I'm really tired. I haven't gotten any decent amount of sleep all week, and I didn't sleep at all last night =P. I wanted to go over to Rin's to see baby rats after she gets off work tonight, but I don't know if I'll be able to stay up that long. And if I go to sleep now, I'll probably sleep right through till tomorrow. Plus it's storming, and I can never fall asleep when it's storming =P.

On the plus side, I just spent an hour sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor (it still looks terrible, but that's because the linoleum is scratched and chipped XD), and I suddenly realized last night that Churro's babies would need to be separated starting this coming Wednesday (lest we have any MORE unplanned pregnancies), so I finally cleaned and sanitized my smaller cage so it could be used to house the boys.

And that was all terribly boring, but I'm very, very tired and it's pouring rain outside and oh shit, I just realized I left my cell phone in my room, and I had the alarm set, and it's probably going off and driving the rats bonkers XD. Damn.

Rin and I had to wake up early today to take Churro and her babies to the vet, because one of the babies had an eye infection of some kind. We didn't go to the vet clinic that I usually go to, since they didn't have any available appointments until Thursday, so we ended up going to the clinic where Rin's parents take their pets. They were, uh...kind of inexperienced with rats. The vet was asking us basic questions like: 'How long do domestic rats usually live?' and 'How soon can they start reproducing?' Um. The vet was really nice, though. I liked him a lot more than I like most of the other vets I've seen. The clinic was in a slightly more rural area, so I'm sure they don't see a lot of rats (at least not domestic ones XD), especially not three-and-a-half week old babies. The important thing is, Rin got some some antibiotic ointment to put on the poor baby's eye. Hopefully that'll clear up the infection. *fingers crossed*

Also, I finished Wake up, Sir! in record time. Well, not really XD. I read it all in one night (3+ hours, not including the time I spent trying not to read it XD), because every time I put it down for five seconds, I immediately picked it up again as if driven by some bizarre compulsion XD. Then when I finally finished the book, I had to repress the urge to immediately start reading it all over again (I settled for re-reading a few of my favorite parts XD). That rarely happens to me. In fact, I think it's happened maybe once before this. It's too bad I'm terrible at explaining why enjoy most of the books I really enjoy XD. If I tried, it'd probably come out sounding like a grade-school book report. All I can say is, the main character (Alan) is undeniably human (and therefore undeniably flawed), and the book is funny and touching and horrifying and it contains Jeeves. Or, a Jeeves, at any rate.

On a completely unrelated note, Gamestop is now bundling Nintendo Wiis with rubber duckies, and water guns. XD What.

So, a couple weeks ago, I got an email notice from the public library saying that I hadn't returned a book that I'd checked out. I sent an email notice saying that I had indeed returned it, and could you please check again (after searching my room, just to be sure), to which I received no reply. Then, a few days ago, I got an overdue notice via snail mail, saying that the same freaking book was overdue. So I searched again, in all the places in my room where I have ever kept library books. Then I called the library, and then told me that they'd searched for the book, and they couldn't find it, so I must have it. So I searched again. I tore my room apart looking for it. I called again, and they said that they had searched everywhere it could possibly be, and if I wanted to check out any more books, I needed to come in and pay the $32.00 to replace the book.

Finally, today, my mom and I went in to the library to have someone come with us to look, or to pay to replace the book. The employee from the reference desk accompanied me to the proper section, and after looking at the shelves for about three seconds I found the book. Right where it was supposed to be. *FACEPALM*

I understand that it's hard to keep track of the thousands of books that are in the library, but when you tell me that you've looked everywhere for the book that I supposedly neglected to return, I expect you to have actually bothered to look somewhere for it! Grr.

On the plus side, while I was at the library, I spotted Wake up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames on the 'Summer Reading' display, and suddenly remembered that I'd been meaning to read it forever XD. I've only read a few pages so far, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it XD

I hate it when people try to talk to me when I'm reading. Just because I happen to be reading in a public place, it doesn't mean I'm secretly longing for someone to walk up and engage me in conversation. Especially not if said conversation centers mostly on the subject of your upcoming appointment to your church's council of elders or whatever. I'm sure the minutiae of the inner workings of your church are just fascinating, random guy, but so is Wodehouse. Which is why I keep casting longing glances at the open book on the picnic table in front of me. LEAVE ME ALONE. AND STOP STEALING MY CHIPS.

Next time, I'm bringing my iPod. At least then, if someone tries to talk to me, I can just pretend I can't hear them XD.

They also all have definite genders now, thanks to the discovery of the girls' tiny nipples XDD. The final count is 6 boys and 2 girls, unless someone randomly swaps genders on us XD.

Cricket's babies don't quite have fur yet, but they do have fuzz (although, because most of them are so dark colored, they look like they're covered in fur. One of her babies (a male, I think), who Rin and I call "the metal pup" because he's "blacker than the blackest black times infinity" (Metalocalypse reference? Anyone? XD) is one of the hairiest looking rats I've ever seen. He's got black fuzz/pigment covering his legs all the way down to his toes (and even on his toes, on a couple of his feet). It looks like he's wearing armwarmers XD.

( My metal pup, let me show you him... )

More pictures here.

I haven't been taking a lot of pictures of my rats lately. Mostly because neither of my rats stick around when they hear my digital camera turn on XD. Especially poor Milo, who runs for cover if he even sees it lying around my room XD.

So, When I tried to take pictures of Churro and Cricket's babies yesterday, I realized I'd completely forgotten how to use my digital camera (not that I ever knew how to use it that well in the first place XD). It took me a few minutes just to remember how to turn the flash off. It turns out there was a button which was clearly labeled with the 'flash' symbol which I had been staring at on my screen for five minutes XD I just had to press it twice. Duhr, Bri-chan.

Anyway, here's some adorable baby rats, and their mothers, and some random humans who just happened to be passing by or something ;D.

( Lots and lots of pictures under the cut )

And now, I'm off to waste time on the internet clean the kitchen!

So, a couple weeks ago, my friend Rin had to have her two rats, Devi and Fizzgig put to sleep (Man, this had just been the month for putting rats to sleep, hasn't it? =P). A week later (I think?) we went looking for a couple more ratties for her, and ended up getting a couple of girls, whom she ended up naming Churro and Cricket. Fastforward a bit, I'm over at her place, playing with the ratties, and I notice that Churro seems a bit pudgier than is normal. I sort of half-jokingly suggest she might be pregnant. The next day, Rin calls me and asks me to come over, because she thinks Churro really might be pregnant. I come over and look, and I'm pretty sure she's pregnant, but not really positive.

The next day, Churro has babies. XD.

( Eight adorable, hairless, pink, little babies )

Two days later, Rin calls me again, and she wants me to come over because she thinks her other rat, Cricket, might be pregnant XD. So, I go over and check and Cricket is rather obviously pregnant (at least it was obvious after having seen another pregnant rat so recently XD). Fastforward another couple of days, and I get a call from Rin, saying her mom had left her a voicemail saying that Cricket had had her babies while she was at work, so she comes to pick me up and we drive to her house and check on Cricket and sure enough, she's had her babies.

Eight of them. XD

Geez. XD Fortunately, Rin's already got a few coworkers and such who might take a few of the babies, I'm probably taking a couple, she's keeping a couple (probably one girl from each mother). We're still going to have to place a few newspaper/craigslist ads, or put up signs or something to find good homes for them all (with the emphasis on good and homes). In the meantime, we get to enjoy playing with adorable baby rats! XD.

So...It's not a tumor. When I checked on Pickwick on Saturday night, the lump under her chin was completely gone, and in it's place was a rather large scab. So, either I was right all along and it was an abscess or infection of some kind, or it was a cyst (which the vet suggested it could be). I still think abscess, because of the smell. I just gave her a bath last night and she already smells again (and it's not because I need to clean her cage, I swear XD. I did that last night, too). I'm very relieved, but also very annoyed with the vet who saw her, because I asked him point blank if he thought it was an infection of some sort, I told him about the smell, and he said 'no, no, I'm almost certain it's a tumor.' Grr. I know diagnosing the problem is hard, especially in animals, who can't tell you exactly what they're feeling, but...I'm just really pissed off that I've been spending time that could've been spent actually treating the problem wondering if I was going to be able to pay for surgery that would supposedly save my pet's life.

On the bright side, IT'S NOT A TUMOR! Which is the best news I've had in awhile. =D Pickwick's still eating (she loves banana baby food. I can't understand why...it smells disgusting and nothing at all like bananas XD), she still likes to come out of her cage, run around for a while, then fall asleep in a corner, and she seems pretty happy, considering.


In My-computer-really-sucks-can-I-have-a-new-one-please news, The power supply exploded. Like, literally. XD It was just a tiny explosion, but you could smell the burning plastic/rubber/whatever throughout the entire house. Dad bought a new one, but he couldn't find any higher-wattage PSUs that would actually fit inside our crappy little Gateway. And it turns out the problem wasn't a virus, or the graphics card, but the motherboard. Yippee. Part of the problem was probably that everything was so clogged with dust (seriously, I dusted everything with a can of air, and the entire dining room was shrouded in a haze of dust for a minute or two XDD). So, from now on, I'm taking it upon myself to clean out the computer tower once in a while. Which I should have been doing before, but I didn't realize how fucking dusty our house is. Plus I can never get the door of the case back on after I've taken it off XD.

Also, my Mom is freaking awesome. When we came back from seeing a movie yesterday (Angels and Demons, if you were curious, which I doubt you were), there were a couple of Jehovah's witnesses walking down the other side of the street, and my mom asked my brothers and I (all three of us are either agnostic or an atheist) if we ever really let the Jehovah's witnesses have it (re: religion and God(s) and our non-belief in it/them) when they came to the door XD. She seemed to find the idea really amusing XD. Of course, these were Jehovah's witnesses we're talking about, but every time my or one of my brothers' non-belief has come up, she's been really cool about it. I don't know what her (or my Dad's) personal beliefs are, but since we haven't been to church since my confirmation, I have to wonder.

Anyway, I'm going to go see if I can get the lady who's been yelling into her cellphone in the middle of the street for the past ten minutes to kindly shut the fuck up, plzkthnx.

Pickwick has a tumor. I noticed that her lower jaw looked swollen on Tuesday, but I couldn't really do anything about it because I had no money. Fortunately, Rin (who is an awesome friend who I mooch off of far, far too often), agreed to help me pay for the vet visit and any treatment. So, we took Pickwick to the vet yesterday, and...it's most likely a tumor. He said it could also be a cyst, but either way the only treatment would be surgery. Which I obviously can't afford. So...I have two options: 1) Attempt to convince my parents to pay for the surgery (the cost of which is $140-ish--less expensive than I thought it would be, but still quite expensive), or 2)Wait until it gets to the point where I really think the tumor is affecting Pickwick's quality of life, and have her put to sleep. Obviously I would prefer the first option, but even with surgery, there's no guarantee that the tumor won't just grow back and Pickwick's not exactly a young rat, and there's a chance she might die on the operating table.

Oh, and she also has lice. Which I didn't notice until we were up at the front desk and I saw little specks crawling all over her. Now I feel like a horrible rat mom XD. The vet said they were pretty host-specific (so host specific that sometimes they will feed exclusively on one rat while ignoring all the others), so the humans in the house are safe. I'm going to have to check Milo and Ollie to see if they've got any little bugs on them, though. I got some flea shampoo (which the vet said to do, because the alternative was a $30 Ivermectin shot which wouldn't completely solve the problem anyway), but I'm not sure how much I should dilute it. I'll have to call in and ask.

In much less important but still quite annoying news, the computer's busted. Again. It crashed while one of my brothers was playing WoW (again), and now it crashes anytime it tries to start up. Dad thinks it's the graphics card, which would honestly be the best-case scenario, because if there's something wrong with the hard drive and I lose everything I have on it, I may seriously consider jumping off the roof. At the very least, I'll probably shed a few tears over some of the half-finished drawings I've got on there, which exist only on my computer because they were drawn entirely using my tablet.

I should really back up my files. Even if it's not a problem with the hard drive.

Anyway, I'm off to cram as much amusement as I can into the short period of time before my mom comes home and demands the use of her computer.

ETA: SURPRISE! Now that I've got the other computer started up in safe mode, the problem seems more like it's caused by a virus than the graphics card. Great. The main anti-virus program refuses to scan properly, so I've got the back up working on it. I don't know how much good that'll do. =P

I took the test from New Humanist, and it said:

You are an amalgamation of those pesky anti-Popes Clement VII and Benedict XIII

...XD Awesome.

So I just watched the trailer for the new Sherlock Holmes movie and...well...I'm not sure what to think. I've revised my original opinion of Jude Law as Watson, but I'm still kind of on the fence regarding Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes. Maybe it's just because his scruffy, unkempt portrayal of Holmes is so completely at odds with my own mental image of Holmes (which is a combination of Sidney Paget's illustrations and Jeremy Brett XD), I don't know. I'm just confused by the melodramatic hyped-up ACTION!!11! trailer (complete with explosions which throw people around like ragdolls and superfluous slo-mo fight scene).

On the plus side, it looks pretty slashy (as if there could ever be a Sherlock Holmes movie that wasn't), and the idea of Holmes stealing Watson's clothing amuses me greatly XD. Also, Holmes gets handcuffed naked to a bed. So. That's something. XD.

So, I'm pretty much over my cold now. I can actually breathe through my nose (although I still make little squeaky wheezing noises), and I don't go through half a box of tissues a day anymore. And yet, I still feel awful. I've barely dragged my carcass out of bed in the morning (or mid-afternoon) these past few days, and as soon as I crawl out of bed I immediately want to get back in. Usually I manage to find something to do that cheers me up enough so that I no longer have to fight the desire to burrow back into the bedclothes and never resurface, but today I can't seem to manage it.

Oh, and last night's episode of House didn't help at all, thank you very much, House writing staff (although I totally called it regarding House and Cuddy).

Maybe I should try drawing something.

Or maybe I should just keep playing The Sims obsessively like I've been doing for the past week or so. My Jeeves and Bertie Sims usually manage to cheer me up (although this random Sim has been calling Jeeves ALL THE TIME, even though they've only met once, and it's starting to freak me out XD).

I finally got some sleep! And, miracle of miracles, the decongestants I've been taking are actually working! Today is a good day. =D

Also, Kody got an electric bass for his birthday yesterday! It's pretty kick-ass. It's a red and white Fender...Squier, I think? I messed around with it a bit last night...it's so much easier to play when you don't know what you're doing than a guitar is XD. I managed to get a pretty good groove going, and I've never touched a bass in my life XD. Troy hasn't gotten anything yet, but that's because he didn't ask for anything. He'll probably just end up getting more money to shove into his wallet and never spend XD. Bastard.

Speaking of guitars, the acoustic guitar which Kody got for Christmas and never did anything with (which is why my parents are forcing him to take lessons to learn to play his new bass), is now in my room. Maybe I'll actually learn to play it XD. That's a pretty big maybe...I'm pretty good at teaching myself, but I get frustrated easily, especially with musical instruments. Also, I haven't played any sort of stringed instrument since Jr. High (I used to play the viola), and I forgot how much it hurts to hold down a string when you don't have callouses on your fingers XD Ow.

It has now officially been 48 hours since I last slept.

Guhhhhh.

I'm pretty sure my brain is currently operating on the same level as that of one of your more intelligent chimpanzees. You know, the ones that know sign language and stuff.

It's not just the lack of sleep that's bothering me, it's the fact that I can't sleep while I also have a horrible cold and menstrual cramps, after a week or so of having migraines on and off. If it were just the lack of sleep or just the cold, I wouldn't even be complaining right now (okay, I might complain a little), but with everything together...

Guhhhhh.

Also, it's my brothers' 16th birthday today (also my half birthday XD)! It's so hard to believe they're 16. Probably because they don't act 16 at all.

It's just so weird. It seems like only yesterday I was changing their diapers...

...Thank god it wasn't yesterday, though.

Guhhhhh.

Also, how awesome was Monday's episode of House? I loved it, up until the last part (you know which part I'm talking about), which made no fucking sense and just seemed ridiculously forced to me. Therefore, I am going to pretend it never happened. Which it probably didn't, anyway. I know how your twisted minds work, House writers! Or maybe I'm just experiencing delusions of omniscience caused by lack of sleep.

Or maybe it's Lupus.

Okay, now I really am delusional. I'm going to go collapse onto my bed and hope it somehow absorbs my body, allowing me to become one with it's luxurious comfort and find relief from my physical ailments try to get a little sleep so I can wake up in time to make my brothers' birthday cake later.

Guhhhhh.

Oh, Rapture Ready. Will you ever cease to provide me with an endless source of amusement and/or righteous fury?

So, I'm sitting here in Iowa, watching the local nightly news.

First story, an overview of all the "happy" gay couples who were married in my state today.

Second story, the ever increasing spreading of the swine flu.

Third story, damage assessment of the tornadoes that struck nearby counties last night.

These people are staring Biblical prophecies straight in the face and remain completely clueless, and it really concerns me.

1. Nice use of the quotation marks around 'happy.' Oh sure, those gay couples may think they're happy, but you obviously know their own feelings better than they do.

2. Remember Bird flu? And SARS? and AIDS? People claimed (and in the case of AIDS, still claim) that all these things were "Biblical prophecy" and a sign of the end times, and yet we're all still here, decidedly un-raptured. Like I always say*, show me a pandemic, and I'll show you an idiot babbling about the rapture.

3. IOWA HAS TORNADOES DURING TORNADO SEASON?! GET YOUR AFFAIRS IN ORDER AND MAKE SURE YOU'RE WEARING CLEAN UNDERPANTS, BECAUSE THE END IS NIGH!

4. So I'm sitting here in Iowa, reading Rapture Ready, having not ingested any sort of caffeinated beverage all day, and now I have a headache. DO YOU THINK I HAVE SWINE FLU?

*I have never said this before in my life. However, I will do so from now on.

I plan to spend Earth Day using up as little energy as possible by sleeping through the day, as I'm still a little woozy from the nasty migraine I've had for the past couple of days. You'd think that sleeping all of Monday and most of yesterday would be enough, but you'd be wrong.

And by 'you', I of course mean 'me'.

Or, 'I', I guess, since 'me'd' is not a word.

...Okay, I'm going to bed.

I don't usually watch Bones, but I watched it last night since Stephen Fry was guest starring. And let me just say: Stephen Fry + air guitar = me attempting to stifle my insane giggles with a pillow. XD

Anyway, here's a movie meme. Some of these movies are kind of obscure, but maybe someone will guess them anyway:

1. Pick 15 (or more) of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDB.com and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO cheating, if you don't know any of them then that's just too bad.
6. You don't have to be tagged in this to play

( All I wanted were Sun Chips, and all I could see was the black skies of R'lyeh! )

Pickwick and Chick Corea say Happy (early) Easter!

...Yeah, I don't actually celebrate or care about Easter, but I felt like I needed an excuse to post a picture of Pickwick with the fluffy chick that Rin gave me XD. And yes, I named the chick 'Chick Corea'. It was either that or Eggbert (or Shelby), and that just seemed a bit too cliché for me. Although 'Chick Corea' isn't much better XD.

The family's going over to my Aunt's house for Easter dinner on Sunday, which we've never done before, and I'm kind of annoyed that we started doing now, because now I'm going to miss the first meeting of the RP group I joined. And a fabulous barbeque. On the plus side, I'll get to see my Aunt's adorable Australian Cattle Dog/American Eskimo mix, Sydney. Pathetic doggy sighs make eating dinner so much more amusing XD.