Of #Tortoises & #Dogs, Workmen, And Virtual Parties

The photos at the top of this post are of when Artemis and Izi met face to face when Arti was out of the vivarium on Wednesday.  In the first one they're looking at each other up close, and in the second one they're nose to nose.

 

For those who might be worried: yes, this meeting was strictly supervised.  The dogs are never left in the room alone with Artemis.  In fact, I think you can see me a little in the photo.  Actually, Artemis is always supervised when out of the vivarium regardless of where the dogs are, just to be on the safe side.

 

Anyway, neither Izabel nor Artemis are sure what to make of each other at the moment.

 

As you may have figured out from how I'm starting this post - or may have seen in my reply to a comment on last week's post yesterday - yes, we still have Izabel here right now, because Mam is still not in a position to take her back.  Cai is still with someone else though.

 

Lilie and Izi are becoming great friends, but they keep ganging up on Logan – who would mostly rather nap than play, and tires of playing quickly when he does play – and he’s not happy about it, as I’m sure you can imagine.  So, a couple of times this past week, I took advantage of the nice weather and took just him out in the yard for a while, leaving both girls indoors with Kelly, and I sat on the swing seat while he alternated between sitting beside me and pouncing on unsuspecting rocks.  Plus, Kelly took just the girls for walks a couple of times, so they could burn off some energy while Logan got some peace.  Logan definitely seemed glad of the breaks.  And I’m sure Lilie and Izi enjoyed having some walks at a faster pace than walks usually are if Logan and I go too (Logan and I just like to slowly plod along; Logan and I don't do fast-paced walks... My leg can't handle it, and Logan's just not an energetic sort of dog).

 

With the issues Lilie has with her legs, as well as the fact she’s older than Izi and Logan (Lilie is six, Izi is four and a half, and Logan is four) you’d think Lilie would be the one who walks slowly and wants to be left alone.  But, no.  Lilie’s very energetic, and almost always up for some play time, even at times when you can see her issues with her back legs are causing her some pain.  We try not to let her get too carried away with pushing herself, but she’s happy and waggy-tailed while doing it, so... *shrugs*

 

~

 

As I said, we've been having really nice weather.  It's warm enough to be nice for sitting outside without the need for a jacket, and Kelly doesn't complain about my desire to keep the window open even at night (which I'd do most of the year, but he wishes I wouldn't do in colder weather) but not so hot I'm whining about it yet.  Still hovering around the 20C (72F) range in the day, and dropping a little at night.

 

*~*

 

Just to make things even more fun – and I use the word “fun” with a heavy dose of sarcasm – the landlord (or the agency we rent through, or maybe both) decided now was a good time to do the repair work we’ve been asking them to do since we showed it to them when they did the inspection back in March.

 

Technically, it was a good time to do it.  I mean, the nice weather means the damp patches have had time to dry, it’s a good time to need to have all the windows open, and the stuff they put on to treat the damp, as well as the fresh coat of paint needed on those walls, could dry quickly with the nice weather.  It just wasn’t fun for me being shut in a room with three dogs who had a few things to say about strange men in the house for the bulk of the two days the work was being done, and I could have done without that experience right now.  Logan wasn't happy about it either, since it was even harder than normal for him to get away from the girls during those two days.

 

On the bright side, they did work hard to get it done in two days, and even not only moved things themselves to get to where they needed to work, but tried their best to put them back properly.  We’ll still have to go behind them and sort them a bit better, but I appreciate that they tried, and am definitely glad the work has now been done, even if I have to admit to some frustration at needing to re-do some of the organization we’d literally just finished doing in some of the rooms.  Not to mention, the frustration of trying to do the cooking call on Tuesday while surrounded by barking dogs.

 

*~*

 

Last Friday there was a virtual Zoom birthday party for Kaila.  Her husband, Jimmy, organized it as a surprise for her.  Kaila’s the one in charge of the ACB Crafters (sort of the boss of the ACB Crafters admin team, which I’m part of) and I consider her a friend, so I wanted to go.  The party was at midnight my time because of the time difference, and I’m not a big fan of parties as a rule, but since it was online – and since I happen to really like Kaila – I went anyhow.  I know it made Kaila happy to have so many of her friends there to help her celebrate her birthday, even if we could only be there virtually.

 

Of course, I wanted cheesecake after Kaila said it was what she was having as a birthday cake, so on Saturday – after a long chat with Carl, since we hadn’t spoken much since Easter – I decided to try one of the recipes I had for a tofu-based one that requires baking.  I was making some adjustments because I wanted to turn the blueberry cheesecake in to a lemon one (mostly because I didn’t have any blueberries) but I didn’t add enough extra lemon juice, so it came out more vanilla than lemon.  It was definitely cheesecake consistency though, and it tasted good, so that’s the main thing.  Sorry, but I didn’t take a photo.

 

~

 

Speaking of birthdays...

 

It was my Grandma’s birthday on Wednesday (June 7^th) and it’s Kelly’s Mom’s birthday today (June 9^th).

 

Grandma sometimes reads my blog, but I’m pretty sure Kelly’s Mom doesn’t.  Still, happy birthday, Grandma, and Mom!

 

And, though I doubt she'll see this: happy birthday to Kaila too.

 

~

 

I went to another virtual party during the past week too: the ACB Crafters third birthday bash.

 

The ACB Crafters started as the occasional call on the ACB Community on June 7^th 2020.

 

For those who don’t know: “ACB” stands for American Council of the Blind.  They started doing community calls as a way for visually impaired people to connect with others during the pandemic, and it’s exploded in to a huge community.  The ACB Crafters – which I’m part of the admin team for – is part of that community, and went from the occasional Zoom call to between three and seven calls a week.

 

So, to celebrate three years of crafty calls, we held a virtual birthday party this past Wednesday, (June 7^th).  I don’t usually go to the crafty call that happens on Wednesdays, but I went this time, since it was the birthday bash.

  

That means I went to more parties this past week than I usually go to in a year.  I'm glad they were virtual though.  I like virtual parties more than ones in person.  I'm not a big social gatherings and parties fan.

#Snow Reports, Clutter, And Subscription Boxes

Snow Reports:

We got something like four inches of snow in my area, though only had maybe two or three inches on the ground at any given time.   Then it stuck around for almost a week.  Lilie showed you some of the photos, but here are a couple of the nearby mountains that we also took during the snowy weather:

 

 

*~*

 

Clutter:

Since the end of last year, we've been working on doing some de-cluttering.  If it's not something we have a use for, can see ourselves having a use for, or want to keep for some other reason, we're getting rid of it.  It sounds pretty ruthless, but we've ended up with a lot of stuff we don't really want or need, or were holding on to for sentimental reasons despite knowing doing so was only putting it in the way and making it difficult to organize other stuff (like a dressing table I'd been given, which I wanted to keep even though it wasn't being used and was in the way) and want to get rid of those things so we can properly organize the things we do want or need.

 

Us doing this has made some people who were hoping we'd store things for them unhappy, but that can't be helped.  We're not a storage unit, we don't want to keep living in chaos and clutter, and seeing how we've somehow managed to have an overly cluttered house in less than two years after having managed just fine with a whole lot less space before - I mean, we moved from a flat that was technically listed as a two bedroom, but only because it was a one bedroom that had been turned in to one by putting a kitchenette on the end of the living room and making that room smaller, in to a three bedroom house, so you'd think we wouldn't be buried in stuff - makes us feel we should take steps to change things, even if certain other people would rather we didn't.

 

Anyway, we still have a long way to go, but we're making progress.

The bedroom is essentially sorted (apart from some small tasks like putting the few audiobooks I’m hanging on to in the right order on the shelves, for example).  It actually looks like a bedroom again.

 

Besides that, I've been working on de-cluttering in my office/craft room.  I’ve gotten rid of a stack of craft kits I wasn't really bothered about doing from those I’d acquired from those subscription boxes I was getting, and given away some craft supplies I was hanging on to because they’d been Nan’s, even while knowing there was little to no chance I’d want to use them.  I’ve still got a lot of organizing to do in my office/craft room again now that I’ve gotten rid of that stuff, but now I actually have some space in there to do it.

 

Now to help Kelly tackle his office/gaming room so he can have space to do things in his room too.

 

*~*

Subscription boxes:

Since they closed down, my subscription to The Vegan Kind's lifestyle box was cancelled, and I'm OK with that, because it was starting to not seem worth the money any more due to half the stuff being things I wouldn't eat, so I'd end up giving to others, so I'd been considering stopping it anyway.  Some of the stuff in it was really tasty, but the constant need to make meat-flavored versions of vegan-friendly snacks was spoiling it for me, since I can't stomach the taste of meat.

 

But I personally cancelled my subscriptions to Bird & Blend Tea and Sara-Jane Candles.  Not because of the cost, nor because I wasn't enjoying the stuff.  I was, and I still think them worth the money.  I stopped them because the amount I was getting from them was a lot more than I was making use of each month and my supplies of both tea and candles were piling up.  You can just order stuff from both Bird & Blend Tea and Sara-Jane Candles, so I decided I'd stop my subscriptions, catch up on using what I have on hand, and keep them in mind when I need or want to order more of something later.  In the meantime, my tea cupboard is overflowing with different tea blends, and I could light a candle every day for the next few months without fear of running low on scented candles.  Again, wanting to de-clutter somewhat has played a part here.

Random Ramblings - October 2022

October is when fellow author, Teri Polen, holds her “Bad Moon Rising” event.  It’s a fun way to get to know about some possibly new to you paranormal or horror books you may want to read, as well as learn a bit about the authors who wrote them.  IT runs all month long, and is always a lot of fun.

 

I’ve participated in it eagerly for a few years now, and this year was no exception.  My interview went live on October 8^th 2022.  Yes, I know I’m slow posting about it on here.  Anyway, if you missed it, and would like to read my answers to the questions I picked from the list of fun questions Teri comes up with for us to answer as part of the event, you can go here to check out my interview.

 

Don’t forget to check out the other authors’ posts while you’re there too, especially if you’re a fan of spooky reads.  Or pets… Pets ended up featured a lot in many of the interviews this year as it turned out.

 

*~*

 

In other news: Lilie and Logan got groomed.

 

Technically they were groomed late, because they were officially meant to get groomed on September 29^th.  But the groomer had an unavoidable family emergency that meant he had no choice but to reschedule, which meant they ended up getting groomed on October 1^st instead.

 

Of course, we had to get photos of them freshly groomed, so here they are:

 

 

*~*

 

There was a Harry Potter crafting call I went to recently.  They were making a monster book of monsters and a bowtruckle.  I didn’t bother making a monster book of monsters, but here’s the little purplish pipe cleaner bowtruckle I made:

 

 

They would usually have little twiggy fingers, some tiny leaves sticking out of the top, and tiny little black eyes.  But I didn't have anything to do those things with, so I just left mine as it is.

 

~

 

  We were making toilet roll covers in one of the recent ACB Crafters crochet classes.  Well, we were meant to be making pumpkin ones, but since the only orange wool I have is what I don’t want to be touching until I’ve made the tea cosy for my witchy tea pot, I just grabbed a random ball, which turned out to be purple.  Then I decided to make it two different colours so grabbed another random ball, which turned out to be a different shade of purple.  Then I just didn’t add the extra bits that would make it look like a pumpkin (the stem and leaves).  The end result was this two tone purple toilet roll cover:

 

 

~

 

I made this crochet ghost in another of the classes:

 

 

~

 

 I also made this little crochet cat:

I know it's the wrong colour, but never mind.  I got bored of playing, "What colour is this?" so just went with the last ball I'd asked about when I got fed up of asking.  Anyway, it looks more like a turquoise pikachu (one of the Pokemon) than a cat, so I'm going to have to make a yellow one with a slightly zig-zag-shaped tail so I can actually accurately call it a crochet pikachu. LOL!

 

 ~

 

Speaking of crochet: I’ve still got a long way to go with it, but I’m making progress with my crochet blanket.  It’s a big enough square now that you can actually call it a blanket in progress.  I don’t know if I’m going to make it with finishing it before Winter arrives, but at least if I don't it will keep me warm while I’m working on it.  LOL!

 

~

 

I've also been working on a crochet bag, which was one of the kits I needed sighted help with.  The actual crocheting is fine; I can do the crocheting myself no problem.  But the pattern is in print and I need someone to read it to me.  So Dad's been reading me the pattern while I work on it.

 

It's made out of raffia wool, and it's not at all fun to work with. It's like crocheting with old straw.  I'll do this kit, but have no intention of ever voluntarily doing anything that requires me to use it in the future.  The pattern is fine (even if it sounds like gibberish to Dad, who isn't familiar with crochet at all so has no idea what the terms mean) but the papery wool stuff is horrid to work with.  They included a tube of hand cream with the kit, and I can easily see why they felt that was so important to include.

~

We've already identified some kits from the selection I got from the subscription services that Dad will be doing for me, or have to help me with a lot.  I wish I could do them all, but some of them just aren't practical for me to do with my lack of sight, and I'm likely to get frustrated with attempting it.  The main thing is to have the kits get put together really, so we've decided those he'll need to do himself he can do while I work on some other project alongside him, whether another of the kits or something else I might want to work on.

 

~

 

I'm also working on some loom knitted socks.  I haven't gotten very far with them yet, but I only learned to loom knit at the start of the year, so I think I can be forgiven for being slow at it.  Besides, I've also been working on several other projects, as you can see from those I've shared in this post.

*~*

A while back my Mam gave us her Kindle Fire 7 so we had a second one, since she wasn't really using it.  I've been using that one so that Kelly could have my Kindle Fire 8, since my one had a bigger screen.  But they had a deal on the newer version of the Kindle Fire 8 a few weeks ago (don't know if it's still on offer, but it was then) so I took the oppertunity to grab myself the newer version of the Kindle Fire 8, along with a sturdy purple case for it, so that Kelly can still have the old Kindle Fire 8 and Mam can have her Kindle Fire 7 back.  Plus, I got a brand new more current model of the Kindle Fire 8 out of the deal.  Both Kelly and Mam are happy with the arrangement, and I definitely am, so everybody wins.

 

~

 

My iPhone needed upgrading too.  I was still using an iPhone 6S, which was starting to be an issue for updates, and the battery life wasn't as good as it once was any more.  My mobile contract had reached the point where I was entitled to a free upgrade months ago though, so I contacted my provider to arrange that.

I now have a purple iPhone 12.  It's a light purple, which both Dad and Kelly describe as being, "A lilac-ish colour."

Kelly has one too.  Not a purple one, but an iPhone 12.  His first smart phone.  His is black.

So far we're both loving our new phones.

 

 *~*

 

Mam and I did a bit of a Halloween photoshoot with the dogs.  This year we had a bat theme going on.

 

So, in the below photos, Lilie, Logan, and Izabel (Izabel is Mam's dog, for anyone who doesn't know) have a little purple charm on their collars that’s a bat on a bow, and a dog toy that’s a black and pink bat with orange feet in the shot with them.  The bat toy is one of a pair of them I brought for the dogs recently.  Lilie had already removed the squeaker from hers before we thought to use them as props for the photos, but Logan’s was still in good enough shape to use.  Anyway, here are the photos: