Balticon Fever

As I sit here in LA, our own Ms. Kitty is selling Neverwear goods at BALTICON!! We were there last year and had a blast.

Check my blog for more details. I wanted to post the pics of Lorraine and I here! I miss you guys! There will be one honorary drag queen missing. Ahhhhhhhhhh the PAINNNNNNNNN! See! I am so lonely I am talking to myself...

Wait, is that Drag or DRAMA Queen, Madame Malena Mim?

Well, they did give me the title,

"The Gothic Statue of Liberty" so I think a BIG BLOG is in order!

WE LOVE YOU BALTICON!

the MMMMmmmm in LaM

now the La La La will speak! SPEECH Logistics Lorraine!

Music is a Good Thing....

Ok, this is an Officially Long Day.

I was going to come straight home from the gig, and sleep, which is clearly what's needed, but now I seem to be wide awake, on some sort of strange second (read: SIXth) wind, and the Bengals being un-interested in anything but food, and tearing around crazily, I will chat with you for a bit...

Great gig. Much too fun. It is strange playing with someone you don't gig with regularly, you know a lot of the same things, only completely differently. Makes for some fun. In this town, the Irish bands tend to be pretty incestuous. Mostly duos, as the gigs pay by the band, not person, so when your bandmate can't make it, you call someone else, and do the show.

Malena and I chatted most of my drive in about the possibility of doing a show, and how we could make it work, as we love, so much more than anything, to play together, and kicked around a lot of ideas about how this could happen. In this town you really can pull things together fast,and we really want to make it happen, Fingers crossed, we will make it work.

I love getting a chance to play with Johny, he has such a spooky way of turning things around that brings so many things out of me, which tonight was enhanced by the fact that The Spotlight was burned out, and the Pub turned the lights down and we got to play nearly by candlelight. (I hate the spotlight, tho I can see the reason for it, think deer in headlights)

It was kind of a different crowd and I couldn't figure them out. And started to get really nervous, thinking, I don't know these songs and I don't know what to do, when it occurred to me all one could do was to have some fun and play what made us happy.

Which turned out to be everything BUT any Trad Irish. Van Morrisson, Richard Thompson, U2, Ernie Ford, Johnny Cash , White Stripes, Waterboys, Jimmy Buffet, Pouges.....And I wrote a new tune too....Came to me while playing an old one and Johnny was right there. I sort of added it on as it made me happy.

There is not much better than good music.

I wish you had been there. All of you.

Love and music,
Lorraine

Too Tired To Think of a Title

I am liking this fitness thing. I am so tired there is no possibility of getting to the kitchen to find anything bad to eat, and the phone is in my purse, also in the kitchen so I can't call for anything. Of course, my beds are upstaires, and I don't think I can make it that far either, but if I do, I sure won't be coming back down.

It feels good.

Eat less. Move more. So simple.

I was thinking today, we had the cat Zoe who went to someone for a bit and came back looking like a Hummer. I put her on a diet, measured out her special food, and now, six months later, she has lost three pounds, a quarter of her body weight. That's like a 200 pound women losing 50 pounds.

I am trying to figure out food for the Bengals, all natural, pure food, in it's most basic state. And I spent over $400 on a Cat Wheel, so they could get some excersize.

The Dog gets his food weighed out, 2 pounds of raw meat a day, and he has a trainer, and a dog walker who comes for an hour, twice a day.

I'm like the fitness consultant for all these Beasties.

Do I love myself less? It's something to think about, isn't it?

Tonight Cabel and I started his Agility Classes. (otherwise known as Boot Camp for Owners) The dogs have to complete a course, full of jumps, tunnels, things they climb ect. WITH the owners running along besdie them. The faster the better.

This can't be bad for me, tho when I realized, after dropping the dog off at his place, that I still needed to bike to mine, I had a small sinking feeling.

Made it up one of the Evil Hills tho.

Feels good.

Love and movement,
Lorraine

That Which Does Not Kill Us...

I got the idea that it would be a Good Thing to start riding my bike to and from work. It's not far, yes, there are some hills, but they go both up and down, if you see what I mean, so you get both, each way. I thought it might be a great way to get in some workout, and start getting in shape after a winter of the Couch, TV and too tired to cook just ordering pizzas.

I rode it home tongight.

Heh.

Apparently, one loses being in shape quickly. I couldn't even make it up two of the hills, and it took rather longer than it should have.

Tomorrow will be quicker. And I will make it up those hills. Soon.

On a happier note, I got to have a lovely chat with Lisa Snellings, which always makes me happy. She is having a Sale soon, called BUG OUT and mentioned the CBLDF and asked could I send her a pot of honey, some bees wax, a bit of comb and the dead Queen in a tiny coffin.

Lisa Snellings is an Evil Genius.

This ought to be fun. Watch her website.

I am a Puddle of Goo. I am going to take Ms AUsten into the Foster Room and read to JL1 and 2. They seem to like it. Tho again, hard to tell.

Love and Workouts,
Lorraine

A Day of Wonder and Marvel

It was truly a day of wonder and marvel, here in the Wild Kingdom.

First of all, Cabel the Dog PASSED his Canine Good Citizenship Test!!! This came as a complete surprise to, well, everyone who knows him. He is a great dog, but does sometimes lack Good Citizenship skills. We hedged a bit, his trainer and I. One is not meant to use the head harness Gentle Leader thing, for reasons my trainer does not get. They are meant to do it all on coller and leash. Cabal is simply not controllable tho that way, so we used the Gentle Leader. He is taking the class again, with hopes that we can work up to just a coller.

Besides, it is kind of fun. People, dogs, walking around. (Top that for excitement LA folks!)

And JL2 let me pet her while she ate! And seemed to enjoy it. Or she was really hungry. Hard to tell.

Venus only drew blood once, and I kind of asked for it, playing Fingers Coming Out From Under The Blanket. Must re-Softpaw.

The peas got planted, tho, sadly not by Transcribing Girl.

And I read my first Jane Austen Chapter. (Getting away from the transcribing for ten minutes.) Wonderfully delightful! Why I have been scared off from her for so long I do not know...It's beautiful. I'm starting with Sense and Sensibility. Reading her bios I discovered that it was published on 1811, NOT the early 1900's, which was what I had thought. She was born a full 100 years earlier than I had believed.

This, for some reason, makes a huge difference..

Still a full moon.

And a day of wonder and marvel.

Love and Moons,
Lorraine

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

Post Mostly For The Birdchick....

Leaving, for the moment, the Transcribing that has become my world, and Miss Kitty's for that matter, as I have no intention of suffering alone, let's move onto Bees...

(We are transcribing a 2 hour 10 minute interview between Someone who may be our Boss and Someone Else. Very interesting indeed, but the sound quality of the recording is Very Bad. Makes for slow going. I'd say more, but we Assistants are not a chatty bunch some days)

Right. Bees. That I can chat about. The Birdchick is away today, off doing Bird Things, so Boss and I were sent a list of Hive Things that needed to be done. I like, generally to do the Colour Commentary, and leave the step by step to The Birdchick, but since she was not here today, I am going to try and write as her and Tell All.

I feel, sadly, as tho my venture into this, the being of the Birdchick, is a venture not entirely certain to succeed, in fact it may well, not, and perhaps we could go as far to say, no it will not succeed in coming up to her standards, as I have no camera, or any way of displaying the images that no doubt ought to go along with said record.

(ok, ok, so I have been reading a little too much Steve Brust's Phoenix Guards, and 500 Years after lately, why use four words, when you can say it in a hundred? I'll stop, but they are well worth re-reading even if one does tend to get a little wordy, great fun.)

Our first task was to check and see if Queen Kitty had gotten out of her Queen Container and was inside the hive laying brood. When you divide a hive, as opposed to getting a box of bees for a new hive, where the Queen is in her box with the bees and they all dig each other, you have to let the bees you have taken from the old hive get used to the new Queen. She is in a plastic container with holes, that is plugged with hard sugar. The bees eat the sugar and she comes out , and they are friends.

If they are not friends, they kill her.

She had not been eaten out yet, tho nearly. (You stick the container with Queen onto a frame with comb on it.) I wonder if it was because she was on a frame near the edge of the box? There were not many bees near her, tending and eating. We moved her more into the middle, so hopefully more bees will get her scent, and eat her out.

We did notice there seemed to be a new Queen cell, which is a baby Queen. Not sure what this means. You can tell, because they are much bigger. (I did not notice, but Boss knows a LOT about Bees.)

We checked the Olga Hive, which I like to call in technical bee terms, the " We got some honey going ON hive" All well there. We took out her Sugar water bucket, as she does not need it. Obviously.

Going down to the Bickman and Mimiko hives, we found that all seemed well in the Bickman Hive, very active.

On the Mimko hive, we were to add a brood box if they had filled up 7 frames with comb. She had, so we took one frame, with no brood in it (confuses the nurse bees) and put it in the new box, to encourage them to go up there and do bee things. We gave her a new sugar water bucket. She was making a little Funky Comb, on top of the frames, which we scraped off.

We also set out carpet tack boards around the hives. They are slats of wood with nails sticking up. Discourages the heck out of skunks.

There you have it. The Birdchick will, one hopes, be home soon, and can get back to doing her own Bee Reports, and I can get back to saying things like: WOW, how cool, I was totally Covered in Bees!!!!!!!!

Love and Bees, (but not transcribing) Lorraine