That day... It came...

I got the news this morning that my baby Carrot passed in the night. She had taken a turn for the worst last week so I was expecting to hear soon, but it still came as a bit of a shock, and I just wish I had got to see her before she went.
In the tradition of blogs, here are a few of her defining moments:
The day she came home, 2 and a half years ago:
July 2008 after her belly had healed and the cone had rubbed off some hair around her neck
Way back, looking more photogenic than any other rat I have ever seen. This photograph will stay on my desk at work for infinity, and I will always think fondly of the little beastie when I look at it. I love you my little Carrot. I will never forget those near misses we had and the times you spent sleeping in my tshirt when you were too ill to move. I will never forget how you could always always tell when we were trying to drug you and you were so stubborn just like me. You were my favourite baby and I hope you are in a better place now. Your daddy has done everything he could for you and I have missed you so much.

Some things...

I am starting to despise my job. Its getting worse by the day! I love the people in my office, we are a nice little team who make the workdays fairly fun, but I feel like no one listens to us, and we have to deal with a lot of shit that could be avoided. If it werent for the 28 days leave and 13 days flexi, I would have quit already.
But im holding on! Things can only get better! Right?

My phone blogger thing isn't working! I had a cute picture of Carrot, in a new fleece cube that I made over the weekend, but blogger doesn't want to send it. It might be because I changed my phone contract to a cheaper one. I have to phone them again in a month to change it to an even cheaper one so I will ask them then. The reason i'm changing my contract around is that I have been paying £40 a month for EVER and I have 37 HOURS of calls and about 3000 texts left to use. I cannot use my phone at home since there is no coverage, so I just gave up on it and use it as an overpriced camera. So I cut my contract to £30 a month, and I can lose £5 a month each month until its around £15-20, which is great because money is something I dont have much of.

I got the sewing machine out at the weekend and made some rat tubes and cubes, they are all colour co-ordinated, ready for the new rat cage which needs building. Squee needs to meet the girls next weekend so we need to get on with the cage. Morven bought a router bit ready to make a start.

I also got my jewellery stuff out yesterday and played around for a bit. I am going to buy more gas for the blowtorch tonight because it has a nack of running out when im in the middle of something delicate! I have plans to use all the silver I have, and I have a lot of gemstones which I just collect randomly from ebay. I am hoping to save some money this month, despite it being Morven's birthday, since we are going to Birmingham on our week off, and I want to get some stuff from Cooksons (precious metals) whilst I am there to save on postage. So watch this space, although shiny silver is difficult to photograph so don't expect too much.

Oh the brakes broke on the car. I didn't get to work until 11 on Friday. In the end we borrowed Morvens mums Prelude, until my insurance comes through on the Escort and then I will be able to buy tax (you need proof of insurance and MOT to buy tax. Grr). I have enjoyed driving an automatic, but I do feel lazy for it. Plus its costing around £20 a DAY in petrol!

In knitting news, I finished the damn Samus! Laurie Ann, I suck at posting packages! I am currently sourcing some form of box! I finished the Samus with just 3 balls of fishermens wool, so I am thinking of something nice to make from the rest. I might dye it or make a felted bag or something. I bought the zipper today so photos will be forthcoming!

Thats about it for an update. We were going to go to Yoga tomorrow night but I always plan to do stuff and it never happens!

Bored

Do you ever have those days/weeks/months where you are just bored with your life? I am having one of those at the moment so in a few mins we are going to drive to Birmingham for the hell of it and see what we come back with.

Squee was so cute last night, he was completely out of it and sat still for the first time EVER! He slept in the blanket besides me for a couple of hours and then went to bed. The wound looks painful but not as bad as when Carrot was spayed. I have been taunting Pea, telling her she had better get on well with him since he went through this just for her. We have to leave him 2 weeks before he can be safely introduced to the girls, but at the end of next week I will move their cages closer.

My house is a mess since I don't clean when I am bored, so I may vacuum tonight when we get back, or I might spin up the fiber i dyed last week. Who knows.

3 things

I started my course - my brain is laughing at me
I joined twitter, my username is xampx
Squee is going to the vet tomorrow for his oversized manparts removing. Wish us luck!

Another FO

I am currently a knitting demon. I have finished 3 things in the last 4 weeks, and made a ton of progress on my main project. I am half enjoying being faithful to Samus, but I would like something a bit quicker and more interesting to work on during those stockinette marathons. I might knit an iphone cover for Morvens workmate when I get bored of the sleeves.

Here is his finished hat.

And here is a new angle on Pea...

Block!

I am back in work today and feeling much better. I took yesterday off too as I was still groggy but I felt much better in the afternoon and got some knitting done. I finished the main part of Samus. Here it is blocking. I opted for the pinning out, then spraying with water method of blocking. I dont know how effective it will be but I didnt have any other option. I am looking for some of those interlocking rubber mats you can buy from hardware stores but I got distracted by the pet shop and came home with Squee last time I went to one.

Hey, talking about Squee, Morven put the girls in their cage last week and let Squee out, and about 15 minutes later there was a bang and it was Pea jumping out of her cage because Morven had only closed one of the 2 doors. Genius! So I think we are safe since we think we got her as soon as she fell, and Squee was at the stage where he wouldnt come out from under the sofa. Fingers crossed that they didn't meet or Morven will be in for a beating! We don't want a ton of baby rats!

The Samus did get boring during the middle but it got more interesting towards the end. I still have 2 sleeves to do but I am waiting for my yarn to arrive as I would like to do 2 at the same time. I checked the post box 3 times yesterday but it hasn't been that long yet and it does have some way to go. In the meantime I have picked up the lining stitches of Morvens hat and have started knitting the lining so he can finally wear it (it was 23 degrees (73F) yesterday so he doesn't really need it). I might start the braid for the sleeves tonight, I haven't decided yet and it depends on what time we get home. The roadworks have been a nightmare all week but Morven was home for 6:45 yesterday, which is usually the time that he picks me up from work so im hoping I will get home at a decent hour.

Oh on Saturday (or Sunday - depends on the weather) we are going to Heddington & Stockley Steam Rally and Country Fair which has ferret racing, medievel jousting and a craft tent amongst other things so I am looking forward to that.

Unplanned New Arrival

Meet Squee!

He was all by himself in the same pet store we got Pea and Carrot from. He looks JUST like Carrot (except for colour - and man bits) and I am sure they are brother and sister from different litters. They are definitely related. Anyway he is completely adorable and already sleeping on Morven. We booked a week off in 2 weeks time and I am going to get him booked in for a neuter that week so he can live with his sisters.

He is so pretty!

Some things

I went to the gym for 4 months. Since quitting the gym in Feb/March I have lost 9lb without trying. Excellent!

I built a shed and put everything out of our bathroom in there (well, the tools, not the bathroom stuff) and now our bathroom looks like a bathroom. Yay!

I made a needle roll for all my needles and crochet hooks. There are more that I can't find, but this thing is huge. Il post some pics when I remember to take some :s

Carrot is not exceptionally fat. In fact, Pea weighs 14 1/2 oz and Carrot weighs 15oz. Barely and difference. Here are some pics for size comparison. Pea must hide it well because HER belly doesnt touch the floor...

Carrot

Pea

I got out of the office at work last week and I LOVED it. I went snagging at a block of flats, which is basically looking around and being picky. Noting defects and damaged items and stuff that needs cleaning up and replacing. So much fun. Plus I was out of town so I went for a look around the town that Morven works in and met him from work. We got home much earlier than usual, plus is was a really warm day.

I need a new job that doesn't have me sitting in the office all day.

I have a sore back and had to take Friday off because I got very little sleep Thursday night. Its not much better today but I am sleeping ok.

I have to buy fruit today.

Don't worry Pluto, I'm not a planet either

Hello!

Well, I feel a bit funny really at the moment. I was just checking the BBC news website and found this story which I have been following since the start 3 months ago. I am so sad! This guy used to present a childrens tv show called smART which was all about art, and I LOVED it, he was such a cool, bubbly bloke. I'l miss him!

It't been a crappy weekend really, what with that, and the weather being poo, and I have NO money so I haven't been anywhere. Carrot is doing brilliant though so I have that to be thankful for, and Morven is lovely as always. I guess its just the weather then.

Oh, I have 2 rats by the way. I know Pea is probably mentally scarred from all the attention Carrot has been getting (Don't worry Pea, Carrot has physical scars, and i'm sure you were having more fun than she was) So here is a pic that has her in it too. I did get some of her on her own but I haven't uploaded them yet.



So yeah, knitting, I still do that....
Here is some proof

Exhibit a:



Exhibit b:

I also made a cushion (2 actually):

Yup, I have been productive. I have another baby sweater on the needles using a god awful hideous pink acrylic, but I have used 3 of my balls of stash so far!

A little change

Firstly, Carrot is doing SO well. She may not be going to the vet tomorrow, we will have a look tonight and assess. Her cone came off for an evening on Friday and she cleaned herself CONSTANTLY for 2 hours before we put it back. Im so proud of her.

Now for something different. I woke up at 6:30 this morning and it was snowing! I got up at 9:30 and it was gone! Typical stupid English weather. Although lucky since I planted up everything yesterday. I dug through 6in of hardcore, carefully avoiding drainage pipes and planted rhubarb (which I dont think will survive, it was a poor specimen) and a magnolia, and about 100 bulbs. We also got some window boxes which are also now filled with bulbs. The gardens getting there but we still have a LONG way to go.

I am trying to finish knitting this baby cardigan I started. Il post a pic when its done. The garter stitch is taking forever although I am up to the last sleeve and then I get to do the lace trim, and it will be a little more interesting from then on.

I got a new book yesterday from Morven - Knitalong - which I wanted because there were some nice large projects in there that I could stashbust with. This is a crappy attempt at a book review because Morven is making me bacon for breakfast and I am kinda concentrating on that right now. I will maybe write more about the book later with pictures or links, because I really like the book!

This makes me want to laugh and cry

Poor baby

On the good side, she is healing really well already. On the bad side, she is being a very picky eater as she thinks we are constantly trying to drug her.

Pictures!

By request, here she is in her cone. She hates it, I suspect mostly because she cant clean herself, which she likes to do at least 20 hours a day. The icky stuff around the cone is porphyrin, which is a red stuff they have in their bodies (in mucus, blood, pee etc - its quite scary at first because you think its blood, but every rat I've ever had has had sneezes red at some point in their life, its called Myco(plasmosis) and it can eventually lead to pneumonia and death :(, but Carrot is on a ton of medication, and echinacea so she has a few years left yet)

Anyhoo, don't laugh too hard at the poor kid (there is a funnier photo to come, but its still on my camera)



Here she is over the weekend after a heavy dose of painkillers. Poor kid.

Another update, why not

Ok, well firstly, the cone stayed on. She initially freaked out and was flipping all over the place, so we took it off and tried again. Shes not happy, but she is ok, and it stayed on all night.

At the vet this morning, he refused to operate. We saw the proper rat(exotics) vet this morning and he basically said that if we keep sewing her up, the infection will keep breaking through. So she is keeping the collar, and she has 2 kinds of antibiotic and a painkiller to take every day, and the idea is that by next Monday she will go back in, but will probably not even need to be sewed back up at that point, as they heal really quick.

So for now, its trying to drug her without realising, and trying to keep the collar on (il try and get a pic, she looks like the Pixar lamp) and just watching and waiting.

Its a very good thing that she doesn't need another operation just yet. Its good for her AND my wallet.

Carrot: Bane of my life

Firstly, anyone in the UK, don't forget the clocks went forward this morning. I know, because my alarm clock self updates, and Morvens doesn't. So when they don't match, thats how we know.

So what have you done this morning? I have helped Morven jump start a strangers car, driven 22 miles to a vet for an emergency appointment, cried and cried whilst Carrot's infected wound was cleaned up by the vet (she screamed so much AND bit Morven - never happened before), I cried some more when he told me she needs another operation tomorrow, and then im just kinda sitting here whilst Morven reheats last nights pizza, and Carrot being watched to make sure she doesn't pick at her open wound.

It looks gross, and we have to flush it with salt water every other hour until bedtime, then she has a collar which we are hoping will stay on for at least half of tonight, and tomorrow morning we are heading out to the vet again.

Moral support please? My baby is really sick and this is a last chance operation.

I'm hoping this ends well.

EDIT: She is sleeping in my sleeve. Throughout today she has also slept on my boob, on my hand, on my shoulder, in my top on my stomach, and on a towel on a hot water bottle. This girl likes sleep, but in weird places. Time for another wound flush. Must be the 6th so far. Poor baby. Im starting to worry now bedtime is getting closer

Stuff

You should see how cute Carrot looks right now. It's 12:30 and she has been sleeping for around 2 hours. Ratty sleeping though, with one eye slightly open in case she misses something. She is all snuggled in a blanket on the furry cushion next to me. I swear this is what it will be like if I ever have a baby.

She got re-glued at the vet yesterday and overnight she has been picking at one of her bottom stitches, in the worst place really. If only there was something we could do to stop her picking at them! We even covered them in Baytril (meds) because she WILL NOT eat Baytril (unless it is hidden well in yoghurt!) But she even licked that off. I dont know what else to do except watch her constantly

So I am on supervision duty today (yay because its raining) and Morven has gone out to buy shelves and food essentials (not wine, we are poor :( ) and superglue for Carrot.

I had such plans for today. There was going to be gardening, since I have 2 rose bushes and a ton of bulbs to plant as soon as possible. Instead, i'm going to make a foccacia/ciabatta so we can have homemade pizza later.

Oh, we got a new washer dryer yesterday. Despite telling Morvens mum that we did not want her to buy anything for us, she just bought it anyway. Grr! Anyway its pretty cool. Its brand new, but damaged (not much, a few scratches on the front and a dent on the side, but its guaranteed for a year), and it means we can actually wash more than one load a week. These modern economical washing machines take AGES to run a cycle though. This one has been on for just over 2 hours and the dryer is just about kicking in.

Oh and the guy who delivered it walked mud all over my red and white rug. Dammit! It cleaned up but I had to scrub, a LOT.

Carrot update

So the little beastie pulled out some of her stitches on the first night, and she was on surveilance with Morvens mum yesterday. Last night she doesn't seem to have pulled any more out, but at the vet today we had her superglued up some more just to buy us more time. I also put some of her medication on to the wound because thats the one thing she will not eat. She is a little nightmare.

Pea is also in the bad books after chewing the cable for the Wii sensor bar whilst we were neglecting her in favor of Carrot the other night.

I didnt get into work until 10:30 today because of the vet trip, and I will have to do the same again Monday. We were only going to have 2 post ops but now we are having 3 (im having next Friday off). Since this whole disaster happened I haven't been able to do anything. All evening is spent trying to get her to sit still, sleep, take her medicine, or just not eat her stitches. I have knit a little bit more of a baby cardigan that im using to stashbust, but I'm only knitting at work when I'm waiting for Morven.

Hopefully next Friday I will be able to do some sewing. I want to make a cover for my MP3 player and all its bits, and I would like to make a hot water ball cover, and maybe a rat hammock.

Emergency Surgery

Oh what a day I have had!

I dont remember if I wrote here about it, but Carrot developed an abscess over the bank holiday, typically when all the vets were closed. Luckily it burst and we cleaned her up, but I took her to the vet this morning because it was looking a little raw, and she also needed antibiotics.

Well its lucky I did! I was rushed off to another vets in our area (20 or so miles away) for emergency surgery, as she had a ruptured hernia which had broken through all her layers of tissue and you could see her intestine! Poor baby!

The vet just called me though, and she is out of surgery and doing ok. I'm now in work and I will go get her at 6 when she has recovered from the anaesthetic.

Jeez, what a day we have both had! It's been an emotional rollercoaster!

How can you not feel sorry for this little face?

A bit of a turnaround

You know how it gets, routines get old and you stop enjoying what you are doing and just do it because its 'what you do'.

I'd like this blog to be more interesting, but I am not that interesting, so nothing is really gonna change. But today, instead of a load of boring crap about what I have done this week, I though I should give my opinion a bit more, and not be scared that someone is gonna read this and go mental with me. I'll also show you knitting modelled by Morven with rats. (I upgraded to Flickr pro - not because I wanted to, but because I reached my 200 photo limit, and the benefit of pro is that I have organised things so they make more sense to me now - also, im impressed that all my photographs still work on here and Ravelry and forums and stuff).

Anyhoo, stuff!
The M1 motorway in England (the first and longest) was gridlocked on Friday night at around 11:30pm just north of Junction 26 for Nottingham. This annoyed me, since had there been any warning signs that 2 lanes were closing, I, being someone who lived in Nottingham for a couple of years, could have got off at J26, taken back roads, and made it back on at J29, thus saving an hour of sitting there being honked at by a moron for letting people in. Even though they had nowhere else to go (no signs, remember) and it would have caused more gridlock and accidents if these people had to push in front. It made me feel better that this guy was about 50, bald, and driving a shitty people carrier.

Saturday really pissed me off. Firstly some background: Mum crashed (someone hit her) her 1999 Diahatsu Cuore (Thats 0.8l of Japanese low budget automobile) a couple of weeks ago. The insurance company gave her £1500 for it as thats what she insured it for. My mum works in a factory that in the next 18 months is going to transfer over to Europe, meaning almost everyone is going to lose their jobs. She could be done in as little as 3 months time. My mum barely has any savings, as the state pension thing meant that she was born one year too late to get the full state pension, leaving her, at then 53, to make some money for her retirement before her retirement.

So she phones me Friday night to say she has found this car - an 04 Diahatsu Charade (again with the 0.8l engine and this one weighs 1.5 ton! Hmm).

M: I've found a car to look at tomorrow
Me: How much?
M: £3200
Me: You don't have that much
M: Well I do, I have in my savings.
Me: Don't you think you should save your savings?
M: But its a nice car - its lilac.

Saturday Morning, Morven and I start looking online, we find the exact same car, 1 year older, 10,000 more miles, 11 miles away for £2275. She doesn't like it! We drive around and see about 15 other cars which are all small, good quality cars in the £1200-£2000) price range. She wants the first one she saw.

I am so disappointed with my mother. She has always made so much sense to me, been really well organised and good with money. But my sister was telling her how old cars are rubbish (Our Rover is 12, its great, Our Prelude is 16, its fantastic, My Citroen was 2, it was a piece of crap) and she has gone and bought this car for £3200, and I am just angry at her. We tried so hard to find her a bargain and she just didn't listen at all, and so I told her that when she has no job, and the car breaks down, my sister can get off her arse and get a full time job to help her pay for it to be fixed, because I won't.

I also saw a really nice Fiat Punto for £1200 which I would have bought myself had I needed a car, which I dont.

I may need a car - Our company is going to merge. This may mean moving offices to Bristol, in which case I have to get a new car since its not in the right direction to carshare with Morven. Everyone is jumping ship at the moment in work and morale is non existant. I work in development and we have no funding at the moment so we are slowly going to come to a halt unless this merge happens quickly. All good fun.

Anyhoo, im pretty happy today, and have been this week, despite the whole angry thing. I finished Morven's binary scarf, this picture was taken at 7am yesterday morning.

I've also almost finished a hat, which I made last night for Morvens workmate. And I have a couple of other things on the needles at the moment too. I think I might be getting carpal tunnel syndrome or something though, as its starting to hurt when I type, or knit for too long. I will look at getting a wrist rest.

Things I have done today.

• Realised my blogiversary went unmentioned on November 30th. Oops.
• Realised that the person putting the electrics in the cabin is a complete moron.
• Argued much with Morven regarding said moron.
• Realised there was really no point drawing up plans when they were completely ignored.
• Put off spinning ALL DAY because I was looking for something to fix the wheel with.
• Pulled out the last of last years leeks from the garden.
• Made Leek and Potato soup. Forgot to taste it so its a bit bland.
• Made tortellini (store bought) with a mackeral and tomato sauce (actually made)
• Looked for some cheap 2.5mm dpn's as some of mine have split.
• Successfully drugged Carrot twice. (Yoghurt is the key!)
• Knit almost a whole glove for Morven.
• Broke a tooth. It has been going for about a year and its now broken off and I don't have a dentist. Lucky the nerve isn't exposed or i'd be crying about now.
• Washed clothes, dried clothes.
• Washed my and Morvens dishes. Don't you just hate when people make a mess and then leave it for you? I used to clean the entire kitchen before I started cooking, but today I cleaned the space I need and moved all the crap out of the sink and just washed my own. Im not doing other peoples cleaning anymore

Oh and about the cabin - REALLY pissed off that there is dirt and footprints ALL over the floor when we have been careful to take our shoes off whilst we wait to get it sealed.

I think thats about it. I emailed a request to an outdoor adventure place about archery because Morven wants to go. And, um, yeah that is it, apart from browsing the internet. Fun fun! Tomorrow we are going to install the lights because that way the moron can't possibly get them wrong this time, and hmm, I dunno. Spin, and hope the day lasts forever so I dont have to go back to work on monday.

I have to go get a rat off the windowsill so I'd better call it a day.

The Perfect Picture

Carrot

Morven's t-shirt brings out the blue in her eyes.