New blog

Let's face it: this blog, and its followers, are mostly make-up oriented.

Comics, books and writing are huge passions of mine, and were with me long before I discovered make-up. I want these parts of me to have their own space, and so I've started up a new blog called Jade likes words.

If you're interested in reading my rants and reviews about comics, novels, and my writing journey, please head over there. This blog will continue, never fear, and it will now be pretty much exlcusive to make-up and nail stuff.

Head over to the new blog if you've been interested in my wordy stuff, otherwise you can stop looking at the tags at the top of the posts to make sure you'll be reading about sparklies!

Tubes of WIN

I finally got off my butt and ordered from Shiro Cosmetics! I was mostly interested in the Intertubes, since I already have zillions of eyeshadows (not really). I ordered 4 eyeshadow samples, some stickers for depotting them, and all the Intertube samples.

I won't bother talking about the shadows since there are swatches and reviews everywhere about them, and they totally live up to the hype! Also the samples are ridiculously generous, they very nearly overflowed the 3g jars I keep arouund for samples. Since the Intertubes are going to look quite different on different skintones and sized/shaped lips however, I thought it'd be a bit useful to swatch those. Since I did get ALL of them :)

I don't have a great lip brush at the moment, so these are all done with my finger.

Three Wolf Moon

Gorgeous muted red with cinnamon scent/flavor. This did sting my lips a bit but died down after a minute. I'm getting a full-size of this for sure. I love it!

Longcat

 Barely visible on my lips (applied over a lip stain here) but it's really zingy and minty. Gives a hint of silvery sparkle without becoming frosty. I don't usually like minty anything, but... I think I'll be getting this in a full-size! Gives a lovely intense cooling sensation.

Over 9000

 Really pretty soft bubblegum pink. Bright but still really flattering. I don't own a lot of pink-y lip colours, and this can be built up or sheered down, so... I think I'll have to get a full-size of this too.

Rickrolled

 Love the meme, gorgeous colour... EW. I had to photograph this quickly and take it off. The smell of ginger doesn't agree with me. I might see how Caitlin feels about doing unscented tubes.

Numa Numa

Sheer, frosty gold with an orangey base. Wish it looked better on me, it's very pretty and smells like creme caramels! They're one of my favourite desserts. The frostiness just settled into my liplines and accentuated all my dry bits :(

Leeroy Jenkins

 Smells like... toothpaste?! I wanted to love this colour but it's pinker on me than I'd hoped. Also it's quite streaky. Maybe a full-sized version would be a bit more even, but overall, I think I'll pass on this one.

Yo Dawg

Smells a bit like Ribena. Muted, purplish-fuschia colour. A bit meh for me since I don't really like pinky-berry-fuschia type colours.

Chocolate Rain

 This smells like Chicos... heh. Probably one that could have benefitted from lip brush application. It was quite patchy. Brown is probably the ONLY colour I don't like on my lips, so for that reason I won't be purchasing this in full-size. That and I'm not a huge fan of Chicos either. I mean, if they're there, I'll eat some, but I'd rather have real chocolate/real jelly babies.

Sad Keanu

 Deep violet. Another one that just wouldn't even out on me! I think applying this from the tube, to exfoliated lips, would have produced a much nicer result. I already have lots of purple lip products though, so I'll probably give this a miss anyway.

Robe and Wizard Hat

 I thought I'd have the same application problems with this as with the other more pigmented shades, but as you can see, I actually managed to get it quite smooth and opaque. Love this one, but if I wanted dark blue lips I've got my beloved Blueberry lipstick from Morgana :) if you missed out on that, however, this is a seriously gorgeous alternative. It's also a much lighter texture, given that Blueberry is a lipstick and this is an Intertube.

Phew!

Do you have any Intertubes? Are you planning on getting some? I reccommend samples, they're $1.80US each and good for several applications.

This is not what I ordered.

DISCLAIMER: I bought these comic books with my own money and I am entitled to have my own opinion about them. These are casual diagnoses based on my reading anywhere from one to ten issues. I have neither the funds nor the patience to wait very long to see if a series 'gets better', and as a consumer I believe in excercising my right not to put money into products I view as substandard in meeting my needs.

How hard is it to find a comic book which features:
1) Strong female protagonists or at least main characters, who are:
2) Not scantily clad.
3) Not the main character's love interest.
4) Actually has some women on the creative team.


Apparently it's this hard:

Danger Girl

• Title character is sexually harassed by the villain.
• Gets the butt of her jeans ripped off halfway through the comic.
• No women on the creative team.

Side Chicks

• One character hit on by 'client'.
• Other character hit on by random guy in the street.
• Skintight, cleavage-y costume for one, other one gets...
• Shredded shirt.
• No women on the creative team.

Heroes for Hire

• I actually couldn't tell you what happened in the first issue of this comic, it was so badly-written and the layout was so horrible, I couldn't even follow the action. They tried to introduce way too many characters. All I really took away from this was yet another few exoticised, scantily clad female superheroes and yet another comic book with no female prescence on the creative team.

These are just series I've read myself. The failure of mainstream 'women marketed' comic series is pretty legendary. Marvel Divas put most potential female customers off by sheer force of its dumb title alone. The failure of X-Women is pretty much legendary on the internet (yeah let's get a guy who draws EROTICA for a living to draw the superheroines in our marketed-for-women series!)


Here are some series that meet some of my criteria, but still need work before I'd call them truly egalitarian:

Artifacts (my review of #0-2 here)

• Genuinely strong female protagonist, who is driven by love of her daughter who is kidnapped in the first issue so that's NOT a spoiler. But she doesn't completely fall apart when this happens, which is great since she's a cop.
• However when she's kitted out with her superpowers, it becomes a skin-tight suit deal which her boobs bulge out of. 
• This comic features Aphrodite IV, a kickass cyborg with green hair. And do you know what's halfway through the comic book? A PANTY SHOT OF THE CYBORG. Why?! Just why?!
• As far as I can tell, no women on the creative team.
• Apart from those things, this is a pretty good comic series with a really solid mythology background.

Zatana

• She walks around in a leotard and fishnets.
• However, they do have a female artist on the team.

Executive Assistant: Iris (my review here)

• Love the premise.
• Hate her outfits.
• No women on the creative team.
• Having only read the first issue I'm still skeptical about this one - it could either be great or horrible. I'm also skeptical to learn that Aspen are releasing a bunch of other series along this line, featuring a bunch of different assassins with different flower names. I saw the promo images and LOVE SO MUCH that each woman is a different ethnicity, so I'm definitley willing to give them a go when they're finally out.

Suicide Girls

• Strong, diverse all-female line-up.
• Looks to have women on the creative team.
• Rather cliche storyline and dialogue.
• Did not like the nude pin-ups in the back of the comic book. Especially since some of them weren't even drawn. WTF? I get that this may be an important facet of the Suicide Girls movement, but it honestly put me off buying issue #2.

So I don't feel like selling off all my comics and going back to novels for good, here are a few series which, although they don't meet all 4 points, give me real hope that one day the comic book industry will finally grow the fuck up, stop looking at comic books as their precious little boys' club and become more inclusive. These are the ones I will be continuing to spend my money on.

Kill Shakespeare (my review of #1 here)
This comic has an all-male team, but I love what they've done with the character of Juliet. She is a strong, capable female who sticks to her guns and doesn't take crap from anybody. However she's not just a dude with tits - she still reads as a woman, without the need for revealing clothing. Super props to these guys for creating a solid female character.


Chew (my review of Vol. 1 here)
The main female character in this series is not very present, and she is the main character's love interest, and it's an all-male creative team, BUT... she's a really awesome character who isn't defined by Tony's love or even interest. She's an interesting, complex character in her own right and I'd really love to see more of her in the series (keep in mind I'm way behind in this one!) 

Changing Ways (my review here)
Justin Randall gave himself two female characters that couldn't be easily sexualised - one was a heavily pregnant woman and the other is a young girl. However, both of these characters had distinct personalities and were both beautifully strong. Even heavily pregnant, this woman was kick-ass. Literally! I can't wait to see how Jesse turns out in the sequel. I have a feeling she's got her momma's strength.


Mystery Society
Ok, so this breaks one of my cardinal rules - the main female character is actually married to the main male one, but then again, I'm up to issue #4 and so far there are three more main female characters. Oh, and a robot. However, the art (which I really like, by the by) is done by a lady. So the main female character wears actual clothes and looks like an actual real female person! I love the relationship between the husband and wife in this series - it's evident that their marriage, as well as their crime-fighting awesomeness, is a team effort where they're both as valuable as each other. No female sidekicks or, conversely, henpecked husband jokes here.

Ruse (my review here)
The main female character is also the narrator for this comic. She is stubborn and witty, and keenly aware of the limitations that her Victorian society and her hellish partner, the "world's greatest detective" place upon her. I freaking love the tagline of this comic, and it has a female assistant editor (yay!). The fact that it's set in the Victoria era means there realistically can't be too much T&A, which is really, really, oh my god so nice.




Series I have yet to try:
Lady Mechanika
Velocity
Gotham City Sirens
Morning Glories
Tank Girl
Madame Xanadu
I Kill Giants




It just makes me so angry and frustrated that I can't read a fucking comic book without being forced to overlook unrealistically proportioned, scantily-clad female characters who are 1-D personality wise at best. How can I identify with that? How can I enjoy reading and looking at that? I'm not completely opposed to a little T&A in the occasional comic. BUT WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE IN EVERY SINGLE ONE. And what the fuck is it doing in the comics which are supposedly for women? What planet are Marvel and DC living on, that they think every woman wants to be reading about women with giant breasts whose clothes fall off every five seconds and jghoirieuhwenjrfpsodjfcpsidhfp3wu579w87ruisdkcfbhqwas';KL:A:qy2

*headdesks repeatedly*

Sorry.


If you can reccommend any comics to me that meet any of my criteria, pleeeease oh please do. If you disagree with any of my assessments then please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

EoTDs from April/May

I think most of these are 'fun' ones. As the weather gets colder I stay in bed longer, so lately when I do makeup for work I have just enough time to slap everything on, make sure I have essentials like wallet, phone etc. and run out the door! I might be more keen to make time for photos when my new work make-up gets here (an Estee Lauder palette and a Lost in Makeupland palette!)

Cupcake Sprinkles from Fyrinnae.

Can't remember what I used to highlight :(

You can tell by the slight creasing in my inner corner

that this was taken in the evening, rather than the morning.

Sometime in the next week or so, I'm going down to my hairdresser's for a trim and I'm going to ask them to shape my eyebrows. I've suddenly realised that one is a lot bigger than the other, and it's making bright/shaped make-up hard to do, because it always looks so gosh-darn uneven! Also one brow is more arched than the other which drives me nuts when I try to fill them in.

I think this is a work look...

I think that's LE #34 from High Voltage on the lid.

I think.

On second thoughts, this looks a bit dark for work.

 Ruby Slippers from Sassy Minerals, with a bit of

What a Drag from High Voltage in the crease and on the lashline.

Frost from Concrete Minerals to highlight.

If you don't have Ruby Slippers...

you should get it. It's seriously stunning.

Sugarpill! Flamepoint, Tako and Bulletproof.

I've actually been using Flamepoint nearly every day...

as a blush! Dabbing the blush brush really gently on the compact,

and then making sure to blend really well

gives me this amazing neon glow.

Sugarpill, Tipsy this time. 

Actual eyeliner! Covergirl Liquiline Blast. 

I did a slightly different shape with my outer corners

than usual, and really thick cat's eye liner.

Phew! No NoTDs because work polish is boring and I've broken three of my nails down to the quick and there are some bumps on them from glue and emergency tea-bag repair. Not pretty. 

I hauled some gorgeous Fyrinnae neutrals recently. As soon as I finish my final assignment, I'll be doing a swatch post with those. Then after my exam, I'm going to read copious amounts of comic books, and hopefully start working on writing pieces to submit to some magazines. I felt like I really made a lot of progress in my writing this semester - no thanks to my class, though, Emily and I started up a creative writing group which meets weekly. It's been so good. I can't wait for the semester to be fully over so I can devote more time to writing.

An open letter to all indie sellers who aren't GlitterSniffer Cosmetics

I was visiting the Glittersniffer Complaints Facebook page today when an exchange unfolded that had me almost literally headdesking. I'm posting it in sections, because my laptop monitor is teeny weeny and the relevant comments were a bit lower down.

It went on, and is probably still going, but I honestly didn't want to read any more. It has become infinitely clear to me that a lot of people don't actually care what goes into the things that they buy, use or even eat. Apparently, customer service is also a negligible part of buying, too!

I don't know about you, but I like to know a bit about companies that I buy from, especially online. I want to make sure that not only am I getting quality product, but that I am supporting good business practices. I dislike the idea of A) throwing my money away, or B) enabling somebody to continue ripping people off, lying to and harming people. Even if I've never had a bad reaction to a seller's products, or had bad CS, or a 'missing' parcel... I want to know about it. I want to ensure I'm encouraging good business practising with my spending habits - the only really effective way to do so, in some cases. Ignoring other people's bad experiences is short-sighted, and in my opinion, incredibly selfish.

In light of this, I wanted to write an open letter of gratitude to all of the honest, genuine, hard-working indie companies out there - more than I could name in this post, as I haven't tried them all yet.

Dear companies:

Thankyou for observing FDA regulations, for always being upfront about your ingredients and giving options to those people who are allergic to common ingredients like talc and bismuth, or those who don't want to use beeswax and carmine.

Thankyou for knowing WHAT is in your products and WHY. Thankyou for all your research and experiments and hard work in making the best and most unique products you can.

Thankyou for wearing gloves, sterilising your instruments and packaging your products carefully.

Thankyou for shipping things on time, and for updating ALL your customers when you can't because of extenuating circumstances.

Thankyou for listening to your customers - combining orders, making new products, altering old ones, making custom listings, giving advice, changing the way you do samples.

Thankyou for taking criticism gracefully and using it to help improve your company, rather than taking it personally and reacting badly.

Thankyou for combining your creativity, vision and skill with sound business sense, ethical practises and a solid understanding of what makes good customer service.

Thankyou for replying to emails, convos, tweets and making us feel like we are important to you.

Thankyou, above all, for being trustworthy.

*    *    *

I'm also going to plug the Sparkledex again. Blogging  has become a vital part of the online community - no matter whether you're buying make-up, bath stuff, embroidered pencil cases or silicone phone cases. You're almost always stepping into the unknown, buying a product you've never seen in person from a complete stranger over the internet. Blogging helps take away that uncertainty, and give you a better idea of what you're getting yourself into. Unfortunately, most bloggers don't have unlimited income or time with which to blaze the trail constantly.

The Sparkledex will allow us to pool our resources when it comes to the indie MMU and B&B sphere. We can collect material, pointing the way to places where potential customers can get the information they need, to make a decision they are happy with. If you've recently reviewed a company, go add your review to their page! Or if they don't yet have a page, make one. Many hands make light work, and a full Sparkledex is a happy and useful Sparkledex (many thanks to VijiiS who edits like a boss and has made all the current Company pages look amazing).

Also I want to shout out to Frances, who runs the GlitterSniffer Complaints blog and Facebook. She is a patient, determined soul who really stood up for all of the GlitterSniffer casualties. It look like (I have my fingers very tightly crossed) that there's some real progress going on there, and that there might at least be some resolution for those who got caught in the mess, if not restitution for everyone who was affected. Please know that for every person still blindly following Lela and supporting GlitterSniffer, there are dozens more who support and sympathise with you.

Review: Serenity, The Shepherd's Tale

Image from Darkhorse.com

I have been waiting nearly 4 years for this comic, and reviewing it has taken me nearly as many months. The character of Shepherd Derrial Book was one of the biggest mysteries of the Serenity/Firefly franchise. The premature cancellation of the series meant that the fans would never know why Book was a skilled fighter, what led him to the Abbey, or what it was on his ident card that caused the Alliance to hurry him into medical treatment when he was injured.

This project was back-benched for a while as Joss Whedon worked on Dollhouse (also cancelled), Dr. Horrible (where is mah sequel?!?!) and his various movie projects (Cabin In the Woods, the Avengers). Finally Joss decided to pass the project onto his equally-ridiculously-talented brother Zack (Jed was responsible for the recent Dr. Horrible graphic novel which I also plan on reviewing).

Fair warning: I'm coming at this comic from the perspective of a GIANT fan who is attempting to be fair and impartial. Keep in mind, though, that you need to see both Firefly and Serenity for this comic to make sense, let alone mean anything to you. This is NOT a comic for non-Browncoats.

Art
The art on the previous comics - Better Days - was really lovely. It was realistic without being too realistic and portrait-esque. It was as though the artist had looked at the actors and then more... drawn the characters rather than trying to copy the features of the cast.

The art on this comic is much too raw and unfinished. Due to the flow of the narrative and how it shifts through time, I had SO much trouble identifying characters who re-appeared. Their faces aren't defined enough. The colouring is gorgeous, for sure, and the art isn't bad per se... it's just not really suitable for such a fast-paced, emotional and at times confusing story. It comes across as blotchy and cartoonish, in a situation where there are questions that the fans desperately want answered, and by god it's a serious matter. The art didn't fit at all.

Lettering/dialogue
The dialogue of the franchise is quite unique; Joss Whedon imagined a post-Apocalyptic society where America and China had become the last two superpower nations in the world. Everybody spoke a mixture of English and Chinese. There is absolutely no Chinese in this comic, which I was a little disappointed by.

I can't fault the dialogue in any other aspect, and the lettering is neat and unobtrusive.

Storyline/characters
The major way in which this comic is let down in this area is the pace of the story. Basically they've tried to explain Book's whole mysterious past in a series of flashbacks. It's quite disjointed and choppy. The comic starts with Book's death scene, which is absolutely heart-wrenching and perfect. Then it cuts to him leaving the abbey, and it does sound like him, how he speaks and thinks, and the way he'd conduct himself. Obviously I can't comment on how 'young Book' sounds because this is the first we've seen of him. I trust Zack Whedon's writing, I just really wish Joss had given him, and Book, some more breathing space in this one.

I get that Joss is heartbroken by the cancellation of Firefly - the fans are too! Instead of exploring the world that could have been, using comics instead of TV, this graphic novel feels like some table scraps thrown to some too-loud fans. It looks and feels rushed, which is something Book did not deserve at all. I know there's no way that we could have seen his whole life in a novel - that would have been a gargantuan task and we probably would have been waiting even longer to see it... but it would have benefitted so much from a different format/narrative flow.

Summary
As I said to my friend and fellow fan, after we'd both read the comic: this is better than nothing, but I was expecting so much more. If you're a hardcore fan, of course you're going to buy it. However I can't help feeling a little bit disappointed at the meager amount of information and the jarringly spread-apart narrative.

Mini-review: Ruse #1 and #2

This is actually a reprint from a small publishing company called Crossgen, which I had seen in a small secondhand bookshop a while ago. I was really surprised to see it on the 'new release' shelf of my LCS, but I picked it up.

This is kind of Sherlock Holmes-esque, but with a twist. I love the tagline, "He's the world's greatest detective. She's even better."

The comic follows Simon, a brilliant, if incredibly arrogant and socially incapable detective. However the narration is done by his assis- partner, Emma Bishop. She's his Watson, essentially, albeit a little more exasperated and intelligent. It's her wit and their interactions that make this comic so enjoyable to read, rather than being a dull Arthur Conan Doyle wannabe.

The artwork is, in all honesty, nothing spectacular but it isn't horrible either. It does its job of conveying most emotion and letting the Victorian landscape be accurate yet unobtrusive.

It's a fun read if you're into murder mysteries and banter. Issue two ends with a bit of a conundrum - without spoiling it, I'm really keen for Issue 3 to come out so I can see how Emma manages to get herself out of the rather sticky situation Simon's put her in... And what she'll do to him afterwards!

This cover is not a very accurate representation of their
relationship. If it were, she'd be glaring at him.

Welcome to the Sparkledex!

In light of all the recent indie make-up dramas, scandals, and the ever-increasing pressure on bloggers to be able to identify repackagers and shady business practises, the lovely Tempest in a Teapot came up with the great idea to start an indie make-up wiki. She was kind enough to let me join her in starting this mammoth task, but now it's time for more people to get on board!

We've got a basic structure settled. The idea of the wiki is to de-mystify a lot of issues to do with ingredients and legislation. We would like to have a full ingredients breakdown to clear up the use of carmine, bismuth, vegan and non-vegan components and which bases and fillers do what. 


We do not want to stir up drama. We'd prefer to use positive re-inforcement and the power of information; instead of blacklisting companies (and let's face it, most of us know which websites not to set, er, mouse on anyway) we will be providing lots of links to useful information and reviews, so that you as a customer have full knowledge of what you're getting into. This means that we will be providing, we hope, a balanced mix of reviews, from a variety of bloggers.

We need more contributors! If you don't know what to add or don't have time to write stuff for the Wiki, that is no problemo. Links to reviews on blogs, like yours, and forums are totally welcome! We want to make it easy for indie make-up newbies to find you, and thus feel safer in placing their first order.

At the moment we only have a few company pages up, so if you've just reviewed or read a really helpful review of a company, feel free to create the page and whack it on there. I'm procrastinating by writing this post and after it's done I have to go do some reading for uni.

So, this weather, huh?

Cat-astrophe, Kittehgeddon, Needlegate

If you follow me on Twitter you've probably read about most of this already. It's such a bizzare story, and such an important and little-known issue that I had to share it. Plus, who doesn't like cute cat pictures?

This is my cat. Her name is Mei Mei, which means 'little sister' in Mandarin (yes, that's a Firefly reference).

note: that is not my computer, I'm a PC girl.

On the 22nd of April, Mei Mei swallowed a 2.5cm sewing needle, with 7cm of thread attached.

I don't know if you know - I sure didn't! - that the thread was actually more dangerous to her digestive system than the needle. The needle wasn't sharp enough to puncture anything, but thread can cause bunching in a cat's intestinal tract, which means the damaged portion will have to be removed. Cutting into the intestines has two pretty big risks post-operation; either the intestines will not join together properly, or the bacteria inside will migrate to the abdominal cavity and cause a pretty bad infection.

Very luckily for kitty, I realised what had happened a few minutes after she ate the needle. It being midnight, I had to do a frantic Google search to find the nearest emergency vet clinic. About an hour later, a very tired boyfriend, myself, and slightly freaked out kitty (she hasn't been in a car for about two years and didn't like it one bit) arrived. She was whisked away for an x-ray, and I attempted to remove some of her hair from the sleeves of my jacket. I looked like I was slowly transforming into a yeti, it was pretty ridiculous.

 don't be fooled by the cute face, her 'FUR ATTACK' is infamous.

The vet confirmed that she had indeed swallowed the needle. She wasn't in any pain or distress so we concluded that she'd be ok to wait until morning, when we could take her down to our regular vet and organise surgery, since that was going to be a bit cheaper.

Arrived home at 3am. Boyfriend left. I fell into a fitful sleep, rising again at 7:30 so I'd be able to call the local vet when they opened at 8am.
Me: "Do you have any appointments open today?"
Receptionist: "A few, what's the probem?"
Me: "My cat swallowed a sewing needle."
Receptionist: "OH. Well in that case, don't worry about an appointment, just bring her in as soon as you can."

Shortly after 8:30am, we arrived. Kitty went straight in for x-rays (so they knew where to go) and then surgery. Around 2pm I got a call from the vet saying that the surgery had gone really well.
"The needle and thread got stuck in a fairly large hairball in her stomach," the vet said. "There was no stomach or intestinal damage at all." I laughed and promised to never complain about her hacking up furballs again. Another phone call an hour later confirmed that she had come out of the anaesthetic really well.

The whole ordeal cost a ton of money, which was not fun since my parents are on holiday. I ended up paying quite a bit for x-rays and consultations on my debit card (thank GOD for my new job) and luckily, the vet take payments over the phone, so I was able to use the credit card dad left me for grocery shopping to pay for the actual surgery.

 kittybutt!

So the moral of the story - apart from "keep needles away from pets" - is OH MY GOD PET INSURANCE IS YOUR FRIEND.

There are actual companies that specialise in pet insurance. I reccommend looking it up. We could have saved sooooooo much money and stress by having it. This is probably the worst medical problem we've ever had with a pet. I mean, one of our dogs has developed a cataract over one eye, but that's not life-threatening, and he's no worse off because we couldn't afford to get it removed. In fact, most of the time I forget he's half-blind. It doesn't affect him at all. However, leaving the needle in Mei's stomach could have killed her. I am so grateful I figured out what happened. It sounds far-fetched, but it's actually a really common occurance.

If you have pets, and you don't have a spare three or four thousand dollars lying around... get pet insurance. Seriously. Just do it. Also learn how to give pills to animals. It took me nearly a week to be able to give her medicine by myself; I have to force them down her throat since apparently they taste so bad, no food could disguise them sufficiently for her to eat them ground up in any way. Also she scratched me AND my boyfriend - the first time she's ever scratched anyone, ever. I'm so glad she finishes her course of antibiotics tomorrow. Two pills twice a day = unhappy kitty and unhappy me.

post-surgery kitty  

(those white bits on the bottom of the collar are from her spitting up pills. fun times)

 she is REALLY hates that collar