Photos – Page 30 – Not Content to Crawl

Labor Day Weekend

Posted onSeptember 7, 2014

Last Sunday we got up early and grabbed breakfast at McDonald’s and then went to Jamba Juice to take advantage of their BOGO coupon offer. $5 for a small drink is excessive in my eyes but I’ll splurge occasionally and get two drinks for that price! The five fruit frenzy is just too good! After snagging our drinks we drove to the arboretum to get our free gift for renewing our membership. I renewed online for two years this time which, while a bit steep at $170, is cheaper per year than doing one year at a time, plus includes bonus tickets to their Acorn Express Tram Tour which is fun.

The mosquitos were out in full force, however, and Joe is a mosquito magnet, so we didn’t hang out as long as we originally planned. I did grab this awesome panorama, though.

I don’t really think my phone takes great shots (probably because I’m spoiled from my SLR) but the panoramas almost always impress me. I love the clouds in this shot!

On the way home we stopped at Willowbrook Wildlife Center where I was surprised to see they had lots of baby rats. They house snakes so I have a bad feeling they are raised as food. In any case, don’t they look like little hippos? So cute!

We puttered around the house for a couple of hours and then headed to my parents to hang out. We set up the bad minton net and played with my dad, brothers, and Brother #2’s girlfriend for a couple of hours until dinner was ready. My cousin, who I haven’t seen in forever (but have been chatting with pretty regularly the past couple of months thanks to Facebook messenger), even showed up! She ended up having to leave to pick up her son from work before we played any board games, however. I brought two games but we only ended up playing Smartass. It was a fun time, as usual. The only thing that sucks is the hour ride home.

Rat Update

Posted onSeptember 2, 2014September 7, 2014

On August 22nd, after a week of them having playtime together, I decided to put Gizmo and Milo into the Critter Nation cage together. Now they have two huge levels (each having it’s own sub-level) to run around in. Of course, they spend 90% of their time at the top level but what can you do? I’m just happy I have two rats who can get along. They play fight occasionally but nothing serious at all. I’ve even caught them sleeping together, and one day I caught Milo grooming Gizmo which was adorable.

I moved Marshmallow into a smaller single level cage so he couldn’t harass the babies. I feel kinda bad because he was here first, but he is too aggressive with other rats and it’s not fair for the babies to be confined to a small cage while Marshmallow lives alone in the huge cage. He doesn’t seem to mind the smaller cage since he spends the majority of his time in his spacepod anyway.

Gizmo has grown so quickly that at first glance I can’t tell him and Milo apart until I look at their faces! I wish they’d stay small because while they are still cute full grown, they are more fun to handle when they are small, plus they don’t murder my skin with their nails when they climb all over me (which they both love to do).

As for Doug & Steve, they are still here although the guy who is supposed to adopt them claims he’s just trying to get his hands on a Critter Nation. I just want them gone as I’ve been neglecting them over the two babies. I feel guilty but I only have so much free time and Steve is such a dick. He nips for no reason and I’m sick of him. I will miss Doug, though.

I’ve been concentrating on letting Gizmo and Milo get free-time with me so they remain as friendly as the day I brought them home. Marshmallow gets free-range time too, and even Steve and Doug get some, but it’s just not daily, or for as long as the babies. Plus the babies can be contained on the bed as they haven’t figured out how to jump off. That’s nice because then I don’t have to move the other rats out of the room while they are out whereas I do when I let the others out. I’ll just be happy when I only have three rats instead of five. I don’t know how the people I see online who have 10+ rats do it. Not only must that be expensive, but it’s gotta be a huge time suck if they are giving them all ample free-range time.

Burgers, Purses, and Rats

Posted onAugust 15, 2014

We don’t tend do much during the week because of work, but Wednesday we decided to go to Red Robin so Joe could cash in his free birthday burger. He’s been
training for a run in September, however, so I actually got his burger and he got a salad. I was feeling adventurous so instead of ordering a regular cheeseburger, I got their Banzai burger which has teriyaki sauce and a big pineapple ring on it. I was feeling a bit apprehensive about it until the burger arrived – it was delicious! I think I’ll be ordering that one in the future. Yum, indeed!

Before leaving the mall where the Red Robin is located, we stopped at Payless and Joe got a nice pair of shoes for only $12. I liked the look of these grey leather boots they had but they were uncomfortable and a little pricey anyway at $35. The Payless is right outside Macy’s so Joe tried to convince me to buy the purse I want but even if it was included in the 20% off Kipling sale (the sign was by the small purses only), it still would cost $60+ which is too much. I need to sell the wrong purse Amazon sent me since after complaining they told me to keep it and credited my account! At least then I could put that money toward the purse I actually want. Knowing my luck by the time I get around to that Macy’s won’t be carrying it anymore. I don’t know why they won’t just let me exchange it. I get they didn’t sell me the other purse but does it really matter when they are going to likely send it back to the manufacturer?

After dinner we decided to let the new baby rat (whom I’ve named Gizmo) out to play downstairs. I had been covering half the couch with a blanket and a large towel but that little stinker wants to run over to the uncovered portion of the couch. Then it occurred to me that since he’s still small and doesn’t jump, I could cover the coffee table with the towel and put him on there so I did that instead. Then I was telling Joe how impatient I was feeling about introducing him to Milo, so we decided to just go for it. He has not shown the slightest inclinations of sickness and all his littermates were healthy too, so I really hope I don’t end up regretting that decision. Introductions went well although I think Milo was getting a little tired of the baby after awhile as he spent a good portion of his time tucked away in the large wheel I set out and there was a small fight when the baby tried to join him in there. No blood was drawn, however, which is a good sign!

Thursday after work we ran to get some delicious steak tacos from El Famous Burrito. I had never eaten at the chain until earlier this year when a coworker mentioned they do $1 tacos on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Now I’m addicted because they are the best steak tacos in the area and you can’t beat the price! We’re not fans of the seating arrangements there, however, so we took the food to go.

After eating I put Milo and Gizmo together on the coffee table again and apart from a small squabble over the wheel, they got along fine. I had them out almost three hours. They both started getting sleepy, so I put Milo back in his cage and a little while later Gizmo fell asleep for a bit on the coffee table. He’s so adorable!

Introducing No Name Rat

Posted onAugust 10, 2014

I realize that title is odd, but we adopted a new rat and he doesn’t have a name yet. I’ve been contemplating calling him Burt Macklin just because that would be hilarious, but I kind of want to stick to a name starting with M if possible since I already have Marshmallow and Milo.

I found this little guy on Craiglist from a woman whose rat got pregnant unexpectedly. We had actually started emailing back and forth a week and a half ago but she stopped responding. When I saw her repost her ad I was rather pissed, but replied and calmly asked what happened. She said she didn’t get my email from before, and then when I replied, she didn’t respond again. Then I noticed there was a phone # on the ad so I texted her instead and we made our arrangements over text.

When we arrived at her place she was outside with some other people. They were hanging out with rats in their laps and a bunch of babies in a cage so I was able to pick the one I wanted. I liked his markings, as well as one other, but the other one kept trying to get away from me whereas he was cool with me picking him up. In fact he let me, Joe, and E hold him while we talked to the people about rat stuff. Everyone was very friendly and helpful and I enjoyed meeting them all. We were there about a half hour or so before taking off.

He was born on June 16th and was handled since day one which is why he is even more outgoing than Milo (although Milo was pretty good from the beginning too). I decided as long as he doesn’t show any illness in the next week I will introduce him to Milo next weekend. I want to get them acclimated quickly so Milo doesn’t turn antisocial like Marshmallow. Unfortunately Marshmallow has made it clear he would rather live alone so for now he’s going to get moved to a smaller standalone cage so that the two babies can have the run of the Critter Nation. I feel kinda bad but it’s not fair to them to have to live in the same area and be on edge because of him. If I can find a larger used multi-tier cage something like this then I will get it for him, but I’m not buying one new because I’ve already spent enough money on these guys.

Staycation – Day 4 – Monday

Posted onJuly 21, 2014July 22, 2014

I woke up at 5 am and couldn’t fall back to sleep so I read a few magazines, ate some fruit, and then went back to sleep around 7:30 and slept until 10 am. Joe had a hard time sleeping last night too so neither of us were in a hurry to get out of bed.

We made bagels and eggs for breakfast and then lounged around the house. I got lucky and was able to get a photo of two American Goldfinches on my finch feeder. I put that feeder out over a month ago but they’ve only recently been stopping by. Our feeders attract a lot of wildlife – from bunnies, to toads, to itty bitty mice. I didn’t get a picture, but yesterday there was a small mouse hanging out on the patio no bigger than a fifty cent piece. His nickname is now fiddy.

At 3 pm when we headed out to grab pizza for lunch at the legendary Vito & Nick’s.

Afterwards we headed to US Cellular Field to watch the White Sox play the Royals. We had scored free tickets from a friend so we were in the nosebleed section but I didn’t mind. It was nice going to an evening game for a change since the last two times we went to a day game it was too hot out. I did mind the crowded section we were in and the people who we’re sitting directly behind us – two boys no older than ten and their mother. The boys were swearing and using the n-word and the mother didn’t say a word. I don’t think just because they were black meant they should talk like that.

Our original view:

We decided to go get food and sit elsewhere. We ended up sitting even higher up but in a less crowded section with a better view.

We stayed until the 8th inning and decided to leave. I find baseball games pretty boring so I didn’t mind. Now take me to a Blackhawks game and I will actually pay attention to the action!