Give Me a Few Days

December 17, 2012 · By · Leave a Comment

Hi all.

After finishing classes on Thursday, I thought I would have a lot more time and spirit for blogging.  I need a few days.  I worked all weekend, which was fantastic and really made me feel like I’m getting back into the swing of things, but it also left me pretty tired last night.

We discovered last night that Ewan (my old man rat) has his umpteenth abscess, and while I would be more than happy to pay for his care, I don’t think he would make it and I think it would be cruel to put him through that.  His mobility has gone down to about 20% of what’s normal and he can’t really take care of himself in the way that rats need to be able to.  His quality of life is just shot to hell.  So we decided to have him put down this afternoon and join his brother Finley wherever rats go in the afterlife (hopefully somewhere full of chocolate).

So I’m going to need a couple days.  I’ll be back soon.  I just can’t think about being fun or sexy right now, just sad.

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Currently

December 7, 2012 · By · Leave a Comment

It’s nice to be zombiefied for a little while in the middle of finals!  I’m taking the day off, because otherwise I would lose my mind.  This is my last finals week ever, which is surreal.  Are any of my readers also going through finals hell?

I stole this post format idea from Danielle Hampton, because it works so perfectly for all-around updates like the one I’m about to throw at yinz (Pittsburghese).

Watching:  Steve and I have been going hard on RuPaul’s Drag Race.  I keep trying to convince him that I would make an awesome drag queen, but he insists that you have to have male genitalia.  (Psh.)  I’ve been watchingThe Big Bang Theory alone a lot, because Dr. Sheldon Cooper is my raison d’etre.  I wish I could say that I’ve seen something erotic lately, but that’s not the case.  Maybe I’ll try to find some of Tristan Taormino’s stuff later…

Listening to: Pittsburgh’s best radio station, when you catch it at a good time slot, is definitely WYEP (public radio).  They played “Where Soul Meets Body” on my way home the other day and I couldn’t believe that it had been almost two years since I heard Death Cab perform that live.  I don’t know that I’ll ever find albums that mean as much to me as Death Cab’s Plans or Tegan & Sara’s So Jealous, though their album The Con is a close third.  It seems I’m caught in a musical state of arrested development.

Planning: Christmas!  I just bought Steve’s gifts this afternoon, and I’m almost caught up with everyone on my list.  I have 2 secret santa gifts to grab and that should be it.  Besides gifts for a certain little someone.  Steve and I are planning on driving to St. Louis with his sister and her fiancee on the day after Christmas, and staying there until just after New Years.  This will be my first time meeting his parents, so I’m a little nervous!

Thinking about:  All of the reviews I want to complete for Marvelous Darling!  I just received a new product to review today (thanks Lovehoney!) and while Steve is apprehensive, I can’t wait.  And guys, I found dildo love with the Tantus Splish.  Finally, I’d also like to review my Lelo Luna Mini kegel balls.  So many sex products, so little time, and only one vagina.

Looking forward to: CatalystCon!  CatalystCon is a convention for sex educators, bloggers, and aspiring sex-related professionals.  Their speaker list for the March 2013 conference in Washington, DC is amazing and I cannot wait to get my butt there!  I’m volunteering, which is going to be awesome, and I’m honored to be working with SheVibe (thanks, Sandra! You rock!) as my corporate sponsor!  I even get to attend the unparalleled Tristan Taormino’s pre-con talk about becoming a sex ed professional!  Are you sick of my exclamation points yet!? TOO BAD!

Reading:  …lots of things about prisons, the Soviet Gulag system, and on a happier note, other lovely blogs.  I have papers due very soon, so I’m trying to read, absorb, synthesize, and properly regurgitate and analyze.  That sounds disgusting.

Making me happy:

This thing.  (Well, the other thing in the photo too. And the N64.)  The above wuppy is known as Daphne, and is a 8-10 year old bichon/maltese/Ewok mix.  I adopted her from a local no-kill shelter during their holiday rehoming special.  Steve had already agreed to be “puppy daddy,” and it’s pretty nice to have shared responsibility of a creature who is really pretty easy to live with.  She’s housebroken and we’re working rather successfully on crate training.  She sleeps all night at the foot of our bed; sometimes, she snores.  She’s met my parents’ dog, Dmitri, and they’re already best friends.

What have you been up to lately?

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I’m a Bleeding Heart

November 3, 2012 · By · 2 Comments

But not like, a bleeding heart liberal, really.  I’m pretty socially liberal, but that’s not the point.  I want to bring home all of the animals.

In fact, I almost brought home a dog this past Thursday, because he was a breed recommended by the AKC for allergy sufferers and he was already housebroken.  But I’m also constantly complaining about being broke, so I ultimately decided it wasn’t a good idea.  And it wasn’t, but you know, I regretted it anyway.  He was adopted out this morning.

After the Nash incident, where I adopted a dog I thought I wasn’t allergic to, I quit looking for about two weeks.  And then I was back on the stuff, checking shelter websites multiple times a day for a dog that I might be able to keep.  This is a totally heartbreaking process, just so you know.

Steve is allergic to cats and I’m allergic to dogs.  It’s a good thing he’s basically everything I was looking for in a partner, because if he wasn’t this awesome, I might have picked a cat.  Just kidding.  (Sort of.)

I know this post is weirdly personal and not at all related to sex, toys, or relationships, but this is still a lifestyle blog right?  I’m really hoping someone else struggles with this, wanting to cuddle and feed and house everything they see.  I actually kind of want to adopt Pandora Box from the second season of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, but I don’t think drag queens are the same as cats.

If anyone wants to send me a Bichon for my birthday, that would be rad, and I would love the hell out of that little bugger.  Just kidding sort of.

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#Ratstagram

August 10, 2012 · By · 1 Comment

Happy Friday!  I’d like to introduce you all to the newest members of my family: Henry, Lionel, and Malcolm, from back to front.

Last Friday, we headed out to one of the faraway southern suburbs to pick out a trio of babies from the Pittsburgh Rat Lovers Club.  Recently, they’d had an influx of beebs, which of course led to my weird little heartstrings being tugged.  Steve and I packed up the car and headed out to pick & choose.

Henry caught my eye first, because as we like to say in Pittsburghese, he’s “nebby.”  He wants to know what we’re doing, all the time, whatever it is.  He wants to get into everything, but he’s scared of any unfamiliar noise, so he always ends up hauling his chubby butt back in the cage before a real discovery can be made.  But look at that little masked face!  Don’t you just want to kiss his forehead spot?  (Promise, you won’t get the plague.)

Malcolm is Steve’s favorite by far.  He’s the littlest one, even though he’s 4 months old and from the same litter as his brothers.  He was the last to warm up to us, but the first to come right out and walk onto our hands.  He’s also got a strange fondness for attempting to pry open my mouth.  By far, he’s the most adept climber, and possibly the smartest.  We set up a rattie pinata on Wednesday by filling a toilet paper tube with food and tying it to the cage lid then folding the ends, and he was the first to crack it open!

Lionel has by far the chillest personality for such a little bro, and it really blows me away how much he looks like Ewan!  He was the first one to be dragged out of the cage to sit solo on my lap, and I was really impressed by how good he was.  No scared pees or poops, and no trying to jump from the chair to the floor.  Chill, bro.

We tried to do some slow rattie intros so my old man could live with the youngins, but Henry attempted to beat him up, which resulted in Ewan literally crying for mama.  My poor old man.  Since then, Ewan seems happiest being able to live alone, but being held up to the little boys’ cage sometimes for some extra company.  He’s fascinated by them, but it’s clear Henry doesn’t want him around.  Oh well, looks like we’re a two cage household for a while longer.

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Lazy Moved-In Sunday

July 29, 2012 · By · 2 Comments

Hi all!

Since I skipped out on the last two Lazy Sunday posts, I’m going to have to make this one really worth your while.  We have a lot to catch up on!

& Do you have a Jux yet?  I haven’t created one yet, but people like Danielle Hampton make it look super cool!  Apparently, it’s like Tumblr, but more focused and with fewer 13-year-olds.  Not a bad idea, in my opinion.

& I recently discovered A Prince and Prozac, and I was sitting there laughing to myself, alone, glass of wine in hand.  If you want to lead as glamorous a life as that, click on over and pour yourself some vino.  Snark, honesty, and just enough narcissism.  Plus, her one-photo posts are beautiful!

& I absolutely love this post on Queerie Bradshaw about “looking straight in a gay world.”  Straight girls with very short, pixie hair often have the opposite problem (holla!), but I can only imagine how much more frustrating this would be.

& Have I already tried to make all of you watch the Tangents & The Times series?  No?  Yes?  Well, either way… You can find it right here on the good ole YouTubes.  Marissa A. Ross is hysterical, and her dog Zissou is the world’s best friend.  Plus, I think she likes wine even more than I do, which is really saying something.  You can also find her on her blog.

& Jessica Florence, a photographer and rattie enthusiast, takes incredible pictures of her pet rats.  Have you seen the popular photo of a light colored rat holding a little teddy bear?  That’s her work!  You can find more on her Flickr, but for a shortcut to rattie cuteness, check out her photo set for her rat Bug. **

& It’s no secret that I <3 Babeland, but have you seen their Sex Info section?  One of the things that makes Babeland so great is that they have a huge array of helpful articles to make sure your sex life stays safe and steamy.  They really care about the education of their customers.

& While I was on vacation, our hosts got us hooked on some new TV.  If you’re on Netflix and you like quirky comedy (not quirky like Zooey Deschanel, but quirky like Juno), you will probably really like United States of Tara!

 

** We’re adding 3 new fuzz faces to our menagerie next weekend!  I’ll be so excited to introduce you once they come home, are settled in, and named.  But right now, I want to take the opportunity to introduce the Pittsburgh Rat Lovers Club to you!  I’ve had the pleasure of working with them for years, and adopted my pair Finley (RIP) and Ewan from them in 2010.  I know I’ve written a post about rats as pets before, but I’m always eager to talk about the little furry things that make my life so much more fun.

If you’re at all interested in adopting a pair or a trio, please shoot me an email (marvelousdarling . blog @ gmail . com) and I will put you in touch with the head of adoptions.  They currently have over 40 babies looking for homes.

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