Sena's DW :: Watermelon Life

Been puttering around this place the last couple of days. Doing organizing and tidying and whatnot.

I've also been baking, though. I decided to try my hand at making animal treats! 8D

The first batch I did were cat treats and I used chicken boullion to flavour them. But they came out kind of tasteless and really salty so the cats wouldn't even eat them. So I trashed that batch and started over with tuna flavour instead, and that batch came out great! All my cats loved them, and I gave some to Mom and Lee for Jessie, and she gobbled them up too. ♥ SUCCESS!

The next ones I made were doggie biscuits; peanut butter flavoured (I used fake PB though, obviously, since real PB kills me. Dead.) with banana flavoured yogurt icing and a few sprinkles to make them pretty. THOSE ones actually came out really good right from the start, and to be honest I rather liked them myself. A touch of sugar to the biscuit dough and they'd be really yummy as people-cookies. XD

Since I don't have a dog to test the doggy treats, I took the first batch over to Mom and Lee's place for Possum. He ADORED them, but I don't think I trust his opinion, as he once ate a slice of onion that was coated in mustard and then begged for more. *eyeroll* So I need to expand my test group. HEY, ANYONE ON MY FLIST HAVE DOGS AND WANT SOME FREE HOUSE OF YUM DOG TREAT SAMPLES? I just need to know how they go over so I can adjust the recipe if needed...

And then today I did a test of biscuit treats for the rabbits (and rats, and really any small animal), with grated apple, pureed peach, honey and cinnamon. And lmao they're really tasty too. I always taste-test the stuff I make (even the tuna cat treats and whatnot) but I didn't expect to like the animal treats so much. xD;;

Recipe testing aside, tonight I invited Mom and Lee over for dinner!

I haven't had anyone over for dinner since I moved here (over a year ago now), because the place was so cluttered and looked really disorganized. But the last month or so I've rearranged and changed my furniture, gotten more shelves and etc., so now I feel comfortable having people over. It's still a small apartment, still crowded, but at least it looks more organized, and the way I have the furniture now opens the place up a LOT.

I'll actually take photos to share finally, I think. :D

Anyway, I made turkey meatloaf (with sage, onion, celery, garlic and thyme; it turned out soooo good! It tasted like Thanksgiving!), steamed asparagus and rice. Then I also made a fruit crisp with apples, peaches, blackberries, walnuts, almonds and coconut for dessert. SO YUMMY.

So Mom and Lee were over for a couple of hours, and then headed home. Then about an hour after they left I got a knock on my door and when I answered, there was my brother, face pressed against the screen door and soaking wet from walking in the rain. XD;;

Today was his D&D day, and he walked one of his friends home, and since his friend lives about five blocks away from me he decided to stop by. So he came in and we ended up chatting for two-and-a-half hours. X3 I was so happy! My brother and I used to hate each other when we were younger, but about the time I turned 19 we started to get along. Now we're really good friends (mostly, we still squabble from time to time, of course) so I like spending time with him. And I don't get much quality time with him because of conflicting schedules and whatnot, so it was really nice. ^^

He left around 11:30pm, at which point I had to actually get working on garbage and recycling since tomorrow is pick-up day for my street. Fun stuff.

Then when I was done and checked my email, Dad had sent me one telling me that apparently there's a 3rd Lake Placid movie, so I checked online and found somewhere to watch it. AND IT'S ACTUALLY LIKE 200% BETTER THAN LAKE PLACID 2, SOMEHOW. Not as good as the first one, but I'm really enjoying it. I'll have to pick up a copy to bring down to Otakon with me next year, as it's been decided that 2011 is going to be Year Of The Croc/Alligator for Movies Sena Brings To The US With Her. 8D

Hmm, and other than all that...

Oh, got everything completely squared away with MDG, so this time next week Squall will be shipped off, which means he should get to me by next Friday at the latest. I'M SO EXCITED! FANCY LAPTOP IS FANCY!!

And did I mention it's officially set that I'm designing Sarah's wedding jewelry and doing all of the wedding photography? WELL IT IS. I HAVE MY FIRST ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHY JOB ASDGH;KL!! Granted, I'm not charging her for it (I can't afford a wedding gift, so I'm doing the jewelry/photography pro-bono), but it can all go into my portfolio, so YAY! X33!!

That's about it for now. Ah, except I think on Friday I might drag Mom to Aji Sushi for lunch. I'll have to order for her since she won't know what anything is, but I want to show her that just because it has "Sushi" in the name doesn't mean everything is raw fish. I know she'll like the place once she tries it. ♥

Also? If the two freaking houseflies that are buzzing around here don't piss off soon, I might just go on a homicidal rampage. Just saying.

Other than that, today has been a really, really good day. :)

Sena out.

I spent most of today cleaning. Over the last week and a half or so I'd let my tidying kind of slip by the wayside and it had kind of piled up on me. But! I'm now mostly caught up! Cleaned all the cages and litter boxes, as well as Aya's terrarium. Then swept/vacuumed the front room and mopped the hardwood where it isn't covered by carpet.

While I was doing all that the girly bunnies got to play in the kitchen, which also kept Juna out from underfoot as he is OBSESSED with watching EVERYTHING the rabbits do when they're out to play. He just parks himself by the gate and ogles them. He never tries to get OVER the gate though (which he easily could), and shows no interest in poking at them when they're in close proximity soooo I just take it for what it is and use it to keep him out of the way lol.

Let's see... after that I did the dishes and then put the girls back to their cage and swept up the kitchen after them (they always make a mess with their raisins and bran flakes when they're out to play). Then everybody got fed, which of course made for happy critters.

I also changed out all the fruit fly traps for fresh ones, and poured bleach down all the drains to take out any that might be breeding there. I've still got a MASSIVE infestation, but I'm hoping by doing all the cages and taking out all the trash and recycling, renewing the traps and doing the bleach thing I can get it somewhat under control. I'm tired of there being freaking flies everywhere. ~_~;;

Anyhoo, tomorrow I still need to tidy and vacuum the bedroom, but that's about it. Yay cleaning!

And now I'm eating chicken teriyaki and watching Eight Legged Freaks. I want to bring this one down to Otakon with me, but will be good and leave it here since it's about giant spiders. Granted, it's a parody. But still. I don't want to freak anyone out with arachnid movies. So far I'm bringing Black Sheep (back by popular request!), Critters, Slither and Leprechaun. Not sure what else. Hmmm~

You know how sometimes people on your friends list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out.

Stolen from sweetwithdrawl, even though I'm supposed to be sleeping. >>;

( Meme goes HERE. )

AND ALSO:

Ask me to take pictures of any aspect of my life that you're interested in or curious about. It can be anything from my favorite possession to anything else. Leave your requests as a comment to this entry, I'll snap the pictures and post them in the next post/comments.

A semi-decent update for those of you on my flist that are wondering how I'm doing aside from ZOMG eel creatures and OMG lampwork heart pendants.

Mom's surgery is coming up on the 25th, and it really kind of snuck up on me. The whole family is really stressed and worried right now, and Mom is making herself sick with being afraid that when they go in to do the hysterectomy they'll find something more than the tests have shown so far. I know we should all be trying to keep an optimistic outlook, but it's proving to be hard, especially since Grandpa just died of cancer three years ago. The whole thing is keeping me up at night a lot, and I won't feel any better about it until after the operation when the surgeon comes and tells us everything is fine.

I moved a couple weeks ago as well; to a little apartment downtown. It's not much (I'll post pictures once it's more organized), and pretty small, but it's mine, and I love that about it. Besides which, for one person (and cats/rabbits), it's a fine size. The only problem is that I have too much stuff. >>; It's been a nightmare trying to figure out how to fit everything in, and that's even after two vanloads of stuff having been taken to the goodwill.

When I first was moving in, the place was a mess. The kitchen still needs to have a really good cleaning with bleach, but other than that it's tidy enough I can put up with it until everything's unpacked and settled. The bathroom was DISGUSTING. I should have taken some photos to show you the before and after. Grandma actually came down on the day I moved, and rather than helping with the move itself, just locked herself up in the bathroom and scrubbed the shit out of it for HOURS. It's still terribly stained, but not actually dirty anymore. I don't think the previous tenants cleaned the bathroom once in the entire time they lived here. -__-;; Ugh.

Right as I'm typing this, the girly bunnies are in the kitchen having playtime. Unfortunately, until I got the kitchen organized enough that they couldn't get into things they shouldn't, they couldn't have time out to exercise-- it's been about three weeks since they were last out of their cage. I feel guilty, but there wasn't much I could do, since the kitchen is the only place here I can let them out at all. Now I can though, so we can get back into the regular routine of daily romps.

In November, I've got a table to sell things at the Christmas bazaar in Bracebridge. So I'm selling some jewelry there, as well as some jams and jellies. Grandma brought me six freaking baskets of crab apples when she came down, so I'll have TONS of crab apple jelly. (If anyone wants some, let me know and I'll set aside a jar of it for you.) It'll be the first time I've actually sold something I've cooked/baked so I'm really kind of nervous about it. Hopefully it'll go well.

Also, some time in the next couple days I'll be posting a massive sales post; due to space issues and the fact that I'm in desperate need of money, I've decided to sell off most of my extensive Sailormoon collection. I have a few really rare items, so fingers crossed. Also, if you know anyone who might like to commission a pony or something from me, please point them in my direction.



...because of everything that's been going on, I haven't been online much. Most of my time has been designated to doctor's visits and the move/unpacking. Honestly, I'm starting to get really weary of it, and I'm feeling... downtrodden. Just sad and gloomy. I miss being on AIM and talking to people, and blogging about nothing. But until the end of the month I just won't have the time.

EDIT: Maddie needs monies too, so go check out her etsy shop:



EDIT #2: I'm watching The Evil Dead II right now while I'm organizing things, and the girl's head just bit the guy on the hand, and he's flailing and screaming and smashing said severed head against walls and books and desks and whatnot, and I am LAUGHING MY ASS OFF. XDD;;;

It starts here, at about nine minutes in:



...and continues on here. xD;;

Still packing and organising. I got the NIC cage taken apart today as well (I have a huge blister from it! D:), so where it was along the wall I've moved packed boxes to, to try to make it easier to move around in here. Ugh, it's so cluttered with boxes and bags and tubs of stuff that it's a labyrinth.

Anyway, tomorrow I have to take the NIC squares downstairs and give them a rinse off to get rid of any dust/dirt/leftover bunny hair, and then I can pack them up too. I'm not getting rid of them, because when I find a place to move to away from Mom's, I plan to put it back together again.

But before I can do any packing of NIC stuff, I have to actually drag more boxes up from the garage. -__-; Last time I brought thirty up (I think), and I had to leave half of them in the main stairwell because my back seized up on me. Bringing more of them up is going to cripple me. But it has to be done.

I do wish my back would stop hurting though. Unfortunately, because of my PCOS, I've had back problems for years, and lifting really does me in. Not to mention my knees and wrists. UGH I HATE LIVING ON THE TOP FLOOR WITH NO ELEVATOR.

...on Sunday, apparently, Lee is coming over with the van and we're going to be making a big trip to the storage unit for everything that I've got ready for there, and then a big one to their place as well. That will help immensely in clearing out space to maneuver in here. >>;

The cats are all kind of wtfing right now, they don't know what's going on or what to think of it. They seem to be coping rather well though. ♥

Oh, and so are Pan and Angelina. They got put into the bigger cage together a few days ago and there were absolutely no problems. I knew there wouldn't be, considering how friendly they were with each other already, but Sarah was really worried about it for some reason. So she's going to take Pan with her, since she and Angelina are so happy and chummy together.

I Am Legend.

I woke up around 6 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep so I got up. *shrug* But then as soon as I actually turned the lights on, Phantom decided she was restless and was going to start being a brat, chewing on the support doweling in the cage and chasing the other buns around. >>; So after attempting unsuccessfully to get her to stop, I finally just fished her out for some play time outside the cage.

I still can't let her out on the floor with the others or she picks on them, so I'll let them out later on today. Anyway, I guess she just needed to burn off some steam, because she's playing happily and being very well behaved now that she's out. She even hopped up into my lap and let me pet her (on the condition that I share my peach with her, of course.) She's still so standoffish when it comes to pets and cuddles that when she does decide to get up in my lap I really reward her, so that she'll associate interaction with people with nummy nummy treats. She got about half my peach by the end. Haha.

While she's been out playing I've been organizing a bit, and watched one of the movies I got from Columbia House this last week. Face, which is a Korean horror/supernatural movie. It was really good. There was a dub option, but I of course watched it in subtitles. I'm very fond of Asian horror/sci-fi/supernatural movies, and Korea does some of the best ones. The Host was Korean as well. ♥♥

Anyway, Face came in yesterday, along with Day Watch, which is originally in Russian (dubbing an option, again), and the sequel to Night Watch. Dad lent me Night Watch way back in May when I was down there for AN (and I still have it, hurr hurr, guess how often I actually get to see my Dad >>;) and I really liked it. When he watched it, he said it didn't make a lot of sense to him, but I think the problem was that he watched the dubbed version, and it might not have translated well. I watched the subbed version and had no problems with it. I still need to get my own copy of Night Watch, but I had the opportunity to get Day Watch for like $3.95 a couple weeks ago, so I grabbed it. xD;

Buy one at regular price, get unlimited DVDs at 75% off was an AWESOME sale, Columbia House. Do it again soon! >w<~

--> LOL I just put Phantom back into the rabbit cage and she's FLOPPED now. SUCCESS.

I feel the urge to write something original. I've been thinking about it the last couple days. And I really kind of want to get back into Angel Fire, but... it's on a floppy disc. =__=;; I completely forgot that while my old PC still took 3+1/2 floppies, my new one doesn't. I HAVE A WHOLE FUCKTON OF WRITING ON FLOPPY DISKS DAMMIT. DDDDD< Ugh. I wonder if Encode has a computer that can take floppies or something, maybe I can get them to transfer files for me...

But, since Angel Fire is out of the question, unless I want to write some drabbles or a one-shot type thing, and I believe so is The Hounds of Passing, I might work on something I've been tinkering with the last month or so. It's called Reaper Crossing, and is about a Reaper who decides he's sick of being death's emissary and basically quits and goes on the run. I have no names yet, but he, and the other Reaper assigned to hunt him down and bring him in are the two main characters. Later on there are two others as well who are basically bounty hunters, but they're still more sketchy as I haven't worked on them as much.

In RC, there is no distinct "God" or "Satan", there's just One Being who oversees everything, so Reapers, Hunters, Angels and etc. all work for the same person; this is because He is perfect, which doesn't mean that He is entirely Good, it means that He is exactly Balanced between Good and Evil. That's the reality, but humanity still has their varied outlooks and beliefs, including the basic Christianity stuff. *shrug* I'm still working on the afterlife and God things, but that's the basic principle behind it.

Hmm. I need names. I need good names for Reapers, and then a good alias for the main character to go by on Earth. *ponderponder* I also need to decide how I'm going to name the Hunters, since I'm OCD about names having meaning and reason behind them...

EDIT: Apparently Dad didn't lend me Night Watch, he gave it to me. :D YAY.

EDIT #2: So, it seems Sephiroth/Zexion is a common pairing out there. .__.;

Ooookay... so there are still some hitches to work out with Phantom and the other buns. >>;

While she's perfectly happy to share the big cage with them and gets along fine while inside there, she still tears into them when they're all out on the floor together. I guess even though she's conceided that the cage is their territory, she still considers the rest of the place to be hers. >>;; Must work on that. Though I'm not entirely sure how. Maybe I'll post to the rabbit comm and ask... though I really am sick of having people over there tell me all the ways I'm raising my rabbits the wrong way. *sigh*

Right. After the fiasco with opening the cage and letting the girls out to play (and subsequently grabbing Phantom and tossing her back in so she'd stop tearing hair out of Pan, which is weird because inside the cage they're BFFs), I decided to finally sit down and clip all their nails.

I'll admit... I don't clip the buns' nails as often as I should sometimes. I procrastinate over it because it's usually a huge production and I end up all scratched up. But it really needed to be done.

And surprisingly, aside from a couple of small flailing incidents (from Phantom and Pagan, mostly) they seemed to just resign themselves to it and let me do it. THANK YOU. So now I only have a handful of little red scratch-marks... and rabbit hair ALL OVER ME. OMG THEY'RE ALL MOLTING AT THE SAME TIME.

Anyway, now they all have nice short nails again. Yey.

Augh, I knew it. I had to have Tri on soft food for just over a week, and now he won't eat anything else. ><; This is why I hate giving my cats soft food! I guess it doesn't help that it's a new dry food all together, either...

So today to try to wean him onto the new stuff, I put it in his dish and then added some warm water to soften it up. I figure that way it's still soft food, but it tastes and smells like the new food he's supposed to be on.

He still just picks at it, but that's better than nothing I guess. And when he gets hungry enough he'll start eating it properly. I'm mean aren't I? :D

Other than that, I went at and did all the cages and stuff today, including completely vacuuming out the big cage for all the loose hair and whatnot between the bars (I don't do that every week) with the shop vac... then I spent an hour sneezing every ten seconds because of the fur and dust. Oh well, spangly clean bunnies again! =3

Last night I got bored so I played with Tetsuya again, I switched his eyes out to the red ones and tried on his black pants and his girly blue shirt. I need different pants to go with that one, lol. Or a skirt. XD; And I need new shoes for him, since the white ones only really match with his black and white shirt.

ANYWAY, I really love his red eyes. They're so striking with the black hair and the makeup aiko_yamada did. They make him look so different than the black ones do. I ended up leaving them in him after I was done fiddling and taking random pics. I guess he's just angry, haha. xD;;

Randomly, I bought underwear today and for the first time in about twelve years some of them are something other than plain white. Just because they didn't have any that were just plain white, but I'm still amused. There's a pair with polka dots and a pink plaid pair. XDD;

RP! =D

Subaru found a couple stray/orphaned kittens on his way home from work (their mother and siblings were killed by a stray dog), and Demy begged at Zexion until Zexy agreed to let him adopt one (the black one of course!) Yaten is going to adopt the other one (white!), since Subaru isn't in a position to take care of them right now. Yay. Demy's heading to the pet place to get supplies soon, so he can get the kitten from Subaru. :3

Kao is all sick, so of course Hika is fretting and panic-stricken. Kyouya's helping by getting them into his family's hospital (or something like that, lol). This isn't helping comfort Hika at all, but is anyone surprised?

And as for Kyo... >___>; Ru-mun and I are conspiring for angry!smex with him and Sephiroth in the real rp since we were so amused when it happened in AIM-verse. Thus, he's quit his job at the Blue Hydrangeas, and is working security at Shinra now. Seph is his boss. BWAHAHA. Also, right now he's talking with Ino a lot, and worrying over Zelos (though he'd never admit it), so he's gone to Zelos' place to check up on him.

I am SO FREAKING mildly amused because Kyo is seriously kind of turning out to be a whore promiscuous or however you spell that word. >>; And an uke one at that. WTF. *snigger*

It's funny how you can buy fancy toys, and buns/cats/children/etc. are always more happy playing with things like paper and boxes.

Along with toilet paper/paper towel tubes, one of the favourite toys for my buns are kleenex boxes, so when one's empty I take the plastic out and give it to them to toss around. Tonight I gave one to Phantom... and she got her head stuck in it. D'oh! XD; lol.

So I had to go over and rescue her from the big bad kleenex box. Not that it stopped her from throwing it around as soon as I gave it back to her, of course. :)

( Box head. )

gnaugiklnmgifljhghd;kl

At some point last night, every one of the rabbits started molting. EVERY ONE OF THEM. Including Phoenix, who molted all summer! I thought she was done! Why now of all times? Why not in June like normal animals? xD;;

Phantom's litter training began (again) today after I cleaned out her cage. I didn't refill the bedding, I left the floor empty, so the only place with bedding (Yesterday's News) is in the litter box. Then I have her a towel to play with/lie on.

This is how I litter trained Pagan a while back, and it worked really well. I'm hoping I can make some headway with her. She's so stubborn. lol.

Right now I'm going through my things trying to find stuff to sell so that I can buy my dollfies. Two of them anyway. There are like ten that I want. >>;

I'm selling my Gundam figures, which hurts me deeply, but at the same time I have nowhere to display them; right now they're just gathering dust and taking up a lot of storage space. I should have taken a pic of my Gundam Wall Of DHOOM when it was up at Mom's place before I moved out.

I think I'm going to sell some of my Sailor Moon collection, too... maybe. I've been collecting for ten years, I don't know if I'll be able to part with any of it. Eheh. XD;

( Photoblogging, Day 66 )

I dropped a pewter dragon on my bare foot yesterday. It hurt. A lot. Luckily, said dragon was little, or I would have broken at least one toe. As it was, a spot on my foot turned black, then faded to purple and now I have an ugly bruise. Bad dragon.

( Photoblogging, Day 8 )

I'm a member of Columbia House (which means I can order movies and not have to pay for them until they get to me, so my movie collection has rapidly expanded over the last year >>;), and a couple of weeks ago they had a special selection of movies that were 3 for $30. I had a peek though, and found three that I wanted so yey.

Anyway, the first one came in a couple of days ago; Lady In The Water. It was one that I really wanted to see, even though I seem to recall it getting some bad reviews after it came out. (Whatever. Normally I don't agree with critics much anyway.)

It sat around for a bit and then last night I finally sat down to watch it... and I loved it. I'm not entirely sure why, but I did. I'm a geek and <3 M. Night Shyamalan's films. XD;

Speaking of movies~

I have some VHS tapes up for grabs if anyone wants them before I hie them off to the goodwill or something; the first X-Men movie, and five tapes of The X-Files episodes (two to each tape), various from the first two seasons;

--Pilot/Deep Throat
--Little Green Men/The Host
--Fallen Angel/Eve
--Ascension/One Breath
--Conduit/Ice

They're all region 1, so they won't play outside of the US and Canada. Anyway, if anyone wants them let me know and I'll send them off. I've replaced them with DVD copies and I'm trying to get rid of them to free up the space on my shelves. <3

EDIT: Also, HAHA I WIN RABBITS! >3< They had carpet flooring in the big cage... and ate it. So I gave them lenolium... and they ate that, too. So now they have CERAMIC TILES. HAH!

I have five buns; Phantom, Phoenix, Pauper, Panyin and Pagan. Pagan is the only boy, and is currently unaltered. Clearly, he'll be getting neutered (around the end of this month), but for the time being he can't play with the girls because not all of them are spayed yet either.

So he has play time on his own, and putters around quietly by himself. He teases Kori through his cage, flirts with the girls through their cage, chases the cats, and comes over for pets whenever he wants some love.

But still, whenever I let the girls out for their play time, I get THE EYES. The big, shiny, sad, lonely, forlorn, please Mommy? eyes that he's proven to be so good at. And every time I give him scritches and tell him he can't play with the girlies yet, but he'll be able to soon, I promise.

And then today I suddenly realised that duh, he can totally play with Phoenix since she's already been spayed and is really friendly and mothering.

Thus, tonight I scooped Phoenix from the big cage (and got WTF looks from Pauper and Pan when they didn't get out at the same time), and then let Pagan out as well. And he was all OMG SRSLY YEY! lol. He's so happy to be able to play with one of the other buns, since he hasn't been able to since he was really little...

Anyway! That's my random story.

( Like sharing a milkshake. Only granola. And without the milkshake. )

Look how little Pagan is... he's six-ish months old and not even as big as Phoenix, and she's a two pound Netherland Dwarf. And half of his size is his fur, lol. And he's still got one floppy ear and one standing ear! <3

Okay, so I've got Pan out and I'm sitting watching TV and snuggling with her. Squishy love, right? HAH. She climbs up, cuddles into the crook of my neck... and randombly bites me. Like three times in the same spot, the bitch. RRRGH. BAD BUNNY! BAD!

Now it looks like I have a hickey, but it's actually from one of my rabbits, wtf. I can't decide if that's a serious win or a spectacular fail. XD;;