Ju-june Journal + Kaffre talks Candy #40:

Welcome once again, loyal journal-readers! First, Parker remains un-spayed as my sister's cat, Kai, developed a potentially lethal bladder condition thus requiring me to give her most of the funds that I'd saved up for that purpose. Fortunately, I've already managed to rebuild about 1/3 of the required money and, if all goes according to plan, I'll be able to apply my tax rebate next month to the fund as well and have her neutered by September at the absolute latest. While her Cerebral Hypoplasia makes keeping her inside and away from the Toms relatively easy, her yowling and climbing at the windows is becoming wearisome and it will be wonderful to finally have the matter resolved. *crosses claws* As it happens, however, I will be going under the knife myself this month to have a tooth extracted - it had originally been scheduled for July, but had to be moved forward for emergency reasons - wish me luck!

The used laptop I've acquired works OK, but I can't use it for all the sites I'd like to (most notably KimCartoon.me doesn't load), but it's still definitely worth the cost. Unfortunately, I'm still not able to use my scanner with it which continues to kill my artistic motivation, but I remain hopeful of picking up again at some point in the not too distant future though my ability to share it with all of you will be contingent on the college or library still having scanners available to the general public. In any case, this week looks set to be a busy one for me With my sister's birthday June 28 and followed shortly thereafter by Canada Day. No particular plans exist for either event at this point, but I feel certain that something is bound to come up by the time they actually arrive.

For this month's topic of conversation, I've settled on: Fur-niture - Home Decor in a Furry Setting.

Inspired by watching a few episodes of 'Sheriff Callie's Wild West' where the titular heroine's desk is adorned by a basket of colourful yarn balls and a scratching post/cat tree stands in one corner of the jailhouse which got me to thinking about what other sorts of accoutrements would be popular is a world inhabit primarily by furries. From a feline perspective, I like Callie's decorating sense and while a greater assortment of toys might appeal to Kaffre, I think the show had a good design for an older kitty. While I can easily foresee other species wanting similar amenities in their habitats, for the sake of this particular journal I'd like to focus on breadth rather than depth.

Heated Rocks could be very popular with reptilian 'furs' while pools would be beloved of amphibians and other semi-aquatic species. Potted plants would be enjoyed by a wide range of species both for giving a natural touch to their urban life and as an impromptu salad bar for certain herbivorous species. Exercise wheels or habitrail-style environmental enrichment might appeal to rodents as could special dark rooms for those species like rats or hamsters that love the darkness. Many furs could also enjoy scent-based items such as carrion scented candles for our canine friends, or possibly catnip stuffed throw pillows to ensure a good night's sleep for us felines.

Some sort of indoor jungle gyms could provide fun for arboreal species like squirrels or chipmunks. Other species may require saunas or dust baths to be comfortable. While others, like birds, will probably collect colourful art or other knickknacks to decorate their homes and nests.

I guess that's about it for this month's topic. What do you think your character would like to incorporate into their domiciles?

Thanks again for reading my journal *hugs* Sorry for waiting so very long to post this, I'll try to do better next month! Incidentally, if anyone has suggestions for other Topics please let me know as I'm currently a low on ieas and would appreciate the help! ^^

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Kaffre talks Candy #39:

Name: Fanta, Fruit Punch)
Manufacturer: Coca-Cola
Size: 473mL bottle
Where Purchased: Sunshine Variety
Description: Fruit Punch Fanta consists of a pink carbonated beverage flavoured to taste like a combination of pear, pineapple, and orange juice.
Opinion: The flavour is a fairly standard fruit punch and like other Fanta products I found it to be fizzier and less sweet than most softdrinks, but I do think that works well with fruit flavours. While I do enjoy fruit punch, I think it loses something in the carbonation process and am correspondingly unlikely to purchase this item again.

Name: Junior Mints
Manufacturer: Tootsie Roll Industries
Size: 74 gram box
Where Purchased: Dollarama
Description: Junior Mints consist of tiny portions of peppermint fondant covered with a very thin dark chocolate coating.
Opinion: A product I've sampled a few times, but never really thought about reviewing until now. Mint is by far the dominant flavour with the chocolate featuring mainly as an aftertaste. The mint is a bit stronger than I remember, but not overpoweringly so and it's actually fairly smooth. Overall, I enjoyed this product, but can't really say whether I'd buy it again as there are other mint and chocolate confections that I like better.

Name: M&Ms (Crunchy Expresso)
Manufacturer: Mars
Size: 95 gram bag
Where Purchased: Bulk Barn
Description: Crunchy Expresso M&Ms vaguely resumble standard M&Ms, but the shape and size vary substantially and the colours are different coming in: black, brown, and cream. As advertised they have a cookie-like texture due to crisped rice centres.
Opinion: A limited edition item I decided to snap up for review purposes. The M&M pieces are pleasantly crunchy and offer a respectable amount of coffee flavour similar to that of a Coffee Crisp. When first sampling this item, I failed to notice that the centre was of crisped rice, thinking it was cookie instead due to the texture. In any case, I thought the product was very good and would probably buy it again. One minor complaint is that I found it difficult to taste any chocolate, but it didn't really detract from my enjoyment, I just found it 'odd'.

Name: Pocky, Strawberry
Manufacturer: Thai Glico
Size: 33 gram box
Where Purchased: Food Basics
Description: Pocky consists of thin biscuit-sticks one end of which has been lightly dipped in a flavoured compound of some kind. In this case, a pink coating.
Opinion: A Singaporean item, I'd often see, but never sampled before. I'm not normally a big fan of strawberry, but as with the green tea flavour, I generally found this product to taste mild enough that not only did it not bother me, but I actually found them somewhat pleasant. That said, there are other varieties of pocky that I like better.

Name: Skittles (Berry)
Manufacturer: Mars
Size: 191 gram bag
Where Purchased: Dollarama
Description: Berry Skittles are a brand of chewy, fruit flavoured, candy pieces. The individual pieces are thick rounded discs with Ss emblazoned on the surface. Various colours each represent a different flavour (cherry, strawberry, melon berry, berry punch, and raspberry).
Opinion: Despite lacking my favourite flavours from the 'Original' skittles, and having only one flavour in common (strawberry), I personally found it rather difficult to distinguish between the two varieties as the individual tastes tend to become muddled when you eat multiple pieces at once. Therefore, despite not really liking any of the constituent flaours, I do like these candies and would happily buy them again, but I still like the original skittles better.