Oh, yeah.  I also went in the "exotic animal" petting zoo (which charged, but it goes to the care of the animals, so that's okay).  I petted Vietnamese pot-bellied piglets, regular bunnies, an angora bunny (which was supersoft and really sweet and nuzzled my hand), "babydoll" sheep (which are HUGE and have wool on their faces, unlike most other sheep), Texas longhorn calves, a mother llama and a baby llama (the mother started to fall asleep while I was petting her; hee!), regular goats, pygmy goats, other sheep, and camels, even though I left the camels pretty quickly, since I've been spit on by them before.  They also had an Asian water buffalo, which was cool, but was too far from the fence to be petted; BABY sugargliders (I've seen and held fully-grown ones, but the babies are soooooo cute!); and parrots, which I wouldn't pet, because I've been bitten by a parrot, and would prefer it not happen again.  So there wasn't anything there I'd really consider "exotic," but it was still a lot of fun, and there were animals I hadn't ever petted before.  And, because they charged, Michael stayed outside the area and watched... without complaining!  Shocking!  But it was really nice, and, again, we had a lot of fun.  :D  It's so great having a best friend who lives just a couple of doors down and is willing to go places with you even when he doesn't really want to.

i'm feeling: : fluffly
i'm listening to: : Barenaked Ladies - When You Dream

Yesterday, I started my two-day vacation.  I spent much of the day sleeping, woke up to talk to Dave, laid back down for awhile to pet the cats (but didn't go back to sleep), sat around a lot, and did a whole lot of absolutely nothing.  It rocked.

Today, for the second day of my vacation, Michael and I went to the St. Louis County Fair & Air Show.  We I WE had a fabulous time.  I do think I had more fun than he did, but he's a lot less social than I am.  Which is to say he's pretty freakin' anti-social.  Thanks to an error in my record keeping, I'm completely penniless, so Michael offered to pay for everything.  And I do mean everything.  Not only did he pay for the admission, but he let me buy pretty much anything I wanted, within reason.  I think maybe he sensed just how much I needed this.  It was so wonderful.  I haven't been to a fair since I was still in high school, and that was a fluff of a long time ago.  I have certain little traditions that I follow, and he was nice enough to indulge them so that it would feel like a "real" fair to me.  Such traditions include a funnel cake, Tilt-A-Whirl ride, the goldfish bowl game, and the purchase of at least one item that flashes and/or glows (it stems to waaaay back when my parents used to set up booths at every fair in the county where we lived; I was stuck there all day, every day, with very little money... cheap flashy stuff made it a LOT more fun).  The day started off sort of crappily, though.  We walked at least a mile from where we were parked, all the way up to the entrance... and Michael realized he'd left his wallet in the car.  So we missed the animal show.  We also missed the dog show.  But we did get to see the owners playing around with the dogs and having them do simple tricks.  Missed the shark show, too, because the air show ran a little long, but that's okay.  We DID get to see the lemon sharks in their tanks.  Had a brief moment of panic when we split up to get food and were going to meet on the grass to watch the air show.  He ended up getting food that took nearly half an hour to make, and I couldn't find him anywhere.  But he finally showed up just after it got dark, and we watched the rest of the air show.  I also played a pop-the-balloon dart game, and got three in a row and won a Puss in Boots doll.  Oh, and the flashy thing I purchased is a dolphin necklace.  We also saw Richard Marx (not one of my favorites, but even so), and then we went to sit and wait for the fireworks.  We marveled at how poorly behaved a bunch of completely unsupervised children were being, but the parents finally came and collected them.  And then the fireworks display started.  And OH do I wish I'd taken a camera.  I've seen piles of fireworks displays, but this was just amazing.  I'd go into detail, but there's just really no way to describe how great it was, and how marvelously choreographed it was.  Oh!  And all of the proceeds benefit the Children's Miracle Network, so that was wonderful, too.

And then we came home.  Whee, eh?  I'm in such pain and so tired from over five hours of nearly non-stop walking, but I had such a fantastic time, and I feel better emotionally than I have in months.  Tomorrow is  day one of My Normal Days Off, and I plan to do a lot of what I did yesterday.  And to assist me in this, my guilty pleasure arrived in the mail: Allure Magazine.  It's a beauty mag, not a fashion mag.  No ultra-skinny models showing me what clothes I could wear if I weren't fat.  (That's one of my pet peeves about fashion magazines... on one page, they'll do an article about eating disorders or unhealthy body images or accepting yourself just the way you are... and surround it by these airbrushed, stick-thin ideals.  Ugh.)  It's all about makeup, hair, skin care, etc., with a few actual articles in between (to help with "inner beauty," of course).  So, yeah.  Tomorrow should be good.  Still haven't made plans for Monday.  Too far away.  ;)

i'm feeling: : exhausted, but happy
i'm listening to: : Pink Floyd - Breathe

My new phone is here and it's cute and tiny.  It's smaller than just the battery on the Nokia.  Rawk.  It's a good thing it's my phone, and not Dave's... I don't think he could use it without hitting nearly every button at once.  Hee!

Now to figure out how to use it...

And wait patiently for my number to be ported...

Mrf!

http://www.infinitecat.com/

Absolutely disgusting cuteness, courtesy of stepf0rd

I seriously need to get a new USB cord and clean up my desk so I can join the fun.

i'm listening to: : Prince - Purple Rain

( My Kate kitty: ) Even cuter!
Bwahahahahaha! I did Dave's, too. His kitty version is getting its butt sniffed by a dog. HEE!

i'm listening to: : The Cure - Trust

Sitting here with dye on my hair (purple this time), and decided it would be a good time for an update.

First, my new cellphone shipped today.  Michael paid for it, and I'm either paying him back or it'll be my early birthday present.  We haven't decided yet.  It's a Sony Ericsson T226, and it's incredibly sweet, especially compared to my current Nokia 5125.  Porting my number if TracFone allows it.  My new service will be through AT&T.;  It's prepaid, but it's basically a regular plan other than that.  I get 400 anytime minutes and unlimited nights and weekends for $40 a month.  Not bad, when you figure I was shelling out $60 a month for 200 minutes with TracFone.  And it'll have mMode, so that's pretty cool.

Also, as mentioned before, I'm dying my hair.  I have discovered the joy that is beauty supply stores.  I picked up a bottle of developer for $3, and that'll last me through at least another four dye jobs.  The individual colors are $4-6, and contain what should be at least two applications, but with my thick hair, it only stretches into one.  But that's okay.  'Cause it means I'm basically paying about $5 to completely dye my hair, where it was costing me $8-10 for the other dye, and that was only for one application.  It also makes me more likely to try different things, since it won't cost as much.  Like the purple.  I don't expect it will take really well, but I'm not going for anything drastic at the moment.

My cartilage pierces are mildly infected.  Not pleased about that at all.  Also had some other ( minor trouble with it, but that's behind a cut to save those who are squeamish. ) Currently have it covered in Hello Kitty bandaids to keep the dye off.  When I finish with the rinsing and all, I'm taking the earrings out again, cleaning thoroughly, and putting them back in.  Currently, nothing looks infected, but the entire top of my ear is really hot, so I need to keep an eye on it.

Cat news:  Murabi now jumps on the bed every night.  This is unusual for her, and it's just wonderful to see her being a normal cat instead of her usual nervous self.  Ophelia is currently beating the hell out of an orange fur mouse, and Cheese is laying on my feet, watching Ophelia.

And now it's time to rinse this stuff out of my hair and see if it did anything.  Whee.

i'm listening to: : Billy Idol - Rebel Yell

I stayed home from work today.  I've had a high fever for three days running, but hadn't actually felt sick.  Woke up this morning feeling like my stomach was turning inside out.  Sat and argued with myself for the next hour and half, and finally called in sick.  Went back to bed, and woke up about half an hour ago.  Total sleep hours: 16.  I still have a fever and I still feel like crap, but better than this morning.  I'll take something to help me sleep and go back to bed in a couple of hours.

( With all that sleep came very bizarre dreams.  )

And now, I'm sitting here eating grapes and typing this up and pondering catching up on my friends list, even though I haven't looked at it in two days because of being sick.  I think I might just catch up a page or two, and then finish reading my book.

i'm feeling: : bleh

I think I've hit upon the secret to making my cartilage piercings hurt less!  My aftercare instructions were to wash the area with anti-bacteria stuff three times a day.  When this didn't seem to be helping, I added neosporin to the regime.  When that also failed, I bought a baby toothbrush in the hope of cleaning it better... nothing worked.  Massive amounts of pain.

Then I realized that the third set I had done on the lobes doesn't really hurt at all now, and started thinking about what I'd done differently.  And it was just as plain as day: I didn't mess with them, except to turn them.  They got washed when I washed my hair or my face, and that's it.  So I decided to try that with the ones in the cartilage, and it's only been a day, and there's almost no pain, even with my hair tangled around the backs.  Well, okay, there's still a dull ache, but not the sharp pain that was there before.  I might even be able to sleep on my right side tonight!  I chalk it up to the repeated medicating and bothering with it causing irritation of  my already sensitive skin.  So I guess if you have "normal" skin, you should probably stick with washing it a lot and stuff.

So there you have it, kids.  Mom's advice even applies to pierced ears: don't pick at it, or it won't heal!

On a related note, why did no one tell me I was spelling "cartilage" wrong?  :P  My spell checker didn't pick it up, but I always thought it looked a little off.

i'm feeling: : pleased
i'm listening to: : Kitaro - Song For Peace

My television is broken.  The little thing on the back that the antenna connects to broke off completely.

Grr.

That little thing is also the thing that connects to my VCR, which my DVD player is hooked up through.  So NO video at all, except on my computer.  Which wouldn't suck so much but Michael is coming over later to watch Big Fish, and we won't be able to.  Meh, I say.  MEH.

And no Olympics, either.

I never even watch TV, and when I finally want to watch it, the god-be-damned thing breaks.

i'm feeling: : annoyed

Happy birthday, dear dirkedge!
Happy birthday tooooooo yoooooooooooooou!