Posted on August 30, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

Nothin’ Could Be Finer Than–HEY LOOK A SQUIRREL!

We interrupt this irregularly scheduled blogcast to present some extreme cuteness. It’s like cute overload without the kitty l33tspeak, y’all.

But also, it might be a little sad.

I will warn those of you who, like me, pretend to be bad-ass but are marshmallows on the inside when it comes to helpless baby h’aminals that these pictures might make you start blubbering. I warned you.

I slept in this morning, as I often do on Mondays (and other days ending in “day”), and when I took Heath out around 8AM he started acting weird. He really wanted to go over to a certain part of the lawn. Really, really bad. Like the way he does when there’s a rabbit or a squirrel. So I walked over there with him, and he immediately ran over to…

…a baby chupacabra!

No? Well, it did take me a minute to figure out that this was a baby squirrel, largely because there was a dog standing over it. I thought it was dead, but as Heath and I looked on out of morbid curiosity, I realized it was breathing every few seconds with big, gasping breaths.

So I ran back inside, got dressed for work, ran back out, and picked up the baby squirrel with my bare hands. Rabies-schmabies. He was cold (it was in the 70s this morning), so I took him inside and wrapped him in a dish towels and cuddled him and tried to warm him up. After a little while he started breathing better and moving his paws a little, so I took him back outside and put him on the ground, still in the dishtowel so that he’d be a little warm and my neighbors wouldn’t step on him. I made sure his mom could get him out if she came back for him, then left for work.

I’m still not sure whether he fell out of the tree or something took him out of it–he had some cuts on him, but that could easily be from falling through the branches or from his littermates’ wicked squirrel claws.

While at work, I used my mad resources (aka Jamie) to track down a list of local wildlife rehabilitators, and  a couple of hours later, I used my lunch break to come back from work to check on the little guy. He was still there, so I scooped him up, took him inside, and put him in a box with an old t-shirt and a bottle of hot water. Then I took Heath out and he immediately ran back over to the area where we’d found the squirrel. I figured he just wanted to investigate since he never realized that I’d picked the squirrel up and brought him inside, but no–he found a second baby squirrel that unfortunately was already dead.

That sealed it–baby squirrel number 1 was coming with me.

I took him to work and left him in my nice warm car (with the windows down a little so it didn’t get too hot), then grabbed my list of rehabbers and started calling. The first call went to an answering machine that said they weren’t accepting wildlife, but I managed to get a hold of someone on the second call and within a half hour I’d taken an extra-long lunch and driven to her house in Cary to drop him off.

He was a lot warmer than he had been on the ride over to Cary, but by the time we got there I couldn’t tell if he was breathing still. I told the rehabber I wasn’t sure if he was still alive and she said, “Well, we’ll see about that, let’s warm him up” and grabbed him and stuck him under her shirt. She told me to call her if I found any others. God bless wildlife rehabbers–that’s a ton of work for a unequal share of sorrow, but I bet when the little guys pull through it makes it all worthwhile.

I suppose I could call to see if he made it, but I’d rather leave it like this. If I don’t know, I can speculate that he’s still alive and warm and fed at the rehabber’s house, and I can console myself with the knowledge that if he died at least he died somewhere warm and soft instead of cold and alone in the leaves.

After I got home from work, I took Heath out and he led me back to the second baby squirrel. I buried it under the tree it fell out of and put a big rock on top so nothing digs it up. We’ll keep checking the area for a couple of days to see if any more baby squirrels turn up.

My Heathcliff is such a good boy! I wish he’d always find cute things instead of snakes…

Posted on August 29, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

This is Not the Blog You’re Looking For

I am a bad, bad blogger, going so long without updates. And for those who know some of what I’ve been up to, this post will be a disappointment, as I don’t have time right now to go over the details of last weekend’s escapade in blackmail. Because when your apartment looks like this…

…well, I don’t know about you, but I feel the need to put stuff in the empty boxes. The urge to pack is strong with this one…

I believe that much of my urge to pack stems from a strong desire to get out of this apartment complex. I’m pretty annoyed with them right now, since I found out that someone had been in my apartment fixing a pipe without my prior notice, consent, or any notice afterward, and when I went to ask the leasing office about it they first lied to me and said no one had been in there and then they BSed about how it was related to the water heater emergency (five days after the actual water heater emergency). Fortunately my dog was not in the apartment at the time, but I was still livid and couldn’t get it through the property manager’s head that coming into my apartment without my permission for a drip was not cool, and that no, the fact that she thinks that the maintenance guys know I have a dog is not any consolation.

Anyway, let’s talk about kayaking now. A week and a half ago, on Wednesday, I left work at 6PM and stopped for a BLT at Cook-Out.

…and then I drove to the REI in Cary, because Alison (who I went kayaking with at Lake Crabtree back in June) found out about a free kayaking and canoe class that was being held.

It was my first time at REI, so I wandered around and looked longingly at many things, like the Nalgene bottles, the running gear, and the kayaks. As I stood at the windows watching a huge storm blow in and waiting for Alison to arrive, I spied another co-worker enter the store. Turns out she was also going to the class. Who knew we were so adventuresome?

The class was held in the kayaking section, and we were squished together like sardines. The guy who sat in front of me kept leaning back in his chair and either bumping into me or getting all up in my comfort zone. Three-foot radius, man…

But Matt, the guy who taught the class, was very knowledgeable. I learned all sorts of things about kayaking and where to kayaking locally.

After the class was over, we discovered that Alison had not eaten dinner and I was hungry, so she took me over to a little shop called Coffee & Crepes and bought me some food.

They were getting ready to close (the class was over at around 8:30PM and the shop closed at 9PM), which may have accounted for the very long wait before we got our food. But when it turned up, it was good. This was my first crepe!

It was a nutty apple pie crepe with vanilla ice cream on the side…mmm…

I ended up not getting home  until 9:30PM.  I am so wild and crazy. I don’t know how I manage all these late nights.

But wait, there is more to discuss on the topic of kayaking! Yesterday was supposed to be a beautiful day, so Alison suggested we go kayaking again. We went to the Eno River and kayaked for an hour on the millpond part of it, which is very slow-moving. It was way different than kayaking on Lake Crabtree–it was gorgeous and there were little inlets to go explore. I kind of wish now that I hadn’t decided to leave my camera at home!

Afterward, we went to Moe’s, where we celebrated our mutual dislike of being greeted at the door by “Welcome to Moe’s!” by ordering tacos. I got a hard taco with ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream. No, I will not call it an Overachiever. It is a taco. I also got chips with queso and a lemonade (my vow of abstinence from caffeine has resulted in some unconventional drink orders lately…).

And then, since we were right next door to REI, we stopped in and looked at kayaking things. I think it would be great fun to own a kayak, but I have major concerns about 1) having to get the kayak on the roof rack of my car by myself (they’re only around 40 lbs, but they’re bulky!) and 2) how goofy my little Suzuki would look with a kayak strapped to the top.

I am going to finish my dinner and get back to my de-nesting now. When I was at my parents’ house last weekend, my mom gave me her old 4-in-1 printer because I’d been thinking about buying a scanner so I could get rid of paper clutter. I’ve been a scanning machine for the past few days and now have  a large box of papers to shred and a tiny pile of papers to keep (mostly promissory notes from loans, test scores, and immunization records). Operation: Clean Sweep has successfully taken hold in my bathroom and I’m now working on the bedroom and master closet, where there is honestly not as much junk as I thought there was. And that is a very good thing.

Posted on August 15, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

Lake Ohmihall

Wednesday was an okay evening. No flooding. I made brown rice pasta and sauced it with pesto, and threw some smoked salmon on the side.

I filled out the paperwork to vacate my apartment and made a note to drop it off in the morning. Oh irony, how it taunts me. Not real irony, of course; I mean the Alanis Morissette kind. I mean, my apartment flooding the day that I signed the paperwork to vacate it–that is so like rain on your wedding day.

When my alarm clock went off at 5:30AM, I woke up and stepped into this:

You may ask why I stopped to take pictures when my apartment was flooding and dumping water into the apartment below mine. But this was me in crisis mode: since the guy who lives below me had already called maintenance, I searched for the shut-off valve for the water and, failing to find it, couldn’t really do much else. There used to be books stacked between the two bookcases on the right side of the picture; I moved those to safety, then grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures of the damage in case I should need them later. Then I took all the books off the bookcases and moved them elsewhere; then I moved the bookcases into my bedroom; then, since the water seemed to be creeping toward my bedroom, I moved my TV stand, since it’s right next to me in the picture.

Later, I moved my other hallway bookcase, my dining room table, my exercise bike, my end table, and my sofa. The floor was wet everywhere thanks to our friend humidity.

Maintenance came and shut the water off, then replaced the water heater, and in the process mucked up my kitchen floor and tore holes in the linoleum.

You can see that at this point I’ve moved out of crisis mode and into “Um, my kitchen is a little messy, I should clean it” mode.

I also practiced making frazzled faces.

Shortly after the property manager came to talk to me, the carpet guys came to do bloody murder on my carpet. They vacuumed up the water, then set up a fan to blow under the carpet…

And a dehumidifier in the water heater closet.

At this point, I was staaarving–I’d managed to sneak in my normal breakfast in between bits of mayhem, but I’d been terribly clever on Wednesday and left my lunch leftovers at work so I wouldn’t have to repack them for Thursday (I’d just thrown the bag of carrots and cheese and the containers of hummus and tomatoes directly into my bag Wednesday morning). This meant my lunch was at work. And I had nothing to eat. So I dinked around for an hour or so trying to decide what I wanted and then ordered side items from Papa Johns. Chickenstrips and cheesesticks, which served me well for lunch and dinner.

After lunch, I intended to do some freelance writing so that the day wasn’t a total waste, but exhaustion hit me like a ton of really heavy objects, so I cleared off space on my couch (which was shoved up against all my piles of books) and slept. Later I took a walk around the lake. Or maybe that was Wednesday. I know I took a walk, though.

Friday morning I went to work and had my breakfast, and then finally had my leftover lunch.

I also had some awesome chocolate covered hazelnuts from Oregon. I love it when visiting scientists bring food!

I left work early to see what was going on at my apartment, since despite the property manager’s claim that she would be in touch, no one called to let me know what was going on. Apparently my leasing office is also good in a crisis, but not so much with the aftermath. I got home to find that nothing had happened in my absence–the fan and dehumidifier where still there–so I left to go to Whole Foods and Target for some grocery shopping.

I came back to discover that people had been in my apartment while I was gone, with no notice before or after (other than this missing equipment). I expected that they’d come pick up their stuff, but it still bugs me that I wasn’t told when this would be happening. It reminds me of that time they let the steam-cleaning people into my apartment on the wrong day and majorly freaked me out.

But my carpet was fixed…

And my water heater closet…was still gross.

I made swiss steak for dinner.

…there’s a steak under there, promise.

Then I took pictures of the shambles that were my apartment. Remember how I had the laundry room, the dining room, and the living room all cleaned and organized?

…okay, it’s not that bad. But you also can’t see the other side of the couch. I got a lot of my furniture put back in the correct spot Friday evening, and subsequently had one of the best nights of sleep I’ve ever had, curled up on my sofa.

Saturday morning I woke up and had some yogurt, then got back to work on moving things back into their antediluvian state. Naturally, I got hungry, so I threw together a big lunch.

Spinach artichoke dip (from the prepped section at Whole Foods), a few bits of broccoli, some salad tomatoes, two carrots, a banana, almond butter, and a piece of cotswold cheese. I made two cheese selections this week and picked this one because it had chives and onions in it and therefore had to be awesome. And it was. But very strong–as I move away from plain cheddar, I’m seeing how one ounce of a good, strong cheese can be plenty.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach here, though–I only ate half the banana and left one of the carrots for dinner.

I did have some of my new chocolate bar (Whole Foods brand of dark chocolate peppermint crisp). Not as good as the Lake Champlain kind, but it’ll do.

My bookcases made it back into the hallway, empty–no point in putting the books back on them when I already took them off and can pack them (when I have enough boxes).

Dinner was a repeat of last night, with less potatoes and onions and the addition of the leftover carrot from lunch.

Note the massive prep bowl of Brummel & Brown in the background. Yes, I ate it all. If there are potatoes on my plate, there is almost always a massive dish of butter or B&B just out of the picture. Don’t judge me, y’all.

Post-dinner snackage…a piece of the dark chocolate peppermint bar, and a piece of the dark chocolate hazelnut toffee bar (one of those ones with the endangered species on it). I wasn’t too impressed by the latter–apparently I like my dark chocolate at 54%-55%, not 70%+.

I totally still ate it, though.

Today I slept in again,  thought not so well as I had the night before, and woke up to more yogurt (I’ve stopped taking pictures of my yogurt most days–same old Liberte Mediteranee yogurt every day!). I then hit the lake trail in an attempt to get some running in, but my fitness has (obviously) decreased since I haven’t been able to run the past couple of months, and because it’s hot outside, so I didn’t get much running in before I had to walk. I’m supposed to start training for my half marathon this week and I’ve already accepted that I’m going to be a little bit behind, but that’s okay. I came home and immediately threw my ice pack on my foot, which has been hurting a little more than it had been recently since I started walking again, but not enough that I’m willing to go back and have it checked out again (yet).

Lunch was some broccoli, salad tomatoes, and carrot sticks with spinach artichoke dip, a dish of trail mix, and a piece of my other cheese selection, mahon.

Mahon is a hard Spanish cheese that taste delicious when eaten with tomatoes. I’m a huge fan of cheese + tomatoes.

I spent the afternoon going all Operation: Clean Sweep on my kitchen and have now checked it off my list–hurrah! That leaves the balcony (entirely gardening stuff), the bathroom (which I’ve worked on twice throughout the week–shouldn’t take long at all), the bedroom (half okay, half not so much), and the closet (um…yeah). I’m happy that I was able to make progress despite having what other, more dramatic people would call the week from hell. (Remember me griping about Wachovia shutting down my bank account on Monday? Oh, the fun week that lay ahead…!).

Well, now that I’ve snacked on a cranberry orange Pure bar and blogged for an hour, my dinner seems to be done. It’s time to eat again…!