I think I just did the Heimlich maneuver on a hamster. Marshmallow ate a peanut, squeeked and fell over, not breathing or squeeking. I tapped her back and picked her up around the middle and she started breathing again, panted for a few minutes then went back to eating and grooming. It was very odd.

Record Day! seven eggs in 24 hours. I only have five quail hens. One of which was badly injured only a couple months ago. They had started to taper from their usual four eggs to two a day. We set up a timed light and they seem to be responding favorably.

A bit late but here it is. I worked Thanksgiving morning and spent the evening, phlegm and all, at my folks. Mum is a great cook as always. I went home and slept. Friday was spent NOT going anywhere and sleeping. Barb and Brian came over to DnD all afternoon. Barb taught me the basics of a new skill. There was sharing of leftovers. Then I slept some more. Still tired but kind of restless now...

busy, lazy, overwhelmed and bored all at once. NaNoWriMo is not going as well as hoped but better than expected. Even trying means a lot to me.

The splint is off the quail and she's back with the others. We are getting one to four eggs a day. They are YUMMY! I've been having them hard boiled. I'm thinking of doing friend quail eggs with breakfast tomorrow. Angel introduced me to National Novel Writing Month. the goal is 50000 words in the month of November. I'm at just over 3600.

not sleeping properly sucks
that is all

Just got woken up again by the damn druggies and their customers. Loud music, revving, yelling, arguing, hoking their damned horn at 230 in the bloody morning. This has become a nightly thing the last few months. No wonder I'm tired and cranky all the time.

We are now short one quail. Something knocked the cage over and it seems to have died instantly. One of our carnivores drug it out to the living room. I found the lot of them sniffing it, acting very confused. I'm glad they didn't know what to do with it. Another has a broken wing and a small wound on the back of her head split ear to ear. Four stitches, three wraps and a splint later the injured quail is glaring at me. I finished the first aid and cleaned up most of the mess before my hands started shaking. Took a shower, ate something. Darn, stubborn bird kept getting out of the conventional wrapping. So I had to splint it. Hopefully she lets that stay on. There is a peculiar, directionless loathing that only a bird can radiate; squinted stare, ruffled feathers, occasional stomping of the tiny feet. If looks could kill she'd be the ground zero of a feathered 6 ounce H-bomb.

I got this from my gramps, sad to say I actually got most of it. It just isn't right.

"Just in case you weren't feeling too old today.

The people who are starting college this fall were born in 1991..

They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.

Their lifetime has always included AIDS.

The CD was introduced two years before they were born.

They have always had an answering machine.

They have always had cable..

Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.

Popcorn has always been microwaved.

They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.

They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.

They never heard: 'Where's the Beef?', 'I'd walk a mile for a Camel ', or 'de plane Boss, de plane'.

McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.

They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.


Pass this on to the other old fogies on your list....


...P.S.... Save the earth. It's the only planet with chocolate."

At wits end, making decisions I don't like but know are necessary. Anxiety and grumpiness alert. Snappy and snide. Storming out of the room, crying randomly and having trouble breathing. That sort of thing. I've been able to contain it at work, barely. At home I have to let it go. Still I have to do the right thing for myself and my household. Even when I don't want to. Related but not the only factor: Abby has come back. We are giving one more try at finding her a home, or it's off to the Human Society.

Time to celebrate the shifting season...

Quail egg quiche.
Roast chicken stuffed with carrot, bacon and green apple, covered in black pepper and MORE bacon.
Oven baked Sweet Potato fries.

Harvested three pumpkins from the front garden. The coop still isn't started due to many thing. Abby wanted to eat the quail and Problems ensued. She started guarding them, attacked Kate for getting to close and bit Smeg. She now has a new home without prey birds and only one other dog that lives on a different floor. It should be a good fit for her.

six female and two male Japanese Quail. They make many sounds, none very loud. One like a cell phone with a low battery, one like a frog and a few like sparrows or finches. They'll start laying in a few weeks.

Recently I've bought a few odd gemstones from a police property room auction site. The prices in some cases can be less than a dollar a carat. Being an auction site, you win some and loose some. Having introduced my Mum to the site she's bought a few things as well, and has agreed to teach me how to mount loose gems using wire wrapping techniques. The other night Smeg and I bid on an eye catching bi color sapphire and a lovely deep toned ruby. There were a couple other bidders on both. We won the sapphire. Discussing with Mum the next day we found that we had both been bidding on the same two gems. Mum won the ruby. I was more set on the sapphire and mum was more interested in the ruby, we both dropped out of the lost bids at about the same point. At least I'll get to see the ruby in person. So from now on we'll call the other before placing bids. We didn't drive the prices up on each other, as there were other bidders, but it was a close thing. funny how things work sometimes.

My darling other half had a cardiac episode this morning (he's home and fine). He woke up this morning with chest pain and had to take some Nitro, which didn't work right away. I called in to work. He took another Nitro and it started working, I considered going into work anyway, but started a fever! Oh and my left hand is bandaged from a dog bite. Sucky. But I have a new bamboo steamer. and a bao recipe I can't make...

I just finished breakfast in bed, yep at 5am, on a work day. I'm spoiled.

Smeg is feeling a strange mix of restless and apathy. I dunno what to do about it. It's kind of contagious though.

Last ditch effort to stop the excess scratching.