Squirrel Stuff I Own: Know Your Rodent

I had to get drunk before I wrote this post because it was the only way to calm myself down enough to think clearly and write a few sentence fragments.

This book.  Received for Christmas.  So awesome.

I said, "Oh my God, this is so amazing!  I can't believe I don't already own this!"  Friend said, "I can't believe you didn't write it!"

On bedside table now.  Still exciting.  Not conducive to sleep.

Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers!

So I went to Gamestop (my favorite place to spend B's money) the other day, had a disappointing look around the store, and left.  (Side note to all game developers who read my blog: I am not interested in first person shooters or anything that has "Momma" or "Puppiez" in the title.  Please stop making all of those games.)  I was sad, shuffling down the street back toward my officez when I noticed a sketchy man selling comic books had taken up residence next to the sketchy man who sells bongs on that corner.

Now, I have many interests, of wide range and quality, but comic books do not generally rate among my interests.  There is, however, one particular comic series that I was deeply dedicated to in the early 1990s.  "Oh, I'll just check out the kids section of Sketchy McSketcherson's comic book stand," I said to myself.

And I found it. 

Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers, the comic book!  I had a small stack of these when I was a kid, and I remember excitedly pawing through the comic books at Safeway every week looking for the latest issue.  Sketchy dude was selling this for $5, which I'm sure was five times what it cost back in 1992.  But I was in the mood to spend money, damnit, so I did it.  I purchased a small part of my childhood.

You can bet I'll be hanging out on the corner with the bongs much more frequently now!

Found Squirrels: Creepy Bike Squirrel

Although I really dislike crowds, especially in Midtown Manhattan, I do always enjoy seeing the holiday windows in New York City.

And I especially enjoy the particularly whimsical and nonsensical windows, like this one, where we see a squirrel inexplicably riding a penny-farthing bicycle over the roofs of various townhouses whilst wearing a Santa hat.  I mean, why not?

Today, on a hunch, I went back to my folder full of photos from my previous phone, and finally figured out why this window seemed so familiar.  

I took this photo during my holiday window viewing in December of 2009, and I'm pretty sure this is the exact same squirrel!  Either that or multiple stores own copies of this squirrel riding a bicycle, which would just be odd.  

Found Squirrels: Squirrel Mummy

Guys, I'm so behind in my squirrel blogging!  I'm sitting here enjoying the sweet sounds of Britney Spears (she's back; did you know?) and combing through my photos from the last few months and becoming completely overwhelmed by the number of posts I need to write.  How did I let this happen?  I blame the three week period in January when I tried to give up coffee.  

Way back in December we went to the American Museum of Natural History with a friend who was visiting from out of town.  I always enjoy this museum, particularly the room that addresses the evolution of mammals.

That's some squirrel taxonomy and evolution for y'all.  Check out the sweet capybara up there.

And they had a mummified squirrel!  Poor little guy looks so uncomfortable.  But I was so pleased to see him in the museum.  Everyone is always going on and on about the freeze-dried woolly mammoths that scientists are finding all over the place.  What about the squirrels? What about the giant prehistoric beaver?  Why isn't anyone else excited about bringing back the rodents of yesteryear?

What do you call a groundhog's laundry?

Hogwash!

As longtime readers of this blog already know, I get really excited about Groundhog Day.  As longtime readers should also know, this is because a groundhog is a type of squirrel (a ground squirrel) and I love any day when we celebrate squirrels.  (I celebrate squirrels every day in my head, but when the rest of the world celebrates with me, well, that is a special day.)  So I threw a surprise Groundhog Day party for my office!

Hey, somebody has to make use of the color printer!   I designed the banner like three weeks ago and I was ridiculously excited about finally debuting it.

Probably the best part of Groundhog Day at my office this year was the presents.  Last year I was super lame and just made cards for everybody with fun facts about groundhogs.  This year I went all out and purchased delightful children's books about groundhogs for each of my coworkers!  And I included a card because I'm an adult now and actually enjoy giving and receiving cards.

I left a gift on everybody's desk so they would have something exciting to greet them when they came in.  I think everyone was suitably excited.  As one of my coworkers put it, "I woke up this morning, saw that it was Groundhog Day, and wondered if there would be some sort of insanity going on at the office.  Why did I wonder that?"

I also purchased special Groundhog Day donuts.  I was going to write some cute little poem about how the groundhog comes out of his hole and now we can all enjoy a donut without a hole... but I couldn't get my shit together in time.  My trains were messed up that morning and I almost didn't make it in time to set up everything for the party.

I think everything came together nicely, and my coworkers seemed both pleased and amused, which is what I was going for.

Next year I'm bringing in a real groundhog!

Found Squirrels: Santa Squirrel Selling His Sole for Shoes

He he, do you see what I did there?  Yeah, you do.

My new iPhone has really revolutionized the way I record squirrel stuff sightings, in a crazy way.  I used to struggle to find squirrel things to post about, and now I continually have a backlog of squirrely bits for my blog!  How is a full-time employed hermit woman supposed to keep up?!

I found this squirrel on the door of a running store (or maybe it's just a shoe store?) in Manhattan before Christmas.  I'm not particularly fond of this example of squirrels in advertising, as it appears the squirrel is either dead or "crunk," as B would say.  I recommend my treatise on the HP printer squirrel if you're interested in seeing what I think is a fantastic use of a squirrel in advertising.

Madison Avenue, take note.

The Rescuers

I watched The Rescuers the other night, you know, that Disney movie from I think 1977 about the mice?  I am actually a little too young for this particular movie, and was more familiar with The Rescuers Down Under which I think came out in the 1990s.  But I sure enjoyed watching the original the other day.

But wow, I realized that I am a sucker for rodents wearing tiny hats and tiny shirts.  And not only do they have tiny hats and shirts and tiny umbrellas, they also have a tiny United Nations of their own!  And it's here in the regular-sized human United Nations in New York City!  So cute!  I may or may not have squealed with glee, I'll leave that to your imagination.

Also, I now have a picture similar to this as my lock screen on my iPhone and it never fails to bring me joy when I look at it.

I have a rodent problem.

Birthday Squirrel Card Series - Part 4

Normally if I'm having a bad day, I turn to my secret magic recipe for bringing happiness to myself and others (if they are lucky enough to be in the room with me): Twenty minutes of keyboard cat on loop followed by at least one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and ending with four Britney Spears songs, but not the one with Madonna in it.  I now have a new item to add to my Recipe for Keeping Your Casey Clean and Happy.

This lovely little birthday item was made for me by my friend S.  See how well she knows me? It incorporates so many of my interests!  It is beautiful!  It is perfect!  It is all Casey all the time(registered trademark, bitches)!

Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day!

From a real New York City squirrel!

Birthday Squirrel Card Series - Part 3

This treasure of a card comes from my friend M, who lives on the other side of the country but is still committed to both mailing and emailing me awesome squirrel stuff on a regular basis.

It was suggested that this card may have originally been a Thanksgiving card rather than a birthday card. It also came with this assortment of woodland creature stickers!

Aren't they just wonderful? I especially adore the little acorn stickers. I'm a big fan of acorns in general, not for eating necessarily, but because they are the stereotypical squirrel accessory and they crack me up because they come with their own tiny hats.