The Occasional Adventures of Emma

Babies everywhere

2008-10-05T12:25:03Z

We used to have a lot of chickens, but now they are all getting old and their numbers are dwindling. We are down to 7 rather oldish hens, and I really wanted to get a few more to boost their numbers. It would also be nice to get more than 2 or 3 eggs per $20 bag of chicken feed..

Unfortunately it seems that point-of-lay chickens here are gold plated because they sell for $20 each. So our plan to get a few more chickens was put on hold.

But, on a whim (how unusual for me, right) I decided to go to the pet store and buy some babies, instead. It's not like we need adult chickens right now, we can wait.. and I have a $250 aviary sitting on the back verandah going to waste. So why not?

I bought 10 little babies and brought them home in a cardboard box. I kept them in a cage in my room, thinking I would keep them there for about a week and then transfer them to the aviary. Unfortunately I grossly underestimated the amount that tiny birds can A) eat and B) poop. I was having to feed them all the time, give them fresh water once an hour because they kept messing it up, and they also rapidly messed up the cage and made it smelly. So this morning I had to go and get the makings for the aviary.

Sadly one of them died overnight.. I think it may have eaten a sharp seed (I have starter mix, bran, and some mash but it had some seeds in it, I picked most of the big pieces out but perhaps it ate something too big) or maybe some bedding, I'm not sure. I feel really terrible, the poor little thing. The only thing that makes me feel a little better is the fact that it quite literally died in its sleep, curled up in the middle of all the others. So at least it was peaceful and I assume painless. Still, I feel bad and very guilty :(

The other 9 are going strong though. They seem to really enjoy their new aviary home with its straw bedding, lots of food, plenty of room, and a proper water dispenser that even the tiny little black chicks can reach into, but not fill with dirt and straw. They already think I'm their mommy, and I have to show them where the food and water is by pecking at it with my finger. I went and sat in the aviary for a while and they hopped onto me and pecked at my buttons and my freckles (freckles are not food). One of them is particularly happy to see me all the time and flies over to me with its silly stubby wings. I love them all. I'm going to try to spend as much time as I can with them so they get really used to me.

Tonight I had to "teach" them where bed was. I gave them a box with nice soft bedding, but instead they decided to sleep huddled under the water dispenser. This worried me because a) it wasn't very protected from the cold air, b) they might get damp and then cold, and c) as secure as I made it, I still hate to think of them sleeping under a big heavy object. So I went out there with the torch and sat on the straw, carefully extricating each chick and shoving it (lovingly) into the box. When all 9 were inside, I pushed extra straw into the entrance to dam it up and make a warm nest around them. I tucked the top flap down a bit to limit the amount any breeze that might blow in. They settled immediately into a group, nice and warm in a big fluffy chick pile. They just needed their mommy to show them where to sleep.

I'll go back out and check on them before bed to make sure they stayed in there - hopefully now they know the box is warm and safe, they'll use it all the time.

Mondays: does it get any better than this?

2008-09-28T23:30:44Z

Just when you thought Mondays couldn't be more crappy...

... someone tries to steal your identity.

I had a message on my phone from my bank. Apparently someone used my credit card details to sign up for a Napster trial - there was a $1.00 charge on my card in the early hours of Friday morning. Many companies like Napster will send a small charge to your account (and refund it later) to check that you're using a legit card, before they will let you sign up for a full account. Paypal does it also, and it's perfectly fine. Unfortunately, identity thieves use this idea to check to see if a stolen card number is active. Once they see the charge is successful, they're free to either use the card or sell the details to someone else. So some scumbag got my details and tried to test the waters to do a little shopping by having Napster charge my account with $1.00.

Before I get lectures or "this is why you shouldn't use a credit card" comments - I'm not stupid, I don't throw my card around all over the place, I don't visit backwater sites that aren't secure. I'm not an idiot. I mostly use my card for scheduled bills like insurance, internet, etc. I do occasionally buy things online but always from trusted sites.. so I don't know how someone got my card. For all I know they could have got my details out of my recycling because I didn't shred my statement into confetti. Who knows. Maybe from now on I'll let my rats have them as nesting material.

I don't know how they got my details, but it doesn't matter now, that card is toast. My bank's fraud team is badass and they picked it up first thing in the morning, put a block on the card immediately, and asked me to call. I had to have the card reissued, which sucks hard, because I'll have to call up about 8 companies to find out how to change my details. I'm really lucky that the bank is great and pick these things up so fast, because it could have been a lot worse.

I just wish I could send a great big "f#$k you, asshole" to whoever tried to steal my card. Scum.

Burn

2008-06-22T01:37:06Z

Cooling towers, approaching storms, and a grassfire in front.

Cut because frankly I'm too lazy to resize.

Convenience

2008-05-31T00:09:43Z

I work two jobs.

My second job is in a small office. A very small office. The back "office" is a tiny room with a desk that runs the length of the back wall, and then at one side there is a bar fridge with a microwave on it, a tiny cabinet with a kettle on it, and then next to that is the all-in-one printer/fax etc. So it's like an office and a kitchenette, I suppose.

My boss was having problems with her phone line. Up to this point it had shared the same line as the fax, meaning that anytime she was on the phone (a lot), she couldn't receive faxes. So she wanted to get it split to enable her to do both at once - chat on a teleconference for 2 hours, but know that faxes could still get through.

After phoning several places, she found someone that could come out right away. He turned up very quickly. Very nice looking young man, with a very thick accent from somewhere in central Europe (I'm afraid I'm not very good with accents so I'm not sure exactly where). Very polite, but he had a little trouble understanding what my boss wanted.

Although he did the job very nicely in the end, I have to tell you that it is slightly disconcerting to have a technician walk into your office, point at your microwave, and say, "This is fax, yes?"

o_O

Soup!

2008-04-19T02:19:33Z

I made a huge pot of soup!

Cabbage, spinach, carrot, corn, green beans, celery, parsnip, zucchini, capsicum, potato, sweet potato, chick peas, kidney beans, tomatoes, onion, leek, garlic, and half a chili.

Veges veges veges!

smaoineamh @ 2008-03-04T09:04:00

2008-03-03T23:04:32Z

Y'know, it struck me the other day that it would be really cool to have my own personal cow catcher.

That way I could charge through crowds - say, at the supermarket, with nary a worry about slowing down for pensioners chatting in the aisles, or people dawdling and fussing over the vegetables. They would simply peel easily off to the sides and then lay dazed and confused in my wake, as I slice through the crowds like a hot knife through butter.

*chews pencil*

Yeah, that'd be awesome.

It's best not to ask.

2008-03-02T23:07:36Z

Conversation on vent last night during a raid:

leath: sorry guys, last attempt for me, my eyes are on the keyboard.
malekai: you could try licking them
me: Oculolinctus.
steevo: what?
me: the act of licking someone's eyeballs for sexual gratification

(silence)

steevo: Keeva, PLEASE tell me you just looked that up.
me: it's best not to ask.

smaoineamh @ 2008-02-23T23:44:00

2008-02-23T13:46:30Z

"Deep Peace" from this album is my new favourite song at the moment. So pretty.

smaoineamh @ 2008-02-12T19:04:00

2008-02-12T09:16:55Z

I stayed home today because there were several road closures due to flash floods, and they were predicting destructive storms with winds of 90-110km/h. Last time we had something like that, it threw one of my aviaries (empty, luckily) across the front yard and slammed it into the front gate, literally flattening it. It was a really violent and scary storm, and I didn't want mum to be by herself (or the animals to be trapped or scared) so I stayed home.

The winds never came, so I feel like a bit of a dope, but better safe than sorry.

I took some photos when the rain eased:

smaoineamh @ 2008-02-06T22:18:00

2008-02-06T12:18:25Z

You know what feels really satisfying?

Hammering nails into wood.

....don't you think?

If you've never done it, you should give it a go sometime.

smaoineamh @ 2008-02-03T12:31:00

2008-02-03T02:38:08Z

smaoineamh @ 2008-01-30T17:27:00

2008-01-30T07:42:42Z

I think I've scored myself a second job.

Yesterday I emailed my employment agency, who I temp through, and asked them to keep an eye out for any positions that required someone for one day per week, doing admin work for offices that might need a bit of extra help sometime. I currently work a 4-day week, and have one day free, and really felt like I needed something extra to keep me busy and to be a bit more of a challenge. Plus I'm trying to wipe out my debts as soon as possible, so obviously that was a big driving force.

I didn't hear back from them yesterday, and got a little nervous that maybe they might take it the wrong way; although I had written in the email that I was very happy in my present job, I do tend to worry about silly things, and I started to get a bit concerned that maybe they wouldn't be impressed that I was looking for a second job.

This morning though, I got a call from the manager, and braced myself for - I don't know - a reaction somewhere on the bad side of the scale - but instead he said he was really pleased to get my email. Turns out they had just last week decided that they themselves needed someone to come in for one day per week to help them out with a backlog of work, a product of their recent and ongoing growth.

It really couldn't be more perfect; they want someone for one day per week, I have one day free. They want someone to do client interviews, reference checks, but also mundane things like reception work, data entry. I'm perfect - I've done all of that. And there's the added bonus that they already know me, I'm already on the books, and they don't have to go searching. I just hope they don't call up my old law firm employers, we parted on poor terms and I don't trust them to be professional when talking about it. Ah well, it was 5 years ago.. hopefully it won't haunt me anymore.

So I have an appointment to go have a chat with them at 9am Friday. The only problem is that the building is on the river, and all the car parks are flooded, and the main roads into town are full of people gawping at the water (OMG WUTS ALL THIS WET STUFF HOW EXCITING LOLZ).. so I think the plan will be to go into town at about 7am, find a parking space at my leisure, and then walk up and down the river bank and take photos of the flood. I didn't really want to join the crowds of hicks standing around in awe of some extra water.. but at 7am it shouldn't be too bad, and I will hopefully get some cool shots that other people wouldn't think to get.

If I get this job, I predict that I can be 100% totally and utterly out of debt before Christmas this year. Plus I won't be sitting around playing computer games on my day off, I'll get to meet more people and do more than just sit at a desk all day, and I'll actually get into town more often.

Stupid things that drive you nuts, #492

2008-01-29T06:43:05Z

What would you do in this (incredibly trivial) situation? Just curious.

I had to call up to get a quote on a common herbicide that we use at work. I've had to do this many times before, and I've had this same problem many times before:

The name of the herbicide is "Ally". Now, being a relatively clever girl, I read the name as meaning "the farmers' ally", ie, a chemical tool created to fight alongside the farmer for the greater horticultural good.

For some reason though, almost every other person I have spoken to regarding this product (suppliers, manufacturers, end-users) pronounce it "alley" or Ally like a girl's name. It frustrates me because I know that the stuff isn't just called Ally - it means something, too. Petty? I dunno, probably.

Anyway, whenever I talk to someone about this stuff (or call up to order it), I find that I struggle with the decision of whether to pronounce it correctly and have the other person/people think I'm weird (even though I'm right!!) or just cave and pronounce it Alley to save having to repeat myself... I try so hard to pronounce it properly but I've had to repeat myself in the past and "concede" that it's "alley".. so I've given up, now I say alley too - as much as it makes me cringe inwardly.

I feel like marching in there, grabbing people by the collar and screaming, "It's ALLY! Say it! SAAAY IT!!!!!"

smaoineamh @ 2008-01-28T17:56:00

2008-01-28T08:11:11Z

Early last year I decided to finally do something to get rid of my debts, and it basically meant that I haven't spent more than perhaps $50 on myself since. I'm so proud of my progress so far, and soon I'll be out of debt completely; but I think I took it a little far. I still need to give myself some little treats sometimes.

So on Friday I had a day out, and gave myself some little treats.

I started at the hardware store to buy my Dad a birthday present (note to self, crap, you haven't wrapped it yet). Then I wandered through the stores for a while and found myself a couple of nice shirts. One of them is a cute blue t-shirt with "Gym Active Gear" written on it. I like to buy stuff like that because it makes me feel more active than I actually am.

I bought a maternity shirt. What? It was pretty, and you totally can't tell it's a maternity shirt. So there.

I also caved on my no-new-knickers policy and went a little silly. Some people collect stamps, some people like spoons, I dunno.. whatever other things people collect; I collect lingerie. It's my secret indulgence. I try to avoid stores when they're having sales on undies; it's just dangerous. I can't help myself when it comes to lacy stuff. I have drawers and drawers full of... drawers. It's funny, really.. because I dress very conservatively, kinda boring really; I don't really have my own "style", I don't care much whether I look terribly fashionable.. but I like to have pretty matching undies. It's important.

I bought myself a few books - I don't read enough these days, I've decided. I kept one of the books with me and put the rest of the stuff in the car so I wouldn't have to carry it around while I waited for my hair appointment; then I bought a mango smoothie and sat outside on the benches and read my book. It was really nice to treat myself and have a nice yummy smoothie out in the open air.

Before my appointment I quickly went and freshened up in the ladies' room. As I walked out of the stall I realised it must have looked pretty awesome that I was emerging from a public toilet carrying a huge novel. Classy!!!!

And I still don't care that it's a maternity shirt. *twirls*

Also

2008-01-26T11:34:26Z

...I chopped off all my hair again.

And the instrumental part at the start of this clip makes me very very happy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hbyz8lHjIw&feature=related

Happy Australia Day!

2008-01-26T07:11:10Z

I'm wearing shorts 'specially!

But.. I don't have any thongs. Fail.

:(

I do, however, intend to get very drunk later this evening after having a barbie dinner. 3 out of 4 ain't bad, right?

smaoineamh @ 2008-01-24T18:12:00

2008-01-24T08:13:17Z

Hey, I got a lot of faith in you
I'll stick with you kid, that's the bottom line
Yeah, you have a lot of fun don't you
And living with you is a ball of a time
Hey beauty when the mood gets you down
Your bottom lip's near dragging on the ground
That's when I gotta play the clown for you
Black humour made you kick your blues

Howdy Angel! Where did you hide your wings?
Her love shines over my horizon, she's a slice of heaven

Warm moonlight over my horizon, she's a slice of heaven, yeah

Ha-, ha-, ha-, ha-, have fun

Hey, I gotta lotta faith in you
I'll stick with you kid, that's the bottom line
Yeah, we have a lot of fun don't we
And heaven has to be with you all the time
Hey beauty when the mood gets you down
Your bottom lip's near dragging on the ground
That's when I gotta play the clown for you
Black humour made me kick my blues

Howdy Angel! Where did you hide your wings?
Her love shines over my horizon, she's a slice of heaven

Warm moonlight over my horizon, she's a slice of heaven, yeah
Her love shines over my horizon, she's a slice of heaven

Warm moonlight over my horizon, she's a slice of heaven, yeah

Howdy Angel! Where did you hide your wings?
Her love shines over my horizon, she's a slice of heaven

Warm moonlight over my horizon, she's a slice of heaven, yeah

smaoineamh @ 2008-01-22T17:49:00

2008-01-22T07:53:34Z

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23091876-1702,00.html

So, we may be getting some flooding.

What does this mean for me? Not sure. I'd say we'll be cut off from town - there's only one road out, and it floods at the slightest downpour. Not entirely sure how bad it will be though; I hope it doesn't come high enough to threaten the chickens or the house. Here's hoping.

But it's all okay, don't worry about me. I have a plan. If the waters look like they're coming too close, I will just reach for a lime. I'll be saved by the buoyancy of citrus!

My backyard today

2008-01-11T06:06:38Z

Detail:

Aww, bless.

smaoineamh @ 2008-01-09T17:20:00

2008-01-09T07:22:51Z

Last night, I woke myself up laughing hysterically, mumbling something about something not working, and telling people off for keeping me awake.

Then I vaguely remember putting on a robe (after struggling with it for a while), stumbling out to the kitchen, and standing in front of the fridge to eat chocolate biscuits.

Wish I knew what was so funny, I had a serious case of the giggles when I woke up.

I has teh red hairz.

2008-01-06T14:35:25Z

Matches the glasses that I should wear a lot more often so I can see and not get headaches! Every time I put them on, someone says, "Oh, new glasses! I like them!" but I've actually had them for about 6 years.. heh. I'm so slack.

I like my pretty crazy red hair! Have to enjoy it while it lasts, before Amanda gets to it again and changes the colour to something else.

I have to go back to work tomorrow. Well, today, technically, since it's 12:30am. I'm just not tired yet because I couldn't get to sleep until about 5am this morning, then slept in. I'm not really looking forward to going back to work, but I was getting a little bored at home. I really need to find some outside hobbies. I do love playing warcraft, but I need something to do out in the fresh air... I just don't have any ideas, nothing that really appeals to me. Hrms. I think that 2008 should be the year that I get out of my comfort zone and go do... stuff.

For now though.. bed!

smaoineamh @ 2008-01-06T01:57:00

2008-01-05T15:58:23Z

Can't sleep.

Come to Australia, you might not get killed

2008-01-01T01:36:45Z

Got home, slipped my shoes on to go feed the chickens, felt a searing pain on top of my right foot - apparently a green ant had decided to camp in there.

*writhes in agony*

*swears a lot*

My foot has a heartbeat :(

smaoineamh @ 2007-12-21T07:36:00

2007-12-20T21:36:52Z

Totally got an A for my first photography assignment.

smaoineamh @ 2007-12-09T17:25:00

2007-12-09T07:26:12Z

Remember the bunny?

Watch this space.