Carol's random babble

Sometimes Buster likes to nap on the back of the sofa. It doesn't look all that comfortable, but he appears to like it. Cayla is holding one of the cavy pups at left. Notice the wishbone-shaped white on his back. (Cayla says this one is a boy.) Cayla says this one (below) is a girl. If she's right, the pups are the same sex of the parent they resemble. The pups have more color, though, where the parents are more white.

to the brand-new members of our family: two cavy pups. (Aka guinea pig pups) There are two, and they mimic the coloring of their parents: one is reddish-brown and white and the other is reddish-brown, white and black. Pumpkin, the adult male, may have earned himself a new name - Doofus. We separated him from the adult female (Cayla calls her Mercedes Cow and I call her Mama) and the pups in the hope that we could prevent an immediate pregnancy. He whined, whistled in distress and generally made such a nuisance of himself, we had to put him back with the rest of his family. He immediately began trying for a second litter, so to speak. Mama would have none of that and I had to take him out after a few minutes. Cayla and I worked on the cage and got it to be bigger and safe enough for the moment. I had made the base from the largest under-bed storage box I could find, and the wire cubes were on the inside. They are on the outside now, and tied at junctions with yarn. For now. I want to ge...

I took the cavies (guinea pigs) outside Monday afternoon. It was nearly the last nice day temperature-wise that we will be having until spring. I left the female in the box but took the male out and fashioned a harness out of yarn. He didn't try to escape, just huddled down in the grass for awhile. Then he figured out that he was huddled on grass and started munching. The female's name is Mercedes Cow. Don't ask. I have no idea how Cayla came up with that name. I just call her "Momma" because she's going to be one. I didn't put her in the grass this time, just had the whole box in the yard. The male's name is Pumpkin. I can at least understand the logic of that. I'm usually slightly bothered by red-eyed animals, but somehow his eyes don't bother me. I love this picture. He was feeling a bit more adventuresome, sniffing around and so on. He's checking me out - or at least checking out the camera.

It's been surprisingly peaceful. Kent returned on Oct. 20. He had been e-mailing me and I decided to see how it goes. He's been back a week and we haven't had any arguments. He even went to church last week, although he wasn't feeling well this morning and he and Amanda stayed home. He brought back two guinea pigs - more correctly called cavies. They are, yes, a male and female, and yes, she was already pregnant when he brought her. The family he was staying with didn't want them any more. They are currently in a large plastic storage box with holes in the lid. During the day, if Cayla's room gets hot, I put the box on her bed and have the fan blowing on it. It cools it off without directly blowing on the box. We're planning to get a cage this week somehow. I am going on a trip to Omaha - work-related - and might try to visit a pet store there. The options here are pretty limited. I'm considering going with a cubes and coroplast -type cage. We can build ...

I don't wanna go to work I gotta go to work I don't wanna go to work Aaaaaaahhhhh! 'Nuff said.

I got the link to this video on a forum I frequent. I watched it and when it was done, said "That was awesome!" Big smiles still. Edited to add: That was Anita Renfroe , BTW.

It's been an up-and-down day. I've basically been on the go since 6 a.m. and even missed my usual morning (making up for staying up too late) nap. Cayla had to be at school at 7 a.m. to catch a ride for a field trip. We nearly missed it - she got in the last van. Some of the vehicles were pulling out as we approached. I think they could have handled that a little better - here comes another kid for the trip, let's leave so we don't have to take another one. ??? Amanda and I went to McDonald's to get an Egg McMuffin and hash browns for Mom, and hash browns for Amanda, then headed over to Mom's. We waited there until about 7:45 a.m. and then took Amanda to school. I told Mom that I wanted to drop the snow tires off at our storage space (I'm driving a car that belongs to someone else, might be able to buy it, but there were snow tires in the trunk taking up all the space). After dropping off the snow tires, we headed over to my work so I could pick up my check....