The Queen Lives! Long Live the Queen!
The new Queen Kitty has left her Queen Container and is now ensconced in her hive, where it is hope she will prosper. The odds are good. The workers have her scent, the only problem was that they could not get to her, and gave up trying.
We got information this morning, as a result of my Bee Report for the Birdchick, thank you very much, that we needed to go and Get Her Out.
Here is a picture of her release from imprisonment....
She is, actually, the most beautiful of all the Queens I have seen, (much like her namesake) Mostly they have been dark, but this one is all golden, like honey or sunshine. She came out straight away, and went right down into the hive. We took a frame from the box, and added another brood box up top. It is hoped she will start making babies immediately.
Speaking of babies, we watched the funniest thing while at the hive. Sorry guys, but the boy bees (drones) are not exactly brilliant. We found one buzzing around, presumably looking for a Queen to mate with, you can tell the drones because they are bigger, and have HUGE eyes. (the better to look for the HUGE Queen butts...) This one would do a couple of circles, then come in for a landing on top of the hive. Only, they are truly bad landers, so it was a total crash landing every time, right on it's back. He would then get up, shake himself off, and repeat the process....Here's a picture....
The transcribing goes slowly. I am getting about 10 to 12 minutes an hour. The electronic store was kind enough to take the evil inferior recording device back and refund the money, tho.
I am changing the Kittie's food over to natural food. The Fancy Feast, which I thought was a better food for them, may be the source of their tummy troubles. I started out by mixing boiled chicken in with the Fancy Feast. NOT popular. They love chicken. I don't get it. Tonight I tried just chicken. Mim was ok with this, but Venus, oh no. She hopped up, looked at it, LOOKED at me, and said "What the HELL is this, no, no way, I won't go near it, it is evil , so are you, you suck."
(this is the cat who will happily share pizza, Ramon, chips or any other of my Falling Off The Healthy Eating Bandwagon mistakes)
Jungle Loves One and Two tho, who have never had anything but cheap dry food, and WAY into this development, and will now consent to eat while I am in the room. Venus and Mim come in and prowl a bit and we cuddle, so hopefully, JL1 and JL2 will get the idea that I am not evil and perhaps let me pet them soon.
Had a lovely chat with our Malena today. She has a knack for calling JUST when I get in the car to do errands. One can't talk at work, as one is, well working. But one can chat in the car. So we went to the co-op, the post office, the electronic store and the bank together. We are both so busy these days that we have to take our adventures as we can. It is good to have a psychic best friend, who knows JUST when to call.
Enjoy the Full Moon tonight, my dears....
Love and Everything,
Lorraine
posted by FabulousLorraine @ 4:10 PM
32 Comments
32 Comments:
Oh yay for the new queen! And I love the picture of the drone (ah, men...). And I sympthize with the transcription nightmare. Years ago, I did a freelance job of transcribing a recorded meeting of six amusement park managers -- one woman (she was easy to identify) and five men, two of whom were from New York and sounded exactly alike. It took for freaking ever! Oh, and on the Jane Austen thing, I advise that you start with the tried and true "Pride and Prejudice" and then "Emma" (and watch "Clueless" afterward, as it's a brilliant adaptation!). My personal favourite is "Mansfield Park" (the one Door is reading in "Neverwhere"). They are so lovely! Happy moonlit bee-ing tonight. -- love, grace
(and please tell me that in the first picture, the "NE" on the suit of the bee-holder is the beginning of the name "Neil" and that all of y'all have your names on your suits so you can tell who's who when you're all bundled up in huge white suits! how fun!!)
Hi Grace, Clueless, which I thought oodles of fun, is Emma re-told???? (like 10 things I hate about you was Shakespere?)
Am I hearng this right?
This may help.
My trouble with Ms Austen is I think I am afraid of her. I get the books. Look at the books. Then go find something from my childhood to read.
That was Neil.
Mine says Great White Sausage, which is what I feel like.
The Birdchick wants to dye hers red. White is so boring.
Malena's has rhinestones and feathers. (the Feathers sometimes confuse the Birdchick, she is easly diestracted by feathers..)
Non-birding Bills says "How did I get talked into this?"
I am giggling at the "Great White Sausage" -- that is a true CLASSIC. Of course, since you came up with it! And yes you are correct, "Clueless" is totally "Emma" retold, and so much better done than the "period piece" movies. And Jane Austen is my comfort-food reading, so no need to be afraid. First, it will be like visiting a strange but friendly country where everyone talks a little funny, but if you stick around long enough, you figure it out. Seriously, she writes such a perfect story. And if Door can love Austen and still live as exciting a life as you do (you do live an exciting life -- your cats alone trump anything I can name about me and that's not even mentioning your day job or your cool music gigs!!), than you can love her too. :-)
I wonder if you guys could help me beta test a new site that I've been working on?
Great site Dan!
ACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You guys are SNEAKY!!!!!!!!
Out gathering Things about me!!!! How long has THIS been going on??????
I am honoured. Floored. And speechless.
You mke me feel, gads, I don't know. I'm just me.
Thank you.
(Dan Guy, you are an evil genius.)
I am in Wikipedia??? Who knew this????
Hmmmph.
Well.
I am going to watch SVU and try and regain my equelibrium.
YEAH! Finally you see it! I am so glad. Yes, it was Dan's plan. Big Dan's gotta plan. Love it. I love the FL on the top.
Full Moon blog on the way...
Sneaky sneaky sneaky!
I actually planned it for your last birthday, but the domain registrar screwed up and it was months before the domain was configurable. I gathered the info in the mean time and sneaky Cat and sneaky Malena sent me pics. Then I made the whole site last weekend. It was fun.
It's about time you had a fan site. You have a lot of fans.
Cat and Malena are evil. As are you.
I love you all.
There I was, just tending my Bees.....
Lorraine, I feel the same way about Austen and thought I was the only one.
I happened on the Wikipedia article for the first time this afternoon, after Googling "Lorraine Garland" (I am not a stalker; I wanted to check out your music).
~Emily
Emily, e-mail me your adress and I will send you all of my music, if you like. Call it me remembering my own teenage years.....The Lam blog will raise you right, hee-hee!
Did you manage to read Ms Austen, perhaps we should try together? I really so want to know her now. I am very curius about Clueless being an adaptation. And so many people I know are so into her..
I could read the Bronte Sisters, why not Jane Austen?
Yay! You saved the Queen!
Whoa..sounds like your transcription is hard going. Hopefully the new equipment will help next time.
It's funny that Venus doesn't like chicken..all the cats I've ever had were pretty sure chicken was the best thing going. Primus was a demon for pizza though..he had a way of sneakily opening the box, so I could never leave him alone with one.
Dan - that is SO cool. (and sneaky..well done!)
Whoa, only have a minute to post, Dan, what a cool site! sneakily evilly done, I love it - and of course Lorraine, it's only fitting to have a fansite All Your Very Own, well deserved Oh Fabulous Fiddler and Frustrated Transcriptionist :)
Because I'm not exactly swimming in the free time these days, when I've done NaNoWriMo the past two years I've been dictating my stories while driving to and from work.
It would probably be overkill for you and the Boss, but I use the voice recognition software built into XP so that my tablet transcribes what I'm saying into a notepad window, plus I save the audio to play it back later and make any corrections. With a decent mic it does a surprisingly good job.
Your boss's sub-notebook could probably handle it if he gets Vista off and XP on.
Venus is still saying that chicken is evil and not to be eaten. Mim thinks she is nuts and sneaks back to the kitchen and eats Venus' for her.
Mim is a pizza stealing genius. If she gets it and it is too hot, she circles it and screams at it.
JL1 and JL2 are beginning to think this is not half bad, they are rubbing on the cage and cat tree, and JL2 didn't tense up and cringe when I petted her, and JL1 did some mewing.
Dan Guy, I have no idea what you said, but I will pass it onto my Boss. Hopefully we will not need to do this again. Miss Kitty and I will be transcribing all day....
Dan Guy, you are made of awesome.
On Jane Austen adaptations into film, I have four words: Colin Firth; tight pants. Austen isn't hard or scary, but you have to commit yourself to a different pace and slower, more elevated diction. If you like Brust, you will probably do just fine. ;)
Yay for Jungle Loves 1&2 acclimatizing! Venus is on crack about chicken -- did she not get the memo from Cat High Command about chicken being the best thing ever?
Hey Lorraine -- I seem to recall you saying something about a gig this Sunday. Any details you'd like to share on that?
So glad to hear that JLs 1 and 2 are starting to settle in.
I think I have a gig this Sunday. It's at a Place , Up the River, and it is outside, during the day.
There. Now you know everything I do, hee-hee. I have a call in, we'll see if we can get confirmation. I know I have a gig Friday and Saturday, playing with John "Big Sexy" Sjogren, in Stillwater. Hopefully we will be playing Sunday together as well.
(Paul has gone to the lake. No, that's NOT a euphemism)
I feel I should have read the books before seeing the movie. And I will try. I can read them to the cats.
I'd watch the movie(s), then read the book(s). The books are usually better.
Surely Austen is no wordier than Hawthorne. Anyway, you faced down your fear of bees, so how can you be afraid of a dead author? ;)
Hawthorne. Yet another author I have not read.
You may have a point. Dead authors don't scare me. Shakespeare and I are buds. And a host of dead authors. And living ones.
Perhaps I need an un-dead author to help me. (as opposed to an actually dead, or living one) One who speaks French. And likes cats. I could come home to her at night and she would explain Jane Austen to me, before retiring to her crypt at dawn.
I could steal rocks from my neighbors next door and build her a crypt.
I like this idea.
I have been transcribing too long.
I really haven't read a lot of the classic novels, and often find myself feeling guilty. Then again, I know lots of people my age who don't actually read anything except for their e-mail.
Lorraine, I would love for you to send your music to me, but do you charge a fee for that?
~Emily
No fee to you, Emily. You are are the Official LaM teenager. Our gift to you, for being so very sweet and fun to have around.
Besides, it's been a while since we were nice to anyone , hee-hee.
Try reading Sense and Sensibility, I am one paragraph in and, well, am loving it. What a delightful set up, I can see how one could have a whole lot of fun with this story.
I will fear Jane Austen no more!
(PS. Don't post your address tho. You can never tell. E-mail it to me at lorraineamalena@gmail.com )
This comment has been removed by the author.
I wouldn't post even my last name for just anyone to view ....
I am really grateful to you, Lorraine -- for being so tremendously kind!
~Emily
That's our Fabulous Lorraine!!! she is wonderfully generous.
(our Malena is wonderful too)
Great site, Dan!
I am glad to read that Jane Austen doesn't feel so much of a stranger anymore. If you can tame Bengals, surely Jane Austen is nothing. She can be good fun on a wheel too...
If Venus wants what YOU are eating, then eat some chicken and let her steal a bit from you. Then she will know it is nowhere near as evil as she thought it might be. And chicken is not junk food, so all the better for the healthier you.
That drone looks like a fly
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