Up-to-date

Thursday, I went to donate blood. I was a little worried about my iron level (come on, when am I not?), so I tried the Molasses Method. Which basically consists of eating a couple spoonfuls of molasses a short while before my appointment. To my utter shock, it seems to have worked! I believe I will be trying it again next time :3b

I wonder if the molasses has to be plain, though. I could handle the flavor fine on its own, or with something else, but when put with the consistency, it's. Not as pleasant as I'd like.


Friday, I had allergy testing. Y-yay?

The good news is, none of the tests were at all affected by my recent vein tappage. The bad news is, in addition to being allergic to dust, some pollens, and a few other things, I'm apparently allergic to everything with fuzz. That's right, ALL MAMMALS. Well, maybe not sea mammals. Four plus, at that (highest rating).

I'm consoling myself with potential plans (Next time, I'll get all female rex rats, and I'll start cleaning the cage every other day! etc etc), as well as the idea that the skin on my back is more reactive than we anticipated, but it was still quite disheartening :( The doctor suggested I consider getting a lizard after she delivered the news, which, yeah, no. Been there, done that, Mom got the stitches to prove it. (Disclaimer: I am well aware that not all lizards are vicious, biting beasts, as our green iguana was. In fact, I am told that bearded dragons are quite friendly! That said, the whole situation still made me reluctant to try again with anything reptilian. I've also had bad experiences with birds, and there is no way in hell I'd be able to keep a fish tank clean enough. So. Maybe amphibians.)

They had to do some shot testing on my arm as well, and I'm not -entirely- sure, but I think one of the tests has not actually quite faded yet. Which is mayhaps a little worrying.


Saturday was the AnimeIowa meeting FROM HELL. Agenda One went on for hours! It ended after we usually finish our break and start Agenda Two. This was not a happy-fun thing for me, as I had eaten too small a lunch, and I was starting to get badly emotional. Thankfully, there were big, soft pretzels, and a staff member brought a cake ♥ Unthankfully, the food disappeared VERY quickly, so I was unable to get seconds, and almost missed out on the cake altogether. It was not the most fun I've ever had at a meeting :(


Today (well, yesterday by now) was better! I slept in nice and late, and then this afternoon, in addition to doing my laundry and finding a few caterpillars in my parents' backyard (the milkweed is growing like crazy ♥), I finally got to see Up!

It was a cute, enjoyable movie, like much of Pixar's work :3 Of course, also like much of Pixar's work, there were too few female characters for my liking, and the way they ( minor spoiler, just in case )

, and wow, the fridge logic in places was just... ...And it's great that they were railing against ageism if not sexism, but could they at least be consistent with when joints are a problem? Either they're limber enough at their age to go jumping around and do all sorts of crazy acrobatics I would think twice about, or their bones crack at the slightest tweak. Make up your minds!

But other than that, and how people who make movies still seem to know nothing about animals, it was great ^__^ ( Another minor spoiler cut, for animals )

Nitpicky, I know, but that's how I am. There's enjoyment here, really, I'm just! Thinking more critically, more often than I used to ._.a


Anyhow, that's how I spent the last few days :)

Feelin' blue, but not in a bad way

Hat tip to brittyone for this: Blue Food Dye Treats Spine Injury in Rats

Before you do anything, click the link and scroll down to see the adorable rodent picture ♥

My thoughts:

* Man, I am so tempted in a horrible way to give food coloring to my rats now. Even though the one with a head tilt got it from an ear infection and not a spinal injury, and it's well past the time when application would be useful.

* Finally, a legitimate reason to make animals strangely colored! (There was an episode of Animal Cops that featured a whole bunch of chicks that'd been dyed, which is a Bad Thing apparently. ...I will totally get over my whole "color" thing in a minute, I swear. Edit: It has been brought to my attention that dyed chicks get shunned and possibly killed by undyed chickens, which is definitely a bad thing (H/T asrimal). Makes me worry about the dyed rats' social lives.)

* Is it permanent? Well, either way, it'd make a damn interesting sci-fi story. I'm half-tempted to leave it as a prompt over here, except it's almost over already, and I don't know if anyone would see it or be interested.

* ...I would totally adopt at least one of each (control and variable), if I had the room and I knew they were closer.


I'd also like to note that, for the record, paraplegia is fairly common among older rats, and they usually do pretty well (with a little special care). So I imagine that the control rats are probably not too horribly badly off.