Girls Update…

Well, the chickens are still growing by leaps and bounds. Here they are at 4 1/2 weeks old:

That was just last week. They were still living 24 hours in their brooder. And we had the “heat lamp” on for them at night.

This is Lucy figuring out the small perch that we placed in the brooder for them. She balanced quite well and had no problems getting out of the brooder from this location.

Now, they are living the daylight hours in their new run. We put them back into the brooder at night because their coop isn’t done yet. This is their run:

The piece of plywood on the right is the space where their door will be. The door will be at the very spot my spousal unit is standing (below). In this photo, he is building the coop, which is about 2/3 done now. He is doing a FANTASTIC job!!

Here are the girls in their run.

It’s 3 x 6 feet. And 3 feet tall. The top lifts up so we can get into it. But we leave it closed in case cats, skunks, possums, etc., decide to visit. Eventually, the girls will be able to fly out. But we will clip their wings.

Yesterday, as the spousal unit was building the coop, I went scrounging for worms, grubs, slugs, etc., and gave them to the girls. Here’s one of the girls (I think she is Esther) with her treat (grooooossssssssssssss):

Here’s Netty eating watermelon:

Netty at a full gallop in the pen (do chickens gallop?)

Esther checking out the world. Next to her (the red girl) is Lucy. The girl in back (she’s black) is Petunia. The girl behind Esther is Miss Priss.

They are in the brooder right now. I can hear them chatting away. It’s a nice sound. And our pup, Mora, keeps a good eye on them, too. Our little protector. :-)

Have a good one – whatever you do.

One of my favourite places…

Every year, at least once, my dad and I go to one of our favourite places to eat, drink tea, and hang out with one another.

That place? Tao of Tea. We always go to the location on Belmont. It’s fantastic. We each get a pot of tea – his is usually an assam tea, mine is either a chai (500 Mile Chai is fantastic) or a white tea (White Dragon). We then dive into some amazing food: somosas, dal, aloo parantha, naan, and lime-soaked yam.

I’m drooling right now.

And everything is reasonably priced. We can get out of there for less than $40.

Next door is the retail store. I can buy tea in bulk or buy tea sets.

It’s a nice place. And we’re going to go again before the end of November. Dad is retiring at the end of October, so I’m going to treat him to a nice time at Tao of Tea.

A YAY for me and a YAY for Dr. Horrible!

As you might remember, I was working the PNBA trade show this last weekend. I had a complete blast! I met some amazing and funny and talented and powerful people. And had fun doing it. I hope Greg invites me back next year because I would love to do this again.

Yesterday, I helped with author signings. I worked with 3 YA novelists and one murder-mystery author. Then, I hauled and counted books for the PNBA Rural library donation. It was a busy day even though 1/2 of the people and publishers were there. But it made for a nice day!

Yay for me (from author Lili St. Crow):

From Lili’s website: “Last night I was at the PNBA Nightcapper event. The volunteers were awesome, especially Patti, who stood next to me and handed me books, soothing me all the while.” http://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/journal/ (dated September 11, 2009).

Seriously, Lily St. Crow was fantastic and wonderful and funny and amazing and I loved loved loved working with her. I dropped her a quick line and told her how many of my fellow volunteers and some of the booksellers were commenting all weekend about how much fun  we were having! And we were. I really enjoyed working with her. THANKS LILI!!!

Yay for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog:

I love, love, love Dr. Horrible. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a 3-part story about a man who wants to be a famous villain (Dr. Horrible).  But there are complications.

And the majority of it is sung! Neil Patrick Harris (Dr. Horrible) is a FANTASTIC singer.

Anyway, they won an EMMY!!

Congratulations!!

If you need a good laugh – and to have a cool song stuck in your head. Check out Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog!

PNBA Trade Show Day 2

Day two was also a lot of fun! The people I’m working with are hilarious and knowledgeable! And I’m learning a lot about “the glamour” of being a writer. Not so glamourous!

Today, I worked the front doors as the floor opened. We had to make sure people had badges and that they didn’t bring in large suitcases in order to remove large piles of books!

Here was my view from the door. There were over 180 booths and tables.

I then ate some lunch and moved some boxes of books around the trade floor. At the end of the day, many of the publishers decided to leave their books on the trade floor.  Apparently, it’s cheaper to leave them there than mail them back to their publisher. Ridiculous.

So, the PNBA has set up a program where the majority of the discards go to a rural library.  This year, the books are going to a library in Idaho.

The rest of the discards are put on a “free” table. And we got first dibs.

My pile:

Quite a few of the books are for kids and young adults, so I envision using them as rewards at my job. I will blog about some of my treasures later – after I read some of them.

Off to get some rest. I’m kinda pooped. Another long day tomorrow. I work the autograph area tomorrow, then finishing up cleaning up the trade show floor (1/2 of the houses, publishers, businesses will be there tomorrow).

PNBA Trade Show 2009

I am volunteering at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Trade Show this year.  I started last night with a quick training, the stuffing of materials – then off to the Nightcapper which is the evening autograph session with an open bar and dessert goodies.

I ended up working with a local author the entire evening. Lili St. Crow, who is a FABULOUS and WONDERFUL woman. She has written over 30 books thus far, still works at her local book store, and is raising 3 kiddos. Very busy! Her most recent book is her first YA series. The book is titled Strange Angels. The second book in the 5-part series, Betrayals, is coming out in November.

She and I had a complete blast last night. We were laughing and joking – and she was wonderful with the persons who came to our table. And she may have talked me into do the GPS option on my iPhone.

This is us:

I also met other wonderful authors:

Patrick deWitt is a local author who wrote Ablutions, which came out earlier in the year. I didn’t get to chat with him much, but he’s going to be at Wordstock, so I’ll see him later.

The third author I visited with is a Seattle-based author, Cherie Priest, who wrote a cyberpunk novel called Boneshaker, which is due out at the end of the month. I have a signed Advanced Uncorrected Proof.

This is me with Cherie Priest:

She’s gorgeous up close! Guess that’s why I look like I have stick up my butt! :-)

Off I go! Second day today! Have a good one – whatever you do!

Update about the girls…

Hi all. My computer went kaput – and it took a while to fix it, reinstall programs, and put on all of my data and information.

So, finally, I am up and running. Good thing I keep a running list of my information and accounts. Egads.

So, our girls are now 2 weeks old. One of our girls is a few days older, but soon it won’t matter. They had a quick bout with coccidiosis, but we found the bloody poops and got medicine. All of the girls made it through without a problem.

Then, one of our girls met our pup, Mora. They played like best friends. Lucy ended up chasing Mora around the living room. It was hilarious. Who knew our dog needed her own pet chicken. This is Mora and Lucy:

So, yesterday, we introduced them to a few new things: millet and cobs of corn.

First, the millet. I put the millet in their brooder and they were a little leery:

Then, Lucy got a little braver:

Then, they decided that millet rocks (I tucked it into their food area so they would get used to it):

Then, the spouse and I ate dinner and each had a cob of corn (which is DEFINITELY at the end of its season). So, the girls got the leftovers. They weren’t overly thrilled at first:

Then, they really liked it. We could hear them fighting and chasing each other around:

This is one of our bigger girls, Antoinette, enjoying the corn. The kids have nicknamed her “puffy cheeks.”

It’s an adventure. The next “chore” is starting to build a chicken coop and attached run this weekend.