Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Fruitbat's LiveJournal:

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Monday, June 14th, 2010
6:15 pm	Gardening      Every year I plan to write down the names of the tomatoes that I plant, and then keep track of which ones yield the most fruit.  And every year I forget the whole thing.  Which means that, the following year, I again randomly select plants.  So this year, I'll blog.  I finally got the garden in, thanks to help from mandab3  putting up with plant shopping (thanks!).      Eggplant 'Calliope' -- grows 2-4 inch eggplants      Cucumber, West Indian Gherkin -- for pickling      'Sugar Baby' watermelon      Old World Italian Tomato "Consulto Fiorentino' (heirloom; large)      'Cherokee Purple' Tomato (heirloom, large)      'Solid Gold' Tomato (grape)      'Great White' Tomato (heirloom; large)      'Eva Purple Ball' Tomato (heirloom; cherry)      'Orange Blossom' Tomato (large)      'Jelly Bean' Tomato (grape)      'Sweet 100' Tomato (cherry) -- the only one that I've grown before      Herbs -- Basil, Rosemary, Dill, Chocolate Mint Hopefully these will do well.  I also picked up Serenade spray, in the hopes of avoiding some of the blight from last year. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, March 29th, 2010
10:33 am	I spent this past weekend competing in a swim meet.  I enjoy swimming for exercise, and only compete in this one meet yearly because it is held at the Harvard pool (where I swim), and because my team generally wins the event.  I am currently only swimming about two days a week, which means that I am not in the best shape of my life.  I have also lost my competitive edge.  I swam when I was small, and then was totally burned out  by the time I graduated from high school and did not really lap swim again for five years.  Now I am more interested in using it for exercise than in being ultra-competitive.  At the competition last year, I finished about the middle of my age group.      This past weekend, I at least managed to match my times from last year.  The breaststrokers must have all decided to skip the meet, as I had the same times as last year, but finished third in both the 100 and 200 yard breaststroke.  The meet was fun.  It's nice to actually get a chance to talk to the people that I swim with, rather than having brief chats at the wall.  Our team at the moment is over-populated with 20-somethings, but there are a few older people (30s and up) that I enjoyed talking to.  Hopefully I'll be a little more motivated to train next year and get my times down some. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
7:42 pm	Autism      About a month ago, Mele and I started making weekly visits to a school for autistic children.  There are three children there that are very afraid of dogs, to the point where they are in danger of hurting themselves; one boy apparently will just run, and has almost been hit by cars.  The three children have been gradually getting more used to Mele, although they are still very nervous if he moves quickly and are unwilling to hand him treats or be licked by him.  We are making a difference, though.  The instructors said that the boy who is most afraid saw two dogs at a mall last week and was actually excited and did not try to run away.  He spent the half hour of our visit napping on the floor about a foot away from the head, which is a huge improvement.  I'm not sure that Mele thinks this is an exciting time, but it's nice to know that he's making a difference. (Comment on this)
7:38 pm	Microwave angst      The microwave over the stove died a few weeks ago.  This is the second of the kitchen appliances to die since we purchased the house.  This is annoying in that we need these appliances to function, but nice in that we are replacing them with black items, which fit better into the color scheme of the kitchen.  We made a trek over to Lowe's and purchased the same brand of microwave.  I had a day off and a willing friend, and decided to try to install the microwave while foldedfish  was at work.  We managed to get the long screws out, lifted down the old microwave, lifted up the new one, and screwed the screws back in.  We then plugged in the microwave...to an empty display.  foldedfish  called the company the next day (this had used up all of my strength for one day), who confirmed that we did in fact have a $300 paperweight.      A week later, we took the microwave down.  foldedfish  took it back to Lowe's while I was at a dog show, and brought home a new microwave.  This time we were smart and plugged it in before trying to install it.  We then tried to lift it into place...only to find that it didn't fit.  We'd both had long days at work, and gave up after a few attempts.  It dawned on me overnight that microwave/paperweight #1 had a wall mounting bracket on the top of the packaging and that microwave #2 did not seem to have a wall mounting bracket in the box.  When I looked the next morning, it was apparant that the bracket was attached to the back of the microwave, which is why it would not mount onto the existing bracket on our wall.  I took out the two small screws, and it was then very easy to lift it into place.  This does, however, suggest that microwave #1 had previously been sold, as brand new microwaves from the factory would presumably be packaged in the same fashion. (Comment on this)
7:32 pm	Address confusion      I ordered a few new swimsuit a few weeks ago, as my workout suit is getting a little light on the lycra.  However, the suits never arrived.  I remember typing in my new contact information, but am pretty sure that it asked me to log in at the end.  When I checked the confirmation letter, I found that the suits had been delivered to Winchester.  Great.  I called the company, explained that I had moved, and they stated that they only had the old address on file.  They do not check any additional information for credit card purchases, as long as they are under $200, meaning that my old address was fine for the order.   They said that they could send FedEx back out on Saturday to pick up the package, and that they would then call me.  They didn't.  So I called them again yesterday afternoon.  Apparantly, the package was unavailable for pick-up and they were unable to help me further.      I decided to take matters into my own hands.  foldedfish  tried to look up the phone number of the new tenants, but couldn't find one listed online.  I had to go to Arlington anyway, so decided to just detour past the house.  A very nice woman, looking slightly puzzled, answered the door.  After I explained everything, she was very excited and exclaimed that she had the package in her car.  She had tried to contact me, but was unsuccessful.  Her husband was home on Saturday, and he was unaware of the package.  I will point out that she could have either called the company that sent the package (as we did with something from Crate and Barrel), or called FedEx to come pick it back up again.  However, as least I have the package, it did in fact contain swim suits, and now the problem is resolved.      As an aside, if she had denied knowledge of the package, I planned to contact the company again and state that it was never delivered; while it was shipped FedEx, there was no confirmation of receipt. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
10:35 am	How one winds up with cats      Two weeks ago, I worked overnight at the emergency clinic.  There was a hospitalized cat that had been hit by a car.  Because it was a stray, we were told not to treat it.  Given that the cat had a broken jaw, this seemed somewhat inhumane.  I got permission to give her pain medication if I agreed to take her away with me.  And so we acquired Daisy/Bianca.  She seems to be a very nice, young, unspayed female cat.  I managed to wire her jaw together and have been syringe feeding her cat food slurry; she prefers this over eating on her own, which has been frustrating.  She is very nonchalant about the other cats and the dog, is litter box trained, and purrs 90% of the time.  She also thinks that sleeping on our heads is perfectly acceptable.  We will probably wind up rehoming her, but she'll be with us for the next few weeks while she heals from her trauma.      I also got suckered into fostering a litter of two week old kittens.  I signed up to foster with the ARL after I lost Munchie, as the house seemed too quiet.  Over the weekend, there was a call that a litter of kittens had come in; I did not want them, as I already have the aforementioned cat that I am having to syringe feed.  However, no one else could really take them and the person that had them at home is also dealing with a mother with breast cancer...so I wound up bringing the three little guys home.  At least they are eating really well and the ARL will take them back once they are weaned.  Much better than vet school, where we had to keep the kittens until they were placed into their permanent homes.      Please let me know if you need a cat. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
9:50 pm	Expect the unexpected...      Around lunchtime, the clinic I was working at got a call from the local cops.  They wanted to know if they could use one of the clinic scales...to weigh a load of marijuana that they had confiscated.  We were a little confused, as it seemed like they must have a scale down at the station.  About twenty minutes later, we watched a cop van pull into the parking lot.  Two burly men got out and unloaded a very heavy tarp. filled with greenery.  They carried it into the hospital...and found that they had located 75 pounds of marijuana.  They then carted the tarp back out,  loaded it into the van, and drove off.  All in all, not something I expect in everyday life. (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
11:00 pm	How I spent my birthday...       On the way home from work on Friday, my power steering abruptly stopped working and a weird yellow light lit up on the dashboard.  Luckily, this occurred as I was exiting from 95.  I pulled over into Dunkin Donuts to read the manual.  It informed me that the light meant there was a problem with the steering (no kidding), and that it might be fixed by turning the car off and then back on again.  This did not fix it.  However, the manual indicated that I could still drive the car...it would just be difficult.  So I proceeded to the new house, where I'd been stripping wallpaper all week.  After finishing up the wallpaper project, the steering started working again.      Saturday (my birthday), my friend Anne and I had planned a yard sale.  I got up really early, picked up coffee and muffins, and headed to her house with a last load of stuff.  Anne called while I was en route, saying that she planned to cancel the sale, as it looked like rain.  I had coffee and muffins with her and her father, and then headed over to the dealer, to make sure that the car was okay.      After sitting with my book for an hour, the service center dude came over and told me that the mmpmmh pump was not working, and that this part was on backorder.  Meaning that I would be without my car for, as an estimate, about a month.  They could give me a loaner car at no charge to me (no kidding...my car is still under warranty), but he said that animals were not allowed in the car.  I told him that I was moving, and that the dog is in my car 3-4 times weekly on average.  He said that I would just have to clean the car really well.  This is annoying, both for the animals, the fact that the interior of the car is beige, and the fact that I have a hatchback...and the loaner car is a sedan.      I spent the rest of the day finishing up wallpaper and cleaning the walls with solution, finishing just in time to have a nice dinner with foldedfish . (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 12th, 2009
2:29 pm	Theatre      We are going to see "Aida" at the Arlington Friends of the Drama on Friday, April 24th, at 8 pm.  If you'd like to join us, just let me or foldedfish  know.  Tickets are around $20, and casting is usually excellent. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
8:34 am	Well, the cold has resolved.  However, I still have the ear infection and can't hear out of my left ear.  I started a new antibiotic on Friday, after my appetite had returned.  Unfortunately, this one seems to cause itching and hives on the palms of my hands.  The doctor decided that this one wasn't working, so now I'm on yet another antibiotic.  This one seems okay, although my palms are still itchy.  My ear is starting to feel like it wants to hear ( I can hear myself chewing now), so hopefully it's working.  It is a very large, very bitter tasting tablet.  But at least it doesn't seem to have side effects. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
10:14 am	I managed to catch a cold over the weekend, and also managed to get an infection in my left ear.  As per my usual illness, I have almost no voice left.  The ear actually woke me up Monday morning with throbbing, so I figured that I had better be seen by someone.  I went to a nurse practitioner, who prescribed amoxicillin.  I explained that augmentin (amoxicillin/clavulinic acid) does very bad things to my GI tract, but she assured me that this would be fine.      It was not.  As a result, I haven't eaten much in about two days.        They want to put me on another antibiotic for the ear, but I figure that I had probably better be eating before this happens.  Hopefully it won't cause the same problem, as the nausea is much much worse than the ear pain.  Having no voice is not helping things either.  Sigh. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
10:10 am	Learning to dive      This weekend, I finally learned how to dive with goggles.  I had entered a swim meet at Harvard, figuring that this would give me an incentive to learn how to dive.  However, we went on vacation for the 10 days prior to the meet, limiting my opportunity.  I practiced some on Friday, during warm-up, with variable success.  By Sunday, however, I was able to dive off the starting block wearing goggles without them filling up with water.      I used to compete in swimming when I was in high school (and grade school, for that matter), but I used to swim without goggles.  At that point, my vision wasn't horrible, and I was comfortable in the water.  Now, however, I really need to wear my contacts.  I tried to enter a meet about 10 years ago.  During that meet, I started in the water once.  This put me way behind all of the other swimmers, and was less than satisfactory.  So I tried to swim blind.  This also failed, as I felt like I was blind and therefore went really slowly.  That was my last attempt at swimming in a competition (well, other than open water swims, which are very different).      You may wonder how I did.  Well, I did okay.  Not great, but I have never been the fastest one in my age group. I may have some hope if I keep swimming, although even the 60-64 age group is REALLY FAST.  My two best finishes were 5th in the 200 breaststroke and 8th in the 200 backstroke.  I may try competing again, though, as it wasn't totally awful. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 8th, 2009
1:49 pm	When I got home yesterday afternoon, there was a smallish possum hanging around the front yard.  When I got out of the car, he sort of lumbered off into the brush.  It still seemed weird to me, as they tend to be nocturnal critters.  We seem to have an awful lot of wildlife around the house lately... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 7th, 2009
12:12 pm	The front door      Our front door has been having issues recently.  About two weeks ago, the key cut my finger and I made foldedfish  start leaving the door unlocked; at least this way, I was able to get into the house without injury.  The knob was still a little tight to turn, but it was possible.  Thus started the saga of the doorknob.  I figured that it would be easy enough to just change the knob myself, so we bought a new doorknob at Target a few weekends ago.  It has been so bitterly cold that I've been waiting for a warm day, as fixing the knob means working with the front door open.  I finally got around to it last Sunday.      I successfully removed the old mechanism.  Unfortunately, the original device appears to have been the type in which a large core of door has been hollowed out.  This means that there were plates on either side of the door, as well as over the latch mechanism.  The new latch would not go through the plate.  At this point, I was (of course) unable to get the old doorknob back in place.  So we started using the back door as our primary door and just left the front door alone.      The next trip (on Monday) was to a hardware store in Arlington.  They let me look at a number of doorknobs, and I found one that looked like it would fit through the plate.  I got home and tested it.  The latch did fit through the plate.  However, the knobs were just slightly too large for those plates.  Still, I felt hopeful.  After all, the plates seemed like a fairly standard type of product.  I made a trip to the hardware store in town...no luck.  Then I went to the one in Lexington...they could order me one, but did not have one in stock.  I finally decided to go to Lowe's.  After ten minutes of waiting, I managed to find someone to assist me.  They sold me a security plate that they assured me would work.  I got home, only to discover that the door was about 1/2 inch too wide for the device and that no, in fact, it would not work.  Meaning that we still had no working front door.      On Wednesday, I went to the lock store on the way home.  They sold me a new doorknob that looked a lot like the one that I had removed.  It was expensive.  But they (again) assured me that this would work.  Lo and behold, it did.  So we now have a brand-new front door locking mechanism.  What I learned, however, is that it would have saved me a lot of time and headaches to just have the lock store deal with it in the first place. (Comment on this)
Friday, January 23rd, 2009
9:00 pm	If anyone would like to go see "Rabbit Hole" with us, we are going to the 8 pm show in Arlington on February 13th. The next show after that is "Aida", the last weekend of April or the first weekend of May.  Tickets for the shows are $18.  They are in a small, renovated church near Arlington Center.  The quality has been great overall, even for the plays that are new to us. Email myself or foldedfish  if you are interested. (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
10:53 pm	In other news, Mele got a snooker Q in USDAA agility today.  He then proceeded to leap from the end of the dog walk during the gamble, otherwise we would have Q'd in that as well. At least we're making progress.  He only knocked one jump bar, and that was my fault; there was a time not too long ago when half the course would go down.  Now we just need to work on contacts... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
10:53 pm	About two weeks ago, a client brought in a baby bird.  It looked to be about a week old, a rather ugly thing with few feathers, a large beak, and tufty feathers on the head.  Unfortunately, the wildlife centers won't take baby starlings, as they were introduced to the U.S. around 1900 by someone who decided that we should have all the birds mentioned by Shakespeare.  So I wound up with the little critter.  I have been taking it to work with me, and it has gradually developed feathers.  On Tuesday, Simone realized that she could fly.  Of course, she mainly wanted to fly onto my shoulder or grab onto the front of my shirt and scream for food.  So now I have this flighted creature that still won't eat on its own.  Today, we spent the day at an agility trial (I had my own dog and bird show) and then came home.  Where I learned that Simone has discovered water.  She ducked her head and splashed around happily for quite a while before settling down to eat.  I'm not sure why starlings do ths; my previous adult starling used to constantly rid his water bowl of water.  Someone had suggested a chicken waterer, as this has a tube in the center with water around the edges and is not large enough to (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
4:37 pm	In fish news     After a several month battle with a mass slowly growing on his right side, my betta passed away on Mother's Day.  I got a new betta last week.  He seemed a little quiet (not swimming, just hanging out at the bottom of the tank), but I figured that he was a new addition.  When we got home last Sunday I noticed that one of the black tetras had multiple white spots on its body.  After some exploration on the internet, this appeared to be ich or another similar fungal disease.  I started treating the tank.  The spots on the tetra are mostly gone and the betta is now acting much more active.  However, I am annoyed that the pet store sold me a sick fish. It's not like you can evaluate the bettas in the store; they are in tiny jars and can barely turn around, let alone swim. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
4:32 pm	On the way up from Middletown, just before Rt 84 merges with the Pike, there is an informational sign by the side of the road that advertises "Seraph", with no additional information.  foldedfish and I have often wondered about this, in our minds turning it into something like the angel found by the Simpsons.  When we couldn't find parking for the Obama speech last weekend, we decided to take the turn off to finally determine what the seraph was.  Of course, neither of us paid attention to whether we were supposed to take the exit for 20E or 20W, and managed to get off the wrong one.  After turning around, we found Sturbridge Village, but no additional signs. However, there was an informationl booth and, after several turns, we managed to get into the parking lot.     In the booth, we perused brochures and finally asked the older woman at the counter about the seraph.  She got very excited, and started talking about another project by the same woman.  We were just glad that she seemed to know about the seraph; we were half afraid that she was going to ask us questions about it, to which we would only be able to respond "well, we saw a sign along 84...".  She did not give us any information about what we were looking for, but did give us clear directions.      We followed them, only to learn that "Seraph" is a store that sells old-fashioned furniture.  We were disappointed, but at least now we won't wonder about the sign any more. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
4:25 pm	Super powers     Lacuna had radioactive iodine treatment on Tuesday and came home yesterday around noon.  Several people have asked whether he would gain super powers as  result of the irradiation, and I wasn't sure.  However, we can now confirm that he does in fact have a superpower...he has a supersonic meow.     Because he is mildly radioactive, we have to limit our exposure to him for the next two weeks.  His waste products also have to be disposed of "properly" (ironically, this consists of flushing them down the toilet).  Lacuna is the cat that most wants to sit with people, and would spend 24 hours a day in our laps if we let him.  Therefore, we refurbished Melcatraz for him (for the nonce, it is known as the Fortress of Solitude), figuring that this would allow him to stay near us while still keeping him isolated.  He was not happy.  However, he did settle down to sleep.  Until around 5 am, when the sun came up and birds started chirping.  He started in with a very plaintive meow that wouldn't stop.  I wound up throwing Munchie into the cage with him, which allowed me to sleep until 8:30.  In typical Munch fashion, he took it all in stride and hung out until I let him out for breakfast.  Alternate plans for Lacuna may be in effect this evening.  And I have a feeling that it's going to be a long two weeks... (2 Comments |Comment on this)