Booberry One Month Later

Look – I’m just going to stop saying anything about my absences because they keep happening and there really isn’t a good excuse. I’m flaky!

It’s almost one month since Icepocalypse 2023 happened, and our insurance adjuster won’t be out to look at the damage until Thursday this week. All the contractors we called to get estimates on repairs, have not called back. It’s been fun.

Anywho, the actual point to this post is as advertised in the title. My sweet little Booberry has been with me a month now and I’m starting to see some color come back. I’ve added more plants to his aquarium along with a few bottom feeder friends. (Might be getting some floating plants this week.) For tank mates, I decided on panda corydoras. They’re super cute. Luckily, when they were introduced, Booberry checked them out and then did not care one bit about their presence. I’ve watched one swim right into him and he’s just too chill to care. There are three of them so Mr. C&M decided they should be called Lock, Shock and Barrel from Nightmare Before Christmas. I agreed wholeheartedly.

Thanks to this first betta rescue, I’ve become obsessed with both bettas and aquariums again. I’ve really enjoyed learning about aquascaping, and all the plants that come along with it. I haven’t read a book in about a month because my nose is constantly in my iPad watching YouTube videos and researching any questions I have.

Which, leads me to the latest development…

Meet my latest rescue! *Insert hysterical laughter here*

This little guy is barely old enough to be sold. He’s very skinny because the pellets they’re trying to feed him don’t even fit in his tiny mouth. He has pretty much starved with food right in front on him. I just got him yesterday and I didn’t think he was going to make it. He pulled through the night and perked up a bit. No name until it seems like he’s going to be okay. I haven’t decided whether I will keep him or adopt him out. Time will tell.

If I’m absent again, just know that I’m somewhere, doing fish related stuff like setting up a hospital tank and planning future tanks. :3

Give me your best aquarium tips if you’ve got ’em!

Happy National Nature Photography Day!

I’ve been having a blast learning photography and photoshop and nothing makes me happier than nature so I thought I would share this photo with everyone in celebration. I hope you enjoy!

A little muskrat love.

Ohio State Reformatory

Ohio State Reformatory is a historic prison located in Mansfield, Ohio. It was built between 1886 and 1910 (partially by prisoners) and remained in operation until 1990, when it was ordered shut by a United States Federal Court. The Shawshank Redemption was filmed there and is actually the only reason the prison was not demolished. It is famously haunted. Ghost Adventures did an investigation there years ago and caught some evidence.

Fast forward to last weekend (August 7th) and we went on our own paranormal investigation of the prison until 3 am. There was a brief tour and history lesson and then we were unleashed to wander the prison and try to communicate with ghosts. Unfortunately, due to Covid, there was no equipment to rent like advertised but we made due with cell phones, flashlights and disposable cameras. (Disposable cameras are supposedly the best at catching evidence. As someone raised during the era of disposable cameras, I think it’s mostly that the film gets screwed up easily and people claim it’s spooky ghosts.) I went in in full skeptic mode and was not proven wrong. Meaning, we didn’t catch anything. It was SO much fun nonetheless.

Originally, OSR was an actual reformatory for men aged 14-28. They had a 85% success rate of rehabilitating people back into society. It functioned as a small town, where inmates farmed the land and learned a profession (even lock picking apparently) and were released back as functioning members of society. Somewhere along the way, people decided that you could not force people to work and they turned to just locking them in cages day in and day out. The prison was closed due to overcrowding and poor conditions. There are a few famous murders and prisoners who died there but I’ll leave that for your own research and investigations.

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We are still waiting on getting the disposable cameras developed but like I implied, I’m not expecting much.

I would recommend this adventure to anyone interested in history and/or ghost hunting. There were a decent amount of other people there so that also infringed on any real attempts of catching evidence. Your ticket prices go directly to preservation of the building and volunteers staff the building for the night. I would 10/10 do it again.

Coffee & a Chat – Study Buddy

Zelda cheering me on.

It’s actually well past coffee time. Although, I’ve met people that coffee time is also 10 pm. However, for myself, if I drink it anytime after 5 pm, I’m up half the night. It’s approaching dinner time here, I meant to post this earlier, but I decided to do schoolwork first and that led to hours of frustration.

I’m good now. I didn’t realize I was missing a whole section of my digital textbook/workbook, now I know why it took so long to be successful with my homework. I DIDN’T HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION.

Now that I have that figured out, I’m going to start all over again and get back on track.

It’s only been one week since I started school but I can foresee this is my life now lol. Work, school, finishing bathroom and then sometimes, there might be room for other stuff.

Currently reading:

Currently watching: Mr. C&M and I just started this for the first time and we are invested after only 6 or 7 episodes.

Did you get your taxes done on time?! We turned ours in months ago and still haven’t received anything. Sounds like that’s par for the course this year though.

Coffee & a Chat – From Novels to Textbooks

First book haul of 2021. All from the dollar store. A whopping $3.18 was spent.

I didn’t accomplish much this week aside from working. No new recipes, no book reviews. Hell, I barely even read the current book I’m working on. I’m a bit ‘meh’ on it currently and don’t know if I’ll finish it.

There were a few other things accomplished though;

I received my second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. This time, the side effects kicked my ass. Super sleepy, achy, hot flashes and cold sweats (no fever though) and a minor headache. I felt like an old woman going through menopause. I started feeling super tired the night of the vaccine, didn’t sleep too well and felt like garbage for about 12 hours the next day. The day after that, I felt normal again. 10/10 would do it again though.

As of this morning, I applied to go back to college. There is a recent initiative provided by my state for adults to go back to school to earn a degree where they pay for your tuition fees. Years ago, I went to community college with the intention of getting a degree in small business administration. For a myriad of reasons, I never finished. Now, I’m going back to earn a degree in business administration – associate of arts. The way I see it, it will help the small business that I currently work for and any future enterprise I may start myself. (see last post.)

I should start back to school in May so I’m sure you’ll see a decline in posts then but I’m hoping to be more organized and be able to balance life and school better than I did back in the day.

So that’s it for this week folks, did anyone else get the first or second dose of the Covid vaccine? What were your side effects if anything?

Wood Projects June 2020

Hey everyone! Hopefully you didn’t melt during those few weeks of extreme heat. I don’t think our AC shut off for 2 weeks straight. It just could not get the temp in the house to less than 80 no matter how hard it tried.

Beginning during my staycation and ending the very first few days of July, I completed not one but two wood projects before it became too hot to hang out in the garage.

The first was a Father’s Day present for my dad. He hunts and he requested that I make him a gun rack a few weeks before. I thought he was just kidding but decided to do it anyway. Turns out he wasn’t and he had full confidence that I could do it. That was not something I shared in during the process. There was a hell of a lot of swearing involved but in the end, I like how it turned out.

I probably looked like a bit of a psycho to my neighbors walking around my driveway and garage with my husband’s shotgun under my arm. :3

The second was just a little pallet wood project I decided to fiddle around with. One of those projects where I didn’t particularly care if I screwed up because I had plenty of back up material. I kept the first results since they didn’t turn out too shabby. Mr. C&M hung them in his office and they’re now used to display some sweet candle holders my aunt and uncle gave me years ago.

What do you think?

Power Tools, A Girl’s Best Friend

I’m 100% certain that that title is a lie, but I couldn’t think of anything else.

Last autumn, I decided that my new hobby would be wood working. I’m not even sure that that’s the proper term for it, I want to make stuff with wood! Starting with pallet wood until I get better. However, I decided this right before cold weather hit and you were not about to find me out in the garage in the cold.

Spring forward to my birthday in which my dad bought me a Sawsall and a Skilsaw, and instead of pallet wood we bought a 10 foot piece of birch to fiddle with.

My grandfather LOVED building furniture and was good at it. I have several of his pieces to this day. He taught my dad a lot of the trade but it’s not my dad’s passion. My dad however, is super excited to pass on their knowledge to me and I’m happy to absorb it. Hopefully, it becomes my new hobby because people keep giving me power tools left and right.

Here’s my first project with my dad. It’s a couch arm cover. It functions both as a place to set drinks and other things, and protection for the couch from Ozzy standing on one arm to stare out of the living room window at people walking by. It’s nothing fancy but I did learn some cool tricks to hide screws.

What do you think of my first attempt at building something?

Conservation – Let’s Help

Something I don’t talk about enough is my passion for wildlife and environmental conservation. If I lived life over again, I would go to school for biology and find a career in some type of conservation. Sure, I could do it now, I’m not horribly old or anything, but now is not the time for student loans and school expenses. So, instead, I join conservation organizations fighting to help the planet and endangered animals. Currently, I’m a member of both The Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy. In fact, renewing one of my memberships is what made me think of doing this post.

I think most people may be under the impression that donating or becoming a member of these types of organizations is pretty costly. I’m here to tell you that it isn’t expensive, it’s easy to do, and honestly, it makes you feel good. A little bit of money to help make a difference in the world, is something most people can handle. And, it doesn’t even have to be a monthly contribution. With most organizations, a one time donation makes you a member and if you want to contribute monthly, more power to you!

To prove my point, here are just a couple of organizations and their donation rates:

The Sierra Club – $39 for a yearly membership. My renewal rate was $19 the next year. Plus, the renewal came with a sweet hiking bag as a thank you and I received a 2019 calendar as a holiday gift. You also receive a bi-monthly publication keeping you up-to-date on the work they’re doing and things going on the world that you don’t hear about on national news.

*Note, you can select with most places to not receive a gift at all. I like getting the swag to represent and spread the word of their missions.

The Nature Conservancy – Minimum donation of $15. My renewal rate was as little as $10 but for $15, I’ll be receiving some swankin’ reusable tote bags.

The Oceanic Society – You can do one time or monthly donations OR you can adopt an animal as a donation. Adopt a Dolphin: $40/year. Adopt a Humpback Whale: $60/year. Adopt an Albatross: $45/year

The Ocean Cleanup – Is an organization of engineers working to find ways of removing the mass amounts of plastic and garbage in the ocean. Minimum donation of $10.

National Audobon Society – Become a member for as little as $20. Birds are super cool.

World Wildlife Fund – Become a member for as little as $25.

By the end of the year I plan on joining another one of the aforementioned societies (probably Audobon), to make that a total of 3 places I contribute to. These are also great gift ideas for the animal lover/environmentalist in your life. Each group has the option to donate or purchase a membership for someone else.

So that’s my soap box preaching for the week? Month? I don’t normally do these kinds of posts so who knows, might become a regular thing.

If this isn’t up your alley, just help pick up garbage where you see it! Sure, you weren’t the loser that put it there but you can be the winner that helps keep the planet clean.

5 Myths About the Flu Vaccine

There have already been confirmed cases of the flu in Michigan, which is a little ahead of the usual flu season. Usually we start seeing cases in mid-October, not beginning in mid-September. As a pharmacy technician, I thought it important to battle some of those common myths about the flu vaccine. We hear them every year and they seem to get more and more out of control. Once, my husband was told that he would become sterile if he got a flu shot. I’ll admit that this one blew my mind. Much to his coworkers dismay, if this was true, it would only encourage him since we don’t want kids

1. You can get the flu from the flu vaccine – False. The vaccine contains only a piece of a dead virus in order to teach your immune system what it needs to watch out for. It takes two weeks for your immune system to build a defense against the virus. Many times people get the flu within this two week time span and blame it on the vaccine, when really you unfortunately came across the virus before your body had time to mount a defense. If you contract the flu only a couple days after receiving the vaccine, it means you actually already had the virus in your system, it takes a few days before symptoms of the virus show themselves. (Incubation period.)

This is Halloween!

I took the day off to enjoy our wedding anniversary, that’s right, we are THAT awesome. The last few weeks have been hard and we deserve some fun damnit! So tonight, we’re going out to a nice dinner and then a nerd rap concert.

But before all that jazz, I thought in spirit of the holiday, I would post some interesting facts about Halloween. You may or may not know them, but they’re fun and this is happening people.

1. Halloween is thought to have originated around 4000 B.C., which means that Halloween has been around for over 6000 years.
2. According to Irish legend, Jack-O-Lanterns are named after a stringy man named Jack  who, because he tricked the Devil several times, was forbidden entrance to both heaven and hell. He was condemned to wander the Earth, waving his lantern to lead people away from their paths.
3. During the pre-Halloween celebration of Samhain, bonfires were lit to ensure the sun would return after the long, hard winter. Often Druid priest would throw the bones of cattle into the flames and, hence, “bone fire” became “bonfire.”
4. Scottish girls believed they could see the images of their future husband if they hung wet sheets in front of the fire on Halloween. (See? Halloween IS romantic!)
5. The word “witch” comes from the Old English wicce, meaning “wise woman.” In fact, wiccan were highly respected people at one time. According to popular belief, witches held one of their two main meetings, or sabbats, on Halloween night.

So light some bonfires and dance with the dead in the streets kids, it is Halloween everyone make a scene!