—1—
I guess I'd better get the first thing out of the way: the final chapter in our baby rat saga.
When we naively brought home two pet rats from the pet store in June, we didn't have the faintest idea that BOTH of them were pregnant and BOTH would eventually abandon their litters. But that's what happened
As of last week's 7QT, we'd already lost the first litter and were trying to save the second. Unfortunately, on Sunday, we lost the last survivors from the second litter.
They were very small for their age when their mother abandoned them, which I assumed meant they'd been malnourished and they'd put on weight once we started feeding them.
But as the days went on without them gaining a single gram, we realized they just weren't absorbing nutrients. That's probably why Scout abandoned the litter in the first place. They were failing to thrive; she just knew it before we did.
It was a sad lesson for the kids, but not entirely a bad experience. We were all working together for a good cause, and they sure did love the heck out of those things for as long as their little ratty lives lasted.
We miss the babies and it's kind of strange now to just play with Scout and Piper as we'd intended when we bought them. But life is what it is, I guess, and you take what you get and enjoy it as you can.
—2—
Do the fonts on my blog look any different to you?
For some time, I've been vaguely aware that the fonts I use on Unremarkable Files don't display correctly on every browser, but I was too busy to worry about it. To be honest, it was displaying okay for me so I kind of forgot about it.
But when I mentioned it to Phillip, he spent an evening helping me fix it and now it displays the way I intended for everyone. At least I think it does!
—3—
For some reason, wasps really like to hang out on our deck. They're always building nests under the railing, in the light fixtures, on the patio umbrella... one time I moved my son's booster seat at the patio table and a bunch of wasps who'd moved in flew out of the bottom!
We've had surprisingly few stings, but this week my daughter cleaning the sliding doors upset some wasps who'd made a nest in the gutter overhead. She was stung in the face, right above her upper lip.
Over the next two days, it swelled up so huge she could barely close her mouth. (I thought she looked like a cute Muppet, but she disagreed.)
The swelling is gone now, but I don't know if she'll ever be able to enjoy being on the deck again. We tried to eat lunch out there yesterday, but every time something flew by in the air there was a sonic boom and suddenly she was on the other side of the yard.
Not exactly a relaxing experience.
—4—
The kids and I haven't been getting out much these days, but this week we went to a butterfly garden.
The younger kids immediately stole my phone and took 100 pictures that looked like this:
Luckily, I asked my 14-year-old to text me some of her good pictures.
Isn't this one beautiful? I love how she caught them just barely leaving the ground.
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| Love the shadows. |
There were so many interesting kinds of butterflies, and it wasn't even that big of a place.
We even caught a glimpse of the rare Coronavirus Butterfly at the entrance.
 |
| He could be smiling or sticking his tongue out at me behind that thing, I wouldn't know the difference. |
—5—
I'm still not sure how this happened, but I've started running several times a week.
I know regular exercise is good for me and I tried for a while to do body combat, but my 38-year-old joints weren't on board with the it. At least this gets me outside.
While I don't love running, sometimes I hate it less than usual and that's something.
Phillip, who has been crazy about running since high school, is very pleased with himself. Somehow, he managed to create this arrangement where I take the 8-year-old out for a warm-up jog, then drop her off at home so I can go for my real run, except my real run is actually where my 16-year-old takes me out for her warm up jog, then drops me off at home and goes for her real run.
Is this Inception? I think this is Inception.
—6—
We haven't had the best luck with appliances. They never last as long for us as they're supposed to, although they usually do make it just past their warranty date.
We splurged on an expensive fridge a few years ago, and it just started leaking water on the floor. Phillip wants to see if he can fix it, so he got on Facebook Marketplace and bought a cheap fridge as a placeholder.
Once we got it in the kitchen and transferred our food, we found that even though it's ugly on the outside, it's more functional on the inside and we may even end up liking it better.
No word yet on the final fate of our expensive fridge, but I will say that Phillip is in love with Facebook Marketplace now (that's the first time he'd used it) and I'm a little scared.
—7—
Sometimes my teenagers watch action movies with Phillip and I never, ever join them. Recently one of them asked me why not.
"I guess I think action movies are boring," I told them, and it's true. If an action sequence goes on for very long I seriously zone out and start thinking about my grocery list. Too many explosions or collisions, and I'm slapping myself in the face going C'mon, focus!
"How can you think they're boring??" they squealed. Action movies are, by definition, supposed to be exciting. That's why they're called action movies.
I shrugged and said I didn't know, I just don't think they are.
"What do you think is exciting, then?"
They were not impressed when I told them "when stuff is clean."
That conversation happened a while ago, but it came to mind again last weekend when I realized it was Friday night and Phillip and I were shopping online for toilet seats.
Our old toilet seat was beat-up and in sore need of replacement, and after one online purchase and a quick installation the whole bathroom looks like a million bucks.
I defy anyone to tell me that is not exciting.
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