On Thursday Jason gave me my early birthday gift, a chinchilla! I named him Mortimer, after Cary Grant's character in Arsenic and Old Lace. I've been wanting to use the name Seymour for an animal since I read the Salinger short stories about the Glass family, but Mortimer just seemed right for him. But, since Megan disagreed, Seymour will be his middle name haha. He's very sweet, and a lot of fun to watch. He loves his exercise wheel. When he runs, he hops, so much so that he's unscrewed the wheel a few times. I find chinchillas very interesting, on one hand they are extremely fragile, everything from 80 degree temperatures to a bacteria commonly found in tap water can kill them. But at the same time, they live an average of more than 10 years in the wild, and can live to past 20 as domestic animals. Their fur is so thick that if they bathe in water instead of dust, their skin can rot off. I've wanted one since middle school, when I saw one bathe in dust. Mortie has a bath house, which he loves. They are also the most inquisitive animals I've ever seen. If he sees unexpected movement, he will stand up on his hind legs and watch it. He also follows anything that wiggles in front of his face. I just discovered that he loves shiny things, which unfortunately include my rings, my silver finger nails, and my necklace haha. He bit onto my wedding ring last night, I was afraid he would break his teeth. He's very sweet, but does not like to be picked up yet. The pet store guy said I have to hold him for 10 minutes a day for at least a month before he'll calm down. This is easier said than done. He's extremely wiggly and fast. He jumped out of my arms earlier, ran to the door to our room, which was shutting Harlock away, and leaped off of it. It was pretty scary haha. He also expresses his displeasure by making a sound similar to a duck quack when I try to pick him up. But luckily he's not a biter, except for shiny things, which inadvertently puts my hand at risk, with the rings and finger nails. He did lightly nip my nose when I put it near his, which is a rodent greeting, but it didn't hurt. The last thing I will say about chinchillas tonight is that they have orange teeth. This means they have enough calcium in their diets. Jason got sick on Friday, and I had to take him to the doctor. I've been in a medical situation with him 3 times before- once he had such a high fever that he started hallucinating, when he dislocated his knee in Dallas, and when I took him to the knee doctor after that. It turns out he has something called Pharyngitis, and the doctor said all he can take is ibuprofen. He's still feeling pretty bad, but he still managed to be a trooper this weekend so we could have fun with his parents. We bought a cute fountain for the backyard, and we finally got the deer print in the mail! Jason didn't like it when he saw it online, but he really likes it in person. He just needs to trust the interior design genius that is me haha. We went to the Lost Dog Cafe last night for my birthday dinner. It was good, especially the Geisha desert, which is fried pieces of cheesecake dipped in chocolate, raspberry and caramel sauces. Yummy. On an unrelated note, we finally joined Netflix today. We've been going back and forth about it for a while. I don't watch a lot of movies, and while Jason used to, he doesn't have the time anymore. But on the other hand, most of the movies we do want to see are impossible to find around here. We're doing the 2 at a time plan. I am disappointed that the instant computer movies aren't available for Macs yet. Our first two movies are the Fearless Vampire Killers, a Roman Polanski movie Jason's been wanting to see, and Dan In Real Life, which we both want to see. I had no idea I wanted to see so many movies, but we already have 30 movies in our queue. Other ones that I picked that have me excited are Eagle Vs. Shark, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, and La Vie en Rose.
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