National Skwerl Awareness Week

[firedog]

Did you know that the second week in October is National Squirrel Awareness Week. Hey Squirrel Girl you got your own week. Here is a web site that you might like: http://www.scarysquirrel.org/special/countdown/
See ya Chris

[Squirrel Girl]

Well, yes *I* knew next week is Skwerl Awareness Week--be aware, be very aware......

Last year we had cake at work for SAW. We'll probably do it again this year (OK, we're desperate for goodies).

Anyway, for everyone else, I'm guessing that somebody decided this was a good week to be aware of squirrels because they're so busy with nuts and acorns that they are even worse than normal about avoiding being run over.

Thanks for thinking of me! (Scary Squirrel World is pretty cool, huh?! Gregg has TOOO much time on his hands, though).

[Squirrel Girl]

Ok, here we are. It's now National Squirrel Awareness Week! Be aware!

To celebrate, here's a weird story that was emailed to me today. I don't believe it, but it's interesting, nonetheless.

http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0400lambeth/tm_objectid=16217629&method=full&siteid=50100&headline=squirrels-on-crack-name_page.html

[UpOnTwo]

Ok, here we are. It's now National Squirrel Awareness Week! Be aware!

To celebrate, here's a weird story that was emailed to me today. I don't believe it, but it's interesting, nonetheless.

http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0400lambeth/tm_objectid=16217629&method=full&siteid=50100&headline=squirrels-on-crack-name_page.html
God, that article was funny. :D

[CRAIG2]

oh jeezus.... what next... :eek:

[UpOnTwo]

The avatar for squirrel girl would be the perfect picture of a squirrel on crack. Nothing against you, it's just that picture is funny as sh@t! Thanks for that article.

[Squirrel Girl]

The avatar for squirrel girl would be the perfect picture of a squirrel on crack. Nothing against you, it's just that picture is funny as sh@t! Thanks for that article.You are so RIGHT! I think it was jabberwocky's idea to have a picture of my real live dead squirrel be my avatar. If I recall, he did say something about it looking like it was on crack! :D

[kuru]

this was emailed to me a few weeks ago. it is probably false but still kind of funny.


EVIL MUTANT ATTACK SQUIRREL OF DEATH

I never dreamed that slowly cruising on my motorcycle through a residential neighborhood could be so incredibly dangerous!

Little did I suspect.

I was on Brice Street - a very nice neighborhood with perfect lawns and slow traffic. As I passed an oncoming car, a brown furry missile shot out from under it and tumbled to a stop immediately in front of me.

It was a squirrel, and must have been trying to run across the road when it encountered the car. I really was not going very fast, but there was no time to brake or avoid it — it was that close. I hate to run over animals, and I really hate it on a motorcycle, but a squirrel should pose no danger to me. I barely had time to brace for the impact.

Animal lovers, never fear. Squirrels, I discovered, can take care of themselves!

Inches before impact, the squirrel flipped to his feet. He was standing on his hind legs and facing my oncoming Valkyrie with steadfast resolve in his beady little eyes. His mouth opened, and at the last possible second, he screamed and leapt! I am pretty sure the scream was squirrel for, “Banzai!” or maybe, “Die you gravy-sucking, heathen scum!” The leap was nothing short of spectacular… He shot straight up, flew over my windshield, and impacted me squarely in the chest. Instantly, he set upon me. If I did not know better, I would have sworn he brought 20 of his little buddies along for the attack. Snarling, hissing, and tearing at my clothes, he was a frenzy of activity. As I was dressed only in a light T-shirt, summer riding gloves, and jeans this was a bit of a cause for concern. This furry little tornado was doing some damage!

Picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and leather gloves, puttering at maybe 25 mph down a quiet residential street, and in the fight of his life with a squirrel.

And losing…

I grabbed for him with my left hand. After a few misses, I finally managed to snag his tail. With all my strength, I flung the evil rodent off to the left of the bike, almost running into the right curb as I recoiled from the throw.

That should have done it. The matter should have ended right there. It really should have. The squirrel could have sailed into one of the pristinely kept yards and gone on about his business, and I could have headed home. No one would have been the wiser. But this was no ordinary squirrel. This was not even an ordinary angry squirrel.

This was an EVIL MUTANT ATTACK SQUIRREL OF DEATH!

Somehow he caught my gloved finger with one of his little hands and, with the force of the throw, swung around and with a resounding thump and an amazing impact, he landed squarely on my BACK and resumed his rather antisocial and extremely distracting activities. He also managed to take my left glove with him! The situation was not improved. Not improved at all.

His attacks were continuing, and now I could not reach him. I was startled, to say the least. The combination of the force of the throw, only having one hand (the throttle hand) on the handlebars, and my jerking back unfortunately put a healthy twist through my right hand and into the throttle. A healthy twist on the throttle of a Valkyrie can only have one result.

TORQUE.

This is what the Valkyrie is made for, and she is very, very good at it. The engine roared and the front wheel left the pavement.

The squirrel screamed in anger.

The Valkyrie screamed in ecstasy.

I screamed in, well, I just plain screamed.

Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a slightly squirrel-torn t-shirt, wearing only one leather glove and roaring at maybe 50 mph and rapidly accelerating down a quiet residential street on one wheel, with a demonic squirrel of death on his back.

The man and the squirrel are both screaming bloody murder.

With the sudden acceleration I was forced to put my other hand back on the handlebars and try to get control of the bike.

This was leaving the mutant squirrel to his own devices, but I really did not want to crash into somebody’s tree, house, or parked car. Also, I had not yet figured out how to release the throttle… my brain was just simply overloaded. I did manage to mash the back brake, but it had little effect against the massive power of the big cruiser.

About this time the squirrel decided that I was not paying sufficient attention to this very serious battle (maybe he was an evil mutant NAZI attack squirrel of death), and he came around my neck and got INSIDE my full-face helmet with me.

As the faceplate closed part way, he began hissing in my face. I am quite sure my screaming changed intensity.

It had little effect on the squirrel, however. The RPMs on the Dragon maxed out (since I was not bothering wi th shifting at the moment), so her front end started to drop.

Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a very raggedly torn T-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, roaring at probably 80 mph, still on one wheel, with a large puffy squirrel’s tail sticking out of the mostly closed full-face helmet. By now, the screams are probably getting a little hoarse.

Finally I got the upper hand … I managed to grab his tail again, pulled him out of my helmet, and slung him to the left as hard as I could. This time it worked … sort-of.

Spectacularly sort-of ..so to speak.

Picture a new scene.

You are a cop.

You and your partner have pulled off on a quiet residential street and parked with your windows down to do some paperwork. Suddenly a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a torn T-shirt flapping in the breeze, and wearing only one leather glove, moving at probably 80 mph on one wheel, and screaming bloody murder roars by, and with all his strength throws a live squirrel grenade directly into your police car.

I heard screams.

They weren’t mine…

I managed to get the big motorcycle under control and dropped the front wheel to the ground. I then used maximum braking and skidded to a stop in a cloud of tire smoke at the stop sign of a busy cross street.

I would have returned to ‘fess up’ (and to get my glove back). I really would have.

Really…

Except for two things.

First, the cops did not seem interested or the slightest bit concerned about me at the moment. When I looked back, the doors on both sides of the patrol car were flung wide open. The cop from the passenger side was on his back, doing a crab walk into somebody’s front yard, quickly moving away from the car. The cop who had been in the driver’s sea t was standing in the street, aiming a riot shotgun at his own police car.

So, the cops were not interested in me. They often insist to “let the professionals handle it” anyway.

That was one thing. The other?

Well, I could clearly see shredded and flying pieces of foam and upholstery from the back seat. But I could also swear I saw the squirrel in the back window, shaking his little fist at me.

That is one dangerous squirrel.

And now he has a patrol car.

A somewhat shredded patrol car .. but it was all his.

I took a deep breath, turned on my turn-signal, made a gentle right turn off of Brice Street, and sedately left the neighborhood.

[Dirt]

Did you know that the second week in October is National Squirrel Awareness Week.

I am aware that the squirrel population in our yard is down by about 80% thanks to the increase in hawk population in our yard last winter. The fuzzy bunny family in the back yard hasn't been seen since April. The domestic rabbit that is a liberated pet living in the hedge in our front yard is holding his own. He/she's a pretty big bunny. I thought he would have been gobbled up or starved to death or something. He/she's been there over a year and is still fluffy and cute. He/she comes when called and will let you pick him/her up and pet him. He/she then hops back over to the hedge where he appears to live.

Please forgive the he/she thing. I respect the bunny's privacy. ;)

Happy SAW.

Pete

[Squirrel Girl]

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to convince a grocery store to decorate a Skwerl Awareness Week cake. Sometimes you've just got to do it yourself.

[Dirt]

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to convince a grocery store to decorate a Skwerl Awareness Week cake. Sometimes you've just got to do it yourself.

Nice! You did a great job.

Costco is pretty good with cake decorating stuff. Every now and then I go in and order a cake with something that I think there's no way they'll do. They call to confirm that is really what I want written on my cake, then they do it. On a few occassions, they asked me to pay before they made the cake. Go figure.

If it is something that is either offensive, or that they don't understand and might be offensive (which is most of the time) they keep the cake behind the counter and I have to go ask for it. I'm not entirely sure if they do this to protect to rest of the customers from possibly seeing naughty words written on a cake, or if they do it to see what manner of humanity is ordering a cake with such horrible things written on it.

I don't really eat cake that often. I just like going in and ordering weird cakes. I figure that it adds a little variety to a cake decorator's day.

I guess this confirms that I'm easily entertained.

Pete

[Squirrel Girl]

Costco was my first consideration. They have a store about a 1/2 mile from my office. But my membership expired last month. And as a single person, it's not always cost effective for me to be a member. If you buy one "big" item, like a piece of furniture or an appliance, you MIGHT recoup the cost. But for a giant box of artificial sweetener, bag of pecans, and toilet paper, a couple times a year (and a cake once per year), it's just not worth $45 or whatever they charge these days.

I would agree without about giving a cake decorator a chance to do something different (it's because you and I both have off-beat senses of humor that we get along so well...). One time, I had a "no bubbles" birthday cake made for a guy who invented a rebreather.

But the lady at Giant had half a brain and could only do things a certain way. They could only do flowers unless you had a picture screened on. And that was going to be $35. So two $1 cake mixes, two $1.50 frosting tubs, some last year's left over sprinkles, two $2.50 colored piping frosting, and voile! $10 and a SAW cake! It's not great cake art, but the point is to eat it, not marvel at my skill (or lack thereof) with frosting.

[CRAIG2]

Very nice, very nice :D

[Squirrel Girl]

Our SAW celebration was small, but a dedicated group got together and sang skwerl songs (actually I only know one: Moose, moose, moose, moose and skwerl, moose, moose. Moose and skwerl, moose, moose. To the tune "Duke of Earl.") and ate cake. We discussed how to get a skwerl design onto a cake--Llama Boy would have pressed a real squirrel in to make an impression. All in all, quite pleasant. Then back to work.

[CRAIG2]

Bonus points if you go in costume next time.....

[Squirrel Girl]

Does it count that the career Marine squatted down on his knees with his paws out in front of him posing like a chitterbox?

Hey--I finally figured out my Halloween costume. I bought all the components--<$15. It's going to have a squirrel as an accessory, but not the main feature. I hope to be able to sit in it, but I won't be able to lean against a chair back. I suppose I might be able to bicycle in it, but I'd have to exchange the hat with a bicycle helmet. And it sure isn't going to be all that durable. It's a surprise, though, so I can't tell.....

[CRAIG2]

Definitely points for getting the marine on his knees.... LOL

Uh oh... costumes... should I be worried? Does in involve a whip?

[Squirrel Girl]

Uh oh... costumes... should I be worried? Does in involve a whip?Hazel wanted me to go as Catwoman. But the costumes were just a little too revealing for my overly ample figure. Besides, I need a costume I could wear to work, and Catwoman DEFINITELY would be something I'd get fired over.

Nope. It's nothing all that great, but I just figured it would be fun to make, and that was the only reason.

[saxman]

My backyard squirrels celebrated Squirrel Awareness Week by building a nest in the Silver Maple closest to my house. I can always tell because of all the green leaves and twigs that are piled up at the bottom of the tree.

Their only "predator" is my 16 1/2 year old dachshund Max. At his age, he could care less about them. In his younger days, he probably would have barked at them and given chase...maybe enough to make them think twice about setting up their home there. These days, unless they come right up to the sliding glass door (which usually elicits a couple of "fierce" barks), Max takes a "live and let live" attitude towards them.

[CRAIG2]

Hazel wanted me to go as Catwoman. But the costumes were just a little too revealing for my overly ample figure. Besides, I need a costume I could wear to work, and Catwoman DEFINITELY would be something I'd get fired over.

Nope. It's nothing all that great, but I just figured it would be fun to make, and that was the only reason.


I have a Catwoman barbie in my office - she does have a whip. Kind of hot. :)