So Sad - posted by courtney at 6:50 PM in Courtney Spies . . . | Comments (0)

On Sunday, I let the chickens roam the yard all day. They had a good time scratching and pecking. I picked them up that morning to check their health because I have been a bit worried about Rose. She's still molting and looks awfully mangy. They both checked out fine.

Eulalia and Rose, before Eulalia got sick

After a few hours, I noticed they were not out anywhere, and I found them in the coop. What I know now is that Rose was looking over Eulalia while she tried to lay her first egg. Unfortunately, it turned out badly. I found Eulalia about an hour later with pink showing through her feathers--it was a prolapse.

I immediately brought her inside, put her in the Wabbitat, and searched online for what to do. I fixed her scrambled eggs and yogurt, but she wouldn't touch it. I went to Walgreens and bought Tums, witch hazel, and Preparation H. I crushed the Tums and mixed it with yogurt and squeezed it into (mostly onto) her beak, because calcium is supposed to help muscles push through a bound egg. I put Preparation H on the prolapse to keep it moist and to reduce the inflammation. (I didn't end up using the witch hazel, but it is supposed to do the same thing.) I put a heating pad in her cage. I gave her a warm bath and cleaned her up and then blew her dry. I pushed the egg back in, hoping it would find the right way out, and she made the most pitiful noises when she pushed it out again, the same condition.

I called the vet school and was told it would be $150 to bring her in for the special time (Sunday evening) and at least $300-$500 to treat her, and there was no guarantee anything would work, as this is a dangerous and complicated condition. I paid $20 to talk to the "Chicken Doctor," who told me to do what I'd already done and also to find the egg, break it, extract it, and rinse her out with sterile solution, like eye wash. I couldn't find an opening to get to the egg. I applied more treatments, covered the cage with towels to block out light, turned up the heat in the house, and let her rest. I got up early the next morning and tried the hot bath again, but she was quite uncomfortable and didn't want it. I was able to reach a vet that my friend Jenny told me about, and thank goodness they fit me in early. I dried Eulalia, gave her more Tums yogurt, and took her in.

The vet felt around Eulalia and said there was something quite wrong, not a simple bound egg or prolapse. There wasn't really a hole or passage for the egg at all. He said he could perform surgery, but there was no guarantee it would work, and she already had some necrotic tissue. I didn't want her to suffer and decline anymore. It was so awful. So I opted to have him put her to sleep. That wasn't the easiest thing to watch, but I am very very grateful that it could be done and that I didn't have to decide between a hatchet and her continued suffering.

Eulalia seemed fine that morning. This happened so suddenly. Sometimes this fate befalls young birds starting to lay. I knew about it from reading BackyardChickens.com. I was glad I was home to spot it and try to give her the best care I could. I was glad she got to spend the day out in the yard playing until she was ill. And I'm glad she came into my life. She was a really sweet little chicken, and I am very sad she is gone.

Rose is a bit upset too. She's been calling more and pacing. Now I need to decide if I will try to get another hen or try to find a home for Rose. I am not sure what to do with her and any other chickens when I go on the long honeymoon and move to Atlanta and whatever else is coming down the road. Also, I am afraid I'm a hazard. Will take some time to grieve and pamper Rose and then decide what to do.

Weekend Update: Yearly Planning and Board Games - posted by chip at 6:06 AM in chip's spynotebook | Comments (0)

Friday, I had to work but enough about that. Scrappy and I had dinner at Gnat's Landing on Baxter Street. We had been there a couple of times with my dad and step-mom and it is really good. The theme is Georgia coast/St. Simon's and they serve seafood and burgers and that type of thing. The sweet potato fries are Scrappy's favorite.

Saturday, we ran errands including the exchange of ill-fitting clothing for new towels. We also watched the entire first season of "Mad Men" over Saturday and Sunday. The other weekend, it was "True Blood". It's so much easier to watch TV on DVD and the Internet.

While we were out and about, Scrappy kept checking the iPhone for the news of the new Doctor Who. Matt Smith is a surprising choice, but I guess I will keep an open mind until 2010.

Sunday, was the annual meeting of the Spynotebook Planning Committee. This year we met at the IHOP and discussed the things we needed to do this year. Some suggested races and I suggested board games. I am sure that Scrappy or Jocelyn will post a full list soon.

To kick the year off right, Jocelyn suggested we play the "Grey's Anatomy" trivia board game she got for Christmas.

I learned a valuable lesson about just how little I know about "Grey's Anatomy".

Tera made lasagna and we got her twitter all working again.

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Spotlight on Scooley - posted by chip at 3:00 PM in chip's spynotebook | Comments (0)

Susan


I had the idea the other day that I should choose one friend of mine each week and do a sort of "Friend Spotlight" for lack of a better term. As I was mulling this over, Scooley invited me to get some coffee so without any thought or planning, I grabbed my Flip Mino and shoved it into my bag, in case I decided to "interview" her for my blog.

I think that this idea will develop over the next few weeks. I don't always promise video but I'll see what I can do. With Skype and iChat these days, I can probably throw something together for those people who are farther away.

The whole "interview" is about 9 minutes long but Scrappy reminded me how the internet works so I am going to try and post a shorter version also whenever I do video. I will probably set this up as a podcast also. Maybe on the Facebook also depending on the friend.

Since it is MY BLOG, it is tentatively titled "Let's Talk About Me" but the focus groups are still mulling things over.

Quickfire Round (2:38)




Selected Mentions of Scooley in Chip's Spynotebook:


Full Interview (8:55)




If you have any interest in being featured, send me a message!

51 friends to go!



Mark the Calendar for Soup Swap - posted by jocelyn at 10:07 PM in Jocelyn Spies | Comments (0)

Soup Containers
We have settled on Wednesday, January 21st to switch our soup. Find your recipe and get your crafts started now! I have been looking for the perfect containers and then decided the Hot Kroger was probably the best option. The ones above are very pleasing on the eye, but they are not microwave safe. Let me know if you want an invite. Look for them in the mail (Chip/Scrappy I still need help on a couple of people - get out that spreadsheet).

365 Days 2009 : Days 1 - 3 - posted by chip at 8:06 PM in chip's spynotebook | Comments (0)

After watching Carrieoke post her daily self-portraits last year, I had been thinking about doing the picture a day thing for 2009. I decided to join the 365 Days 2009 group on Flickr as well as adding them to my own set.

Even though I will be adding photos to Flickr each day, I am only planning to post them to the blog in weekly batches. Here are Days 1, 2, and 3.

365.1 : New Year's Day at Ron and Susan's

365.1

365.2 : Working too early in the year

365.2

365.3 : Scrappy wants a puppy

365.3 .:. Scrappy Wants A Puppy



First home improvement project of 2009... - posted by hannah at 3:09 PM in Hannah | Comments (0)

...is a new garage door opener. Be still my heart.

Sadly, not nearly as glamorous as the bathroom renovations that I was daydreaming about today (...I think I have sketched out the cabinetry of my dreams...). But since the garage door no longer seems to want to stay down once I leave and has taken to popping open in the middle of the night, it must be done. Plus now it'll be up to code, which would be nice since the old one didn't have the safety things to prevent the door from crushing like puppies and small children.

On the downside, I was not expecting this to be a $400 day..

So let's talk about something cheerier then, like food! Last night's dinner was this recipe for sweet & sour chicken I would give it two enthusiastic thumbs up. A side of broccoli & rice, and dinner is served.. .

Schmap - posted by jocelyn at 7:33 AM in Jocelyn Spies | Comments (0)

Apparently, this website called schmap.com is a travel tool that is compatible with the iphone. It seemed pretty interesting especially if you were already somewhere looking for something to do. It has walking tours, historical background, top attractions (basically like a travel guide). Here is what they say about Atlanta. Could be helpful, to some of you. I stumbled on the site because they asked me to share this photo from Baltimore with them. Oh how we loved the Nacho Mama's!

Nacho Mama's

Facebook Connect - posted by chip at 9:21 PM in chip's spynotebook | Comments (4)

I just installed Facebook Connect for Movable Type which should allow people signed into Facebook to leave comments on my blog. Let's see if it works.

Run over 2008 - posted by jocelyn at 6:55 PM in Jocelyn Spies | Comments (0)

Because some people have accused me of running secretly, I am coming clean. Also, because I was pretty impressed with Chip's book list. Below is my list of races for 2008. Last year I decided to invest in races instead of a gym membership. It mostly worked for me. If I signed up, I went and they gave me a t-shirt and drinks at the end. There are some I would repeat and others I would not try again. Let me know if you want to ever run. I am looking to add some longer runs in to my schedule.

Madison Classic


1 2ND ANNUAL NEW YEAR'S AT NOON 1/1/2008
2 5TH ANNUAL GRANITE BOWL 5K 1/4/2008
3 21ST ANNUAL JAGUAR CAPER 5K 1/26/2008
4 23RD ANNUAL SPARTAN 5K 2/9/2008
5 5TH ANNUAL BARROW BOOGIE 5K 2/23/2008
6 7TH ANNUAL NANCY TRAVIS HOUSE 3/9/2008
7 6TH ANNUAL DALE SANDERS WILDCA 4/11/2008
8 2ND ANNUAL RUNNING FOR A CURE 4/13/2008
9 SCHOLARSHIP RUN 5K 4/18/2008
10 UNDER THE LIGHTS 5K 4/19/2008
11 2ND ANNUAL SWEETH20 HALF MARA 4/26/2008
12 9TH ANNUAL GALILEE MISSION RUN 4/27/2008
13 FOHCAS 4 PAWS 5K 5/3/2008
14 INAUGURAL OPEN HOMES/OPEN HEAR 5/4/2008
15 4TH ANNUAL MOUNTAIN LAUREL 5K 5/17/2008
16 INAUGURAL HURRICANE DIAMOND DA 5/18/2008
17 2ND ANNUAL FRONT PORCH 5K 5/23/2008
18 2ND ANNUAL RUN FOR LIFE 5K 5/25/2008
19 5TH ANNUAL RUNNING WITH THE DA 5/26/2008
20 30TH ANNUAL TORTURE TRAIL 10K 6/7/2008
21 7TH ANNUAL JENNY MELTON FATHER 6/14/2008
22 33RD ANNUAL MARIGOLD 10K 6/21/2008
23 6TH ANNUAL CITY LIGHTS STAR CH 6/28/2008
24 2ND ANNUAL WALNUT GROVE BREAKA 7/12/2008
25 5 ALARM 5K 7/12/2008
26 5TH ANNAUL RUN TO PLAY 5K 7/19/2008
27 5TH ANNUAL PATRIOT 5K XC 8/2/2008
28 26TH ANNUAL SUMMER'S END 5000 8/9/2008
29 26TH ANNUAL COACH MIKE'S HEALT 8/23/2008
30 THE PEOPLES BANK MIDNIGHT FLIG 8/29/2008
31 BARBERITO'S RACE FOR THE DREAM 9/1/2008
32 INAUGURAL RUN FOR THE RIDE 5K 9/14/2008
33 SCARECROW STAMPEED 5K 9/27/2008
34 2ND ANNUAL CLOVER CHASE 5K 10/5/2008
35 2ND ANNUAL FIVE POINTS 5K 10/12/2008
36 SCARECROW 5K 10/18/2008
37 SUGAR MAPLE 5K 10/24/2008
38 10TH ANNUAL FLOWERY BRANCH BOO 10/25/2008
39 8TH ANNUAL JACK-O-LANTERN JOG 10/26/2008
40 8TH ANNUAL RUN OVER VIOLENCE 5 11/9/2008
41 5K BULLDOGG BAND THRILLER RUN/ 11/15/2008
42 4TH ANNUAL RESTORATION RUN 5K 11/22/2008
43 2ND ANNUAL GOBBLER RUN 5K 11/23/2008
44 23RD ANNUAL SLEIGHBELL RUN 5K 12/6/2008
45 2008 MADISON CHRISTMAS RUSH 5K 12/13/2008
46 Peachtree 7/4/2008
47 Run with Donna 13.1 2/?/2008

Holiday wrap-up... - posted by hannah at 12:54 PM in Hannah | Comments (1)

I've been off work for two weeks, but I guess all good things must come to an end. It's back to the office on Monday, which might actually be kinda nice. This month will be a little crazy work-wise, so I might as well get on with it.

But it was a good holiday season. My folks were here for nine days....which seemed like a long time at the beginning, but went by pretty fast. We did a little touristing--tours at two bourbon distilleries (Buffalo Trace outside Frankfort and Four Roses down in Lawrenceburg) and an afternoon in Berea which has a bunch of shops selling Kentucky-made crafts. Also, we saw Milk at the Kentucky Theater downtown (really good). And there was shopping, and a fair amount of church stuff, and plenty of cooking & eating.

I think my proudest cooking accomplishment were these individual chocolate cakes from Cooking Light. They were actually pretty easy, but since I don't bake much, I was kinda excited that they worked so well. I made them on Christmas, which was paired with herb & garlic encrusted beef tenderloin roast, the Grit's whipped sweet potatoes, roasted aspargus, and a small salad.

Another night I made these fish tacos, although I just used tilapia and pan-sauteed them, rather than bothering with cooking the fish in the oven. I can't track down the recipe for the pinto bean salad, but basically you combine a can of pinto beans, a chopped roma tomato, half a chopped red or yellow bell pepper, some chopped cilantro & green onions, and lime juice. Maybe some cayenne pepper & a chopped clove of garlic to spice it up. Yum.

Once the folks left, I have mostly spent my time working on the syllabus for the class that I'm teaching for the first time this semester. I think it's mostly ready to go, so yay! And I've been trying to de-clutter a bit, tackling a closet or so a day. I took the tree down today so now my house feels back to normal.

Not sure that I really have any resolutions for 2009. I think I said that my goal was to buy new sneakers to replace my worn-out ones so that I can get back up on that damn treadmill. Mission accomplished today on Amazon. (Success!) Hopefully by the time the shoes get here, I'll be over the cold that I've got (yuck). I'm sick of being sick, particularly the "can't breathe very well" part. Stupid cold...

Let's see other stuff for 2009....I'd like to do some renovations in my master bath. I'm not certain yet how far I want to go though. I definitely want to get a Solatube installed so that there will be some natural light. And I'd really like a new vanity & countertop & to pull down the large mirror & replace it with two framed mirrors. But I have no idea what this will cost, so it may or may not be possible. We shall see...

As for this weekend, I think we're going to see Slumdog Millionaire. I'm hoping that I can get enough energy to rake the backyard, which is drowning in a sea of leaves. Otherwise, I see some sleep in my future so that hopefully I'll be healthy by Monday.

Happy New Year!

9,026 Pages Later : What I Read in 2008 - posted by chip at 11:15 AM in chip's spynotebook | Comments (0)

Not counting floppy comic books, I read the following books last year.

  • The Secret of Lost Things: A Novel - Sheridan Hay
  • Opening Atlantis - Harry Turtledove
  • The Accidental Time Machine - Joe Haldeman
  • The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book - Frank Warren
  • Moon Called (Mercedes Thompson, Book #1) - Patricia Briggs
  • Little Brother - Cory Doctorow
  • Re-Gifters - Mike Carey, Marc Hempel, Sonny Liew
  • Halting State - Charles Stross
  • I Love You, Beth Cooper - Larry Doyle
  • Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) - Stephenie Meyer
  • Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World - Bryan Lee O'Malley
  • Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness - Bryan Lee O'Malley
  • Scott Pilgrim Volume 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together - Bryan Lee O'Malley
  • New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2) - Stephenie Meyer
  • Life Sucks - Jessica Abel, Warren Pleece, Gabe Soria
  • The Good Fairies of New York - Martin Millar
  • Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3) - Stephenie Meyer
  • Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) - Stephenie Meyer
  • Podkayne of Mars - Robert A. Heinlein
  • Soon I Will Be Invincible - Austin Grossman
  • Rolling Thunder - John Varley
  • Flashforward - Robert J. Sawyer
  • Anathem - Neal Stephenson
  • Random Acts of Senseless Violence - Jack Womack
  • The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World - Steven Johnson
  • Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life - Bryan Lee O'Malley

To be honest, I can't remember if I read The Ghost Map in 2008 or 2007, but let's go ahead and count it.

The Twilight series kind of dominated my reading list this year. They were fun to read and talk about but much more fun to complain about. And man, that Book 4 is all kinds of messed up. Also with the fun were the Bryan Lee O'Malley Scott Pilgrim graphic novels.

Anathem would not really be called a "fun" book but it was probably my top book for 2008. It took me about 100 pages to really get into it but by then it was pretty hard to put down. It was one of the rare times that I had no idea what the book was even about when I started reading it and I was surprised several times at the direction it took.

Work calls. More about stuff later.

2009 So Far - posted by chip at 7:05 PM in chip's spynotebook | Comments (0)

Goals:

  1. get back on the pre-wedding health kick
  2. organize/streamline my online life
  3. get rid of crap
  4. save/make money
I will explain each of these in more detail later but I wanted to get it written down and published today, as part of #2 is to blog more regularly. Also, I guess I am going to keep importing these blog entries as notes on Facebook, since that still seems to be where the most people see my postings and twitter updates (as FB status updates).

If you are reading this on Facebook, sometimes the embedded videos and pictures and such don't work, so visit http://www.spynotebook.org/chip every once in a while.

Here is a brief update on what has been going on:

We celebrated Christmas with my family in town and then went up to Colonial Williamsburg with Beth's parents and lots and lots of other people. It ended up being a lot more crowded than I thought it would be, but we had a good time (and went on a ghost tour).

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Last night we hung out with Veronica and Sarah and did things up Jane Austen style. Not my first choice of New Year's Eve action but it was pretty fun.

We had syllabub, cottage pie, mince pies, and played British Trivia Challenge.

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Today, we had lunch with Ron and Susan.  They fixed bbq, greens, black eyed peas, and corn bread. Very good way to start off the new year.

The only troubling thing is that tomorrow is January 2 and I HAVE TO GO TO WORK.

a look back at 2008 - posted by scrappy at 11:43 AM in Scrappy Rocks! | Comments (0)

so last new year's day, the spynotebook tech club met for breakfast at five star day on the east side to discuss our resolutions for the new year. chip never got around to blogging the actual resolutions, but thank goodness for gmail (and the fact that i never remember to delete anything) because he did manage to email them to us and i still have them. i haven't had a chance to compare notes with the other tech club members, but overall i think we did pretty well. here's the list:

2008

  1. More breakfast meetings - we had a few tech club meetings and a few book club meetings. not sure if there were more of them 2008, but there was not a lack of breakfast meetings, either. check?
    Official Technology Meeting
  2. Auction - chip and i attended the barnett's auction. we even bought a flagpole magazine rack and a comic book rack that was highly sought after by our fellow bizarro wuxtry-ites. check!
    Comic Book Rack
  3. Spartan 5k - jocelyn, chip, and i did the spartan 5k. we picked up tera's shirt. check!
  4. Formal Affair - chip & i got married! check!

  5. Concert - chip & i saw the bangles in las vegas. check!
    Honeymoon - 227
  6. Musicals - jocelyn saw annie twice (and snagged a shiny ring after the second show). check!
  7. Trader Joe's on a Saturday - i'm sure jocelyn & tera have this one covered for us. (chip & i still have not been.)  check!
  8. World of Coke - chip & i went to the world of coke in las vegas. check!
  9. Camping - jocelyn, did you go? because we sure didn't! check?
  10. Leave the country - jocelyn went to canada. check!


i'm not sure when or where the tech club will be meeting to go over resolutions for 2009, but we should go ahead and make plans. breakfast meeting anyone?

Eeek! - posted by chip at 11:32 PM in chip's spynotebook | Comments (0)

How has this happened? I had big plans to implement before the end of the year. I mean, I still have 24.5 hours but I plan on sleeping for at least 5 of those.

I will be somewhere with cable tomorrow, but it is nice to know that if I was at home, Hulu will have live coverage for New Year's Eve.

Still formulating some resolutions. More on that later.

Guernsey is calling my name - posted by jocelyn at 8:52 AM in Jocelyn Spies | Comments (0)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer


My review


rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book was passed down to me from and friend and I held on to it several months before I made the time to read it. Once I begun it, I couldn't hardly put it down. Written in the form of letters, it is a quick read that may be a book inside a book (not sure if I can explain). This may appeal to those who are interested in historical fiction, but it may not work for those that like strict linear progression (it would really hurt your head to make a timeline of events). This book may not have meant to be a travel narrative, but it compels me to visit the Channel Islands. Any takers?


View all my reviews.