Sunbird

@Tristan *jaw drops in amazement* You did that in half an hour?? It's beautiful!

When you see it, you will flip the table.

Here are 5 photos from when I was only 30 feet away. I've cropped them, but only slightly.

Yeah, it was a stroke of luck that I spotted them. I was standing quite a distance from the water's edge, looking through my binoculars at a larger shorebird that was wading in the water a little ways behind them, when I saw the tiny white spots that were their bellies and realized they were there. Then I had to trek across the rocky beach to get a closer look and figure out what they were. They actually let me approach to a distance of about 30 feet, so I've got some much better, closer pictures. One even started stretching and preening once I'd stood that close for a few minutes and made it clear that I wasn't going to chase them or anything.

I have a "Where's Waldo?" picture for you guys. There are two birds on that beach. Solution under the spoiler:

I would not be the least surprised if it is. Brandon puts a lot of thought into his names.

"Larger" is probably referring to word counts, not pages.

Please don't hurt yourself! *hugs carefully*

Is it weird that I read the comic before looking at who posted it and knew without looking that it was Orlion?

Don't ask me; my technical knowledge of Hemalurgy (e.g. which metal does what) is even more sketchy than my knowledge of Feruchemy.

So this was posted to one of the Facebook groups I participate in...

Good!

Fun story: The first time I read WOK I checked it out from my university's library, and it was the full-size hardcover. I work in the library and never go anywhere without something to read, so for a few weeks I was toting that giant brick of a book around in my backpack, in and out of the library every day. And every single time I walked through the security gates with the book in my bag, they would start wailing the alarm that I was trying to take library property out of the building without checking it out. (This happened both when I was leaving and when I was entering.) It got to the point where the security guards who were on shift at the times of day when I was coming and going started to recognize me, and I quit carrying the book in my bag so that I could have it ready in my hands for the guards to scan and verify that it'd already been checked out and I wasn't trying to steal it. And you know why that happened? The security gates were reacting to a little magnetic piece of security tape in the book's spine that wasn't working properly because WOK is so storming fat.

Hey. I have seen your art, and it is NOT crap.

Thanks, @A Budgie and @Darkness Ascendant. *hugs* to you both and also to @Delightfully Smoak, @Jondesu, @Silverblade5, and @Queen Elsa Steelheart and anyone else I forgot to mention from the last page of posts. I want to take all your pain away. *BIG hugs*

Thank you for this pun. I really needed the chuckle it gave me.

This morning my mom called to tell me that Kozmo had passed away a few hours before. After she and Dad brought him home from the vet last night, he was obviously feeling a bit better because he went to his food dish right away and ate some, and then spent the rest of the evening sitting on their laps cuddling, purring, and kneading. In Mom's words, he was "happy as a peach." When morning came, Dad went to the basement to let Kozmo out for the day (The basement has been Koz's "bedroom" for a while to keep him from waking up the whole house at 4 in the morning meowing for food) and found him struggling to breathe. My parents sat with him and stroked him in his last moments, since that was all they could really do. Apparently the hospitalization wouldn't have helped after all, seeing how quickly this happened. In hindsight, I'm glad Kozmo got to spend his final hours at home surrounded by his family rather than in a stressful foreign environment at the animal hospital. My mom took some nice photos of Kozmo last night while he was happy, and I'm so glad she did. Here's that poem I mentioned earlier. The Rainbow Bridge By Steve and Diane Bodofsky By the edge of a woods, at the foot of a hill, Is a lush, green meadow where time stands still. Where the friends of man and woman do run, When their time on earth is over and done. For here, between this world and the next, Is a place where each beloved creature finds rest. On this golden land, they wait and they play, Till the Rainbow Bridge they cross over one day. No more do they suffer, in pain or in sadness, For here they are whole, their lives filled with gladness. Their limbs are restored, their health renewed, Their bodies have healed, with strength imbued. They romp through the grass, without even a care, Until one day they start, and sniff at the air. All ears prick forward, eyes dart front and back, Then all of a sudden, one breaks from the pack. For just at that instant, their eyes have met; Together again, both person and pet. So they run to each other, these friends from long past, The time of their parting is over at last. The sadness they felt while they were apart, Has turned into joy once more in each heart. They embrace with a love that will last forever, And then, side-by-side, they cross over… together.

I have not heard of Evil Apples. Do tell!

Thanks, Mestiv. I'm not certain what my parents will decide to do about his treatment, since the hospitalization and accompanying treatment would be awfully expensive and possibly not very helpful. My mom mentioned the possibility of letting Kozmo stay in the hospital for one day of fluid removal/oxygen and then taking him home so he can be more comfortable while they give him his heart medications themselves. I will be flying out to Ohio on May 4, so at this point I'm mostly praying that he lasts long enough for me to see him in person one last time before he crosses the Rainbow Bridge. (I too am familiar with that saying, thanks to a lovely poem which I'm pretty sure I've shared here before when another Sharder lost their beloved pet.) Here's the weird thing... My mom and I only made plans to fly me to Ohio within about the past week. I was originally going to stay in Utah to take a class during spring term, but ended up deciding against it because this semester has burnt me out and I know I couldn't handle diving right into another class. We found out about the severity of Kozmo's health problems today, after plans were already in place to get me to my parents' house less than 10 days from now--plans that I would've said were impossible if you had asked me a month ago. So maybe my difficulties with college this semester and my postponing of that spring-term class were a blessing in disguise. I know I would have been utterly devastated if Kozmo had passed away while I was stuck here in Utah for class, maybe even to the point of wrecking my ability to even do class.

I also really enjoy that movie! Definitely underrated.

Thanks for all the hugs, guys. It means a lot to know you care. *hugs back*

My cat Kozmo, who's been with my family for 14 years--basically his whole life--is dying of heart failure. The past few years I haven't gotten to see him much since I've been in Utah for college and my parents, who are taking care of Kozmo, live in Ohio, but my mom told me via text message a few days ago that he'd been acting lethargic and not eating much. My parents took Kozmo to the vet today to find out what was wrong. Turns out he's got a pretty serious heart murmur, is dehydrated, and has a buildup of fluids around his heart and lungs that's making it hard for the poor kitty to breathe. The vet recommended hospitalizing Kozmo for 3 days in order to put him on oxygen, drain fluids, and start him on some medications for his heart, but she also said that his future doesn't look bright and he might not come home from the hospital. And I'm just sitting here bawling my eyes out because I know that treatment would make the poor cat miserable and might not even help anyway. I really need a hug.

@Slowswift more likely that I just remembered wrong who said it.

@Slowswift That wasn't by any chance Michaelbrent Collings at this year's LTUE, was it? Cause I think I remember that.

@Oversleep The term I've always heard is lamplighters.