Sad News

Sometime this morning Nutmeg died. Onil checked her last night and she was moving around a little bit, and when he checked her again this morning she was dead.

She hadn't been doing well for weeks. Every week when I came home from NYC she seemed a little bit worse. The last few days she just stayed up in her bed and didn't even come down to her wheel or her food, and we had to put her food in the top along with a wet paper towel for her to drink from. So I knew she was going to be going soon, and I even had a feeling it was going to be this week. I said a special goodbye to her and told her I loved her before I left for work yesterday morning. She's in good company, anyway. It was ten years ago today that Frank Sinatra died.

Goodnight, Crazy Nut. You were an awesome little haimstie, and you will be dearly missed.

Poor Little Haimstie

This past weekend, our little hamster, Nutmeg, has been sick. We're not really sure what's wrong. She seemed okay on Friday night when I got home, if not a little bloated. I thought she was just getting fat. I mean, she was up and eating and running around in her ball, so I didn't automatically think "sick", you know?

But then Saturday night something seemed very wrong. She didn't get up at all. She spent the night in her little sleeping area, not getting up even to eat or drink. She also seemed even more bloated than she did the previous night. She did the same thing Sunday night, and I was really worried about our poor little girl.

Onil has been keeping an eye on her. He said that she didn't get up Monday night either, but he put a little food and a piece of a wet paper towel in her sleeping area so she could get a little nourishment and moisture. She seemed to be doing better last night. He said she was up and eating and drinking -- she even ran on her wheel for a little bit.

So if you don't feel completely ridiculous saying a prayer for a hamster, please remember our little Nut. Hopefully she's on the mend.

We got a new cat!

We took in Amy's cat Bob because her dad and his new wife just had a baby. We felt bad that they would have to give the cat away and Amy wouldn't see him anymore.




We gave him a new name to go with his new home. He is now Todd or Toddy-Boy named after radio superstar Todd Hillier.

Someone isn't very happy about having a new roommate.

Haha! You've been replaced!

Kitty's having a hard time adjusting. She's all cranky and hissing at Todd whenever he gets near her. He couldn't care less. He's too busy sniffing at things and already getting into trouble. Earlier this morning he knocked down our garbage can in the bathroom and got stuck in the bag. Good thing for him I just replaced the bag last night. Still, he was meowing like mad man trying to free himself. He totally lost it. So much so that he ended up wetting himself. In the bag. I had to clean him up and handle a bag filled with cat pee. Sick!

Three days in and he's already a burden!!

Our Latest Obsession

I'm not kidding when I say our latest obsession. Onil introduced us to lolcats last week and we've been cracking up ever since. He said it's been making the rounds of the intranets for a while now, but this is the first I've heard of it and I seriously can't get enough. I've wasted a good portion of my week totally cracking up at this dumb site. I know Onil's into it, too -- he said he's been chasing Kitty around with the camera all week. (Meanwhile, Nutmeg's sitting there thinking, Thank goodness there's not a lolhamsters website.) It's a sad state of affairs when I catch myself wanting to IM my boss with, "O HAI I CAN HAZ MINNIT PLS?"

Onil also tells me there's another site -- a spin-off, if you will -- of lolcats called lolgrims. Just in time for Thanksgiving!

Here's my lame lolKitty picture:

One Local Summer, Meal 4

I am totally stealing from Meredith at Edge Effect again this week and having breakfast for Meal #4. Onil and I had been talking about doing a breakfast meal last week and Meredith's yummy breakfast from last week inspired me to actually do it.

Also, we had a special guest this weekend: the illustrious Captain John Sniff!



Captain John Sniff (aka Cappy, Johnny, Cap'n John, Rotten Boy) is my dog but is staying with Amy and Anna at their dad's house for a while because we're not allowed to have pets at our apartment (the landlord doesn't know about Kitty or Nutmeg). Amy and Anna were with their dad and stepmom at Knoebel's this weekend, so rather than see Cappy go to a kennel I said we'd take him. He was very well-behaved and my best friend all weekend. I'd like to take him for the weekend more often.

Anyway, our local meal. We had bacon and eggs with blueberry pancakes:





Bacon - Meadow Run Farm, Lititz (12 miles)

Eggs - Meadow Run Farm, Lititz (12 miles). This was the first time since I was a little kid that I had fresh eggs. I mean, just-laid-that-morning fresh eggs. Oh my heck, Onil and I were blown away by how good they tasted! You people with your own chickens and a steady supply of fresh eggs are so lucky! We made scrambled eggs with Kreider's milk in Manheim (2 miles).

Blueberry Pancakes - Whole Wheat Flour from Daisy Flour, Annville (16 miles), Milk from Kreider Dairies, Manheim (2 miles), Egg from Meadow Run Farm, Lititz (12 miles), blueberries from NJ (not local).

Blueberry Syrup - Masonic Homes Orchards, Elizabethtown (15 miles). I melted down Wild Blueberry jam and added some water to thin it out and a little bit of lemon zest for flavor.

Milk - Kreider Dairies, Manheim (2 miles)

One thing I have to add that has been amusing in this whole eating locally thing, is how old-fashioned it all tends to be. For example, I read about Meadow Run and decided to check out their farm market, because there are vegetable stands everywhere in Lancaster county but you have to really suss out your meats. Well.... calling it a "farm market" is being very generous. It amounted to a small shed with two freezers for meats and a refrigerator for eggs. You take your meat and eggs (which are marked with the price), write down on a steno pad what you're taking, how much it weighs and how much it costs, and put your money in an open cash box. I can't tell you how much I love that we're supporting this kind of economy, where honesty is given a chance and the cash goes to the farmer and not to a corporation. And damn if the food doesn't taste a billion times better, too.

Damn that Bugenhagen!!

Dumb Anna left the hamster cage open on Sunday night while we were shooting off fireworks. That was the first escape for the hamster this week.

Last night while she was out running around the apartment in her ball, she broke free again. The ball broke and the top came off. She was loose and I didn't even notice because I was too enraptured with Neil Jordan's "The Butcher Boy". Who knows how many nooks and crannies are now filled with hamster poop? She was probably going through my underwear drawer and reading my mail and spitting in my food and using my toothbrush and playing with my Star Wars action figures.

I finally found her in the kitchen with Kitty's help. I was looking around the apartment and I noticed Kitty sniffing around Faith's craft desk and running away. Bugenhagen was under the desk scaring the poop out of Kitty. Dumb cat.

Dumb hamster. Dumb Anna. Dumb cat.