Birthday trip to the zoo

Thought I'd share a few shots (taken with brand spankin' new toy) from my birthday visit to the zoo:

I tried to smuggle this little guy in to my purse...

This guy was a little too big to fit in my bag...

so I had to leave him at the zoo...

This last crazy critter actually lives in my house. Ladies (and gents) meet Kona-boy :)

I ♥ my new camera!

Visit Mel's Show & Tell to see what others are sharing today.

One down, seventeen or so to go

Last night I introduced my virgin stomach to Mr. Needle. I decided early that I was going to make the introductions at 21.30 and all day was a count down even though I tried hard not to think about it. I did a bunch of things to distract myself and to try to make time go a little faster. I cleaned out my closet. Replaced cute summer skirts and cotton flowery tops with wooly sweaters and more fleece pants. I started a magazine project that isn't due in another few weeks. Walked the Dogster twice as far as I normally would. Made an elaborate dinner for D. Did research on images and ideas for the childrens book I'm working on. And I watched too much TV. In spite of all this when evening finally rolled around I had just finished reading the how-to-shoot-yourself-with-Gonal-F instructions for the eleventh time. I opened the fridge at exactly 20.30 to take out the meds and bring them to room temperature (thanks for that advise dear internet peeps). Then I watched Project Runway for half an hour and when that was over we started watching House. At 21.25 we paused dr. House mid sentence spewing rudeness and went to prep the injection pen. 

INSTRUCTIONS (now known by heart from excessive reading)

• Remove cover and place a new needle on pen - clicking sound ensures it's in place

• Set the dose dial at the 37.5 IE mark. Pull out the injection button - you will hear a click

• Remove outer and inner needle cover and point pen up in the air

• Press injection button all the way in and make sure a drop of fluid exits the needle point

• Exchange nervous glance with Hubster

• Set the dose dial at the 225 IE mark. Double check. Triple Check

• Pull out injection button to load the pen and check again that you have the correct dose set

• Go sit down in comfy chair

• Select previously circled right area of stomach (right seemed easier to start with than left...)

• Have Hubster count to three

• Introduce Mr. Needle (ie. stab yourself) and press down the injection button all the way to experience weird tingling sensation when meds enter your body

• Count to ten before removing needle from stomach and then safely dispose of needle

• Exhale and give Hubster high-five

All in all the whole ordeal took less than 2 minutes and was virtually painless. The rest of the night I kept trying to feel if anything was different, if there were any side effects. Did I have some tingling in the right side of my body? Did I suddenly have some more cramps? Nah, nothing really. Was that the beginning of a headache? No, just needed to let hair down from ponytail. Cotton mouth? Went away when I had a drink of water. Dizziness? I'm sure it had nothing to do with nerves or anticipation.

So yeah, taking that first shot was a piece of cake and I can easily do that for another ten days or so. Bring it on!

I guess this also qualifies as todays "show & tell" so check out what others are showing here.

Invasion of the flies

Last week during one of the last really hot days of summer (well, more like early fall) we came home to find ourselves in a horror movie. As soon as we walked in the door we noticed a faint buzzing sound coming from upstairs. Reluctantly we walked up the stairs while the buzz increased in volume, stepped into the kitchen and were faced with hundreds and hundreds of flies covering our windows. 

Gross! I immediately armed myself with a swatter while D ran back down to get the vacuum cleaner. Then we started operation fly extinction. It took us a good 40 minutes to get them all and this is how our vacuum cleaner looked inside. 

Yum-yum! Fly guts galore! Our house is a barn conversion and used to be a horse stable up until about a year and a half ago so the flies were probably looking for some horseys, but instead they ended up meeting Mr. Vacuum and Mrs. Swatter. Hah!

That was my "show & tell", see what others are sharing this week.

Show and Tell - Five strange objects that live in my house.

I collect weird things. Always have. I also collect perfectly normal things. Like rocks. But today for "show & tell" I thought I'd show you some of the strange things that I've saved over the years. Quality of images may not be top notch, I basically threw these items in the scanner so bear with me.

First we have a piece of wallpaper. It used to live on the wall (where wallpaper normally belongs) in our bedroom at the cabin by the sea in Sweden that my Morfar* built. It represents a happy childhood and I blame this specific wallpaper for persuing my current profession as a graphic designer.

Second is a rose that I got from my first love when I was twelve. His name was Daniel, he had brown eyes, curly hair and wore his dads cowboy boots to school. Need I say more?

Third is a swedish five krona bill. They replaced it with a coin more than 30 years ago. Is it worth anything? I think not. Great design though.

Forth is when it starts getting really weird. It's a dried up gecko I found behind an outlet in a Kailua house after getting zapped with 110V. I was working as an underpaid, and paid under the table, electricians assistant while I studied communication arts. In Hawai'i geckos are a symbol of good luck.

Fifth is evidence that I treat my pets as the children I don't have. Yes, those are puppy teeth and kitty nails. Sick and wrong? I know.

I'm bummed out because I couldn't find what I really wanted to show you. When I was in my early twenties I found a four leaf clover during a lovers quarrel... Anyway, I've searched high and low and turned my already messy office into something out of a disaster movie but it's nowhere to be found. Bullocks! 

To see what other bloggers are showing today - click here.

The "what if" list? Still not written, turns out D just really needed to talk and the only way he knew how to start a conversation was to suggest making a list... He's homesick, misses his girls, paranoid about the big b-day coming up and isn't really happy at work. We had a long talk while we walked the dog as the sun set over the fields and he started to feel a little better. It seems I've dodged the list making once again. Just as I was starting to think it might be a good idea.

* Maternal Grandfather