mistressofmuses

It's been a little bit. Have some pics of some creatures.


Bella yearns for apples.

(From back when I was trying to slowly work up to more solid food, ha.)

Pictures of Bella, Berry Mad, Guava Splash, Ripley, and Jaspurr:

Bella watches the Westminster Dog Show.

(The American Kennel Club does not recognize the American Pit Bull Terrier as a breed, which is why Bella does her FastCAT and other titles under the "All American Dog" category. American Staffordshire Terrier is the closest to her breed.)


Majestic.


Cozy.


Berry Mad has turned her entire pond into her personal mud puddle.


Guava Splash!


Watching you.


Ripley the garter snake!


Ripley says :P


And Jaspurr! No one will out-comfy him.

In unrelated news, I did not dodge the cough. :( I hoped I was in the clear, because Alex was coughing by day three or four. After a week, I figured I was safe... but day nine? I think? brought the cough, which has only gotten worse today.

But in surgery recovery, the scabs and all their accompanying glue are finally gone! Incision sites are still quite tender, but seem to be healing up really well. I've had occasional twinges in my lower right abdomen (where my appendix was), but very slight and pretty infrequent, so nothing I'm too worried about.

Right now I really just wish the cold and accompanying cough would go away! I thought I was on the mend on Thursday, when I woke up still sick, but feeling much better than previous days... but alas, it was a false alarm, and I was back to crappy yesterday and today, but with extra cough! It's been kicking my ass, and I've been struggling to do much of anything the last several days. I'll try to get caught back up here as soon as I can.

I doubt I'll end up doing all the snowflake_challenge posts this year, but here's an easy one!

As if I need an excuse to post pet pics. :)

So here are the critters, ringing in the new year (ish).


Belladonna! (She really does still have ears, I promise.)


Summer "Berry Mad" Refresher, the Woodhouse's toad, dug down into a hole.


Guava Splash Electrolyte, my very chubby little chorus frog.


(This picture is from Alex.) It's Clickbait, the katydid! I am *blown away* (and delighted) that we still have a living katydid into the new year.

Bonus pet:


Jaspurr, my mom and younger sibling's cat.

(Not pictured: Ripley, my mom and younger sibling's garter snake. I don't have any new pictures of her since last time.)

Kind of a catch-all post!

Alex had an MRI last week. This was to try and find out exactly what's going on in his neck, causing a lot of pain and occasional numbness. The results came in quite quickly. Basically they all validate "yup, this shit is fucked." I think that's the official medical terminology. Pretty much every individual vertebra has problems of some kind, though some are only "mild," though most are "moderate" with a few "severe." Pretty much what Alex was expecting, but it is a bit vindicating to have the thing that says "yes, medically, this stuff is just so fucked up."

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Greenbean II (one of the katydids) passed away yesterday. She made it quite a bit longer than either of our katydids from last year did, and longer than Three. She also left behind many eggs, so we'll see if we can get another generation.

Clickbait is still going pretty strong. I'm impressed! Fingers crossed that he keeps wanting to eat his beans and make noise at every crinkling package in the kitchen.

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I am still struggling post time-change. I don't know why I've had such a bad time adjusting this year! I'm still getting tired an hour "early" at night. This mostly gets frustrating because the end of the night is when I try to get my reading done, and so currently I've been reading more slowly than I was, because I fall asleep instead. Getting off of work after it's already been dark for an hour+ also sucks.

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I did start kind of looking at my TBR list for next year (and the rest of this year). I've got nine books that I'd really like to finish by the end of the year, though we'll see if I can manage it.

For next year, my initial tentative goal is to read 50 books. I've managed more than that this year, and it'd be great if I could do it again!

More specifically, my goal is to get through some of the “classics” that I feel I *should* have read, and then put off reading out of misplaced guilt over not having read them yet, because anxiety is stupid: The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, Ursula K Le Guin, and Terry Pratchett. The Hobbit/LotR is technically a reread, but I barely remember my first read through and I didn't enjoy it. For UKLG I planned to start with the Earthsea stories, and for PTerry I planned to start with the Watch books.
I also want to read the queer-themed ebooks from the charity bundle I purchased.
I also want to read the Up and Under novellas.
I also want to reread the Murderbot Diaries in preparation for the new one that comes out in May.

Then I actually did the math on that list: 4 Tolkien + 7 Earthsea + 8 Watch + 14 queer ebooks + 4 Up and Under + 8 Murderbot (including the new one) + 4 new releases for ongoing series that will be coming out next year = 49 books. So. Only one other TBR book for the whole year, if I'm aiming for 50??? (Not even taking into account any books I read with Alex or Taylor, or any of my "brain candy" side reads.)

Oof. Gotta realign some of those expectations.

Currently my plan is to prioritize LotR and the Murderbot reread. For the queer ebooks, the UKLG books, and the Terry Pratchett books I will make sure they're in a regular rotation of the TBR list, but I'm not going to worry about whether I get through all of those within the course of the year. Time is fake; as much as I like having a nice even spot (like the new year) to wrap something up and start something new, it's not illegal for me to carry my same goals forward into 2027.

Assuming we're all still here and not in a smoking crater, ha.

Part two of the monthlyish pet pics! This time devoted to the coldblooded vertebrates.

This time we have:

Berry Mad!


In her most fashionable hat!

(You can see right in front of her that she has started to dig the water out of her pond to make mud for herself. Previously, she would push her dirt into the pond to make mud, but apparently this year, she has decided she likes this way better.)

Four more pictures of Berry Mad:

Sittin' in her plant.


Not the clearest, but 'tis the time of year where she starts to burrow.


Toad? What toad? I don't see a toad.


Buried in her self-made mud. But then I dumped crickets in, and she immediately sat up, haha.

Guava Splash!


So small it makes me want to cry.

Three more pictures of Guava Splash:

(This picture is from Alex. Showing off the other side of the tiniest frog.)


So small.


This picture is from just yesterday. Tiny frog is looking a little chubby!
(Which is actually a relief... I was worried about getting something so small to eat enough to stay healthy.)

And mom and Taylor's garter snake, who has been named Ripley!

(Ripley, because she looks "ripple-y" when she moves, but also because Alien is great.)


She's so cute. She likes her little plant.

Just one more of Ripley:

I love her and her cute little face.

A nice dietary supplement over the summer for the toad and frog is caterpillars from my mom's garden. Both Berry Mad and Guava Splash seem very excited for caterpillars. Berry Mad is excited about anything that moves and might fit in her face, but Guava Splash is significantly more excited for caterpillars than the usual fruit flies.

Berry Mad:


The target.

Three more pictures of toad vs. caterpillar:

Target locked!


Chomp!


Delicious!

Guava Splash:


The target.

Three more pictures of tiny frog vs. caterpillar:

Target locked!


Chomp!


Delicious! (Love the tiny bit of caterpillar sticking out.)

His liver function is good, so he gets to stay on his pain meds!

His thyroid is a little low, but barely outside of normal range.

His kidney function is not as good. It's not dangerous, but his creatine is elevated. It's around a 2.5 when it should be down in the .5 to around 1 range. According to the vet, 10+ is when you're approaching kidney failure territory.

Monday or Tuesday we'll stop back by the vet to get some samples of kidney diet food, and see if we can find one that he likes. The vet said she also has a home-feeding recipe for a kidney-friendly diet, so I'll get that, too. (We haven't ever found a commercial dog food that the dogs do very well on, so we do make their food. Though if Cy likes any of the foods we get samples of, that may be what we go with for him.) Fortunately, it is something we can try to adjust his diet to help with.

I am not terribly surprised about him having kidney issues. The mystery illness he had many years ago absolutely had kidney involvement along with everything else, and we suspected at the time that there would be lasting damage. We avoided any high-protein foods, but it's likely that we now need to actually start aiming for low-protein for him.

Had a good birthday! :)


Here is Berry Mad lurking in her pool.

The weather was nice enough to be outside, so we went to the neighborhood park to let the dogs go for a walk. Cy was surprisingly enthusiastic and made it all the way around half of the park without even seeming tired!

This is still false spring. We may be looking at some terrible weather again by the end of the week, and almost certainly next week. Enjoying it while it lasts, though! The trees have buds! Not leafing out yet, but... soon!

Some robins:

A pair of robins in a crabapple tree.


Another robin!

We have robins around basically all year, but start seeing more as spring approaches. They're cheerful looking and sounding, and I like seeing them.

Then we dropped Cy at home, since he does not like being in the car for long, and does definitely get tired more easily. After that, we went back out to Pelican Pond to walk around there for a bit.

We didn't actually make it very far around, because Bella didn't seem to feel very well. Probably a quarter mile or so before turning around, so a half mile ish. I think she was just tired, and she was fine after we got home and she took a power nap, haha.

The water was pretty low. Lots of different ducks and other water birds, plus many turtles!


A turtle on the shore, and crows playing in the air!

Some more turts:

Turtles on a free-floating log! And seagulls on the island.


The turtle on shore. Definitely watching me very closely, but didn't dart away the way they usually do.

Later in the afternoon we went over to my mom and Taylor's. My mom made me a peach pie. <3

(For gifts, I got books, haha. Of course! I tried to limit myself to asking for things that I knew were going to be on my TBR list, but that I just didn't own yet, so I'm trying very hard not to add to the enormous list!

I got Installment Immortality, which will jump the line to be my next read after the current one is done. I also got The Left Hand of Darkness, since it was not included in the UKLG ebooks, and is one I know I want to read; The Count of Monte Cristo because I did not ever have to read it for school, and Taylor says it is very, very good, but oh man, 1300 pages; Bury Your Gays, because of course; and House of Leaves because it seems to be such a unique reading experience, and has a lot of impact on like, meta storytelling type stuff, even if people are divided on how much they like the work itself, and I love weird architectural horror.)


And we got to see and play with Jaspurr. He's so cute and sweet!

Still dealing with the remnants of the cold, but I think I lucked out on missing the worst of it. I've had coworkers sick for weeks, out for days at a time. I'm mildly miserable, and so extremely tired of blowing my nose, but still functional... I tried to do without any meds for the last day two days, but I don't think I'm quite there yet. Back to the day/nyquil.

Dog tetris.


A little Bella face.

While Alex and I were out shopping for some Xmas stuff earlier in the month, we found a fairly inexpensive dog bed. Cy loves beds, and while he has a nice memory foam one, he used to have a softer one to layer on top of it. (That one was unfortunately ruined some time ago.)


It seems like a winner.


So cozy!


(Alex took this picture.) Bella seems to like it, too!

A couple months ago, Berry Mad started getting really restless in her terrarium. Trying to climb the walls, flinging herself against them, leaping end to end, filling her pond with substrate...


Here she is, perched on top of her hide, staring wistfully out the window.

One day I looked in and couldn't find her... because she had in fact completely buried herself.

Now, this would be the right time for a hibernating species to start doing that... but I'd really prefer that she not do that. (Mainly because I know that sometimes coming out of hibernation is a struggle.)

I picked up a bigger terrarium from storage at my mom's, hoping that a little more space would make her happier. We also moved the new habitat nearer to the plant light, so that she'd get more "daylight," in case it was the shorter sunlight at the north-facing window that was triggering it. That also pulls her away from the window, in case it was getting cold there overnight, even though it's pretty warm in the apartment.


...And she immediately burrowed again.

I'm not sure that she is actually trying to hibernate. There are lots of species of toads - including Woodhouse's - that tend to burrow year-round. Our previous Woodhouse's toad didn't ever have an inclination to burrow, preferring a sideways flowerpot as a shelter, but maybe Berry Mad just feels differently.

For a while she was coming out pretty regularly, every couple of days to soak in the pond for a bit and re-burrow somewhere else.



...But we haven't seen her come out for a while now.

A week or so ago, Alex asked if he thought we should dig her up to check on her, but I was able to look in the "entrance" of her current burrow and she was just staring at us, so we didn't disturb her. Now she's moved the burrow and I can't look in, but I assume she's still doing all right.

I'd like proof that she was eating something, though. I've dumped crickets in there, but I don't know if they've just found good hiding spots or if she's eaten them, ha.

Mostly I just feel really behind. The whole *gestures* everything with the election makes it hard to want to do or say much of anything, but I'm trying to get back to doing... something. Catching up here. Writing something.

My break from work was sort of a nothing span of time. We did almost nothing in terms of "going out to do things" and I did almost nothing in terms of "productive personal projects that would have been worthwhile uses of the time."

I spent a couple nights hanging out with Taylor, Sunday (Oct 27th) through Tuesday (Oct 29th). That was fun.

Unfortunately, that Sunday night, Cy started really having a hard time walking. Just about as bad as the first time we'd taken him to the emergency vet. I wasn't home, but Alex was extremely worried. He did start to slowly improve after that, though! Alex was concerned that maybe he'd had a stroke, because his balance was so bad, and he only wanted to turn to the left. I'm more inclined to think it was still just pain, and that moving right was more painful. He wasn't *incapable* of turning the other direction; just reluctant to. He's been continuing to get better, and was back to wanting to run and play by the end of the week, but it was a bad couple of days.

That same Sunday night into Monday, the first katydid, Greenbean, died. :( I knew that late-October - mid-November was about the longest I could expect to have them, but it was still sad to have him go. It's about a month longer than he likely would have lived in the wild, and he overcame that terrible probable-poisoning, and seemed to have a happy month with us, judging by his enthusiastic clicking and eating of green beans.

I miss the clicking. :(

That Tuesday (the 29th), we did our one "go out and do things," which was going to a haunted house. It was fun, though I feel like Alex always goes through them faster than I want to! But there were a lot of cool sets and fun costume pieces. There were two houses: one was nautical-themed and one was more traditional haunted house. Both were neat, but the second one felt a bit more engaging, like it was just better established, maybe. It was a good time, and I'm glad we went.

Halloween itself was kind of a bummer, just in terms of how little we did, but it wasn't *bad.*

Friday (Nov 1st) we did a big grocery trip, but Alex started feeling sick partway through, so I wound up doing most of it solo.

Saturday (Nov 2nd) was a model show. We'd spent much of the week leading up to it doing prep for that, as this one was focused on collectibility (so emphasis on things like age/rarity/condition) rather than the shows we usually go to, where the focus is more on realism. The show... did not go terribly well for us, haha. Not a lot of winners, though the show itself was good. Two of the few winning horses we had were my two from the last couple years of "NaMoPaiMo" - my wisteria stained-glass styled horse (who got second in her class) and my art-deco peacock horse (who got first in his!) I was quite happy about that.
My mom kindly watched the dogs, even though it meant barricading part of her house off so that the cat wouldn't have to see the dogs at all.

Sadly also on Saturday, the second katydid, Moodring, passed away. We suspected it was coming, as she was suddenly eating far less, and then on Friday night she didn't want to move when I got into her cage to swap out her food. :(

RIP, my katydids. I'm glad we had you for a little while, and I hope it was a decent life of green beans and no predators. I miss the clicking.

We are left with somewhere around 30 or more katydid eggs, as Moodring just kept laying them. I don't know how many of them are viable (if any), as the two weren't housed together for very long. There are a few obvious "duds" - ones that are small and dark, obviously different than the bigger, smoother tan ones... but whether they're *actually* fertilized or not, I don't know. We'll keep an eye on them and figure out what to do if we DO wind up with a bunch of katydid nymphs.

Time change has not been terribly kind to me. I am definitely feeling the impact from having it get dark so early.

The election happened on Tuesday and was a bit of a dismal, miserable shock. I still don't have anything better or more meaningful to say about it. I am still afraid of what will be coming.

The return to work was mostly fine, except that now it's dark by the time I leave, which is tough. One of my work friends (our lead instructor) had to go on surprise leave to take care of his father.

We had a major winter storm come through starting on Thursday. It snarled local roads a lot less significantly than expected (Friday night and Saturday morning were supposed to be basically impossible to navigate, but thankfully we did not actually have any trouble.) The storm total by the airport came in at 20", so it was a pretty significant storm! I was super concerned about the potential for broken branches; with the unseasonably warm weather we've had, lots of trees are still leafed out, and I was afraid the snow would break many of them. Also surprisingly less of a problem than I'd expected!

We had a weird power outage on Friday night. Our bathroom light, bedroom light/fan, microwave, and dishwasher stayed on. Everything else, from outlets to stove to other lights, all went out. We messed with the breakers for a good five or ten minutes before we realized that the lights in the apartment hallways were on their emergency power, so it wasn't just us. The parking lot lights were also out. The street lamps were on, but the traffic signals were out. I've never had something like that happen - as far as I knew, all our power to the building came from the same source, and in the past a power outage has knocked everything out, not left a handful of lights and appliances somehow working.

I haven't wanted to write anything much since the election news, though that'll be its own post, probably.

About the only good thing has been reading. I finished Acceptance and have started Absolution.

This "weekend" I decided to get my covid and flu vax out of the way, while we're still allowed to. The pharmacist who did them for me was great - whichever he did first I almost didn't feel at all, and the second only stung a bit. They haven't knocked me down quite as badly as all the previous covid shots have, but I've still felt under the weather yesterday and today. I'm hopeful I feel a bit better tomorrow when I'm back at work, but shouldn't be so sick I can't tough it out.

Unless of course, I'm just also getting sick. I've felt crappy for much of the week, with intermittent sore throat, but mostly just tiredness. That's worse today, but I'm hoping its just my usual side-effects. I've been falling asleep by 8:00 on some nights, but am still exhausted when I get up the next day. Is it getting sick, or just the depression? I can't quite tell.