Cool, I found this really cool article about your little pals and I thought degus were a kind of rat but they look quite endearing really.

DEGUS a Degu is a little brown rodent. They look and behave like squirrels. If you have ever seen a Gerbil, just imagine him a little bigger, and you will have a picture of a Degu.
Degus originate from the lowland areas of Chile where they live in large groups making their homes in rocks or hedges. They are considered an agricultural pest. Nests and storage for food are usually dug under the rocks. Degus in the wild can live up to 15 years, but in captivity they rarely become 10 years old. If a Degu has cataracts, he will not grow older than 6-7 years.Degus are very social animals and need a lot of attention and someone to 'weep' at, so it is recommended to keep at least two Degus. It is possible to keep just one Degu, but a single Degu will get diseases more easily and may get depressed. If you still want to keep just one Degu, or if you only can get one Degu, be sure you give this single Degu a lot of attention.

Degus have a rather good memory. They will, for example, remember teasing persons, so always behave politely to Degus. Be sure you never grab a Degu by its tail, because the Degu's defense mechanism will shed their tail from their body. A shed tail will never grow back.

Feed your Degus a 50-50 mixture of chinchilla pellets and guinea pig pellets, sweet potatoes, carrots, dandelion greens, timothy hay and always a large supply of fresh green alfalfa. Give your Degus sometimes (once in three-four days) a few sunflower seeds or a half peanut, a few kernels of dried corn and sometimes some green beans. DO NOT feed your Degu any sugar-holding food, like fruit or raisins. Degus can't metabolize sugar.

A Degu can survive in the wild without any water, but be sure to give your Degus some fresh hyper-chlorinated water every day, because the Degus can't get enough water out of the given food. You must hyper-chlorinate the water because Degus are prone to mouth diseases. You can make chlorinated water by dropping one or two drops of household bleach in a quart (a concentration of approximate 1:125000) Copyright 1995 Hein Leliveld

Mmmm... I want a milkshake! :D

*bounces around*

Woooo!

I'm gonna see Linda Eder tomorrow!

::bounces::

www.lindaeder.com

if you didn't already, you will now :)

not many people have heard of her, it seems.  i found out about her by accident; she was on the soundtrack for a musical that was recommended to me.  that soundtrack, and her voice, were what kept me singing in a time when i thought i had no music left in me.  ::mentally hugs linda::

Our little dragon friend awoke one morning and, rubbing her eyes, turned in her bed to look out upon the lawn.  She loved that from her room, she had the perfect view of her beloved Bouncy Castle.

She opened her eyes full and the usual smile had begun to creep across her face when something struck her quite odd.  The castle, it seems, was missing.

Mooey tore down the stairs and into the kitchen, where two people sat drinking coffee.  One was the Tattooed Man, only he was wearing a flamboyant red wig.  The other was a man who looked strangely like Candide.

Our little dragon friend sputtered and stammered and bumbled trippingly out to the lawn.  In the square of browned grass, there was an index card planted carefully in the exact center.  Picking up the card, she stopped and snorted angrily, her ire only heightened by the giggling she heard from the porch, as she read the words "April Fool!"

She turned to the house, seeing that the red wig now sat cattywompus on the proper head, but the Tattooed Man still had on a leg-baring negligee.  Mooey stopped for only a second to remark to herself what horrible legs he had and trundled toward the mischief-makers.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted some bright colors in a part of the woods where bright colors don't usually live.  She snapped her head in that direction, and saw that her lovely castle had been moved about a hundred yards up the hill.

She continued her warpath toward the house when she felt a terrible rumbling in her tummy, very similar to the kind one has after a double order of nachos on free margarita night.  Sour smoke curled from her mouth and she clutched her tummy.  Concerned, Candide and the Tattooed Man ran down the walk to where Mooey stood hunched.

Just when they were within a foot or two, the little dragon let out a great belch, only this belch was accompanied by the slightest zap of fire!  Mooey herself jumped back and clapped two hands over her mouth.

She stared cross-eyed at the new charry smoke that was emitting from her nose, then up at her two friends.  It seems the wig and the negligee were both a little shorter and discolored now, and the wearers a little less giggly.

"I so sorry!" croaked Mooey from behind her hands.

"Honey, no, it's ok, we're sorry," managed Candide.  The Tattooed Man merely shuffled - carefully - into his trailer.

~*~*~*~

About an hour later, Mooey sat in the doorway of her castle, back in its proper place, and bounced on her bottom.  She removed the daiquiri straw from her lips and smiled and waved at her friends, back in their own clothes and sitting on the patio.  They waved back carefully, still fazed by this new turn of events. 

"Remind me not to piss her off again," whispered Candide.  The Tattooed Man grunted and nodded in agreement.  He was still feeling too singed in some less-tattooed places and was not ready to say much just yet.

Our little dragon friend merely chuckled proudly to herself.  She did not yet know that her fire would not come again, but for the moment it was delicious enough that it came when it did.

tang'joo, tang'joo...

i'm going to The Piggy Bank tonight to meet a friend from work.  it's a suthren-style BBQ joint that's run out of what used to be the bank on Main St. in Beacon.  i'm not particularly fond of the food because their fare beyond ribs and catfish is rather limited, but said friend wants to go.  it should be a blast anyway; this chick is so quirky, she makes me look stable.

so, off i go.

so here's a little fun...

An Atheist Does Passover and Easter at a Catholic Hospital

The other day, as mentioned in another post, the administration office at my job asked me to set up and put on display some printouts of the stations of the cross.  I had an unwanted helper:  one of the security guards kind of sees me like a granddaughter and also a kindred spirit and wanted a hand in that project so bad he practically took it over.  He loomed over me, kept bringing me pamphlets and such from the chapel, kept offering to bring art supplies from home no matter how many times I told him I had them at home but needed to put the display up that day.  (This *is* going somewhere.)

The other thing that he did was that I had the pages all laid out the way I needed them and he took it upon himself to hand them to me.  I put them up and ignored the display, disgusted.  The administrative assistant noticed that two were out of order.  No big whoop, I switched them.  The next day, one of the nuns from the main hospital came by and told me what a lovely job I did, and especially loved the realistic paper lily.  Neat.

So today, one of our doctors was looking at it and said, "I may be wrong, but I think something's out of order."  I went over to look, and we had Jesus dying *after* being taken down from the cross.  The doctor laughed and said "Leave it to the Jewish guy to find that one, eh?"  I laughed over that one and shared how when we had the Pesach display set up earlier in the week, people thought the wine and matzah were for giving communion.

Which brings us to another story.  A traditional Pesach seder plate has some quirky little items on it that are symbolic of the Jews struggle for freedom or of Pesach traditions.  One of these things is a lamb shank, which is symbolic of, get ready for it, the Paschal lamb which was sacrificed at temple.  In modern times and in less Orthodox circles, a chicken bone is often substituted if nothing else than for the sake of availability.  There are other things such as a small bowl of salt water, parsley, horseradish, and charoset, a wonderful apple mixture.

We've been putting this plate out for years.  Same plate.  Same table.  The plate is left out from 8 to 4  the day Pesach begins and put in the fridge overnight for use the next day, then the contents are chucked.  There's always some moron who wants to eat the horseradish or the apples, even though you can tell it's been left out for days.  They'll take a piece of matzah and dip and say "that's kinda stale."  Sometimes I swear we need to put out velvet ropes.

This year, however, something new happened.  People decided to freak out about the bone.  I'm not talking just "uh, that's gross" or "isn't that unsanitary?"  I'm talking about people gasping, clutching their chests, pointing, "Oh my GAWD!  WHYYYY is there a bone in the lobby?!"  Why has there been a bone on that plate in the lobby once a year for the past several years?  Or moreover, why is tonight different from all other nights?

Another gem:  They always put out a little basket of treats that are actually meant to be eaten, usually macaroons.  This year, they also had chocolate-covered jelly rings.  These basically looked like tiny doughnuts and surprised a lot of people after biting into them.

So two of the kitchen staff were walking through the lobby.  Trying to be funny, one says, "Did God eat little chocolate doughnuts?"  The other says, "Not God.  Jesus."  The next sound was the sound of my hand smacking against my forehead.

Speaking of people escaping from slavery, I was also put to work making crosses from palm fronds.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've been to a church service that wasn't for a wedding or funeral, and Palm Sunday certainly wasn't one of them.  And why they didn't put the palms out for Palm Sunday, I don't know.  Bad Catholics.  Must be flogged.

So they hand me a palm cross and a sheaf of fronds and say "You can figure out how to make these, can't you?"  Uh.

So I sat there, taking that little cross apart and putting it back together again and finally figured it out.  For two days, I was a little cross-making machine.  All different sizes, from wall-size to wallet-size.  Our director (who had come over to me during the hanging of the stations and said, "Aw, Jesus, what the hell is this?") came smirking past my desk and told me I should make some pagan symbols for fun.  I told him I had already thought of this and thought it might be fun to see if anyone actually noticed. 

Ten minutes later, I went strolling down to his office with a half-assed but still effective palm pentagram.  I tried to hide it from the administrative assistant because you never know what's going to piss her off.  She saw it, however, and actually cackled.  I placed it on the director's desk, to which he replied, "Sweet!  Thanks!"  Sometimes I just love him.

There's a long story behind this next statement, but I'll spare it:  I brought my new tiara to work today.  I was approached by our recreation therapist to play Easter Bunny when the time came to hand out candy to the patients.  She sweetened the deal by reminding me it would be a good opportunity to wear my sparkling headwear.  I one-upped that by making bunny ears out of construction paper and taping them to it. Voila, Princess Bunny.  Barbara from admissions took a picture and a good chuckle was gotten by all.  Except me, when the patients insisted that the bunny should hop.  I did a little dance instead.  And speaking of chuckles, Chuck the counselor tried on the tiara, too.  I was amused, but the patients didn't seem to get it.  "You know that's a girl's crown, right?"  *sigh*

So... that's been my week.  I think I still have green under my fingernails and a taste for macaroons, but thankfully am not Catholic, despite all my joking.  We escaped the meat debacle this year because our deacon was told that we could, in fact, serve meat on Good Friday since most of our clients are not Catholic or even Christian.  So there went that fun.  But it was still good.

job is certainly amusing.

on another note, my cousin ships out to Korea today.  happy easter :/

a bit, yes :)  this means, though, that i'll be bored this week without my little distractions.  you'd be surprised how quickly the day passes when you're weaving crosses all day.

might be nice to keep up with my own thread :)

here's what's new that i haven't posted elsewhere:

put in a transfer request today for a position in the medical records office.  it's not what i want to do, but it's more money and i don't have to deal with the patients or the general public.  not to mention that i'll be busy all day and not just sitting around, waiting for the phone to ring or the door to open, while everyone waits until i *am* busy to ask me to do little side projects for them.  plus, i'd have my own desk and a computer (wonder if it has internet access? <G>).

only thing i'm worried about is that i kinda got into it the other day with the med records supervisor ;)  but she started it.

wish me luck!

oh, also have been talking online with nice jewish boy from NYC.  he thinks i'm cute and enjoys my purple dragonness, even though he much prefers oriental dragons to european ones.

have talked with friend Bobbi, High Supreme Goddess of Weather and Car Accidents, and asked her about the screwy weather we've been having.  Bobbi says she's moving to florida in the fall and stopped caring about the weather here.  i have threatened her with falling trees, but unfortunately cannot threaten her with lack of sex as husband, King Bertrand, is good at thwarting my efforts in such situations.  shall keep you posted.

also reacquainted myself with friend Aimee from high school who, when i said "i just left a four and a half year relationship and moved back with my parents for a while" replied with "me too."  it only got more bizarre from there, to the point of twinniness.  if she weren't a skinny little thing, i'd have to declare Velma Triplets.  what's truly scary is that she looks just like Bobbi now, who looks an awful lot like Flupi.

that's it for now, i think.  i'm sure i'll find more.

And I was going to post this in Infinity's, but I'm here already, and I think this is probably just as good a place... heh

*turns on some good music and grooves*

*sings along loudly*

Hey!

Man, now I really want to see pictures!

*puts on some celtic music to dance to*