Alright, life has taken on a whole new meaning of hectic. Ash and I recently took in three strays: a four month old, thirty pound Irish wolfhound mix and a mother cat and her kitten. This brings up our total amount of furry kids to three dogs, six cats, two ferrets, three rats, and two fish. Our house is absolutely insane. To top it off, Ash’s laptop is out of commission and she’s been using mine for her work – which I’m fine with since it has allowed me to focus more on art and catching up with reading materials, but it means I’ve had to take a break from twitter and some designs I was working on.

Anyway, Ash and I recently took the three strays to the vet and spent a little over $160 to make sure all three were healthy. The cats were strays, but the puppy was obviously someone’s pet – only we’ve had him for five, six days now and nobody has called in a lost dog anywhere. We’ve checked the paper, the shelters, animal control, etc, and yet nothing. Unfortunately, we can’t really afford the bill, having just paid the vet even more money on our rats and our oldest dog, so we’re asking for donations from other animal lovers to help us get these rescued animals fixed up for their future owners (since we can’t keep them ourselves, we’re fostering them until we can find them new homes).

All donations will go straight to the vet bills, to get vaccinations, get tests, etc. Anything helps – even $5 goes far. I usually don’t like asking for money, but this is for such a good cause and we really can’t do this without your help. Also, if anyone is interested in a puppy or a couple of cute kittens, let us know. ;D If you want to know more about these cute kids, go check out the blog over at our rescue site I Love Rescue Animals.

Hopefully this all explains why I haven’t been online and why I’m pushing my ComicCon Contest back a few days. I just can’t keep up with things right now – our house is a mad house and there is far too much to do offline. I hope you can understand. I’m sure you will. I can’t say no to a fluffy puppy face. Who can?

I generally try to post every weekday, but yesterday and today I’ve been out of it with a sinus infection, making it hard to hear, breathe, sit up, and pretty much function normally. So as a cop-out, have a list of good blog links that I’ve enjoyed lately.

01. Twitter Face-Off: Calvin Lee vs. Andy Sowards from Grace Smith.
02. Creative Tips for Creative Writing from Blellow.
03. The Simple Fitness Rules from Zen Habits.
04. 5 Things I’ve Learned Working Freelance from Sabrina Dent
05. Should You Write Blog Posts on the Weekend from Tim Scullin
06. Creative 404 Error Pages Around for Inspiration from Instant Shift
07. Quick Tip #34 for Rounding the Corners from Niki Brown
08. 5 Things Sesame Street Can Teach You About Breakthrough Blogging from CopyBlogger
09. 66 High Resolution Nature Desktop Backgrounds from 1st Web Designer
10. Top 10 Ways to Provoke a Geek Argument from Wired
11. 25 Excellent Typography Tools for the Serious Designer from 6Revisions
12. The Stunning Work of Chris McVeigh from Abduzeedo

Also want to mention that I was one of the 55 twitterers in Grace Smith’s 55 Twitterers Share Their Freelancing Memories. Great article and some great memories shared. Check it out and enjoy the other articles as well. I’m off to pass out in bed.

Or go knit in bed with a very cute Rufus puppy (who is, of course, one of the best cuddle buddies you could ask for when you’re sick) and watch some Xena. I really watch that show for Gabi. Can’t help it, she’s hot.

Brody Hupp-Niels-Jeske
“The Dalai-Lama of dogs.”
July 15, 2008 – June 2, 2009
Adopted into our family January 15, 2009

Taken from us far too soon, we will never forget you, Brody-bear.

Today is my birthday! So far I’ve spent it sleeping in, getting a breakfast of biscuits and bacon cooked for me, and lounging on the couch watching TV. For lunch, Ash bought me Chinese food and we might end the day with a night watching movies. A quiet, but wonderful birthday.

No cake though. I’ll get that next Monday when we celebrate with my family. I love cake and I think it’s one of the perfect ways to celebrate any occasion. In honor of my birthday, I’ve rounded up some of my favorite geeky birthday cakes online and felt I should share them with you. Of course, now all I want to eat is cake.

XBox 360 Cake

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