Eating a Carrot

The busyness of traveling is over (for now), and I'll admit I absolutely loved being home today, even though I had a lot of work to do.  As much as I love trips with Joe, I really love our home, pets, and my work, and we've been gone a lot recently, so being home felt especially nice.  Joe was back at work today which really made it feel like the summer is over, but he has a little longer until the new school year actually starts.  On our way home from Cincinnati yesterday, Joe joined a meeting and afterwards he asked me if I wanted to go to Indy again.  😅  He's been connecting with various places as potential venues for esports stuff and apparently didn't have this connection set up when we were in Indy last week.  So we may go again soon for him to see the spaces in person.  We shall see.

Míriel has been a tiny bit more calm the last few days, but she's also been intent on flooding her home.  She chewed a hole in 2 different plastic water bottles over the last couple of days.  I'm out of water bottles to give her, so she is down to the two bowls of water she's always had.  She tends to knock over bowls though, but I'm going to give it a couple days to see how she does with them now that they are her only option.  If I absolutely have to, I'll buy a glass bottle that she can't chew a hole in, but I don't want to do that.  She's such a crazy ham.

 

LOTR Film Cell

Per usual the summer is flying by.  We are in the midst of a busy week of travel.  On Tuesday we went to the Indy area for Joe to be a part of a panel and to meet up with some people to talk about esports stuff.  It was quick trip, but I love trips with Joe and we had a good time.  Currently we are at a lake house in Wawaka on a weekend vacation with most of my family.  Joe and I were the first up so we're enjoying a short moment of peace before the chaos ensues again.  We are leaving early as we have to get back to Fort Wayne to help do the tech for an outdoor service at our church on Sunday.  And then after I'm off work on Monday, we are heading to Cincinnati for an overnight trip to celebrate our upcoming anniversary.  It's a lot to balance, but we can manage.  I do miss the pets a lot though.

Míriel is living her best life being insane.  In the last few weeks she's met quite a few of our friends and family and has bitten a few of them, including me.  😒  But I still love her.  😅

RIP Glorfindel

 My sweet Glorfindel passed away on Monday.  I could tell his age was catching up to him this past month as he was sleeping more and not being as active.  I got Glorfindel in October 2022.  I adopted him from The Pipsqueakery which is a rescue and sanctuary for small animals located in Bloomington.  He came from a large hamster intake (I believe it was about 100 hamsters) from a pet store that accidentally bred hamsters and quickly got in over their heads.  So they surrendered the hamsters to The Pipsqueakery and the large intake was suitably named the "Panic at the Pet Store" hamsters.  You may remember that Olórin, who passed away earlier this year, was likely also from this same group of hamsters, but I only had him for about a 1/3 of his life as he was already about a year old when I adopted him.  

Anyways, what's pretty awesome is that The Pipsqueakery neutered all the boys, and I believe they spayed the females, although since many were pregnant or nursing babies, I think they had to wait a bit.  I will admit that I had hoped that since Glorfindel was neutered, that he would outlive the average lifespan and make it well past 2 years old.  But he was about 1 year and 9 months old, which sadly is still considered elderly for hamsters.  

I remember when I first saw Glorfindel, he was in a bin with like 10 other identical looking little boys.  They were all just these small, little puffballs running around which initially felt so overwhelming to me to try to pick the perfect one from the bunch.  It took me a bit, but eventually I noticed this one which seemed a bit more calm than the others, so I chose him.  I absolutely loved watching Glorfindel grow up.  He was always such a sweet boy and so good at modeling for me.  I wish I had done Halloween costumes with him, but I did dress him up for some other occasions.  I miss this guy, but glad I could love and spoil him for so much of his life.  ❤

You can learn more and donate to The Pipsqueakery by going to https://www.thepipsqueakery.org/.

Chilling in the Chair

We have been working hard at our house to get lots and lots of projects done - some big, some small, some hired, and some we did ourselves.  I would say we are nearly finished with everything, but one thing I've learned about home ownership is that there are always projects to do.  That said, we are close to finishing up with the things we intend to get done right now, so I'm hoping the rest of summer break can be a bit more relaxing as we enjoy the fruits of our labor.  😊

Glorfindel is getting quite old now.  He's definitely slowing down, but still loving life.  I'm enjoying spoiling him more and more.  💙

I think Míriel is calming down a bit.  She's fully adjusted to her life here and seems to be understanding the routines.  She still gets very excited when the lid of the tank is open and immediately tries to reach for the sides to pull herself up and out.  She's very determined and surprisingly strong at lifting herself up.  I have to pick her off of the lip of the tank and set her back down in it about 50 times every time I clean out her home.  She's a stinker but I love her.

Cat Carrier

The weeks seem to be flying by.  Joe and I are in the midst of house updates.  We've put some big projects off for a couple of years to give us more time to make decisions on what we wanted to do and to save up money to cover the costs.  Now we finally have these projects scheduled, so we've been doing some other smaller upgrades in the meantime while we wait for the hired work to be done.  We also are starting to get some quotes for future projects to have an idea of how much we need to save for those.  It's been a bit hectic because it is just so much work and things not going quite according to plan, but I really love our house so much and am so grateful we can get this work done!  I can't wait for these projects to be done so we can actually enjoy our hard work!

I had the cat carriers out a couple months ago in preparation for taking the kitties to the vet, and I thought the hamsters could explore this one.  Glorfindel is just the sweetest little guy.  He does seem to be acting more his age which is about 1 year and 8 months old.  It makes me sad that he's getting old.  His fur is a bit lighter now than it was when these pictures were taken which definitely makes me realize he's aging.  

Míriel is utterly insane.  Haha!  I love her but she has such a big personality and is always looking to escape.  She still tries to defend her home when I'm cleaning (in other words, she tries to grab my fingers to bite them 😅), but now that she has discovered she can climb out when I am cleaning since the top is open, she gets distracted trying to do that over and over again.  

Spring Break!

Spring Break was a lot of ups and downs for us with Joe spending so much time at church working.  But the network project is done now which is a huge!  I had time while waiting for Joe at church in which I completed this pretty embroidery piece I got from https://little-dear.com/.  I also snagged a couple Thai Constellations from Kroger for me and my friend.  And of course the best part was meeting up with some of my family and our friends in Rockford, OH at New Horizons Community Church to get 3 1/2 minutes of totality during the Solar Eclipse.   All in all, not too bad for Spring Break. 😊

Glorfindel is so stinking sweet, and I love taking pictures of him.  He's such a happy old ham.  💓

Míriel is getting a bit calmer, but is still pretty crazy.  I don't fully trust her yet to not bite my fingers when I'm holding her, so I don't hold her too long and mostly use a cuddle sack to transport her and carry her around.  She getting more and more accepting of pets and doesn't run away from me when she sees or hears me.  I think she'll turn into a sweetheart soon enough.  Especially when treats are offered.  Haha!