This Is Terrible, But Funny, But Mostly Terrible.

Hamster Suspect In Girl's Abduction? What?

Wheel In The Sky Keeps On Turnin'

What a great hamster
Who knew one could be a muse?
My sweet boy Ami

Ami came to live with me on February 14, 2006. He was the first hamster I ever had as a pet. I learned a lot from Ami and he inspired my creativity in ways I could never have predicted. My photography skills improved, I self-published my first book, Hamster Haiku, and I've made and sold various hamster related crafts. Ami made me happy with his simple, funny ways. And don't forget, he was a two-time hamster ball derby champion!



Ami died sometime in the early hours of September 21, 2008. He was simply old and his heart stopped. There appeared to be no trauma and no suffering. Lately, he had been sleeping more and slowing down, as is expected for an elderly hamster. I feel like I gave him a good life and he gave much more to me than he could ever know. His tiny paw prints definitely left a mark on my heart and I miss him terribly.



Actual hat. Not photoshopped!

Click here if you'd like to see more photos of Ami.

Jay: Fly, Fatass, fly!

I got the best comment on one of my YouTube videos. The best because it made me laugh at its absurdity. Someone must have too much time on his hands. I won't mention the username. Gross, immature, & removed.

"Stuffing His Cheeks"

It was, "What a fatass...hamsters are so greedy and dumb."

WHAT?

How To Piss Off Your Hamster #37

Put him in an adorable Hamtaro bowl that you picked up in Little Tokyo and proceed to take about 20 photos of him. Even bribing him with various treats such as blueberry yogurt balls and banana chips did not seem to brighten his mood! But, how adorable is this? Pretty kawaii, eh?

Hamsters Love Broccoli!

E and I stopped at the grocery store last night for bread, milk, and a few other necessities. We only needed a hand basket since we weren't buying much. While in the produce section, I noticed the loose broccoli and decided to get a small amount for Ami. I chose the five or so smallest florets in the bin and tossed it, in a produce bag, into the basket.

Fast forward to the check out line where E unloaded the breads, milk, peppers, and bananas. He went to put the basket on the floor. I grabbed the plastic bag from it and said, "Don't forget the broccoli!"

E: "Huh? Broccoli?"

J: "Yeah, in this bag."

E: "Oh, I just thought that was trash someone left in the basket."

J: "I just got a tiny amount. It's for Ami."

E: Rolls eyes.

J: "Well, it's only about 3 cents worth of broccoli so it's not big deal. I think the fresh veggies I give him are part of the secret to his living so long."
(He's at least 2.5 years old now).

E: I think there was another eye rolling moment here.

It was our turn and the cashier scanned our items. And what do you know, but that little bag of broccoli rang up at $.03!!! I thought it was hilarious and I think the checker thought I was nuts. Or at least a dork. Which I am.

SuperHam!

Long day of setting up for the start of Maker Faire in...oh crap!...a few hours! I'm excited, but a bit nervous about how it will go. I've made some specialty hamsters recently and really like this one from today:

...Now With Lucky Hamster!

I haven't been to Vegas in over a year, but I need to go and play this:

Super Happy Fortune Cat!

Practically Running A Nursing Home Up In Here

As of today, with Rusty's birthday, these are the pets in my home who are considered old:

• Cosette, 15. She's had her share of health problems lately, but is doing much better for the most part.
  

• Little Guy, 11. He doesn't really have arthritis, like Cosette does, but he limps around like an old man. His hearing is still great.
  

• Rusty, 8. He's a fairly small, healthy dog, so I don't think of him as a senior. He is graying on his snout and has lost some front teeth.
  

• Ami, a little over 2. For a hamster, that's pretty good. He's still quite active and perky. Must be the fresh veggies.
  

In lieu of links, for photos of the pets, refer to the banner and left to right corresponds to the list.

Coming soon: Recipe for throwing a birthday party for a dog and 22 kids.

Gotta Get In Tune With Sailor Moon

The past few days have been very busy and very tiring. I've had several post ideas, but have not been able to execute any of them. It doesn't help that I have gotten into a couple of Animal Crossing: Wild World games over Wi-Fi. Ay-yi-yi. So, just a few random bits and bobs for now.

In case anyone is wondering, Cosette is doing fabulous! She barely has any head tilt at all now. And she is as feisty as ever, which is quite a relief.

I'm going to do another NaBloPoMo challenge. It's gone monthly, instead of just being confined to November. There is a theme for March, which is lists. I love lists, so I think that will be a fun challenge. To keep it interesting.

As usual, when words fail me, I give you HAMSTER (with broccoli).

Happy Hamster Day!

Two years ago today, I got my very first hamster. E has always been a thoughtful and generous gift-giver and this one was incredibly amazing. I'd developed this obsession with the fuzzy little rodents, and having been denied having them as pets as a kid, he indulged me. So sweet.

I feel lucky that Ami, initially thought to be a girl, but who is definitely a boy, is still with me. He's as fat and cute as ever. Luckily, he survived my first attempt at handling him. He was so wiggly that I got nervous and dropped him. Several feet to the floor. Ugh. I guess hamsters bounce.

So, now I'm more obsessed than ever with adorable little hammies and even published a poetry and photo book inspired by and starring Ami. One of these days I'll photograph the collection of the hamster toys, etc. that I've been collecting and displaying on a shelf in my bedroom.

Happy Valentine's Day to E, Ami, Cosette, Little Guy, Rusty, friends, and family. I *heart* you all! (Or at least most of you!)

Exactly 14 years before he gave me the hamster, E gave me a ring. : )

Juxtaposition

I introduced Ami to the GIANT hamster puppet I got for Christmas.
He nibbled a bit, but I took it away in case it wasn't good for him.

And A Hamster New Year

In case you haven't been paying attention, I like hamsters. My obsession began some time ago, but really blew up when I got Ami almost two years ago. I chose this strange passion and am quite happy when others indulge me. Check out some of the goodies I got for Christmas:

There are notes on the specific items at flickr, but as you can see there are books, toys, art, and a couple of games for my new Nintendo DS Lite (another gift). Oh, and yeah, my little artificial tree is decorated with my craft hamsters. Hey, I set it up for photos, so why not?

I once had a collection sort of thrust upon me. It all started about 15 years ago when I wore a cow costume to work on Halloween. From that time on, people started giving me cow stuff. I went along with it for a while, but grew really tired of it. I'd never really asked to collect cows and while they are okay, and certainly yummy, I have no strong affinity for cattle. But this time it's different, I revel in my love of the furry little critters with cute nubby tails.

This One's Real

Ami, my real hamster, modeling a craft Santa hat.

Craft Hamster How-To

If you know me in the slightest, you probably know I'm obsessed with hamsters. I make craft hamsters using pom poms, craft foam, fishing line designed for beading, and hot glue. Acrylic fillable ball ornaments make good exercise balls. I've sold them at Comic-Con and a local craft fair.

,

The pom poms for the eyes, nose, and tail are very small and hot glue is, well...hot, so I use tweezers to hold onto and stick those onto the larger hamster body pom pom.

I cut 3 pieces of fishing line for the whiskers. I glue those to a pink pom pom, which will become the nose. I find this to be the trickiest step.





I cut ears out of craft foam. I struggle to make them fairly symmetrical.



After I glue on the ears, I add the nubby tail.



The hamster is then loaded into a plastic ball and a piece of twine is added, along with a tag and/or ribbon. They can be used as Christmas tree ornaments or simply as a care free pet.







Optional Santa hat constructed with a triangle shaped piece of red felt folded into a cone and secured with hot glue, a pom pom and a piece of pipe cleaner.

*Linked on the Craft: blog!

LOLHamster

Vote for gigantic Ami here!

How In The World Will I Make It To Work In The Morning?

I've been drinking since we clocked out and now it's 4 am...

Not really. I did my imbibing last night and didn't have to work today. It's been a good weekend (besides the latter part of Friday night...see below) and I hate to see it end. Since I have Fridays off, my weekend starts Thursday night. We went to a holiday party/open house at a facility that does digital post production work. It was nice to see some familiar faces, but the demo we sat through was way over my head.

Before the Largo fiasco on Friday, we went to the annual Toluca Lake Holiday Open House, primarily to get Rusty's photo taken with Santa. I haven't scanned it in yet. It's not that great and I had to be in it, so we'll see. I'm just really glad the rains let up for the event.

E had to work most of the day Saturday, so I ran a bunch of errands. He finished around 8pm, stopped home briefly and we were off to a Christmas party thrown by one of the guys E is actually working for. We had a great time and caught up with some friends we hadn't seen in ages. I even ran into a guy from my book club. We both did that, "Whoa, this is totally out of context" stare at each other before saying hello. Many laughs were had with our buddy H, who I actually refer to as Lady J, but that's another story. I got a bit tipsy, especially after the shot of Scandinavian turpentine beverage Akvavit. Blergh. My apologies for any inappropriate drunken texts or photos of toilets that went out.

Today was a gorgeous, warm and cloudless (one benefit of rain!) day. We went to the Rose Bowl flea market, briefly, where I picked up a bunch of little Hamtaro character figures. E picked up a 1985 issue of Playboy for a fascinating interview with Steve Jobs, who was talking about essentially an iPhone back then. We invariably spot a celebrity at the monthly flea market. Today it was Alice Cooper, which was pretty cool. I was alone though as I'd gone off in search of kettle corn.

After our modest purchases, we drove further east to Ontario to see our good friend, Scott Land, perform as Willy Wonka in a musical starring mostly high school students. The Chaffey High School Thespians are an impressive group of youngsters and they put on a great show. We got to have dinner with Scott and an old friend we haven't seen in a long time.

All in all, a great--but too short, as usual--weekend. How was yours?

I Love My Hamster, But...

...I thought I was going to commit rodentcide in the wee hours of the morning. Now, Ami's prime workout time usually begins between 1 and 3 am. No big deal. He runs in his wheel, which is actually pretty quiet, and does this running back and forth and over and under circuit training between the two habitats that are connected as his luxurious home. Fine.

Well, this morning, sometime between 1 and 2 am, I was awakened by this noxious gnawing and crunching sound. I'm not an especially light sleeper, so this was LOUD. I realized that Ami was trying to chew through his thick plastic wheel on the outside of one end of his condo. I hop out of bed, using my cell phone as a light and try to reason with the little dude.

Snuggled back under my covers, drifting off, he started up once again. I yelled at him, "AMI! STOP!" The two dogs who were curled up on the bed with me confirmed how crazy this sounded with looks of disbelief before they went back to dreamland. I got up, turned on a light, and opened up the container containing All Things To Amaze And Delight Your Hamster. I grabbed a tiny cob of corn, yogurt covered blueberries, sunflower seeds, and two wooden chew toys. I tossed them in the house. He sniffed each item, looked back at me, and went to the lower level of that section, ignoring the treasures I'd bestowed upon him. Lights off and back to bed I went and sure enough, the little brat started with the chewing again. Ugh.

In the end, the hamster lived and I slept...at least a little. He's so darn cute and it's in his nature to try and escape from captivity, as all good hamsters do. You all know I'd never hurt him! At least on purpose. Let's hope he's forgotten about that time I dropped him.

"This pumpkin is shit."

***Don't forget! You still have just about 24 hours to enter the contest by leaving a comment! On that post. Good luck!

Attention Hamster Fans!

...or those of you who just want to humor me...

A couple of delicious links of hamstery goodness:

Check out this adorable webcomic called Hamleto The Hamster.

For something a bit more twisted, I give you Hamster Deathmatch!

Introducing the Mark II model of the Hamster-Powered Paper Shredder.

And of course, hello to all from Ami:

Jump Ami Jump!

Ami is set to compete in his 4th Hamster Ball Derby today. We actually didn't train at all this time, so I'm not sure how it will go. It can't be worse than the last one. Yeppers, that's the one where he didn't even try. Silly hamster. If only it was a jumping contest, we might have a chance.


****Update: Ami won his first heat, but lost in the semi-final.

Hammy Time

I know, I know. I still have concerts to discuss, films to review...

Honestly, I'm still trying to wrap my head around seeing The Police live twice last week and will hopefully be able to put some coherent thoughts together about the experience soon. And I think I'll probably wait until the end of the film fest to give movie opinions and recommendations.

In the meantime, I want to give a shout-out to my little hamster, Ami, who finally made it onto Cute Overload! I guess between being so busy, I just haven't checked the site as often (daily) as I used to and had no idea someone had submitted his broccoli fest video.