Straight On Till Morning: Who needs sleep?

January 16, 2005

Mmm, weekend.

I forgot to tell you about the other things that happened on our Bird Shopping Trip on Friday! While we didn't make any major bird decisions, it was impossible to be in that many pet shops without buying a ton of stuff for the cats. We picked up a bunch of different kinds of cat food that we were unfamiliar with, hoping that our picky cats would actually like one (So far, not much luck, but the salmon treats are a hit!). We also found lots of fuzzy mice toys, including one HUGE one that is more like a rat, which we found in the clearance bin for $1. Fuzzy mice are Lu & Lil's favorite toys, by far. You can't walk five feet in this house without stepping on a mouse. Lily likes to carry them around in her mouth, so you never know where they'll end up. It's a good thing we don't have friends, or they might freak out at the realistic looking mice laying around our house when they visited.

I also had time to stop in the craft supply store and spend way too much money on extra knitting needles and yarn. I started a purple chenille scarf, but it ended up too wide and kind of wonky looking, so I think I'll unravel what I've done and start over. I also started on a white scarf, which is looking good so far! Skinny scarves go SO much faster. I'm convinced that this whole skinny scarf trend was started by lazy knitters.

I've been reading through all of the old 5 Minute Crushes from maganda.org, and found a lot of nifty new sites from there. Cat and Girl is a great comic, my favorite is this one, because it mentions the holy Joss Whedon. I also had fun playing mash online, especially because I ended up married to James Marsters (um, and living in a shack). I've also rediscovered my love for copykat.com, which has recipes from places like Applebees and Olive Garden, so that you can recreate their yummy things at home.

I've been reading "What Every American Should Know About the Rest of the World" again, taking notes this time. I think it's crazy how little most of us know about the rest of the world. Here are some of the interesting things I learned:

*Over 600 assassination attempts have been made on Fidel Castro. He even opened a museum to showcase them. It must kind of suck to know that so many people want you dead.

*Most Canadians live within 2 hours of the US border

*9% of the population of the Netherlands is Moroccan. (weird!)

*Around 1994, radios became popular in Rwanda. People were pretty fascinated at the voices coming out of this box. So, a new radio station starts up called Radio Mille Colline, and the DJ's start insulting the Tutsis, one of the major tribes in Rwanda. When the plane carrying the president of Rwanda is shot down, the DJ's blame it on the Tutsis. They say that the Tutsis are disguising themselves, and hiding in the villages of the Hutus (the other major tribe), planning to exterminate them. So, then the DJ's start broadcasting the names and addresses of the Tutsis, and tell the Hutus to go kill them. The Hutus listen, and spend the next 3 months and 10 days slaughtering the Tutsis with machetes. The US knew this was going on, and did nothing about it. Finally, and army of Tutsis from Uganda came in and put a stop to it. The Hutus massacred over 800,000 Tutsis during this time. So here's my question- this was just over ten years ago- does anyone remember hearing about it in the news, because I don't!

*The King of Thailand personally visited poppy farmers, and asked them what they would need to grow something different, since poppies were being used to make heroin. The king then hooked them up with new seeds and equipment to grow new things. Can you imagine our president personally going around and talking to farmers? This King is also the longest reigning monarch in the world.

*Brazilians learn in school that the US wants to conquer the Amazon

*Over 30,000 Argentines mysteriously disappeared during the rule of a military junta between 1976 and 1982. They still don't know what happened to them, but it's suspected that they were pushed out of planes into the ocean.

*When the economy of Argentina collapsed in 2001, they went through 5 presidents in one week!

*In Haiti, 80% of the population lives in poverty, One in 20 is HIV positive, there's a 10% infant mortality rate, and the average life expectancy is 49.

*Only 4% of people in Cuba have phones.

*The dictator of Libya (known for being kind of nutty) reinvented the calendar, changing the year and renaming the months.

*Mexico is the only international country Bush had visited before he became president. (!)

I'll probably make you read a bunch more stuff as I continue through this book, but really, you should just go pick up your own copy. I realized that I needed to reread it the other day when I realized that I had no idea who was the leader of Canada. Do you?

I'm working on a few new features for my site, which are all coming along slowly but surely. Included will be condensed pages of kitten photos, so that you don't have to search through the archives like I do, a page of excerpts from my paper journals, a page of favorite quotes, and a page of some favorite quotes from old journal entries. I seriously need to update my links page. I have a few other additions in mind, as well as one thing I've been working on for ages that I might add, plus my new Trip Report. Apparently, I'm feeling way too ambitious lately!

This is awful, but I kind of want to get another fish tank. I have no idea what kind of fish I would put in it. Clown fish would be fun, but aren't they salt water? I'm all about the fresh water fish. Another little shark might be cool, or some frogs and a snail. Or maybe I should just stop buying so many fish.

I'm kind of thinking of moving my furniture around. I really want to move the TV into the living room (it's currently in the bedroom), which was my original plan when we bought the house, but there's no cable hookup in there, so I'd have to get that put that in first. I want to put a table where the TV is now to do artsy stuff on, too. However, I think I'm going to put a table for scrapbook stuff up in the 2nd guest bedroom, so maybe I won't need the one down here.

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