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simplicity
Jan. 6th, 2015 06:31 pm73 days until the Vernal Equinox
And it's cold as fuck this week. There I was, a few days ago, when it was in the 50s F, thinking "hey, maybe this winter won't be so bad after all." Nope.
Here are some things I didn't see.
1. A volunteer tried to catch a mouse, which looked ancient by mouse standards, and Nina thought it was one of our mice. She ended up adopting it and named it K1 McGruff.
2. Courtney had Falco in the hallway and the cockatoo was posing menacingly at Falco.
Big Red's (see The Killing Fields, which takes its name from a chapter in Fairyland that takes its name from a movie about the Khmer Rouge) hairless companion was neutered/will be neutered soon. I don't know, I didn't actually see this happen. His owner, whatever her name may be, met the macaw. She said to me that he might not be able to hear us but he knows we're there.
A guinea pig had a bladder stone removed and his bladder and urethra flushed, which involved Rob squirting saline and Courtney peeking under the surgical drape and seeing what came out of his urethra.
The stones in guinea pigs are made of calcium, which shows up on the x-rays but doesn't dissolve with medication the way dog and cat bladder stones do.
Nina wanted to make a necklace out of bladder stones and sell it to religious fanatics (she says that's where all the money is; I suggested Chinese peasants, who will buy anything if you tell them it's from an endangered animal), and knows a lady who made earrings out of rat tumors.
In context: nephrons remove the waste products from cell metabolism and also regulate water and electrolytes. Said waste products are urea in mammals, uric acid in reptiles and birds, and ammonia in fish. Urea breaks down into ammonia. Transitional epithelium allow your bladder to expand.
In males, there's some extra stuff to keep sperm happy and healthy.
Embryos develop sets of primitive kidneys, which atrophy away and are replaced by more developed kidneys.
And speaking of pee, once I panicked because my pee was pinkish after eating beets. Apparently, asparagus can turn your pee greenish.
While all of this was happening, the birds were having a conference, with the cockatoo making a Lustmord-ish scream and the macaw barking (and I think he said "oh crap!"), the sun conure just tweeted I think. I don't think they could actually understand one another.
burning question: does he seriously think I have power over skylarks, cranes, and kraits?
And it's cold as fuck this week. There I was, a few days ago, when it was in the 50s F, thinking "hey, maybe this winter won't be so bad after all." Nope.
Here are some things I didn't see.
1. A volunteer tried to catch a mouse, which looked ancient by mouse standards, and Nina thought it was one of our mice. She ended up adopting it and named it K1 McGruff.
2. Courtney had Falco in the hallway and the cockatoo was posing menacingly at Falco.
Big Red's (see The Killing Fields, which takes its name from a chapter in Fairyland that takes its name from a movie about the Khmer Rouge) hairless companion was neutered/will be neutered soon. I don't know, I didn't actually see this happen. His owner, whatever her name may be, met the macaw. She said to me that he might not be able to hear us but he knows we're there.
A guinea pig had a bladder stone removed and his bladder and urethra flushed, which involved Rob squirting saline and Courtney peeking under the surgical drape and seeing what came out of his urethra.
The stones in guinea pigs are made of calcium, which shows up on the x-rays but doesn't dissolve with medication the way dog and cat bladder stones do.
Nina wanted to make a necklace out of bladder stones and sell it to religious fanatics (she says that's where all the money is; I suggested Chinese peasants, who will buy anything if you tell them it's from an endangered animal), and knows a lady who made earrings out of rat tumors.
In context: nephrons remove the waste products from cell metabolism and also regulate water and electrolytes. Said waste products are urea in mammals, uric acid in reptiles and birds, and ammonia in fish. Urea breaks down into ammonia. Transitional epithelium allow your bladder to expand.
In males, there's some extra stuff to keep sperm happy and healthy.
Embryos develop sets of primitive kidneys, which atrophy away and are replaced by more developed kidneys.
And speaking of pee, once I panicked because my pee was pinkish after eating beets. Apparently, asparagus can turn your pee greenish.
While all of this was happening, the birds were having a conference, with the cockatoo making a Lustmord-ish scream and the macaw barking (and I think he said "oh crap!"), the sun conure just tweeted I think. I don't think they could actually understand one another.
burning question: does he seriously think I have power over skylarks, cranes, and kraits?
