I have a new favorite thing.  I make Video Status Updates while holding one of my wee guinea pigs.  If you're friends with me you've probably seen them.  I also post them to YouTube and my Google + account. I just have so much fun with my video recorder.  We got it on sale as an open box buy and to upload videoa I just pop out the SD card and plug it into my computer.  Easy as 1, 2, 3.

Bernadette is sick.  Her Upper Respiratory Infection is back and we can't afford to take her to the vet.  I've asked the vet if we can just buy the antibiotics without a visit so we'll see if she goes for that.

Our snakes are doing well.  Jason insulated their enclosures with insulation boards, so they're nice and toasty warm.  Peanut is still not really eating which is worrisome.  Hopefully he eats tonight.

It's almost New Year's Eve.  I can't wait for next year.  This year hasn't been bad per say.  I'm just looking forward to a new year.  Finding jobs, turning 33, having a clean apartment, moving.  It's all coming up, and I am excited.  The Mayan Apocalypse came and went and we're still here.  It's time for a renewal.  And boy could we use it.  We have to start taking better care of our planet.  It doesn't have to be too late.

Here's a sample of one of my status update videos:

Season's Greetings

Dear Blog,

That's right, I'm starting with "Dear Blog" because frankly that's what I feel like doing.  It's the holiday season and I'm bored as hell.  I'm sitting here listening to my Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit soundtracks playlist, and thinking.  I'm thinking about how happy I am for my cousins, Bruce and Emily, who are both engaged to be married to wonderful people.  I'm thinking about how it's not fair that their mother won't be there to attend their weddings and how I still, even after something like six months, can't believe she's really gone.  I miss you Diane.

I'm thinking about finding work both for me and for my husband.  It seems like no one wants to hire someone who has been out of work for five years.  But I'm applying none the less.  Jason may have a job.  He was sent to do a drug test for the position, which he did, and now we're waiting for an offer.  I'm convinced there's a job out there just waiting for me to fill it, I just have to find it.

I held 3 out of 4 of my guinea pigs tonight.  They were cute and playful as always, chattering away in a language I don't understand.  One of my friends told me the other night that guniea pigs are a delicacy in Peru.  Ew.  I would never eat a guinea pig.  I love them too much.  I suppose that's why my grandmother won't eat birds.  She loves them too much.  It's the principle of the thing.

It's the holiday season and I just can't seem to get into the spirit.  I have no plans for New Year's Eve, so Jason and I will just stay at home and watch TV, probably in separate rooms just like last year.  He'll watch the Three Stooges Marathon and I'll watch the Times Square coverage.  We lead boring lives.  Though I should be cleaning.  I have exactly two weeks to get the apartment clean for my birthday.  It's my present to myself.  Not to mention I'll be hosting my closest friends to celebrate.  This year I'll be 33.  I feel old now. I know that's silly, 33 isn't that old.  Yet there's still so much I want to do and I feel like there's less time to do it.

I saw the Hobbit last night, courtesy of my brother and sister-in-law. It was really good and I'm looking forward to the next two parts.  I have a new celebrity crush on Richard Armitage, the man who plays Thorin Oakenshield.  Something about his dreamy blue eyes...sigh.  Jason's not jealous.  He knows my celebrity crushes are silly.

I suppose that's all for now.  Happy New Year everyone!

Anniversary At Foxwoods Part 1 - I Don't Gamble

Hello there.  I am celebrating my 2 year anniversary with my husband at Foxwoods Casino and Resort.  It's this huge complex on a Native American Reservation in Connecticut.  Here's the thing.  I don't gamble and neither does my husband.  We came here to see Craig Ferguson live doing his stand up comedy routine.  It's the closest he's coming to Boston this tour and with the little extra money we had, we couldn't resist.  It started out as a day trip, but soon had progressed to two nights with a spa visit.

The spa visit we had this morning, and OMG is all I can say.  And I hate the phrase "OMG".  We had the "Couples package" which consisted of a 50 minute massage, a parrifin (Spelling?) foot wax, and champagne and chocolate covered strawberries.  It was worth every cent/  Neither my husband or I have ever had a massage before and it was quite the experience.  I just lay there in heaven.  And usually I am not one to enjoy being touched by strangers but this was not stressful at all.  It was so relaxing.

We arrived yesterday afternoon.  Perhaps I should have started here but I'm hardly one to follow chronological conformity.  We checked in early and rose to the 14th floor where our room was located.  The view was spectacular.  We were facing West out over a wooded area.  I can't wait to watch the sunset tonight.  After watching a movie to relax (we watched Larry Crowne), we ventured out to the casino.  Walking to the opposite side of the huge complex, we had a nice dinner of burgers at the Hard Rock Cafe Foxwoods.  Jason was thrilled to request a song to be played in music video form while we waited to eat.  Each of us had a burger which really hit the spot.  Then we walked back along the shops to our hotel room where I plunged into a restless few hours of cold illness.  That's right, my cold culminated at that moment into an unbearable mess of sinuses.  I located the cold/flu medicine in the gift shop and found some relief after a few hours hours.  We spent the rest of the night in our room.

This morning we began with our massage package.  After we changed, we returned to the spa and went swimming for an hour followed by a nice relaxing time in the Jacuzzi.  The key word for this post is relaxing.  I then showered and we went out seeking lunch.  Fuddruckers satisfied our appetites and our wallets as we were running low on funds at this point.  Then we hit the shops.  Without buying anything we quickly viisted all the shops we wanted to.  And it occurred to me, what do people do while they're here?  It dawned on me immediately.  That thing people do that Jason and I just don't do.  Gamble.  Originally I was going to pump five dolloars worth of quarters into a slot machine but even that seemed grossly intimidating.  We did cut through a casino to return to our room which is where we are now, awaiting the whole purpose of our trip.  The big show starring Craig Ferguson.  And yet I wonder.  How do people gamble.  The concept eludes me still.

I will write again once I return home tomorrow.

It's been a long time...

Hello Blog Followers.  It's been 3/4 of a year since I last posted and so much has happened.

The Family Has Expanded -
For my birthday last January, my husband bought me two guinea pigs.  Penny and Bernadette, both female, were the cutest things I'd seen in a very long time.  Penny is black with a little copper coloring on her butt, and a white spot on her nose.  Bernadette is white, tan, and black.  Little did I know but guinea pigs are addictive.  I had two of the female cast members of the Big Bang Theory, now I needed an Amy.  We found Amy a few weeks later.  She is mostly white with tan and black splotches near her eyes.  Then we couldn't have an odd number of guinea pigs, that just wouldn't do!  So in comes Oreo, a black and white female who is very meek.  I love to cuddle with them and listen to them purr and coo.  Penny is the loudest and the most adventurous.  Amy runs like mad to avoid being picked up, but once you have her she sits quite still and behaves herself.  Bernie and Oreo are the easiest to pick up.  They don't seem to mind too much.  I love them all.

Well my husband decided he wanted some pets of his own.  He really wanted a Ball Python, but I initially vetoed it because once fully grown it could eat my piggies for dinner.  So our first snake was a corn snake.  He's an Albino Corn Snake, really beautiful, named Rusty.  We bought him nearly 3 months ago and already he's grown quite a bit.  He's now almost 3 feet long!  But my husband still really wanted a Ball Python, so I gave in and got him one.  His name is Monty, as in Monty Python.  He has shed twice now and is growing at a good rate.  We'll just have to keep him separate from my piggies.

A Death In The Family -
My Aunt Diane passed away very suddenly a few weeks ago.  It was so hard to deal with.  She was a great aunt, always full of smiles.  Even though I saw her rarely, as she lived in Canada, I still felt close to her.  She always made me feel important.  I went to the funeral with my brother, his wife, and my sister.  My husband couldn't go because he didn't have a passport.  It was a very sad weekend with a beautiful service filled with music, just as Diane would have wanted.  Then we went back to her family's house and I talked to members of my family I rarely get to see.  As the bugs came out we moved indoors and sat around their dining room table drinking tea and telling hilarious stories.  It was nice to feel close to my cousins, I hardly ever see them. However through the magic of Facebook, we stay in touch.

Even now I find a grief in my heart at thinking that my mother's youngest sister is really gone.  She was only 53 and it makes me think about mortality.  All my aunts and uncles are now going to be checked out to make sure they don't have the same hidden condition.  I know Diane wouldn't want me to linger over her death.  She will always be with me in  my heart and in spirit.

Marriage and babies

I just checked the celebrity news today and one of the Survivor contestants has been secretly married for over a year.  So?  Well apparently they're pairing her up with Keith on the show.  Maybe I missed something or maybe it's the editing but I sure didn't see any kind of relationship going on other than maybe friendship and a smaller alliance.  Lord, what are people thinking these days.  If you're married, you're married.  You have to watch yourself and how people view you if you're going to go on a show like Survivor where there are cameras on you 24/7.  It's none of our business what happens next.  If something happened on the show than Whitney, it's up to you to work that out with your spouse.

And speaking of nobody's business, since when should anyone care how many babies the Duggars are having?  I know it's up to 20 now, but come on.  They're not breaking the law.  Who are we to judge what they're doing?  I personally would not have more than two.  But that's me.  I'm not sure why people are doing news stories on whether or not this family should have another child.  It's their business.  Not ours. 

It's not a Tumor! Oh but it was a tumor...

I have been exhausted for the last few years.  I always blamed my non-existent energy on mental health issues or being out of shape or something.  But something didn't feel quite right.  The exhaustion couldn't be normal though when I would mention it in physicals I was told to exercise more.  They just didn't understand that I couldn't even exercise.  I wasn't being lazy, there was just nothing to work with.

Finally I dug my heals in at my doctor's office and one of the doctors ran my calcium levels.  It was elevated.  More tests showed that my parathyroid hormone was also elevated and my vitamin D was frightfully low.  All of these are regulated by the parathyroid gland.  Off I went to an endocrinologist who with the help of an ultrasound, found a nickel-sized tumor in my neck on one of my parathyroid glands.

Four months later I was hooked up with a surgeon and out it was cut.  My vitamin D was normal. My calcium and parathyroid levels returned to normal, and now I'm just waiting for the scar to heal.  My energy level is through the roof and I'm trying to get used to having it again.

Next time I feel like something is off, I'm not going to be afraid to push the doctors harder to find out what's wrong.

Caesar's Ghost...

I had a dog named Caesar.  Actually he was my family's dog, but I loved him every bit as much as if he were only mine.  We had 14 great years together before he just got too sick to go on.  It was time to put him down.  My brothers were braver than I.  Two of them went with my step-father.  One of them stayed through it all.  I am grateful to him so that Caesar was not alone in the end.  This was 3 years ago.

For the last few months I've been having dreams where Caesar was alive.  In the dream I knew he wasn't supposed to be there, but I selfishly ignored my inner voice and enjoyed the dream.  Until I woke up.  Then the pain all came flooding back.  Usually I cry for awhile as quietly as possible so as not to let my husband hear.

I finally told some people today as I can't seem to let go of this pain.  My brother's response was "That's depressing and sucks".  My Dad seems to think I have some psychological issues that need working out.

I wish I could afford a therapist to help me figure out what my brain is trying to tell me.