NO! I don't hate men......

why do you ask?

current work in progress

(three legg-ed kitty thinks the armwarmers are mocking her)

swatches

Flying pigs

I don't know how but somehow, somewhere, some little piglet learned to fly this afternoon cause 3 of my animals sat in very close proximity and groomed each other for almost 7 whole minutes. There was no growling, no hissing, no thumping, no punching, no swatting and no biting. First time EVER.

Exhibit # 948: Rabbits are horrid, spiteful creatures

This is what I came home to, tonight:













anybody wanna rabbit? I'll throw in a free broom (almost new)!

Olive, recuperating at home, a few days after having her ovaries, uterus and right front leg removed.











No sutures were harmed in the shooting of this photo.

disclaimer: do not try this at home. I am a trained professional.

karma?

I was talking to a friend before work yesterday, who said she hated getting stupid phone calls from customers. And I said "um, well, isn't that, like, your JOB?" haha.
and then i went to work.... and it was one emergency after another... and I can't get anything done... and then 3 am the phone rings:

man: (paraphrased for brevity) my cat's 4 months pregnant and she's acting funny--do you think she's going into labor now?

me: (loooog pause--doing the math) i dont think so.

I get more info out of him, and the cat sounds totally fine, so I tell him that it's not an emergency and he should call his regular vet in the morning--oh and I dont think Ms. Kitty's pregos. To which he replied:

"oh, she's definately pregnant. I can tell!"

allllll righty then. good luck with that. click.
What's the gestation period in a cat again?
60-65 days.
How much you wanna bet he thinks its 9 months!
How much you wanna bet he's gonna call me in 5 months (also at 3 AM) asking how to induce labor?

high as a kite

12 hours after sx

Shot on my commute home this morning.


I'm starting to get the hang of driving in the city but I'm still having trouble shooting and driving.
This was taken by my passenger. It started to snow after we got off the bridge. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the snow falling but my photographer fell asleep and I was busy concentrating on not getting lost again.

The flu has been having its way with me all week. I'm finally getting back into the land of the living today. I've lost about 10 pounds (NOT something I needed to do) I'll be spending the day trying to hold down solid foods and then I'm gonna be sterilizing everything I came in contact with this week. maybe not the bunny....maybe...
I have a bunch of pictures on my camera from last week that I haven't had the energy to upload. Everything should be back to normal in a few days.

Last night was one of the worst nights at work in a long, long, LONG time. I walked into ICU at midnight and did not get to sit down once til I got on the train this morning. I didn't even get a chance to pee. Thank god I brought a bag of pretzels with me or we all would have passed out from hypoglycemia.
We had a table dog until 4am and once he was stable the rest of ICU decided to crap out. Needless to say I did not get to take any pictures. My project 365 is not going well.

Ghost train to brooklyn

well, not exactly


I shot these on the train coming home from work at 2AM (thanks to the MTA)
I was the only one in the car so I took a bunch of shots out the window while the train was moving. just because.


You can see the inside of the car reflected off the glass and the streaky streetlights and buildings outside the car.






and this shot is from monday night when I was waiting for the train

B/W Snapshots

I've been working A LOT the last few weeks. 50 hours last week and 60 this week. not a lot of knitting time. But I have been playing around with my new camera and photoshop.

(click here for everything you ever wanted to know about heartworm disease)

and a colorful sangria shot :

(not at work, honest!)

the stethoscozy

version 1.0

you asked for it so here it is. Mystery knitted object #197 from october 2006. The perfect solution for those chilly nights in ICU. Version 1.0 is made out of merino wool which is really soft and warm and fuzzy but also hand wash only. And after the 50 millionith time it got sprayed with stinky bodily fluid I decided I needed something more machine wash friendly.

Thus was born The Stethoscozy 2.o

version2.0
Made out of a very machine washable cotton/bamboo (antimicrobial) blend, the newer version extends to cover the entire stethoscope including the ear bud thingies. It provides an excellent layer of protection against mastiff droolage, obnoxious bunny teeth and various other environmental grossness that you wouldn't want stuck in your ears.


(still working on my photoshop skillz)

happy new year?

I'm spending new year's eve home sick with a stomach bug. Hopefully this isn't a sign of how I'll be spending the rest of 2008. But to keep my mind off of my stomach troubles I decided to redo the mystery knitting object. It was too boring to knit it all in one color. So I frogged the whole thing and started over. And since I'm knitting with wool I decided to knit it extra big so that I could later felt it to the perfect size and make it extra cozy. Needless to say it is still not finished.
I took some new pictures of my progress. I used the rabbit model this time. Rabbit model was not at all interested in the knitting and I had alreay used up all my patience dealing with my stomach and refiguring out my knitting. So....just use your imagination and pretend the pics below are not at all blurry and actually have knitting content. Thanks.

HAVE A HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2008 !!!!!

new mystery knitting/new knitting model

on october 24 my best knitting model Ben, went to heaven. (Dont be sad, I'm sure he's having a blast modeling hand knits for jesus ) Though he could never be replaced--I needed to get another model for my madness--I mean knitting.



Thats LMS. She got hit by a car on thanksgiving and now I'm stuck with her.

As you can see, she's having a little trouble differentiating between MODELING the knitting and EATING the knitting. I feel bad beating her cause she's kinda disabled from the car accident.

I'm sure I'll get over that eventually.........

Any guesses on what I'm making? At this point--i'm approximately half way done. There is no pattern--I'm making it up as I go along. couple of hints? OK...NOT a sweater. NOT a restaint device for yarn eating kittens. NOT a penis warmer--I know you're all going to say that. I know its kinda hard to tell anything from the photos--its so hard to find good help these days!! I hope to have it finished before the new year and will post better pics then.

slow night

stupid dog tricks

i dont know how he managed to get the toy stuck on his lower jaw but it was stuck good and no amount pulling pushing or lubrication would unstuck it. We had to sedate him and cut the thing off.

AMBUSH

bunny ambush

wasting time

ok--putting the computer away now....off to do something productive.

the trip to philly

here are some pictures from my trip








independence hall. fun. fun. fun.



being goofy.




(she really is)

the mutter museum. a must see for anyone interested in preserved body parts.


(I've been playing with the camera today)

Am I crazy?

As you can see, I did get my new camera as promised. I took it out of the box about an hour ago and voila!!! It's not as pretty as my old best friend but I think the software's alot better. It lets me add text to my photo's (I have photoshop but I still haven't haven't figured out how to use all the vectors and thingies)

I spent the whole day building a new cage for my bunnies. I think I'm crazy. I know the bunnies think I'm crazy. I got a new bunny last summer. She's crazy. She refuses to live in a cage.

When I first adopted her, I put her in the cage she came with. And she went nuts: pacing back and forth. chewing the bars. It took her hours to settle down and then she looked miserable. So I built her a huge NIC pen. 3 feet high, lots of bunny safe toys and boxes--bunny heaven. (for a normal bunny) She jumped it. without even blinking.

So I made it 4 1/2 feet high. No 4 lb. bunny can jump 4 1/2 feet, right? She scaled it. right in front of my face. So I called the house rabbit society. They agreed she was abnormal and recommended she live in a cage....which I couldn't do so they recommended I put a top on the pen. So I got an old tablecloth and pinned it to the top of the pen with a million clothespins ( really it was a million).

This worked for a couple of days. Then I came home one day and pyscho bunny is spread out on my sofa, real smug like. I go to investigate and theres a huge hole in the tablecloth. INSANE. I mean seriously, INSANE. Plus she managed to jump into my sexy man bunny's pen and took a few chunks out of him. (He was fine but we had to call him scarface for awhile). At that point I decided psycho bunny needed some serious alone time to "adjust" to her new home. (her 3rd new home btw--no wonder she's a little psycho). So...she went to live in my spare bedroom. And she's lived there for the last ~10 months. She gets to come out for an hour or so every other day. (Sexy man gets run around the house time the other days. )

Until last week when saphire decided it would be fun to chase the psycho bunny. Now bunny chasing is not an approved activity in my house, but from time to time it happens. and in the past when a cat chased the psycho, psycho got reeeeally reeeeally scared and ran reeeeally reeeeally fast in every direction all at once. until last week when saphire pounced on psycho and psycho stood her ground and then chased saphire down the hall. cute? yes. funny? definitely! But more importantly it means that psycho is no longer psycho and has finally adjusted to her new home. right?

So the other day, I decided to retry the NIC pens. set it up --let her hang out in there all day with the door open. She loved it. Closed the door at night and went to bed. Just as I"m about to fall asleep a cat hops onto my chest. only its not a cat. turn on the light, its the psycho. and she hops to the foot of my bed, next to saphire and does the amazingly irresistable bunny side flop with her hind legs stretched out. long story short she spent the night in my bed.

But today I did some reconfiguring. Moved the furniture around. put the pen in a different location. put a convertable sofa bed in the pen. yes, thats right. there's a sofa bed in her pen. Her pen is the size of a nyc studio apt. maybe bigger. But she's been in there all day and she loves it. I even ran out to get more supplies. and when I came back, she was still in there. The real test will be in another hour when I go to bed.

You dont think I'm crazy do you?

*UPDATE*

SUCCESS! Psycho spent the entire night in her pen. I'm so proud of her.

I'm back.

Lots of stuff to talk about. First a really good friend passed away earlier this year.....my canon powershot digital elph. (sorry) The best damn little tiny digital cam a girl with a blog can have. I thought I'd never be able to replace him--but I did some online window shopping and turns out I can! I'm taking me mom's employee discount and getting a new best friend on Sat.

What else is new you ask???? new job! yes, another new job. I start in 1 week. I'm very nervous. and anxious. what if I hate it? what if they hate me? Every time I think about it I want to vomit.

And this tuesday--ROAD TRIP!!!! yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. My first ever. I'm very excited. I plan on taking lots of pics with my brand new best friend.

Oh, I got to run. I have to take another PPD test for this new job. Is that right? maybe its a PDD? I'm having a dyslexic moment. Anyway, this job better be worth all the running around and jumping through hoops I've had to do. That's all I'm saying.

guess what it is!!!!!

(I'll try to get some better pics up)

I just finished it. It has a purpose. Post your guesses in the comments section.
Winner gets my admiration :-) You can enter as many times as you want. I'll post a picture of the mystery item in action next week.

I'm one of them now

I've become addicted to the myspace. Its all very sad. I think I need an intervention. (i blame you, michele)
If you dont know what myspace is, stay away but if you're already one of them .....like my blog? be my friend

My next entry will be sooner and longer and will have actual knitting content.

In the mean time, check out my new favorite blog It's my other addiction but not quite as insidious as the myspace.

"dayzed"

Ok, so the internship isn't as evil as I thought it would be. I didn't have to get a tetanus shot. And its only a 1 hour commute each way.
I don't hate it as much as I thought I would. The work is almost fun-- in a monotonous...anal retentive... sort of way. It actually feels really nice to be back in an academic setting. This week I've been thinking a lot about going back and finishing my bachelors.
The down side is I've had to completely change my work schedule. After working nights for the last 10 years I'm now working all days. I have never been so tired!!! I also had to drop a day so I'm working 6 days a week but I'm only get paid for 4. :-(

anyone else feelin a little dazed and confused?

the cell phone is back in commission

I HEART EBAY

my first nasal oxygen tube

I got to place my first nasal oxygen tube on Monday!!! This doggie came in with a pnuemothorax--that's when air gets into the pleural cavity (the little space between the lungs and the chest wall). The air pushes against the lungs making it difficult for the animal to breathe .

Sometimes these are caused by a trauma, like a deep wound that pierces the chest wall. But this guy had a spontaneous pneumothorax. These are caused by some kind of abcess or disease that affects the lung tissue. He had a bunch of little air filled blisters on his lungs called blebs. The blebs had ruptured and leaked air into the pleural cavity.





He was taken to surgery where they opened up his chest and removed a part of his left lung (a partial lung lobectomy). They placed a tube in his chest to help remove the air from the pleural space. After the surgery, he wasn't doing very well. His gums were grey and his pulse ox was 75-80% (normal is >90%). The doctor asked me to place a nasal oxygen tube, which is a tube that goes up the dog's nose and the other end is connected to an oxygen source.

I've never actually placed one before so I was soo nervous. Luckily the dog had very large nostrils and after a little poking and prodding and lots of topical anesthetic (for the dog!!!) I was able to advance the tube up his nose. I had to suture the tube to the dog to (hopefully) prevent him from pulling the tube out.




A few minutes after the tube was placed his color was back to normal and his pulse ox was 95%!!!

in communicado

My cell phone is dead. D.E.A.D.
dead.
some bunny chewed up my charger. I have no cell phone. Can my life get any worse???

If your reading this and you actually know me (or know someone that knows me) CALL ME!!!! leave a message on my voicemail--- I've been checking it frequently.

My phone's been dead for almost a whole day and I've only gotten one message. And that was a wrong number. :-(
I'm going to assume that you all have been leaving me text messages.

CRY SCREAM SCREAM SCREAM

grrrrrrrrr................
I just found out that I have to do my internship in the city instead of where I thought I would be doing it. Which means I'll be sitting on a train for 3 (maybe 4) hours a day. During rush hour. In the summer. Hold on, I'm gonna go cry again...........

And... They want me to get a tetanus shot--I wouldn't get a tetanus shot if someone stuck a rusty nail directly into my vein!!!!

I am in SUCH a bad mood because of this. I hate LGCC!!! Biggest mistake I ever made. (ok--maybe not the biggest but definitely a mistake.) If anyone wants to be a vet tech and is thinking about going to LGCC--DON'T DO IT!!! Go to Suffolk or go to Mercy or go online. Don't go to LGCC.
Gonna go cry some more now.

Even the cats are angry:

Ben's Haircut

DAY 1
Every summer Ben gets a haircut. He has this feathery fur that likes to get tangled and matted. When I found him (~7 years ago) one of the first things I did was get him clipped down. At first would take him to a groomer. The groomer was great but after a fewyears it was really hard to find the time to drag the cat back and forth. So a few years ago I decided that I could do a perfectly good job myself. Last summer it took me 2 weeks ( and a whole lotta bandaids) but I did it. This year I'm going to try to do it in a week. And hopefully with a lot less bloodshed. DAY 2