Kaylin had two friends over today and I took the girls and Logan down to Galena Marina and then to Detweiller Park. The kids had a blast trying to break the ice on the river with large rocks and then throwing lots and lots of sticks out onto the ice. I have no idea what the thrill was, but it kept them entertained for longer than one would think. They then wanted to climb on the rope mountain at Detweiller Park, so I grabbed my binoculars to look for birds in the woods while they played. I heard a major ruckus that could only be a pileated woodpecker. I hadn't seen one yet this year so I hurried to find it. The nonstop chatter was an obvious alarm call. I've never heard a woodpecker freaking out over an owl, but what else could trigger this commotion? Sure enough, a barred owl flew through the woods and landed in a tree right in front of Logan and me. We decided right then to go back to Sand Ridge State Forest to try to find more owls.
We were strolling through the woods at Sand Ridge when Logan hooted out a barred owl call just for fun. A few seconds later, one answered him! They called back and forth for several minutes before the owl flew off. We then headed for Lake Chautauqua for a while where we saw a family of trumpeter swans in a field and thousands and thousands of Canada geese on the open areas of the lake. It was getting dark and we decided to drive through Sand Ridge one last time on our way home. A third barred owl flew across the road right in front of our car! Three barred owls in one day! Plus, I added pileated and hairy woodpeckers and rough-legged hawk to my year list. A good day of impromptu birding for sure! Oh, and these were owls 8,9 and 10 for the YEAR. We've seen 7 barred and 3 great horned owls so far. We've heard one eastern screech owl, but we just can't SEE one. Gene just built and hung a screech owl box in the backyard, so hopefully one will move in some day.
The pets have been a constant source of entertainment. Scout the dog will chase Tiger the cat and then Princess the cat will jump into the game and chase Scout. Or Tiger will turn around and chase Scout. It's a big game of tag they all seem to enjoy. Princess likes to sleep in my arms between my body and my computer keyboard. Scout gets jealous and crams into the chair with us. Princess has been wonderful, other than shedding massive quantities of orange hair onto every piece of my clothing.
Being back at work has been amazing. I'm so happy to be back full-time and finally falling back into my groove. Wednesday was our zoo keeper group's crock pot cook-off fundraiser. We had a great turnout and made far more money than I expected. I've been having a good time working with the tiger cubs again. My foot has been feeling pretty good. I've still been doing lots of stretches and exercises every day. It sometimes hurts at the end of the day, but the pain is nothing compared to what it was before surgery. I'm hoping this keeps up to the point where someday it heals completely. We'll see...
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013
Back to Work for Real
I have now completed a week back at work full time and once again, I can't believe how little pain I'm having! Wednesday night my foot was tired and achy, but nothing even resembling the pain before surgery. Work itself has been crazy, trying to catch up on all of the changes while I was away. An entire new computer animal records system was launched and I missed all of the tutorials and discussion. It took me several days last week to even get my sign-in and figure out how to log on to the system. Our computer person ended up emailing me a copy of the reports from the time I was gone and it was over 600 pages long! I read it all, but I missed a couple of crucial items that were so old-hand to my relief keepers, no one bothered to tell me because they assumed I already knew. I finally am capable of entering basic notes about my animals and just need to tweak my abilities so I can make notes about groups of animals together. All of the frustration and confusion has been greatly outweighed by how happy I am just to be back at work! I'm still extremely doubtful that I will retire from zoo keeping, but I'm becoming more optimistic that I will be able to do it a while longer.
I came home Tuesday night to a sad, wet dog, fresh from a bath (given by Gene). The kids had been playing outside and Scout was tearing along the muddy fenceline with the neighbor dog. The kids (along with the neighbor kids) like to go outside and scream and be very loud. This makes the dogs crazy and they run the fenceline, barking non-stop. I told them that while it's muddy, they need to lock Scout in the house because he's so low to the ground and has such long fur on his legs, neck and tail, that he is completely matted with mud, rather than just having muddy paws. They didn't listen...
Wednesday night I came home in pain and wanted to shower and then sit and rest for a few minutes before I had to be somewhere at 6:30pm. I pulled up to the mailbox and could hear the kids SCREAMING in the back yard. I barely cracked the door to come inside and Kaylin ran inside and stated "Scout's completely covered with mud again. I locked him in the garage and I'm going to Kira's." I was shocked and furious that after my instruction she not only allowed the dog to get muddy again, but COMPLETELY ASSUMED that "I" would take care of the mess while she dashed off to a friend's house. Not happening, Pumpkin! I sent Kira home and put Kaylin to work. I didn't want poor Scout to have another bath- it's not good for his skin, so I tried to have Kaylin brush him out. His fur is too long and fine. He HAD to have another bath. And the kitchen floor needed to be scrubbed of muddy paw prints. And mud needed to be cleaned from the living room chairs. And I didn't get my rest time and was very late to my evening obligation. But... Guess who was NOT outside and covered with mud when I came home Thursday? Hopefully, a lesson was learned.
Well, my past two weeks have been mostly about returning to work. I've been crazy-busy, but don't have a lot to write about. I think I'll take it easy this weekend and rest my feet and try to figure out the new work computer system. Logan wants to look for owls tonight, so we'll probably do that.
I came home Tuesday night to a sad, wet dog, fresh from a bath (given by Gene). The kids had been playing outside and Scout was tearing along the muddy fenceline with the neighbor dog. The kids (along with the neighbor kids) like to go outside and scream and be very loud. This makes the dogs crazy and they run the fenceline, barking non-stop. I told them that while it's muddy, they need to lock Scout in the house because he's so low to the ground and has such long fur on his legs, neck and tail, that he is completely matted with mud, rather than just having muddy paws. They didn't listen...
Wednesday night I came home in pain and wanted to shower and then sit and rest for a few minutes before I had to be somewhere at 6:30pm. I pulled up to the mailbox and could hear the kids SCREAMING in the back yard. I barely cracked the door to come inside and Kaylin ran inside and stated "Scout's completely covered with mud again. I locked him in the garage and I'm going to Kira's." I was shocked and furious that after my instruction she not only allowed the dog to get muddy again, but COMPLETELY ASSUMED that "I" would take care of the mess while she dashed off to a friend's house. Not happening, Pumpkin! I sent Kira home and put Kaylin to work. I didn't want poor Scout to have another bath- it's not good for his skin, so I tried to have Kaylin brush him out. His fur is too long and fine. He HAD to have another bath. And the kitchen floor needed to be scrubbed of muddy paw prints. And mud needed to be cleaned from the living room chairs. And I didn't get my rest time and was very late to my evening obligation. But... Guess who was NOT outside and covered with mud when I came home Thursday? Hopefully, a lesson was learned.
Well, my past two weeks have been mostly about returning to work. I've been crazy-busy, but don't have a lot to write about. I think I'll take it easy this weekend and rest my feet and try to figure out the new work computer system. Logan wants to look for owls tonight, so we'll probably do that.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Back to Work
I've been back at work for two half-days and I can't believe how much pain I'm NOT in! I'm working half-days all this week to make my transition a little easier. I "think" that my doctor will release me to work full days next week, but I am not going to make that prediction. It has been wonderful to be back with my animals. The biggest tiger cub was (I think) 37 pounds the last day I worked before my surgery. I don't know his exact weight today, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was around 100 pounds. The cubs are still super-cute, but they are about half the size of adults. They all four play together, but it seems like the two boys stick together most of the time. They like to play rough. Mama tiger Kyra has a lot more time to herself now- the cubs no longer cling to her every second. I was also happy to start working with the takin, emus and muntjac again and didn't realize how much I missed them.
I stretch my feet and legs for 15 minutes before work and 45 minutes after work and before bed. I still do my ridiculous routine of picking up marbles with my toes, rolling a golf ball under my feet and stretching on the floor with a towel. I have also added two spiky half balls that massage my feet while stretching my feet and calves. They can be very painful, but have been working nicely. They can be used sitting down and I plan to use them at lunch when I start working full time.
Today is the kids' final day of winter vacation. They both left to go play with neighbor kids pretty much the second I walked through the door. Gene's schedule changed enough that I will now be taking Logan to "morning latchkey" at his school. He's a little disappointed, but he understands that it will be very hard for Gene or me to come back home if he misses the bus or the bus doesn't come. Logan is really responsible and I can't imagine he would EVER miss the bus because he got caught up watching TV or dawdling, but he has substitute bus drivers constantly and the possibility of the bus coming early or very late or skipping him is too great. I will feel much more comfortable dropping him off at school and it's only for a semester. Next school year will be a golden year that both kids are at the same school. Yippee!
Logan and I had an amazing week of owling last week. We saw the great horned owl on New Year's Eve and then saw a barred owl and another great horned owl and heard a screech owl on New Year's Day. We saw another barred owl on Friday. We also found the goose migration at Lake Chautauqua. There were thousands (probably tens of thousands) of snow geese, greater white-fronted geese and Canada geese. The snow geese were doing their thing where they rise up in a giant cloud. We also found mute, tundra and trumpeter swans and a giant migration of red-winged blackbirds that looked like a river flying over us. We had 35 species for the first day of the year. It was a fun trip because every bird was a year bird. Raptors were everywhere and we counted 32 red-tailed hawks, 6 kestrels, 1 Cooper's hawk, 8 northern harriers and I can't remember how many bald eagles, but they out-numbered the red-tailed hawks. It was a great day of birding and our best ever week of owling.
I stretch my feet and legs for 15 minutes before work and 45 minutes after work and before bed. I still do my ridiculous routine of picking up marbles with my toes, rolling a golf ball under my feet and stretching on the floor with a towel. I have also added two spiky half balls that massage my feet while stretching my feet and calves. They can be very painful, but have been working nicely. They can be used sitting down and I plan to use them at lunch when I start working full time.
Today is the kids' final day of winter vacation. They both left to go play with neighbor kids pretty much the second I walked through the door. Gene's schedule changed enough that I will now be taking Logan to "morning latchkey" at his school. He's a little disappointed, but he understands that it will be very hard for Gene or me to come back home if he misses the bus or the bus doesn't come. Logan is really responsible and I can't imagine he would EVER miss the bus because he got caught up watching TV or dawdling, but he has substitute bus drivers constantly and the possibility of the bus coming early or very late or skipping him is too great. I will feel much more comfortable dropping him off at school and it's only for a semester. Next school year will be a golden year that both kids are at the same school. Yippee!
Logan and I had an amazing week of owling last week. We saw the great horned owl on New Year's Eve and then saw a barred owl and another great horned owl and heard a screech owl on New Year's Day. We saw another barred owl on Friday. We also found the goose migration at Lake Chautauqua. There were thousands (probably tens of thousands) of snow geese, greater white-fronted geese and Canada geese. The snow geese were doing their thing where they rise up in a giant cloud. We also found mute, tundra and trumpeter swans and a giant migration of red-winged blackbirds that looked like a river flying over us. We had 35 species for the first day of the year. It was a fun trip because every bird was a year bird. Raptors were everywhere and we counted 32 red-tailed hawks, 6 kestrels, 1 Cooper's hawk, 8 northern harriers and I can't remember how many bald eagles, but they out-numbered the red-tailed hawks. It was a great day of birding and our best ever week of owling.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Happy New Year!
My kids give me no end of crap about the fact that I'm always incapable of staying up until midnight to celebrate the new year. Last year I fell asleep in my recliner and Gene made the kids be quiet so that I could sleep. They warned me that THIS year I better go to bed if I'm going to fall asleep early because they are NOT being quiet, thankyouverymuch! I'm doing my best to stay awake until midnight. I went to McDonalds at 6pm and got a coffee and an iced tea. It's 10:20pm and I'm still going strong. I'm going to make it this year! Maybe...
I scheduled this week off work for vacation long before I scheduled my foot surgery. We had planned to go away for a few days, but we didn't decide where to go and I didn't plan boarding for Scout. I waited too long and my boarding kennel was full. We decided to leave him for one night and go to Gurnee to the KeyLime Cove waterpark resort. We stopped in Schaumburg on the way to go to the Lego Store at Woodfield Mall and to eat at Fuddrucker's. Logan used his Christmas money and bought a Lego police bank robbery set and a fire truck. As we were leaving the store, I noticed one remaining Harry Potter Diagon Alley set. This is probably the coolest Lego set I've ever seen and I've wanted it for well over a year since I first saw it in the catalog. I didn't ever buy it because I'm a cheapskate. Also, this set was exclusive to the Lego Store so I wasn't seeing it all the time. All of the Harry Potter Legos are now retired and I knew I'd never see this set again. If I wanted it, it was now or never. Gene and Kaylin convinced me to go ahead and buy it. I was thrilled to find it was on sale for $30 off! I spent most of my day today building that huge, huge set and it is AWESOME! Logan also built his new sets today and is still playing with them.
KeyLime Cove was fun as always. With the holiday weekend it was busier than usual, but that really only meant a long wait for the most popular waterslide. The kids still got to ride it many times and went on the other slides countless times. I still can't go barefoot, so I didn't swim. Gene hates to swim, so I had company. The arcade at this resort is our family's favorite. Kaylin and I got addicted to this ridiculous Wizard of Oz game. It was one of those "token pusher" games, but you didn't win tokens or tickets, just these stupid plastic coins that were worth one ticket apiece if you turned them in. You could also potentially win Wizard of Oz trading cards, but when they fell off the edge, the machine just "ate" them and we never received one. I don't know what it was about that stupid game, but we both wanted to play it over and over. It made no sense! Gene and Logan played good games and won lots of tickets. Kaylin won an adorable Nerds candy nerd stuffed animal from a skill crane. We had pizza and ice cream and lots of fun.
Sunday after we checked out of KeyLime Cove, we headed over to Gurnee Mills mall and ate lunch at Rainforest Cafe. We shared entrees and then got a Sparkling Volcano for dessert. It's a giant brownie sundae that is served with a sparkler on top and is dee-licious. We went to Serpent Safari (a reptile zoo inside the mall) and saw a HUGE Burmese python and a huge anaconda. We have large Burmese pythons at the zoo, but this one must have been 5 times bigger than ours. They also had all kinds of lizards and snakes and the biggest alligator snapping turtle I've ever seen. It was a pretty impressive collection in pathetically inadequate and filthy enclosures. I did like that we got a guided tour and the tour guide told us about each animal. We then went to the Disney Store and Kaylin bought some Lion King toys. We hit a few other stores and headed home. It was a really fun weekend. The pets all did fine, but were happy for some human attention.
I had planned to go to Banner Marsh today to try to find one last year bird to make my goal of 180 birds in 2012. When it started snowing, I decided to stay home. Instead, Logan and I headed to Galena Marina late this afternoon for one last shot. We saw lots of birds, but nothing new. I ended my year at 179 birds. My goal for 2013 is 200. I think I will make it. We did have some excitement for our final bird of the year. As we were leaving the marina and driving past the golf course, a great horned owl flew in front of the car and landed on a light post. It was still just light enough to get a good look. We watched it swoop down and disappear into thin air, only to appear a second later on a power line where we watched it until it flew off again.
Overall, 2012 was a good year. I had some great times birding and saw my first snowy owl and burrowing owls. Logan got interested in birding and came with me on many adventures including two fun road trips to Minnesota and Michigan and many trips to Emiquon. We had family vacations to South Dakota, St. Louis, Wisconsin Dells and Chicago. I changed back to my old "string" at work and got to work with the tiger cubs. We lost Duncan the dog and Willow the cat, but then got Scout and Princess. We played with Legos and ate frozen yogurt at Sweet CeCe's. We watched lots of SpongeBob and played lots of basketball and baseball. We played fetch with Scout's toy pig 40 million times. We laughed a lot. I spent my 40th birthday using a walker to get around. I had two months off of work following a surgery that hopefully fixed my foot and I didn't completely freak out.
My biggest goal for 2013 is to return to work and be pain-free. I suppose that is more of a wish than a goal, but I'm going for it. I also plan to lose some of the weight I gained during the past few years of being in constant foot pain and unable to exercise. I want to become better at identifying birds and start to work on birding by ear. I want to be better about cooking for my family. I hope to figure out what to do with my life if I can no longer be a zoo keeper. Here's to hoping that 2013 is the best year ever!
(It's 11:45pm and I'm still awake. I think I'm going to make it!)
I scheduled this week off work for vacation long before I scheduled my foot surgery. We had planned to go away for a few days, but we didn't decide where to go and I didn't plan boarding for Scout. I waited too long and my boarding kennel was full. We decided to leave him for one night and go to Gurnee to the KeyLime Cove waterpark resort. We stopped in Schaumburg on the way to go to the Lego Store at Woodfield Mall and to eat at Fuddrucker's. Logan used his Christmas money and bought a Lego police bank robbery set and a fire truck. As we were leaving the store, I noticed one remaining Harry Potter Diagon Alley set. This is probably the coolest Lego set I've ever seen and I've wanted it for well over a year since I first saw it in the catalog. I didn't ever buy it because I'm a cheapskate. Also, this set was exclusive to the Lego Store so I wasn't seeing it all the time. All of the Harry Potter Legos are now retired and I knew I'd never see this set again. If I wanted it, it was now or never. Gene and Kaylin convinced me to go ahead and buy it. I was thrilled to find it was on sale for $30 off! I spent most of my day today building that huge, huge set and it is AWESOME! Logan also built his new sets today and is still playing with them.
KeyLime Cove was fun as always. With the holiday weekend it was busier than usual, but that really only meant a long wait for the most popular waterslide. The kids still got to ride it many times and went on the other slides countless times. I still can't go barefoot, so I didn't swim. Gene hates to swim, so I had company. The arcade at this resort is our family's favorite. Kaylin and I got addicted to this ridiculous Wizard of Oz game. It was one of those "token pusher" games, but you didn't win tokens or tickets, just these stupid plastic coins that were worth one ticket apiece if you turned them in. You could also potentially win Wizard of Oz trading cards, but when they fell off the edge, the machine just "ate" them and we never received one. I don't know what it was about that stupid game, but we both wanted to play it over and over. It made no sense! Gene and Logan played good games and won lots of tickets. Kaylin won an adorable Nerds candy nerd stuffed animal from a skill crane. We had pizza and ice cream and lots of fun.
Sunday after we checked out of KeyLime Cove, we headed over to Gurnee Mills mall and ate lunch at Rainforest Cafe. We shared entrees and then got a Sparkling Volcano for dessert. It's a giant brownie sundae that is served with a sparkler on top and is dee-licious. We went to Serpent Safari (a reptile zoo inside the mall) and saw a HUGE Burmese python and a huge anaconda. We have large Burmese pythons at the zoo, but this one must have been 5 times bigger than ours. They also had all kinds of lizards and snakes and the biggest alligator snapping turtle I've ever seen. It was a pretty impressive collection in pathetically inadequate and filthy enclosures. I did like that we got a guided tour and the tour guide told us about each animal. We then went to the Disney Store and Kaylin bought some Lion King toys. We hit a few other stores and headed home. It was a really fun weekend. The pets all did fine, but were happy for some human attention.
I had planned to go to Banner Marsh today to try to find one last year bird to make my goal of 180 birds in 2012. When it started snowing, I decided to stay home. Instead, Logan and I headed to Galena Marina late this afternoon for one last shot. We saw lots of birds, but nothing new. I ended my year at 179 birds. My goal for 2013 is 200. I think I will make it. We did have some excitement for our final bird of the year. As we were leaving the marina and driving past the golf course, a great horned owl flew in front of the car and landed on a light post. It was still just light enough to get a good look. We watched it swoop down and disappear into thin air, only to appear a second later on a power line where we watched it until it flew off again.
Overall, 2012 was a good year. I had some great times birding and saw my first snowy owl and burrowing owls. Logan got interested in birding and came with me on many adventures including two fun road trips to Minnesota and Michigan and many trips to Emiquon. We had family vacations to South Dakota, St. Louis, Wisconsin Dells and Chicago. I changed back to my old "string" at work and got to work with the tiger cubs. We lost Duncan the dog and Willow the cat, but then got Scout and Princess. We played with Legos and ate frozen yogurt at Sweet CeCe's. We watched lots of SpongeBob and played lots of basketball and baseball. We played fetch with Scout's toy pig 40 million times. We laughed a lot. I spent my 40th birthday using a walker to get around. I had two months off of work following a surgery that hopefully fixed my foot and I didn't completely freak out.
My biggest goal for 2013 is to return to work and be pain-free. I suppose that is more of a wish than a goal, but I'm going for it. I also plan to lose some of the weight I gained during the past few years of being in constant foot pain and unable to exercise. I want to become better at identifying birds and start to work on birding by ear. I want to be better about cooking for my family. I hope to figure out what to do with my life if I can no longer be a zoo keeper. Here's to hoping that 2013 is the best year ever!
(It's 11:45pm and I'm still awake. I think I'm going to make it!)
Friday, December 28, 2012
Writing Therapy
The number of books about changing careers available at Barnes and Noble is staggering. If you go online to Amazon dot com, the number probably quadruples. Googling for articles on switching careers brings up countless results. There are tons of books aimed at young people for choosing a life path. There are even more books about how to throw away the career you hate and find something that makes you happy. You know what nobody writes about? Leaving the career you love and finding something that makes you equally happy.
I'm not ready to give up zoo keeping just yet. I plan to return to work on January 6 and give it my all. I've been stretching and working out my feet and legs. I've even been doing upper body workouts to regain some of my strength after more than two months off. I can't wait to get back to the animals! However, I have had a LOT of time to think during my break. I have to force myself to be realistic. Surgery was my last option. One of the reasons I put it off so long was because I was so scared it wouldn't work. And then what? Then quit zoo keeping. Sigh. I would like to be a zoo keeper until I die. However, I would prefer to live to be 85, not 42! I can't spend another 3 years being in nonstop pain and having my feet control every aspect of my life so I can keep a dead-end job that doesn't even pay well. Even if I do love that job... And so I go, round and round, back and forth, what if this, what if that. Nothing can just be easy! Maybe my feet will heal completely and I will be fine, but I doubt it.
I'm going through a mourning process that it seems like only I can understand. Am I being ridiculous? Of course! Do I know that many, many people have it worse than me? I do. Still, it makes me sad and angry that I'm being sidelined by a condition that a huge percentage of the population has experienced and then gotten over. I'm not a wimp, but I can't handle the pain. A while back I passed a billboard advertising a new pain clinic (or something similar; I can't remember exactly what it was called.) The advertisement defined chronic pain and I was shocked to realize that I qualified. I can't begin to count the hours of sleep I have lost, the activities I have stopped doing, the things I have skipped doing with my kids- all because of foot pain and giving everything I had to work, which perpetuated the pain and made it worse. I know I have to end this crazy cycle, but I don't want to give up my job.
Yesterday I had lunch with an old friend. She left the zoo a year ago to pursue a health career with better advancement and earning potential. She had a tumultuous year adjusting to all the change, but yesterday she was the happiest I can remember seeing her. She enjoys her new job and is excited about the potential for advancement. She's still not positive what track she wants to take, but is exploring the possibilities and is excited to start taking classes. I need to approach career change as an exciting adventure, but first I need to loosen my death grip on my zoo job. How do I do that? No idea.
I'm not ready to give up zoo keeping just yet. I plan to return to work on January 6 and give it my all. I've been stretching and working out my feet and legs. I've even been doing upper body workouts to regain some of my strength after more than two months off. I can't wait to get back to the animals! However, I have had a LOT of time to think during my break. I have to force myself to be realistic. Surgery was my last option. One of the reasons I put it off so long was because I was so scared it wouldn't work. And then what? Then quit zoo keeping. Sigh. I would like to be a zoo keeper until I die. However, I would prefer to live to be 85, not 42! I can't spend another 3 years being in nonstop pain and having my feet control every aspect of my life so I can keep a dead-end job that doesn't even pay well. Even if I do love that job... And so I go, round and round, back and forth, what if this, what if that. Nothing can just be easy! Maybe my feet will heal completely and I will be fine, but I doubt it.
I'm going through a mourning process that it seems like only I can understand. Am I being ridiculous? Of course! Do I know that many, many people have it worse than me? I do. Still, it makes me sad and angry that I'm being sidelined by a condition that a huge percentage of the population has experienced and then gotten over. I'm not a wimp, but I can't handle the pain. A while back I passed a billboard advertising a new pain clinic (or something similar; I can't remember exactly what it was called.) The advertisement defined chronic pain and I was shocked to realize that I qualified. I can't begin to count the hours of sleep I have lost, the activities I have stopped doing, the things I have skipped doing with my kids- all because of foot pain and giving everything I had to work, which perpetuated the pain and made it worse. I know I have to end this crazy cycle, but I don't want to give up my job.
Yesterday I had lunch with an old friend. She left the zoo a year ago to pursue a health career with better advancement and earning potential. She had a tumultuous year adjusting to all the change, but yesterday she was the happiest I can remember seeing her. She enjoys her new job and is excited about the potential for advancement. She's still not positive what track she wants to take, but is exploring the possibilities and is excited to start taking classes. I need to approach career change as an exciting adventure, but first I need to loosen my death grip on my zoo job. How do I do that? No idea.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Merry Christmas!
Princess is settling in very nicely. Unfortunately, she has an upper respiratory infection she brought home from the shelter. She's stuffy and sneezing and not eating very well. Otherwise, she's very affectionate with everyone including visitors. I can tell she's not feeling her best, but the illness and subsequent lethargy has probably been a bonus when it comes to her budding relationship with Scout the dachshund. Scout no longer tries to dominate Princess, but he does like to sniff her and invade her space. At first she would puff up and hiss and swat, but that took a lot of energy. She seems to have accepted the unfortunate fact that she now has an annoying little brother and she allows him a small amount of sniffing. Scout is being relatively respectful of his new big sis and I'm sure he understands that Princess will put him in his place if he steps too far out of line.
We had our family Christmas celebration yesterday morning and declared the day a pajama day. Only Kaylin literally spent the entire day in pajamas, but we all relaxed and played with new toys all day long. Scout was hilarious. He was far more excited and had at least as good of a time with his new toys as the kids. His favorite new toy was a realistic-looking possum with latex head, feet and tail and furry plush body. He played with that thing for hours. Logan played most with his new basketball. He was out in the cold shooting hoops a good part of the day. He also got the new Mario game for his 3DS and a race track with tiny cars. Princess was very interested in the cars zooming around the track. Kaylin spent her day playing with new fairy dolls, toy cats and a gigantic bean bag that all of the pets also enjoyed. We all played the silly family game of the year- Doggie Doo. It involves feeding a large plastic dachshund slime treats and then taking turns pumping its leash until it poops out the slime. Whoever collects three poops first wins. The game is gross and stupid, but it's also hilarious and really fun. We were all having a good time and laughing together. I suppose that's the entire point of playing a game as a family!
It was a really good day. That is, until I got the genius idea to bake cookies from scratch. This is, of course, something I've probably never done in my life. I got a huge set of animal cookie cutters earlier this year and wanted to make cut-out sugar cookies. I found a highly rated recipe online and dug through my cupboards for ingredients. I had everything I needed except almond extract and baking soda. I was completely shocked that I had baking powder and not baking soda. I had to leave the house and run to the store for 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Ugh. (I was totally planning to replace the almond extract with vanilla, so I wasn't concerned about that.) Well, we needed to buy batteries anyway, so I figured I'd zip over to Big Lots and get my batteries and baking soda. Fail. Big Lots had both regular AND blue agave nectar, but no baking soda. I waited in an INCREDIBLY long line to pay for my batteries and headed over to Kroger. I immediately found almond extract, but couldn't find baking soda. I scanned the shelves again, and on the tippy-top shelf, so far back that I almost couldn't see, were three remaining boxes of baking soda. There was no way I was getting to that baking soda without a ladder. I waited for a tall person and even though the nice woman was probably at least 5' 10", she still struggled to reach the baking soda. I thanked her profusely and paid for my "treasure". Seriously, who ever would have thought a 75 cent box of baking soda would be so much trouble? I suppose my unexpected hour of shopping gave my butter extra time to soften...
Okay. I was home with all my ingredients. If I made the cookie dough RIGHT NOW, I'd still have enough time for the dough to chill two hours and bake the cookies before bed. Unexpected visitor, Gene made dinner, an hour and a half later... Well, the butter's pretty soft. Okay, I got a flour sifter as a wedding present almost 20 years ago. I know I used it once in this house (so at some point in the past 13 years) but where is it? It apparently no longer exists. Online consult for what to use instead. A strainer? Cool. Huh, it's now 8pm and we all know that's pretty close to my bed time. These cookies are NOT getting baked tonight! My dough is currently chilling in the fridge. I have absolutely no clue if it looks like it's supposed to and if my cookies will even turn out. I guess I'll give it a shot, but honestly? I'm over it. I don't wanna make cookies anymore. (Whine, whine) And I still have to make the frosting. Guess what, Mom? I'm bringing cookies tonight and you will eat them and like them! Just kidding, you don't have to like them. I take this as more proof that I am not meant to bake. Amen.
Completely off topic, but if I don't cram it in it will never be included. Meghan and I did the Audubon Christmas Bird Count a week ago Saturday. It was rainy and windy most of the day and not at all a good day for birding. However, we did see 34 species, which isn't bad for our designated area of Peoria. We started our day at 5:30am, hoping to spend an hour owling- meaning trying to call in owls with a CD recording of owl calls. The rain poured down from our start time until it started getting light. We did get to try for a few minutes when it was just misting, but no owls came. We had given up and were driving to Panera for breakfast when a great horned owl swooped over our car and into the woods. Yay! Otherwise, we spent the entire day driving around our designated area, identifying and recording every bird we saw. The day warmed to the lower 50s, so despite the incessant rain it wasn't too uncomfortable. Highlights included several bald eagles, 64 wild turkeys, 146 ruddy ducks and a flock of ~15 cardinals. I've never seen that many cardinals all together before. The absolute low light was a hike through Forest Park Nature Center where once we were past the feeder areas, we literally did not see one bird. Wait, we saw two ring-billed gulls flying high over the woods, but not one woodpecker or nuthatch or chickadee. I guess they were all at the feeders! Our unexpected bird of the day was a gray catbird in the bushes in front of the visitor center building. They're very common in the warm months, but have usually migrated by now. We ended our long day around 4pm. Overall, it was a better day than expected. We spent the rainy times slowly crusising around cemeteries, neighborhoods and golf courses and the dryer times in parks and scoping birds along the river. I remember thinking it was too bad the count wasn't scheduled for another week, but I was sure glad this past Saturday when I woke up to a sunny, clear morning and saw that the temperature was 13F! Rain and 50F win!
We had our family Christmas celebration yesterday morning and declared the day a pajama day. Only Kaylin literally spent the entire day in pajamas, but we all relaxed and played with new toys all day long. Scout was hilarious. He was far more excited and had at least as good of a time with his new toys as the kids. His favorite new toy was a realistic-looking possum with latex head, feet and tail and furry plush body. He played with that thing for hours. Logan played most with his new basketball. He was out in the cold shooting hoops a good part of the day. He also got the new Mario game for his 3DS and a race track with tiny cars. Princess was very interested in the cars zooming around the track. Kaylin spent her day playing with new fairy dolls, toy cats and a gigantic bean bag that all of the pets also enjoyed. We all played the silly family game of the year- Doggie Doo. It involves feeding a large plastic dachshund slime treats and then taking turns pumping its leash until it poops out the slime. Whoever collects three poops first wins. The game is gross and stupid, but it's also hilarious and really fun. We were all having a good time and laughing together. I suppose that's the entire point of playing a game as a family!
It was a really good day. That is, until I got the genius idea to bake cookies from scratch. This is, of course, something I've probably never done in my life. I got a huge set of animal cookie cutters earlier this year and wanted to make cut-out sugar cookies. I found a highly rated recipe online and dug through my cupboards for ingredients. I had everything I needed except almond extract and baking soda. I was completely shocked that I had baking powder and not baking soda. I had to leave the house and run to the store for 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Ugh. (I was totally planning to replace the almond extract with vanilla, so I wasn't concerned about that.) Well, we needed to buy batteries anyway, so I figured I'd zip over to Big Lots and get my batteries and baking soda. Fail. Big Lots had both regular AND blue agave nectar, but no baking soda. I waited in an INCREDIBLY long line to pay for my batteries and headed over to Kroger. I immediately found almond extract, but couldn't find baking soda. I scanned the shelves again, and on the tippy-top shelf, so far back that I almost couldn't see, were three remaining boxes of baking soda. There was no way I was getting to that baking soda without a ladder. I waited for a tall person and even though the nice woman was probably at least 5' 10", she still struggled to reach the baking soda. I thanked her profusely and paid for my "treasure". Seriously, who ever would have thought a 75 cent box of baking soda would be so much trouble? I suppose my unexpected hour of shopping gave my butter extra time to soften...
Okay. I was home with all my ingredients. If I made the cookie dough RIGHT NOW, I'd still have enough time for the dough to chill two hours and bake the cookies before bed. Unexpected visitor, Gene made dinner, an hour and a half later... Well, the butter's pretty soft. Okay, I got a flour sifter as a wedding present almost 20 years ago. I know I used it once in this house (so at some point in the past 13 years) but where is it? It apparently no longer exists. Online consult for what to use instead. A strainer? Cool. Huh, it's now 8pm and we all know that's pretty close to my bed time. These cookies are NOT getting baked tonight! My dough is currently chilling in the fridge. I have absolutely no clue if it looks like it's supposed to and if my cookies will even turn out. I guess I'll give it a shot, but honestly? I'm over it. I don't wanna make cookies anymore. (Whine, whine) And I still have to make the frosting. Guess what, Mom? I'm bringing cookies tonight and you will eat them and like them! Just kidding, you don't have to like them. I take this as more proof that I am not meant to bake. Amen.
Completely off topic, but if I don't cram it in it will never be included. Meghan and I did the Audubon Christmas Bird Count a week ago Saturday. It was rainy and windy most of the day and not at all a good day for birding. However, we did see 34 species, which isn't bad for our designated area of Peoria. We started our day at 5:30am, hoping to spend an hour owling- meaning trying to call in owls with a CD recording of owl calls. The rain poured down from our start time until it started getting light. We did get to try for a few minutes when it was just misting, but no owls came. We had given up and were driving to Panera for breakfast when a great horned owl swooped over our car and into the woods. Yay! Otherwise, we spent the entire day driving around our designated area, identifying and recording every bird we saw. The day warmed to the lower 50s, so despite the incessant rain it wasn't too uncomfortable. Highlights included several bald eagles, 64 wild turkeys, 146 ruddy ducks and a flock of ~15 cardinals. I've never seen that many cardinals all together before. The absolute low light was a hike through Forest Park Nature Center where once we were past the feeder areas, we literally did not see one bird. Wait, we saw two ring-billed gulls flying high over the woods, but not one woodpecker or nuthatch or chickadee. I guess they were all at the feeders! Our unexpected bird of the day was a gray catbird in the bushes in front of the visitor center building. They're very common in the warm months, but have usually migrated by now. We ended our long day around 4pm. Overall, it was a better day than expected. We spent the rainy times slowly crusising around cemeteries, neighborhoods and golf courses and the dryer times in parks and scoping birds along the river. I remember thinking it was too bad the count wasn't scheduled for another week, but I was sure glad this past Saturday when I woke up to a sunny, clear morning and saw that the temperature was 13F! Rain and 50F win!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Princess!
I was completely devastated when I found out I wouldn't be going back to work as expected. However, one thing that kept me from sinking into utter depression was teasing Gene that I guessed this unexpected time off was A Sign that I was supposed to get a puppy. Of course I didn't believe the "sign" business at all, but it made me giggle, and really, what would be a better time to get a puppy? I was searching Petfinder dot com when I found a listing for a "chi-weenie" puppy. A chi-weenie is part dachshund and part Chihuahua. The photos looked like a dachshund with slightly longer legs and ridiculously huge erect ears. It was one of the cutest things I'd ever seen! And it was only 30 minutes away at the TAPS shelter in Pekin!
The kids and I piled into the car and headed for Pekin. I got Brady-dog from TAPS, but that was ages ago when they were in a different building on the opposite side of town. The "new" building (I seriously don't know if they've been there a couple of years or more than 10) is really nice and based only on my two recent visits, they appear to have hoards of dedicated volunteers. Anyway, Sunday viewing hours were listed online as noon-5pm. We arrived just as the doors were being unlocked for the day and were surprised to find out that we came for the winter open house. The meeting room was filled with several tables covered with all kinds of cookies and other goodies. The kids were instantly sold on the greatness of this shelter.
We headed back to the dog areas. They have many kennel runs for big dogs as well as a large room for small dogs and puppies. TAPS is a no-kill privately run shelter. That means they can (and need to be) somewhat selective of the dogs they allow into their system because they keep them until they get adopted. In other words, their kennels are filled with cute, desirable dogs rather than the endless pit bulls and giant obnoxious mixed breeds of the publicly funded shelters where something like 2/3 of the dogs end up euthanized. Both types of shelters are necessary and have their place. I have huge amounts of respect for the "kill" shelters because they are doing a necessary and important service for our communities. I volunteered at the PAWS shelter in Peoria for a while and love their work. I will admit though, the no-kill shelters are fun instead of depressing. The employees love their jobs and don't possess the bitterness acquired from complete disgust with the human race that the "kill" employees seem to own.
Anyway, we looked at all of the dogs. We checked out the chi-weenie and it was indeed, the cutest puppy in the universe. There were even a few back-up dogs/puppies we could meet if the puppy was already adopted. We headed to the cat rooms so I could think it over. The cat rooms are amazing! They have 3 large rooms (one is huge) that the "tried and true" cats are allowed to freely mingle with each other and with the public. Kaylin was in heaven. We played and played and played with cats. We were in the largest room and a volunteer was working, playing with the confined cats. We were chatting with her off and on when Kaylin said "When I'm older and a Crazy Cat Lady, I'm going to have a room exactly like this!" The volunteer, who happened to be a woman in her late 50s, proclaimed herself a Crazy Cat Lady and told Kaylin all about her 7 cats at home. I'm pretty sure she's Kaylin's new hero.
Meanwhile, I was thinking long and hard about the reality of puppy ownership. I mean, the puppy will be a total blast while I'm off work, but what about when I go back? Do I really want to be kept up all night by a puppy and then come home to clean up mess after mess? Gene's new job is too far from home to come home at lunch to let a puppy out. That means I would have to spend every lunch (the ONLY time I get to sit and rest) driving home and back to work. I had plenty of time to puppy proof the house before going back to work, but did I really WANT to? Did I WANT to come home and take down the Christmas tree before Christmas? Did I WANT to buy a new laptop or new winter coats for the kids because the puppy destroyed them? I'm shocked to say it, but common sense kicked in. I was the only person in the house who wanted a puppy, anyway. The kids both wanted a kitten! They both requested a kitten as a family Christmas present. They were both beyond thrilled to be playing in the cat rooms rather than meeting a puppy. Logan kept his fingers in his ears the whole time we were in the dog/puppy area. In the cat area he was happily playing. I said I wanted to go back and look at the puppy one more time, but Kaylin INSISTED we go into the cat room we hadn't yet entered first. Good call, Kaylin! That's where we met Princess.
A giant orange tabby was waiting by the glass door. We entered and she immediately started rubbing and purring on all three of us. It was love at first sight! We played and played and I finally went and got our volunteer friend to give us more information on this cat. It was a 5-year-old spayed female named Princess. I won't lie, my heart sunk a bit at the name "Princess" but I'm sure I'll get over it at some point :) The volunteer brought me an adoption application and I filled it out in the meeting room while the kids stuffed their faces from the huge spread of cookies. We were then ushered to a private room where we got to meet Princess without the distraction of other cats. There were other cats in that room? Anyway, we played for another 30 minutes and then filled out more paperwork to specifically "reserve" Princess. We learned that TAPS requires a reference from your vet and since it was Sunday, the vet's office was closed. TAPS is closed on Monday, so we had to wait until Tuesday to find out if we would get Princess. Ugh. We went back into the meeting room so I could have a couple of cookies and then left the shelter without ever visiting the dog area again.
Tuesday morning I kept both my cell phone and my cordless landline phone in the pouch of my hoodie. Every minute felt like an hour. Every hour felt like a day. FINALLY, a little after noon I got the call that we had been accepted! The only catch was that Gene needed to meet Princess before we could take her home. They had never mentioned that, so it was a surprise. I was pretty disappointed because I assumed they closed at 5pm and knew there was no way Gene would be able to go until Thursday. Happiness! They closed at 7pm! Yes! We will almost certainly be able to come tonight! I immediately texted Gene and then left a message on his work phone. I then waited and waited and waited for him to call. FINALLY, at 4pm, he called. He still had to return a work van from the proving grounds to the tech center and then drive home. Ugh, okay. Hurry! We arrived at TAPS a little after 5:30 and they were busy. We visited with Princess in the cat room and showed Gene around. We looked at the dogs and the chi-weenie puppy was gone. Logan was disappointed the meeting room was now just a meeting room instead of a cookie wonderland. We completed our paperwork and instructions and headed home. She wasn't a fan of the car ride, but she just meowed uncomfortably, she wasn't yowling or anything.
Home. Time for the true test. Princess has never lived with dogs. How will she react? I kept her in her crate and allowed Scout to come sniff her. He got too excited and started barking uncontrollably so I banished him to the garage/outside. I then opened the crate and Princess walked out immediately and began to explore the house. She wasn't at all concerned with Tiger. Tess is rarely in the house, but she was last night. No issues at all between the cats. I brought Scout back in the house but put him in the pet carrier. He barked and whined to get out while Princess continued her explorations. Princess was comfortable resting in Logan's room and Scout was driving me insane so I put him on leash and we walked around. Princess was nervous, but not exactly scared. Scout was showing respect for the kitty who is at least 5 or 6 pound larger than him, so I eventually took him off leash. It was ~7:15 and we were eating dinner when we heard terrible yiping from the dog. Gene and I both jumped up, but Scout was already tearing out from Kaylin's room. I'm not sure what Princess did- there was no blood or anything- but Scout had definitely learned his place. And his place was BELOW the giant kitty!
Overnight wasn't too awful. Scout woke me a couple of times because he would either leap off the bed to chase Princess or he'd bark at her. Otherwise, I can't believe how well things are going. I think most cats would have found a place to hide and we wouldn't see them for a few days. Princess isn't like that. She came up on our bed knowing Scout was up there. If Scout tries to sniff her she discourages him with a low growl. So far, he's respected the growl. I have little doubt that Princess will dominate any future confrontations. Hopefully, Scout's peanut brain will accept his place without the necessity of bloodshed. We shall see...
The kids and I piled into the car and headed for Pekin. I got Brady-dog from TAPS, but that was ages ago when they were in a different building on the opposite side of town. The "new" building (I seriously don't know if they've been there a couple of years or more than 10) is really nice and based only on my two recent visits, they appear to have hoards of dedicated volunteers. Anyway, Sunday viewing hours were listed online as noon-5pm. We arrived just as the doors were being unlocked for the day and were surprised to find out that we came for the winter open house. The meeting room was filled with several tables covered with all kinds of cookies and other goodies. The kids were instantly sold on the greatness of this shelter.
We headed back to the dog areas. They have many kennel runs for big dogs as well as a large room for small dogs and puppies. TAPS is a no-kill privately run shelter. That means they can (and need to be) somewhat selective of the dogs they allow into their system because they keep them until they get adopted. In other words, their kennels are filled with cute, desirable dogs rather than the endless pit bulls and giant obnoxious mixed breeds of the publicly funded shelters where something like 2/3 of the dogs end up euthanized. Both types of shelters are necessary and have their place. I have huge amounts of respect for the "kill" shelters because they are doing a necessary and important service for our communities. I volunteered at the PAWS shelter in Peoria for a while and love their work. I will admit though, the no-kill shelters are fun instead of depressing. The employees love their jobs and don't possess the bitterness acquired from complete disgust with the human race that the "kill" employees seem to own.
Anyway, we looked at all of the dogs. We checked out the chi-weenie and it was indeed, the cutest puppy in the universe. There were even a few back-up dogs/puppies we could meet if the puppy was already adopted. We headed to the cat rooms so I could think it over. The cat rooms are amazing! They have 3 large rooms (one is huge) that the "tried and true" cats are allowed to freely mingle with each other and with the public. Kaylin was in heaven. We played and played and played with cats. We were in the largest room and a volunteer was working, playing with the confined cats. We were chatting with her off and on when Kaylin said "When I'm older and a Crazy Cat Lady, I'm going to have a room exactly like this!" The volunteer, who happened to be a woman in her late 50s, proclaimed herself a Crazy Cat Lady and told Kaylin all about her 7 cats at home. I'm pretty sure she's Kaylin's new hero.
Meanwhile, I was thinking long and hard about the reality of puppy ownership. I mean, the puppy will be a total blast while I'm off work, but what about when I go back? Do I really want to be kept up all night by a puppy and then come home to clean up mess after mess? Gene's new job is too far from home to come home at lunch to let a puppy out. That means I would have to spend every lunch (the ONLY time I get to sit and rest) driving home and back to work. I had plenty of time to puppy proof the house before going back to work, but did I really WANT to? Did I WANT to come home and take down the Christmas tree before Christmas? Did I WANT to buy a new laptop or new winter coats for the kids because the puppy destroyed them? I'm shocked to say it, but common sense kicked in. I was the only person in the house who wanted a puppy, anyway. The kids both wanted a kitten! They both requested a kitten as a family Christmas present. They were both beyond thrilled to be playing in the cat rooms rather than meeting a puppy. Logan kept his fingers in his ears the whole time we were in the dog/puppy area. In the cat area he was happily playing. I said I wanted to go back and look at the puppy one more time, but Kaylin INSISTED we go into the cat room we hadn't yet entered first. Good call, Kaylin! That's where we met Princess.
A giant orange tabby was waiting by the glass door. We entered and she immediately started rubbing and purring on all three of us. It was love at first sight! We played and played and I finally went and got our volunteer friend to give us more information on this cat. It was a 5-year-old spayed female named Princess. I won't lie, my heart sunk a bit at the name "Princess" but I'm sure I'll get over it at some point :) The volunteer brought me an adoption application and I filled it out in the meeting room while the kids stuffed their faces from the huge spread of cookies. We were then ushered to a private room where we got to meet Princess without the distraction of other cats. There were other cats in that room? Anyway, we played for another 30 minutes and then filled out more paperwork to specifically "reserve" Princess. We learned that TAPS requires a reference from your vet and since it was Sunday, the vet's office was closed. TAPS is closed on Monday, so we had to wait until Tuesday to find out if we would get Princess. Ugh. We went back into the meeting room so I could have a couple of cookies and then left the shelter without ever visiting the dog area again.
Tuesday morning I kept both my cell phone and my cordless landline phone in the pouch of my hoodie. Every minute felt like an hour. Every hour felt like a day. FINALLY, a little after noon I got the call that we had been accepted! The only catch was that Gene needed to meet Princess before we could take her home. They had never mentioned that, so it was a surprise. I was pretty disappointed because I assumed they closed at 5pm and knew there was no way Gene would be able to go until Thursday. Happiness! They closed at 7pm! Yes! We will almost certainly be able to come tonight! I immediately texted Gene and then left a message on his work phone. I then waited and waited and waited for him to call. FINALLY, at 4pm, he called. He still had to return a work van from the proving grounds to the tech center and then drive home. Ugh, okay. Hurry! We arrived at TAPS a little after 5:30 and they were busy. We visited with Princess in the cat room and showed Gene around. We looked at the dogs and the chi-weenie puppy was gone. Logan was disappointed the meeting room was now just a meeting room instead of a cookie wonderland. We completed our paperwork and instructions and headed home. She wasn't a fan of the car ride, but she just meowed uncomfortably, she wasn't yowling or anything.
Home. Time for the true test. Princess has never lived with dogs. How will she react? I kept her in her crate and allowed Scout to come sniff her. He got too excited and started barking uncontrollably so I banished him to the garage/outside. I then opened the crate and Princess walked out immediately and began to explore the house. She wasn't at all concerned with Tiger. Tess is rarely in the house, but she was last night. No issues at all between the cats. I brought Scout back in the house but put him in the pet carrier. He barked and whined to get out while Princess continued her explorations. Princess was comfortable resting in Logan's room and Scout was driving me insane so I put him on leash and we walked around. Princess was nervous, but not exactly scared. Scout was showing respect for the kitty who is at least 5 or 6 pound larger than him, so I eventually took him off leash. It was ~7:15 and we were eating dinner when we heard terrible yiping from the dog. Gene and I both jumped up, but Scout was already tearing out from Kaylin's room. I'm not sure what Princess did- there was no blood or anything- but Scout had definitely learned his place. And his place was BELOW the giant kitty!
Overnight wasn't too awful. Scout woke me a couple of times because he would either leap off the bed to chase Princess or he'd bark at her. Otherwise, I can't believe how well things are going. I think most cats would have found a place to hide and we wouldn't see them for a few days. Princess isn't like that. She came up on our bed knowing Scout was up there. If Scout tries to sniff her she discourages him with a low growl. So far, he's respected the growl. I have little doubt that Princess will dominate any future confrontations. Hopefully, Scout's peanut brain will accept his place without the necessity of bloodshed. We shall see...
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