July Wrap-up

July was packed with activity - July 4th weekend activities, happy hours, bike events, hiking, etc. However, I did not cover everything in previous posts and now that it’s August, it’s about time.

Notably missing is the Moonlight Classic and my participation with team Hell on Wheelz .  The Moonlight Classic is a benefit bike ride that starts at 10:30 pm, has you ride 10 miles around Denver, and ends with a big party at the state capitol afterwards.  The Hell on Wheelz team was well-organized and pubcrawling-centric.  Good fun but it was late for me with the pre-party at El Diablo, the late start for the ride and leaving our second pub at 11:30 with 8 miles and two more pubs to go.  I left early but had a fun time riding with the team of devils with blinking red horns.

This is a photo Jessica took while we were waiting to start riding:

This is Jessica at El Diablo, that devilish girl:

I hiked to Lake Isabelle near Nederland – this is the lake:

I hiked in Chacos (sandals) and was surprised to encounter so much snow!

I also did some hiking in Boulder with my friend and colleague Pat.  Where we parked was spied on by a little white dog that stuck its head through a hole in the fence.

We hiked to Royal Arch, which is this:

It was a steep climb to the point that the trail had stairs (made of natural stone not concrete stairs).  This is Patrick at the top.

This is one of many chipmunks that was not afraid of people:

In my walking life I tend to take alleys for some reason and I was treated to the sight of a raccoon mom and two of her babies this month.  This is the mom:

These are the babies:

Other July activities are covered in previous posts but I wanted to share these too.  This is G from the Blah Life reporting – over and out.

Hedgehog alert

So, I was adjusting my Google alerts a few weeks ago.  I added an alert for my name, which was recommended on various sites.  Unsurprisingly, no alerts have come into my inbox as of yet.  I also wanted to add a Google alert for something silly – hedgehogs! I find hedgehogs to be fascinating and fantastical animals and why not see what the great and might Google brings back on the topic?

First, a definition – what is a hedgehog?

A hedgehog in general is most commonly recognized as a small mammal with a coat of stiff, pointy quills covering their backs. They have pointy noses, and slightly bulging eyes located on the sides of the face. Their ears are typically rounded, though in some species, they are elongated, and located high on the sides of the head. They do have tails, but they are small and stubby, and of very little functional use. They can roll up in a ball when threatened.

 

I have come across some interesting information via the Google alert for hedgehogs. 

In the UK there are so many hedgehogs that there are hedgehog rescue centers like Tiggywinkles.  That’s right – Tiggywinkles.  Ok, Tiggywinkles takes in all kinds of animals but there is a hedgehog in its logo!  There are currently 161 hedgehogs at the center.

It seems that hedgehog couples can have a second batch of hoglets at the end of the summer, which doesn’t allow the hoglets to achieve the proper weight to make it through hibernation (600 grams).  These hoglets need to be collected and fed.  Also, many hedgehogs are orphaned during human gardening.  I mean the hogs live in the hedgerows, so they are in the line of fire (or weedwhacker or what have you).  Some of them are just injured – breaking legs is common.  Luckily they can be fitted with casts – no kidding.

Of course, there are all manner of hedgehog-themed items out there.  For instance the watermelon hedgehog:

There was a youtube clip that was going around for a while – the swimming hedgehog. I did some research and it is quite normal for hedgehogs to swim and it can be good exercise for them.

I get LOTS of Sonic the Hedgehog alerts, apparently there is a Sonic movie coming out in the near future.  Jolly.  I ignore those alerts.

One blog devoted to the joys and challenges of having a hedgehog may have convinced me that hedgehogs are perhaps not for me. Hedgehog Express talks about their fussy and moody hedgehog, Phinneus.  To be fair she also discusses the cuddly happiness of the hog. However, let’s take this quote:

Phinneus is a fiend. He always knows just how to wedge himself into tight places I cannot easily reach and cop a squat. He knows just how to ball up so that I literally have to drag him out and then hurriedly clean up the icky mess.

I don’t think I’m going to actually get a hedgehog but I’ll keep the Google alert!

Not much happening

I have this cough.  I’m struggling a bit at work.  I’ve been working on this survey results document for my leadership program for a solid week.  Our cat is healthy.  I have to pee.   That is the level of excitement going on in the blah life.  All this to explain why there have been no blog posts lately! 

So, um, I can offer a baby hamster eating broccoli:

I also have this bizarre banana wiener dog photo:

Until something happens or until I post more silly crap….

Mirror fights and misc

I often have internal conflict but these wee felines really take it too far. These are short videos and made me chuckle. Perhaps you too will gain enjoyment from them.

 

 

 

Now this is a bit of kitty mom kitten abuse but it’s quick and the kitten probably won’t suffer long-term psychological damage.

 

hamstah this!

It's a bit late for me but I'm surfing my cute animal sites in search of uplift and found this awesome bit of genius, which is the perfect response to the original hamstah.

Oktoberfest dogs

I recently attended a fairly lame Oktoberfest in Vail, Colorado. I say lame because it was very small and had no real German flare. I mean the beer offerings were bud, bud light and Beck's. So while Sandy and David, our guest from Texas for the weekend, drank a beer and tried out a variety of meats, I tried to get pictures of small dogs. But first I got this picture of a shop dog hanging in and out of a store:

This one had a wee fountain of hair on its head due to its person putting a rubberband in it.
This one was fairly agreeable but had its tongue sticking out all the time.

This one has a great little doggy fro.This floppy hound was hard to resist.
I got all of these photos while the owners were looking the other way. I didn't want to get into any long conversations about their dogs or the breeds or whatever. I just wanted to pet the dog and get a photo. Success!

hamstah

I lied.

I'm just a sucker for cute animals

Well, I guess it depends on how you define "cute." Some people don't find pugs cute for instance.

While waiting at the wine bar for Sandy, I was searching for "awesome colorado hikes" and came across a somewhat silly but entertaining blog: I am so excited...to be a pug. Specifically, I bumped into the post about dad taking Jemima hiking, which she does with dad frequently it seems.

Part of the reason this is so amusing is that there are so many blogs that are about babies or older children that are in the voice of the child. So, it was pretty funny that someone did it with a pug.

Anyway, here in the blah life I rely on others (esp. via the internet!) to spice things up.

Until later...

Mining the internet - for you!

That's right, all these hours I spend online looking for random stuff is done for you! I was recently clued in to a blog that I find to be cute, offensive and extremely funny all at the same time: F*ck You, Penguin.

The blog author brings to the world cute photos and talks about how disgusted he is by all the bloody cuteness!!! I myself am not disgusted because I am one of those people that goes all mushy over baby otter photos. But I am amused by the rants and the embedded cute pictures in the text links.

For example, on June 1st I found a post entitled "Baby Flying Squirrels: a mini 9/11 in your hand" with this picture:


There is even a book! The description provides some explanation behind both the site and the book:

"Attention, all you clumsy pandas, lovable puffins, huggable bunnies, and penguins that elicit ooohs and aaahs: The jig is up! We have lived under your furry fists for too long.

There is a cute and present danger lurking out there–in the wild, in the zoos, and sometimes even in our very own homes. Spurred on by the Cute Industrial Complex, these cuddly animals have taken over blockbuster films, inspirational posters, and computer desktops everywhere, further weakening the innocent civilians who are beguiled by these fuzzy frauds.

But you are stronger than them, aren’t you? Those soft bellies and wet noses are no match for you–and their free ride has just come to an end.

F U, Penguin is the rallying cry for those who choose to fight these power-hungry cute-mongers. Loaded with color photographs and hilarious commentary, this book will have you laughing out loud while it simultaneously saves you from the tragic fate of tossing yarn with big-eyed kittens and bottle-nursing baby pandas forever."

Teddy bear hamsters

The other day Sandy was browsing the online animals at the local animal shelter and saw something new to him - a teddy bear hamster!

These are really Syrian hamsters - who knew they had hamsters in Syria? Anyway, I had a teddy bear hamster between the ages of 4 and 6. I know they are rodents but I have a soft spot in my heart for them.

You can tell that the blah life persists since I'm blogging about hamsters.

While searching for an adequate picture I found all kinds of other hamster-related stuff. For example, the hamster-powered night light (with custom low-RPM alternator). If I'd had one of these as a kid all that hamster wheel noise would have been for something useful and not just annoying.

I also found a darkly funny blog post about a deceased hamster entitled "R.I.P." It is complete with an obituary and a shot of his final resting place. Here's an excerpt from the obituary of Freddy Hamster Lewis, "Hamster spent his days sleeping, pooping, chewing, and grooming himself. One of his favorite hobby's was running and throwing his poop."

Anyway there's a lot of good information out there about hamsters if you're in the market. With the economy down like it is, I bet you could get a couple for a good price...

LOLdogs

My brain has officially turned to mush. I found the LOL dogs and LOL cats website and scrolled through silly pictures for the past 45 minutes. In the dogs category, I think this one made me laugh the most. Not all of the pictures provoked laughter - some were just stupid.

I knew if I stayed online long enough...

So, I was just checking out my iGoogle pages and somehow got onto a Google sponsored Life Magazine search site. I've been listening to an old episode of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me and browsing the old streetcar, bicycle and subway pictures. I wasn't finding that much that caught my eye after the cool, old, international streetcar photos. I decide to search for something silly: hamster. I really didn't think I'd find anything worthwhile but au contraire! I found a photo of this hamster just leaving his/her trapeze platform! I can't imagine what's really going on here. I mean what happened after the picture was taken? Did the hamster just plop to the ground? Did the hamster complete his/her routine by grasping on to the little legs and feet of his/her counterpart trapezeing hamster?!

youtube eats my spare time

I find myself somewhat brain dead at the end of the day sometimes. When I realize this is when I realize I have been watching youtube for about 30 minutes. Tonight's youtube exploration is typical: I'm caught in a string of kitten videos.



Occasionally this leads to other videos, like this one (sound is key):



Or this one (sound is definitely key here):



And then sometimes I get to watching the dachshund videos. I hope none of you thinks this is cruel, I've seen dogs with socks on.



Ruble!

Sloth

My audience may be thinking, given the title of this post, that I am going to talk about the sloth I feel in general. Au contraire! I want to share the joy that is the sloth!

These creatures are fascinating for many reasons but one reason is that they poop once a week! I highly recommend the David Attenborough series "the Life of Mammals." In that series, there was a sloth segment that showed David next to a sloth climbing down a tree...well, you can see for yourself below. The part to which I'm referring is at about 1 min 15 sec but the whole thing about the sloth is quite interesting.






For interesting sloth facts check out: http://www.brazilianfauna.com/sloth.php