My cat Monty is diabetic. I say "my cat" because its my head he occasionally sleeps curled around and I also say "my cat" because Monty is always after my attention. Its to the point where Spyro (puppy) gets jealous if Monty comes near me. Spyro constantly tries to get to me first. Of course Spyro always must sleep draped across any part of me to compete with Monty. How loved do I feel????
Poor Monty went hypoglycemic tonight. :( He couldn't walk across the floor he was so weak. He was also completely dazed. (couldn't focus his eyes) I snapped out of my freak out pretty quickly and got him some maple syrup. Within about 5 minutes, he was much better. After about 10 minutes he walked out of the room and down to the kitchen all the while demanding I feed him. He feasted like a king on leftover chicken.
I'll have to adjust his insulin and see how it goes for the next few days. I could tell something was up last night (I wasn't sure what) because he curled up next to me when I went to bed and stayed all night. At least now I know.
I have been this relieved very few times in my life.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Links and stuff
I added a link to Penny Arcade.
(my fave comic strip from years ago) It used to be mainly geared to gamers.
Check out the comic below from 1999. Its a direct dig at the duke nukem team. (which Scott was part of) Hopefully he won't be too grumpy at me for posting it. :)
I removed the link to sampdoriapoint.com. I've emailed them a few times asking if they ship to Canada but I haven't received a reply. I even sent an email off in "babelfish" Italian and they didn't even email back a "WTF are you trying to say, stupido!!"
Hmph. I guess I'll be scouring Ebay for the shirt I really like.
(my fave comic strip from years ago) It used to be mainly geared to gamers.
Check out the comic below from 1999. Its a direct dig at the duke nukem team. (which Scott was part of) Hopefully he won't be too grumpy at me for posting it. :)
I removed the link to sampdoriapoint.com. I've emailed them a few times asking if they ship to Canada but I haven't received a reply. I even sent an email off in "babelfish" Italian and they didn't even email back a "WTF are you trying to say, stupido!!"
Hmph. I guess I'll be scouring Ebay for the shirt I really like.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Whats your ecological footprint?
Click here for the quiz.
I scored pretty low compared to others (6.4) but once I start driving on a regular basis it'll probably go up to at least a 12. If there is only 1.8 biologically productive global hectares per person then we're running at a huge deficit.
I scored pretty low compared to others (6.4) but once I start driving on a regular basis it'll probably go up to at least a 12. If there is only 1.8 biologically productive global hectares per person then we're running at a huge deficit.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Hallowe'en jokes
Hallowe'en is coming up! For the past few years, Ridley has gone as a unicorn. (she loves that costume still!) This year, I managed to convince her to go as something different. She was trying to choose between a princess and a superhero but ultimately the superhero won. So, Batman she is! She was dismayed to find out later that Batman has no super powers. (I think I even mentioned when shopping that Batman is lame compared to Spiderman or Superman..but ah well)
I'll post pics after Hallowe'en.
Here are some jokes from Ridley...
What did the ghost eat?
Boo-berry pie.
What do witches eat at the beach?
Sand-witches.
Whats green and walks through walls?
Casper the friendly pickle.
(Ridley's version of the answer was "a friendly pickle" which of course had me scratching my head but laughing all the same)
I'll post pics after Hallowe'en.
Here are some jokes from Ridley...
What did the ghost eat?
Boo-berry pie.
What do witches eat at the beach?
Sand-witches.
Whats green and walks through walls?
Casper the friendly pickle.
(Ridley's version of the answer was "a friendly pickle" which of course had me scratching my head but laughing all the same)
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
When guppies attack
I was feeding the fish a couple of weeks ago when I noticed that one of the guppies was very thin and his tail was mangled. He would hide up by the filter towards the top of the tank. I went out and got another guppy because I read that some guppies get jealous of other guppies tails and getting another guppy can sometimes defuse the situation.
I wasn't sure if it was the other guppy being aggressive at this point.
Unfortunately the thin guppy didn't make it.
The next day, the new guppy was dead. Crazy! It was then that I saw the remaining guppy attacking my blue platy. It was like something out of Jaws! I'm pretty sure now that the blood thirsty guppy also killed the platy babies in our tank.
We immediately dumped the serial killer into a glass and took it back to the pet store. We picked up a gold platy and a black molly and peace is restored once again to the tank.
After all that, I really think guppies are UGLY.
I wasn't sure if it was the other guppy being aggressive at this point.
Unfortunately the thin guppy didn't make it.
The next day, the new guppy was dead. Crazy! It was then that I saw the remaining guppy attacking my blue platy. It was like something out of Jaws! I'm pretty sure now that the blood thirsty guppy also killed the platy babies in our tank.
We immediately dumped the serial killer into a glass and took it back to the pet store. We picked up a gold platy and a black molly and peace is restored once again to the tank.
After all that, I really think guppies are UGLY.
Monday, October 17, 2005
I never win anything...
I guess I can't say that anymore. An Xbox 360 should be arriving in a few weeks! Project Gotham Racing 3 looks great!
Click here to go to the Pepsi contest webpage.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Friday, October 07, 2005
Photo Album
I've added a link on the right sidebar to a photo album (you can also click on the title of this post to get there). To get started, I just added pics from Ridleys schools open house last night.
(check out her artwork!)
(check out her artwork!)
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Aberdeen St
I grew up on Aberdeen St and so did my mother. We sold the house and my mother fled for greener suburbs a couple of years ago. That house was my (and my sisters) legacy from my grandmother. I loved living 2 blocks from downtown and had hoped to move back there someday. The Lees were our neighbours and over the years so were The Greenwoods, The Orrs, The Yorgas, The Karisimos (sp??) and various other families who came and went.
When my mom approached my sister and I about selling, I was mixed. I loved that house but also knew very well the troubles my mother had been having with the students. We finally agreed to sell and move my mom to what we all called "the burbs" (said with a gasp).
In my experience, most students are great neighbours. Over the years we had many at our dinner table for my dads famous pesto. Years later, students would come back to visit us or to see my dad at his tailor shop. In recent years, the entire landscape has changed. I hope Queens gets a handle on this or next years homecoming is going to end in tragedy.
Here is an article that appeared in todays Kingston Whig Standard
Students claim Aberdeen Street as their own
Some contend site of riot is part of campus life and residents should move
By Jennifer Pritchett
Local News - Thursday, October 06, 2005 @ 07:00
Almost two weeks after Queen’s University received a black eye for this year’s Homecoming mayhem, student reaction on the street where the riot erupted ranges from unrepentant to embarrassed.
Still, some vow the giant bash on Aberdeen Street will live on next year because they feel that the neighbourhood is student territory.
“This isn’t a residential area. It’s a student ghetto,” said Nick Brennan, a second-year political science student.
He describes the student neighbourhood around the university as a major attraction for people coming to Queen’s and said it should therefore be considered by Kingstonians as an important part of campus life, even though it’s not officially part of the institution.
“People come here for this,” he said. “Queen’s students support the downtown [businesses] and what would Kingston be without the university, anyway?”
Brennan is one of several dozen Queen’s students who live on Aberdeen Street, the short avenue where as many as 7,000 partyers became a violent mob on Homecoming weekend.
Queen’s principal Karen Hitchcock met some of those students on Monday night in a room adjacent to her office at the university. The event was invitation-only for Aberdeen Street students and was closed to the public.
Hitchcock spoke to students for about 20 minutes. She said the university won’t tolerate the kind of lawless behaviour that occurred at the event, Patrick Deane, Queen’s vice-principal academic, told The Whig-Standard.
Though she didn’t give students any opportunity to voice their thoughts during the closed-door meeting, she invited them to contact her office later with ideas about how to ensure the riot doesn’t happen again.
Brennan wasn’t at the meeting, but he doesn’t see the residents of Aberdeen Street putting an end to their annual Homecoming street party.
“I thought [the party] was awesome,” he said. “I think the criticism of it was a bit overdone.”
However, he said that when some partyers overturned a stolen car and later set it ablaze, “things got a little crazy.”
He said he spent the night in his house or on a friend’s balcony near Aberdeen and Earl streets.
He suggested that families who live in the area “should go to the cottage for the weekend” so they won’t be upset by the disturbances.
“I wouldn’t keep [my car] parked there when I know it’s Homecoming weekend,” he said. “I would put it in a parking lot for the night.”
As for the lone family on Aberdeen Street, Brennan said he didn’t know them, even though just one house separates his place from theirs. He was unaware that their property was vandalized during the riot.
“I feel really badly for them, but maybe it’s time for them to move,” he said.
The 19-year-old student from Toronto wasn’t aware that Howard and Sim Lee have lived on the street for 35 years, long before the area became dominated by students.
“It’s only a matter of time [before] it becomes a student house, too,” he said. “My grandparents wouldn’t live in the middle of a student ghetto.”
But as Brennan was speaking with a Whig reporter in front of the elderly couple’s home yesterday, Howard Lee, 78, came out on the lawn and the two met for the first time. Brennan and fellow student Pete Macnee immediately apologized to Lee for the damage done to his property on the night of Sept. 24.
“I’m sorry about your fence – that’s pretty annoying,” Macnee told Lee. “It’s terrible. We have to fix it. I hope next year’s [Homecoming] is better.”
Both Macnee and Brennan were sympathetic and told him that they could help repair the damages.
The Lees were held captive in their own home during the riot as a massive crowd of partyers pushed up against their front door, preventing the family from opening it.
All night long, young men and women rang the Lees’ doorbell yelling that they wanted to come in to use the bathroom. When the Lees didn’t let them in, some vomited and urinated on their front step.
The couple could only watch through their windows as drunken revellers jumped on top of their three cars parked in the driveway. Repairs to just one of the cars are estimated at roughly $1,000.
Yesterday, Lee showed the two students his knocked-down fence in the backyard and the damage done to some woodwork on the side of the house.
Later, Macnee told The Whig that he would e-mail Queen’s principal Karen Hitchcock and tell her that they want to help the Lees.
“At the meeting with Hitchcock [on Monday night], she told us that we disgraced Queen’s and that we need to do something,” he said. “And we will.”
Brennan said he can understand why the Lees and the other permanent residents are upset with the students, even though some of those responsible for the destruction weren’t from Queen’s.
“If my car was stomped on and it cost $1,000 to fix, I’d be pissed,” he said.
Macnee, a second-year art history student from Toronto, admitted that this year’s Aberdeen party was crazy and “it was kind of stressful.”
“I wouldn’t even invite my girlfriend,” he said. “It was scary.”
He said the house where he lives at the corner of Aberdeen and Earl was also damaged during the riot when somebody kicked in the door. The repair cost his landlord $700. Brennan said his landlord also “flipped out” after seeing the damage done to the house he lives in.
Brennan didn’t know why the street party on Aberdeen became so violent this year, but like many other students since the riot, he blamed it partially on the police presence.
“I saw this bus pull up on Division Street and all these cops come out with their full gear on and I knew what kind of night it was going to be right then,” he said. “Well, I want to say it was the police, but that’s probably taking the easy way out.”
Neither Brennan nor Macnee could offer any solution to prevent the violence from recurring next year, but they said the party will keep happening regardless of what the police and the university administration try to do to stop it.
The street is perfect for a party because it’s just two blocks long and is conveniently situated in the heart of the student neighbourhood, they said.
They also said that next year’s Aberdeen party needs a DJ booth erected on scaffolding so that the atmosphere is more like a party with good music.
But David Shulman, a fourth-year philosophy student and Aberdeen Street resident, was embarrassed about what happened during Homecoming. He was giving several alumni a tour of his student house and they were up on the roof when they saw some young men flip the stolen car.
“I felt I had to apologize to them,” he said. “I was so embarrassed.”
– With a file from Ann Lukits
alukits@thewhig.com
jpritchett@thewhig.com
When my mom approached my sister and I about selling, I was mixed. I loved that house but also knew very well the troubles my mother had been having with the students. We finally agreed to sell and move my mom to what we all called "the burbs" (said with a gasp).
In my experience, most students are great neighbours. Over the years we had many at our dinner table for my dads famous pesto. Years later, students would come back to visit us or to see my dad at his tailor shop. In recent years, the entire landscape has changed. I hope Queens gets a handle on this or next years homecoming is going to end in tragedy.
Here is an article that appeared in todays Kingston Whig Standard
Students claim Aberdeen Street as their own
Some contend site of riot is part of campus life and residents should move
By Jennifer Pritchett
Local News - Thursday, October 06, 2005 @ 07:00
Almost two weeks after Queen’s University received a black eye for this year’s Homecoming mayhem, student reaction on the street where the riot erupted ranges from unrepentant to embarrassed.
Still, some vow the giant bash on Aberdeen Street will live on next year because they feel that the neighbourhood is student territory.
“This isn’t a residential area. It’s a student ghetto,” said Nick Brennan, a second-year political science student.
He describes the student neighbourhood around the university as a major attraction for people coming to Queen’s and said it should therefore be considered by Kingstonians as an important part of campus life, even though it’s not officially part of the institution.
“People come here for this,” he said. “Queen’s students support the downtown [businesses] and what would Kingston be without the university, anyway?”
Brennan is one of several dozen Queen’s students who live on Aberdeen Street, the short avenue where as many as 7,000 partyers became a violent mob on Homecoming weekend.
Queen’s principal Karen Hitchcock met some of those students on Monday night in a room adjacent to her office at the university. The event was invitation-only for Aberdeen Street students and was closed to the public.
Hitchcock spoke to students for about 20 minutes. She said the university won’t tolerate the kind of lawless behaviour that occurred at the event, Patrick Deane, Queen’s vice-principal academic, told The Whig-Standard.
Though she didn’t give students any opportunity to voice their thoughts during the closed-door meeting, she invited them to contact her office later with ideas about how to ensure the riot doesn’t happen again.
Brennan wasn’t at the meeting, but he doesn’t see the residents of Aberdeen Street putting an end to their annual Homecoming street party.
“I thought [the party] was awesome,” he said. “I think the criticism of it was a bit overdone.”
However, he said that when some partyers overturned a stolen car and later set it ablaze, “things got a little crazy.”
He said he spent the night in his house or on a friend’s balcony near Aberdeen and Earl streets.
He suggested that families who live in the area “should go to the cottage for the weekend” so they won’t be upset by the disturbances.
“I wouldn’t keep [my car] parked there when I know it’s Homecoming weekend,” he said. “I would put it in a parking lot for the night.”
As for the lone family on Aberdeen Street, Brennan said he didn’t know them, even though just one house separates his place from theirs. He was unaware that their property was vandalized during the riot.
“I feel really badly for them, but maybe it’s time for them to move,” he said.
The 19-year-old student from Toronto wasn’t aware that Howard and Sim Lee have lived on the street for 35 years, long before the area became dominated by students.
“It’s only a matter of time [before] it becomes a student house, too,” he said. “My grandparents wouldn’t live in the middle of a student ghetto.”
But as Brennan was speaking with a Whig reporter in front of the elderly couple’s home yesterday, Howard Lee, 78, came out on the lawn and the two met for the first time. Brennan and fellow student Pete Macnee immediately apologized to Lee for the damage done to his property on the night of Sept. 24.
“I’m sorry about your fence – that’s pretty annoying,” Macnee told Lee. “It’s terrible. We have to fix it. I hope next year’s [Homecoming] is better.”
Both Macnee and Brennan were sympathetic and told him that they could help repair the damages.
The Lees were held captive in their own home during the riot as a massive crowd of partyers pushed up against their front door, preventing the family from opening it.
All night long, young men and women rang the Lees’ doorbell yelling that they wanted to come in to use the bathroom. When the Lees didn’t let them in, some vomited and urinated on their front step.
The couple could only watch through their windows as drunken revellers jumped on top of their three cars parked in the driveway. Repairs to just one of the cars are estimated at roughly $1,000.
Yesterday, Lee showed the two students his knocked-down fence in the backyard and the damage done to some woodwork on the side of the house.
Later, Macnee told The Whig that he would e-mail Queen’s principal Karen Hitchcock and tell her that they want to help the Lees.
“At the meeting with Hitchcock [on Monday night], she told us that we disgraced Queen’s and that we need to do something,” he said. “And we will.”
Brennan said he can understand why the Lees and the other permanent residents are upset with the students, even though some of those responsible for the destruction weren’t from Queen’s.
“If my car was stomped on and it cost $1,000 to fix, I’d be pissed,” he said.
Macnee, a second-year art history student from Toronto, admitted that this year’s Aberdeen party was crazy and “it was kind of stressful.”
“I wouldn’t even invite my girlfriend,” he said. “It was scary.”
He said the house where he lives at the corner of Aberdeen and Earl was also damaged during the riot when somebody kicked in the door. The repair cost his landlord $700. Brennan said his landlord also “flipped out” after seeing the damage done to the house he lives in.
Brennan didn’t know why the street party on Aberdeen became so violent this year, but like many other students since the riot, he blamed it partially on the police presence.
“I saw this bus pull up on Division Street and all these cops come out with their full gear on and I knew what kind of night it was going to be right then,” he said. “Well, I want to say it was the police, but that’s probably taking the easy way out.”
Neither Brennan nor Macnee could offer any solution to prevent the violence from recurring next year, but they said the party will keep happening regardless of what the police and the university administration try to do to stop it.
The street is perfect for a party because it’s just two blocks long and is conveniently situated in the heart of the student neighbourhood, they said.
They also said that next year’s Aberdeen party needs a DJ booth erected on scaffolding so that the atmosphere is more like a party with good music.
But David Shulman, a fourth-year philosophy student and Aberdeen Street resident, was embarrassed about what happened during Homecoming. He was giving several alumni a tour of his student house and they were up on the roof when they saw some young men flip the stolen car.
“I felt I had to apologize to them,” he said. “I was so embarrassed.”
– With a file from Ann Lukits
alukits@thewhig.com
jpritchett@thewhig.com
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
No fish but...
We took Ridley to the circus a couple of yrs ago and she rode an elephant. We all noticed afterwards how sad the elephants looked and felt terrible. Heres a picture of them, magnificent aren't they? They looked miserable when carrying 10 kids on their back, but fantastic when performing!
Monday, October 03, 2005
Pictures! (for a change..haha)
Since the pictures I post are usually of Ridley (or gadgets) I thought I'd post some recent pics of other people and pets for a change. Hey, I might even post a pic of the fish if I'm feeling adventurous later!
I need to look into a photo album I think but in the meantime, here is Monty (my 13 yr old kitty) Me and Sam, Scott and Spyro (still a pup).
I need to look into a photo album I think but in the meantime, here is Monty (my 13 yr old kitty) Me and Sam, Scott and Spyro (still a pup).
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Windows Mobile Treo
Its a phone that has a 1 megapixel camera, bluetooth, wifi plus all the regular pocket pc functions. (ebooks, movies, mp3s, games, word etc) Sweet! I don't use a cell phone often but this is just too cool.
I think I better start saving my pennies.
Correction: I was mistaken, I guess they have no plans to add wifi at this point. Hopefully they change that before it hits the masses. SD wifi cards just add a silly looking protrusion to your gadget so I hope they reconsider.
I think I better start saving my pennies.
Correction: I was mistaken, I guess they have no plans to add wifi at this point. Hopefully they change that before it hits the masses. SD wifi cards just add a silly looking protrusion to your gadget so I hope they reconsider.
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