estacey

My foster boy Sammy

2010-07-19T00:30:00.001-05:00

My foster boy Sammy, originally uploaded by estacey.

this is one of my foster puppies. adorable, right?

no one wants him either. hmpf!

one of my rescue's puppies

2010-07-19T00:29:00.001-05:00

rottie for adoption, originally uploaded by estacey.

there are 3 left.. seriously, how can that be?

New foster kitties

2010-06-07T19:03:00.001-05:00

New foster kitties, originally uploaded by estacey.

My fosters.. would you believe no one wants these guys yet?

2010-06-03T22:42:00.001-05:00

My fosters.. would you believe no one wants these guys yet?, originally uploaded by estacey.

How sad! Hoping new homes come first!

And look -- I got a new camera, yipee!

LOVE ANIMALS? Then rethink meat!

2010-05-31T22:08:00.001-05:00

LOVE ANIMALS? Then rethink meat!, originally uploaded by estacey.

The Defurminator is AMAZING

2010-05-12T03:14:00.001-05:00

The Defurminator is AMAZING, originally uploaded by estacey.

And they're not even paying me to say that!

All that fur? Came off that cat! And it would've kept coming... AND it doesn't include all the fur that blew away! How weird, though, right, that a black & white cat sheds THAT color fur. It's the undercoat.. I wonder if that makes a difference?

The best part is that both Oreo and Kitten love to be combed with it. Kitten doesn't love anything, really, aside from trying to eat cereal out of my bowl, so I was really impressed that she even let me touch her with it, nevermind all the purring she was doing.

Amazing on the dogs, too, particularly the boy puggles.

Small dog, big bunny

2010-05-03T22:39:00.001-05:00

Small dog, big bunny, originally uploaded by estacey.

The licking, it never stops.

2010-04-26T19:41:00.001-05:00

The licking, it never stops.
Originally uploaded by estacey

animal-centric

2010-04-22T23:05:00.003-05:00

Today I woke up after too-little sleep and got to see for the first time in a while what 8 a.m. looks like outside. It was GORGEOUS. Cool, beautiful, sunny.. in the 60s still! I ran last night at 10 p.m. and it was 76. I'd say we switch to 8 a.m. runs but Chris goes to work earlier than that and no way am I up for 5-6 a.m. runs, soooo.. hot nighttime it is!

Then I drove the mama cats to be spayed. Then I had a mini argument with the vet lady who was insisting that they needed to notch their ears. NOT MY GIRLS! I basically took the attitude that it was NOT UP FOR DISCUSSION (and it wasn't) and it seemed to work.

Then I picked my friend Byron up and got to see my pirate kitties. They are getting bigger and cuter and their eyes look so much better. :) Then we drove up to the bunny rescue in Lake Worth where I took pics of a huge Flemish giant and a lovely lop named Justice. I LOVE LOP BUNNIES!

Then we did some recon at a local pet deli that I contacted and I'm meeting with next week. I got the cats some whole smelt and the dogs some duck necks (I know, I know, ugh). The dogs got to eat some fish tonight too. They were in HEAVEN.

Then I went to pick up my girls. Then I came home and collapsed.

And after it was all done, I realized my whole day was basically centered around animals. And that's JUST FINE with me! :)

ugh ugh ugh ugh

2010-04-22T01:07:00.001-05:00

bearbile25_PH, originally uploaded by mikemongo.

I was just thinking about these folks yesterday and today I got their annual report.

Read up on www.animalsasia.org

Moon bears are kept like this from cub-hood to death with an open wound in their abdomen to extract bile, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine. They often have their teeth and claws removed.

These pictures absolutely haunt me. They put factory farming to shame, as unimaginable as that may seem.

The folks at Animals Asia are trying to put an end to this practice and giving sanctuary to the bears they have rescued from such a life. They also work to help dogs and cats killed for food in Asia and educate people about compassion for animals.

Not to rip on the Asians, but damn. It's hard for me to believe that a difference in culture can cause what I believe to be a complete lack of empathy. One of the bears was kept in someone's KITCHEN in Vietnam for like 14 years. How could you look at a suffering being for 14 years, stuck in a tiny cage, in constant pain.. and live with yourself? I don't get it.

I've given them money in the past. At this point I'm considering sponsoring a bear for $45/month.

So. Sad.

i'm 30, not 8

2010-04-20T18:19:00.001-05:00

i'm 30, not 8, originally uploaded by .April..

This just makes me laugh.

Harvey, the amazing white-ish foster kitten

2010-04-14T19:00:00.001-05:00

Harvey, the amazing white-ish foster kitten, originally uploaded by estacey.

Sup, prettiest cat ever! Check out the blog at www.twomamacats.com :)

Kittens LOVE feathers. Or hate?

2010-04-14T02:05:00.001-05:00

Kittens LOVE feathers. Or hate?
Originally uploaded by estacey

:)

I just have the moms and 1 kitten left. The kitten is going home on Sunday and the moms have a new home in... BALTIMORE! :) How exciting!

T R O U B L E

2010-04-09T20:55:00.001-05:00

A before-going-home photo shoot..., originally uploaded by estacey.

Lots more cute pics at the website - www.twomamacats.com

Newborn calf

2010-04-08T23:45:00.001-05:00

Newborn, originally uploaded by By Elize.

Precious.

Hellooo there

2010-04-08T23:38:00.002-05:00

Still fostering cats, but we're down to 5 kittens and ALL of them will be in their new homes by the end of the weekend. Woo! Check out the website: www.twomamacats.com

Took a few pics last week for our friends Brian & Marcy. The boy is at an age where he won't look at the camera. Not even for a second. Won't stay still. Not for my silly faces or noises or NOTHIN' so the lovely botanical garden we visited was wasted, but I did get some nice pics of them in their own yard. A few. Here are two:

Not much going on here. Got some business cards. My site is up. My blog is up. Got turned down by my preferred pet store for putting promo materials in their store, but they would like my card as people ask them about pet photographers often. (Yay 500 cards for $15, Overnight Prints!)

Ummmmm. yeah. That's about it then? I gotta go do litterboxes and cry about my 8 kittens that are gone tonight...!

so we have this new deal

2010-03-25T00:34:00.002-05:00

Running and health is very important to Chris.

Animals are very important to me. (I've probably never mentioned that before. Surprise!)

Chris has long told me that if I become Catholic, he'll go vegetarian. I said, um, that's impossible.. that's like me saying that he would have to BELIEVE eating meat is WRONG. I can ask him to stop eating meat, yes, but one cannot request that another person changes their beliefs; it's impossible.

So I tried to make a deal the other day with him. If he stopped eating meat, I would go with him to mass every time he went. That's EVERY WEEK, folks. He said, naw.... but! If I would go running with him on a REGULAR basis, then he would stop eating meat.

We drew up a little contract (no lawyers this time) as he has a habit of renegotiating things after the fact and it drives me nuts. The deal is I run 3x per week with him. 2x min. if I have something going on or get sick or whatever. His side is that he doesn't eat meat. He gets to eat fish and I make an exception for chicken dumplings as I don't know if he could live without them. They may be pork. Whatever.

We've been doing this for, um, 2-3 weeks now. So far, so good. I had a friend in town all last week and we were gone most evenings so I only did two runs with him... the second at 10 pm on Saturday night. He's like, you're cutting it close!! :D "Don't make me eat meat!"

OK, so why did I think to bring this up?

http://www.maniacworld.com/baby-lamb-a-little-confused.html

Go watch!!!

That's a video that is freaking adorable featuring a lamb. And my thought is... WHO THE HELL WANTS TO EAT A LAMB?! Yet people do all the time.

Now my husband isn't one of them. :)

Whee! We made Cute Overload!!!

2010-03-15T04:34:00.001-05:00

Whee! We made Cute Overload!!!, originally uploaded by estacey.

Yadda yadda yadda

2010-03-09T00:55:00.003-05:00

This thing is basically dead, right? but sometimes I wonder to myself why I DON'T use it since it's a good place to speak my mind. maybe I'll get better about it.

Let's do the numbered-list sort of post.

1. ELLIOT
He's so much better. I let him out of the guest bedroom today, where he was quarantined since we got home from the hospital so I could make sure he was eating and pooping and taking his medicine. He's super happy to be out, but reeeeally wants to go outside. He keeps trying to make a break for it anytime I let the dogs in or out. They have a doggy door but that's on lockdown, obviously.. I feel guilty for both Ellie and the dogs so let's hope I feel confident that Ellie is back at 100% soon. He's eating at 100% for sure.

2. MY KITTIES!
Oh the baby cats are so darn cute. I let them out of the closet for the first time today. About half of them were exploring the office tonight. They're just so tiny - four weeks on Wednesday. I update their site every few days at www.twomamacats.com. They're all doing well. One of the babies is sneezing more than I'd like but I'm keeping an eye on him.

The only problem is that I am HORRIBLY allergic to the kittens. So. Bad. I was in there for a while tonight to use the computer and play w/ the cats and I was wheeeeezing my head off when I left the room. Literally gasping. I have an OTC inhaler but I don't like using it too much. I guess I should see the doc!

I don't get why I'm so allergic to the kittens and not the moms. Whateverrr.

Five of the kittens have DEFINITE forever homes. Another lady backed out of getting a kitten since her 10-year-old son talked her into adopting some needy adult cats instead. Sweet, right? She wrote me to tell me this and I'm like, hello, Olivia and Claire, my mamacats! She's thinking about it.

3. MY LIFE
Married life is.. hmm, much like cohabitating life. Except you know it's forever. So I can do things like host two mama cats and their THIRTEEN KITTENS without worrying that Chris will all of a sudden decide (or realize) that I'm nutso and leave. Ha!

Seriously, though, it's good. Yesterday I made vegan pancakes (mm!) while Chris was outside working on the yard and I was thinking how nice it is to have Chris at home, even if he's outside. Funny, right?

I love every day not having to go to a job I hate. LOVE IT. Need some dough, though.. Someday.. someday it will happen.

That's all for now!

It's 60 out but Gretchey still swims.

2010-03-05T01:14:00.001-05:00

It's 60 out but Gretchey still swims., originally uploaded by estacey.

Kitten at 5 years old has a new obsession with the faucet

2010-03-04T18:50:00.001-05:00

Kitten at 5 years old has a new obsession with the faucet, originally uploaded by estacey.

Hi!

2010-03-01T22:39:00.002-05:00

I'm the worst person ever! When it comes to blogging! It's really weird not having a laptop.. I can use Chris's at night but usually don't so.. um, blame it on that!

I'm in the office now WEARING A MASK. Ha! That's what you get when you're ALLERGIC TO CATS and live with EIGHTEEN OF THEM! Seriously.. my allergies usually aren't bad at all. Sometimes annoying, for the most part not even really there. But lately? Oh lord. I think I may be sick too but every time I come love on the kittens I end up sneezing for like 3 hrs afterwards and wheezing and having to use this awful inhaler. Tonight it was ridiculous. So now I use a facemask to pet the kittens. I'm hoping as they grow I'll get used to their dander and it'll be OK again. I got used to the moms pretty fast...

Lots of them have people who have reserved them, applications turned in and all.. No money yet so I expect SOME will back out before then but we can hope it goes well!

Not much going on here. Loving not having to work, esp with all this Ellie stuff going on.. we were at the vet's again today for a couple of hours. All good news, now I just have to watch him carefully and make sure he's eating and pooping and torture him by giving him meds 2-3x a day. Better than having to bury him, though, so I'll take it.

My biz site is almost ready to go. Just as soon as I finish one of the pages and have the heart to finish it. I think I got burned out and then Ellie and now I'm feeling under the weather, so it'll wait til next week I'm guessing. I really want to get that up and running though!

We were gonna go to SF. I canceled that trip since I was kinda 'eh' about it and Chris didn't want to go. Apparently Chris started researching airfare to St. Thomas for the long weekend (he has off Thurs & Friday) but then Ellie got sick. Man. He was serious too, ready to buy the tickets.. I coulda gone to St. Thomas! Ah well. We can do it later.. Let's hope it happens!

Mm, that's about it. We have houseguests both next week and the week after, so I gotta work on getting this house together. Happy times!

I'm out!

Happy Ellie at the vet's office.

2010-02-26T20:25:00.001-05:00

Happy Ellie at the vet's office.
Originally uploaded by estacey

He may get to come home tomorrow night! :) :)

Ellie's at the kitty hospital

2010-02-25T23:33:00.001-05:00

Ellie's at the kitty hospital
Originally uploaded by estacey

My poor Ellie!

Okay, so here's what happened.

Saturday night - He was acting normal. I gave them their daily wet food. An hour or so later, he barfed it up. And then barfed up some clear stuff. Kitten pukes on a semi regular basis, but he never does so I thought that I definitely should keep an eye on him.

Sunday morning - puked up a tiny bit of liquid by my bed, then drank some water and puked that up. I brought him into bed with me, he laid his little head down and I could tell he was under the weather, then he crawled under the bed.

Sunday night - I checked for him under the bed but he was gone! I yelled outside and he didn't answer. He usually does.

Monday - he didn't come home all day. Monday night I yelled every hour so (Chris enjoyed that) and at about 3 a.m. started crying because I was very worried. Ellie does the disappearing act every once in a while, but I needed to make sure he was feeling OK but didn't even know where he was. I retreated to the office for some kitten therapy and when I came out, he was calmly sitting under a side table. Was he outside or hiding under the couch the whole time? I have no way of knowing.

I locked the house down at this point so no one could get out without me letting them.

I immediately gave him some wet food and he ignored it. Not like him. I figured maybe his tummy was still upset so decided to just keep a really close eye and if he wasn't eating Tuesday I'd take him in.

Tuesday, however, he spent under the bed. Would not come out. Not unusual for Ellie, but still. Grr.

Tuesday night I texted Chris before bed (our version of a note) to let him know if Ellie was out to please lock him in the room where he couldn't hide under the bed or get out. He was under the bed, however... When *I* got up, came out to say hi, so I put him in our bathroom with a litterbox, food, and water. He didn't touch the food so I called the vet, unsuccessfully as they were closed for lunch. I decided to just drive him there and if I had to wait, I had to wait.

I kinda felt like it was a just-to-be-safe visit (had one of those last month for Piper; $50 and 3 hrs for nothing! but better relieved than worried).

Then they moved his ear to look inside and it was YELLOW. His skin was all yellow, like someone had rubbed him down with iodine. I had been holding him that morning and hadn't noticed, but now. I wonder how I could have.

So the whites of his eyes and skin were yellow.. I'm not going to even go into all the stuff the vet said it COULD be, but the gist of it was that he has a 50/50 chance to live. There are a whole bunch of things it CAN be, but to find out exactly they'd have to open him up and do biopsies which obviously is not going to happen, for they treat for everything and just hope it works and that it's not something like cancer.

At age 4, he's young for cancer but it's POSSIBLE. Chris looked up jaundice in cats and it sounds as if it's usually 50/50 because if it's this ONE thing (which is what it is in half of cats), and they're caught in time and given lots of fluids and food, they'll usually be OK. If it's something else, they're usually not okay.. hence 50/50.

Apparently his IV line got kinked at some point during the night, so he wasn't as well hydrated as he could have been, but they've given him extra all day. He ate some overnight, then not today at all apparently until I came in and then he started scarfing his food down, both wet and dry. I would think that they had just put it in there, only he was just laying on his bed when I walked in, sooo... Him eating because I was there brought tears to my eyes. I was so happy for him.

I was feeling pretty awful last night but today and pretty optimistic. We don't know at all what's wrong, but he's getting the care he needs and he was eating today. He was a really healthy cat, too, until Saturday when he puked... Maybe that's what set off the not eating. Then he'll get better. But if he puked for some other reason than the food agreeing with him? Not sure.

We declined an ultrasound today for him because it didn't sound as if it would do any good; it could basically tell us if he had liver flukes, which we're already treating for, or tell us he had gallstones, which is highly unlikely, and it could tell us if he had something bad and basically untreatable. So we said let's plow ahead with this 3-5 days treatment and see how he is.

He didn't even squeak today.. he just opened his mouth and a whisper came out. Poor baby. I wish I could have him home and take care of him here SO BAD. He was doing happy paws when I was sitting with him, little cutie.

I haven't had a health crisis with any of my cats or dogs before (aside from Maggie's attacking Gretchen). It's NO FUN. Blah.

Wish Ellie luck!!

KITTENS!

2010-02-21T15:38:00.001-05:00

The one keeper I got :), originally uploaded by estacey.

Lots of kittens going on.. Check Flickr and the site www.twomamacats.com. My office stinks to high heaven, but at least it's cute! :D

Um, do you think we have enough cats?

2010-02-14T18:31:00.001-05:00

Um, do you think we have enough cats?, originally uploaded by estacey.

HAHAHAHA.
THIRTEEN KITTENS!!!

http://www.twomamacats.com :)

Uploaded some Fiji stuff to Flickr

2010-02-11T04:12:00.001-05:00

At the dive site, originally uploaded by estacey.

Go take a look :)

My friend Bethy is so funny

2010-02-06T23:50:00.001-05:00

I always add a little class to any occassion, originally uploaded by bethyb.

She just had had her baby shower. This is the cream dispenser she used.

Yes, Bethy.. it *is* oddly appropriate! :D

Could Maggie be a Basenji mix?

2010-02-06T00:59:00.001-05:00

Here's Ike the basenji mix:

http://www.cincinnatipetphotographer.com/PHODOGRAPHER/Blog/Entries/2010/1/31_Ike_Needs_a_Home.html

Hmmmmm!

2010-02-03T01:26:00.001-05:00

I bought this song on iTunes a couple of months ago and I swear I listened to it non-stop for days. Something about it makes me love it and bop around whenever it's on.

They're quite obviously still in there.

2010-02-03T00:55:00.001-05:00

They're quite obviously still in there.
Originally uploaded by estacey

My gosh... these really pregnant girls are still REALLY pregnant.

Check the video!

My two chubby chicks

2010-01-30T01:50:00.002-05:00

My two chubby chicks, originally uploaded by estacey.

So I'm fostering two pregnant sister kitties. I made them a blog: http://twomamacats.wordpress.com

Maggie & I were playing with sunflare

2010-01-30T01:49:00.001-05:00

Maggie & I were playing with sunflare, originally uploaded by estacey.

it's so quiet!

2010-01-20T19:40:00.002-05:00

sorry about that.

it's not that i haven't been on the computer. it seems that i'm on some sort of strange self-imposed second shift when it comes to all things online. i goof off, yes (jersey shore anyone?) but mostly i'm tweaking and researching. ALL EVENING. EVERY EVENING. thank god i have the flexibility to do that! i feel quite lucky.

i've had the worst luck w/ my logo. WORST LUCK. i had an idea which i had a kind person on flickr who is also a graphic artist offer to execute for a bargain $200 price tag. she got some stock artwork and put it together and i didn't like it. i didn't like the way it looked.. too generic, with the stock art.. and i didn't like the colors and could not make them into something i liked. so i get to pay her $200 for a logo i'm not using. AND then i get to pay someone else $400 for the logo i WILL use. i found someone to do it... we've gone through the logos a bit and i asked for feedback from a successful pet photographer and she said it was too cartoonish so i gave that feedback to the graphic artist and she said cool, she'll come up w/ some new concepts within a day or so, followed by a rambling email from me about how i do like what she designed and maybe i'll stick with it, but i sure would appreciate seeing some options just so i can be sure... and that was two days ago and i haven't heard from her so i dunno if i pissed her off or what. sigh!

oh, get this. my cousin:

http://www.jacksoncountychronicle.com/articles/2010/01/20/thisjustin/07ss.txt

seriously. SERIOUSLY. she's my mom's sister's daughter, lisa. she pretended she had CANCER. bald head and everything. chemo "port" on her chest. it was all fake. she was applying for SSI benefits and apparently made up her own medical records and got caught. she had said she only had 8-12 months to live. so umm... all that work for less than a year of pay? OKAY.

the part that really pisses me off is that my family had a benefit for her. my brother-in-law drove all around the town getting donations from local businesses so they would have stuff to auction off. they all attended the benefit, bid on items... and it was all fake. everyone was stepping in to try to help.. her mother has passed away so my mom was trying to be there for her. we offered to have chris look at her medical records since it sounded as if her doctors were giving her a runaround with her treatment due to her condition and/or insurance. when she didn't send the records, i started to wonder.. i felt like an ass for thinking the worst of her, but it turned out i was right. !!! LOSER.

okay, back to my 2nd shift business buildin'. :)

Baroo?

2010-01-17T22:48:00.002-05:00

Baroo?, originally uploaded by estacey.

Visit my blog for a post about Buddy:
http://kiwipetphotographyblog.com/?p=27

in case you hadn't noticed

2010-01-11T00:30:00.001-05:00

65, originally uploaded by jclutter.

it's EFFING cold here. in the 30 the past couple of nights 30s!!!

i am so over it. so are the tortoises. and the cats, who started using litterboxes today for the first time in, uh, years (they usually just go outside). and especially the iguana in my closet. (no, really.)

thursday it'll be warm again. yipee!

Look who got a great new home!!!

2010-01-03T23:10:00.001-05:00

Look who got a great new home!!!, originally uploaded by estacey.

:) :) :)

I found Daisy an AWESOME home! Yay!

They love her, as well they should. She tried to follow me out the door, which broke my heart into tiny pieces, but I'm sure she'll forget about me soon and fall in love with her new peeps. :)

Look what we found!

2009-12-30T23:38:00.002-05:00

Amanda was here this past week. Saturday, she wanted to go rummage saling. We didn't have any luck, but on the one street in search of a sale we found this:

Yep, a scruffy, dirty little white dog. I went over to it and it ignored me, so I got down and did the play bow and it - she - ran right over to me. I picked her up and we went knocking on doors but no one answered even though it was a weekend and there were cars everywhere. I found a kid walking down the street looking as if he was headed to work at a fast food joint. He said he had never seen the dog before.

Soooo... What else? We took her home.

I gave her two baths and the water ran brown. Then Chris helped me trim all the mats off her fur. It was crazy... her ears were literally twice the size they should be due to the fur matting together. Inside her ears, she had dreadlocks. She had poop on her butt, huge burdocks stuck in her fur, big mats everywhere, eye boogers the size of quarters... ooh, and fleas! Yay, fleas!

The Humane Society has no record of anyone reporting her missing and she isn't microchipped. Chris at first had said to put up signs in the neighborhood, but he realized what I did quickly - that if this dog recently "belonged" to anyone, they were not taking care of her AT ALL. So screw them.

This is her after three baths, an hourlong grooming session, and multiple follow-ups with me using scissors to cut off pesky tangles as she chewed rawhides:

I want to name her Daisy, but someone is coming to look at her tomorrow so I'll give that lady the honor if she decides to take her home.

A little about her:

She is ADORABLE.

She has extremely white teeth, so I think she must be young.

She is extremely sweet.

She is really playful. She bounds across the pool deck if you call for her, dragging a rawhide in her mouth.

She is very happy-go-lucky. What a difference from when I brought Maggie home! So she may have been neglected, but it doesn't seem like anyone's been mean to her. She snuggles and lets you lay her on her back and all sorts of cutie goodness.

She is extremely patient - she sat still so well for us to trim her down, and during the ensuing catch-fleas or cut-out-tangles sessions, she has sat completely still for me. None of MY dogs would do such a thing.

She's a perfect size. Small enough to pick up and hold and snuggle on your lap, but not so small that you have to worry you'll, like, break her or something. About 15 lbs?

She was waaaay too interested in the cats when she first arrived, but as of the second day she was here she was moving to the side to let Kitten have her food. Yes, she is scared of cats now. :D Not so much Oreo yet though..

She sleeps in weird positions. Draped over the back of the couch, for example, or smooshed between my leg and the arm of the chair.

She is not potty trained, but we're working on that. No accidents in the house today! We're crate training. No fun, but necessary.

When we have not watched her carefully, she has chosen multiple rugs and carpets to do her business on. We have a wood floor, chica - go on that!!!

Whoever gets her is going to be really, really lucky. I'm jealous!

working away at the pet photography thing...

2009-12-30T20:11:00.001-05:00

Daisy the cutie bulldog, originally uploaded by estacey.

how cute is daisy? :)

2009-12-30T01:10:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays!

i have been buuuusy!

2009-12-24T01:59:00.004-05:00

working on my site, blog, proofs site.... still not close to being up & ready to go but closeR.

i did a shoot for by's boss today. she has more animals than us - 2 horses, a miniature donkey(!!!), two tortoises, seven dogs(!!!), and four cats. she lives out west where you can get lots of land and i'm jealous.

i did just pics of the daddy's favorite, a bulldog named daisy. cuuute. just finished processing a bunch and uploading them. overall i am not all that happy with them, but at the same time it was a good first shoot i think. i had never met a stranger to shoot their dog before. it was like an hour before sunset, so that would've been good, only the skies gloomed up and it was pretty dark. that sucks. and the dog was difficult in a few ways so i didn't get the variety i wanted, but not all dogs are going to be easy so it was good. i am looking forward to practicing more. before i used to dread it.. fear of failure. but now i think i have a LITTLE confidence and it has made me want to try harder... i feel like i am learning a lot and have a lot to learn so have nowhere to go from here but up. and that'll take work and practice!

in other news, amanda got here tonight. poor kid had such a bad time flying by herself for the first time. but she's here and hopefully her luggage will join us tomorrow.

tonight at the pet store i am surprised i didn't get kicked out. i had a bit to kill between shoot & airport so went to the store to get a treat bag. some lady was buying a bunny for her kids. a CUTE ADORABLE TINY baby bunny. of coures the store guy was telling her a bunch of b.s... they were picking out rabbit shampoo when i walked over there, for chrissake! that and he tried to lie and say the bunnies were already spayed. already spayed my ass. but i tried to make the lady understand that you need to spay & neuter rabbits and you can litter train them (she had no idea) and that it makes keeping them way more pleasant, AND that she could make sure she integrates the bunny into their lives rather than just leaving it in the cage. i hope it works out for them. i honestly just worry so much... a life in a cage by yourself is just no life, you know? so i hope that's not what they give that little sweet girl.

okeeeee, time for bed. early for me but i got a niece to wake up for now!

WOO!

2009-12-22T02:32:00.001-05:00

I love my new iMac. LOVE., originally uploaded by estacey.

Look what I got for an early Birthday gift!!!

2009-12-21T19:22:00.001-05:00

Look what I'm getting for an early Birthday gift!!!, originally uploaded by estacey.

OMG! this computer is so cool.

So my Dell laptop from the Valentine's before last is a total piece. I blame it on Vista. I have had to restore that thing SO MANY TIMES. The last time was just before I went to Wisconsin. Then, just when I got back, the keyboard all but stopped working. I could still type letters, but no ENTER or DELETE or SPACE or ANYTHING else.

I weighed my options, talked about it with Chris, negotiated (Chris doesn't believe on buying on credit, but that was the only way I was going to swing a new computer) and he wound up offering to get me a new computer for an early birthday-and-Valentine's-Day gift. (Yes, he likes to spread things out so he doesn't have to worry about a gift for X holiday. The funny thing is usually he ends up getting me something else and tacking it on. This year for Xmas it was the lens, then the iPhone, then got a GPS too. Even though when I got the lens it was accompanied by a stern warning that it was IT for Christmas, or mostly it anyhow. Which I was fine with!)

He DID make me admit I am spoiled before he ordered it. I agreed. I honestly did not expect him to BUY ME A NEW MAC when I sat down to talk to him, depressed about my laptop situation. The fact that he did? Awesome.

So! I am super happy. It came today. Took about 2 minutes to set up, literally... so different from PCs. And voila! I'm back in business. But no Photoshop. Gotta figure that out still.

I really LOVE this computer. We all love new gadgets, right? But once I went to the Apple store, I was in love. The 21.5" screen is HUGE. Seriously. Beautiful. I started looking at PCs just to compare, knowing how much more you pay for a Mac... but once I started looking at them, I was like NO WAY. They would have served me fine, I'm sure, but I don't think it would've been special to get a new PC. This, on the other hand, had me waiting at the door for UPS all day.

Anyway, Amanda comes tomorrow! Woo! Then it be Christmas.

holy shit am i cold

2009-12-15T00:06:00.004-05:00

seriously. it's like 10 out there. my feet have been frozen since i had to scrape the car windshield at about 2 p.m. and it's been downhill from there.

i've been in Wisconsin for nearly two weeks now. i came here because my sister got in a car accident and needed some help with her kids.

she broke her pelvis in a bunch of places and also her collarbone. she is doing really well, considering.. hobbling around pretty fast on her walker and stuff.

anyway, i stayed there a couple of nights, then came here to kamille's for the weekend, then back to kelli's for four days and back here for the weekend.

it was an unplanned trip and i really would have preferred not to come home.. i have stuff going on at home and i hate leaving my babies and it's fucking december! but it was definitely nice to get to see my family a little. make the best of it, you know. and macy's birthday party was yesterday, so it was nice to finally make one of those - she had three before this that i missed! overall, though, i think this trip has cemented why it's a good thing i live 1500 miles from here... i'll just leave it at that.

this is my niece kalia:

doing her hannibal impression:

this is what she looked like the LAST time i saw her:

i also met my sister's dog, sofia:

she was a puppy mill breeder before she was rescued and adopted by my sister. she's adooooorable.

i have other pics but they're uploading now, sooooo.... lata!

Is Macy hilarious or what?

2009-12-03T00:29:00.001-05:00

Macy trying to ride her trike in the store, originally uploaded by estacey.

She rode her trike to the store today. She insisted someone was going to steal it so threw a fit about getting to ride it into the store. That's what I captured here. After I snapped this pic I had to grab the back of her coat and pull her back out.

She was yelling, "Everyone's doing it!". Mmhmmmmm.

A character, this kid.

One of my Flickr contacts took in a cat...

2009-11-30T19:47:00.002-05:00

Anyone got a few bucks to pitch in? Here's the cat:

Here's her photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jclutter/

And here's her story:

The day before Thanksgiving I went to Home Depot with Evan's Mom to pick up a few things and left with a cat. Arg. Employees were trying to find someone who could take the sweet boy home as they were going to have to call Animal Control. He's a beautiful little man and he has done an amazing job adjusting to life in my laundry room :)I have no earthly idea what I'm going to do with him as we are really maxed out with the care and feeding of 4 cats and a dog on a very limited budget.. and there is no room for him at local rescues and his chances at Animal Control are slim. He'll be here and safe until we figure it out though.Something about the little man spoke to us and so Evan's Mom and I sent Evan home to get a carrier. He is not fixed and judging from the condition of his coat, skin and nerves he had been on his own for a while. He is terribly terribly sweet though. Even as nervous as he was you can tell he just desperately wants to give and receive good lovin'. I've spent the morning looking into low cost alternatives to get the man fixed and vetted, and will go get a voucher for him on Saturday. Even low cost is going to go well beyond what we can afford. So.... I'm reaching out for a little help. I'm estimating at this point with neutering, FeLV/FIV testing, and vaccines, along with food and litter costs it will cost me about $150 to keep the boy until I can find him the perfect home. This cat is going to make someone VERY happy. I just need a little help getting there.Thank you for reading this. If you can.. please donate. Seriously, even a dollar or two will make a HUGE difference. Anything I do not spend on Home Depot (if I can qualify for a free program) will be donated to First Coast/No More Homeless Pets. Read about them and what they do.. here

To donate click here I will continue to post updates so you know how your donation has helped!I feel more than silly asking for help for this little man but... while this may be cheesy, the thing that makes me feel better is a quote that often runs through my head..."If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."For now this little guy is my one... thanks again for reading this far. Oh, and if you can't donate... just give your animals a kiss for me and that'll do fine :)

update

2009-11-29T00:44:00.001-05:00

Maggie Mooooo!, originally uploaded by estacey.

oh, i've been so quiet!

we're in key west right now. one of those awesome paid-by-work weekends. we brought two dogs with us... our friends were teasing us that we should have not kids and if we did how we would not be able to do this kind of thing anymore, going to key west and stuff. i had to laugh tonight because this has been THE TAMEST TRIP ever. we usually go out and get tipseh at least one night, but not this trip... we have eaten, walked the dogs a lot, watched tv (no cable at home remember), and today we took a nap. i was like, um, yeah, i am pretty sure we can do this with a baby in tow.

my sister got in a bad car accident last week. she broke her pelvis in several places and her collarbone, and hit her head a good one. everything will be OK but it sounds like it will take a while for her to heal. i'm heading home wednesday for a couple of weeks and may go back again after christmas. i have to wait to get the details about her condition and plan of recovery before i go making any plans, though. it's so hard to be so far from home and useless and helpless.. i could have flown home right away, of course, but i wanted to time it to where i could be of most use instead of rushing home only to sit around and do nothing. so i guess i'll be helping with her and the kids. she really should be going to a rehab hospital for a while, but last i heard that was really up in the air.

practicing photography on the dogs, as you see here. this was in our friends' yard where we went for thanksgiving. it was reeeeally late in the day, so all the pics are at a slowish shutter speed, but overall i'm pretty happy with th e results.

ok, off to snooze.

Mmmmm, hi!

2009-11-18T23:49:00.004-05:00

OK, so I have gotten absolutely terrible at updating this. Sorray! Let's do the convenient numbered list to get you up to speed!

1. I QUIT MY JOB.

a. Why I Took It To Begin With.

OK, so my last semester of school was really light. It's a blur at this point, but from what I remember... It wasn't a full-schedule kinda semester, so by the end of it I was gettin' a little jumpy for something to do. So I got a job. I applied for some ones that looked interesting, on which I got no calls back (degree or not, my professional background is in admin... I think it'd take a lucky break to get a chance doing something else.) So anyway, I found this job that was an admin job (I vowed that my last job was the last one I would take where I was responsible for answering THE phone (as opposed to my phone), but I was bored and money sounded appealing and this job seemed at least very diverse in its duties, and they were laid-back there, so I took it. Also, I probably have made it clear that once I pop out some baby Chens, I will not be workin' 9 to 5. So this was a good interim-'til-baby-Chens type of gig. I thought.

b. Why I Hated It.

1. (Am I doing this right?) Job duties.

Instead of doing all sorts of stuff, including marketing and things which require PhotoShop (it was on the job ad!), I instead basically did Accounts Receivable and a bunch of reports. That's about it. And answered the phone. Anyway, so yeah.. It's not their fault.. The company is seriously growing and when they hired me they probably didn't realize how time-consuming the A/R was becoming. But I was NOT interested in processing stacks and stacks of checks all day. Never-ending stacks of checks. Blah.

2. Environment.

And I had to put up with a batshit crazy officemate. Who is 72 and a slut. Seriously. I have some pics of her finally... I'll have to get some up. Also, IT SMELLED LIKE PEE IN THE OFFICE. Seriously. I never got a resolution to that mystery. But it was BAD, particularly when the A/C was on, so maybe someone was using the vent as a potty? It was insanely bad though, the smell. It would be on my hair when I left and in my clothes. Usually the smell would dissipate on the drive home and all that, but sometimes it stuck around. I'd give Chris a hi-welcome-home hug and he'd pull away and say, "The pee smell is really bad today." You know, as if the pee smell could ever be really good. And my clothes? Forget it. I took to re-wearing jeans for days because there was no point in getting a fresh pair out when they were going to smell like a urinal by the end of the day. Do you know how old that gets? When you're not happy with your job and ON TOP OF IT you smell like pee. You're at home and you get a whiff of your purse and IT SMELLS LIKE PEE and you cringe. Your car is starting to smell of pee. It was bad and by the end of it was I starting to get all panicky for an escape. They dragged out my leaving a bit and I just kept thinking, "One more day of piss smell!" And then it would get dragged out again. Torture. Mind you, this business was not one of urinal cakes or Depends manufacturing. It just made no sense.

But it's all done now! Yipee!!!

2. I AM MARRIED.

You knew that though. I got the marriage certificate today, so I can get a-workin' on changing my name now. Being married is mostly like shackin' up, as I may have stated on here already. But with better benefits. ;) Honestly, I filled my first prescription today under the hubby's plan and it was amazing. I had insurance until like two months ago, when my COBRA ran out, but it was pretty crappy insurance. Then I was bare, so Imitrex cost me like $10/pill. Yipee. I can get a whole pack of Imitrex for like $20 now. Woo-woo!

3. I LOVE STAYING HOME.

This is the first week, but I have to say... having a shit office job has really made me appreciate not having to go to it. Seriously.

I am glad to be home with the animals more... The dogs and I have made one trip to the doggy park and are going again tomorrow. We went to the Doggy Store and bought bones, which after they cleaned 'em off I filled with peanut butter and froze 'em for the next day and the dogs loooved them. I am home to put the bunnies outside in their new outdoor run in the afternoon. They LOVE it. I love not NOT getting home until after dark... And the cats love being able to shadow me all day instead of just from 6:30 on. :D

4. I AM STARTING A BUSINESS!

I have registered the name. I am having a logo designed. I have parked domains. Now I'm just waiting for the logo to get cracking on the website and blog. Ooh, and I am working on building my porfolio, which is a must. So far I have like 5 offers to take Boxer pics. Which is nice and all but um.... I have to have more breeds in my portfolio than just Boxers!!! Ah well.

I LOVE the idea of having my own business. I am actually really excited about it. I've been digging through books about logos and branding and marketing and stuff. It's all incredibly interesting to me.. I love graphic design. I don't think I'd never have a talent for it, but I appreciate the creativity and cleverness so many designs display. How something as simple as a font can project information to your client about your business. It's all awesome and I love trying to figure things out and being EXCITED about what I am going to do rather than doing it because I HAVE to or dreading it. You know? There are going to be lots of EH parts of it... e.g. accounting, dealing with shit customers... but it'll be worth it. It'll be mine!

Working on this the past couple of weeks, it keeps coming back to me how damn lucky I am. I do recognize that. I am so lucky that Chris takes care of things. I am lucky that he is the kind of guy to encourage me to do what I want. Not having a job... it's not as if I have Chris's credit cards and am told to go wild. No, no.. not having a job will mean really not splurging, because we keep a budget. But doing this is at least a possibility for me. A really awesome possibility to get to do what I want each day instead of dragging myself into a job and sitting out my eight hours just so I can get the paycheck. And I will have freedom!!! I am already planning a light schedule for the weeks when I have my period so I can get extra sleep. Ha!

Did I mention that I have never actually fully applied myself to a job? Never. I mean, I always get things done. I always excel, actually. But about half the time I'm goofing around or trying to. I did awesome at my first job.. awesome, really! Meanwhile I had figured out how to use telnet on the work computers so I could chat all day. I billed 120 hours a month at the law firm (where we were required to do, um, 50) while spending hours online each day. Seriously! The bitch big-ass billing girl even wrote a letter to the partners about my Internet usage... nevermind how I saw that... but the partners basically wrote back to her that I got my job done and my billing kicked ass, so stop meddling. I mean, I did work hard.. I would even stay late sometimes, and I was on salary so it didn't matter! But for the most part I spent a lot of time doing NON work stuff (see all the blog posts from that time period). I mean, a LOT. Because work has just never been that interesting. You know, I know I've got to get it done, but I for sure am not going to spend any more time on it than I HAVE to. (Training my replacement at the last job, he kept saying how incredibly efficient I was, and I'm like.. what you don't realize is that I made this really involved spreadsheet to avoid two hours of non-interesting work a week, preferably so I could use the time to research whatever animal or hobby I am interested in at the time). I wonder what I could do at a job where I loved what I do and want to do my best. The idea is exciting!

Yep yep yep, excited over here.

Um, OK, I gotta go get ready for bed. I actually have PLANS for tomorrow so I should wake up at a reasonable hour. :)

Chris holding the little brown one.

2009-11-14T23:16:00.001-05:00

Chris holding the little brown one., originally uploaded by estacey.

www.luvabun.net

These baby buns are the offspring of a mama bunny who was rescued from a hoarding situation. See the website for information. I'll just say that these adorable babies (and their mom) were so so so lucky that they were taken out of their former home. We visited last Saturday and OH MY do I wish I had room for more bunnies! The babies were absolutely irresistible. I would've stayed all day snuggling on them if they would've let me! Or, if Chris would've let me that is. ;)

This is the place where we got our Piper.

Happy, Byron???

2009-11-07T03:46:00.001-05:00

Happy, Byron???, originally uploaded by estacey.

Also, I reprocessed this pic. Why? Because I love it.. or the idea of it.. whatever.. and it was an amazing time, alone on the beach, no one at all there. And WHY exactly did I reprocess? Let me explain:

Byron came over tonight and said something along the lines of, oh, your wedding photographer in Fiji must've sucked because I saw that pic he took. Which pic? I asked. He meant this one. I'm like, um, that was a self portrait with the timer...

I cropped it more strategically and changed the processing.

Hopefully this sucks less. :P

My rings

2009-11-07T03:44:00.001-05:00

My rings, originally uploaded by estacey.

I'll get to doing a wedding post at some point... I think I'm done processing pics for the time being. This weekend Chris's sister is having her bridal shower. (In 7 hrs! Meep!) Obviously, I still have not recovered from Fiji time.

I'm training my replacement at work, so just a few days to go... Yipee!

And I'm deep in planning this whole BUSINESS thing. The part that makes me really nervous is the pictures part. Gotta practice on strange dogs.. and cats and horses and stuff. Byron's boss is apparently like me on steroids - she has 7 dogs and 3 cats and 2 bunnies and some amount of tortoises and some horses....!!! I figure I could make a whole portfolio by just visiting her for the day!!!

Anyway, off to lay in bed and wish I were sleeping!

"Dr. & Mrs. Chen"

2009-11-07T03:41:00.001-05:00

"Dr. & Mrs. Chen", originally uploaded by estacey.

hahahaha

this is from '06.

Hee!

2009-11-05T01:38:00.001-05:00

Yes, we did make it official!, originally uploaded by estacey.

So far just a screen grab from a video we had the hairdresser do with the Powershot. I look very serious -- too serious -- but Chris looks cute. :)

Being married feels remarkably similar to shackin' up or being engaged. Except you say you're the "wife" and you have a new name and you can tease your husband (!) that he's stuck with you forever any time you're being a pain in the ass because SOMEONE doesn't believe in divorce. :D

False killer whales and Hawaiian spinner dolphins

2009-11-04T13:28:00.001-05:00

False killer whales and Hawaiian spinner dolphins, originally uploaded by Wild Side Specialty Tours.

We saw false killer whales off the boat in Taveuni. One was really close to the boat, right under the water.. Pretty awesome. :)

I'm back!

2009-11-04T12:46:00.001-05:00

Fiji, originally uploaded by estacey.

We actually got back reeeeeally early on Sunday, but I basically went into a coma until Monday night.

Oh, get this... So we get to the Miami airport at like 6 a.m., we get our bags, run to Whole Foods in time for them to open so I could get breakfast, then go home. I snuggle the animals and promptly collapse in bed. Chris cleans the kitchen, goes to mass, goes to the hospital to visit a patient, goes to Costco, goes to Patty's to pick up the dogs, comes home, unpacks, mows the yard... You get the picture. I waved at him periodically from my spot on the bed.

I have NO idea why I was so tired. I slept well in Fiji. Slept on the plane. Slept in the hotel in LA where we camped out for our layover. Slept on the second plane. Not only am I tired when I would've been sleeping in Fiji, but I'm tired the rest of the time too! Except I seem to be sleep saturated and now I'm just tired during the day... I had to take a sleeping pill at 4 a.m. so I could get SOME sleep before I came to work.

Anyway, enough of that. Fiji was awesome. The first place we stayed was a 10-minute boat ride from the island where they filmed Castaway, to give you an idea of what it looked like there. Our island was tiny and had just a couple of other couples on it at any given time, so it was really quiet and private-feeling and lovely. There was nothing to do but relax, except eat and snorkel and do honeymoon-type activities. :) There were baby black-tip reef sharks all over in the water, which I loved. We'd have breakfast, play in the water, read, nap in the hammock ("where did those two hours go?!")... When dusk approached, we watched the sunset and I harassed the hermit crabs. It was just so quiet and pretty, perfectly what you would expect Fiji to be.

The second place we stayed was more real Fiji rather than a resort. You know that on the whole island there was not one place to buy a postcard? That's how not-touristy it is. The corals there were amazing... We went diving and snorkeling. Both were amazing, but I could not get over how beautiful and healthy the coral were just yards from the road. Unfortunately we didn't bring the underwater camera EITHER time when we snorkeled, which kills me because the pics would've been way better than the diving pics we took 50 feet underwater.

The only negatives were: 1) I didn't get many pics with the SLR at all. There were all these cute kids on the coastal walk we did, for example, but we were hiking to a waterfall, so I didn't really want to lug the big, expensive camrea along. Sigh. 2) It is their spring there, and it was a bit chilly for us! Not chilly, really, except for when it comes to swimming. It was, I dunno, upper 70s? 3) Turns out Fiji has sad stray dogs. All of whom limp. I decided that if I found a puppy I would bring it home and give it to my mom as a souvenir or something, but the only little ones I saw were a little older and snuggling happily with their mom (and their fleas), so it was a no-go. The folks who run the resort there have taken in four dogs (their limit), one of which was so small they thought it was a rat or something. It's grown into a super beagle. :D

So yeah, I'm Mrs. Chen now. Doesn't feel quiet real.

Will be uploading pics in the next couple of days.. So far this is the only one I've posted. Goes to show how quiet the island was. No photoshopping any people out! :)

Hahaha

2009-10-17T02:54:00.002-05:00

Every time I see cat costumes, I ask myself, WHO ARE THESE FOR?

Not that I'm above dressing up my cats. No siree. I've even bought them a couple of wigs but we'll just say it didn't work out.

Tonight I was on a website and I saw all these cat costumes for Halloween. Including a tutu!

http://www.petsmart.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3302317&f=Taxonomy/PET/3302317&fbc=1&fbn=Taxonomy|Halloween+Shop

I'm like, wow, maybe people actually do get to dress up their cats. I mean, the cats in these pictures surely don't look happy, but nor do they look drugged up or dead or anything.

Then I realized - IT'S ALL THE SAME CAT! Baha! They found ONE CAT who was willing to wear a costume. One!

Wings! Bless this little cat's heart... If I put wings on any of my cats, I am guessing they would run through the house screaming bloody murder trying to get away from the THINGS on ITS BACK!!! Shit, I remember the first time we put a collar on Kitten... she was like throwing herself backwards trying to get away from it!

The last item is not shown on a cat. I am guessing the shoot ended and they were unable to get back in touch with the cat model so there went their chance of getting it photographed on a cat...

Cutest little baby accent ever

2009-10-16T19:28:00.000-05:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/millylillyrose/3991008008/

Even Chris was smiling big at it, and when I asked if I should play it again, he surprisingly said sure. And laughed again. SO CUTE.

2009-10-16T01:13:00.004-05:00

OK, so I am still (mostly) vegan. I had some questionable sauce at dinner the other night, and then shared a fourth of a piece of cake with the chicks I was out to dinner with. It was a "chocolate malt cake" so I suppose it had all sorts of bad things in it for me. I definitely think I'm holding the "eating vegan" thing a bit close, only sharing it with people that maybe may not be like, who knew Stacey could be more of a PITA? So when my friend Meredith wanted to take me out to dinner to celebrate me gettin' married, I wasn't going to make her to go to the one vegan place in town. But whatever. I've cut I'm guessing like 98% of dairy/eggs out of my diet, and 98% is a whole crazy shitload better than 0%. I hope someone challenges me on that. Really.

Ha, I told the guy at work, who like.. is animal CRAZY. Seriously. I was like, oh, he's an animal lover, he'll be sympathetic to this. He was talking about some crazy shit that he heard someone did, animal-related, and saying, woe is me, how can people be so cruel to animals, I said something like, "Well, one thing that basically everyone contributes to and it's awful for the animals, is the whole meat-eating thing." I swear, he basically ran away from me. He was holding a Dunkin Donuts bag which I'm pretty sure contained a sandwich with ham. Some people really do not want to know, I guess. Even they do know, it's like... if they don't know all the details, it's OK to keep eating meat. People that go home and treat their dogs like they're one of the kids. It just doesn't make sense.

Anyway, so the big weird thing is... I feel like I've made this huge change, right? It is a huge change. But part of me feels like because I FINALLY took this leap, like something should change. Does that make sense? Like, I get these PETA action alerts and it's all this-or-that about the egg industry or something. Hear about the recent Land O'Lakes scandal? http://blog.peta.org/archives/2009/09/land_olakes.php This Land O'Lakes supplier has been charged with animal cruelty, it was that bad... Really, there are so many things that they do to meat/dairy/egg animals that would be ILLEGAL if you did it to your pet, but it's OK for farm animals. So if someone gets charged, they really done messed up. And I see the title and instantly I think, "But I don't EAT dairy anymore..." I mean, I know the world didn't change with me... logically I know that. But it just feels so WRONG now. Like it's not a "choice" thing, but instead, I have finally recognized the TRUTH, and how can everyone else not see it?

http://www.peta.org/actioncenter/land-o-lakes-gallery.asp

Is that worth milk? Is it worth cheese?

And then I start spiraling down a really depressing thoughtstream. Because no, most people have not changed their mind about meat or milk or anything else. That video that prompted me to stop eating dairy? That baby cow still died, and many more like it experience an entire lifetime in about four minutes that consists of being cut out of their dying moms, having their throats slit, writhing around on the floor in their blood, and then being tossed, still alive, in what I am guessing is some sort of calf body dumpster. And it's just so epically wrong to think that living beings of any kind are treated like that. As time goes on, it becomes harder and harder for me to understand how people don't see that... or how the very first step you have to take in stopping this insane, awful behavior is to stop eating meat. And honestly, it is a small step. Really, honestly. Sure, I miss fried chicken and cheeseburgers a little tiny bit, from what I remember of them as a kid, but is a yummy meal worth what it costs? No. The worst part of the downward spiral is realizing that more people are joining this earth every day, and more formerly veggie-oriented countries are welcoming McDonalds and the shit American diet into their lives every day. Yay heart disease, yay obesity, and yay factory farms!

Anyway. This was going to be a short post about this whole vegan thing. I did want to mention how amusing(?) it is to me that I've had a similar reaction from more than one of the few people I've told. You know, I say I've been a vegetarian since 14, but I just stopped eating dairy... and I've heard, "I could never give up cheese." My boss said that; he is lactose intolerant, but he just could never give up cheese. I'm like, "Oh my god, ME NEITHER!" And really, that's true. I have/had an unnatural love of all things cheesy. Enchiladas, pizza, feta cheese in my salads, cheese sandwiches, etc. Ice cream was always my pick-me-up of choice. I am talking LOVE here, folks. But there are things even love cannot overcome.

I do have to share, speaking of my love and loss of cheese; I found an awesome FAKE CHEESE. We love our little pita bread / flatbread pizzas, right? LOVE. We ate them all the time. Chris told me over and over how glad he was that I made the "discovery" that we could have healthy pizza that we both love. Then I went.... VEGAN! And then we had a couple of weeks with no little pizzas. I tried some tofu cheese in my burrito and, let me tell you, it was nothing to write home about. But I decided to give the rice cheese mozzarella a shot and omg yum! And the Smart Life ground "beef"? Get some flat bread, slather it in pizza sauce, cover it in fake meat, then sprinkle grated fake cheese on it and slide it into the toaster oven. I laugh at it because it looks like a real pizza with sausage or something, and loads of cheese, but it's all FAKE! I think, "Mmmmm! Fake pizza!" And it's delicious! Score one for the Rice Dream cheese. :)

Also, score one for Chris. He has been absolutely nothing but supportive. He hasn't made fun of me or my food or anything. In fact, he eats the fake ground stuff with me. The only meat he ever eats here is a turkey sausage every now and then... we're talking like once a month. He still eats cheese on his pizza, the real kind, but he switched to the super low-fat kind and he said it is absolutely no better than my rice cheese, so once he runs out of it we may both be eating the faux stuff.

OK, one last thing. Going to a nearly-all-the-way vegan diet has given me something so huge and awesome. I have never had the best "relationship" with food. It sounds so cheesy (haha) but it's true. I like to eat stuff that is really, really bad for me. And then I apparently like to feel bad about it. And I try to lose weight and get so upset with myself for not being able to, and then I feel weak for not being able to resist eating both enchiladas on my plate or from buying a pack of M&Ms to snack on. Being fat was just an outward expression of my weakness inside. But now? It's like I've been fucking freed from all that. I read it put like this before, and it's true... Giving up bad stuff for the sake of my health was just too huge of a thing. You know, how could I give up something I relish SO MUCH? But giving it up out of heartache and compassion has made it not at all feel like a sacrifice. It's just, you know, the right thing to do. I don't weigh myself every day now, because I certainly am not eating perfect, but I don't eat cheese for chrissake - CHEESE! - so what more can I do? So this is me. Hopefully there will be less of me in the future, but I'm not eating stuff that is bad for me on a daily basis; today's indulgence was a late-night bowl of granola. What more can I ask for?

And my fridge? I am so proud of my fridge. Chris and I never were really much for junk food or anything.. but it's gotten so much better. Moreso when I have just gone shopping and am being good about vegetables, because then my the refrigerator is something when I was a kid I would've been horrified about, but now it's like, "Yeah, yeah, this really is how we eat!" You want a sweet, cold treat? You eat SORBET, mothafucka!

So that's what I have to say about that. In case you wondered. :)

Oh my gosh, can we keep it?

2009-10-14T09:58:00.001-05:00

Oh my gosh, can we keep it?, originally uploaded by estacey.

I have never understood tiny dogs all that much. But oh! Chris found this one running in the streets. Our neighbor's door was open and there was a beagle inside, leashed up, barking... and this doggy running in the road and the yard. So I caught it and brought it home and he ran around scaring the rabbits and the cats and he was so so so so cute.

All I'm sayin' is that the neighbors better be damn happy that I was able to catch this pup so he didn't get hit by a car and that I already have three at home or I totally would've stolen him away!

He wasn't interested at all in being picked up by a stranger, even a stranger with salmon treats, so I had to get down on the ground and do the play bow. Then he was like, oh! She wants to play! Yipee! You'll notice that I played the same trick to get him to look at the camera for half a second to get a picture. All the rest of the pics I snapped are just brown blurs of fur.

Did I mention I quit my job?

2009-10-13T23:42:00.001-05:00

I like it. Even though I know it's just a blurry butterfly. :), originally uploaded by estacey.

I don't think so, since I haven't updated this since, like, last year. Soo... yeah. I did. Last Monday. And it felt GOOD. I'm still going to work each day, but next Thursday I leave for Fiji and hopefully they will have found a replacement by then so I will be FREE FREE FREE!

I'm stressed right now. And PMSing. NOT A GOOD COMBINATION. Good news is that maybe I'll get my period before we leave so I'm not in the throes of Bad Cramps Day in Fiji. Cross your fingers for me!

I take Piper in to get fixed tomorrow. I'm going to warn them that I have lost one bunny to anesthesia and one bunny to cancer in the past year so PLEASE BE CAREFUL. Again, cross your fingers for me.

I have spent a lot of time in the mall. It has sucked. But! I found a dress. I don't think it looks like.. um... flattering? But it's white-ish and I'm faaat, so what can you expect? I seriously needed to lose like 20 more lbs and this would've not been such an ordeal. But hey, it's me.. It's my wedding for Chrisstake. I'm trying to not stress about that too much. Hopefully I can lose a little more by picture time in December, so we'll see Thing is, I cut out ALL CHEESE and other dairy, which means NO ENCHILADAS and NO ICE CREAM. You'd think I'd be skeletal at this point, but nope! The slothlike amount of activity can't be helping, but I'll aim to fix that when I get back from the Fiji.

OK, yeah, time to watch "Lie To Me" on Hulu and fall asleep. Tomorrow will be a long day.. Won't be home til like 11 pm on account of Piper's surgery, so, yay. I'm going to try to use the time wisely and go to YET ANOTHER MALL which isn't going to be all that fun but it needs to be done.

Oh! Chris got me the 24-70 2.8 lens. Early Christmas gift. :) I am getting it now so it's in time for Fiji. I had to track the fucker down, and I did, and it should be here Thursday. I need to learn how to do cartwheels for times like this.

Yawn!

Mr. Big

2009-10-13T23:36:00.001-05:00

Mr. Big, originally uploaded by estacey.

Life is beautiful

2009-10-02T20:54:00.001-05:00

I'm laying in a bed in my hotel room in downtown Atlanta. I just had a key lime martini and a vodka and cranberry and I ain't wearin' pants. Now you understand the blog post title.

So I'm at this Cowbelly pet photography workshop for the weekend. Optional day one was today. We had the workshop today and then went out for dinner n drinks. I use the term dinner loosely. The only thing there for me was the hummus.. Until I found out that the smokey taste was courtesy of trout. Doh! We ordered something special for me and it was good but it didn't help with the alcohol absorption. :D. As I figured, vegan traveling is a bit of work. My appetite has changed so much though.. So it is SO not a big deal. Amazing!

Atlanta is cool. The weather is effing perfect. I went to the aquarium yesterday. I have mixed feelings about it, but like most of the aquariums I've gone to - New England, National, Monterey Bay - it was overall really cool. I got a few pics I'll have to upload when I get home.

OK back to the awesome and mindless television I can't get enough of here. I again thank god we canceled the cable, but I absolutely adore sitting and staring at this ridiculous shit.

hahaha

2009-09-30T00:49:00.001-05:00

Fijian wedding, originally uploaded by Saspotato.

our wedding package includes a fijian warrior. do you think they'll be offended when i say hell no?

i think it's a bit funny when people go somewhere foreign and have something like this incorporated into their wedding.

we also get a choir. hmm!

OH MY GOD

2009-09-30T00:11:00.005-05:00

So every time I mentioned to Chris that we really should plan our upcoming Fiji trip, he's like, nah, we'll just wing it. Then I started thinking about it and I'm like, wait, Fiji is made of ISLANDS. It's not like we'll have a rental car like in Costa Rica. We have to arrange FLIGHTS or FERRY RIDES. So we sat down to start trying to figure this out.. or I did anyway... Checked a couple of places and THEY WERE BOOKED. My favorite places.

So um, six hours later we are done. Chris says four but he didn't get involved until I was swearing. Do you know how many 011 numbers are on my last called numbers? I am going to hate to see the bill. The crazy part is that we ended with the two resorts I starred originally, but then I realized the one wasn't in the prettiest part of Taveuni so nixed it. Tonight I realized Taveuni is like 12 miles wide, so it really doesn't matter then does it? We dropped one of the locations altogether, since we can get there on a day trip from Taveuni anyway - if we're bored. If we're not bored, I'd prefer to stay in one place. I don't like spending all my time on a trip travelling.

We are staying at two eco-friendly resorts in the Mamanucas (Navini) and on Taveuni (Nakia). We were going to stay in an ultra posh place to get married in Taveuni that was $1500/night (you read it!) but I read on Trip Advisor that they overwork their staff and the manager kicked a stray dog in the head to get her to leave. Um, pass. So we're back to the place for the full four nights that grows their own veggies, etc... And we had to flip-flop our trip around to be able to get married since the Nakia place couldn't do it and the other place couldn't do it until Monday, yada yada... Anyway, it's all done. The places get really good ratings and they should be fab. I'm a little disappointed we don't get to stay in the swanky $1500/night place, but I feel better knowing I'm supporting eco-friendly places instead of ones run by dog kickers. Seriously, that place.. you had your own CHEF. And three bedrooms! And Chris actually agreed to pay for it! And then I declined. THE INNER STRENGTH THAT TOOK!

There were lots of other resorts that looked really nice, but full of people who play golf (sorry, By! But I'm sure you wouldn't spending your time playing GOLF if you went all the way to FIJI) and learn "Fijian" crafts on their vacation.. Egg rolling races for the kids! Game fishing! My favorite - BOAR HUNTING! Um, no. Even for fancy, cool rooms.. some with TV - I could watch Law & Order IN FIJI - I had to go with what was more, you know, me. I hope Chris is OK with that. ;)

Also, I "saved" Chris $3k by changing hotels. Soooo.. well, you know where I'm going with this... ;)

Chris is booking the inter-island flights RIGHT NOW. Yipee!

Navini Island Resort (where we're getting married), max 30 guests

Nakia resort in Taveuni, max 10 guests:

OK, my pics will be better. :)

So now THAT'S done. Seriously, so awesome.

Hee

2009-09-24T14:21:00.002-05:00

I had to get my medical reports from my pediatrician. They sent over the whole thing, from age nothing until I was a teenager.

A couple of things that made me smile:

I once weighed 33 lbs.

The doctor described my 10-year-old self as a "happy, smiling girl." (I like that they put cute things like this in the notes.)

When I had an ultrasound when I was two, it was noted that "the exam was extremely difficult on this squirming 2-year-old."

And when I was a toddler, I was "exposed to a Mexican Hairless Dog and developed a rash about the face." ?!

Also, I like to read "patient brought in by father.." Picturing my dad at the doctor's all concerned about me makes me smile.

Woowoo!

2009-09-22T19:43:00.001-05:00

Bronco & Bear 76, originally uploaded by cowbelly.

So the workshop is just over a week away now! I am going to Atlanta Thursday-Sunday. The workshop doesn't start until 11 a.m. on Friday, so I have a little time to explore on Thursday, which is awesome.

I have now booked my hotel and even rented a 24-70 2.8 lens.

My so-far Atlanta plans include the aquarium, the botanical gardens, and checking out the evening view from the lookout at the Westin.

A weekend away from home all alone, it should be interesting!

I'll give veganism one big thing: It's making me eat healthier.

2009-09-22T19:37:00.001-05:00

I'll give veganism one big thing: It's making me eat healthier., originally uploaded by estacey.

This is the yummiest dinner. My old roommate used to make it and I always meant to email him to ask how to make it myself, but this vegan thing finally got me to do it since it is yummy and vegan to boot! And mind you, my old roommate was a meat eater, but ate this every week.

You just dice and your favorite veggies.. I used peppers (red and green bell), crookneck squash, zucchini squash, and onions.. I used um, half an onion, half of each of the peppers, and one of each of the squash. Stir fry in olive oil. Then add tofu or, in this case, Tofurky Italian sausages. They are SO GOOD. I used two. Cook until everything feels like it's soft enough, and you're done! Oh, I used two garlic cloves in tonight's meal.

We served ours over quinoa, but you can eat it however you want. Since I knew what I was doing tonight (as opposed to last night), it was super fast and simple tonight. And, again, YUM. The Italian sausages have a lot of flavor, but the quinoa was just cooked plain, so we added a little olive oil and salt & pepper to the final product.

It's been a week now. Let me just say a big thank you to Starbucks and their soymilk lattes!

BLEH

2009-09-19T22:36:00.001-05:00

1st vegan meal out, originally uploaded by estacey.

so, apparently i'm a vegan now.

you know the cow video? after i watched it... i was just sick. the next day i had cream in my coffee and the most delicious greek yogurt with honey. but the whole time i was thinking "baby cow dying" and... well, i haven't had dairy since. and the weirdest part? it's no big deal. i think it's like how i am about meat. i don't eat meat, period.. it just isn't an option, so i don't crave it or anything like that. and it's just like the dairy switch has been FLIPPED because all week i have stayed away from it.. something that comprised at least part of every meal i ate.. yet it's no big deal. i can't make promises about the future, but at least for now it is NO BIG DEAL.

i went to the local vegan restaurant tonight and had a steak sandwich with sweet potato fries... and chocolate cake. it was all great. but i ate so much that i feel sick. we've been home for like two hours and i still feel like i'm gonna barf - TOO MUCH FOOD. i can't get over it. needless to say, as a vegan i ain't going hungry.

the first real test comes tomorrow - we're going to a friends' house and they grill out and she makes delicious brownies with hershey's kisses in them. i gotta pass.

other than that, not much happening.. except, you know, fiji is in like 4 weeks. CRAZY. i am actually getting excited, although not about the planning part or the shopping part or the packing part.

also, like.. 2 weeks til atlanta! yipee! ok, sleepy, bedtime.

Macy's first trip to Sunday school

2009-09-14T22:56:00.003-05:00

Macy is totally the little girl version of Gretchen, our crazy puggle who is awesome and a troublemaker and FULL of personality.

My sister took Macy to Sunday school the other morning. And you know how lots of parents use Sunday school as a babysitter? Drop the kids off, go home and get a nap in to take the edge off the hangover? Okay, maybe that was just my parents. But probably not, because the church has gotten wise to it. Apparently now Kamille has to go to church and then they come get the kids 20 minutes into the service.

Macy is three and crazy and hilarious. So while the service is going on, Macy is lifting up her dress. When Kamille told her to put it down, she yelled, "BUT MY HOO-HA ITCHES!" I'm assuming you all know what a hoo-ha is.

Macy wouldn't quiet down, so Kamille said that they had to leave and started to lead her out. By this time, the church service was in a prayer. Kamille tried to rush her out quietly, but then Macy realized she would be missing out on the after-service donut. "BUT I WANT A DONUT!" she yelled out, as the church was silent in prayer. Kamille was mortified, but I told her to not worry as people like me, being dragged to church by their fiances, live for that kinda stuff.

For you parents out there, this may be a run-of-the-mill, happens-every-day kinda story, but I thought it was hilarious. My niece Macy, she rocks.

And so does my niece Amanda, and she's coming to see me for Christmas and we're going to go get her nose pierced! Yes, with her mother's permission! :)

best diet ever?

2009-09-14T22:41:00.004-05:00

aka - DON'T WATCH THIS

to give you a clue, it's what happens to the cows when the dairy industry is done with them. oh, and this cow is pregnant. which doubles the awful-ness. and also, the guys are laughing. which quadruples it.

i got an email from change.org last night about something COMPLETELY different, then saw there was an 'animal rights' section at the top, so clicked there and next thing you know i'm watching this video and hyperventilating. today i have been so sad and disgusted that i have hardly eaten anything, and the only dairy i took in was the cream in my coffee.. and by the day's second coffee, i couldn't do it and went all the way to starbucks for a soy latte instead.

also, i made chris watch the video because when i'm upset about this stuff OF COURSE he has to listen to it, so i said hey, THIS is WHY i go so crazy, and i hit play and left the room. he was pretty shocked when i came back, but was making the excuse that it was the italians since that's where this video is from. no one wants to think that this is going on to the animals THEY eat and whose milk THEY drink, you know?

i remember, years ago i was working with a religious, observant jew who kept kosher. there was a big story about someone who had gone undercover at this huge kosher slaughterhouse.. like, THE BIGGEST.. and got truly horrible footage. as steven had explained to me previously, kosher slaughter was the most humane since it was meant to be quick and painless for the animals. yet, in this slaughterhouse, the cows were staggering around AFTER their throats had been slit. SO NOT KOSHER. and when i told him this, he said i must be wrong, no kosher slaughterhouses would be like THAT. end of story, no further research. i always thought that was so strange.. he was a really nice guy and religion was incredibly important to him, yet... he didn't want to seek out that truth? like, where would i get a story like that, and wouldn't you want to at least check it out?

anyway, sorry for my depressing video of the day.

not much going on here. maybe i'll write a macy email to cleanse the palate.

My lord

2009-09-08T19:57:00.004-05:00

I'm PMSing and I JUST CAN'T HANDLE THIS SHIT.

Mind you, I don't go SEEKING this stuff out. I read it on Consumerist.org. And two other other-oriented blogs. Not animal-related.

This is an investigation into the egg & meat industry. I thought it was just about eggs, but apparently they only grow females for meat too because they grow faster. What happens to the males? They grind those baby chicks alive. Honestly. ?!?!?!?! And this isn't some crazy animal-hugger lie, either; the spokesman for the company confirmed it. What better option is there, he asked?

The latest posting where I saw this story said that this video "confirms that humanity is a disease."

I have to agree. It is absolutely SHAMEFUL how we treat other living beings. People that will defend a stem cell to the death eat beef and pork and all sorts of other things, ignoring the suffering that went into it. I have read about babies who are born WITHOUT BRAINS (seriously) whose parents defend its right to life. How is it that human life is THAT precious... that even when there is no real "life" there beyond the technical, it must be defended... but we can treat animals like they're nothing more than objects. Even though THEY have feelings, unlike stem cells and brainless babies.

Seriously, folks (aka my 2 readers), do a little bit of research about eating meat. Beyond the ENVIRONMENTAL reasons that should stop you from eating meat, it should only take one or two undercover videos to make you realize that NO MEAL is worth that suffering.

I do still eat dairy products, but limit it to Stonyfield Organics or Organic Valley. As for eggs, I am doing research into companies I may be able to use. I love my eggs over easy on the weekends. Barring finding a company that doesn't make me want to barf, I am so finding someone local with chickens.. until we can move out into the country and adopt some chickens and some loud roosters.

I'm having a SERIOUS people-suck kinda day. I also stumbled across bear bile farming on Flickr while looking for a new enclosure for my rabbits. Don't bother googling that unless you want to cry your eyes out because that's exactly what I did.

I see militant animal activisim in my future, or maybe later-life vet school so I can volunteer with an organization in another country that is really making a difference.

i kinda wanna go to alaska

2009-09-05T13:36:00.001-05:00

, originally uploaded by RangerRoy.

someday.

If you ever want to be shocked at the cruelty than humans can be capable of...

2009-09-03T16:02:00.002-05:00

http://www.peta.org/actioncenter/actionalerts.asp

Truly, truly disturbing.

The rabbit-Petland thing? The raccoon thing? MY LORD. This, my friends, is why I like animals better.

Go sign some of the alerts. You just fill in your name once and it automatically sends the emails to where they need to go for every alert you do after.

You may think PETA is crazy, but you have to admit... they have a point, right? And they make it very easy for people like me who can't dwell on this stuff too long to quickly voice their opinions.

Weekend in Naples

2009-09-01T19:42:00.004-05:00

So Chris had a conference in Naples this weekend. That's the west coast of Florida, for you non-Floridians. You know, from my house if you drive east you fall into the ocean in about one city block. If you drive west, it would take you about two hours to fall into the Gulf of Mexico. That's where Naples is, on the coast.

Chris had a conference to attend Saturday, so I was left to my own devices. I had big plans, involving cameras and wildlife areas and sunrises, but the hotel had cable. (We canceled ours, remember.) And there was Law & Order on. Chris had a dinner Friday night and then we went out and it was his night to drink, so we didn't even get back to the hotel until about midnight anyhow. And oh Lord, you should have seen him. There is NOTHING more annoying than a drunk person when you are stone-cold sober. AAAYYYYY. Highlight of the night: I was allowing myself one drink, and I chose well. LYCHEE MARTINI. Yummiest thing ever.

So anyway, Saturday it turned out to rain all day anyway. We had a pretty serious balcony, so I could see the rain everywhere around us in the distance. It was cool. So I stayed in the room and watched some TV and got some coffee and stuff like that.

That's the view.

Trees! From the balcony

Oh yeah, when we got there we went to the Whole Foods there so I could stock up on healthy food and avoid having to eat bad-for-you and expensive food out the whole weekend. I stand by my idea that eating out is wonderful, but it should be an occasion and entertainment, not just convenience.

So anyway, while Chris was at dinner, I got to eat this:

Yeah, yeah, baby.. $7 fruit pie. SO GOOD. And it's just fruit and almonds and dates!

Saturday Chris was all hungover and feeling bad, so when he got done with his conference at 3, he took a nap (!!!) and I went outside.

I was trying to figure out how I could get into the swampy area we could see from the balcony, but there were gates that prevented that, so I grabbed my bike and started to ride. I got just a few blocks away and found a gated-off area that I quickly ducked into to check out. I saw birds and water and fun stuff like that.... So I started taking some pictures. Soon enough, a golf cart came zipping by. Yeah, I was right next to a golf course. On it, just not in view of it yet.

Golf course flower

Golf course butterfly

People in Naples LOVE golf. I have never seen so many golf courses in my life. Every ten feet. So many housing developments advertised GOLF COURSE LIVING. Seriously... okay, I understand liking something, but COME ON.

So anyway, I spent a good hour and a half snapping non-keeper pictures and just enjoying the quiet and the beautiful (HOT, HUMID) weather.

Then I rode to the Target on my bike so I could buy Chris something to wear.

See, people in Naples are also VERY RICH. It's one of the wealthiest cities in the country. And what did Chris bring to wear when we went out?

This outfit, basically, except it wasn't a nice new Steelers t-shirt, it was an old, dingy Our Place (local hangout) shirt. And light-brown swim trunks. With Crocs, of course. This pic was taken in Key West and while I have NO PROBLEM with him dressing like that there, Naples is NOT Key West. We drove by the place we were going to go out Friday night and there was a guy in a SUIT outside smoking. And Chris was wearing swim trunks. AGGH.

So I got him this for Saturday night:

See? Real shorts. And SLEEVES! No armpits! He was COMPLAINING TO DEATH, like I had just made him put on a fucking tux... while in actuality it was a super soft, 100% cotton nice shirt and some cargo shorts. Which he insisted were too small for him even though they fit him PERFECT. He looked really nice. :) And he still got to wear his Crocs, only now they matched.

Oh, look where our room was:

I guess places are starting to stop this whole superstitious no-13th floor business.

Oh, OK, so we were actually in Bonita Springs, about a half hour from Naples. And the place is, like, my hell. Like the whole Naples-Bonita Springs area just felt like CORAL SPRINGS for those of you who that means something to. Mega pedestrian-unfriendly. Tons of housing developments named things like Turtle Run and Pelican Landing when you know they drained and tore down anything that would make it a place where turtles or pelicans could live. It was just awful. I spent the whole time marveling how anyone could live there. To add to that, it's still very much UNDER development, rather than being already developed, like where I live. And trust me, it's much more depressing when you're watching somewhere go from what it looked like off the hotel balcony to what it looked like on the hotel grounds. I stood and stared off the balcony and wondered how long those trees and that swampy area (with wading birds!) would be there. Sad.

And on my 10-mile bike ride I did not see not even ONE pedestrian or other person on a bike. Not one! Just cars. And we were on the main drag (Tamiami Trail). SO WEIRD.

Oh, and everything was deserted too. I guess the recession has hit that part of Florida BAD, combined with its really extreme seasonality.

This was at like 5 p.m. on a Saturday.

And that's how most of the shopping centers looked. Ft Myers is closeby and I think it has the highest unemployment & foreclosure rates in Florida.

Saturday night we met Dean & Meredith out for my one eat-out meal of the weekend at Truluck's which was INSANELY DELICIOUSLY YUMMY. OMG. Meredith brought her friends.

Sunday I dragged Chris to Delnor-Wiggins beach in Naples, which is a park and a nice section of beach free from development. Notably, there were sand dollars EVERYWHERE. Everywhere! You walked on them when you were in the water.. I picked a bunch of out of the water to check them out and there were BABY CRABS that were so tiny on them. I wanted a picture but didn't want to take them out of the water for long, so alas..

This little girl was so cute, playing in the water.

There were tons of birds at Delnor-Wiggins on the beach too, and I have like a hundred pics of a few different kinds of birds running around, but picking a few keepers is really hard since birds are USUALLY quite pretty, by nature. I have to find a sandpiper picture and put it up, though, since they are so cute. OH, there was a manatee in the water, right by where I was, but I was talking to some lady and her husband was right there and he made some noise of surprise when he saw it that basically scared it away. SMOOTH MOVE, DUDE.

Some other bird. Also cute.

Then we went to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, something run by Audubon. It's like a half-hour from Naples the city, but is still in "Naples." We were kinda hurrying through since we wanted to get home at a decent time, but did the 3-mile trail and were able to enjoy it.

It smelled SO GOOD there. Like plants. Like Costa Rica. It made me realize I need to go to places like that more often. And back to Costa Rica.

I saw a deer there, up close.. And I even had my camera out, but I knew that clicking the shutter would ruin it and he'd run away, so I just held my breath and enjoyed the moment. :)

Corkscrew pictures:

Doesn't it look like it's floating?

Chris saw this and said, "I guess Oreo's been here." Hehe.

Hearts!

That's water under that green stuff! Am I weird.. I just wanted to go wading in it so bad.

Innit pretty? I wish this were scratch & sniff.

The tree trunks are works of art

There are lots of tall trees there. LOVE IT.

So that was Naples. We got home at 7 p.m. or so on Sunday and we were SO TIRED but I was glad that we took advantage of the fact we were over there to see some cool stuff.

hahaha

2009-08-31T20:13:00.001-05:00

venn diagram, originally uploaded by beetledude1966.

Weird

2009-08-25T14:45:00.001-05:00

I did a google image search for "dog cocking head" to see baroo? pictures. (I have an idea to make a triptych and wanted to see if there were any out there.)

I made it to page 7 and was about done when I thought, wait a minute, is that MY PICTURE?

Sure enough! http://www.adversityuniversityblog.com/2008/08/12/how-i-will-lose-20-lbs-in-30-days-an-experiment/
That's my picture of Buddy!

It's a small Internet after all... At least, a small world of people who are interested in dogs cocking their heads.

BAROO?

What up! Motha-f***ing college graduate IN DA HOUSE!

2009-08-24T18:51:00.001-05:00

What up! Motha-f***ing college graduate IN DA HOUSE!, originally uploaded by estacey.

Sorry. Anytime something adult & serious like this comes up, I turn into Herbert Kornfeld. BITCHES.

This came in the mail today. I may actually frame it. I'm normally way too cool to do stuff like that.. You know, I didn't attend the ceremony or anything.. But this little piece of paper was a lot of money and, more importantly, a LOT of work. I may as well acknowledge that it means something. :)

Evil cat!

2009-08-19T20:18:00.001-05:00

Evil cat!, originally uploaded by estacey.

She actually thinks the tortoise is alright, but she had to yawn.

The tortuga.

2009-08-19T20:15:00.001-05:00

The tortuga., originally uploaded by estacey.

We have a house guest right now. My Orkin man had a tortoise... we talked a bit about it a few months ago. He was feeding it ICEBERG lettuce. I said no, no, no... take a book home with you to figure out what kind it is and what you should be feeding it.

He refused, but then the other day asked if he could just give me the tortoise. He didn't know how to take care of it and it was obviously unhappy, banging on the side of the tank they kept him in all night.

So he's here now, until the weekend. Then he goes to this lady in Central Florida who has a TON of turtles and tortoises and will give him a wonderful home.

I can't keep him with mine since he's a Russian and not a redfoot... this climate isn't ideal for him, either, and I'm not up for starting on indoor tortoise ownership, so I'm thanking my lucky stars that I was able to find him a good home.

In the meantime, I am trying to keep him happy and try to get him outside for some exercise each day. He runs and runs..! :)

STILL in love with the ring...

2009-08-19T20:11:00.003-05:00

Channeling my inner wedding photographer, originally uploaded by estacey.

Orzo kitty

2009-08-19T20:11:00.001-05:00

Orzo kitty, originally uploaded by estacey.

What's the deal?

2009-08-19T11:14:00.001-05:00

Our pleasure, originally uploaded by selva.

With these coffee cups always being the coffee cups folks in NYC are always drinking out of on TV? Is it a certain place? A NYC thing? I don't get it. I'm thinking Law & Order and some other shows...

Got another rabbit.

2009-08-16T15:45:00.001-05:00

Piper
Originally uploaded by estacey.

I had to trade little Root Beer in since she decided she hates Thumper.

Piper and Thumper ignore each other. Well, he does chase her sometimes but it's nothing vicious. I think this ignoring business will blossom into friendship. I hope.

She's a sweetie, though. Root Beer, due to her past, was very skittish and scared of people. Very rough with food (you'd drop treats if you didn't want her to take your hand off). I was happy to work with her to get her to like people better, but this girl, Piper, is already a sweetie.

She was found wandering a neighborhood; someone must have released her. She was taken in a by a guy who cared for her for a while and then brought her to the rescue. She must've been a well-cared-for pet at one point because she is super sweet. She's already coming over and hunkering down for attention.

Wish me luck! I want no more bunny drama!

i'm gonna cry

2009-08-14T19:20:00.003-05:00

those rabbits that were so cute and getting along? not anymore.

the lady said it's rare for them to fight after they've accepted one another, yet sunday evening they started fighting, were fine all night, then at like 5 started in again. i put them in their pen thinking it would calm them down, but instead they started to REALLY fight. they've been separated but in the same room ever since.

at some point, i think the girl broke her toe - it's sticking out in a way it never was before. and she has a puncture wound i discovered yesterday. i'm glad i found it since it already closed today; we just had time to clean it out really good once before it started to heal.

the girl is instigating things, chasing thumper, pulling his fur out.. i can't blame him for fighting back. tonight i sat w/ them for a while. thumper was licking her face. good sign, i thought, but soon after, they started fighting again. i was watching them like a hawk so was able to separate it right away, but.. yeah, the rescue lady's suggestion that i bring rootbeer back when she's healed is seeming to be the way i have to go. i feel awful and was hoping they'd calm down so she could stay, but it's not happening.

so this weekend i will bring her back to the rescue. awful, because she is sweet and cute and i like her, and she's all curious and it's nice to watch her hop around the house, exploring. but i can't have two bunnies that try to kill each other any time they're around.

i can try with one more female bunny she has... and she's getting another next week.. or i could see if he gets along well with one of the males she has.

anyway, this sucks. i want them to get along more than anything, but it's just not happening. the worst is i think thumper really likes her.. hence all the licking. i hope he's not heartbroken all over again when i take her back.

Honestly though.

2009-08-10T21:26:00.001-05:00

Anyone remember Mini Fluffy?, originally uploaded by estacey.

Why is it that I give away all the beauties and keep the ones who don't show themselves til midnight or cry when you hold them?

Mini Fluffy

2009-08-10T21:25:00.001-05:00

Mini Fluffy, originally uploaded by estacey.

Remember her? She's grown into a GORGEOUS (and fat!) cat.

A good way to bond bunnies? Terrify them.

2009-08-10T19:55:00.003-05:00

A good way to bond bunnies? Terrify them., originally uploaded by estacey.

There they are in the car. They had been fighting, so I got out the carrier and they came with me in the car. They were SO SCARED that Daisy was basically UNDER Thumper she was cuddling him SO HARD.

But they're bonded now. Yay! :)

And yeah, flash sucks, but natural light stuff will have to wait until I can get close-ish to them during the day. Daisy is scared of me so she sits up if I get ANYWHERE close to her.

This is Daisy's Petfinder ad:

Oh, and the dogs got sweaters today. They are on sale at dog.com for like $2.49, so I planned ahead for this winter and bought one for each of the dogs. Plus a mess of doggy toys, with $5 flat shipping. Woohoo!

I had to practice SERIOUS restraint to not buy the doggy trench coats and smoking jackets. :)

Bad at updating again

2009-08-09T19:00:00.002-05:00

Yep, yep, sorry.

I actually have a funny post to write about my niece, but I am going to wait until I want to be at the computer for more than five minutes.

This is me:

www.nataliedee.com

Combination PMS + Chris's mom in town, agitating the hell out of me. (Even though I never actually even saw her in person. I did hear her yell through our bedroom door, though. That was a PLEASURE.) Apparently she's trying to make up with me - she wanted the whole family to go out to dinner last night. I couldn't even make myself go, but she did order a dish for me for Chris to take home. This weekend I had to make myself scarce quite a bit, which sucked... I had a lot to do! And, dammit, I like HOME. But it's over with at least.

Anyway, not much going on here. I'm enjoying not being in school. I've got TWO non-school related books going right now, which is awesome. I am not enjoying work so much, but whatever. It's a job. It's some dough, and it gets me up early and forces me to comb my hair. All good things, things that were mostly optional when I was going to school. ;)

It HAS reinforced how I feel about working + kids. The way it is, working four days a week, I find myself missing the dogs and feeling bad that I'm not home to pay attention to them and the cats more. I can deal with that, but what about when I have kids? I want to do SOMETHING, but not something 40 hours a week, for sure.

We got another friend for Thumper. I couldn't take his sad little doing-nothing and not-moving. It was a dramatic few days - fur flying and everything - but they like each other now. I will get some pictures soon. She's a real little sweetie, came with the name Root Beer, but I changed it to Daisy. She is inquisitive and adorable, but TERRIFIED of me. Apparently someone bought her at the fair and put her in a hutch on the porch for two years and paid no attention to her, so she's not sure about people at all. Dogs? They're fine. Cats, not so much. If I hold her, she breathes so loud and heavy that I feel guilty. She'll get over it eventually, I hope. Strangely, she'll randomly jump up on the couch while I'm sitting there. I even woke up with her on my chest a couple of times. Strange behavior for a terrified bunny, right?

The lady I adopted from has a whole bunch of fosters, and four or five of her own bunnies. A 25-lb rabbit went hopping by in front of me in her back yard. 25 lbs!!! For reference, I think Thumper is something like five(?) and Georgie was less than 2 when I had her at the vet's. Pretty awesome.

OK, time to go watch The Closer and wish today were Saturday again.

What a week!

2009-08-02T18:36:00.001-05:00

Sweet Georgie, originally uploaded by estacey.

This week we found out George had cancer. Long story. Basically we had something ELSE happen.. which in retrospect may have been related to the cancer... had to take her to the ER vet on Tuesday morning, then for follow-up care at a regular vet right after who felt the tumor. We talked about our options but it had metastasized already so the best thing we could do for her is take her home and spoil her until her time was up. Weeks to months, they said. They gave me bunny Tylenol.

I had a housecall vet come by on Friday to help me understand everything better, aka how can we tell when she's in pain? She gave me some special food to get her eating again and said by the end of the weekend hopefully she'd be eating on her own and we'd be good for days to weeks. (!) She gave me bunny morphine.

Georgie encouraged us a little.. ate some greens, ate a blueberry, attacked a carrot, let me get a bunch of the special food in her... but by Saturday afternoon she wasn't breathing all that well. I called the vet and she came by to put Georgie to sleep. First the morphine, then the valium, then the phenobarbital straight into the heart. I had never had to euthanize a pet before... It was an awful, awful decision to make, and the vet would not make it for me, so it was OURS. Tough. What I decided was that I would not want to live if I were gasping for breath and there were no hope of that getting better. It was going to continue going downhill and I didn't want to stretch out her suffering.

Anyway, so that sucked. From two healthy rabbits one week to one widower rabbit the next. I feel so bad for Thumper. I think he's lonesome.. I could be projecting, but it seems to me that he is not his usual self. He was getting so comfortable here, hopping around, flopping over on his side, asking for affection.. Now he's mostly been hiding.

The one good thing that happened this week is that I finished school. Totally. It's been a bad few weeks, but at least I have that headache out of the way.

Funny happening of the day

2009-07-25T00:17:00.001-05:00

Tree Frog_5668, originally uploaded by Feather fetish.

Tonight I went on toad-killin' duty across the street. As usual, I found a big ugly adult and caught it. Then I saw one that was much smaller so went to get another ziploc and, surprise! It wasn't a cane toad at all, but a treefrog. Probably a Cuban treefrog (invasive!).

I was trying to get a good look at it so I could ID it later on the computer. It kept jumping away though. These things are the slimiest, skinniest little frogs, EVER. I caught it like four times and it managed to squeeze right out of my hands. Finally it jumped up on my shoulder, then down to my forearm.

I had my headlamp shining in its face and was staring at it when all of a sudden, jump! And he was on my face. On my nose with his little feet on my cheeks.

I was like, "Um," and wondered what to do next. After a few seconds, he jumped off.

Anyway, I thought it was funny. :) Glad to see something other than Bufos for a change.

Quote That Gets Me Talking Out Loud Angrily To My Computer of The Day

2009-07-21T08:29:00.002-05:00

Re protection of harbor seals at a beach in San Diego, via this story:

"I don't particularly like them. I think they smell, and I'm not interested in looking at them," said Kees Hendricks, 60, of Vancouver Island in Canada. "I don't think there should be a whole beach for the seals."

Please say this is the only dumbass who they could get a quote from speaking out against seals having a beach. Where EXACTLY does this person think the seals are SUPPOSED to go? A homeless shelter? SERIOUSLY, PEOPLE! THAT'S WHERE SEALS LIVE!!! ?!?!

I read that quote over like three times before I started talking to my computer and using my new favorite quite (from The 40-Year-Old Virgin): "Are you fucking retarded?!"

You guys did see this pic, right?

2009-07-13T23:15:00.001-05:00

DSC01300, originally uploaded by Faded Photograph.

I find it HILARIOUS.

in the middle of the night

2009-07-11T22:59:00.001-05:00

in the middle of the night
Originally uploaded by dooce

i really didn't get why you'd get video on an SLR. you get a video camera for video, right? then i saw dooce's video of her new little marlo.

this seals it: when we have the babies, we will be getting a video-capable SLR. it's beautiful!

Bahia Cabana had good ring-sparkle light!

2009-07-11T22:06:00.001-05:00

Bahia Cabana had good ring-sparkle light!, originally uploaded by estacey.

No, don't bite the gun.

2009-07-11T01:38:00.001-05:00

No, don't bite the gun.
Originally uploaded by estacey

This is Gretchey's new trick, as videotaped by my new camera, the Powershot SD780 IS. Yipee! I have been wanting a new point and shoot with image stabilization and have been putting it off and putting it off, but now that I have a job - yes, a job, and I start on Monday - I figured I could go ahead and take the leap.

So yay! It's adorable and tiny and RED and has HD video capability. I have to play with that, but hopefully I can put up some relatively nice-looking videos. :) :)

And yeah, yeah, I know - for most people, this is a bit overboard, but I don't see a thing wrong with adding another camera to the pack. :)

My sister wanted a picture of the ring on my hand.

2009-07-11T00:32:00.001-05:00

My sister wanted a picture of the ring on my hand., originally uploaded by estacey.

I gotta look up how to best photograph diamonds. When I see this, I think it looks a bit bigger than in person BUT not as pretty as the sparkles are not evident...

Ode to my ring, on being engaged, etc.

2009-07-09T01:43:00.020-05:00

OK, so I'll admit it (for those of you who don't know me) - I'm a total pain in the ass.

See, Chris and I will have been dating for three years come August 4. From, oh, year one or so, I've been wishin' and hopin' and prayin'... But the months went by and by and I still had no ring on my finger. Even after we started talking about the future concretely, makin' plans and stuff, no ring. Sigh.

Eventually we had to Talk about it. You know, when is SOMETHING going to happen? I know and you know that someday we're gonna get hitched and make some babies, but when is that plan going to be OFFICIAL? The wedding is going to happen someday, but WHEN IS SOMEDAY?

So anyway, I knew it was coming... eventually. Then Patty, Chris's sister, got engaged last December, right before Christmas. She had met her now fiance a month after Chris and I had met. And while they started out dating like normal people, getting together once or twice a week, Chris and I moved into near immediate cohabitation (although that wasn't official for a year or so; I got to pay rent every month for a house I never actually slept in!). You can imagine the emotion that accompanied my happiness for Patty for her news. You got it. "CHRIS: ???!!!" There were also tears, but I blame that on the fact that I was days away from getting a visit from Aunt Flo.

Where am I going with this? Well, after all this DISCUSSION OF SOMEDAY GETTING ENGAGED AND MARRIED, the fact that we were actually going to get engaged and married was no longer a surprise. So my ring? I picked it out.

I actually obsessed over it for weeks, trying to find the perfect one for me. I had originally chosen a Tiffany ring, but they don't list prices there - you only get a "from" price - and the impression I get is that the prices on the website are not really reflective of what you're actually going to have to pay, from the $20k 1-carat rings I've read about. And I gather from lots of research that you pay at least 1/3rd more for the Tiffany name, for the same exact quality diamond and setting. Chris said he'd still get me that ring if I couldn't find another one, but hey, try. In retrospect, I think the ring I had chosen was a little... I dunno. Not me, really. Beautiful, but not me. I ended up finding my ring and falling in love with it and got Chris's approval that he thought it was a pretty ring too.

So anyway, on one hand, I wish I were a more patient type of person. Had I been able to have way more patience than I am capable of, maybe my engagement would've been a huge surprise. Instead of waiting for my ring, I would have been surprised by it. Make sense? Here and there, I felt like I was being a nag to Chris. Particularly when I was PMSing, because it was around then that I actually got upset about it. I think some girls do just date and bite their tongue, even for years, to allow the guy to do it exactly when he wants. I don't think I have that in me, and I regret that a little bit.

On the OTHER hand, well, there's my ring. (The left hand, specifically.) AND OH MY GOD DO I FUCKING LOVE IT. Seriously, I was picking my own ring, and I knew that that was THE RING after looking at hundreds and thinking about it for hour upon hours. But I wasn't even expecting to love it as much as I do. I know Chris would've chosen me a classic solitaire setting, and I am sure it would have been beautiful, but I doubt that I could have loved it as much as I do this one. I keep turning different lights on in the house to watch it sparkle. I can't help but smile when I see it on my hand on the steering wheel in traffic. I can't stop telling Chris how much I love it.

So, the regret that I have about helping this whole engaging process along? It's gone now, because it really was time, Chris is happy, I'm happy, and I have the most perfect engagement ring ever.

The diamond is just beautiful.. it has an ideal cut and is D color ("absolutely colorless" - the highest grade). It sparkles ridiculously. And the setting.. oh, the setting! I have a half-carat of little diamonds on the side, pave-style. The band they're set in is thin, clean... It's, like, simple but sparkly. And I think the size is perfect: 1.26 carats. I definitely wanted that respectable carat, but I didn't find it necessary to get (or, let's face it, ask for, because I'm sure Chris would've balked at the idea of spending that much on a rock for my finger) the doctor's-wife standard of two carats (it's a thing, the jewelers say, which is funny because that's what the doctors' wives told me at some party soon after Chris and I started dating: "Make sure you get two carats out of him!"). (Also, I'm sorry if these parentheses are getting confusing, but it's late and I don't want to figure out how to put all this in better order.) A huge ring is not particularly me either. C'mon, my every-day earrings are a tiny pair of diamond hoops and my most beloved ring until I got this puppy was a $7 silver claddaugh ring I bought in Montana when I was 16. So anyway, it worked out: I just wanted a nice ring, and it turns out I got the perfect one for me. I keep thinking that if I got a two-carat ring, when I looked at it, I'd think, "Big!" Like I do when I see the big stones on the Housewives of Fort Lauderdale By Way of New Jersey around here. This one, though? This one makes me think, "Beautiful!" You know, something I'm proud of, but nothing ridiculous or over the top - just a beautiful engagement ring.

I will shut up about the ring eventually. I'd say give it a month or two. Or three. ;)

I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise how excited I am about this ring. I have always loved the idea of being engaged, always loved to see engagement rings on other girls.. It's sweet, you know? You see the ring and you know she has someone out there that loves her enough that they want to MARRY her. Getting engaged seemed very special to me. And I am finally that girl. :)

I was worried before Chris popped the question, actually... I had an inkling he would be proposing on the 4th. I love the 4th of July, see. And we had my ring sitting in the garage for a good month waiting for the time that Chris deemed special enough for proposing. So I kinda figured. We were even bringing the Veuve Clicquot sitting in the fridge since the holidays. Because it wasn't a surprise, I was worried it wouldn't be an emotional moment. But when Chris came to the front of the boat and I realized he had not just fallen, but instead had gone down on one knee... Well, it was special. After I said yes, FINE, we happily kissed a whole bunch. It was surprisingly AWESOME for it to be official. I got to tease Chris that he is now a FIANCE and HAS a FIANCEE and IS GOING TO BE STUCK WITH ME FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE! Officially. We're officially on the way to becoming husband and wife, which is the one step we have left before we start trying to make some beautiful little half-Asian, half-Scandinavian babies. :)!!!

And I finally got to pick a username on Facebook without it seeming like I was jumping the gun or would need to explain: staceytchen. :)

Now if I could just stop referring to Chris as my boyfriend, we'd be set.

My fiance

2009-07-08T14:26:00.001-05:00

My fiance, originally uploaded by estacey.

His dead-sexy sunglasses are why I like him so much. Really.

My engagement ring!

2009-07-05T09:12:00.001-05:00

My engagement ring!, originally uploaded by estacey.

Guess who is a motherfuckin' fiancee! (And also a lady, apparently.)

Yep! He popped the big question last night. FINALLY.

Now I can announce this too... That trip we're taking to Fiji in October? It's not just for snorkeling; it's for tying the knot. :)

We were supposed to go to Bimini this weekend...

2009-07-04T16:06:00.001-05:00

We were supposed to go to Bimini this weekend..., originally uploaded by estacey.

But were both pooped last night when we should've been preparing. We mulled it over for a LONG time, with neither of us willing to commit to a yea or nay. So we made this list of pros and cons and staying home won, by a landslide. It's slightly inaccurate though, as they should be weighted; the fact that the diving is so awesome there far outweighs sleeping in the boat.

Anyway, lesson learned. After you spend 3 days in Key West one weekend, don't plan on doing anything that requires a lot of energy and is away from home the next. At least, not if you're old.