In mid-April we went to PetSmart and bought two mice. Justin had wanted some different pets and I finally caved and agreed. We bought the darker one because he was running around all over the place and wouldn’t stop running on the wheel in the store. Due to all my running we named him Kevin. The other one Justin wanted because he looked different from the rest of the available mice. We named him Jason. A few weeks later we ended up having to take Kevin back because he had some hair missing on his back. PetSmart ended up keeping him separated and just let him be and without even doing anything he was actually OK so we bought him back.
Unfortunately, last weekend things started to take a turn for the worse for Jason. I noticed that he wasn’t really active anymore. In fact, he would let you touch him and pet him and wouldn’t run away. We decided that he wasn’t doing good because he was weak and that he needed to have food/water more easily accessible. So, we put him in a smaller travel-type cage with food and water easily accessible. On Sunday we went to PetSmart and got some medicine for what’s called wet-tail. Apparently it’s like a diarrhea but if not treated very early on it can quickly result in death in mice. We went home, got a bigger box and gave him a wheel, food, medicated water and house all very easy to get to so he didn’t really have to work for it. He seemed ok given the circumstances as he would drink but he was still very weak.
Monday we both checked on him before we each left for work and although weak he was still going. However, when I came home from work I checked on him and it was pretty sad. He had tried to get some food but just didn’t have any strength left and collapsed into the little bowl. I had gently tipped the bowl over to see if he was still with us but alas, he was gone. Even though he’s just a mouse, it was still pretty sad. We ended up taking him to a local park later Monday night and buried him. It is sad as both the mice were somewhat analagous to ourselves – the always-running Kevin and the active but always-there Jason. When sleeping they would always sleep with each other – usually one on top of the other.
PetSmart had suggested to not get two male mice as they generally fight but they had gotten along quite well. When we get back from an upcoming vacation, we will get another cage to link to our main one and will get Kevin another friend.
This week’s Futurama episode, Proposition Infinity, dealt with a very serious topic in a comedic way.
Robosexual marriage.
In seriousness though, the episode took the entire gay marriage mess going on now, applied it to robot-human relationships and poked massive fun at it. I think one of the best parts was when they had basically their own version of the ad that NOM put out against gay marriage.
At the end of the episode, it was deemed legal to have a robosexual marriage, which is where the country is gladly headed in today’s world as well in regards to homosexuals. An interesting item as well is that yesterday, the same day the episode aired, a Federal Judge declared Section 3 of DOMA to be unconstitutional, a massive step forward in true equality.
Anyway, mega-company Amazon.com acquired the small Woot.com. Woot will continue being as crazy and continue to sell as many crappy items as ever before so not really a big change.
Yesterday we drove to Bloomington, IN to visit with Zhiyu, one of Justin’s friends from China. She showed us around her campus, which was quite beautiful. Afterwards we went to lunch with some of her friends. We then drove to Lake Monroe for some trail-walking and boating, after which ate a good dinner.
Well, I’m a week late on my birthday post, but whatever. Last Wednesday (June 9), was my 26th birthday.
Justin and I celebrated pretty simply – we went to dinner at Red Lobster and then went home. Sounds like a good day to me.
Some other items that have happened recently:
This week I passed my 600th mile running with Nike+
Last Monday (the 7th), I ran my second half-marathon test run. Unfortunately, it was three minutes longer than my last attempt at 1:51:17. Not horrible, but not good in my opinion. The very hot weather recently is definitely effecting my running ability.
I have now dropped to 168 lbs. This means that I have passed the 40 lb mark on weight loss! This is very exciting for me as I haven’t weighed that in a very long time. And how did I do it? By just running 600 miles over 9 months and eating better.
I installed the GM build of iOS4 to my iPhone 3GS. It’s been pretty nice so far since I’ve had it for about a week. I have consolidated all my installed apps into folders squished on one page. The multi-tasking is very intuitive and I’ve found it very useful.
This Tuesday I pre-ordered the iPhone 4 from AT&T. That was a massive mess thanks to AT&Ts incompetence at being able to handle the huge number of people who attempted to pre-order. My order wasn’t put in until Wednesday morning so we’ll see when I actually get the phone. Can’t wait though.
This weekend there is a baby shower for my Corey and Danielle and Zach. Zach is doing great and it’ll be great to see him again. Also this weekend is a Mother’s Day/Father’s Day/Keith Birthday party with the family.
I think that covers everything. Not going to make promises on when I’ll post next as I am bad at keeping them, but hopefully sometime soon.
This past weekend, Justin and I bought a Mr. Coffee Cafe Frappé machine. There was a sale going on at Meijer (20% off any single general-merchandise item) so it was a great time. I have recently gotten addicted to the Mocha and Caramel Frappés at McDonald’s and was looking for a cheaper alternative.
Enter the Cafe Frappé. Our only real problem was that up until now we never kept any ice in the freezer as we don’t have any drinks that we need to make colder. So, we first had to wait over six hours for our slow ice maker to make two cups of ice. The pictures/steps below are from my Mocha Frappé this morning.
Start by putting three tablespoons of dark roast coffee in the brewer along with 1/2 cup of water.
Next, place the following ingredients in the blender jar in this order:
Two cups ice
Two tablespoons sugar
Three tablespoons syrup
1/4 cup milk
The ingredients don’t really look too appetizing yet though. Let’s brew and blend it! After the very loud blending process, pour into a glass, top with Reddi Whip and syrup and serve! Tastes just as good as McDonald’s.
I just finished my 500th mile running with Nike+. I haven’t advanced to the next “color” on the website (the colors are indications of how far you have run with the milestone to reach the next progressively further), however my progress so far is impressive to myself.
Had I looked into my future even one year ago, I never would have imagined myself actually being so healthy and active!Once I completed today’s run I received the following note:
“Hey it’s Lance again. You’ve covered 250 more miles. Way to go!” – Lance Armstrong
Today I received my first Random Crap from Woot. I purchased this during the Woot Happy Hour (5pm-6pm EST every Wednesday) on April 28.
I’ve been a member of Woot for over three years but just at the end of April was finally able to get a Random Crap (also called Bag of Crap or BoC). Normally when one of these pops up (almost exclusively during a Woot-off), the Woot servers are brought to their knees and the site is barely accessible. As with almost all Random Craps, this one cost $3 plus the standard $5 Woot shipping.
So, after waiting for FedEx SmartPost, which as everyone knows is the slowest shipping method known to humanity, it arrived two weeks later.
Let’s take a look shall we?
In my box, I received the following items:
2x Star Wars Attack of the Clones Film pieces framed
2x mini-tripod for digital camera
1x Phillips iPod Dock/Charger (doesn’t work for iPhone)
1x Panasonic Bluetooth Enabled-Telephone with two handsets
Let’s begin by assessing the status of the items.
I don’t really care for the Star Wars things but they’re neat – I have something similar for the first Spiderman movie as well. Although they’re the same, the pieces of film are from different parts of the movie.
We already have a mini-tripod that we got from Meritline about a year ago, but extras are good. They are handy little things.
The dock doesn’t work with my iPhone which is a bummer but it does work with my iPod Classic so it’ll probably end up getting hooked into my receiver in the living room and will be semi-useful.
The Bluetooth enabled-phone is the most interesting. It currently retails on Amazon for $70. This is actually the best item as you can pair it via bluetooth to up to two cell phones. It then can receive/make calls from the handsets and route the calls through either cell phone. It will auto-pair with the phones when they are in range. So far it looks like the cell phones can be anywhere in the house and still be in range of the base. This will allow us to put the cell where we get the best reception then just use a handset to make/receive calls. Works great so far.
As with most Random Crap items, it wasn’t without some problems. The Panasonic thing was missing the manual and a belt clip. It was obviously a return but seems to work so far. The Phillips thing was open but had everything with it. Everything else was sealed.
All in all, a pretty good first Random Crap from Woot. I’ll be gladly buying another as soon as I can!
In mid-April we went to PetSmart and bought two mice. Justin had wanted some different pets and I finally caved and agreed. We bought the darker one because he was running around all over the place and wouldn’t stop running on the wheel in the store. Due to all my running we named him Kevin. The other one Justin wanted because he looked different from the rest of the available mice. We named him Jason. A few weeks later we ended up having to take Kevin back because he had some hair missing on his back. PetSmart ended up keeping him separated and just let him be and without even doing anything he was actually OK so we bought him back.
Unfortunately, last weekend things started to take a turn for the worse for Jason. I noticed that he wasn’t really active anymore. In fact, he would let you touch him and pet him and wouldn’t run away. We decided that he wasn’t doing good because he was weak and that he needed to have food/water more easily accessible. So, we put him in a smaller travel-type cage with food and water easily accessible. On Sunday we went to PetSmart and got some medicine for what’s called wet-tail. Apparently it’s like a diarrhea but if not treated very early on it can quickly result in death in mice. We went home, got a bigger box and gave him a wheel, food, medicated water and house all very easy to get to so he didn’t really have to work for it. He seemed ok given the circumstances as he would drink but he was still very weak.
Monday we both checked on him before we each left for work and although weak he was still going. However, when I came home from work I checked on him and it was pretty sad. He had tried to get some food but just didn’t have any strength left and collapsed into the little bowl. I had gently tipped the bowl over to see if he was still with us but alas, he was gone. Even though he’s just a mouse, it was still pretty sad. We ended up taking him to a local park later Monday night and buried him. It is sad as both the mice were somewhat analagous to ourselves – the always-running Kevin and the active but always-there Jason. When sleeping they would always sleep with each other – usually one on top of the other.
