Me. Blog. Lets make this happen.

LONGEST WEEK EVAH!

I started UCF and I feel like I am 90 years old there, haha! I swear the campus is crawling with under 21's who arrive at class looking fresh as a daisy. Meanwhile I am pouring sweat and a frizzy mess by the time I walk the 10 minutes from the parking spot (parking is atrocious btw) to my first class. Its weird and I have no idea how they do it. I mean its 99 degrees here and UCF is not a tree ridden campus ( I miss trees:(  so I am DRAGGING in the heat with the sun beating down on me.

I swear I will have skin cancer within a year at this rate.

Anyway, I am looking forward to finishing for crackers sake! It sucks having to work and go to school.  I feel like I squish 2 days into one and it makes the week drag..

At least this is two more classes down and I really like the instructors so far.

passed the test!

My organization passed the USDA inspection on the FIRST TRY! Mary Jane gave me some pointers since she went through it with the inspector before and said he was a real nit picker. She was right.

He was an old time vet with a NY accent. He told you what he thought that was for sure but I think he was impressed because he dosent seem like the kinda guy to hand out compliments but I got one!

My record keeping was impressive enough for him to comment that he thought it was good and that he liked it. Whew! Fifteen years as a vet tech and meticulous medical record notes helped me on this one I truly believe.

However, I think Mary Jane helped me the most because I never would have addressed the things she recommended. They seemed sort of non-important but I think that was what earned me the license without going through the typical follow up.

Anyway, I just have to mail in the fee and I am licensed!

A bit late but...

Happy international left-handers day!

(Im looking at you mom!)

=P

black racer!

Saw a beautiful black racer eating an anole as I was mowing the back yard. I stopped so he could eat in peace =)

Love having a snake back there! Wish I could find the box turtle but I havent seen him. I hope he didnt leave for good.

I was wreck out there as I was mowing the lawn! I stopped and checked to see if he was hiding in large patches of weeds before i would mow!

Hopefully he is just hiding really well

getting ready..

crossing off my to-do list like a madwoman trying to fit everything in before school starts on the 20th! So much to do!

My organization is picking up the pace. Super excited that my "baby" is getting bigger=)

Love my sis's new puppy!

Bri brought her new(ish) puppy Shea over so I could tape myself training her (already trained) for a tech class. She is so cute! She is a Sable German Shepherd. She is 7 months old and despite being a pup, she is remarkably well behaved. Bri did a good job with her.

The cats were FREAKING OUT when she was here. They didnt know what to make of her but I expected that. I put them in a seperate room but they still knew she was out there (shes a puppy! she makes noise!=). They werent too impressed with her, even edgar who I thought would be the most chill. funny thing was, he was the most chill which isnt saying much, haha.

Speaking of the little devil incarnate, here he is squishing his egg shaped frame into sleepys hutch when I was feeding the torts this morning. He clearly knows he is not supposed to be in there.

Bad kitty!

sigh.....

Success!

My bat program at Lyonia went without a hitch! It was a big crowd with great questions. I am looking forward to our mini bat festival in October!

My organization already has a few gigs! I have to admit, since the Mr. took over the title of Director and started doing what he does best which is directing (obviously), my "baby" has really taken off.

This leaves me to do what I want to do, which is animal care, education and hopefully research. We did a pollinator day at GTM with my fellow batty friend Jaimie (love her!). We are doing a Bats of Florida presentation at Lyonia Environmental Center this Saturday and we will be at the Lubee Bat Festival with a booth on rehabbing bats (per the director). Lyonia also expressed interest in doing a Bat Day in October. I would love to do that. Especially since we are getting the info on using bats in programs from the USDA. Things are happening!

I also signed up for classes at UCF. After talking to an advisor, my plans have changed a bit regarding vet school which upsets me but I am not surprised. I screwed up last semester, badly. I basically tanked an awesome GPA that I had for my whole college career in one semester. I thought I could do it all but i learned the hard way I guess. So, now I am looking at graduate school for Ecology which was always an option for me anyway. I still have to kick ass in my grades to even think about getting accepted but its waaaaaay more doable then a highly competitive spot in vet school.

So thats whats been happening!

Goal list update

I realized that its already a half year gone.

wow.

I was looking at my goal list for 2012 and decided its time to revisit what I hoped to accomplish at the beginning of the year to what I want to accomplish 7 (!) months in.

a lot has changed in this short time. The big one was Ireland and above all else I am glad I had the opportunity to accomplish that goal. What a life changer!


1. Ireland trip-Accomplished!
2. Lose 30lbs-in the works
3. Tasty Worms retail opening-in the works
4. UCF (Sept)-in the works
5. My organization tax exempt and website design
6. Weekend vet work this summer for tech program-in the works
7. violin lessons
8. Rollar derby!
9. Martial arts class
10.find a piano cheap or free
11. bat blitz
12. start planning for 2013 trip-(sloth sanctuary? Bat hospital in australia?)
13. NASBR/or Training Course (may or sept/ oct)
14. begin painting -prints?
15. backyard redesign for tortoise enclosures (april/may/june)
16. build bat flight cage in garage
17. blog on a regular basis
18.Disney Tower of Terror marathon(sept)
19. volunteer?
20. Ed. programs for Laura?
21. BK (November)
22. summer garden (april/may)

The list was really pared down due to time. I dont have time to take classes for martial arts this year or to volunteer. I would still like to try and get in violin lessons but I am stretching it.

I didnt start training for the marathon to make the race in time so I will have to forfeit it this year. Really, the bits that I cut require more time than I realistically have.

So alas the new updated 2012 (updated) list
1. Lose 30 lbs-yeah I need to get on that...
2 Tasty worms retail opening -it's happening soon!
3. UCF-advising appt tomorrow!
5. My organization tax exempt and Webpage -Happening now thanks to Chris, my new Director!
6. Violin lessons
7. Find a piano cheap or free
8. Plan 2013 trip (sloth? bat? Iceland?)
9. Bat training course (sept?)-maybe
10.begin painting again
11.tortoise enclosures (backyard)
12 bat flight cage
13. Landscape front lawn
14.blog

Under the (hot) weather

Ive been super busy and its taking its toll on me. I feel very blah, exhausted and achy. My allergies are making me absolutely miserable to the point that I am having a hard time carrying out my daily routine much less anything extra.

My ears are plugged and I cant stop sneezing despite my heavy duty allergy meds. Not to mention the sinus pressure and headaches. Ha! I just realized that as I am typing this, it reads more like another bout of sinusitis rather than allergies. great.

Bunch of stuff I want and need to write down but dont have it in me energy wise. Hopefully soon. I might make another doctor appt to get some relief. ho-hum

Will post soon!

Doing a big reno in the warehouse (opening store soon, for reals this time=) AND in the house. I am moving (downgrading?) my office in a spare room to a walk in closet in the bedroom. Its for the best. Chris REALLY needs an office and preferably one far away from the bedroom since I cant stand his dub step music haha!

Really, he is taking over the management of my organization in addition to Tasty Worms. Plus we are embarking on a new business idea but its Top Sekret =P

Anyway, I will have a much better post soon. A post to include Ireland, my organization, home renos and cats!

New baby tortoise!

Newest (and one of the smallest) patients at my organization!

Bolt, the baby Gopher Tortoise

Pocket sized!

Looks like something got a hold of his rear leg as most of it was missing. However it didnt slow him down! He a fast little guy!

Dr. O and the team fixed him up and he is recuperating and continuing treatment with us. Since he is missing a leg, he will most likely be non-releasable. Sleepy may have just gotten a new baby brother (or sister=)

we already adore him!

Ireland-day 1 and 2 Kilarney!

Once we made our way into Kilarney I noticed what a charming little city it is. No chain stores but not a village like Adare. There were a lot of little shops, some hotels (we stayed at the Quality Inn believe it or not!) and lots of small businesses. The first thing I noticed was the gas station we passed. The price was like $2. 60 or something on the sign and I immediately thought how lucky they are to have cheap gas. James quickly pointed out that it was per QUARTER GALLON (or pint or liter or something, cant remember)! So it was really like $8 or $9 dollars for what would be a gallon of gas! I wont complain about the price of gas here (not that I really do considering I hate cars and driving and wish public transportation would become the norm like it is in Europe)

Anyway- we quickly freshened up (talk about massive nastiness from everybody, myself included, since this was the first time since the day before that we had a chance to shower and change our clothes!)

The hotel was pretty american for the most part, toilet was weird since water pressure there is low and that is considered normal. No A/C since they really dont need it (none of the hotels have A/C that we stayed at) but it was a little warm in the room due to being on the 2nd floor but opening the windows helped.

I bunked with Karol and Shelia and really enjoyed getting to know them. All in all everybody was really cool that went from the schools (we were also with 2 other colleges one from Kansas and one from Montana) . Plus they didnt give me a hard time about my snoring problem (you dont even know how stressed I was about that!)

We ate dinner on our own and I ordered a plain salad (airplane food made me sick for 2 days) and this is what I got

There are pickles in my salad!

It was so gross. That huge blob of white stuff is called salad cream and apparantly is the most delicious thing to these folks (James included). It reminded me of mayo.

It was fine though since I really didnt feel like eating after my gut was reeling from the airplane food still from the day before.

It was a pretty uneventful night since we were all exhausted and looking forward to showers and sleep.

Crow

They have huge birds here in Ireland! This was the normal sized crow..so awesome.

Kilarney alleyway!

Street views of Kilarney

More of day 2 Kilarney to come!

Ireland- Day one-Arrival!

Finally!

Here is the day by day so that I can remember this awesome trip in all its fabulous details.

3pm-left Orlando Airport for Newark
7am (Ireland time) Arrived in Shannon, Ireland!

The view from the window of the plane as we were descending into Shannon was pretty much what I imagined from all the pic and stories I have seen of Ireland. Everything is so green! (name that movie, haha)

Shannon is pretty small and you could tell as there was only a spattering of farmhouses (not the kind you think of here in the US, but little stone farmhouses!) and miles and miles of green pastures and rocky cliffs. The weather was AWESOME. The climate is mild year round and it was in the 50's when we arrived. It was glorious.

The flight was horrible despite it being short (5hrs) due to a crappy airline (United, blah) but all was well when we stepped off the plane into Shannon! We were greeted by our British tour guide, James. What can I say about James. James was charming, funny, smart and so cute! First thing I noticed was his outfit which was so typically British. Brown cords, a button down shirt, a brown sportscoat, a messenger bag and a newsboy(?) hat that I found out later most Irishman and Brits wear. This was pretty much his look everyday and it just made the trip more authentic.

Shannon Airport

From there we drove to the village of Adare which, according to James, is probably the prettiest little village in Ireland. I have to agree! Thatched rooftops and the most adorable park.

Pub in Adare

thatched roofs!

cute buidling

We were only in Adare for a about an hour before the trek to our stop for the next 2 nights...Kilarney!

Here are some random castles (!) that spotted the road to Kilarney.

castle

Castle

 

 

Kilarney to come....!

Busy busy

Bat pups are doing well! Gaining weight (thanks to my sleep deprivation, I'm sure=) and staying warm. I plan on setting up the flight tent tomorrow since one of the pups is ready to start flying!

Its amazing how different their personalities are. One pup just bitches about everything. My littlest one just wants to cuddle and comes scurrying over to me as soon as I open the tent. My oldest one is acting more and more like a typical adult bat...cautious but aware Im  the one with the food=)

I need toothpicks...

to prop my eyelids open. Baby season is in full swing here at City Bats Conservancy. I haven't even been home a week and i already have 3 pups in need of round the clock feedings. Exhausted but enjoying these little sweet peas.

Ireland recap is coming....really.

off to catch a few hours sleep before round 79 of pup feeding.....

Irish eyes are smiling

I'm back!

Ireland was every bit as amazing as I had hoped. Love the country, the people, the countryside and even the cities.

My first trip abroad was so positive and really put a lot of things in perspective. I feel like I have opened a door in my life that I desperately needed to find and step through. Greeting me on the other side was a big, wide open world that I had been afraid to explore but now I am anxious to see.

I will post a day by day once I recover from the (slight) jet lag and resume a sense of normalcy in the next few days.

What an adventure it was and one I will repeat. However, a new and exciting place to visit is already forming in my mind for next year! More to come!

Leaving on a jet plane

today is the day. I board a plane for a 10 hour flight across the atlantic to Ireland.

I am scared shitless but excited.

I am already homesick.

It will be great though if nothing else...ITS IRELAND!

Deep breath......

down to the wire

Ireland countdown has begun! I leave in 8 days and am nervous and excited. I still have a ton of stuff to do but the list is getting done.

Chris started the Rabies vaccine series to take care of the bats for me. I'm a lucky gal.

In other news, Merlin's "mass" was an impacted scent gland. I really need to chill out and stop jumping to conclusions =P