Pants Progress Continues; One Gerbil Does Not

Oh, this morning Lucas told me I'd better come look at something. One of his gerbils was lying dead in the food bowl. The other one kept sniffing at his face and putting his paws on him. Lucas said, "I think his brother killed him." I said, "No, he's just trying to wake him up to play." (That would've made my neice burst into tears, but Lucas is tough sometimes.) He finally decided it was his fault somehow, and hey, if that motivates him to be a better pet-owner, who am I to disagree? I did reassure him that their time was officially up last October, so I'm betting on natural causes.

Anyway, he wanted to bury him in the backyard, so after school today we double-bagged him in Ziploc (thanks to Dean for retrieving the body for me) then taped him securely into a box and buried him a foot and a half under a bench in the backyard. Lucas wanted to put some flowers on his grave but didn't think I'd agree to breaking off one of the new pink Taiwan cherry blossoms. When I did, he gave me a big hug - most awesome moment of the day.

In sewing news, I'm learning that you can go your own way with patterns if you know what you're doing. I'm taking Jennifer Stern's jeans class on PR and I paid extra for the videos on how to do it. They're awesome! Here's what Vogue said to do with the coin pocket.


Frankly, I had a Mad Cow moment and forgot how to miter a corner, so I had to pull out a dang book! Then I realized how bulky it was going to be and used Jennifer's suggestions instead - you're not going to see the bottom, after all, and it gets topstitched anyway!


And her fly came out perfect because of an odd way she does the seam allowance using Wonder Tape, but I did it the Vogue way, resulting in a wee bit of wonkiness that I shall photograph tomorrow. Vogue also had me enclose the edges of the fly and fly facing in bias binding! Not sure why exactly, but it's cute.


Anyway, I'm ready to sew seams and place carriers next, so I hope to have some pictures of a final product soon. Off to watch her video on flat-felling...

Animal Fun

Well, I'm still cutting out jacket pattern pieces, and Lucas's teepee is underway but I have nothing to show yet. So, enjoy these 2 videos in the meantime. If you haven't seen OK Go's White Knuckles video, go do it now - especially if you're a doglover. Jake loved it and wants to be in the video, too!



And these little guys are just fun to watch. Not very smart, though - they think that wheel is for standing on and trying to jump out. They've never actually run on it. But they do love a good toilet paper roll!

Would You Believe....?

Well, just a little more pain and suffering from Delta. The plane left an hour late from Steamboat, so we had to do an OJ through the airport to catch the second flight. (No, we didn't kill anyone, we just had to run like the wind.) And I had a little scene with Omar the flight attendant, but since my name is not in the newspaper today I am not EVEN going there. Let's just say a letter to Delta management is being drafted. We enjoyed a lovely Vietnamese dinner in Pensacola on arrival, then had an uneventful drive home. The kids were dead on their feet so I told them to get straight in bed.

Then Lucas drops the bomb: neither gerbil is in the cage. F***!!!!!!! (Quick, give me a Thin Mint!) Then I notice that there is debris all over the floor....all over the house....they've run under every piece of furniture and trailed dust bunnies everywhere, along with other, uh, stuff. They're singing that great Johnny Cash song, "I Been Everywhere."

"I've been to Drew's room, Lucas's closet, your pantry, the kitchen, your closet, the laundry room, oh, I BEEN EVERYWHERE, MAN!" (It's an awesome song if you don't know it - used now in a rental car commercial I believe.)

Our heads are spinning Exorcist-style - it's 10:30 PM on Sunday - how can this be happening? We do a methodical sweep through the house. Drew's room is quickly searched, vacuumed, and doors are shut - good night! Scream if something crawls up next to you on the pillow, sweetie. Lucas's room is next, but while he brushes his teeth I hear sobbing. He's spotted a large pile of debris behind the toilet and apparently thinks it's a carcass of his beloved pet. Turns out they dragged a red crayon in there to hold hostage, and since no ransom was forthcoming they devoured it....which explains the red poo....which is very helpful when vacuuming on dark carpets...but I digress.

After an hour of searching, Dean the gerbil-whisperer finds both of them and miraculously doesn't kill them on sight. They (heretofore known as Criss Angel & David Blaine) are deposited back into their cage, and everyone has a peaceful sleep...after Cloroxing & vacuuming.

I'm mostly pissed because they jumped in the laundry basket with 4 yards of clearance fabric that I was planning to use for thermal tops and chewed their way to oblivion - gerbil bastards! Now to whom can I write a letter....?

Gerbil on the Loose

Damn gerbils! I was going to write about how much I hate going to the Exploreum, which we did today since the kids were out of school. But when we got home and started up chores, I noticed the dog was acting funny. Lucas was vacuuming the hallway and Drew was getting ready to take Jake for a walk, but Jake was nosing around the stove like he was tracking something...GERBIL!

We ran to Lucas's room and the cage was all locked up tight, but there was only one gerbil in it. (We shall rename the escapee Houdini.) We then see pellets traveling to the bathroom - I just cleaned the cages and vacuumed Lucas's room last night at 9:30, so he escaped sometime after that.

We then run back to the stove with an empty cage and food, and the little devil sticks his nose out, but of course Lucas reaches a hand out and he disappears. There then follows the most horrendous noise of gerbil running around in the stove. What the heck can he be doing in there? Sounds like an amusement park.

So after conferring with the chef, I did turn on the stove. Lucas almost cried and held his hands over his mouth waiting for squeaks of pain, but then the bugger poked his head out. Lucas exhaled and said "Thank goodness he's okay!" I nearly jumped out of my skin because he was right next to me and covered in dust, but then he ran back under, and now he's climbed back up in there for a toasty nap. (Gerbils originated in the desert, so 350 Fahrenheit may not be so bad.)

If our next dinner has a hint of smoked gerbil, I won't be surprised. Hell, our next dinner might BE smoked gerbil!

How 'bout Jake Watching Gerbils?

Now gerbil videos can get boring (no, really?), but not if you play their video on a big screen while the dog watches! He's watching the video posted below, but he thinks they're going to jump out of the screen or something. He got fired UP! I showed it to him 3 times and he started barking really loud, so I had to close the video. Then he saw my screensaver, which is a picture of us in the backyard with him, and he started growling at himself!

None of that beats the time our Doberman attacked himself in my mom's full-length mirror, though. (We reassured him that he really didn't look THAT fat.)

More Gerbil Action!

Oh, we're getting some personalities here and they're losing their creepiness. Though when I had them on Lucas's little table alone and they were running in all different directions and skidding up to the edges, I was afraid I might lose it. Rodents zipping around threatening to jump off the table and run through the house - aaaahhhh!

So who saw the movie Ben in 1976-ish? The one with the theme song sung by Michael Jackson with words like, "Ben, the 2 of us were meant to be together, but they don't understand how I can love a rat." Like that. The pivotal scene is where the kid has been forbidden to have Ben the rat by his parents, but his mom comes to kiss him goodnight and finds his bed covered in hundreds of Ben's friends - imagine the horror! She has a freak-out and starts tossing covers, and poor Ben gets maimed or something so the kid hates his parents and I was crying my eyes out with all the other girls watching it. Seems like it was at a sleepover at Mitzi's house or something.

I'll have to add Ben to my Blockbuster queue tonight!

Gerbil in a Ball

It's getting a little better with the gerbils. We had some good interactions last night and today - they took treats from our hands without so much biting, and Furry even sat in Lucas's hand while he pet (petted?) him. Furry volunteered to explore the house a little bit, but if you could see this video full-screen, you'd notice a little poo escaping from the ball on its last run. I didn't notice it till I watched the video - better go clean that up. These things are nasty!

Meet the Gerbils

We are pleased to introduce Furry and Junior. Furry is the wild one in the wheel and Junior is the one who is contemplating biting my finger. Furry is curious and full of energy and has flipped himself upside down in the wheel because he can run so fast. When he saw Jake the dog (who hasn't even smelled 2 gerbils in the house yet - what's up with that?) he had a little panic attack and stomped his back feet just like they said in the book! It looked like a temper tantrum with him jumping up and down rapidly. It was also accompanied by pee and poop - just what you want in a wheel when you're running for your life. (I didn't really want to pet or hold him after that.)

Junior is an evil little gerbil who is very antisocial and prefers to stay in his nest unless he sees a hand to bite. Now the bite is just tiny teeth against your skin - there's no puncture or blood (yet), but it causes Drew and me to yank our hands out rapidly, so Junior will one day find himself sailing across the room and slamming into a wall. Lucas, on the other hand, thinks it tickles and doesn't even twitch.

Now the boy at the pet store declared that gerbils are better than hamsters for little kids because they don't bite as much, they're less aggressive, and they sleep at night and play in the daytime. So far we've all been bitten at least once, and Lucas woke me up at 2 AM the first night because they were running on that damn wheel. So now they have an enforced bed time, because a giant rubber band is placed around the wheel to prevent it from turning (thank you, Dean!), thus allowing Lucas to sleep through the night.

Anyone with gerbil experience who can tell me if there ever comes a point where you can actually pick them up and play with them, feel free to offer advice. They're kind of getting creepier by the day!