Now, you understand, this was in character ...

"Your [current] inability to hit anything is the gods' gift to us."

-- To a fellow-adventurer who recently caught a third adventurer at the edge of his Burning Hands spell. And nearly killed him. And later wanted to fire into battle ... again.

Gah

My world has gone crazy.

I thought everyone went nuts when the White Sox won the World Series two years ago ... that was nothing.

-- Well, this from a girl who still owns her two Homer Hankies (1987, 1991). And danced in a parade to the Homer Hanky Song.

Learning Limits

Kermit is learning the extent of his Squirrel Superpowers. To wit: he has found out that he Can't Jump Onto Walls.

After D&D Monday night, he was scampering around on my person as I prepared his supper and said goodbye to folks. There was a lot going on, lots to sniff, and the little guy got a bit overexcited. He saw a patch of wall and made a full-body flying leap (literally), which turned into a full-body belly flop against the wall. Slide down the wall about 5 feet, to land underneath our bookshelf. We eventually coaxed him out with an almond.

I'm getting the impression that the only way to person-to-person train this guy is to let him try out all the furniture and find out for himself why it's not Good for Squirrels. Sooner or later he will have thrown himself against most everything else and find that humans are simply preferable: he can stick to them.

D&D Quotables, Part III?

"[Horses are] way below NPCs on the list of things to kill."*

"A fairly average display of hut-smacking."

"With a warcry of 'BEANS!,' I charge forward."

"I am [fingers held 1cm apart] this much cocky."

"I'm gonna create some water when we get back, and I'm gonna dunk you in it."

"I'm going to search the women. You never know what you'll find."

*NPC: Non-Player Character [AKA "cannon fodder"]

Further Developments

Last night, Kermit figured out that he can jump from me to Michael and back again. He thought it was Very Fun.

I've created a fuzzy monster

So FuzzButt woke me up at 4:30 this morning (my day off, no less) with his Alarm Call. (An emphatic squeak! repeated at about 60 bpm.) I went out to check on him -- it usually means he knocked something over and wants us to Fix It. Can't find anything. Turn on the light. Still can't find anything. Open the cage door to make sure the wheel can still turn (usually the problem -- he has a tendency to wedge things against it). While checking various pieces of furniture, he clambers onto my pajamas and sniffs at my ear.

Oh.

So I obligingly step back to he can jump to his cage. As I'm herding him into the cage (if this isn't done quickly, he's on his way to Higher Things), he zips back up my arm. One more jump, then close the cage and back to bed (for me).

Five minutes later, he woke me again. Same story, only this time he worked his way all the way down to the hem of my very-oversized pajama shirt, only to find there's a lot of swing there. Whee! Had to help him up a bit.

I'm just glad he didn't pee on me.

Get Yer Parachutes Ready

The FuzzBug has learned a New Thing. He's figured out that he allowed Out Of The Cage, as long as he's On People (or at least Mom -- not so sure about Dad yet). It's a new game: climb on my hand, scamper up my arm and look around from the vantage point of my shoulder for a bit, then JUMP to the cage, squeaksqueak of triumph, turn around and do it again. He's Very Proud of himself.

Kermit is also Very Interested in watching us. Whenever Michael or I walk by (when he's awake, which admittedly isn't often), he rushes to the spot nearest us. When we approach (and who wouldn't, with that audience?), he skitters along the cage all around where our head is, sticking his nose out as far as it'll go. It's a trip.

The Word is Out

Apparently, we are the Suckers of the Animal World. Two tree squirrels (I've named them Jasper and Emily) have decided that we are Nice People Who Should Feed Them. They're definitely male and female, I'm gonna guess they're mates (not that I've seen evidence, thank goodness). They just showed up on our balcony one day, and Jasper came right up to our door to ask for food. Naturally, I obliged. Emily is very much the shyer of the two and I don't have any pics of her yet, but here's several of Jasper.
He likes hanging out on Michael's bike. He's also tried to store grapes on it, to no avail.




But it's also a great place for Thinking Squirrel Thoughts.











Now, this is something I've never seen before. A squirrel just Hanging Out. He's not eating, he's not washing his whiskers, he's not doing anything. Just watching life.


He watched me take pictures, but didn't seem to mind.
Even though he's really close to where we're standing.