critters and mores

expecting
a brand new 'critter trail one' small animal habitat to arrive momentarily via the magic of amazon.com's chipper little minions. i haven't slept in days (no, weeks!) stressing about the two little girl ratties doing the nasty with the one little boy rattie (they love to wrestle and jump on him - i HOPE they're just wrestling... it looks innocent... but i've never seen rats "doing it"... and surely he would jump on them? and not run away from them?) i keep peeking in each morning expecting to see dozens of little babies... so i am separating them today (and it breaks my heart because they are such snuggle bugs... and rats hate to be alone... and honestly how cute would their babies be??! but common sense prevails as always: we can't afford to be the Brangelina of rats)

returning
two other less amazing hamster cages that i bought this weekend to house SmokeyBear until he is big enough to fix... he is 4 ounces and needs to be a full pound. but they weren't exactly the same as the girls' cage and therefore i couldn't do it - no sireebub, each critter deserves the same habitat and treatment.

worrying
because Rosie is already 4 ounces and will fight anyone for a crust of bread with nutella on it (and she always wins)... and she was teeny tiny at first - 1.5 ounces. hmmm... Nibbles barely tips the scales at 2 oz... urgh, how i WISH there were pregnancy tests for rats :(

waiting
also for Mr UPS who is never quite as chirpy and happy as amazon's little helpers. he is bringing me 6 brand new brassieres (you are supposed to buy 6 brand new brassieres every 6 months, as per the woman's home journal rules of life... which reminds me it's been 8 years, so we neeeed to replace our mattress stat) i will surely blush bright pink when he hands them over :)

also waiting for
Mummy's homemade blurb book of sight words for Danny. it contains every sight word on his list (the hard ones two or three times), formulated into a cute picture book full of interesting facts about each family member. and it was only $15!

looking
for green smoothie recipes for the Blendtec mixer thingie. it makes ahhhhhmazing frozen coffee and milkshakes but i now need to swap the peanut butter and coffee for healthy things like kale and celery :| blah :| i only made one amazing healthy thing so far: tortilla soup - but it's truly amazing and full of healthy things that taste crap on their own. so that's cool ;)

also looking
for cheap fares to England. and by 'cheap' i mean under $1000 each :| economy :| times four :| AFTER TAXES! from any airport in the "southland" to any airport in the "homeland" - it's a tall order apparently :|

missing
Summer. oh gawd it's cold here... soooo cold i want to hiberate till it's OK to wear sandals again. this is also the reason i can't go to England till August - it's even colder than So Cal there... but when it's Summer it's technicolor green with vivid blue skies (enough blue to make many sailors many pairs of pants) and big puffy light diffusing clouds and it's so so so so beautiful and really is worth the extra copper or two ;)

trying
to decide if going to Sequoia next weekend would even be possible with my cold-sensitive skin.... i love road trips/hate being cold and too afraid to get out of the car ;)

also trying
to decide if PB2 is supposed to have that weird aftertaste or if my mouthwash is making my tastebuds malfunction... it's "better than no peanut butter", which should be the real name of "better n peanut butter". but definitely far far far worse than thick, creamy, overly sweet, overly processed peanut butter (i knew it!!)

off to walk and freeze then eventually sweat then feel feverish and ill and shower and then be freezing again ;)