Among Us

I have mentioned this before, but pretty much every Saturday we get together with a group of friends for all sorts of shenanigans.  Last week one of the guys was sick and stayed home, so we decided we would play Among Us with him.  It had been quite a while since we had played, and we had to wait for updates which included new roles.  We weren't sure if we'd like them but decided to give them a try and found they made the game even better!  I don't know how many times we played, but I am pretty sure I was the impostor for at least half the games.  I definitely prefer being a Crewmate, but I've gotten SO much better at lying for games with friends and actually won some games as the Impostor.  😎

I will admit that this costume was not at all on my list of ideas.  But after we played Among Us again last weekend, I knew I wanted to include it this year!  I initially thought I would make it look exactly like my character with all the accessories I have, but I kinda ran out of time for the extras.  😁  In case you are dying to know what my character looks like, I typically stick with a chef's hat and a hamster in a ball that follows me around.  But for the record, hamster balls are actually dangerous for hamsters, so I'm not advocating for the use of them.

I don't think Haleth would make a very good Crewmate as she clearly is more interested in eating than in doing tasks.  And I like to believe that the last picture of Haleth is her impression of what she would look like if the Impostor killed her.  Hahaha!

Tinkerbell

 For day 3 of Hamster Halloween Costumes, I eventually landed on Tinkerbell.  This idea itself was one I had written down for a while now, but there were 2 or 3 other ideas that were much higher on the list of possibilities for this year.  But yesterday, when it came time to make the final costume, I wanted something that I perceived to be the easiest to make and fastest to complete.  I figured a plain green cape for the dress and a pair of wings would be perfect.  The fabric I used for the wings was actually quite difficult to work with and since I was rushing, they didn't turn out quite as nice as I had hoped.  But I really do love the final outcome!

Haleth had a bit of trouble fitting the whole piece of apple in her cheek, but eventually she got it all in.  😅  I did manage to catch her tongue out in two pictures.  I think that was just her getting into character as a little fairy that spends her time surrounded by children who don't want to grow up.  Haleth did a wonderful job yesterday modeling these last two costumes that I hadn't photographed yet.  I knew she had it in her, but she was just so rotten with the first group we did that I was second guessing my decision to be doing costumes with her.  I actually think she's noticed that she has a cute boy (aka Glorfindel) living next to her and that's why even though she's getting old now, she's been acting a bit crazy at times.  Hahaha!

I do wish that hamsters could stay young forever instead of growing up so fast.  😕  As a quick update, Fili hasn't been waking up as much during the day, but I still typically see him at least once.  I realized yesterday that he already has Tarcil's record beat for being my oldest ham.  I've been referring to Fili as my immortal ham, which I know isn't true, but for now it kinda seems like it could be.  Haha!

String of Pearls

For Haleth's second Halloween costume, I knew I wanted to do a houseplant.  In the past year and a half, I have really gotten into houseplants.  My collection has grown, I've learned so much, and I even joined an awesome local Facebook group where I have bought from and sold to.  I'm a sucker for syngoniums, pothos, and calatheas.  Although I managed to get spider mites in my terrarium where I keep my calatheas, and it's still unclear if I'm gonna win this battle or not.  😓  Pro tip: make sure to actually quarantine new plants for at least 2 weeks.  😐  Anyways, my three favorite plants that I own are my albo syngonium, manjula pothos, and white fusion calathea.  I definitely prefer the leafy plants that want lots of water and typically don't do very well with succulents and cacti, but I'm kinda getting the hang of those too.

When I was trying to pick what houseplant to use as inspiration for Haleth's costume, I immediately thought of string of pearls.  I have a tiny one from my sister that started out as just 4 little pearls and has grown a lot.  You can kinda see it in the background, directly behind Haleth.  I mentioned yesterday that Haleth was a bit rotten for me during pictures, but I didn't elaborate.  Well, I initially had the string of pearls in the front to be more prominent in the picture, but the little stinker tried to eat them, and I quickly found myself trying to get a hamster to spit something out of its mouth as one does with dogs or cats.  Surprisingly, I was able to get Haleth to drop the pearls and only one got a little damaged.  😅😂

Spider

 I decided that I wanted to bring back the Hamster Halloween Costumes this year with Haleth!  This is something I started back in 2014 with my internet famous hamster, Tarcil.  I did 3 Halloweens with Tarcil before he passed away.  By the way, I have ebooks of his costume days which you can find more info on by going to https://talesoftarcil.blogspot.com/p/tarcil-books.html.  Then in 2019, I picked it up again with Laurelin and did 2 Halloweens with her.  I figured that since Haleth is getting older and has been so good at modeling for me, she would be a good candidate for resurrecting this tradition.  Spoiler alert: She was actually a bit rotten, but we made it work.  😁

I started brainstorming ideas in September and then promptly forgot about it for like a month, so I knew I needed to keep it simple and that I couldn't do a dozen of them like I have in previous years.  I decided my goal would be to do 5, but my current plan is to do 6.  I still have 2 left to photograph, and one of those costumes hasn't actually been made yet... so we'll see.  😂

I'm starting this year up with Haleth as a spider.  I am pretty okay with the little ones, but definitely not a fan of big ones.  I opted to not do a single ounce of research to make her look like any specific kind of spider, so here is my take on a generic spider.  😅  Honestly, despite the fact that she just wanted to run around the floor instead of posing for pictures, I think she looks super cute and I'm happy with how her first costume turned out.  I'll be posting the rest each day leading up until Halloween!  As always, I'm curious what your guesses are for what costumes I did this year or if you have any ideas for ones to do in the future.  As a quick side note, I'm really hoping Glorfindel will be able to take this on to continue the tradition.  I haven't photographed him yet with my camera so I don't know how he'll do.  He was still awake this morning when I got up so I got him out, and he hung out on the kitchen counter while I made my coffee.  He's definitely a bit scared of this big new world he has been plopped into, but he seems to like being with me, so I'm hoping he'll be my cuddle buddy soon.  💓

Meet Glorfindel!

This little puff ball is Glorfindel!  A few weeks ago, I saw that The Pipsqueakery was getting in a ton of Syrian Hamsters from a pet store that quickly got in over their heads through their negligence which allowed for the hamsters to breed over and over again while at the store.  Anyways, I immediately applied to adopt one and a week later was approved.  It took a couple weeks to make arrangements for me to travel to Bloomington to pick out a hamster, but a couple weeks ago I made the trip.  I had hoped I could finally get a little grey one (in March of 2020 I almost had arrangements made to get a little grey one from them, but then there was a travel ban due to the pandemic, and that's when I instead adopted Fili and Kili from the Fort Wayne ACC).  There weren't any grey ones presented to me, but there was a bin of these identical looking golden, long-haired baby boys.  Admittedly I was a bit overwhelmed because I couldn't see any differences between them as they all ran around.  But as I sat with them and chatted with the awesome adoption coordinator, Amy, I began to notice subtle differences among the boys.  For example, there was one who had a comically tiny face for his body and another who the colors seemed more muted than his brothers.  After a while, a few of the hams started to dig in the bedding and go to sleep while some others began to tussle and play with each other.  That's when I noticed one by the food bowl that wasn't eating, but just standing there staring at me with his hand perched on the bowl.  

I reached down to pet him and he just squished down a bit, but stayed put and didn't run off.  I knew that's the one I wanted.  The first couple times I picked him up, he managed to fly out of my hands.  But the third time, I got him safely into my travel carrier.  I gave him some juicy veggies and fruit for the ride home, but he wasn't interested in the treats and quickly moved to the tissue box for a nap.

The drive home was longer than getting there due to more construction, but we eventually made it, and as far as I could tell, he slept the whole way.  When I first tried to remove him from the carrier, it was clear that the ride had been a wee bit overwhelming for the poor little guy as he just lay frozen in the tissue box.  I eventually got him to go into his new home, which is a 40 gallon aquarium.  He quickly ended up in his new sand bath which he seemed to instantly fall in love with.  But after a couple of minutes of digging and rolling around in the sand, he promptly plopped down and froze as if he was remembering that terrifying ride to this big, new home.  Eventually he snapped out of his daze and began to explore his new home while pausing at times to observe those watching him (which was me and the cats).

When I had asked Amy how old he was, she said 1-2 months, so I'm gonna assume he was 6 weeks old and use that to track his age.  What makes Glorfindel especially interesting is that he (along with his brothers, dad, uncles, etc.) were all neutered at The Pipsqueakery.  I believe they were also in the process of spaying the females, but so many of the females came to them with babies or were already pregnant from living together at the pet store.  Anyways, fixing hamsters is incredibly uncommon still, but I believe and hope that the work the Pipsqueakery is doing will be instrumental in being a catalyst for this becoming more popular.  There are a lot of interesting implications to be explored with this practice.  For now, my curiosity is mostly in seeing if fixing hamsters will increase the average lifespan as it is already known to do so for your typical pets like cats and dogs.  I've always felt honored when my hamsters make it to 2 years old as that is considered quite old, but maybe a fixed hamster would be more likely to live to be 3 years old.  Time will tell!

The name Glorfindel is of course from Tolkien's writings.  My husband suggested a cute, non-Tolkien name for this little guy, but I just couldn't break our tradition.  Also as a side note, I'd love if Glorfindel would make an appearance in Amazon's Rings of Power!  We'll have to wait and see on that too. Anyways, welcome to the family, Glorfindel!

If you want to adopt a fluffy little guy like Glorfindel from The Pipsqueakery or would like to donate to help the Pipsqueakery continue their work as a rescue and sanctuary for animals in need, be sure to check out their website by going to: https://www.thepipsqueakery.org/

 

Happy Hams

These are more of the pictures I took back in August.  I wasn't sure I would still post them, but I actually don't have any newer pictures of the hamsters, so I figured I may as well get these out there.  Fili is amazingly still alive and well!  He's now 2 years and 8 months old which is pretty much ancient at this point.  He's a wobbly old ham, but he sure does love running on his wheel, and often wakes up multiple times even during the day to go for a run.  This does mean he distracts me quite a lot when I'm trying to work.  Hahaha!

For the last month or so, I really wanted to upgrade my hamster enclosures for hopefully the last time.  I wanted something bigger than the 130L Samla bins I had, something that would be both hamster proof and cat proof, and I wanted two enclosures so I could always have two hamsters.  (Let's be real, I'm never gonna get back under that 3 pet limit Joe tried to enforce.  Hahahaha!)  I looked at so many options, sketched out numerous designs, and spent hours pricing materials.  The biggest factor was always figuring out a layout in our office that could work to accommodate 2 bigger hamster enclosures with all the other stuff that needed to stay to keep the office functional as my work place.  In the end, Joe figured out a layout for the office that is perfect, and I decided to go with a couple 40 gallon aquariums from Petco which I got for 50% off during their sale.  We have had the new aquariums and setup for a couple of weeks now, and I LOVE the way our office looks now!  It feels so much more spacious and classy.  I also LOVE being able to see (and photograph!) the hamsters through the glass instead of the semi-translucent plastic.  It allows me to see into their personal lives a bit better which is so cool!

I did decide that with Fili's age and the fact that he is a dwarf hamster, he truly did not need more space and would be much more comfortable living out the rest of his days in his bin instead of being moved into one of the new aquariums.  So for now we do have his bin just chilling on the floor.  I also already have a new occupant in the other aquarium.  😁  I hope to do a proper introduction next week!  👀

Haleth was very quickly promoted from a bin to an aquarium.  Female Syrian hamsters are notorious for never being pleased no matter how gigantic their enclosure is.  So I knew she'd gladly accept more space, even though she is also getting quite old.  She definitely LOVES her new home!  She is still quite shy, but I don't think she feels too exposed behind the glass as she now has even more places to hide if she gets spooked.  She also hasn't gotten sassy with me when cleaning her aquarium the way she sometimes would when I'd clean her bin, so I call that a win.  I love my little sweet potato and am glad she can live in such luxury.  Hahahaha!

Board Game Table with Cup Holders

There is actually more to the awesome story of our new dining room furniture that I didn't share last week.  But first a bit of history.  After Joe and I got married, while he was still finishing up his degree and working at IPFW, he became interested in joining a D&D group that met weekly.  Being newlyweds, I wanted to spend as much time as I could with Joe, even though I had no intention of joining the group, so I told Joe to offer for us to host the group at our house.  At first my involvement was just providing snacks (we went through a lot of chips and salsa 😅) and baking treats (they were my gracious guinea pigs as I developed my skills as a baker 😁).  

Over the years, as life progressed and members of the group moved away or got too busy, the D&D sessions stopped, but our weekly get togethers continued with a smaller, core group of friends.  By the time Joe and I bought a house and moved, these weekly get togethers had turned into eating dinner together, playing board games, eating lots of desserts, watching movies, playing games on the Nintendo Switch, or just hanging out.  We do still occasionally have bigger parties and hangout with the others from the original group that still live in town.  It has been so awesome being a part of this group whose original goal was just to play D&D, but over time became friends who do life together.  We've been a part of weddings and helped with many moves.  We've watched the group grow as children were born and new relationships formed.  It's been such a joy and a blessing to us.

Anyways, some of our closest friends bought a house this past summer.  Through the days of painting, moving, and ripping out their kitchen, we've been able to help them plan for upcoming projects, remember some of Joe and my personal horrors as well as joys of being homeowners, and dream about future goals for our homes.  One day as we all sat around our dining room table talking about life, they asked when we were going to get a board game table and chairs.  We told them we had decided to wait, and when they offered to pay for the table, we declined and said we'd get one eventually.  This went on for at least another week.  It was during this time that I became aware of Wayfair's open box chairs for super cheap.  Joe and I decided the chairs were too good of a deal to pass up, so when 4 open boxes became available, we bought them up as fast as we could!  We decided to reconsider our plan on waiting to get a board game table as we felt that we probably could go ahead with it, especially if we could sell the table we had for a few hundred.  But the next day when our friends were over and we told them we snatched up a great deal on new chairs, they again said they would buy the board game table for us, and we finally agreed.  

The timing of making the arrangements to get rid of the old stuff to various people, the delivery of the new stuff on two different days, and then assembling the new stuff when it came happened so fast and yet was literally so smooth and fit perfectly in our busy schedule, which was such a blessing to me as I can't handle mess and extra clutter in my house.  😂  We absolutely LOVE all of our new furniture and feel so blessed to be able to share our home and our lives with such wonderful friends.  💗

Again, these pictures are a month old, but I just had to share how cute the hams look trying out the cup holders we got to go with the board game table.  Fili is still doing well.  I've been seeing more of him this past week, especially as he runs on his wheel.  He definitely doesn't run nearly as fast as he used to, and he doesn't stay running for long before he stops to take a break, but I think he still gets his steps in each day.  Hahaha!  

I love how perfectly Haleth fits in the cup holder!  She was being soooo cute as she looked around.  I couldn't decide which picture I liked the best so you get a bunch even though they are so similar.  Haha!