skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Our pet hamster, named "Hammy" appears to have mended his ways. No incidents of biting, no more escapes. Lori and the girls have been working on taming Hammy, waiting until he's awake before picking him up, adding fresh food to his diet. He gets out and about in his exercise ball, too.Actually, I think Hammy is doing pretty well, given how many times he's moved thus far.What?Yep. He's moved 3 times. Not location-wise, but cage-wise. He went from a starter cage to a larger cage, and to his now 3 level cage.Pretty sweet for a hamster. Check out the image. Same cage style.One thing that's got us a little concerned is that Hammy doesn't always use the climbing tubes between the upper levels. He just jumps from the middle and sometimes top levels inside the cage to the floor.Lori thinks "he's going to hurt himself". He may.The exercise wheel isn't as quiet as I thought it was going to be. We can put a man on the moon but the wheel still makes noise.
OK, it's getting to be that time of year again - my birthday is coming up and I need to get some ideas out there.In the past I've done it on my web site but for different reasons I'll post it here on the blog. Thanks in advance!No particular order...Guitar picks - get the 1.0 mm (black) ones. A dozen should do it.Strings - I've used Ernie Ball regular slinkies for years. Just for fun - I like the yellow one
Maintenance kit
Boonie hat
Over the past year or so, I've been looking for some sort of on-line Bible study and think I have found a good one and wanted to share it.
It's called "Christian Courses" and it's sponsored by Radio Bible Class. We've been receiving the RBC devotional booklets at home for the past few years and kind of stumbled onto the site.
Currently I'm taking the course titled "10 Reasons To Believe In Christ Instead Of Religion" and it's thought provoking and Scripture based. Some of the classes include multimedia (videos) and an interactive portion via message boards.
It's self paced, web based. Good stuff.
This past Friday I received a plaintive call from my 5yo daughter, breathlessly asking if we could go to the pet store and look at hamsters.
So we did, and $60 later we brought home a male hamster.
The first cage we purchased ended up being mis-used by the hamster. The exercise wheel is up on a rotating 2nd level and he ended up using it as a sleeping nest, spraying seeds and hamster urine over the area.
Second cage is working out better.
First day in the house, the girls were loving the hamster a bit too much and he sunk his teeth into our oldest daughter's index finger. Drew blood and everything. She hates seeing her own blood so it was bedlam for a few minutes.
Second night in the house the 5yo (instigator of the hamster) didn't close the cage door well enough and we had a situation that my wife feared most: a hamster jailbreak.
We started around the cage and eventually found him in the kid's playroom - 15 fear-filled (for my wife) minutes all told.
And today, Sunday, the hamster took a nip at the 5yo.
So far:
Hamster: 2 nips, 1 escape
Humans: 0
At the Dublin Irish Festival, each year there is a historical re-enactment group that camps and presents aspects of like from Brian Boru's Ireland - about the year 1000 A.D. (That's right - A.D., not B.C.E.)
The family went to the DIF after the Feis and one of the things we did was to explore Brian Boru's Ireland.
The girls were very interested in the crafts, musical instruments, the work being done. We participated in a demonstration of some of the fighting arts and listened to a story told by the local herbalist.
One of the reenactors portrayed a medieval abbot - the spiritual and physical leader of the monastery they were recreating for us 21st century folks.
He was wearing a long, white flowing robe, a Cross around his neck, and a staff in his hand. Yes, he has a long gray beard. After he pronounced a blessing on me and my family, I later struck up a conversation with the abbot and learned a few things and saw some things that were a little out of the ordinary.
Turns out the abbot's day job is pretty close to his day job. He's a bishop in the Oriental Orthodox church (not Greek, not Eastern) and is based in a monastery near the inner city of Columbus. He related some harrowing tales of living where he does and his ministry to the people that live in the area. He said that he has been giving last rites to as many people outside the hospital as in it due to gang violence.
But while we were talking just off the main drag at the Dublin Irish Festival, we had a couple of interruptions.
First one was a couple of young fellows came up to us and started talking. He related a dream to the abbot that by all accounts was satanic in nature. It consisted of a circle, with inner rings alternating white and black. The circle beckoned this young fellow into it. He asked the abbot "what would you say if you had a dream like this...?"
The abbot then asked him - "Well, did you go in to the circle?"
At that point, the young fellow gave us both a blank look and walked away.
The whole time I was praying for the situation and for this troubled young man.
The abbot said that it had been a while since he last had an encounter like that, but often times satanists would make contact like that in the process of seeking freedom from satanism.
I don't think that's the experience that the DIF wants the usual festival-goer to have, but I was OK with it.
Then not a couple minutes later 2 young ladies came up and asked the Abbot, "Are you Jesus?"
He said, "No, but I work for Him."
One of the young ladies then asked for the time, which I supplied because I was wearing a watch.
5 minutes, 2 opportunities to share his faith.
I need one of those outfits.
The Columbus Feis has come and gone and the Conners family fared pretty well in our competitions.
The Feis runs concurrently with the Dublin Irish Festival, and it's held at Dublin Coffman High School.
The girls each were entered in 2 dances - a Jig and a Reel, First Feis.
Samantha won a gold medal in the Jig and a Bronze in the Reel.
Erin won a gold medal in the Jig and the Reel.
The actual dancing was on separate stages and I wasn't able to watch Samantha's competition, but I did for Erin. She was a little nervous but her teacher, Katie Regan, spent a couple minutes with her just before the Jig. Katie had a lot of students dancing that day and for her to do that was great.
For my competition I played a different air than I intended to - changed it earlier in the week. I played "Dark Woman of the Glen", and the jig was the same "Trip to Athlone".
I nailed the air, and did OK on the jig.
The girls got their results back reasonably quickly - about 20 minutes or so. My music competition results were available at 5pm, so we went to the Dublin Irish Festival for the afternoon.
The girls liked seeing the Celtic Canines (they like animals a lot), did some crafts. Our youngest, Emma, made a red sash with shamrocks and sparkly glue and sequins that she was very proud of. Sashes are a very Irish thing to wear - denoting a title or position.
We took in a fair bit of the Kells set (they are very good musicians, great folks) and then the girls wanted to see the historical recreation display - "Brian Boru's Ireland". They really enjoyed it.
5pm came quickly, and when the results came in, I won the Miscellaneous Irish Musical Instruments competition - a gold medal.
Total medal count for the Conners family: 4 Gold, 1 Bronze.
One of the guys I work with lives not too far away from me, about a mile south.
Jim jogs in the morning through my neighborhood, and on occasion he'll notice something out of the ordinary and mention it.
And what he saw was definitely out of the ordinary: he said he saw a fox, not once but twice.
I asked if he was sure and he said "Definitely, it had the big bushy tail and his two ears right on top. Too big for a cat, didn't move like a cat."
This explains why I've been seeing fewer bunny rabbits in my area. We had a litter of rabbits born in our back yard this past spring and the rabbit holes started appearing. Foxes definitely like rabbits.
I've seen possums in the 'hood before, but not the fox.
Better that the fox takes care of the rabbits before I have to.
