Sappy pet daddy post #1

Shit, I don't remember guinea pigs being quite this rough when I was young. Of course, back then they weren't technically MY pets- I merely cared for them over school vacations. But let me tell you- they aren't as easy as I thought. I think part of the problem is that I bought Muriel when she was young, so now it looks like she's growing up and the hormones are kicking in, so she's been getting feisty in the past few weeks. After being able to gently pick her up and hold her without trouble, now she gets squirmy when I'm holding her and won't sit still when I place her on my stomach. I even dropped her once because she was squirming so much (she was about as high off the ground as my knee when it happened, so she was fine), and a few days ago when I was propping her up to inspect the hair on her belly for knots/dirt/bedding, she suddenly nipped at my hand. Plus not only has she learned the sound of the vegetable crisper where I keep the lettuce, but she now recognizes the light in the kitchen as well.

But damn is she ever cute, and that makes it all worth it. No matter that she'd rather chow down on her straw nest than any new veggies I try out on her; no matter that I bought her a special run-around ball that she can only seem to use as a toilet; no matter that I spent more at the pet store yesterday than I did during my weekly supermarket run; and no matter that she starts to rev up again just around the time I want to hit the sack. The latter just seems to be part of the deal, especially during the work week- while I'm at the office she has all day to sleep, so by the time I'm ready to sleep she isn't nearly worn out yet. And so, more than a month after I brought Muriel home, I saw her napping for the first time. She was just sprawled out there in her cage, and I was just so overcome by the cuteness of it all that I couldn't help myself. I just stared, not making a sound for fear of waking her, my face no doubt awash in a puppy dog look that, if I saw it on someone else, I'd give him a lot of shit. So there you have it- just a big softy. Try not to tell anyone.

Shit, I can only imagine how bad I'd be if I had kids...

Tech support

Two or three days ago I started having trouble with my computer. Every time I try to play a media file, whether it's Windows Media or Quicktime, it comes out all jittery, like a skipping CD or DVD. I ran a full virus scan on my computer, but it didn't help. At this point in time, nothing else has been affected, and it's not just one program, since as I said both Windows Media and Quicktime files have been effective. So what could it be? I first noticed the problems when I came home from work in a day when there had been a power outage, so perhaps the blackout had an adverse effect on a piece of hardware in my computer. But I'm not computer-savvy, so I wouldn't have the slightest clue how to check. Has anyone out there had problems like this, and if so, how did you solve them?