I really suck at updating.
Anyway...
Work is stupid but really fun. It was so dead tonight that we just goofed around I loved it.
In other news, I started a burlesque class two weeks ago. It is so much fun. First class we learned the many, sexy ways of taking off gloves. Second class, it was taking off stockings. I didn't find a garter belt in time, so I just had to pretend I was doing it, but it was still fun. Jackie is a great teacher, she makes everybody feel really comfortable. This weeks class is "hiding" (in our underwear) behind parasols and fans. The people in my class seem like people I could be really good friends with. I guess you have to be pretty awesome to have the guts to do burlesque in the first place.
Why can't I stop listening to the Veronicas (aren't they for 15 year olds?) or La Roux?
If I can finish getting my tuition paid off, I'm hoping to go back to school in January. Thinking of changing my degree to drama. Still gonna take the linguistics courses though.
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
I went to the zoo again today. But that's not really what this post is about. As I was leaving I saw that Nessie had arrived. I'll have to go back again sometime to get some photos of her. But this post isn't about that either.
I sat on a picnic table and watched as parts of Nessie were unloaded. They took a break and I heard someone say they wouldn't start back up for another hour so I left. But during the approximately hour that I was watching the action there were two squirrels trying to see if I had anything interesting. And to them interesting meant food.
Neither was scared of me. In fact they both came within inches of the camera.
And both squirrels were fat. Really fat. We have a lot of squirrels around our house but these "city squirrels" really needed to go on a diet.
The squirrels' diet wasn't helped by the mom and two kids who were feeding them fries. Both squirrels would get a fry and come back toward me to feast.
Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.
We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.
I will keep you posted.
Thank you for being so patient.
This morning was the annual running of Bailey's Doggie Dash. Andrew hasn't been running much at all this year due to a back injury so he decided to enter the costume contest. He has had this idea for a couple of years but finally got costumes this year. Andrew's race number this year was a cool one. His birthday month and year.
Since we call Haven Miss B when she's naughty (get it - Miss B Haven) the bee costume is fitting. Andrew had to be a sunflower to go along with her. They ended up placing fourth in the costume contest.
These two collies have creative costumes each year. One year they were "collie flowers" with head gear similar to Andrew's! The football player took first place and the cheerleader took second in the costume contest. A pirate was in third place even though we thought Haven should have been there if the collies were going to be first and second. Haven was doing her screaming while being *judged* so we told her she got points taken off her score for her behavior. You can see video of Haven screaming here.
Once the race started Haven settled in. But Andrew said that she was mad that they weren't running as fast as they usually do!
After the race we hung out while waiting for everyone to finish. Haven was all over getting treats and watching the people. She didn't mind all of the dogs but they weren't as interesting.
Back at home we took our yearly photo of Andrew and Haven in front of the burning bush with whatever they took home from the race that year.
After throwing a ball at the bumper it eventually came down. Now both dogs are happily sleeping - Beacon in a sunbeam and Haven on a double decker soft bed.
More photos that I took this morning can be seen in my Doggie Dash Flickr album.
Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.
This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!
Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.
Can't wait to read your posts!
~ daisy
My parents and Zeke came for a visit yesterday. When we went out for lunch we left Zeke uncrated. This is the first time that he has been uncrated here. He's used to being out of a crate at my parents' house so we decided to try it out here. Only one thing was disturbed when we got home.
Well, two. One was Haven though. She took the exercise ball off the love seat. Miss B. likes to get up there when we're gone and has discovered that if she knocks a ball off she can get up there. Stinker. The only thing that Zeke did was pull stuffing out of one of the dog beds. The beds are old so it wasn't a big deal. When we went out for dinner we moved the beds into a room where the door was closed. Nothing was disturbed the second time other than Haven once again removing one of the balls off the love seat.
Both times we set up to the Pets Eye View camera. Overall nothing interesting was caught. There are a couple shots of Beacon chewing on Haven's ears though!
It was finally not raining and some sun was shining in the afternoon after about a week of rainy weather. Beacon enjoyed some fetching. Haven sniffed around and tried to avoid Zeke nipping at her legs. Zeke was either chasing after Beacon or Haven trying to get them to play.
By the time we were done playing with the dogs in the backyard they were all tired.
This morning as I was catching up on my Google Reader stuff I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked out the window and saw a herd of about eight deer. Some of them were really close. As in standing in the garden right in front of the house.
There were two young bucks in the group. We see does all of the time, usually every day. It's rare that we see a buck let alone two at the same time. One of the bucks was playing with a younger deer. Either a doe or a buck without antlers. They would play bow and then head butt each other. The buck was clearly the alpha but it didn't appear that he was trying to chase the younger deer away. The two would move along looking for things to eat in the grass and take breaks to play. This continued as they moved across the front yard.
The does in the group seemed to care more about eating than playing. Four of them were in the garden eating. They were eating weeds so I didn't chase them off.
When I went to take a picture of the does (the bucks moved along too quickly so I didn't have time to get the camera out) Beacon wondered what I was doing. Usually if the dogs see deer in the yard but they're not too close to the house of the fence in the back they don't care about them. But if they get too close their turf must be defended, mostly by Beacon. Haven's curious about the deer and I think she'd like to play with them more than chase them away.
The above photo was taken about a second before Beacon started popping up and down on his front legs barking so that the deer would see him as a "big threat". The deer did run off so Beacon did his "job". He showed them.
It's now hunting season. If we take the dogs hiking they'll wear their orange vests. During firearm time we won't take the dogs in a hunting area.
The deer in our area (as well as many others around us and the US) are plentiful. There aren't cougars around here so there aren't any natural predators for the deer. In the past couple of years the deer population seems to have grown. A couple of years ago I wasn't able to harvest anything from my vegetable garden because of the deer. Last winter one of the evergreen bushes right outside our front door was eaten by the deer. There are more of them fighting for what food there is in the area. And depending on weather conditions food can be more scarce. While we've had some dry summers and cold winters the cold times haven't been harsh enough to weed out enough sick and weak deer.
A few months ago our City Council approved hunting deer within city limits. It's only in season and only for bow and arrow hunting. And it's limited to properties of 10 acres or more. You must adhere to state laws requiring a license and includes individually the number of deer you can take in a season. I agree that there is a deer population issue. I'm not sure that allowing hunting within city limits is the answer.
There are about 10 properties where this hunting would be allowed and only three of these properties are residential. So in essence allowing hunting only changes things for three properties as it's highly unlikely that a business would allow hunting in their land with all of the liabilities. I'm not sure that the land belonging to three people (and who knows if all three would actually hunt on their land), which are all on one side of the city, will help the overall population problem.
The ordinance allowing hunting within city limits will be reviewed in three years. There hasn't been anything mentioned about how the city will determine whether or not hunting has helped. There was mention of comparing deer-car accidents within the city as well as working with the DNR to get a feel on the population but I don't think anything has been cited as real follow up goals.
I wish the city would have brought up more education in how to help control the deer population in addition to allowing hunting. People go after the bucks. They're the *prize*. But it's really the does that should be targeted so that there are fewer to reproduce. There wasn't mention of encouraging more hunting in the areas surrounding the city where hunting is allowed by anyone.
From watching the deer on a daily basis I can tell that they're not "just an animal". They play. They have personalities. I wish that there were another way to control their population without hunting. But I also know that they have become an issue.
The Amazon Conduit will be working again on October 15, 2009. Thank you to everyone for your patience.
Have a great weekend,
daisy, Team Vox
