The Edge

Seems I have one of those never-ending "to do" lists. It never fails that I'll get about halfway down it, only to realize the list was much longer than I ever imagined. Thus, I never seem to get more than half of my "gotta do it" stuff done. Very frustrating. And even worse since the depression has hit in full force, as I have a lot of trouble motivating myself to get much of anything done.

Today, though, I managed to cross one big weekly chore off: the cleaning of the hamster cage. It's not something I hate doing. Or something I particularly dread doing, which is good, since I do it every week. But it is time consuming, so it feels great to be done with it for another little while. This week was even worse than usual, because I was sick last week. So HPH was a week overdue for his regular cleaning. And let me tell 'ya: Hamsters are messy! He had had a great time in his filthy cage. I don't think it bothered him at all that the cleaning was so late in coming. He had food stored EVERYWHERE. He even dragged a bunch of stuff up to his little look-out tower (which we call his sunroom) on top of his cage. And he had buried food pellets all over the place. Silly guy. He wasn't too happy with me when I put him back in the sparkly-shiny-clean-like-new cage, and he discovered all his stashes were gone. I love watching him run all over the cage looking at everything. And he rolls on his wheel and the top of his little hut, too -- like he's trying to get everything back to smelling "just right".

I added a new tower thing to the cage today, too. It'll mean more tubing to clean in the future, but I think it's worth it. (Of course, I might change my mind next week, when cleaning time rolls around again and I have to take all those new tubes apart for washing.) The new tube goes from one of the connectors on the side of his cage, up the side (on the outside) and ends a little bit above the top of the cage. It also has a little house area where he can sit and watch stuff -- kinda like a second sunroom for him. And it has what the manufacturer called a loop-the-loop: basically a round bit of tunneling that he can run through. It's all capped off with a little bubble thing he can pop his head into to look around. He seems thrilled with it. I can see him in there now, climbing all over everything. I think it's pretty cool, too, although I'm a little paranoid about how well the tubing fit together with the cage. I've checked it several times, but still ... I feel a bit of uncertainty as to whether I put it together correctly or not. It seems tight enough, though. So I'm going to try not to fret too much over it. >.O

WEIGHT DOESN'T COME INTO IT. MY STEED HAS CARRIED ARMIES. MY STEED HAS CARRIED CITIES. YEAH, HE HATH CARRIED ALL THINGS IN THEIR DUE TIME, said Death. BUT HE'S NOT GOING TO CARRY YOU THREE.

"Why not?"

IT'S A MATTER OF THE LOOK OF THE THING.

"It's going to look pretty good, then, isn't it," said War testily, "the One Horseman and Three Pedestrians of the Apocralypse."

~Death to War, who is trying to bum a ride to the end of the world upon finding his horse (along with two others) stolen outside a tavern. Terry Pratchett: Sourcery

Yep. Still reading Sourcery. Gotta love it. So, so, soooo very much. Heh.

In other news, HPH seems to be doing well. I have to wash his wheel and dish today, so he will get some run-around time in his ball. (He's a very messy hamster, by the way. Maybe because he's a boy. *snickergiggle*)

Had company over for dinner on Saturday. I made veggie-beef soup from scratch. And cupcakes. Yellow with blue icing. From a mix, but they were still good. I love cupcakes. *sigh*

One week back in school, and my kiddo is all congested again. This makes me want to grumble and kick things. Which would do no good and would only make my foot sore. So I'll just settle for grumbling. So irritating.

Aaaaand ... I'm certain I had something more useful or interesting to say when I started posting. But it has now fled my brain. Ah well. I suppose this entry can stand as proof that my life is boring. (As if any proof were needed. Ha!)

I got a hamster for my daughter. Well, really, it's for the kiddo and me together, as I'll be the one who has to clean the cage and stuff. After hosting the class critter for a couple of weeks, I realized they are not terribly hard to take care of. I did quite a bit of research, as well as talking to several friends who have hammies. So, I felt comfortable taking the plunge.

I returned Scooter (the class hamster) to my daughter's teacher today. Then headed to PetSmart, thinking I could take a look at and possibly invest in the cage. Then, when the timing was right, I could find the hamster and add it. You know, once everything was together. Uh ... yeah. Best laid plans and all that. >.O

Kiddo had her heart set on a particular type of hamster: a Snow White / Winter White Dwarf. This is the type of hamster Scooter was, and she thought he was just so, so cute. There were a couple of this type at the store, and I looked at them. They were pretty skittish, though. One of the "Small Animal Specialists" was helping me pick out the cage and stuff, and he also showed the hamsters to me. He's the one who feeds them every day and such, so they are used to him. And still, they ran away from him and tried to hide when he picked them up. Which was not surprising -- they are small animals, after all -- but still a little disappointing. Then he told me one of their breeders had sent a Russian Dwarf who was pregnant. She had her pups after she arrived at the store, and he had been raising them. He said they were about 5 weeks old and available for adoption if I was interested. I took a look, and one of the little guys let me pick him up. He sat on my hands and kind of stared at me, but he seemed really pretty friendly.

So, I took him home. Gah. I'm such a sucker. -.<

I put the cage together, bedding inside, etc. And he seems quite happy in there. I got him a wheel, a little look-out tube, a hay hut, and a little food dish. He runs around a lot and chews on everything. And he's super-duper cute.

Kiddo was surprised and really excited over it. I didn't tell her about it. I put it all in her room, and then told her (after school) to go in there and put her coat away. And she saw the cage and all. It was great. We watched him for quite a while today.

And named him ...

Harry Potter.

Heh.