting early because of the frost that's coming. I told Chris we should pick ours too, but we got home so late it's way too cold to go outside now. I think we're going to lose our citrus crop because of this. That sucks. So long as we don't lose the trees.

Then we went to Borders and used up the balance I had left on my gift card. Chris got me the book The Seven Daughters of Eve. It's about the human race and how all humans are decended from seven women that had one mother or an Eve. They are given names like Ursula, Jasmine, Xenia and I can't remember the rest. I'm looking forward to reading it and I wonder which of the seven I'm descended from? This is all based on genetic studies with mitochondrial DNA which is passed on to females. The only annoying thing is that I think I may skip the first half as I already know the history of genetics, I already know about Watson and Crick, I know about Neanderthals and I know my basic microbiology. These books can get repetivie when they keep going over college bio, microbio and gen 101. That's the only annoying part of reading science books for the general public, all the redundant intro material. But I think this will be a neat book. But before I even start it I need to finish the three in my sidebar. Good grief. I have a tendency to pile up books like that. So I must first finish the bonehunter book then finish up Alex & Me.

So after that we went to Sweetbay Supermarket. Yeah, not a place you'd think to go for an anniversary but we'd been told that they carried these old generic drinks there. Alex and Kim gave us some and we remembered them from our childhood because they came in little barrels, though Chris and Kim say that they used to be called Bug Juice. Alex and I didn't remember that. Anyone remember Bug Juice? Well now they are called Little Hugs. I like Bug Juice better even if I can't remember it.



Totally artificial goodness!! Sorry green crowd but I do perfer artifical drinks. Fake strawberries taste better to me than real ones. These drinks are so yummy. The blue one will kick you in the face with as much sugar as it has while the purple and orange are smooth and refreshing. Haven't tried the reds yet.



Here are the cute little bottles!! Eeee!! You can see I drank one of the orange ones. Chris bought me four boxes. Yeah that's what I wanted for a gift. Cheep, yummy and I'm happy. I'm easily amused and not hard to please. Also I know they are barrels but they look like grenades to me.

And then we went to eat at Carrabbas and used up the last of our Christmas gift cards. We had so much fun and talked about old times. We were remembering back in the 90s when we were on our Primal Rage kick and trying to pick up all the figures. He'd bought Chaos the monkey for me and somehow he fell out of the car and I only had the box. I was so upset! We drove to all the parking lots we'd been to trying to find him but we never did. But chris bought me another one. We were worried because at the time he was kinda rare so I was very upset. I still have the empty box with the accessories. I still can't bear to part with it. He and I used to hit all the malls and toy stores and anything that carried toys trying to find those figures or any figures. We were much more aggressive hunters back then. I kinda miss those times and it was fun to remember. Good times.

I'm rambling and now I'm nostalgic again. On the way home I saw a flock of robins. I'm so glad they're still down for the winter, though they will probably be confused by the cold weather. Poor birds. And then I saw a huge flock of sandhill cranes flying in rows and V's. AWESOME!! I love sandhill cranes. They are so huge and graceful. It's been a very good day. Lots of fun stuff happened. We might end it by watching a Lecter film.

Edit: Budgie needs some love. No one's been clicking him except for Chris and me.

And I just got my last level 30 item for Talon. FINALLY! I'm broke again. This sucks. hehe.
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Hey everyone. In light of the halarity that ensued earlier on I have made good on my word and made an LJ related icon finally. Feel free to grab it and use it. I do believe that we REAL introverts prefer LiveJournal to horrid places like myspace or as I like to call it myspaced or crawlspace hehe. Leave that to the extroverts where it offers them so little control. I like my new icon. I've been wanting an LJ related one for a while. If you guys can think of other captions for this let me know and I'll be glad to make them.

Well I made a generic background and have put all of our dragons up on a temporary page. It is Here. It's just an example and I will change the text and may-be the layout of the dragons. I think they are funny since they float over the grass. I have included your personality types too. sike_saner and gootc_me I don't know your type so I didn't add it yet. The test is here if you want to find out. Another thing I did that I think is neat is got rid of the drop down box that said Dragon Adopters and included the names of your dragons instead. Much nicer that way when you mouse over.

So do you guys like it on a site or should I just list them on one of my entires here since it is LJ related? Also I still don't have a banner made. What did you guys think of the one I was working on last time? Also what are we going to call this club/click?

Well that's about it for today. Been working on the site instead of doing my art like I'm supposed to. At least today's been fun and productive. OH I updated the sidebar again and included The Bonehunter's Revenge since I'm still reading through it. Got through another chapter today. Rivalries are so fun. I also have this new icon now.



I find I often give out my two cents. Also found out about a book called On Her Own Terms by Barbara R. Stein. It's about a woman named Annie Montague Alexander who was a scientist and sharp shooter in the 1800's That's unheard of back then and women still weren't allowed to vote in that time. She was contemporary with some of my favorite historical figures and is said to be obscure and unknown like Tesla was. I don't know if she'd be another of my heros, but I'm curious and might look into this book.

EDIT: Tomorrow's our 13th anniversary. And we still have no plans. We suck hehe. Chris might get the day off and we can use a gift card to go to a fancy Italian restraunt.
Not to self. Talk about another DA moron tomorrow.
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I really shouldn't post when I'm sleepy but here I go again. I forgot to mention a few things last time because of it. I got my computer back. Hurray! It's good to be back and not keep logging Chris out of everything. I accidentally responded to some of my friends on Youtube with his account. Oops. That's ok. He accidentally rated some stuff with mine. So no more of that. I still have to put all my sounds back on the way they were. I hate the default sounds or lack of sounds. When my computer turns on it's to the sounds of Sandhill Cranes and turns off the the call of the Red-Winged Blackbird. Also my menu commands are bubble sounds: Bloop, bloop!

I also got the new Kalmah finally from Chirs and I got the book Bonehunter's Revenege from Alex. So there, now my Christmas loot list is finally done. I'm looking forward to finally reading that book all the way through even though I know how it ends. But I still may learn something new. Chris also brought up something interesting that makes it not so annoying to start over. I can read and try to figure out their personality types. Oooh!!

I got the new Birds & Blooms yesterday. Gosh I have SO much reading to do now. And so much writing. I'm going to type up a new article on rasing sphinx moths and see if I can get published again. I'll probably put it on a CD and just mail it because I want the pictures to be with the article and not get lost. Gosh I still need to finish reading the last issue. It's around somewhere. And Chris got me some peat pellet refils so I can start seeds again this year. I'm very excited about the new growing season.

Last night we played SR2 again together and it was so funny! We did a few missions and insurance fraud. It was hallarious to see Cope and Owen together getting run over by cars and flying miles away. My DVD is basically full so I'll finalize it today and finally have some screen caps ready to go. I know I've gotten a few requests so those will go up as well.

Oh and as for the subject of my post? Valentine's candies are already out. I saw the two set of pink Peep Hearts and grabbed a few. Pretty and yum!

Haven't posted Talon in a while. He likes visitors.
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I have started to work on Innocence Lost again and what a frustrating pain it is. I guess because I'm just going through and changing names, taking out parts and adding in Cope's speech impediment it's tedious. But it's nice to get to a good chunk that's enjoyable to read. Of course I get no work done if I start reading my own story and I have to snap myself out of it. Another thing I don't like right now is that since it was based on a fandom people knew who characters were. Now it's just like name tossing and some of the parts I can't get rid of, because the dialog is too good or whatever, I have to basically create new characters with a back story and figure out where to fit them in in earlier chapters. AAARRGG!!! I just went through chapter 21 which is good. That means I only have to go through the last two!! But the last two have a new guy tossed in. I know how to work it out with one of my own actually and it makes it so much more unique than the original story but gosh it will still be hard. AND THEN...then I have to go back through the whole thing AGAIN and add some more back story for Owen and Caroline. AAARRRGGGG!!!! I'm going to be so sick of my story by the time I'm done with it...if that's possible. No I won't. I'll just be glad it's over. I remember the elation and satisfaction I had when I finished the story the first time. I haven't felt that high about a story until I made this last one about Owen. It felt good. I hope I will feel that twice with IL. Sigh, well at least this type of frustration is good to have.

I finally remember what I keep forgetting at the end of each of my posts. I keep saying, "I feel like I'm forgetting something." I got the 2009 leg bands for my pigeons a few days ago. They are a light yellow. Not as pretty as the neon greens I had for 2008, but not ugly like the boring white 2007. I have a friend in Ireland that collects pigeon bands from over the world. I must send him some of my left over 08's. Hum, perhaps I can convince him to get an LJ?

So I've started reading Alex & Me. I have added it to the sidebar. WOW, it's very moving and I'm amazed how much I can relate to Dr. Pepperburg. Our childhoods were very similar. I'm annoyed that I didn't know and no one told me that Alex the parrot had died a few months ago. I think, I still don't even know the date. I feel it's too late to write a letter or anything. What more is there left to say after all this time? And like me she got her start with budgies!! The budgie was the friend that was always there for the only child that didn't have or could relate to human friends.

This game looks awesome. I WANT IT!



The game has been in and out of production because of liscensing problems. But if I understood correctly it's directed by Dan Akroyd. He wants it made right unlike the horrible SNES version. GAG! Not only that but he got all the original actors to voice themselves which is just too awesome for anything. I hope the control and game play will be as good as the graphics. And I hope it doesn't get delayed again, there is the chance of that. I'm still looking forward to Mafia II and Godfather II. I'm noticing I really like 3rd person type gangster games.

Speaking of which, I played SR2 again today. Oh man, I had a few laughs. I crashed into a wall and went flying off my motorcycle into it, but I hit something and it looked like I had exploded. There were all these weird pieces lying around. WTF? I looked at them and realized there had been a small tree in a big pot I had crashed and it exploded and that's why the crash was more spectacular than normal. I also spent most of my time exploring Nuclear Island. I found a CD in one of the reactors. I found out there's tunnels and you can walk through them. I lost the cops that way hee hee. I found some cool jumps on that island too and was happy my driver could bring my motorcycle out to me. And on the southern end I found a toxic waste pool with a two headed fish and a skeleton at a picnic table under the green slime. You can actually swim in it and it won't kill you! Too funny.

EDIT: Chris said something cute to me the other day. He said he really has a nerd for a wife. He couldn't get on his side of the bed because there was a book and a laptop on it. Hee hee, books and laptops in bed. Yeah he's right. And I did it again today.
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Progress is really being made on the Christms card. I got some of the outlines done. Hopefully I can finish that tomorrow and start the more fun part of coloring it in photoshop. I decided to organize my PSD files by year and as a bit of an experiment. And I'm disapointed with what I've found. My art output per year isn't that great. I put out on average around 20 drawings. This year has been a slow one. Of my Thagirion Realm line this year I have 8 finished products. That's not good. Eight! That's one reason I didn't make a calendar for this coming year this time. I wanted to, but even if I had had the money I'm several drawings short of the 13 I needed. So I have resolved to increase my art output. Pencil drawings don't count. I have to finish them in photoshop then they count. Once I have a finished PSD file is when I can count it. But may-be this year's output was less because I have worked more on my story. I'm working on this alternate story and I need to finish Innocence Lost by the end of the year or by the end of January. I'm a horrible procrastinator but I'd like 2009 to be the year that my book hits the shelves. That number is special. Thagirion was created in 1999. He'll be ten years old and 9 in my mythology is his number or one of them. Basically any multiple of it so 3 counts too. But I also wonder if my output is reduced because of Illustrator? It does take me way longer to ink now than it did before. Two to three days really depending on how much detail I have. I'm going to teach myself Live Trace next in illustrator and see if that's better. But I doubt it. I don't trust the computer to trace my complex lines on autopilot. suzidragonlady any advice for me? I'm sure I'm doing this the hard way but I trace everything in illustrator even my backgrounds. Should I be doing that?

Looking at my current 2008 folder I'm thinking of making a new one by year for illustrator files (.ai) since they make my PSD folder look like it has more than is really there. But yeah, I need to draw more. I've been kind of nostalgic lately. I was telling Chris the other day I could probably draw such a kick arse SpaceGodzilla now, or Destroyah, or a Raptor. But I don't know if I'll do something like that. Heck I could make some awesome Frink art. Actually I DO have an idea for a one page comic inspired by the Simpson game I've been playing. Perhaps I should work on that. Now that I have a better memory card for my camera, I should make that video of how I draw for Youtube. I could show how I draw Owen.

Well Thanksgiving is almost hear. I dread this holiday. Though last year it went rather smooth. Chris bought me a big pumpkin today. I want to make some pies for Thanksgiving. My back has still been bad so I don't know if I can make it to his family's dinner. But if I can't I can at least send one of my pies there with him. And cards won't go out until after Thanksgiving since that's when Christmas officially begins.

I have finished reading The Introvert Advantage. I highly recommend this book to everyone both introverts and extroverts. Intoverts will say, "Yes that's me alright!" I loved saying that so much as I read this. And extroverts will understand us better. The only chapters I didn't like were the ones on dating and the job one. The issues in the dating part weren't ever issues and seemed stupid to us. I skipped most of that chapter. The job one doesn't apply to us either since we don't have office jobs. But what I liked was the author's email was in the back. While I was reading I kept thinking of how I wanted to comment on some parts I agreed and disagreed with. Well, now that I can I had an introverted moment. My brain locked up. I have no idea what I want to say now. D'OH!!! Man I hate that!! I should have been taking notes. So I need to sit and think about it a while then I will write her. It would be cool to talk to an author of a published book.

And Chris gave me some great news today. Chris is uneasy around big dogs. For years he's known I want a doberman. I've been telling him this since we were dating because I know that easing him into it and getting the idea in his mind is a good way to deal with it than saying, "We're getting a dog!" Some women do that and it's so wrong. But today he had a job and there was a doberman there. It was a female just like one that I want and Chris fell in love with her. He said he felt comfortable with her and that she was quiet, friendly, curious and didn't smell. The best part was when he called me and said that now when we get our dog he's all for it. That's a big step and I'm so proud of him. That makes me so happy. But we won't get a dog for a while. A pure bred doberman isn't cheap. But I'm so happy for us about this.

EDIT: Oh man. We had Return of the Toilet Frog again last night. I woke up to Chris looking out the window. He said he'd heard a noise. Then I heard it and it was from the bathroom. Oh no!! It's been cold again so the frogs are going to start coming up through the toilets again. Chris had a hard time catching this from and I could hear them banging around in there like a war zone. He said he tried to flush it down the toilet but the frog wanted nothing to do with it. The water was too cold. So he finally caught him and threw him out the window. I hope we can sleep tonight and our bathrooms won't get trashed. The frogs like to knock everything over. I wouldn't be surprised if we woke up with a frog in bed. "Hey it's cozy in here."
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I am really enjoying the Introvert book so far. I have learned some new things and I have had my strong suspicions confirmed as well. That makes me happy. The big one being I have been a bit unsure if you can change your personality type. I've thought it could be possible with much effort but not likely. Though I was leaning more to the no you can't side. But I don't come to a conclusion without enough examples and facts. Fact is I haven't seen anyone do it. This book answers my question. No you can not change your temperament no matter how hard you try. You are born an introvert or an extrovert and that is how your brain is wired. I find it interesting that introverts take a longer more complex brain pathway with acetylcoline where as extroverts use the simpler dopamine adrenaline pathway. Too much external imput overstimulates us and that is why we like to be alone to recharge. Acetylcoline tones us down. That's our energy reward. The dopamine adrenaline pathway rewards and craves external stimulation so extroverts recharge in active places or with lots of people. You can't change that and I think you can't change the other three aspects of one's personality either. I'm sure of that now.

Of course it is possible to dable on the other side. Everyone is capable of that. I've had those rare extroverted days and it also depends how high on the spectrum you are. Not likely for me since I'm between 90-100%. But under pressure and stress you will revert to your true state. So no you can't change that. Sucks for some people but I love being an INTJ and wouldn't change it for anything.

I've also come to discover something that has always baffled me about myself. How come I can't argue in real time? You guys have seen me chop off so many heads and do it so effectively, but I can't argue like that in real life. Ignore the physical limitations of my throat tightening and losing my voice I still can't do it. That's also rooted in introversion. I'm going to quote this neat part of the book.

Often introverts have trouble findng the word they want when they are speaking OUT LOUD. Our brains use many different areas for speaking, reading, writing; therefore, information needs to flow freely between the separate areas. Word retrieval may be a problem for introverts because the information moves slowly. One cause of this is that we use long term memory, so it takes longer and requires the right association (something that reminds us of the word) to reach back into our long term memory to locate the exact word we want. If we are anxious, it may be even more difficult to find and articulate a word. Written words use differnet pathways in the brian, which seems to flow fluently for many introverts.

AH HA!! Finally that makes so much sense. Reading and writing are different pathways and why I can make up a rebuttle to an argument almost instantly while I read it and then type out a killer counter strike. But in real life out loud, add in dislexia and time to think and this is what happens to me. That makes me feel a lot better. I FINALLY KNOW!!

Lastly I love this quote that backs up another of my hunches as fact.

No matter how people may appear to others, their basic way of refueling always reveals who is the innie and who is the outie.

I hate it when people think you're an extrovert based on your job, one chore you do that they always see you doing or some other misconception they instantly form about you without anything else to back it up. I hate the, "You're an introvert? No you can't be." Like it's a bad thing. YES I am DEAL with it!! How many friends do I have? Few. How often do I go to parties? Seldom to never. And this is by choice. I LOVE being alone. I just have an extroverted job that if I could change I would in a heartbeat! Sheesh. So yes this is a great read. I'll post more interesting quotes and examples as I go along.

I transfered the movie The First Easter Rabbit onto DVD the other day. Yeah I know. It's Halloween so why am I out of season watching Easter movies? I don't know. I tend to do out of season stuff all the time like that. Anyway this movie's never been on DVD and I want to put the VHS into storage. I made a few screen caps of the villain Zero. I always liked him. He's an ice guy that was pretty cool and funny. He's one of those creepy decrepit types too that I love so much. I was hoping I could make some into LJ Icons but nothing really worked. I've always loved this movie and didn't know until recently that it was by Rankin and Bass who did Frosty the Snowman, Santa, Rudolf and all the stop motion Christmas movies and my favorite The Easter Bunny Is Coming To Town. No wonder I love this movie. Most of their films are great.
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Chris and I went out in the afternoon. I wanted to go back to Barns and Nobel to look at some books that I wanted. They were in the bargin section. I've had my eye on How To Tell A Turtle From A Tortoise. Like I said before I know many of those differences when it comes to animals but there's also a section on plants I'm not to familiar with like the difference between Conifier, evergreen, decidious and broad leaf. Some of the exceptions are interesting. But what was really cool was that Chris found a copy of The Introvert Advantage. I've been watching a few Ebay auctions that had them but it's always best to pick up books locally if possible. So he got me both of those and they are now in my sidebar as that's my current reading material. I'm sick of my reading icon though. I just don't like the way Owen looks there. He looks aweful. So I'll have to redraw another one or find a suitable replacement from a show or movie I like.

I wanted to get a mint chocolate chip coffee and a sandwich at the Starbucks in the bookstore. I read the menu and ordered a ham sandwhich. The lady went to the back and told me she was out. Ok good thing I'd picked a second choice. So I ordered the turkey. All out of turkey as well. Third choice? Chris just asked her, "Well what do you have?" None of what they had appealed to me. So I decided to not have anything. Chris took me to Red Lobster where I ordered my favorite Rainbow Trout. "Sorry fresh out." The waiter says. WHAT THE HELL?!? Man, just my luck. But I did get my second choice and we had a fun coversation about the books we just got.

Then we went to some pumpkin patches. We went to this one church where we got the goose neck gourd last year. No gourds this time though. Chris took some pictures and film footage that I plan to make into a youtube video soon. Well I was going nuts running through all the pumpkins and laughing like a little kid. These three girls were working the register and one guy was there. I asked the guy how much the little pumpkins were and he said between a dollar to three dollars. He left and I noticed the girl were giving me that female scan stare down. They were jealous I was having so much fun and who knows what other stupid reason. I waved and smiled at them to piss them off further. I picked out one of the smallest ones there.



So I asked them how much for that one. Three bucks. I don't think so!! So which one's the dollar pumpkin? The microscpic one? Chris was getting the change out of the car but then I found the guy again and I showed him the pumpkin and go, "I'll take this one. It's really small. How much?"
He thought for a moment then said, "One dollar." HA!!! Chris paid him and we left. I held the pumpkin high in Statue of Liberty pose and sang loudly all the way to the car, "PUMPKIN PUMPKIN PUMPKIN!!" I pissed those girls off good. But some Christians trying to rip us off like that and getting all pissy over nothing. I showed them. I win again! The only disapointing thing was that that pumpkin patch didn't have gourds. No one has gourds this year and they were the ones that had the goose gourd last year.

Then on the way back we stopped by my old high school. Oh that was delightful and the lady running that pumpkin patch was much nicer. They had these neat warty pumpkins that were so ugly and unique I had to have one. Plus I wanted the money to go to my old school. I asked her if they'd have the Christmas trees this year and she said yes and if we came and mentioned we'd bought from the pumpkin patch that she'd give us a discount on the tree. AWESOME!! I always like to get the pumpkins and trees from there anyway as it goes to the school.



These are all the pumpkin we have, both fake and real. The two on the ends we'll make into pies when Alex and Kim come to vist. The little one is there too that I love some much. I'll save the seeds from that one.



Here's the warty one.



Here it is so you get an idea of the size. As you can see this isn't a good carving pumpking. I'll keep the seeds from this one too when it goes bad. It's so neat. The pumpkins I planted out in the raised beds have nearly all be destroyed. There are fewer bugs now that it's cooler so it's not bugs. They've been trampled and leaves have been pulled off. Sigh, I suspect a rabbit. Great that's just great! Grrr.

But yeah I've been having a great time despite the mammals or whatever is destroying my plants.
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It's really starting to feel like Fall down here. What do you guys think of my new banner? I'll be uploading a larger version of it on my website without the text. I like it a lot. The pumpkins don't look like they are floating anymore. But this one is much bigger than my last banner so I'm not used to it yet. Remember I don't handle change well. I like the way the light beams turned out. and I had fun cheating with the leaf brush on the tree. Hum I just thought of something that would be nice of LJ to do for paid accounts. Our page where we make entries should look like our journal. I want to have my banner at the top and my colors instead of this ugly bright white box to type in. That would be a nice feature.

Chris bought me the new Birds and Blooms issue. It's so nice with all the fall colors and decorations in it. We found some cheap pumpkin lanterns at CVS that I've hung from the kitchen lights. I'll have to take pics of that. I think I'm ready for something other than pumpkins for decorating the house now. I think a few ghosts hanging around would be nice. I went to Lowe's and can't believe they already have Christmas stuff out. It's not even Thanksgiving yet! Heck it's not even Halloween yet. It should be a law that they can't put Christmas stuff out in stores until Thanksgiving day. But I did see some neat things like these light up cardinals and a goose family you can put on your lawn.

Chris helped me weed out the hummingbird garden a little. It's going to be a big undertaking as it's been neglected for months since I hurt my knee. My knee is still not recovered, but it's better. I've been taking Glucosamine and Chondroitin tablets. I'm determined to work in the garden again even if only a tiny bit at a time. I forgot the fall plant sale was this last weekend. I thought it was this weekend. Aww nuts. But it's not like we could have bought anything so it's for the better. I would have seen too many things I wanted.

As far as writing goes I got a few sentences out today. I guess it just wasn't a day for writing. I had the urge but I was like Spongebob on Procrastination. Everything kept distracting me.
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I'm just going to put all this behind a cut because it's rather long.
( Fighting idiots on the same side as you )

EDIT: Oh almost forgot!! cheezey and thecrazyfox, I sent out your packages today. So be watching your mail boxes. Wow, it's already August. It's the last month of summer. I can't believe it. That's sad but at the same time I LOVE Fall. PUMPKIN SEASON!! Unfortuantely I'll have to buy pumpkins this year. I don't know if I'll be able to get any off my two vines that are left.
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The sunflowers are blooming so beautifully!! I really must take a picture of them tomorrow. Unfortunately my squash and zuccini are infested with melon worms. I'm going to have to mix up some Bt and spray them tomorrow. Bt is a spray of Bascillus spp. bacteria that is harmless to everything except caterpillars. I hate melon worms. These things were such a problem at the old house too. The first luffa on the fence is drying out. I think it will be ready to pick soon. I'm amazed how long the vine is getting. I see more female flowers so I hope I'll get more luffas out of it. The three ball luffa vines have gotten big. I hope they'll flower soon. And my normal luffas are just now starting to climb the fence. These are all so cool.

I've picked up a copy of Attenborough's new book Amazing Rare Things. I got it with the gift card my mother in law sent me. I've been wanting this book for a while. It's about the art of natural history from the age of exploration. That's one of my favorite time periods and loved the art from back then. It was beautiful yet unusual how people didn't quite see things right. Still they are identifiable. This is great for me because it's a book about biology, art and history all rolled into one on subjects that I love. I often wonder why no one draws this way anymore. I'd love to be able to color in that style.

I must say I am impressed with the picture I drew of Cope without his glasses. It actually has that Disney feel to it and if you didn't know better he looks like he popped out of a Disney film. That does make me feel proud. I tired to make it into a user pic but unfortunately it doesn't shrink well and you can't tell what's going on. I think I do need some new icons with Cope espcially of emotions I don't have yet. So the next step art wise is to ink the drawing of Wissen and Cope. If I get it done then perhaps I can even scan and start to color it. Good because I do want to draw other scenes from this RP, though I'm not entierly sure which parts yet.
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I was rather surprised at all the postive responses I recieved to my rant about the death of personal websites. I'm very glad that you guys all agree with me. Since I was thinking so much about it and my own site I finally got motivated to work on my site. Revamping my gallery is no easy feat. It's quite tedious but I forced myself to do it and am very proud that the first of three grids is done. Each page which has one table has thirty spaces for thumbnails of my art. They are in order by date with the newest first. So I'm a third of the way done. It's a good thing the template is the same for each page. I knew where to edit the html for each one. It was also really neat to see how my art has progressed since 1999. Yes 1999. Can you believe that Thagirion and Sorath are nine years old!?! And it was very cool to see how my art style and even writing style of my descriptions has improved over the years. I see I had a major lull from around 2002 to 2005 when I really started drawing my Thagirion Realm again. I hadn't stopped drawing. Around 2002-3 I was working on the art for Innocence Lost. I don't know what happened to me in 2004. I think I was doing SpongeBob art. But I know in 2005 when I got the wrestling game Day of Reckoning 2 that it rekindled my love of my original characters and that's when I started drawing my four bad boys and really developed my story. Been working on it ever since. But Owen was created in 1996!! That means he's twelve!! I'm truely amazed by that and have been remembering him in his first story/comic book ever.

This project has been very interesting and I'm determined to stick with it. The gallery I'm concentrating on is Thagirion's. But Owen has his own gallery and I'm really not sure how to go about reworking the layout. I'd like to have a gallery for him and a section on his history. Not just to talk about his background and personality but to talk about how I came up with everything about him and all the stories he's been in. I was thinking of having an image map with him standing on the left and on the right would be the links for the mainpage. Should I make it two sections? History and gallery? I wanted to make it three originally but can't think what the other one would be about. I've also decided that if Thagirion/Davon or Sorath/Solan is in the artwork it needs to go in Thagirion's gallery. But if Owen is alone or with the other characters then it should go in his gallery. I'm wide open to suggestions. I really don't know but until then I'll finish Thagirion's gallery first since I know what to do there already.

I've updated the sidebar. I took down the pumpkin book and added DS9 to the Watching section. I'm having a blast watching that series again. Gosh I love Odo! I should make some icons of him. I think Cheif O'Brian might be INTP. He kind of reminds me of Alex...he also reminds me of Charlie Brown but that's only because I drew him in that style once. And probably the yellow and black he wears.

We didn't get our return today and found out if we got our first return through direct deposite the second one would be coming in the mail. ARG! That sucks and is really stupid. They just want to slow it all down. Man that's annoying. Ok so I'll be checking my mail box everyday now instead of my bank account.

Oh going back to books. I'm starting to not like the AC/DC book I'm reading. The guy sided with Edison and bearly touched on Tesla. He's made Tesla look bad by conveniently leaving out important information. Like the fact that he quit working for Edison over not getting a bonus. Well what he didn't mention was that Edison asked Tesla to fix a ship for him that he couldn't do himself. He offered to pay him $50,000. It wasn't a bonus. Tesla did it in like 24 hours!! When he asked to be paid Edison refused, told him it was just a joke and accused him of not having an American sense of humor. But no, you can't mention that or it would make Edison look bad now can we? Wouldn't you quit for not getting paid for a 50k job? Who knows what that was back then counting inflation. I'm so glad I know the facts but I'll keep reading the book since there's still stuff I can learn from it. But I'll take it all in from now on with a bit of skepticism.
I haven't recieve an issue of Birds and Blooms or Birds and Blooms Extra in a long time. I wonder if my subscriptions ran out. They didn't mention anything about renewing. I'll have to call and ask what's going on.

I put an green English budgie in with Randy to keep him company. Hopefully that will calm him a little. He didn't get mad when I put him in like he did with his parents.

EDIT: I keep forgetting to do this!! I want to share with you all this awesome Gamma Ray song. It's called
To Mother Earth
The Lyrics are here.
Let me know if you download this what you think. It's off their new album Land of the Free II.
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Yesterday was our 12 year 2 month total anniversary and 3 year 10 month wedding anniversary. Chris took the day off so we could celebrate it. We took the pigeons to a five mile training toss. The three know these areas frontwards and backwards but I have my new bird with them. Out of four he's the only one that made it and he's doing well sticking with the flock and learning the lay of the land. Then we went into town to the feed store and picked up some much needed food for the budgies.

The day was sunny and bright. I went to my eye doctor to make an apointment for an eye exam because my contacts have been giving me problems. I'm hoping my eyes have changed for the better. I don't have any problems with my glasses so I never understand why contacts should change like that. I've handed out a few business cards so that's good. I need to make more. Chris is good at cutting those straight.

Then we went to Barns & Nobel and Chirs got me this cool book called Lion In The WhiteHouse. I can't wait to start reading it. It's about Teddy Roosevelt. The first paragraph is a quote from him that's halarious.

When I was four years old...I bit my sister's arm...I remember running down the yard, perfectly conscious that I had committted a crime. From the yard I went into the kitchen, got some dough from the cook, and crawled under the kitchen table. In a minute or two my father entered from the yard...My father immediately dropped on all fours and darted for me. I feebly heaved the dough at him, and, having the advantage of him because I could stand up under the table, got a fair start for the stairs, but was caught half-way up them. The punishment that ensued fitted the crime, and I hope - and beilve - that it did me good.

That's halarious. I can imagine him throwing the dough at his father. Teddy was a smart man. He knew that if you did something wrong, doesn't matter if you're sorry or not, you need to be punished for it. I think this is going to be a fun book to read. So after that we went to CVS to pick up some supplies and found an unexpected surprise. They had Kaiju figures there. We got the one of Destroyah. She's on my monitor now. It felt really strange buying kaiju figures again. We haven't done that in years.

The rest of the day we spent at home working on projects. I worked on the arbor which is really coming along and Chris worked on some new shelves for the DVDs.



I have now finished the arch and put all the rungs on it. Isn't that cool? We started laughing last night because I yelled at one point, "Where's my tape mearsure!?!" Usually it's the husband yelling, "Where are my tools? Who touched my tools?" But we aren't a typical couple and all the tools in the garage are mine. But I let Chris use them of course. It was just a funny observation.



Here it is from the front. It finally stands because I put the sides on it too. Now all that's left is to paint it, add the lattice and then put the arch on it. I can't wait. But I still have to buy the lattice.



While I was doing that Chris was working on his shelves.



Here they are complete. There's one problem we don't like though. They sag forward and the DVDs look like they could slide out any moment. I have no idea what to do. We leveled it and it seems the wall is what's off. He's going to try a longer L bracket in the middle. I hope that will work but I have not idea what to do in a situation like this. I want this to work because this takes up less space than the ugly bookshelves we had.
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Eep, I'm two days behind. Hehe, I've been meaning to type an update it's just when I finally have free time it's bedtime and I'm pooped. This also happens when I start reading a good book. I read during my computer time. More on that in a little. I've made a new icon and I love it. It's a bunch of birdhouse gourds, jellies and birdhouses from the little road side stand in Georgia. It's one of my favorite scenes in the video I made and thought it would be a nice icon for gardening or an all purpose icon. BTW, I only got one response about my video. I worked long and hard on it, please I'd love to hear what you guys thought.

Chris took the day off Sunday and it was very nice and relaxing. We went to the farmers market and they still had those little baseball sized pumpkins. I always looked at them when I drove by and I finally had to have them. They were very cheap and Chris got me two.



Pumpkins for St. Patrick's Day we called them. I was soo happy. I love the idea of pumpkins in the off season. What's neat is that pumpkins are a winter squash so they are what is called a long keeper. If you don't cut them and keep them in a cool dry place they last months. I wanted them for the seeds. I am going to try pumpkins again this year. I've got a bit of a plan. There is one rare varaiety that grows down here called the Seminole Pumpkin. They are small, tan pumpkin like squash. I want to try and cross them with a pie pumpkin and try to breed color into them, roundness and resistance to ultra heat and humidity. If I can do that. Provided I can get the pie pumpkins to the flowering stage for thier pollen (though I'd like to try and cross both ways) then perhaps it would work and I could establish the line and name a new fruit after myself. That would be so cool.

Then we went to the bookstore. All the books that had been there before that I really wanted were gone. D'oh! There was hardly anything left. But I did find one called The female Brain. This isn't a femenist book. I could never read that garbage. It's based on nerobiology, real science, to explain how females are wired. I'm not a typical female. Never have been and because I'm more like a male I don't totally understand why women are the way they are. I'm hoping this book will talk about the few rare cool females out there too. But I have been enjoying it so far. Mostly I find myself saying, "Nope. Not me. I didn't do that. Not for me. I don't."

Yesterday was amazing!! I took the doves out to the 20 mile release point for the first time at the botanical garden. I spoke to one of the employess and I gave her my card. There just happened to be a minister there and I showed them one of the doves. I gave him a card as well. He was very happy to hear about wedding doves. Then these ladies came up and they were interested in a wedding. Gosh did I get there at the right time or what? So I gave them a card. I told them I'd do a demonstration for them. So we went out to the pavillion and I explained what doves represent, the boxes I use for them, and how the homing ability works. All the volunteers there wanted to watch too so I had about 20 people watching my speech some sitting in golf carts. I felt like I was teaching at Mosi gain. Then I let the doves go and everyone loved it. My friend who's the wedding coordinator wasn't there but she should be today. So I'm going to take the doves out again so see can see them and for their second training there.

I'm thrilled with how many cards I handed out. I made them on my printer and would like to get some professionally printed at Kinkos soon. So the next plan is to pass out cards to churches. But I don't want to have just Christan customers. I want to get as wide a spectrum as I can. I know Buddists and some of the Asian cultures have a cerimonial bird release too. I need to find out where these temples are. Unfortunately they don't list them in phonebooks like they do churches. I'll have to ask around. I also need to find out if there are bridal stores in this area. I know where they are in my old town so I know what to hit there but I don't want to advertise there yet since the birds have only flown from 20 miles once. I also need to start building my website.

My last two youngest fliers are timid and it's beginning to irritate me. I have to throw them into the air to get them to join the flock and they don't always do that. Sometimes they'll go up then land on the roof then hang out. I'm thinking of forcing them to fly by taking them to 3/4 mile tosses with the experienced birds. This will build up their muscles and force them in the air longer. Plus at 3/4 miles they can still see the house and not get lost. I hope. So I have another busy dove day today.

OH btw, the hurt pigeon I've named Winger. He's got a royal blue bandage on this time. I'll take pics soon. The vet decided to leave it on another weak in case he picks at his stiches.
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Yesterday was a fun day. I let the baby pigeons out for their first flight and they did well. Since it was their first time they didn't do much as I expected but that's how they start. Today the weather is much better so I'll see if they stay out longer. But having two teams of birds is a bit confusing and I still don't know how to go about training them. Yesterday I let the experienced fliers out first and they flew. Then once they landed I let the young ones out to join them on the roof. I don't think I should do it the other way around since I don't want the young birds trying to follow the older ones and getting lost as the stronger birds go too far away. But I'm thinking today I should let the young birds out by themselves. Eh, I don't know yet. I'm learning as I go here.

Chris worked in the morning then took half the day off. That was very nice because it's been a long time since we've done something together and we needed it. We went back into town to Barns & Noble and I finally got that pumpkin book I've been wanting. Backyard Giants by Susan Warren. Check out my sidebar I just updated it. I'm already on Chapter 4 and it's very interesting and fun. This book gives me the impression that it's a combination of The Big Year because of the competion factor between a bunch of guys. Gotta love male competition. And The $64 Tomato because of the humor and that it follows one family going to great lengths to get their garden right. It's a true story about the Wallace father and son team as they try to break the world record for heaviest pumpkin in the world for 2006. It's amazing that the record is broken almost every year. I have a feeling I will finish this book quickly. I don't know why some books are easier to read than others. I love the stories in The Jungle Books but I'm having such a hard time getting through it.

We went to Citrus mall and didn't do much there. Sometimes when we get free time we don't know what to do with it. But I had to get a seam ripper and there was a Joann Fabrics across the street. I HATE sewing stores. I can't imagine it as a hobby and I avoid it as much as possible unless I like a shirt so much I have to patch it then I know just enough to make a knot and close a hole. My mother used to drag me to those stores and spent so much time in them. It was torture. So I thought this would be a quick in out thing since I only needed one cheap thing. Well when we walked in I was surprised to see gardening stuff and decorations and art supplies on the walls as well. GASP!!! It was set up just like a Michael's!! I knew right away this would take much longer than I thought but in a good way. I headed to the boring sewing section first got my thing then went nuts looking at everything. There were Easter decorations everywhere. I wanted them all!! Oh such pretty things. They had Double shepheards poles for birdfeeders, metal rings for dream catchers, pens, pencils, paints, cute wooden boxes, stamps, stickers EEP!! I became a giddy kid running through all the isle geting ideas for projects. I hate when you can't aford everything you want.

BUT Chris was a sweet heart and he did buy me some things. I got a box of green Peep Chicks. I thought they were perfect for St. Patrick's Day then I can get other colors for Easter. I didn't see any blue ones though and I got worried. They can't get rid of blue. They just can't. And they seriously need to bring back white. That has to be the cheapest to make. No need to color the sugar. And he got me a set of four cute chicks with different colored bows and a big fuzzy yellow chick.



Isn't he adorable? What I liked is that he was huge!! I've seen the little tiny ones but this one was like four inches tall. When I was a kid they used to make pink and blue ones in the small half inch size. They were always rare even back then. I only see the yellows now. I wish I hadn't lost my set of blues and pinks. They were so pretty.



And here's that set of Chicks. I love that each one has a color: Green, Blue, Purple and Pink. And that each one is doing something different. They were so cute. Oh and so many things were on sale at 30-40% off. I want to get some of the giant windchimes they had.

The day cleared up and we ended the day by both of us reading our books in bed together. Time very well spent I say.

EDIT: Oh and I inked the first page of the Owen drawing. Two to go then I can put it all together in photoshop.
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